The NBC Terroism Threat

[garb811]

OK, growing out of the World Tolerance thread...

It was stated in that thread that the original comment had been about the use of WMD by a conventional force. While I know it was the intent of the person who originally brought the topic into the thread to make one think of their use in a conventional manner, the reason I brought the terrorist angle in is simple. One mans guerrilla/freedom fighter is another mans terrorist. I don‘t want to stray too far into that because it‘s a thread of it‘s own (perhaps someone would like to start it off?) but I‘d just like to make the point that Taliban is not a conventional force, no matter how they are operating at this point. There is also precedent at play with them, there is substantial evidence to suggest that the Soviets used chemical and biologicals against the Afghans during their occupation.

Now, the point was also made that the US doesn‘t realize that the current threat isn‘t from a long range ballistic missle but from "Guy Terrorist". I beg to differ, the US is currently one of the best prepared nations for terrorist use of one of these weapons. They have extensive stockpiles of equipment and supplies in major centers and have run mass casualty drills involving all of the major players. They are aware of the threat, they have dealt with it in the past - quoting from the open source CSIS document on this subject "the FBI had investigated over 100 CBRN cases during 1997, a tripling of the 1996 figure". There have also been incidents of use on US soil, in 1984 there was an incident where the Rajneesh cult outside of Antelope, Oregon poisoned 750 pers or so with Typhoid by contaminating local salad bars to name just one. The US also watched the Japanese response to the subway attack quite carefully and learned several lessons from it, one being that ambulances immediately transported casualties to hospitals where the contamination of the victims caused further victims amongst patients and staff.

Now that I‘ve run on for much too long, the question I would like to pose is, "Canada, are we sufficiently prepared for the inevitable??"

If anyone is interested, the following are some links that may prove useful:

CSIS Report # 2000/02, dated December 18, 1999 http://www.csis-scrs.gc.ca/eng/miscdocs/200002_e.html

CSIS Report # 2000/05, dated June 9, 2000 http://www.csis-scrs.gc.ca/eng/miscdocs/200005_e.html

CHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL TERRORISM: THE THREAT ACCORDING TO THE OPEN LITERATURE
(CSIS), dated Jun 95 http://www.csis-scrs.gc.ca/eng/miscdocs/tabintr_e.html

SEARCH FOR "NBC" on the following pages:

Ch 3, Military Assessment 2000, dated Jan 01 http://www.vcds.dnd.ca/dgsp/dda/milassess/ch3_e.asp

Part 3, Rethinking the Total Force, dated Feb 00 http://www.vcds.dnd.ca/vcdsorg/interest/rethink/part3_e.asp

Defence Planning Guidance 2001 http://www.vcds.dnd.ca/dgsp/dpg/dpg2001/chap3a_e.asp
http://www.vcds.dnd.ca/dgsp/dpg/dpg2001/chap2_e.asp (other interesting reading in this one!)

 

[ender]

This is where I make the distinction between terrorisim and militray attack.
Terrorisim is an attack against civilians. Guerrilla warfare is an attack against the military. (police are a grey area)
If someone bombs my house, that‘s terrorisim. If someone bombs the armory, thats an attack.
So by my definition, the sinking of that USS Cole in Yemen was not a terrorist act.

All this is somewhat of the sidebar to the real issue, which is if Canada is ready to defend against NBC terrorist attacks. Or even conventional ones.
Right across from where I live there was a threat made that a package contained biological agents. There was no attempt made to either contain or evacuate people that might be exposed to said "agent". It remains to be asked how seriously the authorites took the threat, but the fact remains that we don‘t have a conherent policy wrt biological terrorisim.
I don‘t think our country is ready for any kind of attack, nor do most Candians care to contemplate the possiblity.