Chemical Weapons News July 6

Last week the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists published a new editorial on nonlethal chemical agents:

Marketing new chemical weapons – Neil Davison – Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
In April 2007, 26 people from the U.S. Justice Department, local law enforcement, the military, academia, and civil society came together at the behest of the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), the research arm of the Justice Department, to consider the issue of “nonlethal” weapons development…

And the CW news:

Congress must work to protect chemical sector – By Sheila Jackson-Lee and Bennie G. Thompson – The Houston Chronicle
Recent tragedies around the world provided a clearer understanding of the three elements of a terrorist attack: a weapon, a target and a terrorist. In the terrorist bombings in London, Madrid, Islamabad and Mumbai, the elements were separate. However, chemical facilities throughout the U.S. present ominous opportunities for a weapon and target to be one and the same…

Chem-Bio Weapon Threat: Do Not Exaggerate Capabilities of Nonstate Actors – By Al Mauroni – Defense News
In developing the current Quadrennial Defense Review, the Obama administration has decided to move away from the previous strategy of planning to fight and win two nearly simultaneous major combat operations. This is a welcome change, as the Defense Department never had the necessary personnel or resources to effect such a stringent requirement…

Bosnian Muslim Victims Gassed with Chemical Weapons during Srebrenica Genocide – Palluxo.com
During 2006 opening statements, the U.N. Prosecutor Peter McCloskey stated that “criminal orders in war are as a rule issued verbally”, and that a few exceptions existed to the rule. One of the most striking ones is a report sent on 21 July 1995 by the Serb General Zdravko Tolimir from Zepa to General Radomir Miletic, acting Chief of General Staff of the Bosnian Serb Army (VRS) . Tolimir was requesting help to crush some Bosnian military strongholds, expressing his view that “the best way to do it would be to use chemical weapons”…

Chemical weapons incinerator now in final phase – By Jay Reeves, The Associated Press – The Montgomery Advertiser
The Army’s $1 billion chemical weapons incinerator in Ala­bama started its final phase of work by taking apart doz­ens of old mortars filled with mustard agent, officials said Friday…

Defending against chemical, biological weapons – By Daniel Terdimen – CNET News
In a world where American soldiers in Afghanistan or Iraq might find themselves under attack from chemical or biological weapons, who’s looking out for their safety? The answer lies deep in the western Utah desert, at a U.S. Army facility called the Dugway Proving Ground where, among other things, groups of scientists are researching…

Millions of Muscovites at risk of toxic waste poisoning – Russia Today
Crowds of Muscovites are flocking city parks, but few are aware that a popular place of leisure used to be a testing ground for chemical and biological weapons and remnants from those experiments are still buried there…

Munitions disposal resumes at depot – Gadsden Times
Chemical munitions demilitarization operations have resumed at the Anniston Chemical Agent Disposal Facility at the Anniston Army Depot. Anniston Chemical Activity employees safely moved the first containers with 4.2-inch mustard-filled munitions Monday…

Anniston Depot Begins Final Chemical Weapons Disposal Campaign – Global Security Newswire
The Anniston Army Depot in Alabama was scheduled yesterday to begin its final chemical weapons disposal campaign…

War Crimes Conviction Upheld Against Hussein Chemical Supplier – Global Security Newswire
The Supreme Court of the Netherlands yesterday affirmed that a businessman who sold chemicals to Saddam Hussein is guilty of war crimes…

Nukes not only worry: Analysts say North’s chemical arsenal is just as dangerous – The Associated Press, available at The Detroit News
North Korea’s massive stockpile of chemical weapons is as threatening as its nuclear program, analysts say, highlighting an aspect of the secretive regime’s pursuit of weapons of mass destruction that is rarely talked about…

Train, Truck Collide near Pueblo Chemical Depot – Sean Hauser – KRDO News
Two people are recovering in the hospital after a delivery truck ran into a train at the Pueblo Chemical Depot. “About 8:30 this morning a delivery car was exiting the post,” said Ken Roque, with the Pueblo Chemical Depot…

Russia Boosts Security at Chemical Weapons Sites – Global Security Newswire
Russia has placed additional security personnel at its chemical weapons storage and destruction sites…

Iraqi whose lies made the case for war looks on from afar – By Martin Chulov – The Guardian
When the Iraqi who could be considered more responsible than any other for the US invasion six years ago quietly returned last March to the land his lies helped shape, Iraq was entering one of its most stable and promising phases in six years of turmoil…

Churchill planned to poison Germans – The Tehran Times
Britain considered dropping millions of poisoned darts on German troops in the final stages of the Second World War, secret files made public have revealed. Created by British and Canadian scientists, the darts could have been packed into bombs and released from the air with the potential to kill or incapacitate anyone within 10,000 sq yds…

Revealed: WWII’s Secret Sewing Needle Bomb – Wired
During World War II, British scientists developed a new and extremely lethal secret weapon: a bomb which released a cloud of sewing needles, tipped with deadly poison…

Editorial by Pfirter and Gorbachev

Former general secretary and executive president of the Soviet Union and current president of the international organization Global Green, Mikhail Gorbachev and current Director General of the OPCW, Amb. Rogelio Pfirter have published an editorial in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.  “Disarmament lessons from the Chemical Weapons Convention” highlights the CWC as an effective multilateral framework to eliminate an entire class of weapons and prevent their future proliferation, and stresses the importance of a world free of all weapons of mass destruction.

The Bulletin also recently published an article by Jonathan Tucker and Paul Walker called “Getting chemical weapons destruction back on track”.

Finally, highlights from DG Pfirter’s recent trip to Washington and links to his public presentations can be found here.