- WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon
has been selling surplus laboratory equipment that could be used to make
biological or chemical weapons, according to a congressional investigation
released yesterday.
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- Defence officials were called in to answer questions
before a congressional inquiry about the sale of the army surplus, which
included centrifuges, evaporators, bacteriological incubators, and protective
suits to unknown customers in other countries, including Egypt and the
Philippines, where terrorist groups have been known to operate.
-
- The news is particularly embarrassing, coming only days
after the CIA-led Iraq Survey Group claimed the discovery of similar equipment
in Iraq was evidence that the Saddam Hussein regime had a covert weapons
programme.
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- "The cheap, virtually unregulated availability of
low-cost biological laboratory equipment poses a risk to national security,"
said Christopher Shays, the Republican congressman chairing the inquiry.
"The department of defence should not be a discount shopping outlet
for would-be bioterrorists."
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- The Pentagon's sale of the surplus equipment was uncovered
by Congress's general accounting office (GAO) which conducted a sting operation,
setting up a dummy company to buy laboratory equipment online on a Pentagon
website.
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- The GAO found that the defence department did not check
the background of its customers. Most of the equipment being sold was available
commercially but the Pentagon was selling it at bargain prices. The GAO
bought $46,000 (£27,500) worth of equipment for just over $4,000
(£2,400).
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- A Pentagon spokesman said sales had been stopped pending
the outcome of the inquiry.
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2003
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- http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1058327,00.html
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