Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov chastised Iran yesterday for continuing its uranium enrichment and missile development programs (Fabrice Coffrini/Getty Images). Iran Begins to Use Uranium in Advanced Centrifuge Tests Iran has placed uranium gas samples in a new centrifuge model being installed at its Natanz enrichment complex, Reuters reported yesterday (see GSN, Feb. 13). Technicians introduced small amounts of uranium hexafluoride into Iran’s next-generation IR-2 centrifuges, which they began testing in “dry runs” last week, according to diplomats close to an International Atomic Energy Agency probe of the nation’s nuclear activities (see GSN, Feb. 8)...Full Story

Hydrogen Bomb Designer Criticizes RRW Program By Jon Fox Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — A frequent adviser to the U.S. government on nuclear and security issues argued yesterday that the current administration’s push for a next-generation nuclear warhead is unnecessary (see GSN, Feb. 5)...Full Story

State Pioneers Food Safety Tracking Tool By Elaine M. Grossman Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — North Carolina state officials are using a cutting-edge food safety tracking system that they say might help facilitate a rapid response to any future agroterrorism incident (see GSN, Feb. 21, 2007)...Full Story

	Thursday, February 14, 2008

U.S. Nets Suspected Terrorists at Canadian Border More than a dozen people with suspected terrorist links have attempted to enter the United States from Canada since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told the New York Daily News in an interview published Sunday (see GSN, Jan. 18). Border security officials stopped individuals connected to “a mix” of terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah and al-Qaeda through finances, family relatives or communication intercepts, Chertoff said. “Do I know they were coming in on a mission as opposed to something else?  That I can’t necessarily tell you,” he said. Ahmed Ressam, later dubbed the “Millennium Bomber,” was caught in 1999 in the only publicized incident of a terrorist attempting to enter the United States from Canada (see GSN, Jan. 17, 2007). Chertoff added that he sees no “imminent threat” of terrorists entering the United States through Mexico (James Gordon Meek, New York Daily News, Feb. 10). Back to top

Lieberman Vows to Beef Up National Guard A key U.S. Senate leader yesterday vowed to strengthen National Guard capabilities to respond to terrorist WMD attacks, following a scathing assessment of the Guard by an independent commission earlier this month (see GSN, Feb. 1). That review by the Commission on the National Guard and Reserves found “an appalling gap that places the nation and its citizens at greater risk” of WMD attacks. U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) led off a hearing on the Guard yesterday by promising to beef up its response capabilities. “The challenges of response to a nuclear or biological attack where only the Department of Defense has the medical assets, the logistical capability, and the sheer manpower needed to respond would be immense,” he said.  “The key players — the National Guard Bureau, Northern Command, the Department of Homeland Security, other federal agencies, and the States and localities — must be integrated seamlessly in order to be ready to respond effectively.” “Are we as ready as we should be?  The Commission says no, and I find its answer to be convincing,” Lieberman added.  “That gives us the responsibility together to fix that” (Committee release, Feb. 13). Back to top

