官员们鼓励对恐怖性愚弄事件进行强力惩罚
WASHINGTON, Nov 06 (Reuters Health) - Officials from the FBI and the Justice Department told a Senate subcommittee Tuesday that they are not as far along as they hoped to be in discovering who has been sending anthrax bacteria through the mail. They also urged Congress to more severely punish those who pretend to be carrying out acts of bioterrorism.
The FBI has responded to 7,089 "suspicious anthrax letters"; 950 incidents involving other "weapons of mass destruction," such as bomb threats; and 29,331 calls from the public about suspicious packages since mid-September, FBI Assistant Director for Counterterrorism James Caruso told the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Technology, Terrorism, and Government Information. Before September 11, the FBI had responded to a total of about 100 reports of potential biological or other terrorist threats, Caruso said.
He told Subcommittee Chairman Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) that the investigation into the perpetrators of the attacks remains slow, despite the fact that 4,000 FBI special agents and 3,000 others are working on the case. For example, Caruso said, officials do not even know for sure how many laboratories in the US work with anthrax bacteria. "I know it is an unsatisfactory answer, and it is unsatisfactory to us as well," he said.
Feinstein has introduced legislation that she says would deal with at least that aspect of the problem. The bill would bar individuals from possessing anthrax or any of 35 other pathogens that could potentially be used as weapons of bioterrorism. It would require that laboratories using such agents be registered and certified by the federal government, and that those who work in the labs undergo criminal background checks. The House passed a similar bill October 23, although without the background check requirement.
Meanwhile, James Reynolds of the Justice Department's Terrorism and Violent Crime Section said what his department could really use from Congress is legislation with stronger penalties for bioterror hoaxes.
In addition to putting a further burden on already overworked law enforcement and public health officials, he said, such hoaxes "exact a very substantial psychological toll" on victims who often have to wait days to find out if they have been exposed to lethal agents. "Such a statute could also address hoaxes involving chemical, nuclear and radiological substances," he said., http://www.100md.com
The FBI has responded to 7,089 "suspicious anthrax letters"; 950 incidents involving other "weapons of mass destruction," such as bomb threats; and 29,331 calls from the public about suspicious packages since mid-September, FBI Assistant Director for Counterterrorism James Caruso told the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Technology, Terrorism, and Government Information. Before September 11, the FBI had responded to a total of about 100 reports of potential biological or other terrorist threats, Caruso said.
He told Subcommittee Chairman Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) that the investigation into the perpetrators of the attacks remains slow, despite the fact that 4,000 FBI special agents and 3,000 others are working on the case. For example, Caruso said, officials do not even know for sure how many laboratories in the US work with anthrax bacteria. "I know it is an unsatisfactory answer, and it is unsatisfactory to us as well," he said.
Feinstein has introduced legislation that she says would deal with at least that aspect of the problem. The bill would bar individuals from possessing anthrax or any of 35 other pathogens that could potentially be used as weapons of bioterrorism. It would require that laboratories using such agents be registered and certified by the federal government, and that those who work in the labs undergo criminal background checks. The House passed a similar bill October 23, although without the background check requirement.
Meanwhile, James Reynolds of the Justice Department's Terrorism and Violent Crime Section said what his department could really use from Congress is legislation with stronger penalties for bioterror hoaxes.
In addition to putting a further burden on already overworked law enforcement and public health officials, he said, such hoaxes "exact a very substantial psychological toll" on victims who often have to wait days to find out if they have been exposed to lethal agents. "Such a statute could also address hoaxes involving chemical, nuclear and radiological substances," he said., http://www.100md.com