RBM
CAGiversary!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4457514.stm
The world must face the inevitability of a bio-terror attack by al-Qaeda, the head of Interpol has warned. Police and health authorities around the world were underprepared for such an attack, Ron Noble told a bio-terror conference in Cape Town, South Africa.
Addressing delegates from 41 African nations, Mr Noble said al-Qaeda's track record of deadly, unexpected terror attacks put the threat into focus. Evidence collected from sympathetic websites also pointed to an avowed intention to stage bio-terror attacks if operatives gained the capability, he added.
"Al-Qaeda has openly claimed the right to kill four million people using biological and chemical weapons," he said.
"Al-Qaeda is willing, able and patient enough to plan and prepare to execute terrorists acts that [once] would have been considered unrealistic or fantasy."
*******
We have, of course, been well aware of the threat of bio-terrorism for quite some time. The Bioterrorism Act was passed back in 2002 (and the supplemental BioShield Act in 2004,) and Bush's administration has directed increasing amounts of funding toward Biodefense (>4 billion.)
When the head of the International Police organization formally declares such an attack to be "inevitable" and the enemy also openly declares their intention (in the cited article...they didn't give a link to the actual site which speaks on behalf of Al-Qaeda) to make such an attack...well, chances are that we are going to live through this horror in our life-times.
My personal take on the matter (well, one aspect of it, at any rate): the level of fear which a biological attack will give rise to will be absolutely massive....and the level of blinding hatred and anger which will follow in its wake will be equally uncontrollable.
Some of us have supported the war in Iraq as a just and necessary way to fight our enemies, and some have considered it a misdirected mess. However, I don't think the public backlash against The Enemy after Sept 11th will hold a candle to the backlash following a man-made epidemic on American soil, from everyone across the spectrum. The potential for wholesale violence--both domestic and abroad--in retaliation would be obscene.
[edit: just as despicable? No...but a regrettable spiral into pointless violence. It's almost like contemplating the beginning of a family feud, where people try repeatedly to "wash away blood with blood." Tempers are going to burn high and both sides are going to be convinced that their anger burns hotter than anyone else's...that their pain is deeper than anyone else's. A militant fringe will finally succeed in hurting us all enough so that we may wind up ruthlessly attacking the masses they hide in. The masses retaliate, and....what?
Perhaps I'm just being melodramatic and this is a scenario which isn't very likely to actually happen. Perhaps I am more aghast at contemplating our hypothetical counter-strike, because its effects can take place on a much larger scale than that of guerilla-style fighters.
I think part of the fear in visualizing this scenario lies in the uncertainty that I would be able to keep my own head in such a situation. I don't think I would be immune to the almost primal anger which would rise at anyone who would inflict fatal diseases upon others. That really is a threat which everyone will feel directed at themselves and their families.]
The world must face the inevitability of a bio-terror attack by al-Qaeda, the head of Interpol has warned. Police and health authorities around the world were underprepared for such an attack, Ron Noble told a bio-terror conference in Cape Town, South Africa.
Addressing delegates from 41 African nations, Mr Noble said al-Qaeda's track record of deadly, unexpected terror attacks put the threat into focus. Evidence collected from sympathetic websites also pointed to an avowed intention to stage bio-terror attacks if operatives gained the capability, he added.
"Al-Qaeda has openly claimed the right to kill four million people using biological and chemical weapons," he said.
"Al-Qaeda is willing, able and patient enough to plan and prepare to execute terrorists acts that [once] would have been considered unrealistic or fantasy."
*******
We have, of course, been well aware of the threat of bio-terrorism for quite some time. The Bioterrorism Act was passed back in 2002 (and the supplemental BioShield Act in 2004,) and Bush's administration has directed increasing amounts of funding toward Biodefense (>4 billion.)
When the head of the International Police organization formally declares such an attack to be "inevitable" and the enemy also openly declares their intention (in the cited article...they didn't give a link to the actual site which speaks on behalf of Al-Qaeda) to make such an attack...well, chances are that we are going to live through this horror in our life-times.
My personal take on the matter (well, one aspect of it, at any rate): the level of fear which a biological attack will give rise to will be absolutely massive....and the level of blinding hatred and anger which will follow in its wake will be equally uncontrollable.
Some of us have supported the war in Iraq as a just and necessary way to fight our enemies, and some have considered it a misdirected mess. However, I don't think the public backlash against The Enemy after Sept 11th will hold a candle to the backlash following a man-made epidemic on American soil, from everyone across the spectrum. The potential for wholesale violence--both domestic and abroad--in retaliation would be obscene.
[edit: just as despicable? No...but a regrettable spiral into pointless violence. It's almost like contemplating the beginning of a family feud, where people try repeatedly to "wash away blood with blood." Tempers are going to burn high and both sides are going to be convinced that their anger burns hotter than anyone else's...that their pain is deeper than anyone else's. A militant fringe will finally succeed in hurting us all enough so that we may wind up ruthlessly attacking the masses they hide in. The masses retaliate, and....what?
Perhaps I'm just being melodramatic and this is a scenario which isn't very likely to actually happen. Perhaps I am more aghast at contemplating our hypothetical counter-strike, because its effects can take place on a much larger scale than that of guerilla-style fighters.
I think part of the fear in visualizing this scenario lies in the uncertainty that I would be able to keep my own head in such a situation. I don't think I would be immune to the almost primal anger which would rise at anyone who would inflict fatal diseases upon others. That really is a threat which everyone will feel directed at themselves and their families.]
