AFF/TERRORISM/BIOTERRORISM

TERRORIST GROUPS HAVE AND WILL USE BIOTERRORISM

MANY NATIONS AND TERROR GROUPS HAVE BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS

LAURIE GARRETT, Pulitzer Prize -- winning science and medical writer for Newsday January, 2001 / February, 2001 Foreign Affairs SECTION: CHALLENGES FOR THE NEXT PRESIDENT; Pg. 76 HEADLINE: The Nightmare of Bioterrorism //VT2002acsln

AS THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY begins, the following nations possess biological weapons: Iraq, Iran, Syria, Libya, China, North Korea, Russia, Israel, Taiwan, and possibly Sudan, India, Pakistan, and Kazakhstan. The list cuts across lines of ideology, politics, and geography. In addition, according to intelligence sources in Europe and the United States, militant political groups across the globe are now developing or seeking to purchase biological weapons for terrorist use.

THE PUBLIC DOESN’T KNOW ABOUT BIOLOGICAL TERRORISM, BUT THE TERRORISTS DO

ALTHOUGH MOST PEOPLE remain ignorant of the issues raised in that scenario, handfuls of Internet-hooked extremists, right-wing militia members, psychologically imbalanced belligerents, and postmodern fascists are well versed in the fine points of bioterrorism. Recipes for producing botulinum and anthrax are posted on the Web. Books describing biological-warfare assassination techniques are readily available. Some private militia groups train to use biological weapons.

BIOLOGICAL TERRORISM IS THE CHOICE OF ACTION FOR RELIGIOUS CULTS AND MILITANT POLITICAL GROUPS

Indeed, law enforcement leaders claim that religious cults and militant political groups are likely to engage in biological terrorism. After all, they argue, the first bioterrorist attack in America was carried out by members of an Oregon-based religious cult led by Bagwan Shree Rajneesh. The cult members, hoping to disrupt an upcoming county election, contaminated local salad bars with salmonella, infecting hundreds of Oregonians.

OVER A DOZEN TERRORIST GROUPS HAVE INDICATED INTEREST IN WMD CAPABILITIES

MICHAEL OSTERHOLM, School of Public Health, Univ. of Minnesota, 2000; LIVING TERRORS: What America needs to know to survive the coming bioterrorist catastrophe //VT2002acs p. 32-33

`With so many troubling trends coming together, "the danger of weapons of mass destruction being used against America and its allies is greater now than at any time since the Cuban missile crisis of 1962." Those aren't the words of professional scaremongers: they're from a landmark 1998 article about the new "catastrophic terrorism," in the journal Foreign Affairs. One of the authors of the article is former CIA director John M. Deutch. (The other two are Ashton Carter, a Harvard University professor and former top official of the Department of Defense on international security matters, and Philip Zelikow, a Harvard professor of public policy.) In chilling 1999 congressional testimony, CIA official John A. Lauder said that at least a dozen terrorist groups have expressed an interest in or have actively sought nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons capabilities.

LONE INDIVIDUALS CAN ALSO ACT AS BIOTERRORISTS

MICHAEL OSTERHOLM, School of Public Health, Univ. of Minnesota, 2000; LIVING TERRORS: What America needs to know to survive the coming bioterrorist catastrophe //VT2002acs p. 55

Perhaps the most troubling development in the changes that terrorism has undergone over the years is the rise of the "lone wolf," people like "Ed" in the scenario that opens this chapter. Some are self-taught, some taught by institutions and the government. Many are motivated by racial and religious hatred and commit unspeakable crimes with no apparent central authority, even more decentralized than groups like bin Laden's. Compared to members of more structured terrorist organizations, the lone wolves are nearly impossible to track.

The modern terrorist can come from anywhere, picking up influences on the fly and molding them into a philosophy. Some experts refer to the new breed as the cowboy terrorist. Increasingly, they arise seemingly from nowhere, responding not to direct orders, but to a kind of ad hoc collection of influences and opinions. Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski read widely from American and European philosophers and historians, knitting their ideas, together with environmentalist and political tracts, into his manifesto. That document includes discourses on technology, politics, psychology, sociology, spanking, and the perceived eviIs of the Sylvan Learning Centers, which provide tutoring for schoolchildren. Kaczynski saw himself as a terrorist trying to start a revolution to stop the spread of technology.

MODEST FINANCES AND TRAINING CAN NOW CREATE BIOWEAPONS

MICHAEL OSTERHOLM, School of Public Health, Univ. of Minnesota, 2000; LIVING TERRORS: What America needs to know to survive the coming bioterrorist catastrophe //VT2002acs p. 104-5

What the skeptics fall to acknowledge is that the tools of microbiology and medicine have made obtaining and cultivating pathogens and building basic weapons that use them simpler, cheaper, and more Widespread than ever before. "Even groups with modest finances and basic training in biology and engineering could develop, should they wish, an effective weapon at little cost," writes civilian biodefense expert D. A. Henderson.

RUSSIAN SMALLPOX SAMPLE IS NOT SECURE

MICHAEL OSTERHOLM, School of Public Health, Univ. of Minnesota, 2000; LIVING TERRORS: What America needs to know to survive the coming bioterrorist catastrophe //VT2002acs p. 109

Henderson and others are now speaking out in part because we've heard from people who have visited the Vector plant how easily some of the Soviet smallpox stockpile could well have walked out of the facilities that once made it. After one 1998 visit to the Vector plant, Dr. Peter Jahrling, an internationally known senior scientist at the army's Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases and a hero of The Hot Zone, said, "There's no doubt in my mind that the smallpox sample is not secure. I saw the site. The only apparent security was one pimply-faced kid who looked about fourteen with a Kalashnikov rifle."

MILITIA MOVEMENTS PREPARE TO USE BIOWEAPONS

THE INDEPENDENT 7-28-99 Weapons of Mass Destruction: Bio-Terror Haunts People After Nuclear Test Ban http://www.infowar.com/wmd/99/wmd_082599b_j.shtml //VT2002acsln

This time the attackers could be Americans as well. According to a Defence Department official, conversation in some Internet Chat rooms frequented by violence-prone members of militia movements proves that biological weapons are on the participant's minds. Officials report on chilling discussions about how to make biological weapons such as ricin, a poison derived from castor beans, which starts to kill on contact.