I missed this when it was posted at Gates of Vienna last Thursday, but according to a translated article from Denmark’s Jyllands-Posten, someone in Jordan wants to buy Swedish anthrax.

Attempted theft of anthrax from Swedish University

Persons from the Middle-East have attempted to con the University of Gothenburg (Göteborg Universitet) out of anthrax bacteria, at least twice, says the Swedish Defense.

The method was to order the bacteria under the pretext of being scientists, and it almost succeeded, says a not yet released report from the Swedish “Crisis Readiness Authority” (Krisberedskabsmyndigheten).

“There was an order, from Amman I believe, the bacteria was to be sent to a post box,” says Björn Sandström, analysts at the “Total Defense Research Institute” (Totalförsvarets Forskningsinstitut) at Gothenburg University to the newspaper Daily Medicin’s Swedish Edition.

It is not the first time that an attempt has been made to get the Research Institute to hand over anthrax. Shortly after 9/11 a similar attempt was experienced.

The report also shows that there since 1990 have been several cases where material that can be used for weapons of mass destruction have disappeared or have been stolen within Sweden.

As an example a ton of beryllium was stolen in 1995 close to Stockholm’s International Airport, Arlanda. Beryllium is a radioactive material, that among other things can be used to increase the yield of nuclear weapons.

UPDATE at 5/21/06 10:31:05 pm:

As several readers have pointed out, that last sentence is an enormous blooper; beryllium is not radioactive, although it is used in the construction of hydrogen bombs.