NB: THIS TRANSCRIPT WAS TYPED FROM A TRANSCRIPTION UNIT RECORDING AND NOT COPIED FROM AN ORIGINAL SCRIPT: BECAUSE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF MIS- HEARING AND THE DIFFICULTY, IN SOME CASES OF IDENTIFYING INDIVIDUAL SPEAKERS, THE BBC CANNOT VOUCH FOR ITS ACCURACY. ........................................................................ PANORAMA "BRITAIN'S SECRET WAR ON DRUGS" RECORDED FROM TRANSMISSION: BBC-1 DATE: 2:10:2000 ........................................................................ TOM MANGOLD Forty million pounds worth of seized heroin and cocaine. Tonight Panorama goes behind the scenes to report on Britain's secret war on drugs and explore how far the nation is prepared to go to defeat the drug cartels. We'll be reporting new strategies to take the war away from Britain and into the enemy's heartlands and revealing details of Britain's support for highly controversial new biological weapon. Its aim is to reduce the illicit drug harvest of the world to dust before they are turned into this. Midnight, a big city, another drug overdose, another full emergency, another life to save. NURSE This is a young gentleman that's been brought into casualty after collapsing in the back of a taxi. MANGOLD A fifth of British men who die in their 20s die like this. DOCTOR He has taken cocaine. The effects of this can cause a very high body temperature and there is a risk of stroke and heart attack as a result of cocaine overdose. It's not unusual that people come in this sick having taken recreational drugs. MANGOLD In the war on drugs the number of heroin deaths has trembled in four years. Cocaine deaths rise as cocaine and heroin street prices fall. Drug related crime now costs Britain 3 billion pounds a year. NURSE We see a lot of people that have heroin related problems, and also we see a lot of ecstasy and cocaine overdoses from the clubs in Central London. MANGOLD It's all dismal news from the front. Donald MacNeil and Denis Wale, two British drug smugglers sentenced last month and now on their penitential walk towards 8 years inside a Venezuelan gaol. A small victory in Britain's new overseas war on drugs. Both were trapped by an intelligence system that had them in its sights from day one. Inside a secret facility in Key West, Florida is the inner sanctum for a joint Anglo-American military intelligence centre. Radars pry into South American jungles. Antenna listen to telephones, and satellites eavesdrop thousands of miles away on the vast battlefield of the Caribbean where Britain now fights a rich and well armed enemy. TERRY BYRNE HEAD OF ENFORCEMENT, HM CUSTOMS & EXCISE The international drugs trade is a very serious international business. It's bigger than the oil trade. This is well orchestrated activity. They have access to huge sums of money, to planes, vessels, submarines, weaponry. It is a war. The trouble with calling it a war is that people might think we can win this by Christmas. MANGOLD War at sea. At the end of a British-led intelligence operation a 300 horsepower drug smuggling speedboat called a 'go fast' is twisting to avoid capture. An armed US coastguard helicopter joins the chase. This 'go fast' was carrying hard drugs and needed some persuasion to slow her down. LT-COMMANDER RON LABREC US COAST GUARD The warning shots are shot in front of the 'go fast' so that they're very visible to the occupants to let them know we want them to stop and we mean business, they'd better stop. Before they did give up, however, they took a flare gun used for signalling and placed it in the gas tank and set their boat on fire. MANGOLD Hundreds of these low profile and hard to detect 'go fasts' now snake across the cocaine shipping routes of the Caribbean. Together with signals intelligence the British war effort includes a small platoon of Customs intelligence agents throughout the Caribbean war zone. The men, who cannot be identified, are called drug liaison officers. They operate behind the lines. It's part of a new strategy by Customs to take the war right into the enemy camp. The planning began in Customs headquarters in London where two of the top jobs have recently gone to men from MI5 and MI6. The logic is obvious. BYRNE Arrests and seizures in the UK alone cannot win this fight. A broad range of very sensitive intelligence activities is absolutely essential. Liaison with host authorities in other countries and most important of all, and this is probably the key difference in the strategy, it's not waiting till they get back here to the UK with their drugs. It's getting them caught, captured, punished and their drugs and money taken off them wherever we get the best opportunity. MANGOLD Burnley, Lancashire and a case in point. Two men drinking in a pub when someone asks whether they'd like to earn