- WASHINGTON (UPI) -- The CIA
and other U.S. intelligence agencies are not relaying what they know about
potential bioterrorism threats to the appropriate public health officials,
making it difficult to plan counter-strategies to deal with an attack and
protect citizens, experts told United Press International.
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- Richard Levinson, associate executive director of the
American Public Health Association in Washington, said information about
the likelihood of attacks is "desperately needed" by public health
officials "because it changes your whole planning timeline and the
urgency to get materials to protect the population."
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- Levinson added, "The intelligence community and
the public health community have never communicated in any important way.
And that's something that needs to happen."
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- Jonathan Tucker, a former United Nations weapons inspector
who now is with the Monterey Institute's Center for Nonproliferation Studies
in Washington, said the lack of information sharing "is a general
problem." This is because it hinders the ability of officials at the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, which is charged
with safeguarding the public from a bioterrorist attack, from knowing which
bioterror agents are most likely to be used and which drugs and vaccines
should be stockpiled.
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- Both the CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency have
maintained they do share knowledge of bioterrorist threats with appropriate
authorities.
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- A spokesman for the CIA who requested anonymity said,
"If we were to find information of some kind of plot, our action would
be to share that with the appropriate executive-level officials,"
including those at the White House, the Department of Health and Human
Services and the FBI. The spokesman noted, however, the agency does not
brief public health officials directly.
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- DIA spokesman Tom Howard said, "All intelligence
agencies certainly disseminate their information within the confines of
the security networks that we have. Any information we have on any kind
of terrorism or threat of bioterrorism we would certainly disseminate to
the appropriate authorities. What they do with it is another story."
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- Indeed, the information does not seem to be flowing from
higher-level officials to those responsible for public health. Sen. Bill
Frist, R-Tenn., a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and
the subcommittee on international operations and terrorism, said at a recent
meeting on smallpox vaccination strategy that he has seen classified documents
from intelligence agencies showing a disconnect between classified risk
assessments and public health officials' risk assessments of bioterrorist
attacks..
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- Levinson noted the CIA has said the likelihood of a smallpox
attack is very low, but last week Cox News quoted HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson
as saying the government is operating under the assumption a smallpox attack
is likely. This supports Frist's charge there is a disconnect between intelligence
and public health assessments and casts doubts whether critical information
is flowing between the agencies.
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- The CDC maintains it works closely with the intelligence
community, however. CDC spokesman Llelwyn Grant said, "There are some
close communications between the CDC and intelligence agencies and other
agencies like homeland security." In addition, Grant said, the CDC
"gets information through its security and biopreparedness specialists
who are in constant contact with these agencies."
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- Charles Pena, senior defense analyst with the Cato Institute
in Washington, said, "I would argue that right now even if (the CDC)
has good information, they are not making terribly good decisions."
He added that public health officials probably are aware of the most likely
threats, but "given the potential for terror against the U.S. they
should be aware of the most recent and up-to-date information about threat
assessment."
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- Because it appears ever more likely the United States
will go to war with Iraq, "we ought to be protecting ourselves against
the possibility of Saddam Hussein using biological weapons," Pena
said. "It's actually irresponsible that we don't appear to be doing
anything to protect the public against possible reprisals (from Iraq)."
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- Saddam, the Iraqi president, is known to have attempted
to weaponize and stockpile biological and chemical weapons, which could
easily be smuggled into the United States and launched as a retaliatory
attack following a U.S. assault, Pena said.
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- "If he's got all this nasty stuff, he's got every
incentive to use it," he said.
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- Pena noted the "Israelis have already begun vaccinating
against smallpox in concern over the possibility that Saddam would use
smallpox against them if the U.S. attacks. I'm wondering what the Israelis
know that we don't, and this raises some serious questions bout how we're
addressing the bioterrorism threat."
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- Levinson agreed. The CDC seems to be unaware of critical
information that would affect strategies for dealing with a bioterrorist
attack, he said. This has come to light in recent months as the CDC has
struggled to reach a decision about whether to vaccinate Americans against
smallpox now, before the occurence of a bioterrorist attack, or wait until
after an outbreak has occurred.
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- Few public health officials outside the CDC think it
will be possible or effective to vaccinate after an attack the thousands
or hundreds of thousands of people who may be exposed, Levinson said.
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- One barrier to an effective exchange of information is
"very few people at the CDC have security clearance" and thus
are unable to view classified information, Tucker said. This may change
as homeland security becomes more of a priority, he noted, adding HHS,
which oversees the CDC, has for the first time installed secure teleconference
facilities for sensitive briefings.
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- The CIA has said it is concerned disclosing sensitive
information could compromise its sources and methods. In that case, intelligence
agencies "need to find ways to sanitize the information so their informants
and methods are not at risk," Tucker said.
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- Levinson said intelligence agencies would not have to
compromise their sources. "The only thing the public health officials
need to know is that the CIA has knowledge that specific agents are likely
to be used in an attack."
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- However, the intelligence community's knowledge of specific
threats may be limited. Tucker noted John Modlin, chairman of the CDC's
advisory committee on immunization practices and a physician at Dartmouth
Medical School, was granted a special one-day security clearance to attend
a CIA briefing on smallpox risk assessment. Modlin did not seem very concerned
about the threat of a smallpox attack, Tucker said. Modlin and the rest
of the committee later recommended the CDC not vaccinate all citizens against
smallpox but instead only vaccinate a limited number of emergency and healthcare
personnel, he said.
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- "So maybe the CIA doesn't know very much about smallpox,"
Tucker said.
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- Another problem may be the Bush administration has yet
to formulate any rules for responding to terrorist threats. Pena noted,
"The White House hasn't really made any final decision about how we
should respond to these bioterrorist decisions ... so that makes it hard
to filter information down to (public health officials) and tell them what
to do with it."
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- Levinson said it is distressing that the "whole
planning effort for defense against terrorism isn't moving really fast
... There's a lot of talk, but I don't see any action."
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- He added the attitude among government officials seems
to be "if we don't get it done today, we can get it done next month,"
he said. "If you know this is an imminent danger, then you would try
to move faster."
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