State Secrets by probaway

State Secrets: Russian Chemical Weapons – review

http://www.probaway.wordpress.com/2009/12/13/state-secrets-russian-chemical-weapons-review/

Posted on 2009 December 13 by probaway

State Secrets: An Insider’s Chronicle of the Russian Chemical Weapons Program by Vil. S. Mirzayanov is for me a very scary book for several reasons. (1) You can’t trust a nation’s leadership to tell the truth even when they are making solemn international agreements. (2) You can’t expect the legal processes to reliably release innocent people. (3) You can’t expect the formal powers that are in control to follow clearly stated laws when it conflicts with their own self-interest. (4) You can’t expect scientists to keep secret their success in creating novel new ways of killing people. (5) You can’t expect the details of how to create these new ways to be kept secret from other governments. (6) You can’t expect that the exact methods for creating these horrible new war gasses from becoming common knowledge and easily available on the internet.

My take home message after reading this book: This book is a must read for all policy makers of the world because it illustrates why it is so important to have verifiability of instituted agreements. Making fine sounding laws written up into eloquent text and spoken by refined politicians with perfect idealistic rhetoric means absolutely nothing and in fact may be counterproductive without a mechanism for checking to make sure everyone is obeying the agreements. This requires numerous parties with conflicting interests traveling into the mutually antagonistic situations with different supporters to be able to check everywhere and at any time for compliance. Furthermore, there must be built-in instantaneous punishments for noncompliance. This can be done by having each independent party having something of great value to them already submitted to an escrow holding authority and held in common by the other parties which can be taken away immediately.

If one of the parties can circumvent the agreed upon conventions then they have an advantage and if they can keep it a secret they have a double advantage, if they can keep the other from developing the parallel advantage they have a triple advantage and if they end up deploying the item, such as a super poison gas weapon, they have an ultimate advantage. That is why the inspecting teams must already have in their possession the power to punish the transgressors instantly. Punishment after “thoughtful deliberations” for transgression is futile because there is always plenty of weasel room in post negotiations.

This all seems obvious but the book shows that even as major chemical warfare agreements were being drawn up between the USSR and the Western Powers, there were cunning efforts by the USSR to write out of the negotiations subtle precursor war chemicals which could easily be hidden in standard agricultural insecticide production. Thus, there could be developed a vast weapons program which could easily be hidden. Apparently thousands of tons of these precursor chemicals were stockpiled for near instant use even though the chemicals themselves were relatively benign. The contending countries were developing what are called binary weapons which mixed the relatively safe precursor chemicals in special artillery shells after they had been fired from a standard gun. Using these techniques relatively safe “agricultural chemicals” could be transported to a battle field without violating the carefully negotiated conventions. This is a policy of infinitely evil. It is hypocrisy carried to the ultimate and it will lead to the destruction of common humanity.

At great risk to his life Dr. Mirzayanov had worked for years helping to develop these chemical weapons and then at what appeared to be even greater risk to his life he became a whistle-blower on the hypocrisy of their development. He published an article called A Poisoned Policy which exposed the Russian political duplicity on this issue, without revealing any secret formulas. He was brought before the judicial system of the old USSR with a recent veneer of a new more democratic constitution but the enforcers of this new system were still of the old mentality. Although eventually declared innocent of the charges he was subjected to months of prison confinement before and during a secret trial. The confinment was so brutal it can only be assumed that it was intended to sicken and kill him “accidently” and thus eliminate their judicial problem.

In my proposed beautiful new world of the distant future Weapons of Extermination ( WOEs ) must not only be unavailable they must he absolutely hidden and those who seek them or the knowledge of how to make them must be eliminated. That may be harsh to these few intentionally evil people but it is kind to the vast numbers of innocent ones who won’t die because of these chemists wicked actions.

In the future world we may have peace— in the present world, it is impossible.

Biohysteria

Isn’t it enough is enough?

Six years ago I wrote this article and forgot to publish it in internet. Today I found it and decided to publish. Why ? Because some people in US still are trying to convince about this non-existent treat.

