Biological and Chemical Terrorism

Biological and Chemical Terrorism Alison, Brenley, Waseem and JS

Chemical and Biological Terrorism

What is a chemical weapon? Any weapon that uses manufactured chemicals to kill people Example: chlorine gas – used in WW1burns and destroys lung tissue Modern chemicals use agents with greater killing power (less chemicals than in the past, more deaths)


What is a biological weapon? Weapon that uses bacteria or a virus to infect large numbers of people Example: Indians were infected with Smallpox through donated blankets in the 19th Century Both chemical and biological weapons are considered weapons of mass destruction (WMD)


What is a virus?

Example: cold or flu Virus particles are about one-millionth of an inch 1,000 times smaller than bacteria and bacteria are much smaller than most human cells

The red spiral lines in the drawing indicate the virusʹs genetic material. The orange part is the outer shell that protects it. Chemical and Biological Terrorism

History of Bio-Chemical Weapons

400s BC.: Spartan Greeks use sulfur fumes against enemy soldiers. 1346: Crimean Tatars catapult plague-infected corpses into Italian trade settlement. 1500s: Spanish conquistadors use biological warfare used against Native peoples. 1763: British Gen. Jeffrey Amherst orders use of smallpox blankets against Native peoples during Pontiacʹs Rebellion. 1800s: Blankets infected with smallpox deliberately given to Native Americans, causing widespread epidemics. 1907: Hague Convention outlaws chemical weapons; U.S. does not participate. 1914: World War I begins; poison gas produces 100,000 deaths, 900,000 injuries.



1928: Geneva Protocol prohibits gas and bacteriological warfare. 1935: Italy begins conquest of Abyssinia (Ethiopia), using mustard gas. 1936: Japan invades China, uses chemical weapons in war; German chemical labs produced the first nerve agent, Tabun 1939: World War II begins; neither side uses bio-chemical arms, due to fears of retaliation in kind. 1941: U.S. enters World War II; President Roosevelt pledges U.S. will not be first to use bio-chemical weapons. 1943: U.S. ship damaged by German bombing raid on Bari, Italy, leaks mustard gas, killing 1000.



1945: Germans use Zyklon-B in extermination of civilians. Japanese military discovered to have conducted biological warfare experiments on POWs, killing 3000. The Nazis had stockpiles of nerve gas and also had been working on blood agents. 1949: Army begins secret tests of biological agents in U.S. cities. 1956: Gerald Ford wins policy change to give U.S. military ʺfirst strikeʺ authority on chemical arms. 1961: Kennedy Adminsitration begins hike of chemical weapons spending from $75 million to more than $330 million. 1966: Army germ warfare experiment in New York subway system. 1969: Utah chemical weapons accident kills thousands of sheep; President Nixon declares U.S. moratorium on chemical weapons production and biological weapons possession. U.N. General Assembly bans use of herbicides (plant killers) and tear gasses in warfare.



1970: Sarin nerve gas used by U.S. forces in a secret raid into Laos called Operation Tailwind. 1971: U.S. ends direct use of herbicides such as Agent Orange; had spread over Indochinese forests, and destroyed at least six percent of South Vietnamese cropland, enough to feed 600,000 people for a year. U.S. intelligence source gives swine-flu virus to anti-Castro Cuban paramilitary group, which lands it on Cubaʹs southern coast (according to1977 newspaper reports). 1972: Biological and Toxic Weapons Convention. Cuba accuses CIA of instilling swine fever virus that leads to death of 500,000 hogs. 1974: U.S. finally ratifies 1928 Geneva Protocol. 1981: Israel bombs Iraqi nuclear reactor, leading to Iraqi decision to build chemical weapons.



1985: U.S. resumes open-air testing of biological agents. U.S. firms begin supplying Iraq with numerous biological agents for a fouryear period (according to a 1994 Senate report). 1988: Iraq uses chemical weapons against Kurdish minority in Halabjah; U.S. continues to maintain agricultural credits with Iraq; President Reagan blocks congressional sanctions against Iraq. 1990: U.S., Soviets pledge to reduce chemical weapons stockpiles to 20 percent of current U.S. supply by 2002, and to eliminate poison gas weapons when all nations have signed future Geneva treaty. Israel admits possession of chemical weapons; Iraq threatens to use chemical weapons on Israel if it is attacked. 1991: U.S. and Coalition forces bomb 28 alleged bio- chemical production or storage sites in Iraq during Gulf War. CNN reports ʺgreen flamesʺ from one chemical plant, and the deaths of 50 Iraqi troops from anthrax after air strike on another site. Air strikes on Iraqi chemical weapons would have little effect beyond neighboring villages, strikes on biological weapons could spread disease to adjoining countries. Chemical and Biological Terrorism


1992: Reports intensify of U.S. and Allied veterans of Gulf War developing health problems, involving a variety of symptoms, collectively called Gulf War Syndrome. U.N. sanctions intensify civilian health crisis inside Iraq, making identification of similar symptoms potentially difficult. 1995: Japanese cult launches deadly sarin nerve gas attack on Tokyo subway system. 1997: Senate act finally implements Chemical Weapons Convention, with a provision that ʺthe President may deny a request to inspect any facilityʺ on national security grounds. 1998: U.S. again mobilizes for bombing campaign against alleged Iraqi bio-chemical weapons sites. 2001: Anthrax sent out in the mail


Feared Chemical/Biological Agents

Sarin Mustard Gas Lewisite Anthrax Smallpox Botulin toxin Ebola Virus


Nerve Agents

Ex: sarin, tabun, VX gas

Symptoms: muscles contract, causing respiratory failure and paralysis

Spread: direct contact with substance, though liquids, foods or aerosol spray

Treatment: immediate decontamination and antidote injection Chemical and Biological Terrorism

Choking Agents

E.x: chlorine, phosgene

Symptoms: may not develop for several hours. Starts with coughing and choking, as lungs swell, eventually causing suffocation

Spread: direct contact with substance

Treatment: immediate decontamination and antidote injection Chemical and Biological Terrorism

Blistering Agents

E.x: lewsite gas, mustard gas

Symptoms: skin blisters and burns

Spread: direct contact with substance

Treatment: immediate decontamination, followed by antibiotics. In severe cases, plastic surgery can be carried out after wounds have healed Chemical and Biological Terrorism

How does Sarin work?

