Colonel Randall Larsen, USAF (Retired) National Security Advisor - Area of Professional Expertise: National Security, Homeland Security - Professional Profile - Selected Publications - Colonel Larsen in the News

In the News

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August 12, 2008
What if the FBI is right about Bruce Ivins? by Colonel Randall Larsen, Op-Ed Contributor. Wall Street Journal.
Colonel Larsen writes: "If the FBI theory on the man responsible for the anthrax attacks of 2001 is correct, then the threat of bioterrorism is far more troubling than we have imagined."

August 8, 2008
Doubts persist on Ivins' guilt: scientists and legal experts skeptical, by Stephen Kiehl and Josh Mitchell. Baltimore Sun.
Colonel Larsen notes “So much of the FBI's case [against Bruce Ivins] is based on the fact they are 100 percent convinced it [the anthrax used in the 2001 letter attacks] came out of that one container.”

August 7, 2008
FBI paints chilling portrait of anthrax-attack suspect, by Evan Perez, Siobhan Gorman, Gary Fields, and Elizabeth Williamson. Wall Street Journal.
Colonel Larsen comments about evidence pertaining to the case against Bruce Ivins released by the FBI on August 6, 2008: "I am disappointed. I would have slept better tonight knowing it was Ivins, and not al Qaeda or some other group still out there."

August 7, 2008
Experts cast doubt on feds' evidence in anthrax case, by Richard Sisk. New York Daily News.
Colonel Larsen comments about the FBI’s closing the case regarding the anthrax attacks of 2001: “Biology tends to be very squishy. This is not over…I would have liked it if they had convinced me.”

August 6, 2008
Universal detection technology receives and completes contract to provide anthrax/bioterrorism detection equipment for the 2008 Beijing Olympics: Detection equipment capable of detecting anthrax as well as ricin toxin, botulinum toxin, plague, and SEBs in as little as 3 minutes. CNNMoney.com.
Colonel Larsen notes that “the biotech revolution is making it ‘easier for non-state actors to develop sophisticated weapons.’”
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/marketwire/0422121.htm

August 5, 2008
How solid is the anthrax evidence? by Amanda Ripley and Massimo Calabresi. TIME.
Colonel Larsen comments on attribution of a bioweapons attack: “The nature of biological weapons is such that it is very difficult to figure out where something came from"…"The FBI does a marvelous job with guns and bombs, but anthrax is extremely difficult.”

August 5, 2008
Limited progress in preparing for bioterror attack, by Pam Fessler. National Public Radio.
Colonel Larsen notes that, with regard to dispensing medical supplies rapidly during an emergency, “The problem is, the federal government gets an A-plus, [but] most cities get Ds or Fs because they don't have a system to rapidly dispense it, to break down those large quantities and get it out in a rapid manner to the citizens.”

August 5, 2008
Killing of al Qaeda’s WMD chief not the blow some believe it is, by Anthony L. Kimery. Homeland Security Today.
Colonel Larsen remarks that advances in the biological sciences will make it “easier for nonstate actors to develop sophisticated weapons.”

August 2, 2008
Anthrax mystery continues, by Tony Guida. CBS News.
Colonel Larsen notes that “The suicide of Bruce Ivins does nothing for resolving this case right now. For five years they told us it was Stephen Hatfill, and less than 2 months ago the U.S. taxpayers had to pay him $5.8 million, because apparently it wasn’t him.”

May 30, 2008
DHS Looks to Adopt Israeli Airport Security Methods, by Anthony L. Kimery. Homeland Security Today.
Randy Larsen agrees with TSA's new implementation of passenger behavior screening as an airport security measure: "I was saying this when they were first creating TSA ... base it on people, not technology - absolutely."

January 16, 2008
Experts challenge homeland security strategy, by Pam Fessler. Morning Edition, National Public Radio.
Center for Biosecurity consultant Randy Larsen was interviewed about U.S. homeland security priorities: "The issue must be on preventing terrorists from getting their hands on nuclear materials. That's not about X-raying and doing radiological scans of containers."

June 12, 2007
CNBC.
Colonel Randy Larsen on the future of biological detection technologies: "We have nearly instantaneous tests for things like pregnancy, mononucleosis. It took nearly six weeks to get a diagnosis [in the recent XDR-TB case]."

June 2, 2007
CBS News: The Saturday Early Show.
In an interview regarding the Andrew Speaker tuberculosis case and U.S. border security, Colonel Randy Larsen noted: "It's the fact that it takes us three months to get a proper diagnosis of this dangerous disease. We could get pregnancy tests, strep throat tests, mononucleosis tests in a matter of minutes. Why does it take three months to do this and why don't we have the antibiotics to cure this disease?"

May 30, 2007
Fox News: Your World with Neil Cavuto.
Colonel Randall Larsen interviewed about the potential for Extensively Drug-resistant Tuberculosis to be used as a biological weapon.