a quick £80,000 for some painless haulage. Sounds good. DENIS WALE Somebody turns up with a big, big amount of money, says "Come on, we'll take you on holiday, the sun's shining, you go on boat." Oh, dream come.. dream come true. MANGOLD MacNeil and Wale received tickets to fly from Manchester to the Greek island of Rhodes where they picked up the keys for an ocean going yacht the "Pulse". They then sailed her from the Mediterranean over the Atlantic to Antigua, the Clapham Junction for drugs traffic to Europe, then on to Venezuela and the small tourist island of Margarita. The cocaine, 600 kilos of it, was coming from Colombia. MANGOLD Did you have an strong feelings about carrying drugs? WALE No. MANGOLD It didn't worry you at all? WALE No. MANGOLD Then or now? DENIS WALE Not the moral.. I mean obviously the repercussions obviously but not the moral, no. MANGOLD No. You don't have a problem with that. So with moral compass inoperative MacNeil and Wales sailed on to the island waiting for the cocaine to be shipped in. There was little communication, just some rather incautious telephone conversations on a mobile both had been given by the cartel. Next a relaxed wait for both, sunbathing on board their comfortable yacht the "Pulse". There was just one tiny problem. BYRNE We identified them in the Caribbean and put them under constant surveillance. We identified that the best opportunity was to have this taken out in Venezuela. We were with the people all of the way and were able to provide the right opportunities for the Venezuelans to take the gear. MANGOLD After 8 weeks MacNeil and Wale took delivery of the cocaine from Colombia in a classically anonymous pick up the car park of a nearby supermarket. But by now the mobile phone taps were running hot. The cocaine, 600 kilos of it, and the ace of clubs, the Calvin Klein of cocaine designer trade marks guaranteeing quality. The real thing, very thrilling. DONALD MacNEIL It was an operation that involved a great deal of adrenalin pumping around which naturally causes feelings of elation and it was quite exciting to be involved, but it's the excitement that's associated with fear. TOM MANGOLD The cocaine was driven to the safety of the Pulse. The bags were hidden in the water tanks. Next destination Spain, then offload by truck to London, pick up the £80,000. Very neat. However, not only were MacNeil and Wale ignorant that their operation on board the Pulse had been penetrated, they were unaware of a recent British Customs policy change. So instead of mounting an expensive, laborious, undercover exercise to follow this yacht, it's crew and the cocaine cargo to Europe, the British simply shopped them to the locals. Venezuelan police seized the men, the boat and the drugs and stamped on the dream. WALE Well, we've got it onboard, we've got it stored, Monday we're gone. And then 30 armed guards turn up, point guns at you, take you back to the boat, rip the boat apart, and boom! Bang to that. The people watching this probably just think, oh it's just the drug-smuggling scum, you know.. and whereas before I could walk into any pub and hold my head high, now you get cleaners in the court scowling at you because you're a drug smuggler. MANGOLD Britain's new policy may be ruthless but here it paid off. In the old days it would have been very different. TERRY BYRNE HEAD OF ENFORCEMENT, HM CUSTOMS & EXCISE We would hope to have kept them under surveillance as they made their journey back to the UK. We would have sought to have identified traffickers here in the UK and to have found the landing point to have affected arrests and seizures there and mounted a long and expensive prosecution tying up considerable resources for probably years, never mind months. MANGOLD And it would have cost millions of pounds. BYRNE Yes it would. MANGOLD And you might not have won. BYRNE We might not have won. MANGOLD New targets for Britain's anti-drugs warriors include halving drug availability by 2008. Prospects regarded as ambitious, inspirational and unattainable as it would require Customs alone to perform eight time better. Can you meet those targets? BYRNE I believe we can. MANGOLD No, come on, be serious. BYRNE I believe we can.... MANGOLD What, 800% better? BYRNE Yes, I believe that we can achieve those results but they will not be the traditional results of 8 times as many people residing in UK prisons, 8 times as many seizures at UK ports and airports. It cannot be achieved that way. It can be achieved if we change the nature of what we're doing, if we keep doing it and we do it better. MANGOLD But if you could be 800 times better over the next two or three years, people would ask what on earth have you been doing in the last two or three years. BYRNE I think we've been making a difference already. MANGOLD But