15 May 2012

Editorial: (USA) Congress, Bioterrorism and Asia

By Jason Miks

Last week, I wrote on the danger partisanship posed to U.S. policymaking, including foreign policy. But as former Sen. Bob Graham has suggested, political turf wars aren’t all about partisanship – politicians are quite happy to place their own influence in Congress’s myriad committees above the nation’s good.
This likely won’t come as a surprise to most, but it’s a danger worth repeating in light of comments Graham made late last week on bioterrorism, an issue that I’ve taken an interest in before in The Diplomat.
Graham led the Weapons of Mass Destruction Committee, which reported to Congress four years ago about the threat of terrorism and proliferation.
“The Commission believes that much more can be done to prevent biological weapons proliferation and terrorism – even as we recognize it is unrealistic to think that we can completely eliminate the possibility of misuse,” the report noted. “To date, the U.S. government has invested most of its nonproliferation efforts and diplomatic capital in preventing nuclear terrorism. The Commission believes that it should make the more likely threat – bioterrorism – a higher priority.”

Read the full story at The Diplomat