Scientists say Taliban took interest in lab with anthrax

KABUL, Afghanistan -- At an Agriculture Ministry laboratory outside Kabul, scientists worked with anthrax. If Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network wanted to get its hands on the deadly substance, this laboratory, now badly damaged by U.S. bombing, could have been a source.

The now defeated Taliban regime has long denied being involved in chemical or biological weapons research, but it seems to have taken an interest in the work being done at the lab, according to scientists there, and it was repeatedly hit by U.S. bombers.

The lab, in a two-story mountainside building, was frequently visited by a Taliban official during the past five years, according to scientists interviewed there Tuesday.

Animal vaccines

They did not say whether Mullah Qari Abdullah showed a specific interest in anthrax, and the scientists insisted their work was aimed purely at developing animal vaccines.

"The Taliban officer-in-charge, Mullah Qari Abdullah, would come here regularly," said Dr. Mohammed Ali, speaking in the lab amid shards of glass from bomb-shattered bottles.

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has said bin Laden likely had some chemical or biological weapons, and that U.S. forces bombed some sites in Afghanistan that could have been involved in producing them. It was not clear whether the government laboratory was on the list of suspects.

Ali and his colleague, Dr. Abdul Wakil, did not say whether any of their research was transferred to al-Qaida or used in weapons experiments. But they acknowledged that the lab's activities meant the Taliban had access to anthrax.

The scientists, long-time workers at the lab, showed a large container they said held concentrated anthrax spores.

Already expired

Both complained that much of the anthrax vaccine had already expired and that they were having trouble getting fresh supplies to produce more. Before the bombing campaign, private companies in India and Iran were their major suppliers, they said.

Shipments were halted after Sept. 11, and the laboratories have had to rely on their stocks, which are running low.

The research -- and the samples of deadly substances -- is not in itself unusual. Similar studies, used to produce animal vaccines, are conducted in laboratories around the world, and the government scientists in Kabul received technical assistance from the International Committee of the Red Cross and the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.

Documents relating to deadly chemicals and bacteria have been found in houses abandoned by al-Qaida after the Taliban fled Kabul on Nov. 13 and the opposition northern alliance took over.

Material in Arabic, Urdu, Russian and English indicate al-Qaida was studying chemical, biological and even nuclear weapons. It's not clear whether any was ever produced.

Some papers had handwritten chemical formulas, diagrams that seemed to indicate a mixing of chemicals followed by an explosive reaction.