none of this can really work without the help of those whose home is on the front line. Antigua and the men from Whitehall arrived to see whether the Treasury is getting bang per buck from its anti-drugs investment here. The Foreign Office sponsors a small Royal Navy team which tours the Caribbean, training islanders in drug smuggling interdiction techniques. Today it's the Antiguan coastguards turn. Fortunately both their aging cutter's engines have been coaxed to life for the occasion. Basic seamanship techniques are unravelled for the enthusiastic and dedicated trainees. Not everything has to work first time. Whitehall must assess whether these troops are ready to take on the hard men of Caribbean drug trafficking. Judging by this display of ferocious interception the special forces are more than ready. But first, two of the commanders will need to learn to swim. CMDR CHAMBERS I think if we are going to raise the operational effectiveness of the Coast Guard Green Peace units throughout this region, this is the way we've got to tackle it. MANGOLD But do you feel that they're really going to be fully equipped to deal with professional drug smugglers? COMMANDER BILL CHAMBERS ROYAL NAVY I think that's a difficult question. I think the drug smugglers are extremely well-funded and can provide the assets necessary to keep ahead of the game. But we've got to do the best we can to try and keep up with them. MANGOLD And that includes homemade submarines. This blue bubble may look risible but it was caught carrying a ton of cocaine in a war in which anything goes as long as it goes. But can interdiction ever work? Last year the 'go fasts' contributed to over 200 tons of cocaine being smuggled to Europe, double that of the previous year. Seizures are up but so are suppliers. TONY WHITE We've got to be honest in saying what is it we are trying to do and what is it we are really prepared to do in order to achieve that end. MANGOLD Do you think interdiction is the answer? Is it just a sideshow or is it the real thing? TONY WHITE UN DRUG CONTROL PROGRAMME, 1997-2000 Well as a former law enforcement officer I'm proud that those successes have been achieved. I know the commitment.. the hard work that's put in to achieve those successes. As a former UNDCP official, I know that it really won't make an awful lot of difference. This stuff will still.. it will keep coming. MANGOLD Tashkent, capital of Uzbekistan in Central Asia. This is heroin country and the British counterattack has yet to develop. There are troubling signs heroin has found a new route to Europe. Traditionally most of Europe's heroin comes from Afghanistan and has been carried by couriers south through Iran and then north to Europe and Britain. But recently British intelligence officers have discovered a new - and for the smugglers safer - route opening up from Afghanistan over the borders to Uzbekistan and then north west to Russia, to Europe. It's 3.15 on a scalding afternoon at the border between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Not much happens here until the heroin special rumbles into town. They put the dogs in to sniff the heroin out, but this canine won't pick up any scent amongst this wagonload of ripe onions. The train is bulging with immigrants heading for Moscow. They bring everything they can eat, wear or sell. For one lone Customs officer a daunting challenge. Everyone knows this train is carrying heroin on the new route north west to Europe and Britain. Despite facing the Central Asian mafia the border guards have doubled their heroin seizures and arrests in the last six months. First she had her stomach felt by the female Customs officer who suspected she had swallowed heroin pellets. Then she threw something out of the carriage window and now she's in real trouble. This is what she threw out, lipstick sized heroin pellets tucked inside her bra. MANGOLD What's in here? CUSTOMS OFFICER (translated) That's a capsule - it's usually for swallowing. MANGOLD And is this heroin wrapped in plastic or Sellotape? CUSTOMS OFFICER We strongly suspect it's heroin. MANGOLD And what is she? Is she a courier who is going to take it to meet somebody in Moscow, was that the plan? DETAINEE (speaking to Customs officer) MANGOLD What is she saying? CUSTOMS OFFICER (translated) She's asking me not to tell you anything. MANGOLD How much will she have been paid if she had delivered this in Moscow? DETAINEE (translated) I swear to God, no money was ever promised to me. I have two children at home. MANGOLD That's enough heroin to earn the death penalty in Uzbekistan but much more leaves on the train and it's heading for a dealer near you. Some 700 passengers, 36 coaches and just one detention. It's a pretty hopeless job. However, there is one possible answer, a new and controversial