JUN 17 ’92 12:55 SLAC/DIRECTOR OFF, 415-926-4588 Pie

NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL SECURITY AND ARMS CONTROL
2101 Constitution Avenue Washington, D.C. 20418

June 17, 1992

DRAFT

Academicians Vadim Ivanov
and

Evgeniy Velikhov

Russian Academy of Sciences
Moscow, Russia

Subject: Inter-Academy Discussions on Biological Warfare

Gentlemen:

In the past the Committee on International Security and Arms Control of the National
Academy of Sciences through a BW subcommittee and the Soviet Academy of Sciences
through a specifically designated committee have carried out discussions on biological war-
fare. The last of these meetings was held December 5-7, 1990 in the United States. We have
hopes that these meetings can be reinstated following the dramatic changes which have gone
on in the interim.

There is, however, one matter which must be clarified in connection with planning for
1 ewe Tes dems VWoltoin in omhiah

w OF 1. i Ww t fod
he agreed that the 1979 anthrax epidemic in Sverdlovsk (now Ekaterinburg) was definitely
due to a release from a military facility working on biological warfare activities, rather than
caused by meat, contaminated by indigenous anthrax spores in the soil.

mit

These recent revelations are of particular importance to our bilateral activities. For in-
stance a special presentation was made to our meeting of October 1986 by Dr. Nikoforov
defending the contaminated meat description of the incident. Subsequently Drs. Burgasov
and Nikoforov visited the United States, not in connection with the work of our two com-
mittees, and publicly presented evidence again supporting the contaminated meat version.
As the recently revealed facts now indicate, these presentations appear to be deliberate
disinformation designed to cover the true source of the incident.

capil. would pe.helniiLinthe sontinnapse ef eur meetings to receive as much of a detailed
This is a matter of serious concern, in particular since we had reached the joint conclusion
that the only promising avenue towards verifying compliance with past and future arms
control agreements in the BW field would be through collaboration and mutual trust among
JUN 17 *92@ 12:56 SLAC/DIRECTOR OFF, 415-926-4500 Pia

page 2 June 17, 1992

the international community of scientists expert in the BW field. Such collaboration should
lead to increased transparency, information sharing, and establishment of common codes of
conduct concerning the operation of biologically secure facilities. Ultimately it is the mutual
trust among scientists in this community which is the basis for control. It is therefore essential
to dispel any cloud which might hang over any of the participants of future meetings of the
subcommittees of our two academies.

Any clarification or suggestions which you might give us on this difficult matter would
be greatly appreciated.

With best personal regards,

Joshua Lederberg

and

Wolfgang K. H. Panofsky