Biological Weapons
An offensive biological program was begun in 1942 under the direction of a civilian agency, the War Reserve Service (WRS). The Army Chemical Warfare Service was given responsibility and oversight for the effort. The mounting threat of the German buzz bombs that were raining on England from launching sites on the Continent during 1943 spurred the urgency of BW (biological warfare) defense because it was thought that these high-explosive rockets might easily be converted into efficient weapons for massive BW attacks.
From the moment of its birth in the highest levels of government, the fledgling biological warfare effort was kept to an inner circle of knowledgeable persons. George W. Merck was a key member of the panel advising President Franklin D. Roosevelt and in May 1942 was charged with putting such an effort together. Merck, who owned the pharmaceutical firm that still bears his name, was named director of the new War Research Service (WRS). The program included a research and development facility at Camp Detrick, Maryland, testing sites in Mississippi and Utah, and a production facility in Terre Haute, Indiana. Experiments were conducted using pathogens including B. anthracis and Brucella suis. However, the production facility lacked adequate engineering safety measures; tests of the fermentation and storage processes using nonpathogenic Bacillus subtilis var. gobigii as a B. anthracis simulant disclosed contamination of the plant and environs. These findings precluded the production of biological weapons during World War II.
After the war, the production facility was sold and converted to commercial pharmaceutical production. Research and development activities were continued. Japanese scientists in American custody who had participated in the Unit 731 program were granted amnesty on the condition that they would disclose information obtained during their program.
The program was expanded during the Korean War (1950-53). A new production facility incorporating adequate biosafety measures was constructed at Pine Bluff, Arkansas. Technical advances allowed large-scale fermentation, concentration, storage, and weaponization of microorganisms; production was begun in 1954. In addition, a program to develop countermeasures including vaccines, antisera, and theraputic agents to protect troops from possible biological attack was begun in 1953.
Volunteer studies were performed in a 1-million liter sphere at Fort Detrick known as the "eight-ball" to test weapons systems disseminating Francisella tularensis, Coxiella burnetti, and other pathogens. Animal experiments were conducted at Fort Detrick and at remote desert and Pacific sites.
Cities were unwittingly used as laboratories to test aerosolization and dispersal methods; Aspergillus fumigatus, B. subtilis var. globigii, and Serratia marcescens were used as simulants and released during experiments in New York City, San Francisco, and other sites. Concerns regarding potential public health hazards of simulant studies were raised after an outbreak of nosocomial S. marcescens (formerly Chromobacterium prodigiosum) urinary tract infections at Stanford University Hospital between September 1950 and February 1951, following covert experiments using S. marcescens as a simulant in San Francisco. A report from the Centers for Disease Control completed in 1977 found no association between reported morbidity and mortality from pneumonia and influenza and local simulant experiments.
A series of field tests took place under the auspices of the Biological Laboratories from 1943 to the mid-1960s:
In one such test, travelers at Washington National Airport were subjected to a harmless bacterium. Traps were placed throughout the facility to capture the bacterium as it flowed in the air. Laboratory personnel, dressed as travelers carrying brief cases, walked the corridors and without detection sprayed the bacterium into the atmosphere.
In the New York Subway, a light bulb filled with the same harmless bacterium was dropped on the tracks. The organism spread throughout the system within 20 minutes. Traps and monitoring devices showed the amount of organism—if it were one of the predictable, dangerous organisms, could have killed thousands of persons. No one was injured or became ill as a result of the test.
In San Francisco, a U.S. Navy ship, equipped with spray devices operated by Fort Detrick personnel, sprayed serratia marcescens, a non-pathogenic microorganism that is easily detected, while the ship plied the San Francisco Bay. It spread more than 30 miles to monitoring stations.
A jet aircraft equipped with spray devices, flew a course near Victoria, Texas, and the harmless particles were monitored in the Florida Keys.
There were 456 cases of occupational infections acquired at Fort Detrick during the offensive biological program, at a rate of less than 10 infections per million hours worked. The rate of occupational infection was well within the contemporary standards of the National Safety Council, and below the rates reported from other laboratories. There were three fatalities due to occupationally acquired infections; two cases of anthrax in 1951 and 1958, and a case of viral encephalitis in 1964. The mortality rate was lower than those of other contemporary surveys of laboratory-acquired infections. There were 48 occupational infections and no fatalities reported from production and testing sites. The safety program included the development and use of new vaccines as well as engineering safety measures.