weapon in Britain's secret war on drugs, but it is a weapon that touches the very edges of biological warfare. Here, in Uzbekistan, British funding is helping develop a deadly new fungus which once unleashed could destroy the poppy fields that are the source of Britain's heroin. It is an astonishing prospect, a biological weapon of mass destruction that could kill these heroin growing opium poppies and end the scourge of the drug forever. Ninety percent of Europe's illicit heroin starts life in these Afghanistan fields, a soft target. Trouble is, without the consent of the fundamentalist Taliban administration who collect revenues from this crop, the use of the fungus would be an illegal act of biological warfare. Across the border in Uzbekistan is a former Soviet biological warfare plant. During the Cold War they made biological agents to destroy NATO's food supplies. Later they discovered a fungus which kills the opium poppy. After the Soviets left a top British scientist was called in. MIKE GREAVES CONSULTANT TO UN DRUG CONTROL PROGRAMME I found a very badly run down set of buildings. Everything that was there was old. Anything of any value appeared to have been removed by the Russians at independence. But most importantly I found a staff who were full of enthusiasm, were full of innovation and were absolutely super scientists. MANGOLD In fact those super scientists were already working on pleospora, the post-Soviet world's first biological weapon. Today, in harder times, the work continues. The contents of huge climate controlled cabinets which once targeted western wheat crops now house the secret fungi that could solve the world's heroin problem at a stroke. We are the first journalists to witness this. PROF ABDUSATTAR This is growing culture of pleospora papaveracea MANGOLD That is the actual fungus there is it? PROF ABDUSATTAR Yes, yes. MANGOLD And you're growing it. PROF ABDUSATTAR Yes, yes. MANGOLD In nutrient is that? PROF ABDUSATTAR: Yes, yes. MANGOLD And the black stuff is the fungus? PROF ABDUSATTAR Yes. MANGOLD And what's in the test tube? PROF ABDUSATTAR In test.. specially prepared for long-term storage. This one... MANGOLD The black ring is the fungus..? PROF ABDUSATTAR Yes. MANGOLD What is this? PROF ABDUSATTAR Oil for preventation from air oxygence. MANGOLD How many poppies would this amount of fungus kill? PROF ABDUSATTAR Here many millions of spores in these two and this is enough maybe for ten square metres. MANGOLD Ten square metres. And what's in that? PROF ABDUSATTAR Dried... MANGOLD Just pleospora? PROF ABDUSATTAR Just pleospora but dried and mixed with milk. MANGOLD So that's dried fungus with milk. Prof ABDUSATTAR Yes. MANGOLD But would that be a good way of putting it onto poppies? Spraying it onto poppies? PROF ABDUSATTAR Yes, this is ready for use. MANGOLD This is ready to put onto poppies? PROF ABDUSATTAR Yes. Yes. MANGOLD But it's not as simple as that. Research and development of biological weapons carries risks. Is the fungus safe or could it spread uncontrollably? Will it kill only poppies? Could it mutate? Could it hurt animals or humans? Is the research even legal? The questions are endless. The answers often equivocal. This is amateur video tape of the killing field of poppies in which Professor Abdusattar recently conducted his first tests of the fungus, and this is what the fungus did to them. It attacks from the root and kills the opium poppy internally causing a distinctive and terminal wilt. The evidence is conclusive. Pleospora is aggressive, infectious, self-propagating and deadly when used in this way. A few weeks later and we were able to see for ourselves. And you say how deep did you put the fungus? PROF ABDUSATTAR Fungus are on the surface and mixed in 5 centimetres.. 10.. 15 centimetres deep. MANGOLD But how did the scientists actually manage to obtain fresh samples of all the strains of poppies from inside Afghanistan to use for these field tests? That happened with a little bit of help from a very powerful friend. How did you get hold of the cultures from Afghanistan? PROF ABDUKARIMOV ABDUSATTAR DIRECTOR, INSTITUTE FOR PLANT GENETICS United States Embassy helped us. MANGOLD He gave them to you? PROF ABDUSATTAR Yes. MANGOLD That's very nice of him. How did he get those? PROF ABDUSATTAR I don't know. MANGOLD And you're perfectly satisfied that what we're walking on now, this is all safe, it won't hurt anybody? PROF ABDUSATTAR Of course. MANGOLD If I carry it on my shoes back to London, that's not a problem? PROF ABDUSATTAR Don't worry, don't worry. No problem. MANGOLD You're sure of that? PROF ABDUSATTAR Yes. MANGOLD Bristol and the research institute where 15 years ago a leading biologist joined the fungus project as consultant to the United Nations Drugs Control Programme - UNDCP - which, with British Government money, helped sponsor pleospora. Do you like it? GREAVES I love it. MANGOLD Yes? GREAVES I think it's one of the most exciting projects that I've been involved in. It's actually working. Many research projects don't work, and you get rather frustrated. This one has worked at all levels. MANGOLD Is pleospora safe? MIKE GREAVES CONSULTANT TO UN DRUG CONTROL PROGRAMME Yes, to the best of our knowledge at the moment... MANGOLD Totally safe. GREAVES ... but we are still working on the safety aspects to be absolutely sure. At the moment we've tested, for example, 130 other plant species and it does not infect any of those. MANGOLD But when you say 'it's safe', and you say 'yes', you then say 'but' don't you? GREAVES Always say 'but' when it comes to safety. You will appreciate that in any sphere, whether it's science or public transport or any aspect of human life you can never say we are 100% safe. MANGOLD But would you say now that any fears that anybody may have about dangers from pleospora, ambient dangers, that these fears are groundless? GREAVES The evidence we have so far says yes, that is correct. MANGOLD The fears are groundless. GREAVES We're not content to sit at that though, we're going to look further to make sure that there is further evidence. MANGOLD Well, you're saying yes and then you keep adding caveats. GREAVES This is scientific caution. We have the belts in place. MANGOLD But science is also precision. GREAVES Indeed. MANGOLD In fact the evidence is not quite home and dry. Recent important safety tests in these fields have yet to be checked out by fully independent experts and there are further dangers. PROF PAUL ROGERS PLANT PATHOLOGIST If you are using mass production of fungal spores against a drug crop, the technology, the production, the dissemination, is almost the same as what you would do if you were using biological warfare against food crops. So really it is providing new kinds of knowledge and knew kinds of evidence as to how biological warfare could be used against crops. MANGOLD At UN Drugs Programme headquarters in Vienna details of the project remain top secret. Little has been formally announced. No scientific papers have been published. The UN may front the project but the money behind it is exclusively British and American. So what's really going on? Does anyone know? TONY WHITE UN DRUG CONTROL PROGRAMME, 1997-2000-09-25 I think it's of crucial public interest. My personal view is that there needs to be as much debate and dialogue on this as possible. If this is the answer, perhaps I even hope it's the answer, but It's got to be right, it's got to be safe. You've got to be absolutely sure. This isn't an area in which we can involve ourselves in risk taking. MANGOLD Panorama has seen confidential documents from the UN DCP which highlight their private fears and anxieties about the project they're sponsoring. There is awareness that once released the fungus may be difficult to contain. There is even a remote possibility that it may transform or mutate. Worse still is the awareness that development of this capability could open a way for its use in offensive biological warfare targeting food crops. The concerns are justified. Professor Abdusattar is moving ahead with maximum speed and minimum supervision. He's quietly tested the fungus in neighbouring countries. He's tested it on animals somewhere. He's managed to develop a method for spraying the fungus onto the poppies. But the question remains, how safe is it? Is there any danger that the fungus may mutate on its own? PROF ABDUKARIMOV ABDUSATTAR DIRECTOR, INSTITUTE FOR PLANT GENETICS Fungi mutation, there is possibility the mutation of fungi, of the application, there is possibility. But as I know, how I know biology, it will select in natural conditions, selected only those which of them will grow on the surface of leaves of poppy. Others will.... MANGOLD But you are not sure? You are not certain? ABDUSATTAR Yes of course, it's a proposal only. MANGOLD So it could mutate dangerously. ABDUSATTAR There is some possibility for dangers too. MANGOLD Should we be worried about that? ABDUSATTAR Yes, I'm worried and we'll investigate this process too. MANGOLD And more troubling, the Professor wants to make the fungus an even better killer by opening a Pandora's box of genetic modifications, something that could touch the edge of biological warfare. Have you made any genetic modifications to the fungus? ABDUSATTAR Not yet but it is necessary. We'll try through mutagens and we'll use X-rays or mutagens and select more aggressive strains. MANGOLD And these genetic modifications will be even more powerful than the ordinary pleospora fungus? ABDUSATTAR I hope. I hope. MANGOLD Dr Abdusattar has spoken to us about the necessity eventually of