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September 3, 2001

The United States is behind schedule in creating 32 WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction) Civil Support Teams to deal with terrorist attacks using chemical, biological or nuclear weapons. There are supposed to be 32 teams eventually. Ten of them were supposed to be up and running by January, 2000. But the tenth team only came on line in September, 2000. Each team has 22 personnel, costs $5 million to set up and $2.6 million a year to maintain. Teams are supposed to be able to respond to a WMD incident anywhere in the United States within four hours. The delay in forming the units was caused by disagreements over who would control them and what exactly the teams would do and how they would do it. These disagreements continue.