Before 1969, when President Richard Nixon closed the American offensive biological warfare program, offensive agents were developed at the United States Army's biological-warfare laboratories at Fort Detrick, Maryland. These products, powdered spores and viruses, were loaded into bombs and other delivery systems stored at Pine Bluff, Arkansas. The 1969 budget for Chemical/Biological Warfare research was reported to be $300 million with $5 million for herbicides designed to kill food crops or strip trees of foliage to deprive enemy forces of ground cover.
In 1977 the long-awaited volume, US Army Activities in the US Biological Warfare Program, was submitted to The Congress. It outlined in detail the entire BW research effort involving Camp and Fort Detrick, Dugway Proving Ground, Utah, Edgewood Arsenal, Md., Pine Bluff Arsenal, Ark., Rocky Mountain Arsenal, Colo. and numerous smaller testing sites around the Nation. The volumes noted the variety of weapons systems, but refrained from providing specifics because such information may still be used by the Nation's potential adversaries.
By the late 1960s, the United States had developed a biological arsenal which included numerous bacterial pathogens, toxins, and fungal plant pathogens that could be directed against crops to induce crop failure and famine.US Army Activities in the US Biological Warfare Program, Volume II reported, "Anticrop research at Fort Detrick concerned BW agents as well as CW (Chemical Warfare) agents, i.e. chemical herbicides and defoliants . . . Extensive field testing was done to assess the effectiveness of agents on crops. Many candidate anticrop BW agents were screened, resulting in five standardized BW anticrop agents. The 1977 report said the BW program included, " ... testing, production and stockpiling of anticrop agents. Between 1951 and 1969, 31 anticrop dissemination trials were conducted at 23 different locations. From 1951 until 1957, wheat stem rust spores and rye stem rust spores were produced and transshipped to Edgewood Arsenal ... where they were classified, dried and placed in storage. Between 1962 and 1969, wheat stem rust spores were produced, transshipped to Rocky Mountain Arsenal, Denver, Colorado, classified, dried and stored. The entire anticrop stockpile was destroyed as part of the biological warfare demilitarization program completed February 1973.
The Soviet Union, China, and North Korea accused the United States of using biological warfare against North Korea and China during the Korean War. However, there was no confirmation of these allegations, and no epidemiologic support to the North Korean claim of having experienced epidemics. The United States denied allegations and requested impartial investigations. The International Red Cross suggested the formation of a special commission to investigate, and the World Health Organization offered to intervene. However, neither China nor North Korea responded to the International Red Cross, and the World Health Organization’s offer was rebuffed as a disguised attempt of espionage. Although unsubstantiated, the accusations attracted wide attention and resulted in a loss of international good will toward the United States.
Numerous unsubstantiated allegations were made during the Cold War era. These included a Soviet accusation that the United States had tested biological weapons against Canadian Eskimos, resulting in a plague epidemic, an allegation of United States plans to initiate a cholera epidemic in southeastern China, another Soviet accusation of a United States and Columbian biological attack on Columbian and Bolivian peasants.
In July 1969 Great Britain submitted a proposal to the Committe on Disarmament of the United Nations prohibiting the development, production, and stockpiling of biological weapons, and providing for inspections in response to alleged violations. During the following September, the Warsaw Pact nations unexpectedly submitted a biological disarmament proposal similar to the British proposal, but without provisions for inspections. Subsequently, the 1972 Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction was developed. The treaty was ratified in April, 1972, and went into effect in March of 1975.
In anticipation of the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention, President Nixon terminated the United States offensive biological weapons program by executive order. The United States adopted a policy to never use biological weapons, including toxins, under any circumstances whatsoever. National Security Decisions 35 and 44, issued during November 1969 (microorganisms) and February 1970 (toxins), mandated the cessation of offensive biological research and production, and the destruction of the biological arsenal. Research efforts were directed exclusively to the development of defensive measures such as diagnostic tests, vaccines, and therapies for potential biological weapons threats. Stocks of pathogens and the entire biological arsenal were destroyed between May 1971 and February 1973 under the auspices of the US Department of Agriculture, the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, and the Departments of Natural Resources of Arkansas, Colorado, and Maryland. Small quantities of some pathogens were retained at Fort Detrick to test the efficacy of investigational preventive measures and therapies.
