Description
IIBR is under the jurisdiction of the Prime Minister's Office and works in close cooperation with government agencies. IIBR has many public projects on which it works in cooperations with international research organizations (governmental and non-governmental) and universities. Its research findings are often published in national and international scientific publications.
IIBR was founded in 1952 by Professor Ernst David Bergmann, Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion's science adviser and the head of R&D at the Ministry of Defense, and Dr. Alexander Keynan. Keynan was IIBR's first director.
Some of the fields in which IIBR conducts research include:
- Medical diagnostic techniques
- Mechanisms of pathogenic diseases
- Vaccines and pharmaceuticals
- Protein and enzyme syenthesis and engineering
- Process biotechnology
- Air pollution risk assessment
- Environmental detectors and biosensors
IIBR also has a non-public scope of operation. Due to its secretive and defense-related nature, it is widely assumed that the institute develops vaccines and antidotes for chemical and biological warfare. Some sources speculate that the IIBR also develops offensive capabilities in these fields. The IIBR also provides lethal toxin weapons for use in assassinations by the Mossad, Israel's foreign intelligence service.
El Al Flight 1862, which crashed in the Netherlands in 1992, was carrying cargo destined for the Israel Institute for Biological Research which included 190 litres of dimethyl methylphosphonate, which could be used in the synthesis of Sarin nerve gas. The shipment was from a U.S. chemical plant under a U.S. Department of Commerce licence. Dimethyl methylphosphonate is now a Chemical Weapons Convention schedule 2 chemical.
British intelligence writer Gordon Thomas wrote that the facility is surrounded by a high concrete wall topped with sensors, and armed guards patrol its perimeter. No aircraft are allowed to overfly the facility, and its location is not listed on any map of the area. Inside the facility, code words and visual identification control access to each area, and its numerous bombproof sliding doors can only be opened by swipe cards whose codes are changed every day. Corridors inside the facility are patrolled by guards. All employees and their families undergo intense health checks every month. In his history of the Mossad, Thomas wrote that over the years, at least six of the facility's employees had died, but the causes of their deaths was kept secret by Israel's strict military censorship regulations.
According to Thomas, many of the institute's research and development laboratories are concealed deep underground, where biochemists and genetic scientists work to develop lethal toxins. In other laboratories reached through air locks, nerve agents are developed. Within the facility, there is a special department that creates poisons for use by the Mossad.
Read more about this topic: Israel Institute For Biological Research
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