DHS and CDC Refuse To Give House Panel Docs on Failed BioWatch Program

After wasting billions of taxpayer dollars on a non-working program aimed at protecting the US public from biological attack, the Department of Homeland Security and Centers for Disease Control may be refusing to give documents on the program to House Energy Committee investigators. The lack of openness is feeding suspicions that federal agencies and private companies fanned post-9/11 fears to justify programs that did little or nothing to protect the public.

Since its hush-hush beginnings after 9/11 during the Bush administration, the BioWatch program's failures have been amply documented in open-source literature. But as the GOP-controlled House Energy Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations pushes forward with its probe of the program during a Democratic administration, it is experiencing push-back on getting documents it has requested.

David Willman, one of the few journalists who has covered BioWatch problems on an ongoing basis, chronicled the conflict in a November 15, 2012, piece in the Los Angeles Times.

• "Officials Accused of Withholding BioWatch Documents," Los Angeles Times, November 15, 2012, by David Willman.