[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.
More information about the cypherpunks-legacy
mailing list