Factors influencing the decision to terminate the offensive biological program included pragmatic as well as moral and ethical considerations. Given the available conventional, chemical, and nuclear weapons, biological weapons were not considered essential for national security. The potential effects of biological weapons on military and civilian populations were still conjectural, and for obvious ethical and public health reasons, could not be empirically studied. Biological weapons were considered untried, unpredictable, and potentially hazardous for the users as well for those under attack. Field commanders and troops were unfamiliar with their use. In addition, the United States and allied countries had a strategic interest in outlawing biological weapons programs in order to prevent the proliferation of relatively low-cost weapons of mass destruction. By outlawing biological weapons, the arms race for weapons of mass destruction would be prohibitively expensive, given the expense of nuclear programs.
After the termination of the offensive biological program, the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) was established in order to continue the development of medical defenses for US military members against potential biological attack. USAMRIID conducts research to develop strategies, products, information, and training programs for medical defense against potential biological weapons. Endemic or epidemic infectious diseases due to highly virulent pathogens requiring high-level containment for laboratory safety are also studied. USAMRIID is an open research institution; no research is classified. The in-house programs are complemented by contract programs with universities and other research institutions.
Sources and Resources: Adapted from Biological Warfare: A Historical Perspective LTC George W. Christopher, USAF, MC; LTC Theodore J. Cieslak, MC, USA, MAJ Julie A. Pavlin, MC, USA, and LTC (P) Edward M. Eitzen Jr., MC, USA. -- Operational Medicine Division, United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, Fort Detrick, Maryland
According to Wikipedia:
The United States biological weapons officially began in spring 1943 on orders from U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt. Research continued following World War II as the U.S. built up a large stockpile of biological agents and weapons. Over the course of its 27 year history, the program weaponized and stockpiled the following seven bio-agents (and pursued basic research on many more):
- Brucella spp (brucellosis)
Throughout its history, the U.S. bioweapons program was secret. It became controversial when it was later revealed that laboratory and field testing (some of the latter using simulants on non-consenting individuals) had been common. The official policy of the United States was first to deter the use of bio-weapons against U.S. forces and secondarily to retaliate if deterrence failed. There exists no evidence that the U.S. ever used biological agents against an enemy in the field (see below for alleged uses).
In 1969, President Richard Nixon ended all offensive (i.e., non-defensive) aspects of the U.S. bio-weapons program. In 1975 the U.S. ratified both the 1925 Geneva Protocol and the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention (BWC)—international treaties outlawing biological warfare. Recent U.S. biodefense programs, however, have raised concerns that the U.S. may be pursuing research that is outlawed by the BWC.
Budget history
From the onset of the U.S. biological weapons program in 1943 through the end of World War II the United States spent $400 million on biological weapons, mostly on research and development. The budget for fiscal year 1966 was $38 million. When Nixon ended the U.S. bio-weapons program it represented the first review of the U.S. biological warfare program since 1954. Despite the lack of review, the biological warfare program had increased in cost and size since 1961; when Nixon ended the program the budget was $300 million annually.
Guillemin, Biological Weapons, pp. 71-73.
Smart, Jeffery K. Medical Aspects of Chemical and Biological Warfare: Chapter 19 - The U.S. Biological Warfare and Biological Defense Programs, (PDF: p. 430 [p. 6 in PDF]), Borden Institute, Textbooks of Military Medicine, PDF via Air University. Retrieved September 2, 2010.
U.S. Army Biological Warfare Labs Building 101 Building 257 Building 470 Deseret Test Center Dugway Proving Ground Fort Detrick Fort Douglas Fort Terry Granite Peak Installation Horn Island Testing Station One-Million-Liter Test Sphere Pine Bluff Arsenal Vigo Ordnance Plant
The Deseret Test Center was a U.S. Army operated command in charge of testing chemical and biological weapons during the 1960s. Deseret was headquartered at Fort Douglas, Utah.
In May 1962 the U.S. Army established the Deseret Test Center at Fort Douglas, Utah, a disused army base. The command at Deseret was established as a result of Project 112 and Project SHAD. The project required a joint task force to undertake chemical and biological testing. In response, the Joint Chiefs of Staff established Deseret Test Center under the auspices of the U.S. Army.