using genetic modification on the pleospora. Does that worry you? ROGERS That worries me intensely because obviously if the technology becomes available to genetically modify a particular pathogen for that kind of purpose, again it is capable of misuse. So for example you might get a genetic modification to one of the major diseases of potatoes or wheat or grapes or anything else which is resistant to all known fungicides and then you have a really dangerous weapon which could cause untold damage and cause famines. MANGOLD Uzbekistan is peculiarly vulnerable to any biological accident involving a killer fungus. It is a fertile land, the world's leading cotton grower. Now it must play host to a dangerous fungus, safety unproven and aimed at a neighbour's poppies. The fungus controversy is also mirrored half a world away near Britain's Caribbean war zone in Colombia, South America, the world's leading grower of the coca leaf which makes cocaine. Coincidentally, a fungus that kills this leaf has also been discovered, yet another biological weapon that might rid the world in this case of illegal cocaine. The illusive Professor David Sands, one of the world's leading plant pathologists and the man who discovered the fungus that kills coca leaf. He says safe versions are everywhere. He's been shy of appearing on camera partly because he believes the drug cartels have him in their sights, so this is the first time he's talked on television about his discovery. PROF SANDS We might or might not find it here but one would look for some discoloration there in the cut end. MANGOLD It attacks only that particular plant? It only attacks corn? PROF SANDS That's right. These fusaria are very specific in what they attack, and this one would only attack corn. MANGOLD And the fungus that attacks coca, only attacks coca. PROF SANDS Only attacks coca. MANGOLD And this is it, fusaria moxysporum, foxy for short. It was discovered in Hawaii when some coca plants suddenly became infected with a mystery fungus and died. David Sands was called in to investigate and he identified the first US case of foxy. Suddenly here was a remarkable biological weapon that might eradicate the worlds supply of illegal cocaine. PROF DAVID SANDS PLANT PATHOLOGIST This fungus is the closest thing I've ever seen to a silver bullet given the testing and we show that it's truly the silver bullet we think it is. I have seen it take out 99% of plants in a field. I think that's incredible and I think people should know that this technology exists. MANGOLD Currently the coca leaf plantations are sprayed with chemicals, an environmentally messy way of destroying the coca leaf. Biological weapons are natural, leave no residue and stay in the soil to prevent new growth. Professor Sands' plan is to introduce big military transport planes that fly high to avoid ground fire, planes that can carry huge quantities of the killer spores. SANDS It could be put on in a matter of 17 airplane sorties for a particular country and that would take out coca. It seems to me that we want something like that, that blankets an entire area so that if the farmer decides to extend his holdings out and grow some more, the fungus is already there. MANGOLD The US State Department is the driving force behind the 'Foxy Project'. There's a budget of $23 million for further research for an environmentally safe fungus. But does Sands' fungus qualify? Can it harm animals or humans? BEERS Our indications are not. MANGOLD And your indications come from what? RAND BEERS HEAD OF NARCOTICS, US STATE DEPARTMENT From our trials here in the United States and from observations of the fungus in Peru. MANGOLD But that would have been an empirical process and not a clinical trial. BEERS That's correct. MANGOLD So the evidence isn't scientific. BEERS The evidence is not scientific at this point, that is correct. MANGOLD So the problem remains. Colombia was asked to volunteer to have the fungus field tested on its territory and politely declined. Without proper field testing and without consent for use, dropping the fungus on Colombia would be an act of biological warfare. That leaves the State Department with a big problem. But Dr Sands doesn't want to let the matter drop. SANDS I've been working for 20 years to the point.. and many of the scientists in this field, to the point where we think it should be used. This would be a green kind of warfare where only the target plants are permitted to die. MANGOLD Okay, but we're talking semantics here. You call it green warfare. Other people call it biological warfare. That is semantically correct, it is biological warfare. SANDS That can be right. It's biological warfare or green warfare. I just want you to understand my opinion is it's a good thing if it's done to eradicate something that the