http://www.nti.org/d_newswire/issues/W_2005_9_9.html

U.S. Court Orders Detailed Instructions Be Given to Military Personnel Before Anthrax Vaccination

From Friday, September 9, 2005 issue.

By David Francis
Global Security Newswire


WASHINGTON - A U.S. federal judge who stopped a mandatory Defense
Department anthrax vaccination program last year has ordered military
medical personnel to give detailed instructions to service members before
administering the voluntary vaccination (see GSN, Aug. 2).

The Aug. 30 court order follows reports that on July 22, a soldier in Iraq
was vaccinated without being informed that it was optional.

The Pentagon began in May giving anthrax vaccinations to military and
civilian personnel on a voluntary basis under emergency-use authority
granted by the U.S. Health and Human Services Department. The authority was
granted after U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan stopped the mandatory
vaccination program following a lawsuit by six anonymous Defense Department
employees. The Pentagon has appealed Sullivan's decision to the U.S.
Appeals Court.

Sullivan, who in the past has criticized the Pentagon for continuing to
give shots after he issued the injunction in October 2004, has now required
that specific instructions be given before the inoculation is administered.

The order mandates that no later than Sept. 15, the Pentagon must provide
the following instructions to all medical personnel: "If administering
anthrax vaccination, ensure the patient has signed in, received training
and trifold [a brochure outlining risks and benefits of the vaccine],
understands the right to refuse, and states they want to receive the
anthrax vaccine. Immediately prior to administration of the anthrax
vaccination (once site and vaccine are prepared) ask the patient, 'Do you
want to receive the anthrax vaccination?' If the patient confirms,
administer."

Sullivan's ruling comes days after the Pentagon filed a reply brief with
the U.S. Appeals Court in response to a brief filed by counsel for the six
Defense Department employees. The briefs were filed as part of the
Pentagon's appeal of Sullivan's injunction.

In the brief, the Pentagon argued that the plaintiffs offer no support for
a continued suspension of the mandatory anthrax vaccination program.

"Even if the district court were correct on the merits, there is no basis
for its sweeping, military-wide injunction," the brief states. "The court's
injunction is wholly unnecessary to provide relief to the six plaintiffs,
and, without providing any gain in safety, it improperly sets aside the
military's judgment as to the optimal means for protecting American service
members against the threat of anthrax."

"Contrary to plaintiffs' suggestions, the interests of thousands of members
of the armed forces are not aligned with those of the six plaintiffs," the
brief continues. "The court's ruling jeopardizes the safety of the
countless persons who have never been a part of this action."

The Pentagon has argued that the vaccine has been considered safe and
effective for anthrax regardless of the route of exposure - by skin contact
or inhalation - by the Food and Drug Administration. Contrary to the
plaintiffs' arguments, the agency in 1972 accepted the determination of the
National Institutes of Health that the vaccine is safe, and has never
contradicted this finding, according to the Pentagon.

"Accordingly, given the continued operative effect of the original NIH
license for AVA [anthrax vaccine adsorbed], the FDA's repeated declarations
that the original license includes use against inhalation anthrax, and the
count scientific bases for that conclusion, the district court's
determination is entirely without support," the Pentagon says.

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http://www.nti.org/d_newswire/issues/W_2005_9_9.html

From Friday, September 9, 2005 issue.


Former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell called a 2003 presentation to
the U.N. Security Council on prewar Iraq's suspected weapons of mass
destruction "a blot" on his record, Agence France-Presse reported today
(see GSN, May 23).

Powell offered the United Nations evidence of Iraq's WMD programs,
including satellite photos of what U.S. leaders believed to be mobile
biological weapons laboratories. No evidence of such programs has been
found since the March 2003 invasion.

"It's a blot" on my record, Powell said in an interview with ABC News to be
aired today. "I'm the one who presented it on behalf of the United States
to the world, and (it) will always be a part of my record. It was painful.
It's painful now."

Powell said he felt "terrible" for being misinformed by the CIA, but did
not blame then-CIA director George Tenet. Powell said Tenet "did not sit
there for five days with me misleading me. He believed what he was giving
to me was accurate."

However, some intelligence officials "knew at that time that some of these
sources were not good, and shouldn't be relied upon, and they didn't speak
up," Powell said.

"These are not senior people, but these are people who were aware that some
of these resources should not be considered reliable."

"I was enormously disappointed" Powell added.

Powell, however, did not express regret over the war, according to AFP.
"I'm glad that Saddam Hussein is gone," he said.

He said that he has "never seen evidence to suggest" ties between Iraq and
the September 2001 terrorist attacks against the Pentagon and World Trade
Center.

Powell also said that he does not see "a clear military option with respect
to Iran" (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, Sept. 9).