Abstract
Issue: Terrorists may well have access to bioweapons that are capable of killing tens of thousands of people or more in a single convulsive moment. We call these persons “SIMADS” Single Individuals, Massively Destructive. Preparations for such attacks may be hard to detect. So, stated simply, the issue we hand to the future is avoiding killing technologies such as man-made epidemic-causing viruses or bombers who are bent on killing as many people as possible. Solve the problem before it is too late.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsNotes
- 1.
Members of the Rajneeshee group attempted to influence an election by introducing salmonella into local restaurant salad bars to poison voters and keep them away from the polls. This happened in The Dalles, Oregon, in 1984, and over 700 people were sickened. See “Targets for Terrorism: Food and Agriculture ” Council on Foreign Relations, January 1, 2006. http://www.cfr.org/homeland-security/targets-terrorism-food-agriculture/p10197.
- 2.
This has already been a matter of concern in security discussions. See: Maron (2014), “Weaponized Ebola: Is It Really a Bioterror Threat?” Scientific American, September 25, 2014; https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/weaponized-ebola-is-it-really-a-bioterror-threat/. Retrieved November 22, 2017.
- 3.
Such a program currently exists but is specific to H5N1: see: Cioce (2013).
References
Brown, Dan. 2013. Inferno, 103. New York: Doubleday.
CDC. 2018. Remembering the 1918 Influenza Pandemic. Atlanta. https://www.cdc.gov/features/1918-flu-pandemic/index.html. Retrieved November 25, 2018.
Cholera’s Seven Pandemics. 2008. CBC News. https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/cholera-s-seven-pandemics-1.758504. Retrieved November 25, 2018.
Cioce, V. 2013. Chief, Vaccine Stockpile BARDA. Pandemic Influenza MCM. https://www.medicalcountermeasures.gov/media/35695/cioce_current_vaccine_and_adjuvant_stockpiles.pdf. Retrieved November 21, 2017.
Conner, Steve. 2014. American Scientists Controversially Recreate Deadly Spanish Flu Virus. The Independent, June 11.
Gordon, Theodore, Yair Sharan, and Elizabeth Florescu. 2015. Lone Wolf Terrorism Prospects and Potential Strategies to Address the Threat. ISBN 978-0-692-45554-8. Available through Amazon.
Hamdi, Alkhshali, Laura Smith-Spark, and Susannah Cullinane. 2017. Egypt Mosque Attack Death Toll Climbs Above 300. CNN, November 25. http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/25/africa/egypt-sinai-mosque-massacre/index.html. Retrieved November 26, 2017.
Havascope. 2010. Global Black Market Information. http://www.havocscope.com/estimated-amount-of-ransoms-paid-out-worldwide-in-2010/. Retrieved November 14, 2017.
Maron, D. 2014. Weaponized Ebola: Is It Really a Bioterror Threat? Scientific American, September 25. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/weaponized-ebola-is-it-really-a-bioterror-threat/. Retrieved November 22, 2017.
McAvoy, E., and David Randall. 2010. The £1 Billion Hostage Trade. The Independent. London, October 17, 2010.
Metcalfe, Tom. 2016. Black-Death Survey Reveals Incredible Devastation Wrought by Plague. Live Science, June 1. https://www.livescience.com/54940-archaeologists-map-black-death-impact.html. Retrieved December 30, 2017.
The Great Flood of 1931 at Gaoyou. 2007. Gaoyou, China, September 25. http://aboutgaoyou.com/history/floods/the_floods.aspx. Retrieved November 25, 2018.
The Millennium Project. 2003. Future S&T Management Policy Issues: 2025 Global Scenarios. The Millennium Project, Washington. http://www.Millennium-project.org/millennium/scenarios/ST’s.
US Department of State. 2017. National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, July 2017. https://www.statista.com/statistics/202871/number-of-fatalities-by-terrorist-attacks-worldwide/. Retrieved November 14, 2017.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Gordon, T.J., Todorova, M. (2019). Dealing with Bio-terrorism. In: Future Studies and Counterfactual Analysis . Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18437-7_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18437-7_9
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-18436-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-18437-7
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)