'Bioterror' equipment may be in wrong hands

Equipment that could be used to make chemical and biological weapons could be in the hands of dangerous people because of lax monitoring of sales, according to a congressional report released in Washington today.

The US Defence Department failed to properly monitor internet sales of the equipment, said the General Accounting Office.

The House Government Reform subcommittee on national security is to examine the findings, which indicate weaknesses in Pentagon controls over surplus biological and chemical lab equipment and protective clothing.

“The cheap, virtually unregulated availability of low-cost biological laboratory equipment poses a risk to national security,” Republican Christopher Shays, the subcommittee chairman, said.

“The Department of Defence should not be a discount shopping outlet for would-be-bioterrorists.”

At the subcommittee’s request, GAO bought surplus items though a shell corporation, acquiring operating lab equipment and other items at less than one-tenth of the original cost to the Pentagon, the report says.

The GAO also was able to buy protective suits and other items, despite a department policy that prohibits public sale of the items.

Some protective suits bought by the GAO had previously been determined defective, yet they were still circulating in the surplus supply chain, with some issued to state and local law enforcement units.