US Army creates team to review security at biolab
The Army has created a team of medical and other military experts to review security measures at the government research laboratory where the scientist linked to the anthrax mailings worked.
By Agencies |
WASHINGTON: The Army has created a team of medical and other military experts to review security measures at the government research laboratory where the scientist linked to the anthrax mailings worked.
Army Secretary Pete Geren has asked at least a dozen military and civilian officials to scrutinize safety procedures, quality controls and other policies and practices at the biodefense lab at Fort Detrick, Maryland, Army spokesman Paul Boyce said Friday.
To date, the Army has offered no explanation for how its biosecurity system, which is set up to catch mentally troubled workers, failed to flag scientist Bruce Ivins for years. Ivins, the microbiologist accused of sending anthrax-laced letters in 2001 that killed five people, committed suicide last week as the FBI began closing in on him.
Boyce said Friday that Geren met with military officials on Thursday night, then traveled to the high-security Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, known as USAMRIID, at Fort Detrick on Friday morning to talk with leaders there.
Boyce said the team, which is only now being formed, is not targeting individuals but instead will be reviewing documents, procedures and other safety measures to ensure security at the military biodefense lab.
The facility has come under intense public scrutiny as more details have spilled out about therapists' concerns that in recent years Ivins had become paranoid, delusional and bent on violence.
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Investigators said that between 2000 and 2006, Ivins had been prescribed antidepressants, antipsychotics and anti-anxiety drugs. By 2005 the government had matched anthrax in his lab to the strain that killed five people. It wasn't until November 2007, after the FBI raided his home, that Fort Detrick revoked Ivins laboratory access.
Army officials have declined to discuss any other efforts to either watch Ivins more closely or put other restriction on him prior to the November action.
Instead, they have stressed that safety procedures at the lab have included ongoing personnel evaluations, which rely largely on employee self-reporting medical or criminal problems and observations by other workers and supervisors.
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Boyce said the impending review will be headed by a two-star general, and will include representatives from the medical research command, the Army's surgeon general, and Army operations. Download
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