The Department of Defense notified Congress today the fielding plan for 12 additional Weapons of Mass Destruction-Civil Support Teams (WMD-CSTs). Congress directed the establishment of 23 additional teams in the National Defense Authorization Act for FY03 and funded the establishment of the first 12 in the Defense Appropriations Act for FY04. Currently, there are 32 certified teams. The decision regarding which states would receive the first 12 teams was based on Defense Threat Reduction Agency analysis of objective criteria such as population density, port and coastal security challenges, location of Department of Defense installations, protection of critical infrastructure, and the...