Feds probe missing CDC gear. Theft suspected in some cases

[Ian David]

Source: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Federal investigators will look into the disappearance of $22 million worth of scientific equipment, computers and other items from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

An audit of procedures and an investigation into allegations of theft at the Atlanta-based agency will be conducted by the Inspector General's office of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The inquiry was requested by a congressional oversight committee as a consequence of its "troubling" findings last month.

"A thorough audit will help stop the bleeding of taxpayer-owned property at CDC," said U.S. Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) in a prepared statement Wednesday. "In cases of theft, it will also tell us what happened to the thieves."

CDC officials said they have accounted for about $9 million of the $22 million in missing goods in recent weeks as a result of efforts to track down lost items and improve accountability.

Read more: http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/dekalb/stories/2007/07/12/cdcaudit0712.html

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I wonder if all three of these stories are somehow connected...


TB Patient Identified; Father-in-Law Works at CDC
by Joanne Silberner

Andrew Speaker, the 31-year-old lawyer infected with an extremely drug-resistant form of tuberculosis, has been flown to National Jewish Medical Research Center in Denver for treatment.

Dr. Gwen Huitt, who is treating Speaker at National Jewish, says he expects Speaker to recover fully. Speaker has an active case of TB, but is healthy and not likely to be infectious.

<snip>

The father-in-law issued a statement Thursday saying that the bacterium did not originate from himself or his laboratory, which operates under high biosecurity conditions. Speaker's wife has reportedly shown no signs of infection so far.

More:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10588684


See also:



CDC Adviser Arrested for Putting the "Public" in "Public Health"


Today in public masturbation by sometime government employees news:

A prominent public health expert who is a top adviser to federal health agencies was arrested on suspicion of public indecency in an airport men’s room.

Dr. Hugh H. Tilson, 67, was arrested Jan. 16 at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport after a plainclothes police officer said he saw Tilson masturbating at a urinal while watching other men urinate.

Tilson, who recently co-chaired an advisory task force for the Centers for Disease Control, was visiting Atlanta for a “senior leadership retreat.” We assume his defense, as an expert in the field, will be that he was merely following government-recommended advice for the treatment and prevention of blue-balls.

More:
http://wonkette.com/politics/cdc/cdc-adviser-arrested-for-putting-the-public-in-public-health-231750.php

[Lobster Martini]

1. Would prefer to remove my eyeballs with a Swiss army knife rather than visualize that last one ...

n/t

[ClintonTyree]

2. I wonder if they're missing any Anthrax?

That weapons grade Anthrax used on Democrats and Journalists right after 9/11 had to come from somewhere. It sure wasn't Wal*Mart. :eyes:

Of course $22 million is a good chunk of change but I wonder what another audit of the Pentagon would uncover at the moment? I'd be willing to wager that there's more than $22 million in the couch cushions at the Pentagon. What was the dollar amount of the last Pentagon audit, somewhere in the neighborhood of $7 Billion? :shrug: