[Via Communist Internet... http://www.egroups.com/group/Communist-Internet ] . . ----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, July 25, 2001 4:00 PM Subject: USA AND GERM WARFARE!!! [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK] STOP NATO: NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- ListBot Sponsor -------------------------- Sopranos fanatics, this one is for you. Tony Soprano's autographed Suburban is available for purchase on eBayTM. James Gandolfini has personally signed the vehicle. Find this and over 800 other Sopranos items for sale on eBay. http://www.bcentral.com/listbot/ebay ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1-U.S. rejects plan to enforce germ warfare ban By Richard Waddington GENEVA, July 25 (Reuters) - The United States, again rowing against most world opinion, on Wednesday rejected as unworkable a proposed international plan for enforcing a 30-year ban on using germs as a weapon of war. In a speech to a special drafting committee in Geneva, Washington's representative Ambassador Donald Mahley said the United States could not support the proposal, the result of nearly a decade of international wrangling. "In our assessment, the draft protocol would put national security and confidential business information at risk," he said. The plan, drawn up by Ambassador Tibor Toth of Hungary, chairman of the Ad Hoc negotiating group, was designed to meet a mandate from the 140-state 1972 Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention to produce a consensus on measures to make the ban enforceable by the end of this year. Unlike other multilateral arms accords, the biological weapons ban contains no mechanism to ensure compliance. While reaffirming its commitment to combating the spread of biological weapons, the United States said the measures outlined in the draft would not achieve their goal. The draft, which other members of the 54-state Ad Hoc committee have said at least formed the basis for further negotiation, would oblige member states to make public sites that could be used for the development of biological weapons. It also sets out a series of steps for verification, including spot checks. But the U.S. said the checks would not stop cheating by states wanting to develop a biological weapons capacity and could open the door to industrial espionage. "The mechanisms envisioned in the protocol would not achieve their objectives and...trying to do more would simply raise the risk to legitimate United States activities," Mahley said. INTERNATIONAL ISOLATION A number of countries are believed to have developed, or to be developing, the capability to have a biological weapons arsenal and rapid developments in the field of genetics only increase anxiety about the potential for devastation of such arms. The European Union said earlier this week that while the Toth text did not meet all its concerns, it believed it would strengthen the existing treaty against biological weapons. It was the latest foreign policy issue on which the Bush administration has distanced itself from its traditional European allies and appeared isolated internationally. Earlier this week, Washington was alone in rejecting the Kyoto treaty to contain global warming through the limiting of the emission of so-called greenhouse gasses. In order to be approved, the draft germ warfare proposal needed consensus support within the Ad Hoc committee. The committee had been due to continue meeting until August 17 in a bid to meet the deadline imposed by the Convention, which convenes on November 19. It was not immediately clear what action the Ad Hoc group would take in view of the U.S. stance. 05:26 07-25-01 ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