On May 28, 1962 a U.S. Army Chemical Corps directive outlined Deseret's mission:
(to) prepare and conduct extra continental tests to assess chemical and biological weapons and defense systems, both by providing support data for research and development and by establishing a basis for the operational and logistic concepts needed for the employment of these systems.
The center occupied Building 103 and 105 at Fort Douglas, where administrative and planning decisions were made. Despite being based at Douglas, no tests were actually performed on the base. The headquarters at Fort Douglas was staffed by 200 individuals. Deseret was designed to assist not only the Army but the Navy and the Air Force as well; thus, it was funded jointly by all branches of the U.S. military and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Deseret also received administrative support from Dugway Proving Ground, about 80 miles away. The U.S. Army closed Deseret Test Center in 1973.
References:
* Regis, Edward. The Biology of Doom: The History of America's Secret Germ Warfare Project, (Google Books), Macmillan, 2000, p. 198, (ISBN 080505765X).
* Harris, Sheldon H. Factories of Death: Japanese Biological Warfare, 1932-45, and the American Cover-up, (Google Books), Routledge, 1994, p. 232-33, (ISBN 0415091055).
* "Fact Sheet - Yellow Leaf", Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Health Affairs), Deployment Health Support Directorate, accessed November 15, 2008.
* Guillemin, Jeanne. Biological Weapons: From the Invention of State-Sponsored Programs to Contemporary Bioterrorism, (Google Books), Columbia University Press, 2005, pp. 109-10, (ISBN 0231129424).
* "DOD RELEASES DESERET TEST CENTER/PROJECT 112/PROJECT SHAD FACT SHEETS", U.S. Department of Defense, October 9, 2002, accessed November 15, 2008.
* Judson, Karen. Chemical and Biological Warfare, (Google Books), Marshall Cavendish, 2003, pp. 83-86, (ISBN 0761415858).
*"Secrecy Over Cold War WMD Tests", CBS News, January 16, 2004, accessed November 15, 2008.
*Shanker, Thom. "U.S. Tested a Nerve Gas in Hawaii", The New York Times, November 1, 2002, accessed November 15, 2008.
Plum Island Animal Disease Center
Plum Island Animal Disease Center of New York (PIADCNY) is a United States federal research facility dedicated to the study of animal diseases. It is part of the
Since 1954, the center has had the goal of protecting America's livestock from animal diseases. During the Cold War a secret biological weapons program targeting livestock was conducted at the site. This program has been the subject of controversy.
Location and description[edit]
The center is located on Plum Island near the northeast coast of Long Island in New York state. During the Spanish-American War, the island was purchased by the government for the construction of Fort Terry, which was later deactivated after World War II and then reactivated in 1952 for the Army Chemical Corps. The center comprises 70 buildings (many of them dilapidated) on 840 acres (3.4 km2).
Plum Island has its own fire department, power plant, water treatment plant and security. Any wild mammal seen on the island is killed to prevent the possible outbreak of hoof and mouth disease. However, as Plum Island was named an important bird area by the New York Audubon Society, it has successfully attracted different birds. Plum Island had placed osprey nests and bluebird boxes throughout the island and will now add kestrel houses.
History
In response to disease outbreaks in Mexico and Canada in 1954, the Army gave the island to the Agriculture Department to establish a research center dedicated to the study of foot-and-mouth disease in cattle.
The island was opened to news media for the first time in 1992. In 1995, the Department of Agriculture was issued a $111,000 fine for storing hazardous chemicals on the island.
Local Long Island activists prevented the center from expanding to include diseases that affect humans in 2000, which would require a Biosafety Level 4 designation; in 2002, Congress again considered the plan.
The Wall Street Journal reported in January 2002 that many scientists and government officials wanted the lab to close, believing that the threat of foot-and-mouth disease was so remote that the center did not merit its $16.5 million annual budget. In 2002, the Plum Island Animal Disease Center was transferred from the United States Department of Agriculture to the United States Department of Homeland Security.
In 2003, a whistle-blower who voiced concerns about safety at the facility was fired by the contractor he worked for. He had discussed his concerns with aides to Senator Hillary Clinton.A National Labor Relations Board judge found that the contractor, North Fork Services, had discriminated against the whistle-blower.
