NATIONAL SECURITY New weapons center to focus on biological threats

With a staff of fewer than 100, the center draws from 15 U.S spy agencies.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A new government center focusing on weapons intelligence will pay significant attention to biological threats, which the director considers a soft spot for spy agencies.
In an interview Wednesday as the center officially opened, Kenneth Brill said the National Counterproliferation Center will give a heightened profile to threats from pandemics and other biological threats.
Brill noted that the government has had a 60-year relationship with experts in physics, which has been part of nuclear technology's maturation, but comparable ties in biological sciences are not as strong.
"Naturally occurring diseases can be much more devastating than a weapon," Brill said. "The life sciences are moving so quickly and there are so many new dramatic breakthroughs. Yet some of those breakthroughs, if you tweak them just slightly, become really potentially devastating agents for harm."
Intelligence center
With a staff of about 67, the center based in Washington's Virginia suburbs is intended to bring elements of the 15 U.S. spy agencies together.
The center will include intelligence analysts and intelligence collectors who have been involved in operations, and scientific experts who study nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, as well as delivery systems.
They will focus on ways to understand threats from countries that are getting involved in weapons proliferation, as well as terrorists groups or entrepreneurs such as Abdul Qadeer Khan of Pakistan. Regarded as the father of the program that built Pakistan's nuclear bomb, Khan confessed in early 2004 that he had spread sensitive technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea without the knowledge of the government.
The center, created as a result of the intelligence overhaul in December 2004, was envisioned as being similar to the National Counterterrorism Center, which has a staff of hundreds.
Months later, a presidential commission studying weapons of mass destruction suggested the counterproliferation center be a leaner operation of fewer than 100, coordinating sometimes disparate elements of the intelligence agencies. The White House accepted that recommendation.
Brill said the center will do a series of classified studies in the next three years on issues or countries that present challenges.
"It's no secret that Iran and North Korea are areas where we are concerned about WMD activities," Brill said. "The proliferation of WMD programs in areas of tension is a very real concern -- not just to this government but to many."
Brill was the U.S. representative to the United Nations' office in Vienna, Austria, and the International Atomic Energy Agency from September 2001 to July 2004, when the United States made its case to the world to invade Iraq.