Needlenose » bioterror http://needlenose.com/wp We Needle. You Decide. Mon, 06 Feb 2012 18:14:13 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 The Unbelievable Unlikeliness of (Germ) Bioterror http://needlenose.com/wp/2002/12/26/the-unbelievable-unlikeliness-of-germ-bioterror/ http://needlenose.com/wp/2002/12/26/the-unbelievable-unlikeliness-of-germ-bioterror/#comments Thu, 26 Dec 2002 17:49:23 +0000 greenboy http://www.needlenose.com/wp/?p=2751 Only really stupid terrorists would unleash germs on an enemy – and terrorists are usually crazy, not stupid.The as-yet-unexplained anthrax spore attacks following September 11th had an effect missing from the twin towers event – they struck terror in the heart of Main Street U.S.A. The Al Qaeda attacks, horrific as they were, seemed isolated, freakish, and…obvious. The anthrax attacks were spread across several states, with seemingly random casualties. But how seriously should we take the threat of germ-based bioterror?

Don’t be ridiculous, we can’t take it seriously at all.  Bioweapons are games for superpowers.   But even if a motley gang of terrorists were given something like a souped-up weaponized smallpox, why would they use it?  Sure, they’d give the Great Satan a black eye, killing a few hundred thousand or even a million people - but the West has groups like the CDC and modern infrastructure.

The major die-off would be in the third-world – in those failed or failing states where the terrorists and their extended families live.  In the earliest moments of a super plague, people would be jumping on planes and spreading the pathogen across the globe.

Terrorists may be crazy, but I wouldn’t call them stupid.

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