WMD Commission Readies Its Report

The Washington Post had a crack at the WMD Commission's report on how the US government could better protect its citizens from WMD terrorism. It appears that they want to equate the threat of biological terrorism to terrorist use of nuclear weapons.

The document cites progress in many areas of biodefense since the deadly anthrax attacks of 2001, including major investments in research, stockpiling of drugs and development of a network of sensors designed to detect airborne viruses and bacteria. The Bush administration has spent more than $20 billion on such countermeasures, far more than any of its predecessors.

But the report says the next administration must do much more to prevent dangerous pathogens from falling into the wrong hands in the first place. While politicians often warn about the dangers of nuclear terrorism, a serious biological attack would be easier to accomplish and deserves a top priority, it says.

"The more probable threat of bioterrorism should be put on equal footing with the more devastating threat of nuclear terrorism," the draft states. It calls on the Obama administration to develop a comprehensive approach to preventing bioterrorism and to "banish the 'too-hard-to-do' mentality that has hobbled previous efforts."

The report stresses the challenges of security at the quickly growing number of biological research labs. This appears to be a continuation of the belief that, merely because technology is growing quickly and more labs equates to a greater terrorist risk. Unfortunately, this statement is often made without any review of terrorist motivations and capabilities and without any review of the expansive goal of protecting every city in American from bioterrorism. I can understand that, but still - the idea that a biological attack could be equal to the DHS scenario of a 10-kT nuke is unusual, to say the least. It would have to be a pretty significant amount of anthrax and a pretty efficient delivery device, which is why there are analysts (like me) that have to disagree.

The WMD Commission will be releasing its report to the public on Wednesday. I will be on a conference call with the authors, and will have the chance to ask a few sharp questions, so more coming later in the week.

UPDATE: The NY Times chimes in on this same topic.

Comments

[Sock Puppet of the Great Satan]

Well, Tucker was one of the staffers, and he wrote (well, edited) the book on CBW terrorism back in 1999, so that's hopeful.

Staffers a bit thin on academic scientists, though: this probably won't be sufficiently forward-looking on new trends in technology.

[Belphagor1527]

J,

I was checking out Andrew Sullivan's blog and saw a link here. First, getting on the list of the top national security blog and now this.

And I remember way back when this was just a little roadside blog made out of cardboard and string...