USFK Halts Biological Defense Training On Osan AB

I bet the person that organized this exercise is now regretting it:

Osan Air Base halted operations at its laboratory biological defense program this week after 22 people were possibly exposed to live anthrax spores, U.S. military officials said Friday.

A statement issued by U.S. Forces Korea and the 51st Fighter Wing said that a review would be conducted while operations are stopped, but it did not say who would be conducting the review nor what exactly they would be reviewing.

The live anthrax spores had been mailed from Dugway Proving Ground in Utah to Osan as well as to labs in nine states. It appears that irradiation procedures failed to kill the live spores, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno said Thursday. The military has said the anthrax spores were to be used for training purposes.

“The purpose of the training being conducted was undertaken in Korea with the expectation that the materials sent from the United States would be inert and harmless, to be used for identification and detection capabilities,” a statement issued by U.S. Forces Korea and the 51st Fighter Wing said.

It was the first time the training at Osan’s Joint United States Forces Korea Portal and Integrated Threat Recognition Program (JUPITR) had been conducted. According to the military’s statement, the training was meant to improve the U.S. and South Korea’s ability to protect their troops and the South Korean population “by testing currently fielded equipment and new systems that could better identify toxins and pathogens in the environment.”  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link, but maybe it would be better to certify that these systems work in the US and not bring in something like anthrax even if it was dead spores.  That is because if it leaked to the media the anti-US groups would twist the facts to bash the US.  Remember these are the people that nearly toppled newly elected President Lee Myung-bak by spreading US beef lies back in 2008. Now due to the irradiation failure they don’t even have to twist the facts to push their anti-US agenda the US military did for them.