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OCTOBER 22, 2001 : (BIOPREPARAT DEPUTY DIRECTOR YEVSTIGNEYEV DENIES ALLEGATIONS BY FORMER BIOPREPARAT EMPLOYEE KEN ALIBEK THAT ANTHRAX SPORES FOUND IN THE US HAD BEEN PRODUCED AT A FACTORY IN KAZAHKSTAN) Denying the claims, Biopreparat factory deputy director Valentin Yevstigneyev told Kazakh state-run television on October 22 that his facility had no connection whatsoever with anthrax spores discovered in the US. "Alibekov, a former Biopreparat employee, is either uninformed or is making deliberately libellous allegations," he said. Yevstigneyev said there had been projects to develop biological weapons in Stepnogorsk but the projects were shut down after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. By embarking on the project, the Soviet Union had violated the Biological Weapons Convention that it signed in 1972.------- "Central Asia/Russia: Moscow shrugs off anthrax claims," By Sergei Blagov, Asia Times Online, October 24, 2001

DECEMBER 9, 2001 : (NEWSWEEK REPORTS THAT RENEGADE RUSSIAN SCIENTISTS HAD BEEN ASSISTING AL QAEDA IN DEVELOPING ANTHRAX AND A SUPPLY OF THE STUFF MAY HAVE BEEN STOCKPILED) The war in Afghanistan has produced a hodgepodge of disturbing intelligence that investigators are still trying to sift and analyze. Perhaps the most alarming evidence gathered so far concerns Al Qaeda efforts to develop biological weapons. According to intelligence sources, U.S. operatives in Afghanistan have collected information that one or more Russian scientists were working inside Afghanistan with Al Qaeda operatives. One well-placed source tells Newsweek that evidence from the scene indicates that the renegade Russians were helping Al Qaeda to develop anthrax, and that spores of the deadly disease may actually have been stockpiled by the terrorist group. While intelligence sources say they believe any such stockpiles were destroyed in U.S. bombing raids, it is not known how much, if any, of the anthrax ever made it out of Afghanistan. And the infamous Dr. Ayman Al-Zawahiri, bin Laden's closest lieutenant and considered the brains behind Al Qaeda, may have been directly involved in the biological program. Al-Zawahiri, may have been hit by U.S. bombs last week, according to unconfirmed British intelligence reports. ------- "A U.S.-Based Al Qaeda 'Sleeper Cell' Was Poised to Launch a Post-Sept. 11 Attack on a Major Washington Target; Would-Be Terrorists Went Underground or Fled U.S. ," Newsweek, December 9, 2001