8-1-2008

WMD Commission Announces Plans To hold Public Hearing In New York

WASHINGTON, Aug. 1, 2008 – The congressional commission assessing the ability of the United States to prevent terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction today announced it will hold its first public hearing in New York on Sept. 10.

Meeting today outside Washington, the nine members of the Commission focused their attention on biological threats as they continued to develop recommendations that they will release in a final report in the fall.

The Sept. 10 hearing will include testimony from a panel of expert witnesses, including Carie Lemack, a founder of Families of September 11, whose mother was a passenger on American Airlines Flight 11 that terrorists crashed into the World Trade Center. Other witnesses and the location of the hearing will be announced later.

Additional hearings will be scheduled later this fall.

Earlier this week, two members of the WMD panel, former Sen. Bob Graham, the Chairman, and former Sen. Jim Talent, the Vice-Chairman, attended briefings at the Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, N.M., one of the nation’s leading nuclear laboratories, to learn more about current and emerging nuclear and biological proliferation threats, the tools and techniques used to safeguard nuclear weapons, the vulnerabilities of our ports to WMDs, and technical issues associated with monitoring terrorist and proliferation trends.

The WMD Commission, established by Congress to implement a key recommendation of the 9/11 Commission, will make specific recommendations this fall on what the nation can do to improve its efforts to prevent WMD proliferation and terrorism.

Contact: Evelyn Farkas (202) 281-8428

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