Nuclear Blindness: An Overview of the Biological Weapons Programs of the Former Soviet Union and Iraq

• NCJ Number: 189457
• Journal: Emerging Infectious Diseases Volume: 5 Issue: 4 Dated: July-August 1999 Pages: 509-512
• Author(s): Christopher J. Davis
• Date Published: 1999
• Length: 4 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Overview Text
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Downloaded July 30, 2001

Annotation

This document provides an overview of the biological weapons programs of the former Soviet Union and Iraq.

Abstract

The demise of the biological weapons capability of the United States in 1969 and the advent of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention in 1972 caused governments in the West to falsely believe the impossibility of biological weapons development throughout the rest of the world. The term “nuclear blindness” refers to this tunnel vision “brought on by the mistaken belief that it is only the size of the bang that matters.” The origins of the biological weapons program of the former Soviet Union stretch back to statements by Lenin, and experimental work was under way by the late 1920's. In 1973 and 1974, after the signing of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention by both the Soviets and the United States, the Soviet Politburo formed and funded the organization known as Biopreparat. This was designed to carry out offensive biological weapons research and development and production concealed behind legal and civil biotechnology research. Despite the change in political structure, the economic upheaval, and the reorientation of Biopreparet’s work, the capability of these old sites remains largely unknown. Iraq has stated that its biological weapons program dates to at least 1974. Much of what happened between the supposed inception of the program in 1974 and the establishment of a group of biologists within the Al-Muthanna chemical weapons complex in 1984 is unknown. According to the Iraqis, the program was terminated in 1991, after the adoption of UNSCR-687, and agents, weapons, munitions, and documents were destroyed. However, the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) believes that from 1991 to 1995 Iraq actively preserved biological weapons capability. The true scale and scope of the Iraqi biological weapons program are still not known.