Global Security Newswire

The U.S. Army yesterday said it would provide more security training for its laboratory personnel to help prevent any diversion of potential biological-weapon agents, the Associated Press reported GSN, Sept. 15).

An internal review board proposed the new training in response to a Justice Department conclusion that an Army microbiologist carried out the 2001 anthrax mailings that killed five people, said Michael Brady, special assistant to Army Secretary Pete Geren (see GSN, Oct. 27).

On Monday, the service launched a one-week review of security procedures for workers at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Md., where anthrax mailing suspect Bruce Ivins worked for years. The Army intends to expand training, accountability and inventory management reforms to several of its other sensitive laboratories within several months, said USAMRIID spokeswoman Caree Vander Linden.

The Army plans to permanently shutter the Walter Reed Army Medical Center's Armed Forces Institute of Infectious Diseases, where activities were halted in April due to "security, surety management and emergency response" concerns, spokesman Paul Boyce said yesterday. The Washington laboratory's operations and some of its 30 to 40 employees were expected to be moved to other facilities, he said (David Dishneau, Associated Press/Washington Post, Dec. 2).