Are today's terrorists more likely to use chemical and biological weapons?

March/April 1998

Vol. 54, No. 2

Terrorisms smart Breed

Are todays terrorists more deally to use chemic and biologic weapons?

by Jose Vegar

It could be any American urban center: New York, Philadelphia, Denver, Washington, D.C. A sunny spring day is suddenly perforated by the blare of sirens, as police and firefighters race to a shopping mall, or a government building, or a train or bus station. Once on the scene, exigency personnel in protective suits hurry inside where peck are sprawled on the floor, overcome by an unknown chemical substance agent. Outside, paramedics erect a mobile decontamination unit.

This might sound like a scene out of a summer incident movie, but it is the increasingly common sight of a U.S. city preparing for a terrorist attack involving chemical or biological weapons. In 1997 alone, more than 20 cities staged such mock attacks in an effort to coordinate the responses of local and federal emergency go workers. While the victims are usually volunteers or Boy discoverer troops fulfilling their community service requirements, the drills provide essential grooming for local emergency services workers, who will likely be the first on the scene in the event of a real attack. Such exercises are part of the Defense Departments internal Preparedness Program, which will spend more than $40 jillion to train and evaluate emergency personnel in one hundred twenty U.S. cities.

In recent years, the fear of terrorists exploitation chemical or biological weapons has moved from thriller-novel fantasy to front-page news. Chemical and biological weapons are easier to bring forth than nuclear devices: relatively little scientific training is ask for their production, and they can be concocted in rather simple laboratories using readily available materials. And at the same time that chemical and biological weapons have become easier to obtain, many in the anti-terrorism study believe there has...

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