FREDERICK, MD (September 19,2004) -- Members of the Peace Resource Center (PRC) in Frederick, Maryland, are organizing against the construction of a Level 4 biosafety lab and two more Level 3 labs at the Fort Detrick Army base there.

According to attorney Barry Kissin, Mayor Dougherty of Frederick reported that people picketed in Bethesda, Maryland, against building the labs there. The protesters said that the "research facilities" should not be located in a metropolitan area like Bethesda, a suburb of Washington, D.C., but instead in Frederick, 20 miles away.

Attorney Kissin, who has lived in Frederick for 30 years and lives one mile from the base, pointed out that the 200,000 people who live in the Frederick area are already dangerously impacted by existing facilities there. He referred to the very high incidence of cancer among neighbors of Fort Detrick, as reported in the local press.

He also cited the sloppiness of Fort Detrick personnel in the handling of terribly deadly biological agents, as exposed in the best selling book, "The Hot Zone." In April 2002, anthrax spores were twice found outside secure areas at Fort Detrick. The Army has yet to disclose the cause of the accident. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are investigating how a Frederick research institute mistakenly shipped live anthrax bacteria to a California lab where at least five people were exposed to the potentially deadly germs in May of this year. ("Baltimore Sun," June 11, 2004)

The Level 4 facilities are designed to grow organisms which have no vaccine or cure like Ebola, 20 liters of which would be enough to infect every person on the planet.

Kissin joined dozens of other opponents of the lab expansion at Fort Detrick who picketed, leafleted and testified at an Environmental Impact hearing on June 10 of this year. Most of them opposed putting such labs anywhere. Kissin stated that the only real defense against biological warfare is the enforcement of the international treaty that bans such weapons and a real commitment to forge peace in the world instead of inciting a biological weapons arms race.

The Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) bans the development, production, stockpiling, acquisition and retention of microbial or other biological agents or toxins, in types and in quantities that have no justification for prophylactic, protective or other peaceful purposes. However, in 2001, the Bush administration rejected an effort by other signatories to conclude a protocol that would provide verification measures, making the U.S.A. the only country to reject it at that time.

In October of 2001, a variety of anthrax was discovered in envelopes addressed to two U.S. senators who were holding up passage of the Patriot Act, after which the Act was quickly passed. There are strong indications that this variety of anthrax originated at Fort Detrick. This incident brought to light a secret U.S. program to produce weapons-grade anthrax. For more information on this, visit www.freefromterror.net .