Probably I am not single person who is shocked by almost everyday warning of the people in US by upcoming biological attack of America on TV and newspapers. It is continuing more than decade and have achieved a pinnacle after September 11 disaster. Not too many but very energetic specialists and journalists are contributing to this large scale campaign. So far we have unfortunately only victims as result of it. Much more than result of another obsession with a Y2K bug. For me last one is an example of very good organized corruption in History of modern America with I hope unintentional involvement of two branches of the government. Sure USA lost on this fraud more than 10 billions dollars but there were ( thanks God ) no losses of human lives. I’m not going to blame all of these specialists and a lobby of biological defense people. But I’m sure that I have to try to explain from my point of view the realities of the biological and chemical weapons threat by the terrorists or states with a irresponsible regimes and give an example of use of doubtful specialist from Russia.

First victims of anti-biological rage came with a victory in Gulf War. Before this military campaign tens of thousands soldiers were vaccinated against the antrax. After this war thousands of veterans are suffering from unknown decease more likely originated as witnessed many doctors resulted by this unfortunate vaccination. It is almost absolutely clear that Gulf veterans decease wasn’t originated from the exposure of the soldiers to Irak’s chemical weapons (CA). Why ? Because at first there is no evidence that Irak did use the CA during this war. Unfortunately there was an accident connected with a irresponsible destroying of the Irak’s CA storage by barbaric method of explosion. It was very possible that part of chemical agents were pulled out by dust and smog created by the explosion and covering by them relatively big area occupied by ally troops. Secondary many soldiers being that time far from this area have the same symptoms of Gulf veterans decease.

Last victims of the antrax are widely known and they definitely are not connected with a terrorist attack. Opposite is more likely true: they are victims of the domestic criminal connected with a development of the BW or defense against it. Unfortunately it is impossible to avoid assumption that this directly or indirectly was not inspired by BW defense specialists to drive out funds for themselves. It would be not excessive to tell that aggressive lobbying by BW defense specialists in Congress and the covering by mass-media created situation close to the hysteria. Sometimes I and my family are right now naming CNN as antrax channel.

I’d want to emphasis that there are no base to support the opinion that terrorists will use the biological weapon with an antrax or something similar to that. Why? Because there is no biological weapon in all world to use it like even the chemical weapons. I am sure that if some extreme creasy to be terrorist would have try to use non-weaponized biological agent he’ll kill himself before to begin to kill others. It is true also about so called countries with irresponsible regimes. Sure they can have or produce significant quantities of antrax or another biological agent but there is an unresolved task of the weaponizing of these agents. The problems connected with this task were fortunately extremely difficult and funds required for their resolution were meaningless from the point of view of military strategy. Even Soviet Union couldn’t (or didn’t want) develop an effective delivery system of these agents to the aimed objects for covering by them a meaningful area. Proposed systems were not tested at the military polygons because there was no corresponding infrastructure for a testing including the field-analytical chemistry, medical service and hospitals for emergency cases. The extreme safety rules and regulations which are necessary to meet at such works have absolutely excluded even the primary evaluations. Exactly because of these circumstances the examples of a real biological weapon never was used at any military exercises. If Deputy Minister of the Foreign Affairs of Russia G.Berdennikov at the 1996 Conference of signatories of the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention told that Russia never developed, produced, or stored biological weapons it is absolutely true. Probably nobody will suppose that a powder is a weapon before it’ll be used in bombs, rockets or bullets et ct. The same should be fair about antrax or any biological agent. In this relation there is no doubt about chemical agents.

For instance ricin is natural product extracted from some beans and like antrax is a powder and extremely poisonous. It was very tempting for specialists to try to use it as chemical weapon. Russian chemical weapon specialists in GosNIIOChT spent a lot of time and funds for weaponizing of the ricin without any visible success. Neverthless nobody have tried to give it as a chemical weapon.

The biological weapons lobby is intensively using “ a top biological weapons specialist who had ran all program in Russia” Mr. Ken Alibek. They also are giving him as a deflector from Russia. Recently Mr. Ken Alibek with Mr. Stephen Handelman published the book titled “Biohazard” as “the chilling story of the largest covert biological weapons program in the world – told from inside by the man who ran it”. I must say that reading this book was really chilling for reasons I’ll try to explain.

