Author: Richard DanzigPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Bioterrorism
Languages : en
Pages : 48
Book Description
A Policymaker's Guide to Bioterrorism and what to Do about it
Author: Richard DanzigPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Bioterrorism
Languages : en
Pages : 48
Book Description
A Policymaker's Guide to Bioterrorism
Author: Richard DanzigPublisher: CreateSpace
ISBN: 9781478128878
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 52
Book Description
This paper draws together several years of work in an attempt to suggest the outlines of this thinking about the risk that I regard as most pernicious: biological terrorism. It is written for those who desire a better understanding of this risk and its implications for policymakers. Section I delineates the problem that confronts us. It describes the character and magnitude of the risk of biological terrorism and identifies the factors that differentiate bioterrorism from other modes of terrorism. This section also comments on why biological terrorism has not yet emerged as an important instrument of terror and offers judgments about the likelihood of its manifestation over the next decade. Section II enumerates four factors that have confused, confounded, and constrained the U.S. response to this threat. Section III, the most operational part of this paper, offers my top 10 recommendations for moving ahead.
A Policymaker's Guide to Bioterrorism and What to Do About It
Author: Richard J. DanzigPublisher: CreateSpace
ISBN: 9781496068828
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 54
Book Description
The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, brought together two related but distinct phenomena. First, they presented the calling card of al Qaeda and more generally of militant Islam. These attacks were rightly perceived as an act of war by a group seeking to catalyze a political-religious movement. Much of America's effort since then has been to destroy that group, its sanctuaries, and its affiliates; some of the effort has been to counter the psychological, social, and political appeal of militant (predominantly Wahabi) Islam. Second, these attacks introduced the public to a more general phenomenon: our vulnerability to acts of terror on a greater scale than anything America had experienced. It is remarkable that in the turbulent 20th century, which witnessed some 200 million deaths from politically driven violence and war, no single attack on American soil equaled the estimated 3,000 deaths on 9/11. The implications for America are the graver because the capability to inflict carnage at this level—and at much higher levels—is not confined to a group or movement. It lies at hand as an instrument that can be used by any belligerent group (or state, or individual). It will survive the destruction of al Qaeda and the abandonment of jihad. These two strands—jihadi terrorism and our general vulnerability to terror on a large scale—intertwine but are independent. The tendency to confuse them is accentuated when policymakers rhetorically jump from one to the other; the effect resembles one produced by the thaumatrope, a popular 19th-century toy now encountered only as a curiosity. A horse is depicted on one side of a disk or card and a man on the other, or a cage on one side and a bird on the other. When the object is spun quickly, the rider appears on the horse, or the bird in the cage. Our inability to separate images shown us in rapid succession merges the two in our minds. We speak of a “war on terror” (not just on al Qaeda) and have devoted significant resources to controlling and preparing for the consequences of “weapons of mass destruction,” but these efforts overwhelmingly focus on the present challenge of jihadi fundamentalism. Our inherent vulnerability to large-scale terrorism is more troubling but less addressed. Our vulnerability to the use of chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and other technologies to create terror is a risk. These technologies provide instruments that can be seized upon by any group for use as weapons of terror. So long as grievances exist and those who hold grievances are willing to resort to violence, the use of such weapons will be an enduring risk. The sweep of history suggests that these risks cannot be eradicated. Apart from the dum-dum bullet, we cannot point to examples of effective weapons that have not been used. Once used successfully, weapons tend to proliferate. That proliferation is abetted when the skills that can produce a weapon are closely related to civilian skills and equipment that are themselves proliferating. To cope with our inherent vulnerability to weapons of terror, we must find strategies of risk management.
Looking for Trouble
Author: Robert E. ArmstrongPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Bioterrorism
Languages : en
Pages : 61
Book Description
Guide for policy makers used to assist in decisionmaking regarding how best to help provide early warning of a biological attack.
Looking for Trouble
Author: Robert ArmstrongPublisher: CreateSpace
ISBN: 9781478194101
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 68
Book Description
Protecting the population against the effects of a bioterrorism attack is one of the most daunting tasks facing government officials. Some of the information required to make informed decisions is highly technical, and even the technical experts do not agree about many of the details or issues involved. This primer is written for the non-technical policymaker and is designed to assist him or her in reaching important decisions regarding how best to help provide early warning of a biological attack. The authors also present the results of an extensive statistical study that examined the utility of a system-of-systems approach to identifying a bioattack. Using a hypothetical system-of-systems that obtains medically relevant data from 10 sources, the study reaches several conclusions. Among them, that policymakers: • Reassess efforts currently underway that attempt to capture data from absenteeism reporting, OTC pharmacy sales and medical claims reporting, because their value added may not be worth the cost. • Increase efforts to collect medical data. These efforts would include, but not be limited to, capturing data from doctors' offices and ER visits, as well as expanded veterinary and agricultural surveillance. Increase data collection from medical website visits and nurse helplines. • Reassess current plans to significantly increase the number of biosensors deployed as part of both the BioWatch and Guardian programs. Finally, the authors propose testing an innovative approach to monitoring for the presence of biological pathogens. They recommend that the 23,500-strong workforce of law enforcement officers, firefighters and mail carriers in Washington, D.C., be monitored daily by thermal imagers for increases in body temperature. This workforce is uniformly distributed throughout the city and is both inside and outside of buildings, thus avoiding some of the problems cited with the current use of stationary sensor systems.
