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Biological Attack expected in next 5 years - 12/2/2008 11:22:34 AM   
OrionTheWolf


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Status: offline 		A congressional panel has made a statement that they expect a Mass attack, likely using a biological weapon, by 2013.

So what is the US and international communities responsibility here?

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/12/02/terror.report/index.html?eref=rss_topstories#cnnSTCText

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RE: Biological Attack expected in next 5 years - 12/2/2008 11:29:45 AM   
kittinSol


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quote:

ORIGINAL: OrionTheWolf
So what is the US and international communities responsibility here?


To keep paranoia at bay, and optimism on hand?

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RE: Biological Attack expected in next 5 years - 12/2/2008 11:55:41 AM   
Rule


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Status: offline 		Hang all members of that panel. At least one of them must be suspected of being guilty of planning and executing such an attack.

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RE: Biological Attack expected in next 5 years - 12/2/2008 12:57:26 PM   
celticlord2112


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quote:

A congressional panel has made a statement that they expect a Mass attack, likely using a biological weapon, by 2013.

So what is the US and international communities responsibility here?

There are two responsibilities on both parties:

1. Defense: While the number of infectious organisms is vast, the number suitable for weaponization is fairly small. Containment and curative countermeasures for the most likely candidates should be stockpiled. Additionally, potential vulnerabilities should be identified and addressed now, not later. For example, a wonderful way to create a pandemic would be to dump cholera bacteria into the water system of a major city. How could the water system of such a city be protected from reservoir to faucet, to prevent such an attack?

2. Prevention: Weaponizing infectious organisms is not something that can be easily done outside of laboratory conditions--any work with disease agents requires a highly controlled environment. Those environments can be concealed, but not entirely. Intelligence gathering (human and electronic) specifically geared towards revealing bioweapons facilities needs to be made a priority, with a policy of immediate and total destruction of all such facilities as they are uncovered a standard in all nations.

Ultimately, it is foolish to believe a biological terror attack will never happen, or that it can be always thwarted, but the US and other nations can definitely shift the odds in our favor. That is what needs to be done.

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RE: Biological Attack expected in next 5 years - 12/2/2008 12:59:55 PM   
philosophy


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quote:

ORIGINAL: Rule

Hang all members of that panel. At least one of them must be suspected of being guilty of planning and executing such an attack.


...shoot the messenger eh?

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RE: Biological Attack expected in next 5 years - 12/2/2008 2:23:16 PM   
LadyEllen


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quote:

ORIGINAL: OrionTheWolf

So what is the US and international communities responsibility here?


None that you will be alive to prove in a court.

This would however be a massively convenient solution to so many pressing problems........ economic, environmental, resourcing and quite a few others likely that I cant think of on the spot.

E

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RE: Biological Attack expected in next 5 years - 12/2/2008 2:41:52 PM   
tweedydaddy


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Status: offline 		Tell me, does anything nice ever happen in your dreams?

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RE: Biological Attack expected in next 5 years - 12/2/2008 3:13:52 PM   
OrionTheWolf


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quote:

ORIGINAL: tweedydaddy

Tell me, does anything nice ever happen in your dreams?


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RE: Biological Attack expected in next 5 years - 12/2/2008 3:28:56 PM   
Rule


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quote:

ORIGINAL: OrionTheWolf
a Mass attack, likely using a biological weapon
Biological weapons are ineffective. They are nothing to worry about. That is why there is such a desperate search for the influenza virus of WWI: those who want to murder hundreds of millions of people are desperate for such a lethal influenza virus, because all other biological weapons do not amount to much. Take for example AIDS: its impact on western societies and economies is as yet negligible, even though there are indications that it was distributed purposely. (It is still spreading, though, I believe, so better be faithful to your significant other in the christian way.)

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RE: Biological Attack expected in next 5 years - 12/2/2008 3:50:48 PM   
popeye1250


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Status: offline 		Keep the Nuclear Submarines well oiled up and stop treating countries like Mexico and Pakistan and a few others as if they are our "friends."
If such an attack were to occur then after we track which country it origionated from our attack should be swift, severe, and devastating.

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RE: Biological Attack expected in next 5 years - 12/2/2008 4:02:37 PM   
Rule


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quote:

ORIGINAL: popeye1250
If such an attack were to occur then after we track which country it originated from our attack should be swift, severe, and devastating.
And undoubtedly mistaken, because in all likelyhood such an attack will have been instigated by some black ops groups of your own country in order to have a pretext to attack such a country.
 
If you want to prevent such an attack, then storm the capitol, kill the emperor and use hooks to drag his corpse down to the Tiber. It is what the Romans did to keep their emperors honest.
 

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RE: Biological Attack expected in next 5 years - 12/2/2008 4:18:43 PM   
Aneirin


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Status: offline 		There is no point in using military weapons to deploy biological agents, when it can be done so much more easily and covertly by just infecting people and let them go about their business. The social creatures we are, how long before  the germ is passed from person to person, town to town etc. All it takes is an incapacitated by illness portion of the working population to bring services to a stand still. No work being done, no products sold, the economy stuffed, easy really.