Diseases studied and outbreaks
As a diagnostic facility, PIADC scientists study more than 40 foreign animal diseases and several domestic diseases, including hog cholera and African swine fever. PIADC runs about 30,000 diagnostic tests each year. PIADC operates Biosafety Level 3 Agriculture (BSL-3Ag), BSL-3 and BSL-2 laboratory facilities. The facility's research program includes developing diagnostic tools and biologicals(vaccines) for foot-and-mouth disease and other diseases of livestock.
Plum Island's freezers also contain samples of polio and diseases that can be transferred from animals to humans. In 1991, the center's freezers were threatened following a power outage caused by a hurricane.
Because federal law stipulates that live foot-and-mouth disease virus cannot be studied on the mainland, PIADC is unique in that it is currently the only laboratory in the U.S. equipped with research facilities that permit the study of foot-and-mouth disease.
Foot-and-mouth disease is extremely contagious among cloven-hooved animals, and people who have come in contact with it can carry it to animals. Accidental outbreaks of the virus have caused catastrophic livestock and economic losses in many countries throughout the world. Plum Island has experienced outbreaks of its own, including one in 1978 in which the disease was released to animals outside the center, and two incidents in 2004 in which foot-and-mouth disease was released within the center. Foot-and-mouth disease was eradicated from the U.S. in 1929 (with the exception of the stocks within the Plum Island center) but is currently endemic to many parts of the world.
In response to the two 2004 incidents, New York Senator Hillary Clinton and Congressman Tim Bishop wrote a letter to the Department of Homeland Security regarding their concerns about the center's safety: "We urge you to immediately investigate these alarming breaches at the highest levels, and to keep us apprised of all developments."
Lab 257, a book by Michael C. Carroll, has alleged a connection between Plum Island Animal Disease Center and the outbreaks of three infectious diseases: West Nile virus in 1999, Lyme disease in 1975, and Dutch duck plague in 1967.
Historic buildings
Building 257
Building 257, located at Fort Terry, was completed around 1911. The original purpose of the building was to store weapons, such as mines, and the structure was designated as the Combined Torpedo Storehouse and Cable Tanks building. Fort Terry went through a period of activations and deactivations through World War II until the U.S. Army Chemical Corps took over the facility in 1952 for use in anti-animal biological warfare (BW) research. The conversion of Fort Terry to a BW facility required the remodeling of Building 257 and other structures. As work neared completion on the lab and other facilities in the spring of 1954, the mission of Fort Terry changed. Construction was completed on the facilities on May 26, 1954, but Fort Terry was officially transferred to the USDA on July 1, 1954. At the time, scientists from the Bureau of Animal Industry were already working in Building 257.
Building 101
The structure is a 164,000-square-foot (15,200 m2) T-shaped white building. It is situated on Plum Island's northwest plateau on a 10-acre (40,000 m2) site where it is buttressed by a steep cliff which leads into the ocean. To the east of the building's site is the old Plum Island Lighthouse.
Construction on Plum Island's new laboratory Building 101 began around July 1, 1954, around the same time that the Army's anti-animal bio-warfare (BW) facilities at Fort Terry were transferred to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Following the transfer the facilities on Plum Island became known as the Plum Island Animal Disease Center. The USDA's $7.7. million Building 101 laboratory facility was dedicated on September 26, 1956. Prior to the building's opening the area around it was sprayed with chemicals to deter insect or animal life from approaching the facility. Upon its opening a variety of tests using pathogens and vectors were conducted on animals in the building. Research on biological weapons at PIADC did not cease until the entire program was canceled in 1969 by Richard Nixon.
A modernization program in 1977 aimed to update both Building 101 and another laboratory, Building 257, but the program was canceled in 1979 because of construction contract irregularities. PIADC facilities were essentially unchanged until a new modernization began in 1990. Two-thirds of the laboratory facilities inside Building 101 were renovated and operations from Building 257 were consolidated into Building 101. Building 257 was closed, and a major expansion, known as Building 100, was completed on Building 101 in 1995.
