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FBI Says U.S. Law Enforcement Resources Stretched to the Limit
WASHINGTON, Nov 6 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - U.S. law enforcement resources responding to bio-terrorism threats are stretched to the limit even as the government warned of possible new attacks on the country, a top FBI official warned Tuesday.
Since the September 11 attacks, U.S. agencies have issued several warnings regarding what they deem to be "credible" threats received by their various offices - the latest of which was a warning regarding a possible attack on bridges in the U.S. issued late last week.
Since mid-September, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has responded to more than 7,000 suspicious anthrax letters, 950 incidents involving other weapons of mass destruction such as bombs, and some 29,000 phone calls about suspicious packages, James Caruso said.
The vast majority of those had turned out to be false alarms or hoaxes, said Caruso, deputy assistant director of the FBI's counter-terrorism division, but investigating each one was straining the system.
"Resources available to law enforcement for responding to the alleged threats and public health laboratories in testing suspicious material for the presence of biological agents are strained and stretched to capacity," said Caruso.
In comparison, in 1998, the FBI opened 181 cases related to weapons of mass destruction, of which 112 were biological in nature. The number of cases increased to 267 in 1999 and 257 in 2000, reported news agencies.
The vast majority of those incidents were hoaxes, he said.
But with four dead from the recent anthrax bio-terror scare and 14 other confirmed anthrax cases, law enforcement cannot afford to ease up.
"To both the responding entities and the potentially exposed victims, the presence of a powder threatening the presence of anthrax is not a 'hoax,' or something to be taken lightly.
"The individuals perpetrating such an activity must be held accountable for their actions," Caruso insisted at a Senate subcommittee on the bio-terrorism threat to the United States.
Speaking at the same hearing, Senator Dianne Feinstein of California (Democrat) moved to plug legislative holes amid administration warnings of a new terror attack in the offing.
Concerned that dangerous pathogens and toxins capable of being used in bio-terror weapons are too easily available, Feinstein announced a bill to ban individual possession of hazardous agents and establish strict new certification requirements of labs in the United States.
"I can think of no legitimate reason why people on the street need to possess these pathogens," Feinstein said.
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