Sarin is a nerve agent. Once inside your body, it affects the signaling mechanism that nerve cells use to communicate with one another. It’s a cholinesterase inhibitor -- it gums up the cholinesterase enzyme, which your nerve cells use to clear themselves of acetylcholine. When a nerve cell needs to send a message to another nerve cell (ex: to cause a muscle to contract), it sends the message with the acetylcholine. Without cholinesterase to clear the acetylcholine, muscles start to contract uncontrollably, which eventually causes death by suffocation (since the diaphragm is a muscle). In 1995, the group Aum Shinrikyo released sarin gas in the Tokyo subway, wounding thousands and killing 12 people. It is not particularly difficult to manufacture, and about 1 milligram in the lungs will kill a person.


How does VX work?

One of the most dangerous chemicals ever created Gas form more deadly than liquid formkills victim within minutes In the film ʺThe Rock” it was the green liquid that the terrorists threatened San Francisco Bay with VX gas was developed in Wiltshire, England in 1952 It has a low volatility; is odourless and is an excellent adhesive The ʺVʺ of VX signifies it’s long persistence Has not been used to its fullest potential yet because it is too dangerous to use for local attacks with wind that could blow the VX back onto the base The only known countries to possess VX are U.S. France and Russia


How Anthrax Works

Bacillus anthracis is the bacterium that causes the disease anthrax It contaminates the ground when an affected animal dies Mainly a threat to cattle, sheep or humans working with their byproducts Contaminates infected animal when it dies Spores are tough- can remain underground for decades


How Anthrax Works Inhalation Anthrax :

spores can be inhaled in contaminated soil or other particles containing them spores have no smell, taste or color In order to enter the lungs, where they can germinate, the spores have to be very small -from 1 to 5 microns at least 2,500 spores have to be inhaled to cause an infection


How Anthrax Works Cutaneous or Skin Anthrax :

Open cuts and scrapes allow entry of the spores into the body to an environment where they can germinate Also spread by infected insects who have bitten an infected human Accounts for about 95% of cases worldwide If untreated, it has a fatality rate of 5%- 20%


How Anthrax Works Gastrointestinal Anthrax :

Eating undercooked meat that is infected with the anthrax bacteria Drinking unchlorinated water that harbors the spores- can introduce the bacteria into the gastrointestinal tract This form of anthrax is rare


How Anthrax Works

The initial symptoms of anthrax could be a scab that forms out of a broken sore. Other symptoms like fever, chills, headache, nausea, vomiting, cough, chest pain, pain in the joints and in extreme cases pneumonia may appear leading soon to death. Treatment of anthrax includes antibiotics like Penicillin or tetracycline Medicine will have effect only if the disease is detected in early stages.


Possible Motivation for an Attack Using WMD

The ideology of “apocalyptic millennialism”: a belief that the present age of the world is irredeemably evil ruled by a satanic figure personifying evil. This ideology professes a belief that the evil age will soon be ended, destroyed by God (or God’s servant) who is good. The age to follow this event would be one of utopia, where only those who were formerly oppressed or were “true believers” will survive to enjoy it. A revival of terrorism motivated by religious ideologies, ethnic traditions, and race. The growing sophistication of established, more “professional” groups.



The idea that using ultra-violence is a means to gain a desired end. The “redemptive religious imperative”: the belief that God will reward his people only when certain prerequisites are fulfilled. The belief of terrorists that they are conducting their violent acts as part of a strategy to correct perceived flaws in the socio-political order of the state. Backlash: it may cause a group to view themselves as a small cell surrounded by the forces of evil who ultimately desire to destroy them.




The belief that taking extraordinary risks are taken in anticipation that actions will result in some type of “special reward.” The desire to commit an act which will capture the world’s attention in a society that has become desensitized to violence.

Gas Masks


Left: In 14th and 15th centuries, when loaded with diseased bodies, wood-frame catapults were biological weapons. Right: Gen. Jeffrey Amherst, in a letter dated 16 July 1763, approved the plan to spread smallpox to Delaware Indians. Chemical and Biological Terrorism

Left: The Japanese army used Chinese prisoners to test bioweapons. Right: Weapons production at Fort Detrick, Maryland, the U.S. Armyʹs base for biowarfare research.


Left: Sprays are now available to decontaminate workers cleaning up hazardous materials. Someday aerosol vaccines might protect people before, or immediately after, a bioweapons attack. Right: Defense researchers in the 1960s struggled to make devices that could rapidly detect and analyze germ attacks. Today mobile labs, such as Idaho Technologyʹs RAPID, pinpoint germs in minutes.


Left: Aum Shinrikyo Tokyo underground subway Sarin gas attack --- 1995 Right: The post room at Bombay airport


Left: Anthrax Spore Right: Anthrax antibiotics on sale, Mexico


Anthrax Letters
