Army Defends Biodefense Lab

The Army, facing a possible lawsuit over a planned expansion of its top biodefense laboratory, says it has properly studied the potential environmental impact of terrorist attacks on it.

The U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command is the center of military research on the world's deadliest organisms. The Army wants to replace and expand the lab.

But the details of the study on the possible impact of a terrorist attack cannot be disclosed without tipping off potential terrorists about the post's security measures, USAMRIID says.

The statement in the project's final environmental impact statement likely will not stop the project's opponents from a court challenge.

The document does not fully address the implications of terrorist attacks, Kevin Zeese, a social activist and one opponent, said late Wednesday in an e-mail.

The Army document, scheduled for formal approval by Feb. 12, quotes USAMRIID Commander Col. George Korch Jr. speaking at a public meeting Oct. 26. "Potential terrorist acts have been evaluated," Korch said. Without disclosing details due to security concerns, Korch said the post has implemented countermeasures, including tighter security at entry points; armed guards; and multiple checkpoints at buildings, fences and remote parking.

Opponents have cited two recent decisions by a federal appeals court in California. The more recent case, decided Oct. 16, found the U.S. Department of Energy's environmental assessment for a proposed biodefense laboratory in San Francisco was inadequate because it did not consider the possibility of a terrorist attack.

The ruling was similar to the court's ruling in June that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission had acted unreasonably in declining to assess the environmental impact of a terrorist attack on a proposed storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in California.

The Army's draft environmental statement for the USAMRIID project, published in August, stated that terrorist attacks "are not reasonably foreseeable" and that an evaluation of their impacts was not required by the National Environmental Policy Act.

Ron Bass, a senior environmental planner with a California-based consulting firm, said the Army's revisions do not appear to meet the requirements of the federal court rulings.

"I think that they need to discuss generally — it can be very general — what the impacts of such a problem would be," Bass said.

[antoniof123]

The real question is when will it happen not if, we have known for years that it will just like the Spanish Flu. The first wave comes in the Spring and the second wave comes in the Fall. Kind of symbolic do you not think.

[bildooreilly]

Are they going to have that chemical Ali guy and that Lady Anthrax *** from Iraq run it?

[Sheekasha]

Bioterrorism is happening everywhere actually and I didn't know that we were on the cutting edge like this. Wow! What a relief! If we lose out on this one we're never going to get back on our ponies and everybody will start talking about letting bygones be bygones, which isn't really are way. But one thing to talk about is that ******** thing, published earlier, well it looks like the Chinese are kind of a little more intrigued by bioterrorism than we are and get a little bit more than just excited about the possibilities of it when they are not on their goodie two shoes horses and started letting some of their more gastric laughs out, so, whether you want to call them a superpower or not, it doesn't really matter, because they are what they are and it's just going to go downhill from here. And don't forget the Russian issues with our non-allegiance to their anti-terrorism ideas, especially as it involves using the CIA as a primarily counter-espionage agency as opposed to agents of pro-active espionage, as generally, we weren't the guys who blew up nuclear reactors called Chernobyle and so then it doesn't really make much sense otherwise than to sum up with the converse of a book titled, The Geography of Difference, wherein you might find a lot of ******** in Moscow or the Russian Federation who aren't really that keen on us making sure the map looks Right these days.

[fleshmonger6]

Didn't anyone learn from our experience with SmallPox? One of the few deseases that humanity actually eliminated from the real world, only to find out that because of weapons labs just like this, the virus wasn't really erradicated and will likely be reintroduced into the public at some point as a result. I can understand the need for us to continue work with virus strains that have already been weaponized since these bugs pose a real threat and part of learning how to defend yourself from them is to work with them. But to continue research into new bug strains is another example of the self-serving and short sighted goals of memebers of our government since all that will probably happen as a result is that these bugs will somehow get into the hands of people that will eventually become our enemies which is pure folly since most of this stuff is beyond the realm of possibility for anyone except a superpower and the last time I checked, we were the only one left as long as our business interest aren't allowed to continue doing business with China in an unfettered way, eventually turning them into one if they haven't already...

[bluestardad]

Hey maybe they can get the trailer trash from Los Alamos to come work here!

[bluestardad]

We don't need any inept politicians planning anything around these biolabs.

[eccentric506]

Another instance of the EPA exceeding their mandate to attempt to control every part of the government, as well as the population. If the EPA were existant in 1943 when atomic testing was done, we would still be involved in WW2.

They are more of a threat to the security and well being of the United States than any terrorist group in the world

[olebd]

What? You mean WE have WMD's in the USA???? Whooda thunk?!?