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Next to Old Rec Hall, a 'Germ-Making Plant'
Published: September 4, 2001
FULL ARTICLE: query.nytimes.com...
In a nondescript mustard-colored building that was once a military recreation hall and barbershop, the Pentagon has built a germ factory that could make enough lethal microbes to wipe out entire cities.
The factory was built by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, an arm of the Pentagon that works to contain the spread of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. Officials said the project was intended to assess how hard it would be for a terrorist or rogue nation to assemble a germ factory.
Officials stressed that the plant never made anthrax or any other lethal pathogen. Rather, it produced only harmless biopesticides during two production test runs in 1999 and 2000. Dr. Davis declined to say how much was made. But if it had been anthrax germs, he said, it would have made enough to kill at least 10,000 people.
Dr. Davis and other officials said the Defense Department's lawyers had carefully reviewed the project to ensure that it did not violate the biological weapons treaty or American law. Because it was purely defensive and never made deadly germs, it was both legal and appropriate, he and others said.
But apparently few outside of the agency or even in the Pentagon's upper echelons knew much about the secret project. Dr. Davis said the White House was never briefed about it, given its small scale and low cost.
When subsequently told about the germ factory, several former White House officials said they were stunned that the agency's lawyers had approved it without having referred it to the White House or Congressional oversight committees for legal review.
Some officials said the project, with its fermentation aspect, was named for Bacchus, the Greek god of wine. But an agency spokesman said the name was an acronym for Biotechnology Activity Characterization by Unconventional Signatures.
U.S. Germ Warfare Research Pushes Treaty Limits
Published: September 4, 2001
FULL ARTICLE: query.nytimes.com...
The projects, which have not been previously disclosed, were begun under President Clinton and have been embraced by the Bush administration, which intends to expand them.
Earlier this year, administration officials said, the Pentagon drew up plans to engineer genetically a potentially more potent variant of the bacterium that causes anthrax, a deadly disease ideal for germ warfare.
The experiment has been devised to assess whether the vaccine now being given to millions of American soldiers is effective against such a superbug, which was first created by Russian scientists. A Bush administration official said the National Security Council is expected to give the final go-ahead later this month.