USAF COUNTERPROLIFERATION CENTER CPC OUTREACH JOURNAL Air University Air War College Maxwell AFB, Alabama
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#73 5 June 2001 USAF COUNTERPROLIFERATION CENTER CPC OUTREACH JOURNAL Air University Air War College Maxwell AFB, Alabama Welcome to the CPC Outreach Journal. As part of USAF Counterproliferation Center’s mission to counter weapons of mass destruction through education and research, we’re providing our government and civilian community a source for timely counterproliferation information. This information includes articles, papers and other documents addressing issues pertinent to US military response options for dealing with nuclear, biological and chemical threats and attacks. It’s our hope this information resource will help enhance your counterproliferation issue awareness. Established here at the Air War College in 1998, the USAF/CPC provides education and research to present and future leaders of the Air Force, as well as to members of other branches of the armed services and Department of Defense. Our purpose is to help those agencies better prepare to counter the threat from weapons of mass destruction. Please feel free to visit our web site at www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/awc-cps.htm for in-depth information and specific points of contact. Please direct any questions or comments on CPC Outreach Journal to Lt. Col. Michael W. Ritz, CPC Intelligence/Public Affairs or JoAnn Eddy, CPC Outreach Editor, at (334) 953- 7538 or DSN 493-7538. The following articles, papers or documents do not necessarily reflect official endorsement of the United States Air Force, Department of Defense, or other US government agencies. Reproduction for private use or commercial gain is subject to original copyright restrictions. All rights are reserved May 21, 2001 Contact: HHS Press Office (202) 690-6343 HHS INITIATIVE PREPARES FOR POSSIBLE BIOTERRORISM THREAT Overview: While the exact risks are unknown, the use of biological weapons by terrorists potentially could result in life-threatening illness on a large scale. Even a lone terrorist could cause a major disease outbreak in the population - and, in the case of communicable disease, the outbreak could spread in successive waves of infection. Unlike explosions or chemical releases, a bioterrorist attack could be surreptitious and thus difficult and time- consuming to detect. Symptoms might not occur among victims for days or weeks, and those initially presenting themselves to physicians and clinics might be geographically dispersed. A strong public health network would be needed to piece together early reports and quickly determine what had happened. Once detected, the situation could overwhelm local health systems that are faced not only with the tasks of caring for mass casualties but also with the demands of even larger numbers of people requiring preventive care…. http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2001pres/01fsbioterrorism.html Monday May 28 8:00 PM ET U.N. Arms Experts Training in Canada OTTAWA (AP)- Some 60 arms experts with the United Nations (news - web sites) inspection mission in Iraq have begun five weeks of training in Canada, the government said Monday. The chief weapons inspector with the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission in Iraq, Hans Blix, was due to visit Ottawa to address the trainees, who come from 28 countries. ``Canada's hosting of this training exercise underscores this country's support for UNMOVIC and its mandate,'' the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade said in a statement. The U.N. agency's mandate is to disarm Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction and to set up a monitoring and verification system. But Baghdad has yet to agree to let the team in. The last group of inspectors left the country in December 1998. Iraq, which is under U.N. sanctions for its invasion of Kuwait, argues that there is no need for more inspections as all its weapons have been accounted for. But the United Nations says the sanctions will not be lifted until the inspectors certify that the weapons have been destroyed. http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010528/wl/canada_iraq_1.html Baltimore Sun May 31, 2001 White House Considers OK Of Biological Weapons Ban WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is deciding whether to support a draft agreement to enforce an international treaty banning biological weapons, State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said yesterday. The 1972 treaty, which 143 nations have ratified, prohibits the development, production and possession of biological weapons. It has always lacked a means of verifying compliance, however. After six years of negotiations, diplomats in Geneva have produced a draft, or protocol, that would establish steps to monitor the ban. Case Narrative Reported Chemical Warfare Agent Exposure in the 2d Reconnaissance Battalion Case Narratives are reports of what we know today about certain events of the 1990-1991 Gulf War. This case narrative focuses on a group of Marines who