SOVIETS PLOTTING BIOTECH WAR, PRESIDENT TOLD

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000100130125-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 21, 2011
• Sequence Number: 125
• Publication Date: February 21, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

ST"T
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/21: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100130125-2
ARTICLE APPEARED
ON PAGE C-/7
Soviets Plotting
Biotech War,
President Told
The National Security Council
has delivered a report to President
Reagan warning of a frightening new
development in biological warfare.
The secret alert is based on CIA as=
segments that the Soviets have de-
veloped gene-splicing techniques as
ominous as the atom-splitting dis
coveries that led to the nuclear
bomb.
The startling evidence' is con-
tained in CIA reports, classified "Se-
cret," which declare flatly that the
Soviets could use their new biotech-
nology to incapacitate or destroy en-
tire populations in a future conflict.
In stark language, the documents
warn that the United States is dan-
gerously far behind in developing
biotech weapons. One CIA report
estimates that the Soviets will be
able to deploy these horror weapons
in three to five years. Other scien-
tists contend that biotech warfare' is
more than a decade away.
Of course, the production of
harmful biological agents for use
against people, animals or crops is
strictly prohibited under the 1972
Biological Weapons . Convention,
which the Soviets signed. But this
WASHINGTON POST
21 February 1984
has not deterred the Soviets from
rushing ahead with biotech research.
Declares a secret CIA report: "The
evidence points strongly to illegal
production or storage of biological
agents and weapons."
The technical name for this' re-
search is "recombinant DNA tech-
nology." It is also referred to as
"gene-splicing," "genetic engineer-
ing," "biotechnology" and "synthetic
biology." It has to do with DNA, or
deoxyribonucleic acid, which is the
basic genetic ingredient.
The Soviets have developed a pro-
cess for removing segments of DNA
from the cell of one species and at-
taching them to that of another,
thereby creating a new organism.
The military application is awe-
some. CIA sources told my associate
Dale Van Atta that the Soviets will
be able to reproduce mysterious
human substances and produce su-
per-viruses more deadly than any
known to man today.
For example, the Soviets could re-
produce such human substances as
growth hormones, which have never
been duplicated. One U.S. expert
thiriks the Soviets may be able to re-.
produce brain chemicals, which send
command signals'to various parts of
the body. The fear is that the Sovi- .
'
Even more disturbing, the Soviets
could use biotechnology to combine
the most infectious, most virulent
and most indestructible character-
istics of disease-causing organisms to
form super-viruses.
If it seems hard to believe that the
Soviets would experiment with such
civilization-destroying technology,'
consider this grim excerpt from a se-
cret CIA report:
"Since World War II, sporadic re-
ports and allegations have been re-
ceived concerning 'Soviet involve-
ment in offensive biological, weapons
development. Sources of the allega-
tions have ranged from low-level de-
fectors to high-level Soviet academi-
cians. High-level political and mil-
itary leaders have also alluded to
possession of biological weapons."
The document describes other de-
velopments, which have been "close-
ly observed by the intelligence com-
munity." For example, the Soviets
have "acquired significant technology
..and equipment, built large-scale bi-
ological fermentation facilities and
made progress in other areas consid-
ered useful should Moscow decide to
pursue production of biological
weapons."
At Sverdlovsk, the Soviets operate
a biological warfare institute where-
ets will be able to produce them in
quantity and load them into spray an accident, involving a lethal strain
weapons. This bio-gas would disori- of anthrax, reportedly caused hun-
ent and destroy the human brain. dreds of deaths in April, 1979.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/21: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100130125-2