Papers on BioPort [Anthrax Vaccine Maker] found in office of terrorist suspects

AP | 11-29-01 | AP

[The Energizer]

Papers on BioPort found in office of terrorist suspects

LANSING, Mich. (AP) BioPort Corp., the nation's only manufacturer of an anthrax vaccine, confirmed Thursday that information on the company was found in an office in Afghanistan used by two retired nuclear scientists from Pakistan.

The men are being questioned by Pakistani authorities about whether they helped Osama bin Laden make chemical weapons with anthrax.

The New York Times reported Wednesday that an office the men used in the Afghan capital of Kabul contained documents about the history of anthrax and the Pentagon's plans to immunize members of the U.S. military against anthrax.

The documents included a military report describing plans for anthrax vaccine production at BioPort in Lansing.

BioPort spokeswoman Kim Brennen Root said Thursday that the report was a publicly released environmental study completed in 1998, just before BioPort purchased the labs it now owns from the state.

``It would have been accessible through libraries or the Internet,'' Root said. ``It's not unexpected that a sophisticated organization like al-Qaida would be looking for information from several sources.''

Root said the documents were probably used to get information about the military vaccination program. At one time, the military planned to inoculate 2.4 million U.S. troops with BioPort's vaccine, but that program was put on hold because of manufacturing and supply problems at BioPort.

BioPort is hoping the vaccination program will resume after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration inspects the company's labs in mid-December.

Root said BioPort has no plans to increase security at its labs. National Guard troops have been on the property since early October.

The Pakistani men, Sultan Bashir-ud-Din Mehmood and Abdul Majid, both worked for Pakistan's Atomic Energy Commission until retiring in 1999. They made several trips to Afghanistan and met with bin Laden, but say they were simply doing charity work.

[Shermy]

Saud bump.