In the latest of many issues to plague the nation’s seriously flawed system to detect biological attacks, a federal audit reveals it lacks detection equipment in more than half the country and is unable to recognize multiple biological agents that pose threats. The beleaguered system, known as BioWatch, has already received north of a billion dollars in government funding and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) keeps pouring money into it despite its well-documented failures. Here is why; the government has no back up plan to deal with a biological terrorist attack, a very realistic threat considering the meteoric rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS). That disturbing information was disclosed by a senior DHS official who confirmed after congressional investigators exposed BioWatch’s deficiencies that it is the only “biosurveillance system designed to detect the intentional release of select aerosolized biological agents.”
BioWatch was introduced with tremendous grandeur by President George W. Bush in the aftermath of the 2001 anthrax attacks. Just days after 9/11, letters laced with powdered anthrax spores began appearing in the U.S. mail. Five Americans were killed, and more than a dozen sickened. The government labeled it the worst biological attack in U.S. history and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) created a special task force to catch the culprit. In 2003 President Bush and Congress established BioWatch to surveil for aerosolized exposure caused by the intentional release of biological agents. The system includes hundreds of units that collect air from public places in dozens of urban areas. Samples are sent to a lab that tests for dangerous pathogens that terrorists may use in an attack against civilians. But years ago, congressional investigators found that the costly air samplers are not reliable when it comes to detecting an attack.
Regardless, DHS continues to tout the system as life-saving technology that can detect pathogens that cause anthrax, tularemia, smallpox, plague and other deadly diseases. The early detection of a biological attack is an essential part of an effective biodefense posture, DHS asserts. The reality is that BioWatch is best known for false alarms and other glitches. The system is such a joke that years ago state and local authorities stopped ordering evacuations when its alarm triggers. In fact, federal agencies documented 56 false alarms in just a few years, yet DHS keeps spending large sums to keep BioWatch alive and the agency plans to continue investing huge sums if Congress does not stop it. BioWatch currently operates under a special DHS unit called Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office (CWMD) with an average annual budget of $76 million. Former President Donald Trump created the office in 2018 to prevent attacks against the country through “timely, responsive support to operational partners.” On its website the CWMD touts BioWatch as a valuable tool that provides early warning of a bioterrorist attack in more than 30 metropolitan areas across the country. “This early warning helps decision makers plan an effective, coordinated, and rapid response,” the CWMD proclaims. read more
They couldn’t let it work or they would have missed their chance to assume unprecedented powers to control the American people with COVID.
China has now demonstrated that they can fuck with us and the rest of the world at any time, and can up the ante as they desire.
Biden/Harris is as big a gift to China as they have been to illegal migrants crossing our now open southern border
Worst except for the whole small pox infected blanket thing. Shhhh.
Conservatives said in ’02 this was a big graft driven boondoggle. We were right! Many “Friends of Bush” got richer at taxplayer expense! No benefit to the non rich!