Monday
Jun292009
Biological Weapons Pose Realistic Threat, Say Former Senators
Monday, June 29, 2009 at 4:11PM
By Courtney Ann Jackson-Talk Radio News Service
Weapons of mass destruction may not be a phrase the public hears as frequently anymore, but they are still a major issue according to former Senators Bob Graham (D-Fla.) and Jim Talent (R-Mo.). The politicians participated in a discussion Monday at the Heritage Foundation where they reported that the U.S. is uneasily vulnerable to a biological terrorist attack.
“It is more likely that that weapon of mass destruction will be a biological weapon rather than a nuclear weapon. I mentioned that there has been an explosion in the biological area of capabilities...The thing that has kept us from a biological weapon thus far has been the unreliable defense of ignorance," said Graham.
The findings come from the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism. Graham and Talent were the chairman and co-chairman of the Commission while in Congress.
Talent added that the U.S. is “running” to prevent any attacks but our opposition is “running faster.” He said terrorists will recruit life scientists to utilize bio weapons. However, he added that a biological attack is easier to prepare for than a nuclear attack.
Graham and Talent believe Vice President Joe Biden should be put in charge of combating the use of WMD and assuring that all precautions are made.
Graham predicted that by 2013 a WMD will be used somewhere in the world.
In the event that there is a large-scale attack Talent said, “People will want security, no matter what, to prevent a repeat of it.”
Weapons of mass destruction may not be a phrase the public hears as frequently anymore, but they are still a major issue according to former Senators Bob Graham (D-Fla.) and Jim Talent (R-Mo.). The politicians participated in a discussion Monday at the Heritage Foundation where they reported that the U.S. is uneasily vulnerable to a biological terrorist attack.
“It is more likely that that weapon of mass destruction will be a biological weapon rather than a nuclear weapon. I mentioned that there has been an explosion in the biological area of capabilities...The thing that has kept us from a biological weapon thus far has been the unreliable defense of ignorance," said Graham.
The findings come from the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism. Graham and Talent were the chairman and co-chairman of the Commission while in Congress.
Talent added that the U.S. is “running” to prevent any attacks but our opposition is “running faster.” He said terrorists will recruit life scientists to utilize bio weapons. However, he added that a biological attack is easier to prepare for than a nuclear attack.
Graham and Talent believe Vice President Joe Biden should be put in charge of combating the use of WMD and assuring that all precautions are made.
Graham predicted that by 2013 a WMD will be used somewhere in the world.
In the event that there is a large-scale attack Talent said, “People will want security, no matter what, to prevent a repeat of it.”
Reader Comments (3)
The WMD/CBRN/CBRNE/NBC/CBR threat translates to "preparedness". If you are prepared....you are less likely to get contaminated, less likely to stand up in the bright flash, and less likely to rely on a non-compliant respirator to protect your breathing zone.
Individuals can now construct highly contagious extremely lethal virus. A pandemic is the antithesis of globalization. Nuclear blindness is the misconception that the bigger the bang the more powerful the weapon. A highly contagious virus is a bomb that keeps exploding through the population at a geometric rate.
"Richard Danzig, a former Navy secretary and now a biowarfare consultant to the Pentagon, said that while there are 1,000 to 10,000 "weaponeers" worldwide with experience working on biological arms, there are more than 1 million and perhaps many millions of "broadly skilled" scientists who, while lacking training in that narrow field, could construct bioweapons. "It seems likely that, over a period between a few months and a few years, broadly skilled individuals equipped with modest laboratory equipment can develop biological weapons," Danzig said. "Only a thin wall of terrorist ignorance and inexperience now protects us."" --Washington Post, December 29, 2004
Hey ! am I glad to vist your blog ! from this I can get some information and facts that I didn’t know prior to. You made my day. Thank you rather much! elovys elovys - Cheap Red Wing Shoe.