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Weapons of Mass Destruction Handbook As the United States and its allies continue the fight against international terrorist groups and the countries that may support them, there is increasing fear Americans at home will one day face the threat of weapons of mass destruction. Such weapons include biological, chemical, nuclear and radiological devices, and range from the silent threat of a poison gas attack to a cataclysmic nuclear explosion. Those who would launch such attacks know thousands could die, of course, but their fundamental motive would be to strike fear and panic in tens of millions more. In his State of the Union address on Jan. 28, President Bush instructed leaders of the FBI, CIA, Homeland Security Department and the Department of Defense to develop a Terrorist Threat Integration Center to merge and analyse all types of threat information in a single location so that the "right people are in the right places to protect our citizens." In an effort to better inform our audience on the threat to America, Fox News offers this Weapons of Mass Destruction Handbook. The package presents an overview of the general threat of biological, chemical, nuclear and radiological weapons, along with much more specific and detailed information on the history, proliferation, delivery mechanisms and treatment/prevention options for such weapons. Biological | Chemical | Nuclear | Radiological | What To Do History: The Biological Weapons Convention, signed in 1972, prohibits the manufacture, stockpiling and use of biological weapons. But there are several countries that continue to make and study them. Some countries' stockpiles are unaccounted for, as is the case with Iraq. Former President Nixon banned the production and use of biological warfare agents in 1969, ending the U.S. biowarfare program. The Soviet Union's biowarfare program, Biopreparat, lasted until the 1990s. The United States in January announced a bioterrorism detection system that would provide early warning if smallpox, anthrax or other deadly germs are released into the environment. The system was tested throughout 2002, including at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah. On Jan. 28, Bush announced that he will ask for $6 billion in his fiscal 2004 budget to launch "Project Bioshield," a major research and production effort to make sure effective vaccines and treatments against bioterrorism agents are available. Weapons: "Category B" weapons are second-highest priority to the CDC, because they are fairly easy to disseminate, cause moderate amounts of disease and low fatality rates. But these weapons require specific public-health action such as improved diagnostic and detection systems. These agents include: Q fever, brucellosis, glanders, ricin, Enterotoxin B, viral encephalitis, food safety threats, water safety threats, meliodosis, psittacosis and typhus fever. "Category C" weapons, described by the CDC as "emerging infectious disease threats," are fairly easy to obtain, produce and disseminate and can produce high rates of disease and mortality. These include the Nipah virus and Hantavirus. Other agents some nations may use as weapons include: aflatoxin, trichothecene mycotoxins, multi-drug tuberculosis, bacteria such as trench fever and scrub typhus, viruses such as influenza and various forms of hemorrhagic fever, fungi and protozoa. Agricultural bioterrorism could produce famine or widespread malnutrition. These include foot-and-mouth disease, mad cow disease, swine fever and karnal bunt of wheat. Delivery Systems: Symptoms: Treatment: Treatments include antidotes, antibiotics, vaccines and pumping of the stomach. Who Has It: History: By the end of the war, chemical warfare had inflicted over 1 million casualties, of which around 90,000 were fatal. Hydrogen cyanide and carbon monoxide were used by the Germans to murder millions of people in extermination camps during World War II. During the Vietnam War, the United States used tear gas and several types of defoliants, including Agent Orange. The 1925 Geneva Protocol prohibits "the use in war of asphyxiating, poisonous or other gases, and of bacteriological methods of warfare." But it didn't prohibit the manufacturing and stockpiling of these weapons. About 40 countries ratified the protocol. More than 140 nations signed the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993, which bans the development, production and possession of chemical weapons. Nonetheless, a number of nations are believe to have the weapons. Weapons: Other forms of chemical agents include: blood agents, including arsine, cyanogens chloride and hydrogen chloride; choking agents, including chlorine, diphosgene and phosgene; other nerve agents; and vesicants, such as distilled mustard, ethyldichloroarsine, mustard-lewisite mixture and forms of nitrogen mustard. There are also "harassing agents," such as riot control chemicals and vomiting agents. Toxic weapons are made from readily available material used in various industrial operations. The most common types of hazardous materials used in toxic weapons are irritants, choking agents, flammable industrial gas, water supply contaminants, oxidizers, chemical asphyxiates, incendiary gases and liquids, industrial compounds and organophosphate pesticides. Various forms of toxic waste, such as petroleum spills, smoke, refuse, sewage and medical waste also can be used in toxic warfare. Toxic warfare has been used often in recent years. Delivery Systems: Symptoms: Treatment: Who Has It: It is not clear how secure such nations can keep these supplies. Such weapons are attractive to terrorist groups because they are easily accessible, the parts to make them are generally legal and cheap to obtain. As a result, many military and terrorism experts believe there will be an increasing trend in the use of such weapons. History: The United States dropped one atomic bomb each on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, bringing and end to World War II. The Soviet Union became the next country to develop atomic weapons, igniting an arms race and a global interest in nuclear fission devices. Traditional nuclear weapons are not the only threat. Officials are concerned terrorists might also target the world's nuclear power plants and supplies. One worst-case scenario simulation estimated a one-megaton explosion in Detroit equivalent to a million tons of TNT could kill 250,000 people, injure half a million more, and flatten all buildings within a 1.7-mile radius. Decades of arms control negotiations have greatly reduced the number of nuclear weapons around the world. Since 1991, the U.S. Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction program has deactivated 6,032 nuclear warheads and has destroyed 491 ballistic missiles, 438 ballistic missile silos, 101 bombers, 365 submarine-launched missiles, 408 submarine missile launchers, and 25 strategic missile submarines. It has sealed 194 nuclear test tunnels. On May 1, 2000, five nuclear weapon states China, France, Russia, Britain and the U.S. issued a 23-point joint statement pledging their "unequivocal commitment to the ultimate goals of a complete disarmament under strict and effective international controls." Other nations known or believed to have nuclear weapons have not signed such agreements, however. Among those nations are India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea. Weapons: Delivery Systems: The size of an actual nuclear weapon can be quite small, however, and could easily fit into a large car or truck. That has sparked a fear among many experts that a nuclear warhead could simply be driven into a large city by terrorists and detonated by either a suicide bomber or by remote control. Symptoms: Treatment: Who Has It: Nuclear weapons continue to be a proliferation concern, particularly when North Korea recently announced it was continuing its nuclear arms program, and withdrew from the international Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. One worry of the United States is not so much that North Korea itself will use what weapons it has, but that it will have no qualms about selling them to the highest bidder, whether that bidder be a nation such as Iraq, which sponsors terrorism, or individual terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda. History: A "dirty bomb" is the likely choice for terrorists and can kill or injure people by exposing them to radioactive materials, such as cesium-137, iridium-192 or cobalt-60. Atomic experts say the explosion of a dirty bomb containing one kilogram of plutonium in the center of Munich, Germany, could ultimately lead to 120 cancer cases attributable to the blast. Weapons: Delivery Systems: Terrorists could launch a systemic attack on a nuclear power plant by venting or overloading a reactor so it acts as a radiological weapon. Symptoms: Acute radiation syndrome radiation sickness is usually caused when a person gets a high dose of radiation in mere minutes and can cause nausea, vomiting and diarrhea; later, bone marrow depletion may lead to weight loss, loss of appetite, flu-like symptoms, infection and bleeding. Treatment: Who Has It: In the Case of a Biological or Chemical Attack: Seek medical attention immediately if you suffer from symptoms of exposure. Pay close attention to all official warnings and instructions on how to proceed. If exposed, remove clothes and seal in plastic bag, wash off with soapy water immediately. For more information, visit the CDC Web site at http://www.bt.cdc.gov/. If you believe that you have been exposed to a biological or chemical agent, or if you believe an intentional biological threat will occur or is occurring, please contact your local health department and/or your local police or other law enforcement agency. For more information on how to respond to an attack, consult FEMA's "Are
You Ready? A Guide to Citizen Preparedness" In the Case of a Nuclear or Radiological Attack: During a nuclear attack, do not look at the flash or fireball. Take cover as quickly as possible below ground, if possible and stay there until instructed otherwise. If you can't get inside a building, take cover behind anything, lie flat on the ground and cover your head. Fallout may not arrive for 20 minutes or so after the blast but can be carried by wind for hundreds of miles, so seek a shelter that will offer a strong shield against harmful material that is farther away from where the device was detonated. After a radiological or nuclear attack, people shouldn't leave their shelter until officials say so. The length of your stay can range from a day to two to four weeks, depending on the extent of contamination. People who are allowed to come out of hiding may be evacuated to unaffected areas within a few days. While in hiding, people are encouraged to use water and food prudently and cooperate with shelter managers. Before returning to a home within range of a bomb's shock wave, check for signs of collapse or damage before entering. Immediately clean up spilled medicines, drugs or flammables. Listen to your battery-powered radio for instructions and information about community services. Do not turn gas back on in house and turn water back on only after you're sure the water system is working properly and isn't contaminated. Stay away from damaged areas and areas marked "radiation hazard" or "HAZMAT." For more information on how to respond to an attack, consult FEMA's "Are
You Ready? A Guide to Citizen Preparedness" Emergency Alert System: A national emergency alert system can be activated by FEMA at the direction of the White House. This would cause an emergency message to be sent out to a national network of radio stations, coast to coast. That message then filters down to smaller radio, TV and cable stations. This system has never been used. WMD Handbook Sources: |
2008 TEN YEARS OF AUSSURVIVALIST |
Last Modified:
April 15, 2008 |