Now a country can be brought down much more easily by hitting it from the inside. Just look at the colds we all get in the winter, the occaisional virus the medics seem unable to cure, perhaps a godsend to the manufacturers of remedies, and what would it take for a lab to release a germ now and again to stimulate sales of remedies.

< Message edited by Aneirin -- 12/2/2008 4:22:14 PM >

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RE: Biological Attack expected in next 5 years - 12/2/2008 6:41:04 PM   
MasterG2kTR


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quote:

ORIGINAL: Rule

Biological weapons are ineffective. They are nothing to worry about. That is why there is such a desperate search for the influenza virus of WWI: those who want to murder hundreds of millions of people are desperate for such a lethal influenza virus, because all other biological weapons do not amount to much. Take for example AIDS: its impact on western societies and economies is as yet negligible, even though there are indications that it was distributed purposely. (It is still spreading, though, I believe, so better be faithful to your significant other in the christian way.)


You couldn't be more wrong. The most likely options will be Anthrax, Smallpox, and Ricin. While none of these are as fast acting as conventional weapons, they can still be quite effective in relatively short time.

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RE: Biological Attack expected in next 5 years - 12/2/2008 7:15:27 PM   
celticlord2112


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quote:

ORIGINAL: MasterG2kTR
You couldn't be more wrong. The most likely options will be Anthrax, Smallpox, and Ricin. While none of these are as fast acting as conventional weapons, they can still be quite effective in relatively short time.

Personally, I'd be more worried about someone dumping a large quantity of Vibrio cholerae into the water system of a major metropolitan area.

Can you imagine the havoc a cholera epidemic in Manhattan would cause?

Releasing a horde of rats infected with yersinia pestis could also cause quite a stir if timed right.


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RE: Biological Attack expected in next 5 years - 12/2/2008 7:21:06 PM   
rachel529


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Status: offline 		ricin is some evil shit.  but isnt it easier to just blow something up?  any jackass can make plastique.  or shoot a gun.  the fact is, the american people have spawned more terrorists than any other country... and their target was americans!

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RE: Biological Attack expected in next 5 years - 12/2/2008 7:30:01 PM   
celticlord2112


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quote:

but isnt it easier to just blow something up?

Up to a point, this is true.  Keep in mind, however, that the chief aim of the terrorist is terror, not ease of use.  They generally are not focused on "user-friendly" tools and tactics.


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RE: Biological Attack expected in next 5 years - 12/2/2008 7:42:47 PM   
rachel529


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Status: offline 		a few years ago here in columbus some ijit drove around with a nine mil, shooting at passing cars.  the whole city went nuts.  anyone remember the washington sniper?  whole city went nuts.  its not about sophistication, its about fear.  and no corpse complains about bomb, bullet, or bug.  bullets are just easier.

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RE: Biological Attack expected in next 5 years - 12/2/2008 7:45:41 PM   
celticlord2112


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quote:

ORIGINAL: rachel529

a few years ago here in columbus some ijit drove around with a nine mil, shooting at passing cars.  the whole city went nuts.  anyone remember the washington sniper?  whole city went nuts.  its not about sophistication, its about fear.  and no corpse complains about bomb, bullet, or bug.  bullets are just easier.

True, but how long did those feelings of fear last in the general public.

By comparison, imagine the chaos that would ensue if someone deliberately brought down a plague on all our houses?  It is about fear.....and disease is something very much to be feared.


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RE: Biological Attack expected in next 5 years - 12/2/2008 7:51:01 PM   
rachel529


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Status: offline 		all im saying is a bullet(or bomb) is a helluva lot easier than biological warfare.  and if we look at the middle east, its repeated bullets and bombs.  everyone doesnt cringe at getting on a plane anymore...

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RE: Biological Attack expected in next 5 years - 12/3/2008 3:47:05 AM   
Rule


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Status: offline 		quotes:
Anthrax, Smallpox, and Ricin
someone dumping a large quantity of Vibrio cholerae into the water system of a major metropolitan area.
Releasing a horde of rats infected with yersinia pestis could also cause quite a stir if timed right.
 
Of those I suspect cholera will make the most casualties. However, cholera is easy to diagnose and cure and easy to prevent.
I think that the damages from any such attacks will be very small scale and easily contained.
 
CL is correct: what will cause most damage is fear itself. However for most people that fear will be unjustified. Merely look at the fiasco of the anthrax attack by Americans upons Americans in 2001: about seven or nine people died. So what? If they had not been infected with anthrax and ended up in hospital, they might have been killed in a traffic accident twice over.
 
An attack with a fast acting biological weapon might kill at most a couple of hundred of people. The slow acting AIDS has up till now killed millions of people - but that as yet still has not significantly affected western societies.

< Message edited by Rule -- 12/3/2008 3:48:04 AM >

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