Biological Threats and Terrorism
Author: Institute of MedicinePublisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 030916995X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 335
Book Description
In the wake of September 11th and recent anthrax events, our nation's bioterrorism response capability has become an imminent priority for policymakers, researchers, public health officials, academia, and the private sector. In a three-day workshop, convened by the Institute of Medicine's Forum on Emerging Infections, experts from each of these communities came together to identify, clarify, and prioritize the next steps that need to be taken in order to prepare and strengthen bioterrorism response capabilities. From the discussions, it became clear that of utmost urgency is the need to cast the issue of a response in an appropriate framework in order to attract the attention of Congress and the public in order to garner sufficient and sustainable support for such initiatives. No matter how the issue is cast, numerous workshop participants agreed that there are many gaps in the public health infrastructure and countermeasure capabilities that must be prioritized and addressed in order to assure a rapid and effective response to another bioterrorist attack.
Living Weapons
Author: Gregory D. KoblentzPublisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 0801457661
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 273
Book Description
"Biological weapons are widely feared, yet rarely used. Biological weapons were the first weapon prohibited by an international treaty, yet the proliferation of these weapons increased after they were banned in 1972. Biological weapons are frequently called 'the poor man's atomic bomb,' yet they cannot provide the same deterrent capability as nuclear weapons. One of my goals in this book is to explain the underlying principles of these apparent paradoxes."—from Living Weapons Biological weapons are the least well understood of the so-called weapons of mass destruction. Unlike nuclear and chemical weapons, biological weapons are composed of, or derived from, living organisms. In Living Weapons, Gregory D. Koblentz provides a comprehensive analysis of the unique challenges that biological weapons pose for international security. At a time when the United States enjoys overwhelming conventional military superiority, biological weapons have emerged as an attractive means for less powerful states and terrorist groups to wage asymmetric warfare. Koblentz also warns that advances in the life sciences have the potential to heighten the lethality and variety of biological weapons. The considerable overlap between the equipment, materials and knowledge required to develop biological weapons, conduct civilian biomedical research, and develop biological defenses creates a multiuse dilemma that limits the effectiveness of verification, hinders civilian oversight, and complicates threat assessments. Living Weapons draws on the American, Soviet, Russian, South African, and Iraqi biological weapons programs to enhance our understanding of the special challenges posed by these weapons for arms control, deterrence, civilian-military relations, and intelligence. Koblentz also examines the aspirations of terrorist groups to develop these weapons and the obstacles they have faced. Biological weapons, Koblentz argues, will continue to threaten international security until defenses against such weapons are improved, governments can reliably detect biological weapon activities, the proliferation of materials and expertise is limited, and international norms against the possession and use of biological weapons are strengthened.
Biological Weapons
Author: Jeanne GuilleminPublisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231129432
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 273
Book Description
This resource offers readers a highly accessible and informed account of the circumstances under which scientists, soldiers, and statesmen were able to mobilize resources for extensive biological weapons programs and explains why such weapons were never deployed in a major conflict.
The Alphabet Bomber
Author: Jeffrey David SimonPublisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 1640121595
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 326
Book Description
On August 6, 1974, a bomb exploded at Los Angeles International Airport, killing three people and injuring thirty-five others. It was the first time an airport had been bombed anywhere in the world. A few days later, police recovered a cassette tape containing a chilling message: "This first bomb was marked with the letter A, which stands for Airport," said a voice. "The second bomb will be associated with the letter L, the third with the letter I, etc., until our name has been written on the face of this nation in blood." In The Alphabet Bomber: A Lone Wolf Terrorist Ahead of His Time, internationally renowned terrorism expert Jeffrey D. Simon tells the gripping tale of Muharem Kurbegovic, a bright but emotionally disturbed Yugoslav immigrant who single-handedly brought Los Angeles to a standstill during the summer of 1974. He had conjured up the fictitious group "Aliens of America," but it was soon discovered that he acted alone in a one-man war against government and society. The story of the Alphabet Bomber is about an extraordinary manhunt to find an elusive killer, a dogged prosecutor determined to bring him to justice, a pioneering female judge, and a devious mastermind whose heinous crimes foreshadowed the ominous threats we face today from lone wolf terrorists.
Author: Milton Leitenberg