U.N. biological warfare expert will discuss monitoring of Iraq

Contact: Kay Roybal, k_roybal@lanl.gov, (505) 665-0582 (00-042)

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LOS ALAMOS, N.M., March 24, 2000 -- The head of the biological warfare discipline for the United Nations Special Commission charged with monitoring Iraq's disarmament compliance will deliver a Director's Colloquium at the Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory on Tuesday, March 28.

The talk by Gabrielle Kraatz-Wadsack will be in the physics auditorium at 1:10 pm and is open to the public.

"We are delighted to host Dr. Kraatz-Wadsack for this visit," said Jill Trewhella, director of the Lab's Bioscience Division. "Los Alamos has provided critical technical support to the UN missions in Iraq. Our scientists' pioneering work in pathogen molecular detection has played a key role in their missions related to bio-weapons non-proliferation. Dr. Kraatz-Wadsack's talk will bring home the importance of this work for world security."

Kraatz-Wadsack holds degrees in veterinary medicine and microbiology from the University of Munich. She has served as Department Chief of Bacteriology and Toxinology at the Federal Armed Forces Medical Academy, Institute for Microbiology in Munich, and as expert and chief inspector for interim biological monitoring groups in Baghdad, Iraq. A member of the German Armed Forces Veterinary Service, she has been part of the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) since September 1995 as a biological expert. Since August 1998, she has served as head of the Biological Warfare discipline for disarmament and longterm monitoring in Iraq.

Kraatz-Wadsack will discuss some of the challenges UNSCOM has faced in attempting to monitor Iraqi compliance with UN disarmament resolutions.

"With respect to the biological warfare activities, there are not many unique signatures that would immediately distinguish permitted from prohibited biological activities," she said. "Biological warfare agent research and production activities can take place in physically small areas, using equipment that is neither unique nor uncommon in normal civilian use in health, university, laboratory or hospital setting. Therefore the Commission relied on a monitoring system design that casts a broad net."

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