The book is starting from the episode when Mr. Alibek was ordered to come to a meeting at “at Soviet army headquarters on Kirov Street in Moscow”. Mr. Alibek noted that the clipped voice on the phone said “ We’ve set aside a special room for you, Colonel”.

I don’t understand what does mean Mr.Alibek under the “Soviet army headquarters” but nobody in Soviet Union and Russia (also in USA) uses this term. If under this term author means the Defense Ministry of USSR it is definitly not at Kirova Street. It was at Frunzenskaja naberejnaija and right now at Arbat Street in Moscow. If author means under abovementioned term the General Stuff of the Soviet Army or Russian Army it was and is at the Frunze Street. By the way later Mr. Alibek at last pointed out that he means under the “Army Headquarters” the Ministry of Defense.

As a former Russian chemical weapons specialist who had been working within a strict secret system I can say only that it was absolutely impossible by someone to invite or order for something on the telephone.

Further Mr. Alibek is writing about the meeting. According to him general Lebedinsky asked “Are we ready?” After “general led us into an adjoining sound-proof room. Notepads had been placed on the large wooden table, in front of each chair.”

Such a demonstrative violation of the rules of the secrecy would have never happened. This system has required to get any papers or notepads in First Department of the office responsible for a meeting under the personal signature and return them after a work was done. Any kind of lost even one page or list of papers was a very reason to start investigation process with severe consequences for everybody. However Mr. Alibek and other violators “…shook hands, packed our papers, and congratulated one another on a productive session” It was and is absolutely impossible to pack up any papers from a secret meeting because of strict rules. If someone could have forgotten these rules an officer of the First Department will unconditionally stop any violation. For that or other reasons absolutely all secret meetings were supervised by KGB officers. In Soviet army there were adequate officers of the Special Service. It is a real fiction to write that “ Driving back to my office, I opened my briefcase to jot down a few more notes.” It was absolutely impossible to carry out any secret papers from a secret meeting in your briefcase. If you did some notes on the secret notepads after returning them to the office of the First Department you had to ask it to address papers to you office after receiving permission from the Chief of the office who was responsible for the meeting. For the transportation of secret materials there is a secret mail system of KGB. Nobody never could have right to do this instead.

After more than suspicious beginning Mr. Alibek is writing about the unbelievable subject of the meeting in the Defense Ministry. They were discussing a project to launch the intercontinental missiles with disease agents to the USA and Mr.Alibek was calculating how long it’ll take to produce these agents.

I must to tell that it didn’t happen even at the climax of cold war simply because there was never any biological weapon in the arsenal of Soviet army. I’m not going to defend soviet generals, among them there were a lot of creasy ones. However in general they’ve been not creasy to degree to spend almost for nothing from the military point of view billions dollars. They preferred the real weapons to destroy USA and allyes.To tell the truth they really hate chemical weapons specialists supposing that they just distracting funds from the real means. With a taking into account that it allegedly happened in 1988 when almost all economy of the USSR collapsed and the Communist Party was desperately trying to survive and to make both ends meet to keep the country under the control it was absolutely impossible to imagine that such a meeting with such a agenda could have taken place. There is only one reason “to justify” author to write this fiction. Unfortunately he was transferred from the province to Moscow only this year. I must to tell to Mr.Alibek’s attention that any decisions about the development a new weapon or their production before they would have been taken by Politbureau of KPSU were discussed at the level of the experts including a mentioned in the book Military Industrial Commission. It was absolutely impossible by the way how it was explained to Mr. Alibek by some general that “ A decision had been made at the highest levels,…, to arm SS-18 missils with disease agents”. First of all a general should give to Mr. Alibek the text of this decision with a remark “secret of special importance” with his signature that he was familiarized with a document. Only after this unavoidable procedure they could have discussed about any decision.

