Aaron Gluck
May 9, 2014
CNS Senior Fellow Amy E. Smithson testified before the Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia, and Emerging Threats, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, on May 7, 2014. Her remarks focused on what the US Government should do to prepare for the 2016 Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BWC) Review Conference.
Monitoring Biological Weapon Threats
Smithson pointed to a detailed proposal for monitoring the BWC, created by top scientists from the US pharmaceutical industry and the experience of UN Special Commission biological weapons inspectors. The proposal is a road map that challenges the US policy that it is not possible to monitor the BWC.
Rather than rest on conventional wisdom that dates to 1968, Smithson recommends that the US Government heed the counsel of these distinguished industry experts and study the field experience of UN inspectors, who used routine inspections to unmask Iraq’s covert biological weapons program. The UN inspectors give first-hand accounts of this feat in Germ Gambits, and the trio of reports detailing the industry scientists’ proposal are referenced in her prepared statement.
