Playing Politics With Biodefense

AP: Homeland Security Department Documents Show Experts Ignored In Laboratory Site Choice

(AP)  The Homeland Security Department swept aside evaluations of government experts and named Mississippi - home to powerful U.S. lawmakers with sway over the agency - as a top location for a new $451 million, national laboratory to study some of the world's most virulent biological threats, according to internal documents obtained by The Associated Press.

Mississippi's lawmakers include the Democratic chairman of the department's oversight committee in the House and the senior Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, which is expected to approve money to build the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility at one of five sites being considered. The two lawmakers said they were unaware of the Homeland Security evaluation system that scored the Mississippi site so low.

The disclosure is the latest example of what critics assert is the Bush administration's politicizing of government decisions, such as efforts to steer science over global warming at the Environmental Protection Agency and hiring and firing practices at the Justice Department.

"It is very suspicious," said Irwin Goldman of the University of Wisconsin, a leader of the unsuccessful effort to build the lab in Madison. His community's offer was among nine sites rejected even though the government scored it more highly than Mississippi's. "We wondered how everybody else did. It's interesting to know that we came out ahead of one that was short-listed."

The states where locations were eliminated despite earning scores higher than Mississippi include California, Georgia, Maryland, Missouri, Texas and Wisconsin.

Government experts originally expressed concerns that the proposed site in Flora, Mississippi, was far from existing biodefense research programs and lacked ready access to workers already familiar with highly contagious animal and human diseases, such as foot-and-mouth virus, that could devastate the U.S. livestock industry. They assigned the site a score that ranked it 14th among 17 candidate sites in the United States.

But a senior Homeland Security official, Undersecretary Jay Cohen, overruled those concerns under the theory that skilled researchers would move to Mississippi if it were selected for the new lab, according to a July 2007 internal government memorandum, marked "sensitive information" and obtained by the AP. Cohen accepted the argument that, "When built, they come."

A former Navy officer, Cohen is a political appointee, nominated by President Bush in June 2006.

For Wisconsin, Cohen determined that community opposition to the new lab was too great despite the area's highly respected researchers. Some local officials had threatened to withhold sewer service from the lab.

"It raised my eyebrows a bit when Mississippi was selected," said George Stewart of the University of Missouri, another rejected location that also earned a score higher than Mississippi's. "Obviously, there were factors other than what they were looking in the site visits. The group that did the site visits were scientists and know what they were looking for. I don't know what DHS was looking for."

Stephen Schimpff, who led unsuccessful efforts to bring the lab to Beltsville, Maryland, complained that the government's analysis seemed confusing. The department said there were too many skilled researchers near Beltsville, just outside Washington, and the agency worried about competing to hire them.

"We were surprised when some of the things we felt were our strengths were turned back on us as weaknesses," Schimpff said.

Under the department's own rules, it was free to disregard the recommendations of the government experts it appointed. But it said it selected advisers who were experts and were screened carefully for any conflicts of interest, working through seven stages of recommendations over 18 months. Cohen personally made the choices for the five sites in the eighth and final stage of the decision.

Mississippi's lawmakers include Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, and Sen. Thad Cochran, the top Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee and the subcommittee that oversees Homeland Security money. Each said he was not aware of the department's deliberations.

Thompson said he never spoke about the subject with Cohen. But the department said Thompson met with Cohen at least twice and discussed plans for the new lab, once in February 2007 in Mississippi and again a year later in Washington.

"You told me more about the process than I know," Thompson told the AP. "I haven't talked to anyone about it, not to Jay Cohen or anyone."

[gatofeo]

I''m curious as to why Utah is not even considered.
U.S. Army Dugway Proving Ground is the nation''s leading center for the testing of defenses against chemical and biological agents.
It''s in the remote desert, 80 road miles from Salt Lake City.
Salt Lake City is one of the top 10 places to move to today. It''s schools are highly rated. It''s recreational opportunities are nearly boundless. The state welcomes economic development.
Brigham Young University and the University of Utah are very highly rated.
Yet, Dugway doesn''t even place?
Dugway''s facilities are deep in the remote desert, within 800,000 acres of desert scrubland and craggy mountains. There are only a few ranches near it, and the nearest town is on the other side of an 11,000 foot mountain range.
Build the center where the experts already work and some reside: Dugway Proving Ground.

[tootall10142]

WHERE ARE YOU PATRIOT 1234?

[tootall10142]

Where is all the waste matieral from this facility going to go? Well in the south they will do what they have since 1935 they will bury it.In the south there is thousands of acres of farm land foreclosed on by the agricultire and the fmha.these lands will make great dump sites and filteration stations.450 plus million in the southern sections of mississippi would be a economic boost to the region how ever most of the contracts will come from other sources than the south.

[deacon20081]

I guess George thought "Brownie" needed another job.

[txlakeside]

yep .... evrywhone i kno is just diing to mve to the 2nd lest edumacated stat in the natshun. Thar is so meny resuns to go to Misissippi.

