SELF-DEFENSE SCIENCE SCARES LEFTIES

The New Scientist homepage prominently features the following oddly vague yet scary headline: "US army plans to bulk-buy anthrax". Upon reading the article the reason for the vagueness soon becomes clear:

THE US military wants to buy large quantities of anthrax, in a controversial move that is likely to raise questions over its commitment to treaties designed to limit the spread of biological weapons.

A series of contracts have been uncovered that relate to the US army's Dugway Proving Ground in Utah. They ask companies to tender for the production of bulk quantities of a non-virulent strain of anthrax, and for equipment to produce significant volumes of other biological agents.

Issued earlier this year, the contracts were discovered by Edward Hammond, director of the Sunshine Project, a US-German organisation that campaigns against the use of biological and chemical weapons.

The uncovering and discovering of these contracts shouldn't have required much effort because a solicitation for at least one of them was posted by the government in February.

It's also interesting that a non-virulent strain of anthrax would generate any questions or controversy. So, what's the big deal?

Major concern

Although the Sterne strain is not thought to be harmful to humans and is used for vaccination, the contracts have caused major concern.

"It raises a serious question over how the US is going to demonstrate its compliance with obligations under the Biological Weapons Convention if it brings these tanks online," says Alan Pearson, programme director for biological and chemical weapons at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation in Washington DC. "If one can grow the Sterne strain in these units, one could also grow the Ames strain, which is quite lethal."

Sounds like a bunch of lefties and their ongoing anti-military fret-fest. Surely they must have more to go on than a suspicion that maybe the military might be up to something:

It is not known what use the biological agents will be put to. They could be used to test procedures to decontaminate vehicles or buildings, or to test an "agent defeat" warhead designed to destroy stores of chemical and biological weapons.

Highly provocative

There are even fears that they could be used to determine how effectively anthrax is dispersed when released from bombs or crop-spraying aircraft. "I can definitely see them testing biological weapons delivery systems for threat assessment," says Hammond.

The major concern for lefties is that the United States Army might use this non-virulent strain of anthrax to better understand the threat posed by the virulent Ames strain. It's even possible, oh my God, that effective defenses and counter-measures might be devloped. We can't have the Army doing self-defense science, now can we?

Damned pathetic coming from "The World's No.1 Science & Technology News Service".