entire world feels is noxious. MANGOLD Nor is this the view of a solitary scientist whose fate is to be ignored by government because he's an eccentric visionary. Dr Sands is not a man without a few friends in high places in Washington. They include a group of important, likeminded politicians here on Capital Hill and others strategically placed in top government offices. We've spoken to some and they're powerful and dedicated people prepared to uncork the biological weapon in a good cause. They hope the British will join them in this unique battle in the war on drugs. Supporters of the use of the fungus include the Senate Majority Leader, plus a clutch of influential senators and congressmen, and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has written a sensitive memorandum urging the UNDCP to involve other governments in the fungus project in order to avoid it looking like a lone US initiative. MANGOLD Do you believe Britain should be supporting this project in the way that it is? PROF PAUL ROGERS PLANT PATHOLOGIST I think Britain should be extremely careful about a project like this. While it appears to offer a great prospect, the dangers are very considerable and I think it is a path that you tread with great care and great caution. MANGOLD But it is already too late to ignore the science which has broken free of the laboratories with the power to destroy drug crops. The plan is to use only with the consent of Colombia and Afghanistan but one has already said no and the other will never say yes. The chances of the Taliban and Afghanistan agreeing to the use of pleospora fungus against their illegal opium fields must be nil. BEERS I would say it's decidedly limited. Yes. MANGOLD I mean out of ten...? BEERS Out of ten it's ten, yes. I mean this is a crop herbicide for countries who are intent upon eliminating their narcotics crops. That's the first and essential starting point. The country has to want to eliminate the crop and I don't see that pertaining to the Taliban at this point despite their public statements to the contrary. MANGOLD However, there is some evidence of informal discussions within the United Nations Drugs Control Programme to get round the inevitable ban by the Taliban administration on biological attack. TONY WHITE UN DRUG CONTROL PROGRAMME, 1997-2000 I had it very recently from a source in the United States was that at one point it was seriously considered trying to get the Afghan Government in exile in Islamabad to agree to the application of the pleospora fungus in Afghanistan where there is clearly a difficulty. We, the United Nations, recognise the Afghan Government in exile, but the de facto authorities of the Taliban. MANGOLD And what about using the fungus in Colombia even without formal permission? Is there a plan B? What's going to happen if Colombia persists in denying you informed consent to field test fusarium in Colombia? Will the whole project collapse? RAND BEERS HEAD OF NARCOTICS, US STATE DEPARTMENT It will certainly disrupt the project. There are other potential countries, we have not approached them because Colombia is the critical country with respect to coca production at this point in time. MANGOLD If Colombia doesn't agree, then the game is over isn't it? BEERS It would be very difficult to recover from that but I'm never prepared to admit that it's over. MANGOLD And nor is David Sands going to give up because of lack of cooperation. He's already formed a private company AgBio/Con which holds dispersal patents for the fungus, and if all else failed, how would he feel about seeing the fungus used against Colombia whatever the circumstances? What happens if consent is not forthcoming, and it's pretty obvious at the moment that neither Colombia nor Afghanistan, the two major drug producing countries, are going to give consent, supposing that endures, and I put to you a hypothetical - you never get consent - what should happen then? PROF DAVID SANDS PLANT PATHOLOGIST You're saying that two countries that unknowingly are unleashing a chemical, a drug, on our children, an addictive drug, that they are consenting to do that and they are not consenting to do biological control, I think they should suffer the consequences of that decision. MANGOLD Which means that we should go in without consent. SANDS I think somebody should. MANGOLD And it should be treated as an act of counter terrorism? SANDS Well it's a pretty high stakes game. Just go to any rehab clinic and check it out yourself. MANGOLD You're saying yes? SANDS Yes. _________________ You can comment on the issues raised in tonight's programme by visiting our website at: bbc.co.uk/panorama 10 ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ Transcribed by 1-Stop Express Services, London W2 1JG Tel: 0207 724 7953 E-mail 1-stop@msn.com