MI5 tells labs to secure viruses from Islamic terrorists training in germ warfare

[Woodmonkey]

MI5 tells labs to secure viruses


LONDON: Britain's laboratories have been ordered to strengthen security on stocks of more than 100 deadly viruses and bacteria after an MI5 warning that Islamic terrorists are training in germ warfare.

The biological agents include polio, rabies, tuberculosis and bird flu. Food-poisoning bacteria such as E.coli and the sources for a number of rare tropical and Middle Eastern illnesses are also included.

Scientists and lab staff in universities, hospitals and pharmaceutical companies who deal with agents will have to be vetted by police, and their laboratories will be checked by government safety inspectors.

Stock will have to be accounted for and regularly audited. The crackdown comes after MI5 privately warned the Foreign and Commonwealth Office that al-Qa'ida was actively recruiting scientists.

Extremist groups are known to have targeted students, offering to fund courses in return for using their newly acquired expertise.

Last November, Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, MI5's director-general, gave warning that future terror attacks in Britain could involve weapons of mass destruction.

She said that terrorists were seeking the means to mount a range of attacks using chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear devices.

"We know that the aspiration is there, we know attempts to gather materials are there, we know that attempts to gather technologies are there," she said.

After the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York, security at laboratories was stepped up amid new intelligence on the ambitions of al-Qa'ida and its allies, and restrictions were placed on 47 agents.

The Government has now announced that the list is being increased to 103, including 45 viruses, 21 bacteria, two fungi, 13 toxins and 18 animal pathogens.

Tony McNulty, the minister in charge of policing, said: "The terror threat is always changing and we must adapt to ensure it is combated effectively.

"That is why we are extending the list of controlled substances to prevent terrorist groups using chemical or biological materials as terrorist weapons."

The new additions to the list include many of the viruses and bacteria that strike at animals, such as foot-and-mouth disease.

These might not be harmful to humans but could be devastating to the economy, as was the foot-and-mouth outbreak in Britain in 2001.

The Source