Combating Terrorism: Observations on Biological Terrorism and Public Health Initiatives

• NCJ Number: 179507
• Author(s): Henry L. Hinton Jr.
• Date Published: 1999
• Length: 12 pages
• Corporate Author: US Government Accountability Office
• Sale Source: US Government Accountability Office
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Legislative Hearing/Committee Report
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs and the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies, Committee on Appropriations.

Annotation

This testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs and the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies, Committee on Appropriations discusses the ongoing work of the General Accounting Office's (GAO's) National Security and International Affairs Division regarding the biological terrorist threat and some aspects of the Department of Health and Human Services' bioterrorism initiative.

Abstract

The testimony first discusses intelligence agencies' judgments about the threat of terrorism. Second, it highlights the importance and benefits of threat and risk assessments in providing a sound basis for targeting the Nation's investments in combating terrorism. Third, the testimony shares some preliminary observations from the GAO's National Security and International Affairs Division's ongoing work on the science behind the biological and chemical terrorist threat, with a focus on biological agents. Finally, the testimony provides some of the National Security and International Affairs Division's overall observations on public health initiatives that deal with a new national pharmaceutical stockpile and the basis for selecting items to research, produce, procure, and stockpile civilian defense against terrorism. Appended list of 30 related GAO products