It is very interesting fact that Mr. Alibek who “ran the Soviet BW program” doesn’t give even any hints about the locations of Soviet BW storages with a bombs, rockets, shells and their technical details. Had he really run this program and there were such weapons I think he should give to reader this information. May be someone from very curious environmentalists could go to these locations and tell us about the real existence weapons. Even in the case sometime ago they had been destroyed there is very possibility that environment next to the storages could be contaminated and is still continuing to be a source of many deceases. For instance almost everybody in Russia and West knows right now about locations of the Chemical Weapons storages in USA and Russia and this information I am sure helps people to be more confident about verified and safe destruction of these weapons. By the way there is any copy of a secret document or it’s number with data pointing data of issue which can make an affirmation about the testing, production and stockpiling of BW. It is more than strange. Even I who didn’t ran chemical weapons program have numbers of very important documents including of decision to start to develop and test soviet binary chemical weapons. Two years I kept them in my web-site which recently I deactivated.

Fortunately I am sure Mr. Alibek is not person who “ran the Soviet BW program” and he is definitely not deflector as many BW lobby trying to give us him. They probably didn’t read this book. In last chapters of the book Mr. Alibek is writing how he was working in Alma-Aty ( Capital of the independent country Kazakhstan) and traveling to Moscow and abroad including USA after his retirement from the allegedly secret job. Any person who worked with secrets in USSR and Russia knows that it was and is absolutely impossible to get a travel passport without permission of KGB. I am not person who ran the Soviet Chemical Weapons program but even for me it took almost one year of the struggle with KGB to take permission for travel passport. Only a decision of the special Commission of the Council of the Ministry of Russia under the pressure of many famous former Soviet dissidents helped me solve this problem. Why ? Because I was so called a carrier of secrets. According to Soviet and Russian Code such a person can apply for travel passport only in 5 years after he retired from his job. In special cases this term is much more longer or unspecified. For instance some of my colleagues( even they didn’t ran any big chemical weapons program) from GSNIIOKhT still cannot receive travel passports.

If you are not a carrier of secrets there are no problems with a travel passport in Russia. I am sure one of them is Mr. Alibek who didn’t have any problems to travel to Malta or New York before he allegedly deflected to USA. He and his allegedly chiefs were participating at the international conferences and been photographed. Some of them Mr.Alibek posted in his book. I must say that it is absolutely impossible according to rules of secrecy to participate at the any public conferences and to be photographed. Because of it nobody can find photographs of any chemical weapon designers and developers.

Probably it is clear enough with a BW threat to USA today. Even though BW defense lobby already could pull out several billions from USA budget for the protection against non-existing biological weapons.

Are there any threats of possible BW attack today? Definitely not.

Are there threats of possible attacks with use of CW? With a high level of possibility there are not. However there are possibilities of use of the chemical agents or poisonous chemicals like hydrocyanide or chlorine-gas which could be legally purchased or stolen. It is real disturbing when according to media one of terrorists of September 11 attack was interested by use of agricultural planes which are equipped for dispersing of the solvents with a pesticides. Sure we cannot exclude the use of some versions of binary systems when their components could be precursors of civilian products but for that reason terrorists have to have skilful CW scientists-specialists and for the safety reasons I don’t want to discuss the possible concrete versions. In any case all these possibilities could be realized if the responsible government bodies will not take measures to prevent them. For that reason we have to start the work of investigation of the situation whether there are possibilities to smuggle abovementioned chemicals from industry and agriculture chemicals storages. For the fulfillment of these tasks and permanent monitoring and analyzing the whole situation under the Department of Governor Ridge should be created the Technical Counterintelligence Service.

My video about State Secrets

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1zvIW3B_74&feature=channel_page

About my book

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

New Book Reveals How One Man Blew the Whistle on Russia’s Chemical Weapons Program – And Shocked the World

January 13, Denver, CO and Princeton, NJ – Vil S. Mirzayanov made international headlines for blowing the whistle on Russia’s illicit chemical weapons program, bravery that later landed him in prison on trumped-up charges of revealing “state secrets.” Now, a stunning autobiography sheds new light on the incident – widely regarded as the “first test” of Russian democracy – and the mystery-shrouded operation that produced some of the world’s most insidious killing technology.