Iran Begins to Use Uranium in Advanced Centrifuge Tests Iran has placed uranium gas samples in a new centrifuge model being installed at its Natanz enrichment complex, Reuters reported yesterday (see GSN, Feb. 13). Technicians introduced small amounts of uranium hexafluoride into Iran’s next-generation IR-2 centrifuges, which they began testing in “dry runs” last week, according to diplomats close to an International Atomic Energy Agency probe of the nation’s nuclear activities (see GSN, Feb. 8). The U.N. nuclear watchdog offered no comment and said it would release details on the centrifuge’s development in a report to its 35-nation governing board (see GSN, Feb. 12). Iran has so far relied on older, less reliable P-1 centrifuges for its uranium enrichment program, which international powers fear is aimed at enriching material for weapon purposes.  Tehran has insisted its nuclear program is intended solely for civilian energy production. Iran had 3,000 P-1 centrifuges installed by last November, but it could only operate them at roughly 10-percent capacity.  It could produce enough weapon-grade uranium for a nuclear bomb in about one year by running its P-1 centrifuges at full capacity, but it would only require 1,200 IR-2 centrifuges to produce the same amount of bomb-grade material in that time, estimated nuclear expert David Albright of the Institute for Science and International Security. A European Union diplomat called the advanced centrifuge testing a “stunning rejection” of U.N. Security Council demands that Iran suspend its enrichment activities.  The Iranian advances could speed up the council’s approval of a new sanctions resolution drafted by the five permanent Security Council members and Germany (Mark Heinrich, Reuters I/Washington Post, Feb. 13). Iran still has the capability to build a nuclear bomb although it may have suspended its nuclear weapons development, a high-level U.S. intelligence official told U.S. lawmakers yesterday. Tehran “continues to develop” nuclear capacities it could easily tap for nuclear weapons production, Deputy U.S. National Intelligence Director Thomas Fingar said yesterday. “We judge it has the technical and industrial capability to produce nuclear weapons,” he said in testimony to the House Armed Services Committee. When a U.S. lawmaker asked if Iran’s uranium enrichment program places a nuclear weapon in its reach, Fingar said, “your logic point is that they have the capacity to resume a weapons program” if Iran chooses to in the future. A recent U.S. National Intelligence Estimate representing the consensus of the U.S. intelligence community said that Iranian officials are keeping their options open but Tehran is likely to develop a bomb-making capability between 2010 and 2015. However, Fingar warned that time estimates for Iran’s completion of a nuclear weapon are based on the country’s development of its domestic uranium enrichment capability.  Tehran could build a nuclear weapon faster if it acquires weapon-grade nuclear material from elsewhere, he said. “It’s the centrifuge program — fissile material production — which is the main variable,” he said (Agence France-Presse/Google News, Feb. 13). The Security Council plans to make changes to the proposed sanctions resolution against Iran and vote on the resolution after the U.N. nuclear watchdog releases its report on Iran’s nuclear program, the British U.N. ambassador said yesterday. “I don't think this resolution's going to be adopted before the IAEA report comes out,” John Sawers said after a meeting between the permanent and non-permanent Security Council members, Reuters reported. “We received various views on the text that we circulated,” he added.  “We're going to incorporate the views into a revised text next week and introduce it next week.” It remains uncertain what measures in the resolution could undergo revision.  South Africa has criticized a section calling on nations to inspect suspicious cargo entering and leaving Iran on two Iranian shipping lines while Libya’s U.N. envoy said he had reservations about the sanctions. According to diplomats, Libya opposes sanctions because the nation had itself been subjected to U.N. economic measures until recently (Louis Charbonneau, Reuters II/International Herald Tribune, Feb. 14). Russia has often slowed the push toward new U.N. sanctions, but it disapproves of Iran’s missile development and uranium enrichment programs, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said yesterday. “We don’t approve of Iran’s continuously demonstrating its intentions to develop its missile industry and continue uranium enrichment,” Lavrov told Russian media, the Associated Press reported.  “From the point of view of international law, these activities aren’t forbidden.  However, it’s necessary to take into account that the past years have shown a number of problems related to Iran's nuclear program.” Lavrov’s statement suggests that Russia is leaning toward concerns shared by Western powers about Iran’s nuclear ambitions, AP reported. “Opportunities still exist for starting talks on final settlement of all problems related to the Iranian nuclear program,” Lavrov was quoted as saying.  “It’s necessary that all participants in this process be guided by a desire to solve this problem, assuage concerns related to potential risks and threats and not proceed from other reasons related to a political agenda” (Associated Press/International Herald Tribune, Feb. 13). Back to top       Hydrogen Bomb Designer Criticizes RRW Program By Jon Fox Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — A frequent adviser to the U.S. government on nuclear and security issues argued yesterday that the current administration’s push for a next-generation nuclear warhead is unnecessary (see GSN, Feb. 5). “The United States has the most flexible, the most usable, the most accurate nuclear weapons in the world,” said Richard Garwin, a physicist involved with the original design for the hydrogen bomb and longtime arms control advocate.  The Pentagon would be better off sticking with the Cold War-era weapons they have now, he said, both in terms of reliability of the warheads and in terms of cost. The Bush administration has aggressively pursued, in the face of congressional opposition, a new nuclear warhead design that Energy Department officials have argued would be more secure, more reliable, cheaper, would allow for a reduction in the U.S. stockpile of warheads and would help maintain a retinue of trained weapons designers at U.S. laboratories (see GSN, Dec. 19, 2007). The design, dubbed the Reliable Replacement Warhead, received none of the nearly $90 million in requested funding this year.  For the coming fiscal year, the president’s budget requests $10 million for the program. Garwin, at one time a member of the JASON panel that advises the executive branch on nuclear weapon-related issues, spoke yesterday as one of the authors of a report suggesting 10 alterations in nuclear weapons policy to be made in the next presidential administration. The suggestions are part of a slightly modified report from the Federation of American Scientists, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Union of Concerned Scientists originally issued in 2001 in advance of a nuclear posture review from the Bush administration. “We can be much more confident with the legacy warheads, that they will remain closer to the test pedigree than would the RRW that has never been tested,” Garwin said.  