DOD Excess Property Sales: Recurring Homeland Security Weakness

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July 24, 2006

A Congressional hearing tomorrow will feature findings from a widely reported Government Accountability Office report on security risks posed by Department of Defense sales. A 2003 GAO report found similar findings in regard to DoD sales of equipment that could be used to make biological warfare agents.  That report is not available on line at GAO�s web site, but was obtained by POGO and is here.

According to the report: �Many items needed to establish a laboratory for making biological warfare agents were being sold on the Internet to the public from DOD�s excess property inventory for pennies on the dollar, making them both easy and economical to obtain. Although production of biological warfare agents requires a high degree of expertise, public sales of these DOD excess items increase the risk that terrorists could obtain and use them to produce and deliver biological agents within the U.S."

The hearing tomorrow takes place in the House Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations, and is entitled �DOD Excess Property: Inventory Control Breakdowns Present a Security Risk.�

Authors: Beth Daley

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