[Reformatted] info restriction: reclassifying declassified docs

Anonymous User anonymous at remailer.havenco.com
Mon Jan 14 04:44:18 PST 2002


mix at anon.lcs.mit.edu (lcs Mixmaster Remailer) writes:

> 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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