Pros And Disadvantages Of Bioterrorism

“Terrorism” was the 5th top searched term on Google from 2001 to 2002. Caroline B. Cooney describes what and how a bioterrorism attack can happen in New York City in her book, Code Orange. A Student at St. Raphael's private school, Mitty Blake is falling behind in his schoolwork, so he has to do his biology paper on the smallpox virus. When Mitty Blake finds an old book on variola major or smallpox, he finds an envelope with 100 year old scabs from the 1904 Boston smallpox epidemic.Accidentally, Mitty gets the dust of them in his system. After realizing that he could have the monster of smallpox, he emails main biological research centers and they get forwarded to the FBI, CDC and maybe a terrorist organization. Susan B. Cooney touches on three main points of terrorism, the fear of terrorism after 9/11, the FBI’s ability to track individuals and bioterrorism.

“Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Soviet Union and the United Kingdom were among many countries that investigated how to wage biological war.” (pg. 38) Some of these countries have biological weapons programs and even some biological weapons have been used in the past. A Russian program “known to the Soviets as “the Concern Bioreparat”, supposedly a series of laboratories and plants that manufactured vaccines and other medicinal products, was in fact a vast network of secret cities, production plants of Moscow’s germ effort. Bioreparat studied and perfected germs as weapons. President Richard Nixon’s administration became the “world’s leading advocate for a treaty banning germ warfare. Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention- prohibited the possession of deadly biological agents except for research…for vaccines, detection and protective gear. It was the world’s first treaty to ban an entire class of weapons.” (pg. 63) April 1979, an explosion at a secret military base near Soviet city of Sverdlovsk, sent a cloud of Bacillus anthracis fanning over a nearby village, leaving thousands dead. Although the Soviets, had signed the treaty, they denied allegations that this was “nothing more nefarious than tainted meat.” (pg. 77) During the Gulf War, for example, biological weapons developed by Iraq posed a threat and they might, if fact still pose a threat. While US went in search of nuclear

“Bioterrorism remains a major threat for the United States despite more than $65 billion spent on protecting the country from myriad dangers, the Bipartisan WMD Terrorism Research Center said in its latest report Wednesday. The center's Bio-Response Report Card evaluated U.S. preparedness for countering threats from bioterrorism and found the country remains vulnerable to multiple threats and "largely unprepared for a large-scale bioterrorist attack."”(UPI.com, 2011). There have been over a dozen leading U.S. bio-defense experts that have taken part in figuring out where we are exactly as a county and what the effects of a terroristic attack

The symptoms of gastrointestinal anthrax include bloody vomiting, bloody diarrhea, sore throat, and the swelling of the neck and abdomen. Concerning bioterrorism, anthrax is the most likely to be used as it is easily accessible, extremely deadly, and practically untraceable. In addition, plague is a commonly suspected tool in bioterrorism due to its high mortality rate and extremely contagious behavior. It is caused by the bacteria Yersinia pestis and is very fatal if not treated quickly. During the Middle Ages, plague wiped out millions of Europeans, but in the modern day world with an effective treatment, plague is much less deadly assuming it is treated quickly.

These biological agents could be viruses, toxins, bacteria, etc. Agents could be used in war or terrorist attacks. Also, they could be modified to cause extreme diseases and disorders, according to The Center for Disease Control and Prevention. It makes bioterrorism even more tempting to use as it is easy and inexpensive to produce, disseminate and can cause a more widespread panic than other acts of terrorism (1).

Terrorism has had a negative effect on the world. In the United States the role of terrorism is steadily a growing, creating new issues and situations which the United States government must battle. The department of Home land security has an active and significant role on ensuring the security and safety of the United States of America. Acts of terrorism differs in every region, what one might consider terrorism the other might not. Terrorism comes in several forms such as domestic, international, bioterrorism and cyber terrorism. Every law enforcement agencies has a different approach to terrorism. Strategies for battling terrorism in multicultural communities are different compared to communities inhabited by a less diversified group.

