The Horse Is Gone!
So now they think they might want to study the concept of barn doors: Army reviews security at anthrax lab
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Army has created a team of medical and other military experts to review security measures at the 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.
There are reports going back years that even researchers who were fired were allowed to continue using the facilities by former colleagues. That is no way to run a secure facility. It is the same problem that has been discovered at most government research facilities, the security sucks. The excuse had been that the other facilities were being managed by universities, but this facility was operated by the Army on an Army post.
4 comments
..maybe I’m just failing due to another spate of simple-mindedness, but it would seem that if investigators had decided back in 2002 that the anthrax used in the letter attacks was a strain developed at USAMRIID and that Stephen Hatfill, the perp of the moment, had recently had access to the facility, they would have decided to review their security measures then and not six years later…
Donald Rumsfeld was in charge, and he didn’t “do” security.
You’re right, the FBI should have been filing reports on the lax security, and they should have been told that Ivins was on meds when their investigation first started.
If Hatfill had been the guilty party, the FBI couldn’t use Ivins in court because of his psych problems. A defense attorney would shred him.
I think that whole lab has a problem with telling the truth, which certainly stalled the investigation and makes a solid case almost impossible. Everyone at the lab is impeachable as a witness. None of them have any credibility.
Donald Rumsfeld was in charge, which means he may have directed it.
I read that US Dept of Justice was going to pay Stephen Hatfill 2.8 mil. I would say! That man was hounded for years…