WASHINGTON (AP) — An audit has found gaps in a program intended to provide the U.S. with an early detection system of a biological weapon attack. The U.S. created BioWatch in 2003 in response to the mailing of anthrax-laced envelopes to news media and government offices two years earlier. The program run by the Homeland Security Department has portrayed it as a nationwide early warning system. But a report by Homeland Security’s inspector general says that’s not accurate. The report says BioWatch only had detection equipment in 22 states and could only detecting six of 14 biological threats.
