Tuesday, August 21, 2001

Attended a meeting at the White House of the Policy Coordinating Committee of the Biological Weapons Conference group. Chaired by Robert Joseph (Special asst. to the President) and Richard Falkenrath (Deputy to Condolezza Rice). Present at meeting was Ambassador Donald Mahley, Special Negotiator at State Department for Chemical/Biological Weapons, as well as representatives from Justice Dept., State, DOD, DHHS (me, John La Montagne, William Steiger), etc. Purpose was to review document that the group put together (White Paper) as a policy that the President will articulate in association with the USA refusing to re-certify the Biological Weapons Conference. The paper takes a high road approach about how to handle this problem, while recognizing that much of what was contained in previous agreements was unenforcible. John La Montagne and I had contributed to the scientific components of the white paper.