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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 26, 2001)
September 2fi, ()s, and third! I,” Black said. Strip and the in 1990 and!- ! of U.S. soil ssues that rece lists such 2' itraints the k [itutions. it have in place. . but calls force issues,” Blad Wednesday, September 26, 2001 THE BATTALION fl new kind of war? Experts fear biological attack trip was it still made! ' Bennett sail iid the girls d not makeii inner, so aco Cabana near a dunt| was no pi girl spilled white dre: rrived at the me to sav By Melissa Braddock THE BATTALION A terrorist attack need not be obvious as wrecking a jet into skyscraper. A crop duster or a odifted fire extinguisher could liver a weapon that is invisi le, hard to detect and at least as adly as a bomb. A small cloud of bacteria or iruses could silently and easily feet thousands before doctors _,/en recognized the problem, as everyone5i I j_[ ours a f ter terrorist id to the trap: | tac k s on the World Xrade for oursotis l enter an( j t p, e Pentagon, feder- . |l health agencies notified state ^-^ealth departments to "initiate rvr'nr surveillance for any nusual disease occurrence or creased numbers of illnesses at might be associated with ay's events." This warning was passed on to doctors, labs, local health ■epartments and 91 1 centers ■round the nation. Security was tightened at the Centers for ftisease Control (CDC), and lioterrorism response teams were put on alert. I In New York, military surplus stores are reported to have sold Jut of gas masks. edfrom Afi All these measures were only ,„,,*>recau/jonary. and there has I bl fort|i(® een noe - ence °' a btologtcal 1 or chemical assault. ti P ^ ow ’ ex P erts are warning ut detinitf) 1 t | lal t h ere j s a significant risk of ore reshuraif s occur. Col >r these rare a great u )le. Planned j, but years fej s will last I ones. ; in the priw: onal. bioterrorist attack and that the United States is not prepared to deal with such an attack. "Anything is possible when dealing with religious fanatics," said Don Jenkens, an instructor in the Texas Engineering Extension Service at A&M who teaches threat and risk assess ment training courses focusing on terrorism to law enforcement and emergency personnel. "Given that we know that Iraq has biological and chemical weapons programs and that bin Laden and his al Qaeda network have close ties with Iraq, you can draw you own conclusions. I’d say that they definitely have the means available," Jenkens said. Military use of biological and chemical weapons is noth ing new. Smallpox was used as a weapon by British forces in the French and Indian War when they gave infected blankets to hostile American Indians. Tear gas and mustard gas were used widely in WWI. Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein used chemical weapons against both Iran and Iraqi Kurds during the 1980’s, and during the Cold War. the United States and the former Soviet Union built vast genn-warfare stockpiles. Most recently, a militant Japanese sect released sarin nerve gas on the Tokyo subway in 1995 killing 12 and injuring thousands. In 1972, a biological weapons treaty was signed by 143 coun tries to outlaw the development, production, and stockpiling of biological weapons, but interna tional treaties do little to hinder terrorists. A state department report lists several countries suspected of developing biological weapons including Russia, Iraq, China, Syria, Iran, Egypt, Lybia, Taiwan, and North Korea. It is considered likely that hidden research remains undetected elsewhere; programs are easily hidden as medical or agricultural research. A leader of Afghanistan's Taliban told The Associated Press last year that bin Laden was training fighters in the use of chemical weapons, and the New York Times has reported satellite pictures of terrorist training camps in Afghanistan that show dead animals on test ranges, a scene suggesting experimentation with biological or chemical weapons. Attorney General John Ashcroft told Congress that a suspected hijacker in the attack on the World Trade Center had shown interest in crop-dusters. Threat of chemical attack is somewhat higher than that of a biological attack, but biological weapons pose the greatest threat because of their ability to spread quickly beyond those affected by the initial attack. Effects may not be apparent for days or weeks, by which time the dis ease could have spread massive ly- Although any infectious agents or toxic chemical could in theory be used as a weapon, experts have pinpointed that smallpox, anthrax, botulism and bubonic plague as the most likely threats. The most likely bioterrorist agent is anthrax. A particle the size of a speck of dust can cause death within 2-3 days of the onset of difficult to diagnose flu-like symptoms. Even more feared, although harder to obtain, is smallpox virus. Initially appearing similar to chicken pox, smallpox is lethal and spreads rampantly. The virus killed approximately 120 million people during the early 20th century before being eradicated by vaccination pro grams. Today, there are only known stocks of smallpox are in two labs, one in the U.S. and one in Russia, but experts fear that other nations may have unde clared stocks. "We all hope that smallpox is inaccessible to these guys. If it isn't, if they used it as a weapon, it would be a disaster," Jenkens said. He added that since smallpox vaccinations were discontinued in the 1970's and only last for 10 years, no one in the U.S. would be immune. If a large-scale biological or Page 7 chemical attack were launched against civilians, the United States isn't really prepared to handle it, according to a report earlier this year from the CDC. Most doctors are unfamiliar with these diseases and may fail to diagnose them, and hospitals are not prepared to deal with such massive numbers of patients. Vaccine supplies are limited. "We don't really have an infrastructure to deal with this at all. If it happens, doctors and emergency rooms will be the front line, not police and fire man who are trained in emer gency response," Jenkens said. One reason for the lack of preparedness is that the risk of such an attack has, until recent- CHAD MALLAM • THE BATTALION ly, been considered low. Many experts have tradition ally felt that the scientific and technological difficulties involved in obtaining a substance, produc ing it in large quantity, and dis persing it effectively would put such weapons beyond the scope of terrorist organizations. But Jenkens and many other experts now warn otherwise. "When people say that these weapons are to difficult for ter rorists to build and use, they aren't understanding terrorists today," Jenkens said. "These people are intelligent, well-equipped and well-con nected. There is only one reason to try to get access to crop- dusters, and that's if they have something to drop." fj *69 95 erizon Wireless ?/ess :ed Agent rk ract is ons ce ■ 1 WIN $1,000 The Center for New Ventures and Entrepreneurship and Our Corporate Partners Announce the BUSINESS IDEA COMPETITION Open to all Texas A&M University Students 20 IDEAS WILL WIN $ 1,000 CASH Free workshops are offered to help you through the process of developing your business idea. The topic of our next workshop is “Creatively Developing Your Business Ideas” and will be held Monday, October 1,7:15-9:15 PM,Wehner 118 Tuesday, October 2, 7:00-9:00 PM, Zachry 102 An awesome door prize (a CD/MP3 player, courtesy of Circuit City) will be presented at these workshops http://management.tamu.edu/cnve/ideas Park and Walk to Class*!! inifthouti getitiirtB rhitdd&J Daytime Parking 50& an hour (0:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.) $1.50/hour 7:00 p.m. - 2:00 a.m. Free Sundays 0:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. College Main Parking Garage (309 College Main) One Block From Campus! Take the Ring Dance Shuttle from the Garage Entrance to the Fishpond! Lease applications are available at: College Station City Hall Accounting Department 1101 Texas Avenue (next to Chili’s) College Station Utility Customer Service Building 310 Krenek Tap Road Call 764-3565 for more information!