“State Secrets: An Insider’s Chronicle of the Russian Chemical Weapons Program” (Outskirts Press; www.outskirtspress.com) takes readers behind the scenes and into the ominous halls of GOSNIIOKhT – the Soviet Union’s and, later, Russia’s most advanced chemical weapons laboratory. And it provides fresh insights into the personalities, political machinations and intrigue surrounding the country’s military industrial complex.

For decades, GOSNIIOKhT produced some of the most lethal substances known to man. Then, researchers there developed something that would top the entire world’s nerve agents: dubbed Novichok – for “newcomer” – these binary nerve gasses were at least 8 to 10 times as powerful as any other chemical weapon. Despite Russia’s leaders’ assurances to the contrary, they were lying to the international community and to their own people. Until now Novichok has remained cloaked in secrecy and has evaded control by the Chemical Weapons Convention, placing its effectiveness in doubt.

Spurred by the sense that he was involved in a criminal enterprise, and by concerns over the facility’s environmental side-effects, Mirzayanov went public with details of the weapon in Russian newspapers in 1991. After an interview with the Baltimore Sun and an article in Moscow News, authorities took notice – and promptly sent the mild-mannered chemist to the notorious Lefortovo Prison in 1992. What followed was a sensational story for the Russian and Western press and an early litmus test of the Russian government’s commitment to openness, honesty and democracy.

State Secrets documents in compelling detail Mirzayanov’s epic struggle for justice in a country whose legal system was still more firmly rooted in Kafka than a constitution. How he managed to triumph from within a cramped prison cell, rally international pressure around him and become the first person in 70 years to actually sue the Russian government is ultimately a story at least as compelling as the development of Novichok.

While many of Mirzayanov’s revelations and arrest have been well documented, never before has there been such a complete account of how Soviet and Russian elite military and scientific institutions functioned as told from the inside. Incompetence, nepotism – and above all – fear, prevailed, as Mirzayanov shows in this richly detailed and engagingly told account. But against this backdrop, great courage was also possible – from the scientists who joined the Russian democratic movement to the journalists who told the truth to an entire world for the first time.

“State Secrets: An Insider’s Chronicle of the Russian Chemical Weapons Program” is now available through Ingram, Baker & Taylor, Amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, and the online bookstore of Outskirts Press, at outskirtspress.com/store.php.

Book Statistics
ISBN(s):
PB: 978-1-4327-2566-2
HB: 978-1-4327-1923-4
Suggested Retail Price(s):
PB: US$29.95, CAN$37.95
HB: US$43.95, CAN$54.95
Size and Format(s): 6 x 9 Paperback, 6x9 Hardback w/Jacket
Page Count: 624

About the Author: Vil S. Mirzayanov was born in 1935 in a rural village in Bashkortstan, Russia. He is the recipient of numerous scientific and civic honors, including the Heinz R. Pagels Human Rights of Scientists Award, the Cavallo Foundation’s award for Moral Courage in Business and Government, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science Scientific Freedom and Responsibility Award. He immigrated to the U.S. in 1995 and currently lives in Princeton, NJ.

Author Contact: Visit him on the Web at www.outskirtspress.com/StateSecrets_aninsiderschronicle

About Outskirts Press, Inc.: Outskirts Press, Inc. offers full-service, custom self-publishing services for authors seeking a cost-effective, fast, and flexible way to publish and distribute their books worldwide while retaining all their rights and full creative control. Available for authors globally at www.outskirtspress.com and located on the outskirts of Denver, Colorado, Outskirts Press represents the future of book publishing, today.


# # #
Outskirts Press, Inc., 10940 S. Parker Rd - 515, Parker, Colorado 80134http://outskirtspress.com

Why I published my book?

There are two kinds of weapons of mass destruction: nuclear and chemical weapons. I’m not going to talk about biological weapons, because they don’t exist. Even when Russia was intensively developing biological agents, they were never actually weaponized and tested.

My subject is chemical weapons, which consists of chemical agents and their delivery systems (like rockets and bombs). The modern world has been familiar with chemical weapons for almost two centuries. Their widespread use in war has caused millions of atrocities. The Soviets and Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq used them to kill their own people.
Three times, a number of European countries crafted conventions for outlawing the development, production and testing of chemical weapons. The most recent one was signed in the 1993. Also was set up a List of controlled chemical agents and their precursors. Unfortunately, scientific research in this extremely dangerous area was not banned.

