U.S. Surplus Sales Include Biological Weapons Gear

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-arms-congress-bioweapons.html

U.S. Surplus Sales Include Biological Weapons Gear
By REUTERS


Filed at 4:17 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Undercover congressional investigators using the Internet were able to buy thousands of dollars of surplus laboratory equipment and protective gear from Defense Department laboratories that could be used to make biological and chemical weapons.

To show how easily and cheaply such items could be acquired, the General Accounting Office told Congress on Tuesday investigators spent $4,100 to buy Defense Department equipment including a biological safety cabinet, a bacteriological incubator, an evaporator and protective clothing with an original cost of $46,900. <snip>


After earlier hearings on biological and chemical weapons tools, the Pentagon had said defective and surplus protective suits would no longer be available for public sale.

But the GAO said it was able to buy hundreds of older Battle Dress Overgarments, some from defective lots the department had been trying to get out of circulation for several years.<snip>