"Arms Center to Give Biothreats New Focus"

[GreenPartyVoter]

WASHINGTON (AP) - A new government center focusing on weapons intelligence will pay significant attention to biological threats, which the director considers a soft spot for spy agencies.

In an interview Wednesday as the center officially opened, Kenneth Brill said the National Counterproliferation Center will give a heightened profile to threats from pandemics and other biological threats.

Brill noted that the government has had a 60-year relationship with experts in physics, which has been part of nuclear technology's maturation, but comparable ties in biological sciences are not as strong.

"Naturally occurring diseases can be much more devastating than a weapon," Brill said. "The life sciences are moving so quickly and there are so many new dramatic breakthroughs. Yet some of those breakthroughs, if you tweak them just slightly, become really potentially devastating agents for harm."

http://apnews1.iwon.com/article/20051222/D8EKVUA83.html