Quote:The US government is "extremely limited in its ability" to assist Americans in the country who may need emergency help, it said, warning that "kidnapping is widespread" and that the Haitian Ministry of Health had "confirmed an outbreak of cholera."

Staff at the US embassy in Port-au-Prince already live under tight security, confined to a protected residential area and forbidden to walk around the capital or use any public transport or taxis.

The statement did not mention the number of staff and family members who would be impacted by the departure order, nor any specific reason for the change as Haiti has seen swirling crises for months.

Gangs control around 80 percent of the Haitian capital, and violent crimes such kidnappings for ransom, armed robbery and carjackings continue to escalate in the impoverished Caribbean nation.

With Haitian security forces overwhelmed, the US State Department advisory warned that "mob killings against presumed criminals have been on the rise since late April."

Experts say the history of previous failed missions to Haiti and fears of becoming stuck in a deadly quagmire have made countries hesitant to take on the lead-nation role.

Brian Nichols, the lead US State Department official for the Americas, told a US congressional hearing on Thursday that "progress" was being made on that front.

"I would note that any country that does take the lead, I'm confident will enjoy support from other key peacekeeping contributors, as well as from the United States, from Canada, France," Nichols added.

At the same hearing, Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida described Haiti as a "disaster."

"Its as bad a situation as anywhere else on the planet," he said.

Quote:Home to High-Security Lab and Source of Rumors, Plum Island Faces Uncertain Future

By Corey Kilgannon
Sept. 14, 2016

PLUM ISLAND, N.Y. — There have been comparisons to the H.G. Wells novel, “The Island of Dr. Moreau,” a nod from Hannibal Lecter in “The Silence of the Lambs,” and a murder mystery called “Plum Island,” by Nelson DeMille, in 1997. When the carcass of an unidentified animal was found on a Long Island beach a few years ago, it became popularly known as the Montauk Monster, and local residents said it had come from — where else? — Plum Island.

The site there is officially called the Plum Island Animal Disease Center. It is a federal facility, the nation’s most important lab for combating infectious animal diseases.

But the fact that the island is one and a half miles off Long Island, and that access to it is so highly restricted, has made the high-security lab the source of a cascade of science fiction scenarios and conspiracy theories, which proliferate in films, books and local lore, and include rumors about government experimentation with hybrid animals, Cold War biological weapons and even the outbreak of Lyme disease.

On Tuesday, officials allowed a small group of reporters who had undergone an extensive background check a rare glimpse at this island of intrigue.

But first, there was a morning ferry ride from Connecticut, carrying Plum Island workers. The commuters filed into a modern cinder block building; a poster above the security desk bore the heading “Betrayed”; listed below were “Traditional Espionage Indicators.”

Could Plum Island really become a Trump golf resort? And what would a luxury development be named? Anthrax Estates?

The federal General Services Administration has omitted such thoughts from its online sales listing, noting that “the island boasts a sandy shoreline, beautiful views and a harbor strategically situated to provide easy access.” The listing even offers to include the ferries and official vehicles in the deal.

Located 100 miles east of New York City, with sweeping water views, the island has already drawn unsurprising interest from local real estate agents and developers, including, yes, Donald J. Trump.

There has been little, if any, preliminary assessment of the property by outsiders, officials said. Development cannot begin until after the research center is shut, since ferrying workers and equipment onto the island could compromise security guidelines, Mr. Verrico said.

The guidelines were palpable even to journalists on the tour, which was organized to show the public that the island was, as officials said, “secure but not secret.”

Secure it was. Federal officials asked for information from journalists interested in visiting Plum Island in July, and would consider only United States citizens. On Tuesday, armed guards searched reporters before both arrival and departure and shadowed the group wherever it went.

Open food containers were prohibited, as was the use of laptop or tablet computers. Photography in unauthorized areas, most of them at the research center, which occupies a small portion of the island, was forbidden.

Full article: Home to High-Security Lab and Source of Rumors, Plum Island Faces Uncertain Future

Quote:GSA, in partnership with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), looks to sell the Plum Island asset in accordance with the Consolidated Security, Disaster Assistance, and Continuing Appropriations Act of 2009 which calls for the sale of the property to occur as a result of the determination by DHS to construct and operate a new National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF) in Manhattan, Kansas and move its operations from the Plum Island Animal Disease Center (PIADC) to the NBAF.

Sale of Plum Island, New York

Quote:Haiti has its first outbreak of the fatal pig virus African swine fever in 37 years, the World Organisation for Animal Health said, fuelling concerns about the disease's spread in the Americas.

The USDA confirmed Haiti's outbreak last week through testing at its Foreign Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory on Plum Island in New York, the OIE said.

Quote:
USDA’s Plum Island research complex spared from sale

Perhaps you’re familiar with the USDA’s sprawling, mysterious research complex on Plum Island from our article last year, discussing how researchers there were frantically preparing for the “porkpocalypse,” aka African Swine Flu (remember that virus?). This research facility has long been slated to be shut down, with USDA’s virus research facilities to be moved to a highly secure complex in Manhattan, Kansas. But in the Covid-19 spending bill approved this week, Plum Island got spared from the auction block, in a move that James Bennet at The Washington Post characterizes as Congress working “in confounding ways.”

Quote:The U.S. government steadfastly denied the existence of biological warfare experiments on Plum Island during the Cold War era. In 1993, Newsday unearthed documents suggesting otherwise, and in 1994, Russian scientists inspected the facility to verify that any such experiments had ended, according to various reports on Plum Island.
Plum Island May Lose Its Dark Secrets