Replacement facility
A modernization program in 1977 aimed to update both Building 101 and Building 257, but the program was canceled in 1979 because of construction contract irregularities. Plum Island facilities were essentially unchanged until a new modernization began in 1990. Two-thirds of the laboratory facilities inside Building 101 were renovated and operations from Building 257 were consolidated into Building 101. Building 257 was closed, and a major expansion, known as Building 100, was completed on Building 101 in 1995. According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Building 257 currently poses no health hazard.
On September 11, 2005, DHS announced that the Plum Island Animal Disease Research Center will be replaced by a new federal facility. The location of the new high-security animal disease lab, to be called the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF), has been recommended to be built in Manhattan, Kansas. However, this plan has been called into question by a 2009 Government Accountability Office study, which states that claims by DHS that the work on foot and mouth disease performed on Plum Island can be performed "as safely on the mainland" is "not supported" by evidence. In 2012, DHS completed a risk assessment of the Kansas site that called the proposed facility "safe and secure". However, a 2012 review of the risk assessment by the National Research Council called it "seriously flawed".
Activities
PIADC's mission can be grouped into three main categories: diagnosis, research, and education.[citation needed]
Since 1971, PIADC has been educating veterinarians in foreign animal diseases. The center hosts several Foreign Animal Disease Diagnostic schools each year to train federal and state veterinarians and laboratory diagnostic staff, military veterinarians and veterinary school faculty.
At PIADC, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) work together; DHS' Targeted Advanced Development unit partners with USDA, academia and industry scientists to deliver vaccines and antivirals to the USDA for licensure and inclusion in the USDA National Veterinary Vaccine Stockpile.[citation needed]
USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) performs basic and applied research to better formulate countermeasures against foreign animal diseases, including strategies for prevention, control and recovery. ARS focuses on developing faster-acting vaccines and antivirals to be used during outbreaks to limit or stop transmission. Antivirals prevent infection while vaccine immunity develops. The principal diseases studied are foot-and-mouth disease, classical swine fever, and vesicular stomatitis virus.
USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services (APHIS) operates the Foreign Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory, an internationally recognized[citation needed] facility performing diagnostic testing of samples collected from U.S. livestock. APHIS also tests animals and animal products being imported into the U.S. APHIS maintains the North American Foot-and-Mouth Disease Vaccine Bank at PIADC and hosts the Foreign Animal Disease Diagnosticians training program, offering several classes per year to train veterinarians to recognize foreign animal diseases.
Research on biological weapons at PIADC did not cease until the entire program was canceled in 1969 by Richard Nixon.
Bio-weapons research
The original anti-animal BW mission was "to establish and pursue a program of research and development of certain anti-animal (BW) agents". By August 1954 animals occupied holding areas at Plum Island and research was ongoing within Building 257. The USDA facility, known as the Plum Island Animal Disease Center, continued work on biological warfare research until the U.S. program was ended by Richard Nixon in 1969. The bio-weapons research at Building 257 and Fort Terry was shrouded in aura of mystery and secrecy. The existence of biological warfare experiments on Plum Island during the Cold War era was denied for decades by the U.S. government. In 1993 Newsday unearthed documents proving otherwise and in 1994, Russian scientists inspected the Plum Island research facility to verify that these experiments had indeed ended.
In popular culture
Plum Island and PIADC are the subject of a murder-mystery novel, Plum Island, by Nelson DeMille. DeMille has said, "How could anthrax not be studied there? Every animal has it." While addressing popular culture fears of a germ warfare lab at Plum Island, overall, the facility is presented as doing the job described by the Federal Government - research into animal diseases that would either decimate our national livestock or jump to humans and decimate us. The novel portrays the investigation into the murder of two Plum Island scientists. The motive, initially thought to be germs for terrorists or germs for a biotech company, is really the search for the lost treasure of Captain Kidd, who sailed the waters around Long Island prior to his capture. Kidd's treasure has never been found.
Plum Island is also referenced in the 1991 psychological thriller Silence of the Lambs, when the character of Hannibal Lecter is offered a transfer to a different psychiatric institution, as well as the promise of annual week long supervised furlough to Plum Island, in exchange for his assistance in helping the FBI locate the whereabouts of the missing daughter of a prominent US Senator. It is later revealed in the film that the offer is bogus in the first place, used only as a ruse to elicit Lecter's cooperation.
The testing facility at Plum Island is the subject of a novel, The Poison Plum, by author Les Roberts.
