Iran producing weaponized anthrax?

Iran is building an arsenal of biological weapons incorporating six pathogens, including anthrax and smallpox, according to an opposition group.

The weaponized anthrax is the first fruit of a program begun secretly two years ago to triple the size of Iran’s biological warfare program by 2003, the Washington Post reported.

The opposition group, Mujaheddin-e Khalq, cited informants inside the Iranian government who said Iran is developing its biological weapons alongside a more ambitious campaign to build massive nuclear facilities capable of producing components for nuclear bombs.

“We can say with certainty that the Iranian regime now has the capability of mass production of biological material for weapons use,” said Alireza Jafarzadeh, U.S. representative for the National Council of Resistance of Iran, the political arm of the Mujaheddin, which seeks the overthrow of the Iranian government.

The Post noted if the claims are true, Iran’s pursuit of biological weapons is more aggressive than previously believed.

The CIA released an unclassified report this year stating Iran “probably” maintains an offensive biological weapons program and likely “has capabilities to produce small quantities” of biological agents, the Post said.

Jafarzadeh said Iran’s biological, chemical and nuclear programs have all progressed rapidly under the leadership of Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, regarded by the West as a moderate and reformer.

The State Department lists the Mujaheddin-e Khalq as a terrorist group, but weapons experts and intelligence officials consider its previous claims about Iran’s weapons programs to be largely reliable.

“Often their information is correct, in part because they have reliable human sources well placed in the Iranian government,” said David Albright, a former member of a U.N. nuclear weapons inspection team in Iraq. “And they release information that you can check – information that is actionable.”

The group first exposed a massive nuclear facility near the town of Natanz that produces enriched uranium.

William Potter, director of the Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, told the Post the claims cannot be “dismissed out of hand.”

“There is no doubt the Iranians have been very interested in such weapons,” he said. “We know they left their calling cards at various institutes in the former Soviet Union seeking to recruit experts in the field.”

The Mujaheddin’s Jafarzadeh said Iran spelled out details of the biological weapons program in a four-page document called the “Comprehensive National Microbial Defense Plan,” approved by Iran’s Supreme National Security Council in 2001.

The plan split up responsibilities across a network of research facilities linked to Iran’s armed forces or Revolutionary Guard, the Post said.

The Mujaheddin officials said Iran now can produce nearly all the critical parts for growing pathogens without relying on foreign suppliers. However, Jafarzadeh said experts have been recruited from several countries to assist the effort, including North Korea, Russia, China and India.

Pathogens to be weaponized under the plan include anthrax, aflatoxin, typhus, smallpox, plague and cholera, said Jafarzadeh, noting the “report about smallpox was very carefully assessed and verified.”

The Post noted some of the Mujaheddin’s Iraq-based military camps came under attack by U.S. forces during the war in an apparent attempt by the Bush administration to thaw relations with Iran. Mujaheddin officials insisted the timing of the release of their report is unrelated. Jafarzadeh said the group has been gathering information for months and in the past few days received critical new details from government sources.