The History 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.

The first major bioterror event in the United States--the anthrax attacks in October 2001--was a clarion call for scientists who work with "hot" agents to find ways of protecting civilian populations against biological weapons. In The Demon in the Freezer, his first nonfiction book since The Hot Zone, a #1 New York Times bestseller, Richard Preston takes us into the heart of Usamriid, the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Maryland, once the headquarters of the U.S. biological weapons program and now the epicenter of national biodefense.

“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

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).

What is Bioterrorism? What are the types of Bioterrorism? What issues or concerns should we be aware of when talking about Bioterrorism? How is Bioterrorism different from the United States and that of Guam? These are some of the things people would think of and wonder when they hear the word Bioterrorism. It’s important to know the different steps or precautions that a person can look into in order to prevent themselves from being a victim of Bioterrorism. First things first, Bioterrorism is defined as the intentional release of toxic biological agents to harm and terrorize civilians, in the name of a political or other cause. The history of Bioterrorism goes way back. According to the Terrorism Issues and Homeland Security, there have always been efforts to use germs and disease as weapons. The reported risk has led the U.S. government to expend immense resources for bio-defense in the early part of the 21st century. According to Right Diagnosis from health grades, there was a list of the different types of Bioterrorism and they are: Anthrax, Salmonella, Glanders, Melioidosis, and Smallpox.

A death by a biological agent is not a quick one; in most instances it is a slow and very painful death. A fear such a death would definitely incite panic, making it much more difficult for rescue crews and medical personnel to respond, causing the problem to grow out of control (Eitzen 445) With nuclear terrorism, most deaths are immediate due to the sheer force of the explosion of a bomb. This may be startling to think about but death would be swift with possibly very little suffering if any at all. Another possible effect of bioterrorism is the possible lowering of one’s immune system due to lack of sleep caused by fear or by sickness itself, therefore making the disease much harder to fight off. Nuclear terrorism is archaic and unlikely yet it is still in the public eye so often we no longer realize it, yet Bioterrorism is hardly ever mentioned and it much more likely a dirty bomb going off in the middle of a city is not as likely as a weaponized strain of ebola being realeased into the air in this day and age. The inexpensiveness of production, easy distribution and mental toll Bioterrorism takes; it is a very real and very potent threat to our society as a whole. And it is high time it was recognized as

One researcher determined that a hand full of biologists and $10,000 could be used to produce biological weapon agents. This stands in starch opposition to the amount of funding, expertise, and obstacles that terrorist would need to overcome to develop their own nuclear programs (Levi, 2007, p.1). Some states have attempted to create their own nuclear weapons; this takes years and hundreds of millions of dollars to accomplish. The materials needed are hard to acquire and special equipment is needed to make the process work. Biological agents on the other hand are, as demonstrated by the researchers assessment, are cheap and relatively easy.

In the wake of the attacks on September 11, 2001 and the anthrax outbreaks that occurred in the United States, a method needed to be developed to determine if an outbreak was natural or intentionally released. “The open or covert use of pathogens and toxins as biological warfare agents can no longer be ruled out” (Grunow & Finke, 2002, pg. 510). The events that occurred in The Dalles, Oregon further show that such a procedure needed to be developed. In 2002 R. Grunow

Before the 20th century, the use of biological agents took three major forms, Deliberate contamination of food and water with poisonous or contagious material using of microbes, biological toxins, animals, or plants (living or dead) in a weapon system, using of biologically inoculated fabrics and persons. Now a day sophisticated bacteriological and virological techniques allowed the production of significant stockpiles of weaponized bio-agents such as; Anthrax, Brucella, Tularemia, Smallpox, Viral hemorrhagic fevers, Botulinum, Ricin, (Legvold, 2012).The most likely route of dissemination is an aerosolized release of 1-5mm particles. Other methods of dissemination include oral, intentional contamination of food/water supply, percutaneous,

Bioterrorism is a deliberate release of viruses in the enemy’s territory to cause terror in a community and make the people lose faith in their government. People have been doing this for a long time, people used to just hurl barrels of poisonous snakes at their enemies and they would also send dead bodies that have died from diseases and hope that it would spread, but now it is much more advanced. Scientists fear that enemies will be able to weaponize diseases such as smallpox and Ebola to use against us and since they usually mutate the diseases they will likely be even more deadly and more likely to kill more people. I feel that no one, not even America, should use diseases to get ahead in the war.

never had biological warfare. However, the two eco-terrorist groups, Environmental Liberation Front (ELF) and the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) have created damages worth up to 45 million dollars, from incidents that date back to the 1996. ELF and ALF used arson, which started to kill people as well as destroy property (cite). With no discouragement to the eco-saboteurs, eco-terrorism on the rise is going to start killing people and destroying property. Humans, are part of one earth-network (ecosystem) along with plants, animals and inanimate objects. The intention to kill a nonliving object, like an SUV, eco-terrorist have begun to kill parts of earth’s eco-system. In the end, eco-terrorist are doing what they did not intend to do.

Yes, it could happen. In the remainder of this paper, I will consider whether such an incident of catastrophic biological terrorism will occur, who is likely to perpetrate it, what agents they are likely to employ, to what end they may do so, and what technical capabilities will be required. I will focus on independantly motivated terrorism, as state-sponsorship lies beyond the scope of this paper and my research.

The anthrax attacks in America in 2001 remain in the memories of people today, but as far back as pre-biblical times the use of biological agents to conduct warfare occurred. One example from 700 BC cited the Assyrians poisoning water wells using rye ergot, while another example from 400 BC references Scythian archers using the blood from decomposing bodies as a coating for arrowheads in order to create infection in the enemy (Kostadinov, & Galabova, 2010, p 296-297). Less commonly known, is that as recently as 2009, evidence shows that Al-Qaeda was experimenting with biological weapons and a number have been killed by the plague at a training camp (Kostadinov, & Galabova, 2010, p 301). If there is a lesson that can be inferred from Al-Qaeda’s past practices, it is that once they identify a course of action or a target, they commit to it until ultimately

As the last great superpower, the United States has reason to fear escalating terroristic attacks. This is not to say that the rest of the world is not also at risk, it simply means that the United States of America is often demonized as an international bully and as such is the target of animosity from many cultures and terrorist cells, both organized and unorganized. September 11, 2001, made it abundantly clear that the weapons of choice are no longer conventional means of warfare, particularly among terrorists. Rather, terrorists are employing weapons which are readily attainable, and cause as much mayhem and destruction as possible while inciting crippling fear in the target group. For this reason, several reputable sources insist that terrorists will strike a target with either chemical or biological weapons, if they have not already done so (Gannon, J., 2000, p. 2). Interestingly, both types of weapons are readily accessible and cause mayhem and death. From a terrorist standpoint, they both have their pros and cons. However, for many reasons, including the insidiousness of the agents and the expense to appropriate them, it is most likely that the next weapons of mass destruction utilized by terrorists will be biological weapons.

The use of biological weapons first started many years ago, it has been detected as far back as 10,000 BCE. Where hunters would use poisonous arrows to fired into the target. Biological agents were also used in World War I, by the Germans infecting the Allies horses and cattle with various microbes on both the western and eastern fronts ( ). Even though biological weapons were used for many years, it does not justify their used. Biological weapons can cause mass deaths, and they can widespread pandemics. A terrorist organization or country that want to cause injuries and death to civilian s might feel like they can justified their use of biological weapons, because they have five different categories of biological agents that they can