Close Menu
Technology Mag

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the latest creative news from FooBar about art, design and business.

    What's Hot

    Honor launches the ‘world’s thinnest’ foldable

    July 2, 2025

    Subscriber-Only Livestream Replay: Beginner Advice for Claude, a ChatGPT Alternative

    July 2, 2025

    Methane Pollution Has Cheap, Effective Solutions That Aren’t Being Used

    July 2, 2025
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
    Subscribe
    Technology Mag
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram YouTube
    • Home
    • News
    • Business
    • Games
    • Gear
    • Reviews
    • Science
    • Security
    • Trending
    • Press Release
    Technology Mag
    Home » Pentagon Cuts Threaten Programs That Secure Loose Nukes and Weapons of Mass Destruction
    Security

    Pentagon Cuts Threaten Programs That Secure Loose Nukes and Weapons of Mass Destruction

    News RoomBy News RoomMarch 26, 20253 Mins Read
    Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Reddit WhatsApp Email

    Partnering with local health authorities not only helps prevent the next epidemic, but it also makes sure that these virological samples are kept secure—“so it’s not accidentally going to leak out of these public health facilities or not be stolen by a terrorist,” Robert Pope, director of Cooperative Threat Reduction at DTRA, explained in a 2022 interview.

    DTRA’s staff operate as an “early warning system,” a congressional staffer tells WIRED, ahead of any deployment of the US military, they say. While it may not be a traditional kind of military power, they add, it should still fit into this administration’s priorities. “It secures our border from pathogens.”

    An independent analysis conducted for the Pentagon in 2022 found that these threat reduction programs are “well-positioned to respond quickly to emerging [weapons of mass destruction] threats; its authorities are unique and fill an existing gap.”

    Programs like DTRA ought to be expanded, not cut, says Gigi Gronvall, a professor at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. These are primarily national security programs, she says, designed to “give ourselves the eyes and ears around the world to put out those fires, or prevent them from happening in the first place.”

    If you don’t put out the fire—whether it’s a novel infectious disease or a chemical weapons program in a rogue state—it will keep growing, Gronvall adds. “We have areas of the world that don’t have fire departments,” she says. “By helping them help themselves, we are helping them step up.”

    ‘A Fire Sale on Expertise’

    The Pentagon’s threat reduction efforts, and the DTRA itself, stem from the work of former US senators Sam Nunn, a Democrat, and Richard Lugar, a Republican, to secure weapons of mass destruction after the fall of the Soviet Union. America, through their work, destroyed thousands of ballistic missiles and nuclear warheads, disposed of tens of thousands of pounds of chemical weapons, and dismantled Soviet bioweapon laboratories. In 1998, DTRA was formally created and given a more expensive mandate to both track and destroy chemical and biological threats while also helping other nations do the same.

    For its work, DTRA has been targeted by Russian disinformation efforts, with Moscow accusing America of producing biological weapons in these DTRA-funded labs. Following the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, conspiracy theorists in America picked up that thread, suggesting the invasion was cover to destroy these bioweapons labs.

    Fears about DTRA’s work have since been raised by Health and Human Services secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and Russia itself. Republican senator Rand Paul has repeatedly issued subpoenas to the DTRA looking for evidence that it has been engaged in dangerous virological research and suggesting that it may have had a hand in creating Covid-19.

    “When Russia was attacking that program, it was doing so because it wanted to erode our national security,” Gronvall says. Russia may not believe these lies, she adds, but “they have been enormously successful in getting people with power to believe these things.”

    Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn WhatsApp Reddit Email
    Previous ArticleWaze is dropping Google Assistant on iPhone after leaving it broken for ‘over a year’
    Next Article Wyze’s new camera filter claims to cut down on nuisance alerts

    Related Posts

    Telegram Purged Chinese Crypto Scam Markets—Then Watched as They Rebuilt

    June 30, 2025

    Taiwan Is Rushing to Make Its Own Drones Before It’s Too Late

    June 28, 2025

    What Satellite Images Reveal About the US Bombing of Iran’s Nuclear Sites

    June 27, 2025

    Here’s What Federal Troops Can (and Can’t) Do While Deployed in LA

    June 25, 2025

    Truth Social Crashes as Trump Live-Posts Iran Bombing

    June 25, 2025

    ‘No Kings’ Protests, Citizen-Run ICE Trackers Trigger Intelligence Warnings

    June 23, 2025
    Our Picks

    Subscriber-Only Livestream Replay: Beginner Advice for Claude, a ChatGPT Alternative

    July 2, 2025

    Methane Pollution Has Cheap, Effective Solutions That Aren’t Being Used

    July 2, 2025

    Sonos is offering a refurbished Era 100 for just $119

    July 1, 2025

    Grammarly wants to become an ‘AI productivity platform’

    July 1, 2025
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Pinterest
    • Instagram
    • YouTube
    • Vimeo
    Don't Miss
    News

    Ultra Mobile raised its data caps without a price increase

    By News RoomJuly 1, 2025

    T-Mobile is bringing some of its Uncarrier energy to Ultra Mobile, the carrier’s international-focused MVNO…

    X opens up to Community Notes written by AI bots

    July 1, 2025

    Figma is going public

    July 1, 2025

    Google makes it easier to let friends and kids control your smart home

    July 1, 2025
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram Pinterest
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of use
    • Advertise
    • Contact
    © 2025 Technology Mag. All Rights Reserved.

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.