[Infowarrior] - Army creates team to review security at biolab

[Richard Forno]

Army creates team to review security at biolab
Associated Press
Published: Friday August 8, 2008

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Army_creates_team_to_review_security_0808.html

WASHINGTON -- The Army has created a team of medical and other  
military experts to review security measures at the research  
laboratory where the scientist linked to the anthrax mailings worked.

Army Secretary Pete Geren has asked at least a dozen military and  
civilian officials to scrutinize safety procedures, quality controls  
and other policies and practices at the biodefense lab at Fort  
Detrick, Md., Army spokesman Paul Boyce said Friday.

To date, the Army has offered no explanation for how its biosecurity  
system, which is set up to catch mentally troubled workers, failed to  
flag scientist Bruce Ivins for years. Ivins, the microbiologist  
accused of sending anthrax-laced letters in 2001 that killed five  
people, committed suicide last week as the FBI began closing in on him.

Boyce said Friday that Geren met with military officials on Thursday  
night, then traveled to the high-security Army Medical Research  
Institute of Infectious Diseases, known as USAMRIID, at Fort Detrick  
on Friday morning to talk with leaders there.

Boyce said the team, which is only now being formed, is not targeting  
individuals but instead will be reviewing documents, procedures and  
other safety measures to ensure security at the military biodefense lab.

The facility has come under intense public scrutiny as more details  
have spilled out about therapists' concerns that in recent years Ivins  
had become paranoid, delusional and bent on violence.

Investigators said that between 2000 and 2006, Ivins had been  
prescribed antidepressants, antipsychotics and anti-anxiety drugs. By  
2005 the government had matched anthrax in his lab to the strain that  
killed five people.

It wasn't until November 2007, after the FBI raided his home, that  
Fort Detrick revoked Ivins laboratory access.

Army officials have declined to discuss any other efforts to either  
watch Ivins more closely or put other restriction on him prior to the  
November action.

Instead, they have stressed that safety procedures at the lab have  
included ongoing personnel evaluations, which rely largely on employee  
self-reporting medical or criminal problems and observations by other  
workers and supervisors.

Boyce said the impending review will be headed by a two-star general,  
and will include representatives from the medical research command,  
the Army's surgeon general, and Army operations.