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White House Failing to Address Biological Threats |
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by Mickey McCarter
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Thursday, 22 October 2009 |
WMD Commission unsatisfied with US progress
The Obama administration has failed to address the most urgent threat facing the United States--biological terrorism--since the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) Proliferation and Terrorism warned a biological attack was likely imminent last year, the commission concluded in a report released Wednesday.
The commission's final report, titled "World at Risk," predicted that a terrorist attack with a biological weapon would likely occur somewhere in the world within the next five years, by 2013, if no substantive action were taken to prevent it.
But in an interim report card, the WMD Commission found that the Obama administration has not given enough attention to the threat of biological warfare even as it has provided appropriate attention to the threat of nuclear weapons.
Biological weapons remain easier to obtain and require less sophisticated technology and training to use, the WMD Commission reiterated in its interim report, "The Clock Is Ticking: A Progress Report on America's Preparedness to Prevent Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism."
"For example, one recent study from the intelligence community projected that a one- to two-kilogram release of anthrax spores from a crop duster plane could kill more Americans than died in World War II," the report warned. Clean-up and other economic costs could exceed $1.8 trillion.
"Yet the nation's level of preparedness for dealing with the threat of bioterrorism remains far lower than that of the nuclear threat. Central to US biosecurity strategy should be the recognition that biological weapons are distinct from nuclear weapons and require a unique approach," the report added.
Materials that make up biological weapons occur in nature, turn up in every part of the world, and require little infrastructure to produce a deadly toxin, the report said.
The interim report, which precedes a final report card to be released by the commission in January 2010, recommended that the White House take a number of immediate steps to improve its stance on bioweapons.
First, it should develop a common understanding of biothreats. The National Security Council is working on a first-ever Bioweapons Prevention Strategy, but different parts of the executive and legislative branches have different ideas on the threat of biological weapons.
The commission also continued to push for the appointment of a senior US administration official whose only job is to push for increased biodefenses and for improvements in disease surveillance capabilities domestically and globally.
The White House and Congress further should continue to protect funding for the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) and Project BioShield at the US Department of Health and Human Services, which funds medical countermeasures for biological, radiological and nuclear attacks with those programs.
Essentially, the US government must work in the near-term to limit the consequences of an attack using biological weapons, the report stated. In the long-term, the government must improve response and recovery capabilities to reduce the threat posed by biological weapons to the point where they are no longer considered weapons of mass destruction.
The WMD Commission noted a few improvements since its December 2008 report, which recommended 49 specific actions within 13 areas of recommendations.
First, executive agencies have taken action to review biosafety and biocontainment oversight at various laboratories responsible for housing deadly pathogens, the report said.
Second, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have demonstrated vastly improved public communication capabilities with its campaign on the H1N1 flu vaccine, the report said. Those communications capabilities would prove vital in a biological attack.
The WMD Commission also applauded the Obama administration for providing attention to the threat of nuclear weapons proliferation and terrorism.
"President Barack Obama has made a series of significant speeches related to nuclear nonproliferation, endorsing the thrust of the commission's recommendations. However, real action is still to come, not only from the United States but also the world community," the report said.
The Obama administration's work on nuclear threats will prepare it to discuss the international Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty with other nations at a scheduled meeting in 2010, but failures to address biosecurity could hurt similar efforts at a global meeting on the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention in 2011, the report cautioned.
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Mickey McCarter |
| About the author: |
| eNewsletter Editor/Senior Washington Correspondent,
is a journalist with more than a decade of experience in reporting
on
military affairs and information technology.
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