Pentagon fears weapons growth

"The front lines are no longer overseas," said Cohen, releasing a report that said Americans could fall victim to such an attack, because criminal organizations and cults - as well as nation-states - could deploy such weapons.

These weapons are "the poor man's atomic bomb - cheaper, easier to produce and extremely deadly," the defense secretary said.

Cohen said that while headlines have been full of the United Nations' struggle to ferret out such weapons of mass destruction held by Saddam Hussein, "the threat is not limited to Iraq." Even so, the defense secretary said, Saddam apparently has been able to produce enough deadly toxin "to kill every man, woman and child on the face of the earth."

AP PHOTO Defense Secretary William Cohen (center) talks to Marine Master Sgt. Victor Murphy (left), in a chemical weapons suit, at the Pentagon yesterday.

The report focused on Middle East and North African nations and singled out Iran, Iraq, Libya and Syria as trouble spots. They "are aggressively seeking NBC weapons and increased missile capabilities" and constitute "the most pressing threats" to stability in the region, the study said.

The Pentagon declined to list all 25 nations mentioned in the report, calling the information classified.

But it did specify other nations such as North Korea, China, India, Pakistan and Russia, whose programs may pose a threat to the United States.

On a positive note, the report welcomed "a dramatic reduction in the threat from the countries of the former Soviet Union." Six nations "that might have become nuclear powers - Ukraine, Kazakstan, Belarus, North Korea, South Africa and Iraq - have been turned away from that path," it said.

The study, the second such Pentagon report on the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, largely repeats last year's report.

But it warns that if a conflict again breaks out in the Persian Gulf, some form of the weapons is likely to be used, particularly since several nations there have used them in the past.

The new report includes a section on Syria for the first time. It notes Syria's growing SCUD supplies, many received from Iran and North Korea, its ability to produce chemical weapons and its infrastructure capable of supporting a biological warfare program.

Asked why more information about Israel's purported nuclear program was not included in the report, Cohen said the study was geared toward those nations who threaten America, and Israel does not pose such a threat.

The report does, however, state that Syria has vigorously pursued development of chemical and biological weapons, as well as ballistic missiles, "as a means to counter what it perceives as Israel's superior conventional forces and presumed possession of nuclear weapons."

The Pentagon has had to beef up its detection, decontamination and emergency response equipment to respond to a potential attack by chemical and biological weapons. Cohen has requested $1 billion to pay for the improvements.

11-26-97