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Bush Signs Bioterrorism Bill
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| Bush
signs into law the Bioterrorism Preparedness Act on the White
House lawn
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WASHINGTON,
June 13 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Calling biological arms
“potentially the most dangerous weapons in the world,” U.S.
President George W. Bush on Wednesday signed a $4.3 billion bill
designed to improve the nation's ability to prevent and respond to
bioterrorist attacks.
“Terrorist
groups seek biological weapons. We know some rogue states already have
them. It’s important that we confront these real threats to our
country and prepare for future emergencies,” he said.
Passed
overwhelming by Congress, despite some grumbling, the measure became
law as Bush said the proposal was the best way “to make sure that we
have an effective response to the enemy that still wants to hit
America
. This bill ... is
part of the process of doing our duty to protect innocent Americans
from an enemy who hates
America
,” reports news
agencies.
At
a signing ceremony for the Bioterrorism Preparedness Act of 2001, Bush
recalled how someone sent letters laced with deadly anthrax spores to
prominent
U.S.
media figures and
political leaders in the wake of the attacks on the
World
Trade
Center
and the Pentagon.
“On
September the 11th, the world learned how evil men could use airplanes
as weapons of terror. Shortly thereafter, we learned how evil people
can use microscopic spores as weapons of terror,” he said.
“Protecting
our citizens against bioterrorism is an urgent duty of American
governments. We must develop the learning and technology and the
health care delivery systems that will allow us to respond to the
attacks with state of the art medical care throughout our entire
country,” Bush said.
The
measure aims to secure the
U.S.
food and water
supplies from attack; boost stockpiles of drugs, vaccines, and medical
supplies; and enhance communication among health-care providers to
speed responses to any attack.
“The
speed with which they detect and respond to a threat to public health
could be the difference between containment and catastrophe,” Bush
said as he and the bill's sponsors baked in the sun-soaked White House
Rose Garden.
The
law also seeks to enhance efforts to prevent and detect bioterrorist
attacks by improving inspections of food entering the
United States
as well as track
potentially dangerous biological materials in the
United States
.
Finally,
the measure seeks to speed the development of new medicines and
treatments as well as vaccines.
The
House and Senate passed the Bioterrorism Preparedness Act in the wake
of the anthrax attacks late last year, and after anthrax-laced letters
were sent through the mail to congressional and media offices,
stopping mail service for six weeks to Capitol Hill.
Altogether,
five people, including two postal workers, died in those attacks.
Investigators
suspect the terrorist is from the
U.S.
, though nobody has been arrested in the case.
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