- Hello Jeff - Well, I guess we both knew that Plum
Island will, more then likely, get the requested upgrade. and will host
level 4 zoonotic diseases that are deadly to animals and humans. These
exotic diseases have NO KNOWN CURES or PREVENTIVE VACCINES.
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- I sure hope those TWO armed guards can protect
the Plum from terrorists. Question is, who is going to protect the public
from the Plum?
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- Patricia
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- Plum Island Security Study
Ready
- By Bill Bleyer
NewsDay Staff Writer
11-6-1
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- A draft study of security needs at the Plum Island Animal
Disease Center has been completed and is to be turned over to the U.S.
Department of Agriculture today, sources said yesterday.
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- Since Sept. 11, the agriculture department has increased
security at Plum Island while security evaluations are being conducted.
The unofficial disclosure that a draft report is complete came after U.S.
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Assemb. Patricia Acampora (R-Mattituck),
whose district includes Plum Island, said yesterday the review needed to
be speeded up.
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- They also questioned the current system of using guards
from a private security agency.
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- "By all accounts, it's relatively secure,"
Schumer said at a news conference at his Melville office. But "we
live in a new world. When you have a facility just off the coast of Long
Island that handles lethal and rare animal diseases, you just can't take
chances."
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- After the terrorist attacks, the agriculture department
told East End officials it had hired the Wells Fargo security firm to
supply
two armed guards around the clock to supplement existing unarmed security
personnel working for the contractor who runs operations. One armed guard
patrols the lab; the other patrols the rest of the 840-acre island. In
addition, Coast Guard vessels have been patrolling around the
island.
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- The department told local officials several weeks ago
that Sandia National Laboratory in New Mexico, which handles nuclear
materials
and has considerable experience in laboratory security, was reviewing Plum
Island's security.
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- The director of the Plum Island lab told officials two
weeks ago that the review would take one to two years, Acampora said.
"We
don't have the luxury of time anymore," she said.
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- Government sources said yesterday that the Sandia draft
report was expected to be delivered to the agriculture department today
with its final report completed by the end of the year.
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- USDA began reviewing its security at Plum Island well
before the attacks, a source said. In October 2000, agency staff began
meeting with law enforcement officials to review security at the lab and
how disease samples were transported to Plum Island. In January, an
interagency
group including the FBI, the Centers for Disease Control and Sandia began
meeting. That led to Sandia being commissioned to do a study early in the
year and Sandia staff visiting the island last month.
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- Acampora said the transportation of disease samples to
the lab by commercial flights to Kennedy Airport and by vehicle to the
Plum Island ferry in Orient also concerned her. "What would happen
if one of the packages got into the wrong hands?" she asked.
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- Schumer said he would wait for results of a security
study before commenting on the island's safety arrangements. But he added
that most people would not feel reassured by the presence of only two armed
guards on the island.
-
- Acampora said USDA should return to its old policy of
having federal employees guard the facility. The agency turned over
operations
other than research to a contractor a decade ago.
-
- Meanwhile, Karen Dunn, spokeswoman for Sen. Hillary
Clinton
(D-N.Y.), said that since the beginning of October Clinton has been working
to have Plum Island specifically included in a bioterrorism bill that is
expected to be introduced this week. She said this would ensure that
security
arrangements on the island would be scrutinized and upgraded if
necessary.
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- The lab was established in 1954 to study foreign
diseases,
such as foot-and-mouth disease and African swine fever, which are serious
but not usually fatal to humans.
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- Copyright © 2001, Newsday, Inc.
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