Indian bio-lab security worries US
US officials fear lax security at Indian laboratories could make the facilities targets for terrorists seeking biological weapons to launch attacks across the globe, according to comments in a leaked US diplomatic cable made public on Friday.
The cable was part of a trove of documents sent from the US embassy in New Delhi that was obtained by the secret-spilling website WikiLeaks and published on Friday by the British newspaper The Guardian. The cables dealt with accusations of Indian torture in Kashmir and the concerns of Rahul Gandhi — seen as India’s Prime-Minister-in-waiting — that Hindu extremists posed a greater danger to India than Islamist militants.
One of the cables from June 2006 raised concerns that terrorist groups could take advantage of weak security at Indian laboratories to steal “bacteria, parasites, viruses or toxins.” “Terrorists planning attacks anywhere in the world could use India’s advanced biotechnology industry and large bio-medical research community as potential sources of biological agents,” read the cable, marked confidential. “Given the strong air connections Delhi shares with the rest of the world and the vulnerabilities that might be exploited at airports, a person could easily take hazardous materials into or out of the country,” one expert told US diplomats. A second expert said that academic research facilities maintain only very loose security procedures. —AP
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