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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May 4, 2009
Is the industry prepared for a swine flu pandemic?, by John Sandman. Securities Industry News.
Randy Larsen responded when asked how long a pandemic of 2009 H1N1 flu could last, "Think about a blizzard that hits New York."...People are snowed in and can't get around for a couple of days and can't get around. Now think of what it would be like to be snowed in for 18 months."

April 29, 2009
Swine flu cases jump in U.S.; GOP senator switches to Dems; fears of full-blown pandemic. The Situation Room. CNN.
Colonel Randy Larsen discusses some of the pitfalls of temperature screening airline passengers: “People who feel ill, have, you know, fever, chills, whatever, they take things like aspirin, Tylenol, and motrin, which would mask, temporarily, that temperature.”

February 2009
Building biothreat defenses, by Joseph Straw. Security Management Magazine.
Colonel Larsen comments about the threat of biological weapons, noting that infectious diseases don’t need to be weaponized to do harm: “We know for a fact that there are going to be biological attacks from Mother Nature . . . There’s supposed to be a flu pandemic every 30 years. We’re overdue now. Will it be as bad as 1918 or similar to 1968? We don’t know.”

January 13, 2009
Experts debate threat of nuclear, biological terrorism, by Chris Schneidmiller. Global Security Newswire.
Colonel Larsen is quoted from a panel discussion in which he participated during a 2-day conference sponsored by the Cato Institute on issues related to terrorism that the Obama administration is facing: "It is a very, very difficult challenge for the intelligence community to find out if a terrorist organization is developing a biological weapon in a room smaller than this."

January 13, 2009
Nuclear arms experts tee up spending debate for Obama, by Elaine M. Grossman. Global Security Newswire.
Colonel Larsen comments about a report released by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on priorities for atomic policy spending: "Today, the [Environmental Protection Agency] spends less than $1 million a year on research for cleanup [of a radiological dirty bomb] . . . We [also] need more funding in R&D and operations for medical and public health responses to an [improvised nuclear device]. Reduced spending on [national missile defense] will more than pay for other programs, such as these, that will have far better returns on investment."

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.
Colonel 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 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 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 Larsen interviewed about the potential for Extensively Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis to be used as a biological weapon.