Investigation faults U.S. Army lab's leaders over mistaken anthrax shipments

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Reuters

Investigation faults U.S. Army lab's leaders over mistaken anthrax shipments
Reuters
By Idrees Ali and David Alexander
10 hours ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Officials at a U.S. Army biodefense lab in Utah had multiple warning signs of safety issues but failed to take steps that could have averted the mistaken shipment of live anthrax to other labs, according to a military investigation report released on Friday.

While no single event or individual directly caused the shipment, a number of people, including leaders at Dugway Proving Ground, should be held accountable, the report said.

. . .

The lab at Dugway Proving Ground, an Army facility southwest of Salt Lake City, is responsible for neutralizing anthrax spores that are sent to other laboratories for medical research and investigation.

For more than a decade, the lab used a technique that failed to fully neutralize the spores on many occasions, resulting in live spores of the deadly bacteria being sent to 192 labs in the United States and abroad, Defense Department officials reported last year.


Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/probe-faults-army-labs-leaders-over-mistaken-anthrax-144711200.html

[dgibby]

1. Makes me wonder if the Anthrax attacks

after 9/11 were perpetrated by someone who knew about this flaw in the system.

[Bernin]

3. The perpertrator

got paid $6 mil by the DOJ for a job so poorly done that this redneck caught him a month after he mailed the letters. (no I do not think he was the only perp)

Otillie Lundgren and Kathy Nguyen both posted on the MSNBC message board at the same I did. that's where he got our addresses. I received a letter and I guarantee that they did too.

Want to find out the rest of the story?
Just Google "AnthraxSleuth" and don't let Google put a space between the X and S.

Since the local FBI and State Health Dept. decided to play cover up.
I still have some of the Anthrax that was mailed to me to this day.

[dgibby]

5. Jeebus!

Thanks for the info. I'll check it out. Hope your're doing well. Scary stuff. I was in the Navy for 22 yrs. I often wonder if I was a victim of some gov't. "experiment". I used to be so trusting of the gov't. NOT NOW. I'm still on the fence about LIHOP vs MIHOP, but considering the cast of characters, I lean toward MIHOP.

[Bernin]

6. It was definitely

one of those things that changes you.
Thanks for wishing me well.

After my ordeal I definitely think MIHOP

[Judi Lynn]

10. It's a miracle you are here to discuss it. What a shock. So glad it wasn't successful. n/t

[MisterP]

8. or someone hungover at the Dead Letter Office

[Judi Lynn]

2. Christian Science Monitor: Army report: Shipments of live anthrax spores resulted from ‘serious brea

Army report: Shipments of live anthrax spores resulted from ‘serious breaches’

The Army released a heavily redacted report on Friday that examined serious lapses at Dugway Proving Ground in Utah. Going forward, Army officials are calling for more oversight.

Christian Science Monitor
By Anna Mulrine
7 hours ago

There were “serious breaches” of regulations that led to an Army lab repeatedly shipping out live anthrax spores to 194 labs in the United States and abroad over the course of a decade.

In a heavily redacted report released Friday, the Army acknowledged that a “culture of complacency” was permitted to “flourish” at Dugway Proving Ground (DPG) in Utah, a major production and testing facility for the military’s chemical and biological defense programs.

This included, among other notable lapses, a “failure to investigate and hold personnel accountable for biological mishaps” and commanders who “blamed external entities or downplayed the seriousness of the incidents in reports to higher headquarters.”

The commander who was cited repeatedly in the report is Col. William King IV, who commanded Dugway from 2009 to 2011 and has since been promoted to brigadier general. Last year, he took command of the 20th Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, Explosives Command at the Army’s Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland.

More:
http://news.yahoo.com/army-report-shipments-live-anthrax-spores-resulted-serious-222319676.html

[center]

Col. William King IV[/center]

[Bernin]

4. The Aberdeen Proving

ground is where the DOD was planning to build their own Anthrax Vaccine facility in 2001. The FDA would not approve the Bioport vaccine b/c it was not consistent.
After the Anthrax mailings the Bioport vaccine was quietly approved and the DOD abandoned the project.

[NBachers]

7. Kicked upstairs as a reward for his dangerous criminal incompetence

[DisgustipatedinCA]

9. This is not just incompetence. Why are we expected to believe this?

You can be the worst fuckup in the world and still not explicitly create address labels and call for a shipping pickup and send live anthrax to labs in all 50 states.

Example of a legitimate mistaken shipment: oh shit, I was supposed to send the anthrax to Lab A, but I sent it to Lab B. My career is over.

Example of a bullshit mistaken shipment: oh shit, I'm not supposed to mail anthrax anywhere--that stuff is dangerous, and that's why my lab takes so many precautions! But I accidentally boxed up 50 live samples, looked up the addresses of labs in every state, and I called UPS to come get the boxes, only realizing after they were gone that I had mistakenly shipped a shitload of anthrax all over the country.

This is bullshit.