Author: Mark Townsend
Publication: The Observer
Date: November 2, 2008
URL: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/nov/02/uk-security-weapons-technology
The security services have intercepted up
to 100 suspects posing as postgraduate students who aim to acquire weapons
material and expertise
Dozens of suspected terrorists have attempted
to infiltrate Britain's top laboratories in order to develop weapons of mass
destruction, such as biological and nuclear devices, during the past year.
The security services, MI5 and MI6, have intercepted
up to 100 potential terrorists posing as postgraduate students who they believe
tried accessing laboratories to gain the materials and expertise needed to
create chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear weapons, the government
has confirmed.
It follows warnings from MI5 to the Foreign
and Commonwealth Office that al-Qaeda's terror network is actively seeking
to recruit scientists and university students with access to laboratories
containing deadly viruses and weapons technology.
Extensive background checks from the security
services, using a new vetting scheme, have led to the rejection of overseas
students who were believed to be intent on developing weapons of mass destruction.
A Foreign Office spokesman said the students had been denied clearance to
study in the UK under powers 'to stop the spread of knowledge and skills that
could be used in the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their
means of delivery'.
He added: 'There is empirical evidence of
a problem with postgraduate students becoming weapons proliferators.' The
overseas students, a number of whom are thought to be from 'countries of concern'
such as Iran and Pakistan, were intercepted under the Academic Technology
Approval Scheme, introduced by universities and the security services last
November.
The findings raise questions over how many
terrorist suspects may have already infiltrated the UK's laboratory network.
Rihab Taha, dubbed 'Dr Germ', who worked on Saddam Hussein's biological weapons
programme, studied for her PhD in plant toxins at East Anglia University's
School of Biological Sciences in Norwich.
In addition, a number of well-educated Iraqi
scientists - funded by Baghdad - infiltrated several British microbiology
laboratories in the run-up to the Gulf war of 1990-91. Britain has about 800
laboratories in hospitals, universities and private firms where staff have
access to lethal viruses such as Ebola, polio and avian flu or could acquire
the technology and expertise to develop deadly weapons. Whitehall sources
remain concerned about the number of countries intent on acquiring the materials
and knowledge to develop a nuclear or biological warfare capability.
John Wood of the National Institute for Biological
Standards and Control said: 'Any scientist would say it's important that we
know who is working in our laboratories, and also why they are working there.'
The trial of two NHS doctors, Mohammad Asha,
27, a Jordanian national, and Bilal Abdulla, 29, from Iraq, who allegedly
plotted widespread carnage through car bomb attacks in London's West End and
Glasgow airport last year, has intensified scrutiny on the radicalisation
of students. Named in the plot is 27-year-old Indian PhD student, Kafeel Ahmed,
who drove a Jeep laden with gas canisters into Glasgow Airport's main terminal
building but died several weeks later from severe burns. Ahmed studied for
his PhD in the technology department of Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge.
A spokesman for Universities UK, which represents
vice-chancellors, said the security scheme had so far proved effective. He
added: 'It is important to protect the UK from people who may wish to use
technology and materials here inappropriately.'
Michael Stephens, head of security at the
Medical Research Council, which runs some of Britain's most sensitive laboratories,
said they took the issue of biosecurity 'extremely seriously'.
Concern that al-Qaeda is intent on developing
a more sophisticated weapons capability moved the former director-general
of MI5, Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, to warn publicly that terror attacks
in Britain could involve weapons of mass destruction. She said: 'We know that
attempts to gather materials are there, we know that attempts to gather technologies
are there.'
Extremist groups are known to have targeted
students, offering to fund courses in return for using their newly acquired
expertise. It is unclear if any of those denied 'clearance' to study in the
UK during the past year were funded by grants from host governments such as
Tehran.
A Foreign Office spokesman said 'efforts'
on scrutiny of foreign postgraduate students would continue with only a few
of the 20,000 applications rejected for security reasons. In the US, draft
legislation advocates banning all non-Americans from laboratories which possess
potentially dangerous bacteria and viruses, a measure the UK government believes
is too draconian.
Professor George Griffin, chairman of the
advisory committee on dangerous pathogens, has warned of the lack of a national
standard required for people to work in high-security laboratories.
The move comes as the government considers
plans to build a new pathogen research facility in central London, between
King's Cross station and the British Library. Experts have warned that a terror
attack would prove catastrophic to the surrounding area.