Controversy
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The number of building "257" is a metonym for the entire site in 2004 when Michael Carroll, an attorney, published Lab 257: The Disturbing Story of the Government's Secret Plum Island Germ Laboratory. Many of the assertions and accusations made in the book are counter to the government's position and have been criticized and challenged. The review in Army Chemical Review concluded "Lab 257 would be cautiously valuable to someone writing a history of Plum Island, but is otherwise an example of fringe literature with a portrayal of almost every form of novelist style. " The book advances the idea that Lyme disease originated at Plum Island and conjectures several means by which animal diseases could have left the island. David Weld, the executive director of the American Lyme Disease Foundation, generically opined that "I personally just don't think that has any merit" yet refused to be specific or comment on the number of birds that come into contact with the island and fly back and forth between the mainland, possibly carrying infected ticks.
On July 12, 2008, a creature dubbed the Montauk Monster washed ashore at Ditch Plains Beach near the business district of Montauk, New York. The creature, a quadruped of indeterminate size, was dead when discovered, and was assumed by some to have come from Plum Island due to the currents and proximity to the mainland. Palaeozoologist Darren Naish studied the photograph and concluded from visible dentition and the front paws that the creature may have been a raccoon. This was also the opinion of Larry Penny, the East Hampton Natural Resources Director, though others claim that this is unlikely and interpret the fleshless part of the upper jaw, visible in the photo with empty tooth sockets, as a beak, implying that the creature was a kind of hybrid monster, an extremely implausible and unlikely circumstance.
When Pakistani neuroscientist Aafia Siddiqui, a suspected al-Qaeda member, was arrested in Afghanistan in July 2008, she had in her handbag handwritten notes referring to a "mass casualty attack" that listed various U.S. locations, including the Plum Island Animal Disease Center. In February 2010, she was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon and attempting to kill U.S. soldiers and FBI agents who were seeking to interrogate her.
References[edit]
* "Bioterrorism Fears Revive Waning Interest In Agricultural Disease Lab on Plum Island". The Wall Street Journal. 2002-01-08. Retrieved 2008-05-17.
*Miller, Judith (1999-09-22). "Long Island Lab May Do Studies Of Bioterrorism". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-05-18.
* "About Plum Island Animal Disease Center". Department of Homeland Security. 2008-12-28. Retrieved 2008-08-04.
* Rather, John (2004-08-22). "Plum Island Reports Disease Outbreak". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-05-17.
* U.S. General Accounting Office. HIGH-CONTAINMENT BIOSAFETY LABORATORIES: DHS Lacks Evidence to Conclude That Foot-and-Mouth Disease Research Can Be Done Safely on the U.S. Mainland. GAO-08-821T. 22 May 2008. Page 1.
* Healy, Patrick (February 22, 2004). "Plum I. Was Ready For Its Close-Up". The New York Times. Retrieved May 22, 2010.
* "1669-2003: A Partial History of Plum Island", United States Animal Health Association Newsletter, Vol. 30, No. 4, October 2003, pp. 5, 26, accessed January 10, 2009.
* Cella, Alexandra. "An Overview of Plum Island: History, Research and Effects on Long Island", Long Island Historical Journal, Fall 2003/Spring 2004, Vol. 16, Nos. 1 and 2, pp. 176-181 (194-199 in PDF), accessed January 10, 2009.
* Carroll, Michael C. Lab 257: The Disturbing Story of the Government's Secret Plum Island Germ Laboratory, (Google Books), HarperCollins, 2004, pp. 45-48 and p. 60, (ISBN 0060011416).
* Dunn, Adam. "The mysterious lab off New York's shore", CNN.com, April 2, 2004, accessed January 10, 2009.
* "DHS: DHS Issues Record of Decision on Proposed National Bio- and Agro-Defense Facility". Dhs.gov. Retrieved 2011-08-10.
* "Study spurs request to not phase out Plum Island". Newsday.com. 2009-07-31. Retrieved 2011-08-10.
Jump up ^ DHS Issues Updated Site-Specific Risk Assessment For Proposed National Bio And Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF)
* Officials press feds for NBAF
* Wheelis, Mark, et al. Deadly Cultures: Biological Weapons Since 1945, (Google Books), Harvard University Press, 2006 p. 225-228, (ISBN 0674016998).