reportedly experienced injuries that appeared symptomatic of chemical warfare agent exposure. This is an interim, not a final, report. We hope you will read this and contact us with any information that would help us better understand the events reported here. With your help, we will be able to report more accurately on the events surrounding the incident(s) reported in this narrative. Please contact us to report any new information by calling: 1-800-497-6261 Office of the Special Assistant to the Under Secretary of Defense (Personnel and Readiness) for Gulf War Illnesses, Medical Readiness, and Military Deployments Department of Defense Last Update: May 25, 2001 Many veterans of the Gulf War have expressed concern their unexplained illnesses may result from their experiences in that war. In response to veterans’ concerns, the Department of Defense established a task force in June 1995 to investigate incidents and circumstances relating to possible causes. The Office of the Special Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of Defense for Gulf War Illnesses assumed responsibility for these investigations on November 12, 1996, and continued to investigate reports of chemical warfare agent incidents. Effective April 5, 2001, this office became the Office of the Special Assistant to the Under Secretary of Defense (Personnel and Readiness) for Gulf War Illnesses, Medical Readiness, and Military Deployments, with continued responsibility for Gulf War issues…. http://www.gulflink.osd.mil/2d_recon/ New York Times June 1, 2001 Pg. 1 Missile Defenses Need More Tests, Key Senator Says By Thom Shanker WASHINGTON, May 31 — The next chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said today that it was highly unlikely that missile defenses would be fielded in President Bush's current term, and should not be deployed at all until repeated tests proved their effectiveness. The senator, Carl Levin, Democrat of Michigan, said he was confident that the nation had both the treasury and technology for missile defenses. But he predicted that diplomatic battles over the Antiballistic Missile Treaty and the scientific hurdles meant "the odds are against" deployment by the end of 2004. "I don't think the technology is likely to develop fast enough, even if he decided to violate the treaty," Mr. Levin said, referring to Mr. Bush, in an interview. "And I think our European allies have responded with caution and concern to such a degree that the president is going to have to look again at the complexities of the issue." In the interview, Mr. Levin laid out his agenda — and therefore that of the Senate's new leadership — on military affairs. He emphasized that he would not occupy himself solely with the high-profile issues of strategic nuclear posture and billion-dollar weapons systems, but would focus on improving pay, health care and housing for those in uniform. He also said he would try to modernize the Pentagon's purchasing practices and push for another round of base closings to save money. Mr. Levin also energetically endorsed the role played by American troops in peacekeeping operations in the Balkans and in Sinai. Mr. Bush and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld have questioned the peacekeeping missions, saying they divert money and troops from more important assignments. As head of a committee widely recognized for striving to maintain a calm, nonpartisan approach to national security, Senator Levin said that he planned to "make sure that we look at the realities of a national missile defense, not just look at that one threat that has been focused on, the North Korea threat, or just the threat from ballistic missiles." Proponents of Mr. Bush's still- evolving plan to rapidly deploy missile defenses — unilaterally if need be, and even before they are proven effective — see Mr. Levin's comments not as cautionary speed bumps, but as barriers consciously set too high. Frank J. Gaffney Jr., a missile defense advocate who served in the Pentagon in the Reagan administration, said: "To the extent that he decides to make stopping missile defense one of his principal priorities, it will greatly compound the challenge the president has in doing what he said — in the course of the campaign and more recently — he is determined to do." Mr. Gaffney, president of the Center for Security Policy, a conservative defense analysis group, described Mr. Levin's technical requirements for deploying missile defense as "a delaying action." On May 11, before Senator James M. Jeffords of Vermont defected from the Republican Party — giving Democrats control of the Senate as of next week — Mr. Levin spoke on missile defense at the National Defense University. Initially, his comments garnered little attention. Today, the speech is becoming required reading in Pentagon circles as the most detailed agenda of the man who is to become the most powerful Senate voice on military affairs. "There is a serious possibility that if we take the wrong approach, it would decrease our security and increase the risk of nuclear proliferation," Mr. Levin said of unilateral deployment of missile defenses.