I bet the dumb as dirt "SHRUB" can not even spell Mississippi or "BIODEFENSE"!

And for you fear monger repubs, who fear the Chinese, remember it was an uneducated white boy that "blew" up a building in Okla. There are thousands just like McVie in the South! "The South will rise again" is not just a bumper sticker but a way of life and a theology for poor, backwoods, ignorant, rednecks in the south!

[sistatee-2009]

They picked Mississippi because if any bio hazardous bugs escaped, they could nuke the place without destroying anything of value.

[wogerwabbit]

Typical politicians. Ask not whst you can do for your country, ask what your country can do for you.

[homespunlady]

Wasn''t Mississippi hit pretty hard and without power, etc with HURRICANE Katrina?
Is this planned to be built on the land that was CLEARED by that hurricane?

[cdfoxtrot2]

That''s Bush for you! All we hear about, day in, day out, is the "war on terror" and "nash-anal shakuridy". Yet, when it comes down to it, politics triumphs good decision-making. Just goes to show there is no real threat and all this "war on terror" B.S. is hype, to keep the dollars flowing to the industrial military complex. Look forward to four more years of status quo under McBush if he wins in November.

McBush = Status Quo = Politics as Usual

[homespunlady]

Plum Island was bad enough. th "accidental" releases at least could be contained and were mainly species other than human specific - such as foot and mouth disease.
Now the NEW plan is to MIX playing with BOTH animal AND human pathogens at the NEW lab.

We nearly DECIMATED all but 1 species of hybrid crop plant in the world in a genetically modified soil bacteria experiment held in the Northwest. That last minute discovery and stop was too close for comfort.

Murphy''s Law is a fact - not an option! Yet arrogant fools will keep testing it until the end.

[homespunlady]

Oh BOY!!!
Let''s RECREATE the novel "The Stand" from a horror writer''s imagination to REALITY - just what the arrogant did for the novel about the sinking of the ship called the Titan - which became reality with the Titanic.

Does that make Stephen King a psychic?

[acez2008]

No one part of the country deserves research facilites. Leave it on Long Island - why?

The question is will the government prevent the Chinese from stealing secrets in Mississippi any better than they have anywhere else? Probably not.

[realpatriot1]

I''m glad to hear that growing community opposition is a reason for being eliminated because Butner, NC is a finalist and the locals are speaking loudly and clearly in opposition.

Mississippi can have it and I figure they will get it because: 1) They want it, and, 2) They are a reliably Republican state and this will be a surce of controversy like Yucca Mountain in Nevada.

[nextgenman]

I have no idea how they plan to get any decent researchers out in this part of poorhouse Mississippi. It''''s one of the most backwards, run down, illiterate places in the US. The school districts are a JOKE.

The land may be cheap but that''''s the only good thing about this site. I think the best option is just to leave the lab where it is in Long Island!

Posted by diatreme at 11:16 AM : Aug 11, 2008
---------------

Exactly. There is no way in hell they''re gonna get top notch researchers to live in the hot, humid backwater swamps of Mississippi.

[erasmus81]

"No matter where they chose the lab should be out in the middle of no where." Posted by ahrats at 06:57 AM : Aug 11, 2008

"When you look at it like this Mississippi is the best site available. Even if something does get loose there who cares??" Posted by MCVet-1 at 07:38 AM : Aug 11, 2008

Have you read "The Stand" by Stephen King?
If something gets loose, there isn''t anywhere on Earth you will be safe.

[ms38654ob]

Here''s a few things to consider:

1. They''ll be hard pressed to find any locals above high school education.

2. Nobody in their right mind would want to live in this low class state unless they have to.

3. It''s so far from anything civilized.

4. No good airports or access to airlines.

I live in this state so I know.

Who dreams this stuff up anyway?

[stn_sage]

WHAT?! PLAY POLITICS WITH VITAL NATIONAL INTERESTS LIKE BIODEFENSE?! WHY THE PUBLIC IS SHOCKED!

Well, no we''re not---not really! Why should this be any different than any other part of government that was politicized by Bush and the GOP! The difference is in their variety of politicization the result is: the public''s work is NOT carried out!

Officials are sacked, information is suppressed, reports are rewritten or not done AT ALL! The Federal Court has to order them to file required, routine reports! And the goal of messing up government so it accomplished next to nothing is GUARANTEED!

Way to go, republiCONS! Never a more crooked party occupied ''D.C.''! Enjoy your destruction while you can, it won''t last forever!

[eclecticman1]

Shut up you loser liberals. You lost and thats that. Lord God Bush grants things to those who are holy and loyal.

Watch the sarcasm. Some people might take your statements at face value.

[lawyertom1]

This has been the way of DC almost from the beginning of the Republic. It is sad and unfortunate, but not a surprise.

[inventagod2]

Not the first time this administration steered things their way... No one ever really investigated the possibility of the military doing 9/11 either...