O4°29°93 11:47 M202 334 1730 do02

April 14, 1993

Dr. Donald A. Henderson

Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health
and Science - Designate

Public Health Service

Department of Health and Human Services

Hubert H. Humphrey Building, Room 701H

2000 Independence Avenue, S.W.

Washington, DC 20201

Dear Dr. Henderson:

Iam writing to invite you to participate in a meeting at
the River House of the Aspen Institute’s Wye Plantation on May
28-29, 1993. The Committee on International Security and Arms
Control (CISAC) of the National Academy of Sciences has a Working
Group on Biological Weapons Control, which I chair (see attached
list of working group members). The Working Group was formed in
1986 and for four years met regularly with a counterpart group of
scientists from the Soviet Academy of Sciences. The two groups
made significant progress on defining possible standards for
acceptable and unacceptable research activities and other topics
of mutual interest.

Unfortunately, the groups have not met since December 1990.
We are hoping to revive their work, and have scheduled a planning
meeting in late May to discuss new joint activities. The Russian
Academy counterpart group is now headed by Academician Rem
Petrev, Vice President of the Russian Academy for Life Sciences
and the RAN delegation will include four scientists (Academician
Petrov; Academician Vadim Ivanov, Shemyakin Institute of
Bioorganic Chemistry; Academician Lev Sandakchiev, Director of
Scientific [sic] and Production of Association "Vector,"
Novosibirsk Region; and Academician Vladimir Bolshakov, Director
of Institute for Plants and Animals, Sverdlovsk). However, we
are also inviting a number of Russian and American scientists and
government officials to attend the meeting to assist us with the
planning process. We hope that you will be able to join us, even
if for only a portion of the meeting.

There is a cloud, of course, on the credibility of all of
the academies’ activities, highlighted by President Yeltsin’s
revelations concerning the Sverdlovsk (1979) anthrax epidemic,
and Soviet biological weapons programs. We are all very much
encouraged by the candor with which he is addressing these past
offenses. One subject for discussion at the planning meeting
will be how to (1) further the complete investigation and
documentation of that lamentable history, and (2) clearly
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04/29/93 11:48 202 334 1730

establish the academies’ distance from it, so as to dispel those
clouds, and provide a confident basis for candid discourse.

We want very much to transcend the past, however, and
explore ways in which we can encourage and support a regime of
disclosure to promote efforts to curb the proliferation of
biological weapons. tn light of the perils of proliferation, we
believe it is important to reinforce our mutual understanding and
perhaps develop strategies for Russian-American cooperation on
nonproliferation. In addition, American scientists would like to
find all possible avenues of support for biomedical research in
the CIs.

We thus have a full agenda for the planning session. Among
the topics we propose to discuss are:

O Bilateral cooperation on honproliferation, including
{a) verification an@ confidence-building measures for
the Biological Weapons Convention,

(®) establishing standards for permissible and
impermissible activities under the Convention,

(¢) strategies to promote increased transparency and
disclosure, and

(ad) cooperation in epidemiological surveillance

o Conversion of military or military~related facilities to
civilian purposes

Oo Cooperative research on anthrax pathogenicity and
emerging pathogens

9 Update and implications of smallpox eradication campaign

CISAC would cover the costs of all expenses for the meeting.
We would also be happy to arrange transportation for you to and
from the meeting. The meeting will begin with dinner on
Thursday, May 27th, with the formal discussions taking place all
day on Friday, and until mid-afternoon on Saturday, after which
the group will return to Washington. As I mentioned earlier, you
would be welcome for any or all sf the discussions.

Someone from the CISAC staff will call your effice later
this week to find out if you will be available for the meeting.
In the meantime, if you have any questions, please contact Dr. Jo
Husbands, Director of CISAC. Her telephone number is 202-334-
2811. We look forward to hearing from you and hope that you will
be able to join us.

Sincerely,

Joshua Lederberg
Working Group Chair