U.S. Army chief says no human error seen in anthrax mishap

[Little Tich]

Source: Yahoo! News / Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. personnel working at an Army facility in Utah appeared to follow correctly all the outlined procedures to inactivate anthrax before they mistakenly shipped off live samples of the deadly bacteria, the Army's top general said on Thursday.

Army Chief of Staff General Raymond Odierno said investigators were now reviewing the procedures themselves to determine why the bacteria was not rendered inactive.

"The best I can tell there was not human error," Odierno told reporters, cautioning that his information was based solely on preliminary reports.

U.S. officials disclosed on Wednesday that U.S. Army facilities mistakenly shipped live anthrax bacteria to laboratories in nine states and an air base in South Korea.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/u-military-mistakenly-ships-live-anthrax-labs-9-000151602.html

[jonno99]

1. You mean to tell me that the army has mailroom robots with access to anthrax??!!

I'm calling BS on this one...

[Solly Mack]

2. OK.

"...appeared to follow correctly all the outlined procedures.."

[Scootaloo]

3. well,that means either it was intentional, or humans were not involved

I'd be curious to know which it is.

[delrem]

4. They didn't CHECK and DOUBLE CHECK? nt

WTF is a military doing with anthrax anyway? (tho' that's another question)

[Lurks Often]

10. To test and develop vaccines and other protections against ot

The military uses anthrax, other lethal diseases and samples of chemical weapons to test for vaccines and make sure protective gear used by the military works properly.

The US Army has been doing so since the early 1950's, primarily at Ft. Detrick, MD and in other US Army facilities

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Army_Medical_Research_Institute_of_Infectious_Diseases


As to how live anthrax got sent to numerous military bases remains to be seen.

[kiranon]

5. Need a new chief of staff. This one spouts nonsense.

[OnyxCollie]

6. No human error seen.

It's a bunch of chimps shoving test tubes into boxes.

[Purveyor]

7. Y'all feel safer now? WTF! eom

[left-of-center2012]

8. No human error

Gee - maybe that's what drove "W" into Iraq?
"W" isn't human.

[sendero]

9. If part of the procedure...

... did not include a step to verify that the bacteria were in fact dead, yes THAT was a human error.

The people running the show are morons and liars.

[bigworld]

11. Nothing to see here

[jtuck004]

12. Big Box. Box do stuff. Problem is box. Box. Box. Box. Bad, bad box!! n/t

[herding cats]

13. So...