C&BWs: Panic Poisons

10 Nov, 2001    ·   631

Col Sharma believes that “the greatest threat of CBW terrorism comes from religious fundamentalists and right wing extremists”
The horrendous effects of gas attacks in trench-warfare during the First World War had a lasting effect on the conscience of nations. This led to chemical and biological weapons (CBWs) being proscribed under the Geneva Protocol of 1925. Nations abhor their employment, yet undertake clandestine research and development as this is not prohibited under any international convention; the Biological & Toxin Weapons Convention only prohibits research into offensive biological agents. Thus countries have no qualms in maintaining secret military arsenals.  Iraq and the US are two cases in point, which shows that these weapons continue to remain a viable and cost effective means of mass annihilation. 

 

 

This aspect is not lost either on terrorist organizations who could use CB munitions to spectacular effect. This is evident from the recent anthrax attacks. For terrorists, they are an easy means of propaganda, black mail and coercion. The law enforcing agencies face great difficulties because of the specialist nature of the counter operation entailed. 

 

 

Some cases have been referred to in scholastic writings on terrorism; others made the headlines in their time; they include cases involving religious cults, right and leftwing terrorist outfits who have used CBW agents with some effect. They are:-

 

 

·                     The Weather Underground – a radical leftist Vietnam era group, which tried to pilfer one of US Army’s biological centers (1970).

 

                   

 

·                     R.I.S.E – who were on the verge of releasing the typhoid bacteria into Chicago ’s water supply (1972).

 

                 

 

·                     The Alphabet Bomber – one Muharem Kurbegovic, who threatened to release nerve agents in populated areas (1974).

 

                  

 

·                     The Baader-Meinhof Gang – who stole 53 canisters of mustard gas from a US bunker in West Germany and threatened to use them in Stuttgart (1975).

 

                 

 

·                     The Red Army Faction – who sought to acquire BWs in West Germany (1980).

 

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·                     The Rajneeshis – a religious cult originating in India that employed biological agents in Oregon sickening 751 people (1984).

 

                  

 

·                     The Covenant, the Sword, and the Arm of the Lord – that acquired a large drum of potassium cyanide for poisoning water supply in major US cities (1985).

 

                    

 

·                     The Minnesota Patriots Council – which got hold of ricin, a deadly protein toxin (1991).

 

                 

 

·                     The World Trade Centre Bombers – (1993).

 

                  

 

·                     Aum Shinkriyo’s sarin nerve gas attack in the Tokyo subway station in 1995 that transformed the threat of use of CBWs into a risk to national security.

 

                  

 

·                     Larry Wayne Harris – who possessed military grade anthrax (1998).

 

                    

 

·                     U S/ World Scare and Fatal Cases of  Anthrax in the wake of the Al Qaeda terrorist attack on the twin towers of the WTC on 11 Sep 01. Eight fatal cases in the United States due to military grade anthrax spores being delivered through US Mail and inhaled; and one in Pakistan . A serious scare in Japan (and Argentina , UK , USA , Canada , Belgium and France ; amongst others) 

 

                   

 

·                     World-wide Small Pox warning issued by WHO in late October this year.

 

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A study of these cases, except the recent postal-anthrax cases, reveals, that:-

 

 

·                     the use of CBWs has been conspicuously few ; 

 

                  

 

·                     a lone terrorist or a small group can acquire them with ease; 

 

                   

 

·                     hoaxes should not be treated non-seriously; 

 

                  

 

·                     it is important to distinguish between isolated and blanket attacks;

 

                  

 

·                     and lastly, the choice of agents and modes of delivery differ significantly. 

 

                    

 

A comparison based on motivation/objective, ideology, targets, delivery and outcome provides a thumbnail profile of the CBW terrorists and of their motivations, the prime ones are charismatic leadership and a sense of paranoia. Propagation of beliefs is another aspect of relevance. The ease with which it can be done in this age of the internet revolution can be fathomed from the fact that there are 30 terrorist’s web sites on the net! People are susceptible to this propaganda, as the written word retains its sanctity.

 

 

The greatest threat of CBW terrorism comes from religious fundamentalists and rightwing extremists. The redeeming factor however is one: their resource constraint inhibits mass-casualty attacks, and two, the unpredictable damage possible by ambient weather conditions like wind direction, rainfall, temperature, water currents, difficulty in ingesting biological agents, and the incubation time involved, that makes the use of CBWs dicey. They are potent nevertheless, due to the panic and insecurity they can wreak in the populace at large.  

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