• E-mail
• Print
• RSS

Pentagon documents shows U.S. unprepared for bioterrorism

Emergency Management Alert, March 29, 2004

The nation is unprepared to detect and respond to a bioterrorism attack, according to parts of an unclassified Pentagon document released this week, the New York Times reports.

The report's release comes more than two years after the anthrax attacks identifying weakness in "almost every aspect of U.S. biopreparedness and response."

For the past two years, the Pentagon reportedly refused to release the study for fear that the information could aid terrorists in attacking America. The Center for Strategic and International Studies, an organization that conducts only nonsecret research for the government and wrote the study, urged the government to release the information. However, the government agreed to release only a small portion of the study.

The dispute revolves around a 44-page analysis titled "Lessons from the Anthrax Attacks: Implications for U.S. Bioterrorism Preparedness," documenting many "systemic weaknesses in the nation's response" to the October 2001 anthrax letter attacks that killed five people. The study also makes recommendations about how to prevent, detect, and respond to such attacks.

Since then, the center and the Project on Government Secrecy attempted to get the Pentagon's permission to publish the complete report. But the Defense Department refused stating the study could "circumvent" Pentagon "rules and practices established to prevent the spread of information associated" with nuclear, biological, chemical, and other weapons of mass destruction.

Several civil libertarians, scientists, public health officials, and emergency response experts challenged the Pentagon's position.

• E-mail to a Colleague
• Print
• RSS
• Archive