The report suggests halting all U.S. programs for developing and deploying new nuclear weapons. Officials have argued that the existing arsenal will slowly deteriorate despite efforts to replace minor parts as part of the Energy Department’s Stockpile Stewardship program.  At some point, it may be necessary to return to explosive testing to affirm the stockpile’s effectiveness, they have argued (see GSN, Nov. 15, 2007). To avoid the prospect of renewed nuclear testing, the Bush administration has advocated developing the new warhead to replace the older weapons.  Officials have assured Congress that the new warhead would not require nuclear testing.  For many in Congress a return to nuclear testing as part of the program is considered unacceptable. Administration officials have also said the RRW would save money in the long run by reducing the maintenance costs of the current arsenal.  Garwin said he has yet to see evidence that this is the case. “Nobody has ever come up with a cost for the RRW program that has any possible benefit from the point of view of cost in part because the RRW would not be here to replace the legacy weapons for a very, very long time,” he said. He said it could take 40 years or more before the RRW design would replace all the weapons the United States now deploys, a replacement rate of about 50 warheads a year. “And during all that time you would have to have the ability to take care of the W-76, W-87, the W-88 and all those weapons,” Garwin said. What had once been the primary argument for replacing the weapons, the effect of aging on plutonium, is no longer relevant in light of recent findings about the way the metal’s changes over time, he said.  The Energy Department has estimated that nuclear weapons’ plutonium cores should perform as designed for 85 years, and a separate JASON’s study assessed a 100-year lifespan (see GSN, Nov. 30, 2006). “Which is a long, long time from now, another 56 years [from now] before the weapons may decay,” Garwin said.  Almost all of the problems regarding aging and the current U.S. nuclear warhead designs relate to the non-nuclear parts “that can be replaced whenever it is economically desirable.” In terms of keeping U.S. weapons designers interested and trained, Garwin suggested having the two design laboratories compete to develop new designs but simply never make them.  “If we had an RRW competition every five years or so that would keep the designers up to snuff,” he said. The other suggestions in the report include: — Declare the sole purpose of U.S. nuclear weapons to be for deterrence and if necessary respond to the use of nuclear weapons by another nation; — Reject rapid nuclear-armed missile launch options (see GSN, April 5, 2005); — Eliminate current U.S. nuclear targeting plans with a plan tailored to individual situations; — Unilaterally reduce U.S. deployed and reserve warheads to no more than 1,000; — Retire all U.S. tactical, or battlefield, nuclear weapons (see GSN, Feb. 9, 2005); — Announce a U.S. commitment to further reduce warheads on a bilateral, negotiated basis; — Commit to no new nuclear testing and work with the Senate to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (see GSN, Sept. 18, 2007); — Halt further deployment of a ground-based missile defense systems and drop plans for any spaced-based defenses (see GSN, Oct. 12, 2007); and — Reaffirm a U.S. commitment to complete nuclear disarmament. Back to top       Focus on Future in Korea Nuclear Talks, China Says Nations participating in the faltering six-party process should not overemphasize North Korea’s history of nuclear work, an official at the Chinese Embassy in Washington said yesterday (see GSN, Feb. 13). “The point is, we should not just go back in the past to say what you have done.  The most important thing is what we should do in the future,” diplomat Ruan Zongze said during a forum, the Yonhap News Agency reported. Progress on carrying out a 2007 agreement to eliminate North Korea’s nuclear sector has stalled since Pyongyang missed a Dec. 31 deadline to fully declare its atomic activities.  U.S. officials say a list provided in November leaves out crucial areas, including North Korea’s suspected uranium enrichment efforts. Meanwhile, Washington has not removed the Stalinist state from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism.  That is also “handicapping” forward movement in negotiations, Ruan said. Pyongyang has repeatedly demanded “action for action” in the denuclearization process, meaning it is rewarded for each move it makes.  To date it has received heavy fuel oil from several nations while halting operations at its Yongbyon nuclear complex and moving to disable three key facilities. “What does action for action mean?  That means once D.P.R.K. is … taking some measures for disablement or for declaration, at some time that requires economic assistance, not only from the U.S., but from other countries,” Ruan said (Yonhap News Agency I, Feb. 14). Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said yesterday he was frustrated by the pace of progress in the year since the six nations — China, Japan, Russia, the United States and both Koreas — signed the North Korean denuclearization deal, Kyodo News reported. Fukuda said he was also “not satisfied” by the absence of the full nuclear declaration.  “There are abduction, nuclear and missile problems between Japan and North Korea, so I would like to negotiate on these major issues,” he said. His comments echoed those made earlier in the day by Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura. “Frankly, things are not proceeding in line with the design or road map that we had drawn up at first,” he said during a press conference.  “It is unfortunate that there have been delays, but we believe the six-party talks are a very important process” (Kyodo News, Feb. 13). The U.S. Congress should closely monitor funding for the denuclearization process to ensure that North Korea follows through on its obligations, one lawmaker said yesterday. Washington is carrying much of the cost burden for disablement of a nuclear reactor and two other plants at Yongbyon and is expected to provide additional funding for planned nuclear dismantlement activities in North Korea, Yonhap reported. “I agree that Congress has to be vigilant in the oversight, not just on policy but on appropriation,” Senator Robert Casey (D-Pa.) said during the forum in Washington.  “I don’t disagree that it’s going to require a lot of thinking and a judgment call, and series of calls.” He said that the six-nation negotiations are the correct route for disarming North Korea.  “I would hope that whoever wins the presidential election would continue down the similar path as now,” Casey said (Yonhap News Agency II, Feb. 14). Back to top

