US, British Reports Warn Bio-terrorism is a Growing Threat

by Anthony L. Kimery

The biological threat is greater than the nuclear'

Two new reports caution that terrorists are more likely to use biological weapons in the near future than they are nuclear weapons. Terrorists might even try to employ a pandemic-capable strain of avian flu, British homeland security authorities warned.

A new report from Britain’s Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR) Commission on National Security in the 21st Century warned that terrorists’ use of biological warfare is one of the biggest emerging threats that’s posed by terrorists in the foreseeable future.

Similarly, the final report of the US Commission on the Prevention of WMD Proliferation and Terrorism released today concluded that the United States more likely can expect a terrorist attack using biological weapons rather than nuclear weapons before 2013.

"The biological threat is greater than the nuclear; the acquisition of deadly pathogens, and their weaponization and dissemination in aerosol form, would entail fewer technical hurdles than the theft or production of weapons-grade uranium or plutonium and its assembly into an improvised nuclear device," the report concluded.

“The Commission’s report is an urgent call to action that should trigger strong, coordinated steps to improve our country’s ability to prevent proliferation and thwart terrorist attacks using nuclear and biological weapons," said Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-MA), senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and co-chair of the Congressional Bipartisan Task Force on Nonproliferation, in an emailed statement Tuesday afternoon. "As the report notes, we must make it harder for terrorists to get their hands on weapons of mass destruction – the deadliest weapons on Earth - and we need to better prepare our communities to respond to any possible attacks.”

The IPPR report stated that "acts of bio-terrorism carried out not only by organized groups but by individuals with expertise and access to a laboratory, are a serious 21st century threat."

“The biggest danger may come from state weakness and the possibility that terrorists might gain access to state laboratories and facilities that are insufficiently secure,” the report noted.

"This in turn could allow a terrorist to buy genes for use in the engineering of an existing and dangerous pathogen into a new more virulent strain," the report said, stressing that while Al Qaeda remains the "most significant terrorist group of the current era … lone individuals with relevant experience can now be more dangerous than before."

The IPPR report warned that bio-security challenges must be treated "every bit as seriously as other, more traditional threats to security."

The report’s authors caution that terrorists might actually consider trying to genetically engineer a virulent avian influenza strain into a form that can be transmitted between humans, or even infect themselves with a naturally occuring pandemic capable strain once it emerges to become bio-martyrs.

HSToday.us reported several years ago that intelligence indicated that Al Qaeda had discussed infecting willing members with a pandemic flu strain as a method of terrorism. These bio-martyrs would then fan out, criss-crossing the world spreading the virus.

The March 2007 HSToday cover story, Viral Visions, further reported on the potential capabilities of terrorists and rogue states to develop hybrid, or designer, pathogens that could be used as terror weapons.

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