Bipartisan WMD commission: U.S. failing to address urgent biothreat
action is still to come, not only from the United States but also the world community.
The Commission report notes some successes in how the country was facing the threat of terrorism and WMD proliferation, including:
- Reviews of laboratory security. Consistent with Commission recommendations, the executive branch has completed its assessment of how to optimize biosafety and biocontainment oversight. The Defense Science Board, the National Academies of Science, the Government Accountability Office and the National Science Advisory Board have also completed related reviews and will be valuable inputs for a national strategy.
- Citizen engagement. The Centers for Disease Control deserves credit for its improved communications, to date, with the public about the H1N1 flu vaccine. In addition, the Commission commends the Business Executives for National Security for developing cooperative partnerships that improve emergency response, preparedness and resilience at the grassroots level. The Commission also recognizes the Department of Homeland Security for conducting its first Quadrennial Homeland Security Review and gaining input from more than 20,000 partners and stakeholders.
Other areas of concern for the Commission are:
- Addressing Iran and North Korea, two chief threats to the nonproliferation regime, as well as Pakistan. The Commission is pleased with the focus of the Obama administration and the U.S. Congress on these issues, but progress has been elusive.
- Congressional reform to consolidate oversight over the Department of Homeland Security. There are currently 108 Congressional committees and subcommittees with oversight authority. Redundancies in oversight unnecessarily tie up resources and create inefficiencies detrimental to maintaining security.
The progress report is available at www.preventwmd.gov. The Commission will release a more formal report card in January 2010.
Congress established the bipartisan WMD Commission to address the grave threat that the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction poses to the United States. The Commission is a legacy of the Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community Activities Before and After the Terrorist Attacks of 11 September 2001, and the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (the 9/11 Commission). Those reports looked at the past, explaining U.S. government failings to anticipate the events of 9/11. This Commission looks to the future.
The Commission’s December 2008 report, World at Risk, determined that unless the world community acts decisively and with great urgency, it is more likely than not that a weapon of mass destruction will be used in a terrorist attack somewhere in the world by the end of 2013 — and that terrorists are more likely to obtain and use a biological weapon than a nuclear weapon. It identified thirteen recommendations consisting of forty-nine actions that Congress and the Administration should take to change the trajectory of risk.