Lethal Chemical Easily Bought, NYPD Reports The New York Police Department found last year that it would seemingly be easy for anyone to purchase chlorine that could be used in a terrorist attack, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Nov. 9, 2007). A fake water purification company set up by the department last year was able to make an online purchase of three 100-pound containers of chlorine, which can be lethal when airborne.  The supplier never asked for identification and the transaction involved minimal person-to-person interaction. The point of the test was “to assess the ease or difficulty with which a terrorist in the United States could acquire large quantities of chlorine without being detected by law enforcement or intelligence agencies,” according to the narrator of a video shown yesterday to private security executive.  “At present time, few if any barriers stand in his way.” The department has increased its focus on monitoring chlorine shipments in the wake of a series of strikes in Iraq that featured the chemical (see GSN, June 6, 2007).  There are no chlorine suppliers in New York but some operate out of neighboring New Jersey, said NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly. “It’s something we have to be concerned about,” he said of a possible chlorine attack.  “We think the whole area needs a lot of regulation.” Current commercial rules do not require the reporting of chlorine sales or that buyers be identified by the vendor.  New York City police officials have pressed the Homeland Security Department to require that chlorine suppliers verify that buyers are legitimate customers, Kelly said.  A spokesman said the federal agency has worked to safeguard U.S. chlorine supplies through a focus on high-risk producers, distributors and vendors (Tom Hays, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Feb. 13). U.S. Representative Edward Markey (D-Mass.) said yesterday he would press for mandatory validation of imports, exports and U.S. sales of chlorine and other materials that could be used to produce chemical weapons (U.S. Representative Edward Markey release, Feb. 13). Back to top       Firm Wins VX Disposal Laboratory Contract Southwest Research Institute has received a one-year, $15.6-million contract to handle laboratory work related to disposal of the U.S. Army’s VX nerve gas stockpile at the Newport Chemical Depot in Indiana, the San Antonio Business Journal reported yesterday (see GSN, Jan. 10). The firm’s primary responsibility will be to ensure the health and safety of personnel responsible for destroying the choking agent, said Darrel Johnston, Southwest Research Institute’s environmental and demilitarization technology manager. Under its contract with Parson Infrastructure and Technology Inc., the institute is expected to assign 100 full-time laboratory workers to continually analyze air inside the Newport Chemical Agent Disposal Facility and exhaust from the plant for traces of VX. Over 25 years, Southwest Research Institute has supported chemical weapon disposal operations at the Umatilla Chemical Depot in Oregon, the Pine Bluff Chemical Agent Disposal Facility in Arkansas and the Johnston Atoll Chemical Agent Disposal System on Johnston Island in the Pacific Ocean (Scott Bailey, San Antonio Business Journal, Feb. 13). Back to top

