Biological Terrorism

Biological Weapons

Biological weapons use pathogens or organisms that cause disease in humans, other animals, or plants. Pathogens include bacteria, viruses, fungi, and toxins (poisons produced by animals or plants). Crude biological weapons (or agents) have a long history of use in warfare. In ancient times, wells were poisoned with the carcasses of dead animals, and infected corpses were thrown over the walls of besieged cities in efforts to spread sickness among defenders. During the French and Indian Wars in the 1700s, British troops gave blankets from smallpox victims to Native Americans to spread the disease.

The large number of casualties inflicted by chemical attacks in World War I and the military's general distaste for using such weapons led to the signing of the Geneva Convention of 1925, a treaty prohibiting the use of both chemical and biological agents in warfare. However, that treaty did not prohibit nations from manufacturing or stockpiling them. Many nations chose to do just that in the belief that the [Page 75]possession of these weapons would deter others from using them. The Japanese experimented with the use of biological weapons on a relatively small scale in World War II—for example, Japanese forces attacked Chinese cities by dropping plague-carrying fleas from aircraft—but other major combatants did not use them, possibly because they did not believe that these weapons would be decisive factors in the conflict, and possibly because they feared retaliation in kind.

The relatively crude attempts to use pathogens for military purposes throughout history were overshadowed dramatically during the Cold War period (1948–1991) when Americans and Soviets exploited modern scientific knowledge and sophisticated technology to manufacture large stockpiles of deadly pathogens such as anthrax, a disease that can sicken and kill humans and livestock.

By the late 1960s, it had become apparent to military planners that biological weapons posed as much of a threat to the attacker as to the defender. An infection spread among enemy troops might easily result in the infection of friendly forces. Furthermore, biological weapons were not regarded as posing significant threats to well-prepared military units that could be vaccinated to prevent the spread of disease. For these reasons, most nations signed a 1972 treaty known as the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention that went beyond the Geneva Convention of 1925 by prohibiting research, development, manufacture, stockpiling, and use of biological and toxin agents. Unfortunately, this treaty does not have any monitoring or verification measures to deter nations from cheating. Several countries, including Iraq and the former Soviet Union, took advantage of the loophole to continue developing these weapons secretly in violation of international law.

...