By Steve Macko, ENN Editor, Clark Staten, Analyst
The United States intelligence community is studying the threat of chemical and biological terrorist attacks against civilian targets. It is hoped that a plan can be devised to help protect soft targets such as subway systems and airports. As reported some months ago in this publication, the U.S. Congress is planning to make military expertise available to cities across the U.S. to help mitigate such an attack that until not to long ago was "unthinkable."
Georgia Senator Sam Nunn said in March of this year, that the United States had a "remarkable lack of domestic preparedness" to deal with such situations. The senator has warned many times, "An attack of this kind is not a question of 'if' but 'when.'" Similar warnings have been offered in analysis' offered by the Emergency Response & Research Institute since 1987.
Central Intelligence Agency Director John Deutch warned that the threat of chemical and/or biological attack in the U.S. is "the most urgent, long-term pressing intelligence challenge we face. The materials and expertise necessary to build chemical and biological weapons are more readily available today than ever before."
The United States Defense Intelligence Agency has said that there is a proliferation of interest in biological weapons in the Third World. Can one imagine these weapons in the hands of the leaders of countries such as Burundi, Sudan, or Somalia? Actually, Somalia does not even have a working government. If these weapons were available there -- criminal gangs, really, would be in control of them.
Again, as in nuclear issues, the expertise that is being made available to rogue nations such as Iran, Libya and Syria is coming from Russia. If Russia is unwilling or unable to pay scientists for their expertise -- rogue nations are able and willing. Sadly, there is some evidence that at least some of the scientists from the former Soviet Union may have defected and now work for hostile nation-states or groups in the Mid-East.
Through the years of the Cold War, planning in the U.S. to deal with a possible nuclear attack had been extensive. But the internation threat of terrorist use of chemical and/or biological attack is still relatively new and there is reportedly no real specific intelligence or operational framework in place to deal with these threats.
There is said to be at least two plans, that should a chemical attack strike in say, New York City, special U.S. troops and equipment would be dispatched to assist local officials. In Washington, DC, and soon in the Los Angeles basin, a special "Chemical/Biological Medical Strike Teams" are being formulated to help treat toxically exposed patients. A special training initative may soon be proposed that would facilitate cross-training between military chemical/biological specialists and their civilian counter-parts in emergency service agencies.
The United States does have a number of specialized units that are capable of dealing with such unconventional attacks. Each military service: the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force each have specially trained teams. The U.S. Department of Energy, which has NEST (Nuclear Emergency Search Team) and its own SWAT teams, also has a team to deal with chemical/biological incidents. The coordination of any relief and mitigation efforts in the event of a Chem/Bio attack will be made through the Federal Emergency Management Agency, with cooperation of the Department of Defense.
And, after such an attack, employing weapons of mass destruction, the U.S. apparently will spend little time "messing around" with finding those who was responsible. As soon as the perpetrators could be identified and targeted, they will have the Joint Special Operations Command; with SFOD-D Delta Force, Marine Force Recon, and Navy Seal Teams, to deal with. As the president has been quoted as saying, the reaction would would probably be "swift and severe."
A scary thought is that it was recently reported by Janes Defense weekly that the U.S. Secret Service considers the President as a possible target for such a terrorist attack. This issue and threat was been the topic of discussion amongst the intelligence community and the U.S. Army, which has a Chemical/Biological Anti-Terrorism Team. Though the information would be considered classified, that team most certainly is in Chicago this week. That security planners are even thinking of such threats to the President indicates the concern that the U.S. has about the possibility of such an attack.
What would happen if terrorists conducted a chemical attack on Denver? Which happens to be an upcoming site for a future G-7 industrialized nations summit. The Technical Escort Unit, which is based in Maryland, is able to respond on short notice and to mitigate such incidents. The aforementioned Chemical/ Biological Anti-Terrorism Team would also respond because they are considered to be the foremost experts in the technology that is used to protect people and neutralize the weapons.
Of greatest concern, as always, is the rogue state of Iran. The Central Intelligence Agency claims that the outlaw state has several thousand tons of chemical agents. In a recent report to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, the CIA said that Iran is capable of producing 1,000 tons of chemical agents every year. Iran is believed to have stockpiles of such chemicals as nerve and blister agents, cyanide, phosgene and mustard gases.
In the future, it is going to be quite a challenge to attempt to keep these types of weapons of mass destruction out of the hands of fanatical regimes and thugs that seem to be breeding all around the world. As the last remaining superpower, the United States will, unfortunately, find itself on the front line dealing with this threat.
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