Putin Restates Threat to Neighbors Russian President Vladimir Putin today reaffirmed his Tuesday warning that Russia would threaten neighboring nations that chose to participate in a U.S. plan to deploy missile defenses in Europe, Bloomberg reported (see GSN, Feb. 13). The U.S. plans to deploy missile defense facilities in Poland and the Czech Republic are “a threat to our national security,” Putin said in a televised press conference.  He suggested he did not accept U.S. assertions that the missile defenses would be limited and have no capability to affect Russia’s strategic nuclear deterrent. “One base appears, then another, one missile defense site, then another, closer and closer to our borders,” Putin said.  “How much longer can we put up with this?” Tuesday, Putin warned that Russia would add Ukraine to its nuclear target list if Kiev agreed to host any U.S. bases (Meyer/Alison, Bloomberg.com, Feb. 14). Those remarks drew quick criticism from U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The “reprehensible rhetoric that’s coming out of Moscow is unacceptable,” she told a Senate committee yesterday.  “When it comes to issues that come out of the structure of post-Cold War Europe, we get this kind of rhetoric” (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, Feb. 13). Back to top

State Pioneers Food Safety Tracking Tool By Elaine M. Grossman Global Security Newswire WASHINGTON — North Carolina state officials are using a cutting-edge food safety tracking system that they say might help facilitate a rapid response to any future agroterrorism incident (see GSN, Feb. 21, 2007). North Carolina’s “Multihazard Threat Database” is a Web-based mapping system that state personnel continually update so they can monitor both livestock and processed foods, according to Joe Reardon, director of the Food and Drug Protection Division at the North Carolina Agriculture and Consumer Services Department. The secure computer system displays a state map with embedded information that can be accessed with the sweep of a computer mouse, Reardon said during a Jan. 18 presentation at an American Bar Association conference in Washington. Approximately 90 percent of all U.S. food inspection is performed by state rather federal personnel, making such a database a critical tool for monitoring problems and responding to them at the state level, he said.  However, the North Carolina database — or something like it — could also become a powerful emergency-response device if it were extended nationwide, he said. North Carolina is a leading agricultural producer, serving as the nation’s No. 1 sweet potato grower and No. 2 pork supplier.  The Tarheel State provides one of every 13 eggs bought in the United States and one of every seven turkeys consumed year-round. The state’s computer database helps track those foods from “farm to fork,” in Reardon’s words. One facet of the state database is a Geographic Information System that allows state officials to identify parcels of farmland, learn which first responders would react to any animal disease emergency there and determine whether these teams have decontamination capabilities, according to Daniel Madding, who directs information support services in the agriculture department’s Emergency Programs Division. Two full-time data entry personnel keep this information up to date, he told Global Security Newswire in a telephone interview. Madding and his colleagues customized off-the-shelf geographic software to track processed foods from production lines all the way to retail supermarkets. Reardon’s division has been using the threat database system since 2005, he said in a brief January interview.  However, its first full-blown test came last July during a huge nationwide botulism recall of Castleberry canned foods, he said.  Across the United States, millions of cans containing 90 different food products — sold under 27 different brand names — were pulled off the shelves after the toxin was first identified in a Castleberry product in Texas. Back in North Carolina, computer specialists wrote new software “on the fly” for the threat database that was specifically tailored for tracking the recall, Madding said. “We needed [to know] how many cans [retail stores] had on the shelves, where they got it from, if there was any illnesses, if there was swollen cans, where they received that product from,” Reardon said last month of the Castleberry recall.  “We were able to take that data and overlay it into a state map,” he explained.  Grocery stores marked in red on the map were still selling potentially tainted products, while retailers marked in blue were aware of the crisis and had removed any recalled products from their shelves, he said. “We were actually able to move our cursor over any of those dots and see how many cans they had, where it was stored, who they received it from, [and whether they] had any illnesses or those kinds of things, giving you comprehensive situational awareness,” Reardon said.  “We figured if you have one illness there, the probability was that there were more cans from that given lot that may have been distributed in that immediate community, and thus [they] would need an increased community and consumer awareness campaign.” During the Castleberry recall, North Carolina dramatically expanded its response team, enabling the group to visit 16,000 locations over a two-week periody and to remove 35,000 cans from commerce, he said.  By contrast, federal agency inspectors visited fewer than 13,000 retail locations and pulled just 13,000 cans from the shelves, according to a briefing that Reardon provided to GSN.  The U.S. Agriculture Department visited about 800 stores during the recall. “We did more in North Carolina in 15 days than FDA was able to capture,” Reardon said of the Food and Drug Administration in Washington. Madding’s team is modifying the software so that it could be used for any future food recall in North Carolina. A second facet of the Multihazard Threat Database is an Animal Health Programs Database, which Madding and his cohorts developed from scratch.  Results of farm surveillance are recorded in the database, Madding said.  Information on each farm contained in the system pertains to animal health and specific processing companies to which the livestock might eventually be sold.  Four data entry personnel keep this information base updated, he said.  “In North Carolina, we know where every farm is in the entire state that does poultry or swine,” Reardon said at last month’s ABA conference.  “I can take the cursor and go over that [state map] and tell you how many farms there are, where those animals go, what type of animals they are, what they use on that farm and when they were quarantined last.” If a future quarantine becomes necessary for animals infected with a disease that might affect the food supply — such as mad cow disease — state officials could use the computer system to “trace back [the] history of any of those animals in the entire state from any of those producers,” Reardon said. Such crises might demand the destruction of affected livestock and here, too, the Animal Health Programs Database could offer support in “real time,” he said. The on-demand data might help North Carolina officials “develop a mitigation strategy to dispose of those animals, based on the size of that farm and the geographical significance of it, [including] the strata around that farm,” Reardon said. Such an analysis would determine whether the depth of the water table in the local area might allow for the safe burial of infected carcasses; if not, other disposal options like incineration could be pursued, Reardon said. Building a complex database to grapple with a variety of scenarios “didn’t happen by waving a wand,” he said.  “It takes a lot of work to do that.  But it’s critically important.” While a number of farm states across the United States maintain similar Geographic Information System databases, Madding estimated that the North Carolina database is among the five most effective in the nation.  Its multifaceted nature — which allows officials to simultaneously overlay a wide array of information on the same state map — is a useful feature that might be unique across the 50 states, he said. In related news, the U.S. Health and Human Services Department announced last week that its fiscal 2009 budget request to Congress includes $662 million to help protect the food supply, an increase of $42 million from the current fiscal year (see related GSN story, today).  The federal government initiative includes several projects aimed at monitoring the safety of imported foods. Back to top       Bush Boosts Food Defense Budget The Bush administration has requested an additional $91 million in fiscal year 2009 for the U.S. Agriculture Department’s Food and Agriculture Defense Initiative, the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy reported yesterday (see GSN, Nov. 21, 2007). The initiative’s proposed $277 million budget would increase funds for food defense research conducted by the Agricultural Research Service from $9 million to $23 million while boosting agriculture defense research funds from $25 million to $39 million. A program in the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service that monitors for biological threats to animals and plants would have its budget increased from $63 million to $98 million.  Funds for the health inspection service’s National Veterinary Stockpile would be doubled from $4 million to $8 million to supply vaccines, protective gear and other equipment for treating animals affected by a catastrophe. Funds for the service’s efforts related to “select agents,” or dangerous biological contaminants, would be increased from $4 million to $6 million (Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy release, Feb. 13).   Back to top

About Newswire  |  Contact National Journal  |  Re-Use Guidelines

© Copyright 2008 by National Journal Group, Inc. The material in this section is produced independently for NTI by National Journal Group, Inc. Any reproduction or retransmission, in whole or in part, is a violation of federal law and is strictly prohibited without the consent of the National Journal Group, Inc. All rights reserved.