Posted by rdom on February 27, 1998 at 10:31:38:
In Reply to: Re: The FBI and the ATF posted by John McCracken on February 25, 1998 at 15:22:53:
> PARIS, Feb 26 (AFP) - A laboratory in the United State shipped
> samples of a disease-causing type of anthrax to Iraq during the
> 1980s, a French newspaper reported on Thursday.
> Le Figaro said American Type Culture Collection, based in
> Rockville, Maryland, "exported three strains of anthrax of the
> 'vollum' variety, known for being pathogenic."
> It did so not long after Baghdad secretly began a biological
> weapons program in early 1985, when the Iran-Iraq war was underway,
> the newspaper said.
> It said researchers at the laboratory confirmed having sent the
> samples to Iraq, but refused to give specifics as to the year or the
> conditions under which they were dispatched.
> Le Figaro based its report on remarks by Raymond Zilinskas, a
> University of Maryland researcher and former member of UNSCOM, the
> UN arms inspection team in Iraq.
> American Type Culture Collection is a non-profit organization
> that supplies biological products to scientists in government,
> industry and education, according to its Internet site
> (http://www.atcc.org).
> Le Figaro, quoting Zilinskas, also reported that Iraq had
> approached a British laboratory, Porten Down, for anthrax samples.
> But its request -- made "around 1985 or 1986" -- was turned down
> by the institute, located in Salisbury, southern England, an
> official at Porten Down, Peter Turnbull, told the newspaper.
> The institute is linked both to the National Health Service and
> the British ministry of defense, Le Figaro said.
> Zilinskas went on to say that France's Pasteur Institute in 1986
> or 1997 shipped to Iraq anthrax samples, but these were
> "non-pathogenic" and intended for vaccination purposes.
> Michele Mock, head of the institute's disease bacteria unit,
> told Le Figaro that it is "more than likely" that it had supplied
> anthrax samples to Iraqi scientists.
> "But this is not surprising in that it is the mission of the
> Pasteur Institute collection, which catalogues reference strains,"
> Mock said.