WP,pg1: Secretive Fight Against Bioterror: Classified lab raises concerns

[DeepModem Mom]

The Secretive Fight Against Bioterror
The government is building a highly classified facility to research biological weapons, but its closed-door approach has raised concerns.
By Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, July 30, 2006; Page A01


A computer-animated image of the planned building for the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center building to be constructed at Ft. Detrick, Md. (Courtesy of NBACC)

On the grounds of a military base an hour's drive from the capital, the Bush administration is building a massive biodefense laboratory unlike any seen since biological weapons were banned 34 years ago.

The heart of the lab is a cluster of sealed chambers built to contain the world's deadliest bacteria and viruses. There, scientists will spend their days simulating the unthinkable: bioterrorism attacks in the form of lethal anthrax spores rendered as wispy powders that can drift for miles on a summer breeze, or common viruses turned into deadly superbugs that ordinary drugs and vaccines cannot stop.

The work at this new lab, at Fort Detrick, Md., could someday save thousands of lives -- or, some fear, create new risks and place the United States in violation of international treaties. In either case, much of what transpires at the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center (NBACC) may never be publicly known, because the Bush administration intends to operate the facility largely in secret.

In an unusual arrangement, the building itself will be classified as highly restricted space, from the reception desk to the lab benches to the cages where animals are kept. Few federal facilities, including nuclear labs, operate with such stealth. It is this opacity that some arms-control experts say has become a defining characteristic of U.S. biodefense policy as carried out by the Department of Homeland Security, NBACC's creator.

Since the department's founding in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, its officials have dramatically expanded the government's ability to conduct realistic tests of the pathogens and tactics that might be used in a bioterrorism attack. Some of the research falls within what many arms-control experts say is a legal gray zone, skirting the edges of an international treaty outlawing the production of even small amounts of biological weapons....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/29/AR2006072900592.html

[soothsayer]

1. Great, we're going to have some weird illnesses coming up in the

DC area.

[Robbien]

4. Funny. I've just been reading about the new mysterious Morgellons disease

CDC investigating mysterious ailment

Sufferers say they have horrible skin disease called Morgellons.
By Howard Witt Special to The Morning Call
| The symptoms sound like something straight out of a horror movie: crawling and biting sensations all over the skin, dementia and insomnia, painful sores that never heal and, most terrifying of all, mysterious tangled fibers pushing out through the open wounds.

Thousands of victims concentrated in Texas, California and Florida claim to be afflicted by the debilitating malady, for which there is no known cause and no certain cure. One young Austin, Texas, man apparently committed suicide when the agony grew too acute, while many others, spurned by disbelieving doctors, are suffering in silence.

But whether the symptoms constitute a frightening new disease suddenly surfacing across the nation, or a case of mass hysteria abetted by Internet message boards and breathless local TV news reports, is a question that experts at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta are urgently trying to answer.

Depending on the CDC's conclusions, the ailment known as Morgellons disease might soon displace Ebola and bird flu as the world's newest nightmare disease. But unlike those illnesses, which are still far from U.S. shores, Morgellons cases have already been reported in every state, as well as in Europe, Japan, Australia and other countries.

''We don't know yet what it is, so our first aim is to try to characterize it scientifically,'' said Dan Rutz, a CDC spokesman. ''There's a concern that there's an infectious process going on. It would be very disturbing from a public health standpoint if that turns out to be case. We don't have any evidence to support that, but we are approaching this with an open mind.''

http://www.mcall.com/news/nationworld/all-a13_illnessjul27,0,2472315.story

I just don't have faith our government will eventually get around to telling us if this or any other new disease is real. The CDC has changed so much in the last five years it seems more a wing of our military defense system instead of a public watchdog.

[Mojorabbit]

2. This makes me reaaally nervous eom

[rubberducky]

3. Gee......

For the regime that wants to end the "death tax" so bad, why not just eliminate the "death spending"? Secrecy, lies, and the machinery of death. When will this nightmare end?

[hang a left]

5. Still reading but get a load of this snippet:

snip>

The Bush administration argues that its biodefense research complies with the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention, the 1972 treaty outlawing the manufacture of biological weapons, because U.S. motives are pure.

snip>

[Robbien]

6. Replace the terms biological weapons with NSA spying

same situation.

Mr. Signing Statements himself saying "Trust me cause I'm honest".

[Kailassa]

7. U.S. motives are pure alright, pure evil. n/t

[w4rma]

8. "Defense"? From the people who refuse to fund AIDS research?

From the people who vetoed stem cell research? From the people who won't fund healthcare for Americans? From the people who won't even fund the veteran hospitals? From the people who haven't seen a war they don't want to start?

Republicans are never to be trusted.

[MissWaverly]

9. Ft. Detrick isn't that where the Anthrax was traced to

Once it was traced there, the investigation stopped, well, you know Bush had to get in quality
time on his bike. Since they never figured out who took the anthrax and sent the letters now
Bush is going to build a facility with tons of lethal goodies this nutjob will have access to.
Oh, I forgot, no Republicans got letters with white powder. Oh, I forgot under George Bush,
only Republicans matter. Silly me.

All the contaminated letters contained the Ames strain of anthrax, the DNA of which is traced to the original batch preserved in a university lab in Ames, Iowa. This strain was “weaponized” in Utah into a potent powder with an elaborate secret technique developed at Fort Detrick, Md..
· The FBI failed to interview Ft. Detrick anthrax experts for two months into their investigation, doing it only after the experts complained to the press of gross incompetence on the part of the FBI.
· The FBI allowed the Iowa state lab to destroy the original batch of the Ames strain, making tracing the anthrax type more difficult.

http://www.freefromterror.net/other_articles/gov_anthrax.html

[salin]

10. yep.

on all counts.

Good thing they aren't amassing the power to compile "enemies lists" (people who are political critics), or anything....

[MissWaverly]

11. they already have their enemies list

they have the most sensitive data mining, in your face snoop machine in the world.

[salin]

12. indeed

that was my implied point. :hi:

[MissWaverly]

13. put all mail in the microwave

A housekeeping hint from Miss Waverly

[salin]

14. and perhaps stop using the microwave for quickie meals?

time to get a cheapie backup microwave...

[MissWaverly]

15. Just kidding about the microwave

but I would definitely be cautious esp. for hand printed envelopes

[Marie26]

16. Sounds like we're creating bioweapons.

There's another international treaty blown. But who's counting?