info restriction: reclassifying declassified docs
lcs Mixmaster Remailer
mix at anon.lcs.mit.edu
Sun Jan 13 16:20:08 PST 2002
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20020113/ts/us_germ_weapons_1.html
Bush May Limit Germ Weapons Info
By SCOTT LINDLAW, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration is considering whether to restrict distribution of
government documents that describe how to make germ weapons, White House officials said Sunday.
U.S. stockpiles of offensive germ warfare agents were destroyed nearly three decades ago as part of
the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention. But the government kept the blueprints for manufacturing
such weapons, and continues to sell them.
``The administration is generally conscious of this issue,'' John H. Marburger III, director of the White
House Office of Science and Technology Policy, said in a telephone interview Sunday. ``There are
obviously people thinking about what to do about it.''
The administration is likely to take action on the matter, Marburger said, adding that he did not know
what action would be taken nor when.
Homeland Security director Tom Ridge hinted that the administration is strongly considering placing
new restrictions on the information.
``We are a very open society and we're very much an information society, and there are a lot of us that
think that some of the information we share with the public probably should be restricted in some
fashion,'' Ridge said on CNN's ``Late Edition.''
Marburger and other administration officials are ``looking to see what kind of information should be so
easily available in the public domain,'' Ridge said. Members of Congress have also aired concerns
about the issue, he said.
``We are open, we are trusting, but we have to be a little bit more careful and a little bit more vigilant,''
Ridge said. ``And we may have to take a look at these kinds of issues from a different perspective
because of the tragedy of September 11 and the follow-on incidents that we've had to deal with.''
Several agencies are weighing the level of danger and possible action, Marburger said. A
spokeswoman for the Defense Department said Sunday she could not comment, as did a White House
spokesman. Representatives of the Justice Department (news - web sites) and the White House Office
of Homeland Security did not return calls.
Marburger said he had not personally seen the documents on assembling such weapons. Among the
questions is how dangerous they are, he said.
``It is clear that they are based on a picture of biology that's almost 50 years old,'' he said. ``It's not
clear to me how useful they are.''
The New York Times first reported on the documents and the debate in Sunday editions, and said
despite their age, the manuals contain information that could help produce the kind of anthrax powder
infected at least 18 people and killed five in the United States last year.
According to the newspaper, federal agencies routinely sell the now-declassified documents to
historians and researchers. The government provides more sensitive papers on the subject after
Freedom of Information Act requests.
Dr. Harry G. Dangerfield, a retired Army colonel, is preparing a report for the military that will call for
the reclassification of more than 200 reports that he told the newspaper are cookbooks for turning
germs into weapons.
Any such move to reclassify the manuals would run into resistance from advocates of public access to
government documents.
Moreover, an executive order signed by then-President Clinton (news - web sites) in 1995 bars
reclassification, the Times said. The Bush administration is considering its own order allowing the
documents to once again be kept from public view, it reported. Marburger said Sunday he did not
know about any such move.
........
I found http://www.oie.int/eng/normes/mcode/A_00044.htm
to have enough info to culture and sporulate, though
you'd have to look elsewhere for freeze drying and milling
tech.
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