Thaindian News

Washington, Jan 27(ANI): A congressionally appointed commission has said that despite eight years having gone by since the deadly 2001 anthrax attacks, the United States is still unprepared to respond to the threat of large-scale bioterrorism.

The Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism also gave the government mixed grades overall for how it has protected Americans from weapons of mass destruction (WMDs).

The report, which measured the government’s performance in 17 key areas, gave the White House and Congress “F” grades for not building a rapid-response capability for dealing with disease outbreaks from bioterrorism, or providing adequate oversight of security and intelligence agencies.

“Each of the last three administrations has been slow to recognize and respond to the biothreat, but we no longer have the luxury of a slow learning curve when we know al-Qaeda is interested in bioweapons” The Washington Post quoted Bob Graham, former senator who co-chaired the panel along with former senator James M. Talent, as writing in the report.

The panel gave “A” grades for government programs that secured dangerous viruses and bacteria, and for the administration’s reorganization of the National Security Council to better deal with WMD threats.

The panel’s report comes 13 months after they warned that unless significant steps were taken, a major attack using weapons of mass destruction somewhere in the world was “more likely than not” to occur by 2013.

Meanwhile, within hours of the report’s release, the Obama administration revealed plans to fill gaps in the nation’s public health defenses with a series of initiatives to be announced in State of the Union address.

The proposals, which administration officials said had been in the works well before the report’s findings were known, will seek to speed up delivery of drugs in the event of a major attack. (ANI)