Terrible News
US Accuses Iraq, North Korea of Bio-Weapons Development
The United States accused six nations of making biological weapons, including Iraq and North Korea. Other nations identified as sources of concern were Iran, Libya, Syria and Sudan. The announcements came from undersecretary of state for arms control John R. Bolton while he was addressing a conference of the 144 nations that have signed a 1972 Biological Weapons Convention agreement. Bolton said the United States believes North Korea had a dedicated, national-level effort to achieve a biological weapons capability and that it has "developed and produced, and may have weaponized" biological agents.
He
said Iraq has used three years with no inspectors to concentrate on
biological weapons. Iraq's bio-warfare program could make it a target in
the U.S. war on terror.
"We do not need the events of September 11 to tell us that (Saddam Hussein) is a very dangerous man who is a threat to his own people, a threat to the region and a threat to us because he is determined to acquire weapons of mass destruction," Condoleezza Rice, President Bush's national security adviser, said.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the U.S. faced a clear challenge in dealing with the threat of biological weapons. "The horrific attacks on September 11 could have been far worse if weapons of mass destruction had been used," Annan said. "In recent weeks, the world has seen the use of biological agents to create chaos and terror violating the international norm."
Though they agree that biological weapons have to be curtailed or stopped, the conference members are at odds about how to do so.
Bush demanded that all 144 countries that have signed the treaty enact "strict national criminal legislation" against violations of the treaty and apply strict extradition requirements. Under the proposed protocol, there would be a limited number of inspections of biotech industries and defense facilities.
Statues Destroyed
BBC confirmed that the central Afghan town of Bamiyan was totally
destroyed by the Taliban before they fled over the weekend. The statues
were priceless pieces of Buddhist heritage.
The USA added several Palestinian groups and factions to the State Department list of 'foreign terrorist organizations' facing heightened financial scrutiny after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the PFLP-General Command are all included.
Pakistan's
military and intelligence have had close ties to the predominantly Pashtun
Taliban in order to ensure a secure western frontier. The ethnic
background of groups in Afghanistan tends to predict what politics that
they will ally with.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Aziz Ahmed Khan told journalists that Pakistan wanted to see Kabul de-militarized under the control of the United Nations or a multi-national force under UN auspices. Currently about 10,000 Northern Alliance fighters occupy Kabul. A small force of American and British military are present there, most on other business. The United Nations outlined a broad-based two-year transitional government and a security force drawn from a variety of nations.
al Qaida
Financier in Custody
Liban Hussein, the operator of Barakaat North America Inc., was arrested
by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Toronto. Investigators believe
tens of millions of dollars a year flow overseas through Al-Barakaat. The
funds are sent by Somali residents of the United States to relatives, with
the network skimming money off for al Qaida through exchange fees,
according to US investigators.
Pakistan Aid
Package
During his meeting with Musharraf,
Bush announced a $1 billion aid package and the lifting of all the
sanctions imposed after Pakistan's nuclear tests. Pakistani President
Pervez Musharraf, whose country helped bring the Taliban to power, has
been opposed to the Northern Alliance, also known as the United Front,
from taking over Kabul. Bush after meeting Musharraf late on Saturday said
Washington had discouraged the alliance from entering Kabul.
Security
at airports?
To start with, security will be a federal concern and it will cost more
than $2.5 billion. A new agency will be created in the
Transportation Department. Some changes, such as using explosives
detection machines, could take months or years to put in place. Security
in all the nation’s airports will be managed by the federal government
within a year.
The Transportation Department's inspector general, Kenneth Mead, told the committee members that less than 10 percent of all baggage is being run through automatic bomb-detection scanners, despite orders to increase use of the machines. If currently available machines were put to full use, he said, airlines could immediately quadruple the amount of bags being checked for bombs. However, this past weekend, Mead said, federal observers found a single airline employee running a bomb scanner for 20 hours straight and another worker thought a scanner was at full capacity, but was only scanning about 14 bags an hour and the machine can do 250 bags per hour. Mead says 125 to 150 bags an hour would be realistic.