Det danske Fredsakademi
Kronologi over fredssagen og international politik 7. Oktober 2003 / Time Line October 7, 2003
Version 3.56. Oktober 2003, 8. Oktober 2003
10/07/2003
Valg i Californien. Republikaneren Arnold
Schwarzenegger vinder valget.
Pentagon Selling Bioweapons Tools
The Pentagon could inadvertently be providing terrorists with
special equipment that would enable them to make biological
weapons, according to a draft report from the General Accounting
Office obtained by ABCNEWS.
According to the report, which is due to be released Tuesday,
Congress ordered the GAO - its investigative arm - to set up a
phony company to see how easy it would be to buy surplus lab
equipment from the Pentagon.
Using fake names, GAO investigators went to a Web site that sells
Pentagon surplus and ordered items needed to produce
bacteriological weapons, including evaporators, centrifuges,
bacteriological incubators and protective clothing.
In its report, the GAO found that the "Department of Defense has
not attempted to determine who is buying excess biological
equipment or how these items were being used."
"This is a real danger, and it is something we've got to close, a
loophole that we've got to close right now," said Daryl Kimball,
executive director of the Arms Control Association, a nonprofit
organization that advocates effective arms control policies.
A Terrorist's Bargain
The GAO also found that some buyers who had recently purchased
used equipment from the Pentagon then resold it to countries where
terrorists have operated, such as Malaysia, the Philippines and
Egypt.
"The Department of Defense has not been paying attention to this
back door, with a domestic market that can allow it to be sold
abroad," Kimball said.
And the Pentagon has been selling the equipment at bargain prices.
Some equipment that the Pentagon paid $46,000 for was sold to
investigators for $4,100. That could be a real bargain for
potential terrorists.
Litteratur: The General Accounting Office: Foreign
Military Sales: Air Force Does Not Use Controls to Prevent Spare
Parts Containing Sensitive Military Technology from Being Released
to Foreign Countries. GAO-03-939R, September 10, 2003. -
http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-03-939R
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