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Sandakhchiyev's Glasnost

15 August 06
By Judith Miller

A major chapter in biological warfare quietly closed in June with the death of Lev Sandakhchiyev, an extraordinary 70-year-old Russian scientist who until last year had led the former Soviet Union's most terrifying center of viral research.

U.S.: Russia Sabotaged Oil-for-Food

04 October 04
NEW YORK TIMES SERVICE

U.S. congressional investigators say that France, Russia and China systematically sabotaged the former United Nations oil-for-food program in Iraq by preventing the United States and Britain from investigating whether Saddam Hussein was diverting billions of dollars.

Food-for-Oil Inquiry Hampered by Dispute

18 May 04
NEW YORK TIMES SERVICE

Iraq's political leaders are sparring with the U.S. occupation administration over who should investigate possible official and corporate corruption in the United Nations oil-for-food program.

U.S. Probes Dubrovka, Seeking Al-Qaida Link

20 November 03
NEW YORK TIMES SERVICE

U.S. law enforcement officials are investigating last year's deadly takeover of the Dubrovka theater by Chechen rebels to determine whether al-Qaida was involved and whether criminal charges should be brought in the United States.

Brothers Personified Brutality

24 July 03
NEW YORK TIMES SERVICE

Though very different from each other yet equally despised and feared by Iraqis, Odai and Qusai Hussein, Saddam's two eldest sons, personified the terror of their father's rule.

Kelly, a Mild-Mannered Scientist

22 July 03
NEW YORK TIMES SERVICE

Dr. David Kelly, the British microbiologist who committed suicide last week while caught up in a dispute about whether the British government doctored intelligence reports on Iraq's weapons programs, played a key role in Western efforts to uncover biological warfare programs in Iraq and the former Soviet Union.

Talmud Team Finds Intelligence Trove

08 May 03
NEW YORK TIMES SERVICE

What began Tuesday as a hunt for an ancient Jewish text at secret police headquarters wound up unearthing a trove of Iraqi intelligence documents and maps relating to Israel as well as offers of sales of uranium and other nuclear material to Iraq.

Scientist Says Weapons Destroyed Just Before War

22 April 03
NEW YORK TIMES SERVICE

A scientist who claims to have worked in Iraq's chemical weapons program for more than a decade said Iraq destroyed chemical and biological weapons only days before the war began.

U.S. Deploys Germ Monitors

23 January 03
NEW YORK TIMES SERVICE

To help protect against the threat of bioterrorism, U.S. President George W. Bush's administration on Wednesday will start deploying a national system of environmental monitors that is intended to tell within 24 hours whether anthrax, smallpox and other deadly germs have been released into the air, senior administration officials said Tuesday.

Russian 'May Have Aided Iraq'

04 December 02
NEW YORK TIMES SERVICE

The CIA is investigating an informant's accusation that Iraq obtained a particularly virulent strain of smallpox from a Russian scientist who worked in a Moscow smallpox lab during Soviet times.

U.S.: Iraq Is Hunting for Nukes

09 September 02
NEW YORK TIMES SERVICE

Iraq has intensified its quest for nuclear weapons and has embarked on a worldwide hunt for materials to make an atomic bomb, U.S. officials said Saturday.

Bush Signs Waiver to Cut Russian Stockpile

12 August 02
NEW YORK TIMES SERVICE

U.S. President George W. Bush has signed a temporary waiver that permits millions of dollars to be released to programs aimed at reducing the threat posed by Russian nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.

Race Is On for Smallpox Vaccine

26 April 02
NEW YORK TIMES SERVICE

Israel, Britain and other countries are moving to acquire stocks of smallpox vaccine as the United States and Russia weigh proposals to begin vaccinating parts of their populations against the disease, according to American and Russian officials and health experts.

'Worried' U.S. to Reduce Disarmament Projects

09 April 02
NEW YORK TIMES SERVICE

The U.S. government has informed Moscow that Washington is curtailing many new disarmament projects because of concern about Russia's compliance with treaties banning chemical and biological weapons, senior administration officials said.

Turner Targets Biological Weapons

26 November 01
NEW YORK TIMES SERVICE

Ted Turner, who invented all-news television and is helping to subsidize the United Nations, has taken on a new challenge: A project to reduce the threat of biological weapons that has a strong focus on Russia.

U.S. to Destroy Soviet Anthrax Cache

24 October 01
NEW YORK TIMES SERVICE

The United States has signed an agreement with Uzbekistan to remove deadly anthrax from a remote island in the Aral Sea where the Soviet Union dumped tons of lethal spores, U.S. and Uzbek officials said Monday.

Honey Business a Mask For al-Qaida Operations

12 October 01
NEW YORK TIMES SERVICE

NEW YORK -- American officials say they have evidence that Osama bin Laden is using a network of shops that sell honey -- a staple of Middle Eastern life since Biblical times -- to generate income and secretly move weapons, drugs and agents throughout al-Qaida, his terrorist network. Bin Laden is in control of a number of these retail honey shops and members of his organization are also involved, one U.S. government official said. Officials said the honey entrepreneurs include some of bin Laden's top associates, like Abu Zubeidah, the Palestinian director of al-Qaida external affairs who controls movement of recruits in and out of bin Laden's camps. The honey trade also includes less senior al-Qaida members. Officials said one is Khalil al-Deek, a Palestinian-American who had been jailed in Jordan in connection with plots to blow up sites in the United States and Jordan around the millennium but who was released earlier this year for lack of evidence. The U.S.

U.S. Secretly Fights Germ Warfare

05 September 01
NEW YORK TIMES SERVICE

NEW YORK -- Over the past several years, the United States has embarked on a program of secret research on biological weapons that, some officials say, tests the limits of the global treaty banning such weapons. The 1972 treaty forbids nations from developing or acquiring weapons that spread disease, but it allows work on vaccines and other protective measures. Government officials said the secret research, which mimicked the major steps a state or terrorist would take to create a biological arsenal, was aimed at understanding the threat better. The projects, which have not been previously disclosed, were begun under President Bill Clinton and have been embraced by George W. Bush's 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.

U.S. Review Finds Russia Aid Crucial

17 July 01
NEW YORK TIMES SERVICE

NEW YORK — A review of American assistance to Russia by the administration of President George W. Bush has concluded that most of the programs aimed at helping Russia stop the spread of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons are vital to American security and should be continued, a senior administration official said. Some may even be expanded. But the White House wants to restructure or end two programs: a $2.1 billion effort to dispose of hundreds of tons of military plutonium and a program to shrink Russian cities that were devoted to nuclear weapons development, and to provide alternative jobs for nuclear scientists, the official said in an interview on Friday. Both these programs have been criticized in Congress. The review also calls for a shift in philosophy from ""assistance to partnership"" with Russia.

U.S. Reviews Russia's Nuclear Aid

30 March 01
NEW YORK TIMES SERVICE

WASHINGTON — The White House is starting a comprehensive review of all American aid programs to Russia set up to stop the spread of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, a senior administration official said Wednesday. The broad review, started by National Security Council officials who have previously been critical of some of these programs, is likely to significantly change how Washington spends more than $760 million a year trying to dismantle former Soviet nuclear, biological and chemical complexes and prevent unconventional weapons and hazardous materials from being either sold to rogue states and terrorists or stolen by them. The senior official said that several of the programs, such as the Department of Energy's $173 million program to strengthen the security and accounting for fissile material at nuclear weapons storage sites, appeared to be ""very effective.