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02.03.10 - Washington Post: Pay heed to al-Qaeda's quest for biological weapons Washington Post editorial, Wednesday, February 3, 2010THREE THOUSAND people were killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. More than 300,000 could be dead within one week after a modest attack with biological weapons.For most people, the thought of such an attack is an unthinkable horror. For al-Qaeda, it is a lingering dream and one that it is working diligently to achieve. Two recently released reports indicate the United States has been aware of this threat for years yet remains "woefully" unprepared.Al-Qaeda is engaged in a "long-term, persistent and systematic approach to developing weapons to be used in mass casualty attacks," writes Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, a senior fellow at Harvard's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. Osama bin Laden, as recently as 2007, called on his followers to acquire such weapons to "escalate the killing and fighting" against Americans.Mr. Mowatt-Larssen is not the only one sounding an alarm. "Each of the last three Administrations has been slow to recognize and respond to the biothreat," concluded a report made public last week by the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism, which was created by Congress after the Sept. 11 attacks and is led by former senators Bob Graham (D-Fla.) and James M. Talent (R-Mo.) "The difference is that the danger has grown to the point that we no longer have the luxury of a slow learning curve," the report stated. The Obama administration was given good marks for working to prevent terrorists from obtaining nuclear weapons, but "no equal sense of urgency" has been "displayed towards the threat of a large-scale biological weapons attack," the report said. The administration was given low marks for its failure to tighten government oversight of labs that handle dangerous biological agents.It received an F for failing to move aggressively with a plan to "rapidly recognize, respond, and recover" in the event of an attack. Producing large quantities of vaccines and establishing communications and distribution networks are key to preventing a biological attack from being devastating. Experts estimate that ramping up such a system would cost roughly $3 billion per year. The administration also received a failing grade from the commission for neglecting to establish programs to recruit and train the next generation of national security experts.In Congress, some 80 committees and subcommittees have some oversight over homeland security. Such fragmentation, said Mr. Talent, "guarantees that much of what Congress does is duplicative and disjointed." The commission recommended that oversight be concentrated in the House and Senate Homeland Security committees. This may yet be another problem that the Obama administration inherited, but it is now the president's to fix. He must do so without a moment's delay.