* Lambert, Bruce. "Closely Guarded Secrets: Some Islands You Can't Get to Visit", The New York Times, May 17, 1998, accessed January 10, 2009.
* "The Poison Plum". Les Roberts. Retrieved 2008-05-17.
* Bleyer, Bill. "Plum Island Animal Disease Center", from Newsday, via The Baltimore Sun, April 26, 2004, accessed January 10, 2009.
* Kirby, Reid. "Book Reviews", Army Chemical Review, January–June 2005, accessed January 10, 2009.
* "What was the Montauk monster? : Tetrapod Zoology". Scienceblogs.com. 2008-08-04. Retrieved 2009-07-14.
* "The Hound of Bonacville - The Independent - July 23, 2008". Indyeastend.com. 2008-07-23. Retrieved 2009-06-08.
* "Indictment in U.S. v. Siddiqui". September 3, 2008. Retrieved February 11, 2010.
* Sealed Complaint in U.S. v. Siddiqui. July 31, 2008. Retrieved February 11, 2010.
* America's Most Wanted 'The Most Dangerous Woman in the World', Der Spiegel, November 27, 2008
* Mayer, Alex, “She is the most significant capture in five years”, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 13, 2008, accessed February 11, 2010[dead link]
* "Officials: Female Terror Suspect's Capture Yields Documents, Computer Files", ABC, August 13, 2008, accessed February 12, 2010
Below is what you will find on the official Homeland Security website ~
http://www.dhs.gov/st-piadc
Science and Technology Directorate Plum Island Animal Disease Center
PIADC has protected America’s livestock from foreign animal diseases for almost 60 years
Plum Island Animal Disease Center (PIADC) is the only laboratory in the nation that can work on high-consequence foreign animal diseases. The laboratory helps protect U.S. livestock from the accidental or intentional introduction of foreign animal diseases that can seriously threaten livestock industries, food safety, economy and way of life.
Plum Island Animal Disease Center Begins
After the eradication of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) from the United States in 1929, there were no facilities in the country with the authority or the ability to work with this highly contagious virus. An outbreak of FMD in Mexico in December 1946 created the sense of emergency that prompted Congress to authorize the Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Animal Industry, to construct a facility on an offshore location to study the disease. It took another outbreak of FMD, this time in Canada in 1952, for Congress to appropriate the necessary funds for the new laboratory.
On July 1, 1954, just as the construction of the new laboratory Building 101 was taking place, the Army officially transferred the property of Plum Island to the U.S Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Research Service (ARS).
In 1984, the diagnostic and training missions at PIADC were transferred from ARS to the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS). The new unit, the Foreign Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory, became one of several laboratories of the National Veterinary Services Laboratories, which are headquartered in Ames, Iowa.
In 2002, PIADC operations were transferred to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). DHS also established scientific programs to work in partnership with the USDA in developing new vaccines and diagnostic tests to respond and control outbreaks of foreign animal diseases.
USDA and DHS Working in Collaboration at PIADC
The USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Foreign Animal Disease Research Unit conducts basic and applied research to prevent, control and recover from foreign animal diseases, such as foot-and-mouth disease, classical swine fever and African swine fever. Research is conducted to better understand the pathogenesis, host pathogen interaction and immunology of these diseases in livestock. The goal is to develop rapid laboratory diagnostic tests and faster-acting, safe vaccines and biotherapeutics.
The USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) Foreign Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory provides confirmatory laboratory diagnostic testing and technologies for surveillance, detection, response and recovery from high-threat foreign animal diseases for the nation. The agency also conducts foreign animal disease training for state and federal veterinarians who are the first responders for potential foreign animal disease outbreaks in the U.S. and maintains the North American Vaccine Bank.
The DHS Science & Technology Directorate is responsible for operational management of PIADC. DHS also conducts scientific programs through the Targeted Advanced Development Branch in partnership with ARS and industry for the advanced development of vaccines and other biological countermeasures required for an effective response to an outbreak of a foreign animal disease in the U.S. DHS also works with APHIS in the development of new laboratory diagnostic tests required for the identification and response to foreign animal disease outbreaks.
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By mail:
Plum Island Animal Disease Center
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
P.O. Box 848
Greenport, N.Y. 11944
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