I am a physical chemist, and I was employed for almost 26 years at Russia’s foremost center for developing chemical agents – GosNIIOKhT in Moscow. I participated in all stages of activity, including scientific research work on the development of new chemical agents, and the production and testing of the final chemical weapons. My last position there was as the head of the Technical Counterintelligence Department of the Military Chemical Complex. I saw that the goal of the leaders of the Military Complex was to eliminate all useless old chemical weapons at the expense of the West and to keep hidden its new generation of chemical weapons, under the Code Name of Novichok.

Up to this point, Russia had developed, tested and started production of the binary chemical weapons, including the Novichok series which are up to 5-8 times more powerful than those known before. In a binary chemical weapon, two relatively harmless precursor chemicals are mixed in a rocket in flight to produce a deadly agent for delivery. One military advantage of binary weapons is that the dangerous end product does not have to be stockpiled. The binary precursors can be produced in normal factories that make agricultural chemicals like pesticides.

A Novichok chemical agent is different from VX-gas, sarin and soman. Also Novichok and its precursors are not included in the List of controlled chemical agents. On the eve of the signing of the Chemical Weapons Convention, I saw this gross omission was a great lie, so I published my first article in the Russian newspaper Kuranty, to warn the whole world about this fraud. The only result was that I lost my job.

In September of 1992, I co-authored another article published in Moscow News, called “A Poisoned Policy”, which was published the same day as an interview I gave to the “Baltimore Sun”. Shortly after that, I was arrested for disclosing state secrets and sent to the KGB’s notorious Lefortovo Prison. For the 2 ½ years that followed, I was supported by a campaign of many people (mostly scientists, politicians and human rights activists) in Russia, in the US and Europe who protested my arrest and prosecution. I spent a month in a maximum security prison called Matrosskaya Tishina and the rest of the time under house arrest, until my trial in early 1994. My case was dropped, because of lack of evidence. Ultimately I emigrated to the United States.

I wanted to help the American Government to know and understand more about the Novichok weapons program, but surprisingly the CIA treated me as if I were a spy, with extremely insulting questions. Despite that and with serious reservations, I supported the ratification of the Chemical Weapons Convention by the US Congress, hoping that Novichok and its precursors would eventually be included into the list of chemicals prohibited by the convention.

I have waited 14 long years in vain. This is strange to me, because so many people supported me in my struggle against these extremely dangerous Russian chemical weapons. Ultimately, there is no result whatsoever. I even wondered if the US and Russia came to some kind of secret agreement to keep silence about the issue.
In these circumstances, I didn’t have any choice but to write book “State Secrets: An Insider’s Chronicle of the Russian Chemical Weapons Program” where I published the real chemical formulas of Novichok agents for the first time.

One of the main goals of the book is a retool the OPCW (the United Nations agency that is charged with implementing the provisions of the Chemical Weapons Convention) for real control of the Novichok chemical agents. For the sake of the world’s safety.

I also hope to warn people that by allowing countries like Russia to continue scientific research in the field of chemical agents, that we left a big loophole for clandestine violations. With the development of new chemical technologies, such as nanotechnology, there are probably no limits to the size of deadly molecules that can be synthesized and used as chemical agents. Nanoparticles can be directly exposed to the victims from the air, without the need to vaporize or aerosolize chemical agents. Theoretically, it’s also possible that some kind of nanoparticles could be used to break through a gas mask. It’s not surprising that GosNIIOKhT has been included into the List of so-called system-creating enterprises of Russia, by Putin’s administration. GosNIIOKhT is also currently working in the secret part of a governmental company on nanotechnologies.

Apparently, for this reason, the Military Chemical Complex of Russia appointed a young general from the Directorate of the Chemical Troops, Mr. Kondratiev, to the post of Director of GosNIIOKhT. To look more like a civilian manager, he even “retired” from the Russian Army.

I would also like to emphasize that there is no longer any need to test new chemical weapons on an open polygon. Everything can be modeled in a laboratory with the proper equipment.