Washington — The Bush administration is considering whether to restrict distribution of government documents that describe how to make germ weapons, White House officials said Sunday.
U.S. stockpiles of offensive germ warfare agents were destroyed nearly three decades ago as part of the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention. But the government kept the blueprints for manufacturing such weapons, and continues to sell them.
The administration is likely to take action on the matter, John H. Marburger III, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, said, adding that he did not know what action would be taken nor when.
Several agencies are weighing the level of danger and possible action, Marburger said. A spokeswoman for the Defense Department said Sunday she could not comment, as did a White House spokesman. Representatives of the Justice Department and the White House Office of Homeland Security did not return calls.
The New York Times first reported on the documents and the debate in Sunday editions, and said despite their age, the manuals contain information that could help produce the kind of anthrax powder that infected at least 18 people and killed five in the United States last year.
According to the newspaper, federal agencies routinely sell the now-declassified documents to historians and researchers.
The government provides more sensitive papers on the subject after Freedom of Information Act requests.
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