Chemical terrorism is the use of natural or synthetic substances such as mustard gas to kill a group of civilians (Freedmen 1). There is also such thing as bioterrorism. Bioterrorism is the use of a biological weapon against a civilian population such as smallpox and fungus (Hoyel 1). Chemical and biological terrorism is very dangerous because it intends to kill a lot of people at a time. Terrorists can get their hands on chemicals but it is much easier for them to get biologics (biological agents) because they are harder to detect and are cheaper to make.

Even though this should not have been a problem in the first place, the Biological and Toxin Weapons Conventions prevented any development on biological weapons. But. They were not given any power in which they could enforce this rule, so with this the Soviet Union took advantage of the system and started to secretly develop biological weapons. The Soviet Union developed new strains of virus’ and diseases that would not easy be counteracted with any current form of medicine. Meaning that anyone affected had a very low survival rate if they were to be used.

Bioterrorism presents a very unique threat to the United States. A biological attack can be hard to immediately detect and poses many collection challenges to the Intelligence Community. A small vial of anthrax can go undetected in the pocket of an individual through an airport, government facility, or one of the many other areas that usually have significant security designed to prevent conventional terrorist attacks. A small amount of a biological agent can do a significant amount of damage. How can the Intelligence Community counter bioterrorism threats? This is the question this research paper aims to answer.

After events such as 9/11, terrorism still instills fear into America’s population. Why? Simply because it is the one danger the American people cannot control. Biological terrorism is not always feared or worried about, but it is a genuine possibility and a lethal surprise that causes devastation. If not prepared, these deadly pathogens could easily kill large amounts of people. With tensions on the rise, what will the government or citizens do to defend themselves? If something happens, how will Americans be able to care for themselves and families? Bioterrorism is becoming a serious threat that needs to be eradicated to gain biosecurity and to ensure the safety of Americans.

Imagine this: you wake up hours before your alarm sounds to find your entire neighborhood in chaos; people running, robbing banks and stores, and bodies are littering the once calm streets. Over the night, a government-run biological experiment dealing with germ weapons had been released, infecting, destroying, and causing panic across the globe. As a single, globalized society, we need to heighten our security against biological weapons and biological terror to prevent the endangerment of mankind. It would be most beneficial to our species if we did not try to use or experiment with biological weapons, seeing as they are engineered specifically to create social, economic, governmental, military, and general fear and disruption. Bioterror

The Rajneeshee bioterrorism attack is the perfect example of terrorist or an extremist group taking matters in their own hands. It seems that the purpose and method of delivery was well thought out and was not irrational, Diseases have always been the enemy to man and animals, using viruses as weapons clearly presents a threat to the public and to national security.

Bioterrorism is directly focused on the livestock and crops, which are valuable sources of food. The agroterrorism attack in the U.S. has started an economic warfare, which can turn fatal to most Americans. Economic warfare has calculated of being damaging to the

According to Powerpoint on Select Agents and Toxins in Module 2, a select agent is a biological agent that has the potential to pose a severe threat to animal health and safety, plant health and safety, or to the safety of animal or plant products. Biosecurity is a set of procedures intended to protect humans or animals against disease or harmful biological agents, according to Module 1, Biosecurity and the Importance of Invasive Species. According to the CDC video, "History of Bioterrorism" in Module 2, bioterrorism is the use of weapons of viruses, bacteria, and other germs for an attack. Ricin is a poison found naturally in beans (Select Agents and Toxins Module 2 Powerpoint). It prevents cells from making protein. If inhaled, it can cause

Prevalent to the current trend now is the dependency of the society on Information technology and communication systems. Every aspect of human life is one way or the other linked and controlled by information technology tools. The importance of information technology cannot be over emphasized as its unavailability could lead to a form of disaster or the other. Pivotal infrastructures like finance, healthcare, education and security are driven by information technology. However, information technology and its benefits are accompanied by vulnerabilities and risks that can be exploited by people with the necessary technical skills. Individuals like ‘Hackers’ and ‘Cyber Terrorist’ can cause disruption to information systems, commit financial fraud and also attack computers and networks. These attacks and disruptions could result to violence against people and properties. In some cases, death, serious injuries and severe economic loss could occur as a result of these attacks.