Combatting Terrorism: Need for Comprehensive Threat and Risk Assessments of Chemical and Biological Attacks

Combatting Terrorism: Need for Comprehensive Threat and Risk Assessments of Chemical and Biological Attacks

Described general evaluation of the threat of BW. Included overview of the analyses of most likely BW foreign-threats from the intelligence community (classified files).

1999

The likelihood of a terrorist attack using an agent depends on the ease or difficulty of its acquisition, development, and deployment. Terrorists would need a relatively high level of sophistication to cause mass casualties with a biological agent due to likelihood of hurting themselves, difficulty with dissemination, and difficulty in avoiding detection. For these reasons, a national vaccine stockpile may not be the best course of action towards medical preparedness. Identified that many strategies and decisions for preparedness and counterterrorism are made without proper risk assessments as guide. Called for increased risk assessment infrastructure across WMD fields.