Terrorist threats

An overarching goal of the Committee on Assessment of Security Technologies for Transportation is to provide timely reports that meet TSA s priorities for defeating terrorist threats. The committee judged that this could best be done by issuing a series of short reports on chosen technological applications. In consultation with TSA, the committee selected four topics for review, of which this report is the second ... 

Chapter 11 addresses national and personal security, both the role that the chemical sciences can play in dealing with terrorist threats and the other ways in which national and personal security depend on current and future advances. There are serious challenges in this area. How can we detect chemical or biological attacks How can we deal with them when they are detected How can we provide improved materials and weapons to our armed forces, and to our civilian police What can we contribute to increase the security of the average citizen We conclude that this is an area where the chemical sciences are particularly central and relevant. 

Terrorist threats or incidents using chemical, biological, nuclear / radiological or large explosive devices ... 

Gunaratna, Rohan, The Future of A1 Qaeda and the Islamist Terrorist Threat to Southeast Asia and Australia, Australian Security in the 21st Century, delivered at the Parliament House Canberra, May 27, 2003 available at www.mrcltd.org.au/uploaded documents/thefutureofalqaeda.pdf. 

Keep in mind that many define free society in different ways. This is important to us in this text because in our view in order to be truly safe from the terrorist threat (if that is possible, and we have our doubts) we must give up certain freedoms and accept closer scrutiny and vigilance in regard to actions that we normally assume to be no one s business but our own. There are differing opinions on this topic and we fully accept that. Again, we each define freedom in our own way—and this is our right as free people. 

World Health Organization (WHO). 2002. Food safety issues Terrorist threats to food, www. who.int/fsf (accessed June 26, 2007). 

HSPD - 6 Integration and Use of Screening information. Provides for the establishment of the Terrorist Threat Integration Center. 

Ultimately, the answer to the question of due diligence must be decided at the local level and will depend on a number of considerations. Among other factors, local authorities must decide what level of risk is reasonable in the context of a perceived threat. Careful planning is essential to developing an appropriate response to terrorist threats, and in fact, one primary objective of USEPA s Response Protocol Toolbox (RPTB) is to aid users in the development of their own site-specific plans that are consistent with the needs and responsibilities of the user. Beyond planning, the RPTB considers a careful evaluation of any terrorist threat, and an appropriate response based on the evaluation, to be the most important element of due diligence. 

Emergency response plans (ERPs) are nothing new to chemical industries, since many have developed ERPs to deal with natural disasters, accidents, violence in the workplace, civil unrest, and so on. Because chemical industries are a vital part and ingredient of our way of life, it has been prudent for chemical industries to develop ERPs in order to help ensure the continuous flow of water to the community. However, many chemical industry ERPs developed prior to 9/11 do not explicitly deal with terrorist threats, such as intentional fire, explosion, or contamination. Recently, the U.S. Congress and federal regulators have required chemical industries to prepare or revise, as necessary, an ERP to reflect the findings of their vulnerability assessment and to address terrorist threats. 

A. General response to terrorist threats (other than bomb threat and incident-specific threats)... 

Selective, highly sensitive sensors that can detect trace amounts of explosive vapors in real time are needed to help combat terrorism [1-4], Trace detection of explosives, however, is a formidable task. Selectivity is difficult to achieve because many chemicals can be used as explosives, and they differ from each other in their chemical properties. The extremely small vapor pressures of the explosives make it challenging to achieve highly sensitive vapor-based detection. Also, because the terrorist threat is very broad, combating it requires widespread deployment of inexpensive, low-power-consuming sensors. Therefore, devices... 

Gun control groups also began to focus on so-called sniper rifles as another form of terrorist threat. The Washington, D.C.-area sniper shootings... 

R. L. Garwin. 2002, Thoughts and Questions on Countering the Terrorist Threat. Presentation, Workshop on National Security and Homeland Defense, Irvine, CA. (See Appendix D.)... 

To some, it seems that there has been a paucity of high-quaiity vao-oines reiated to ohemicai and bioiogioai terrorist threats for U.S. residents. Untii very reoentiy, though, the Department of Defense (DOD) has been the oniy organization interested in vaooines for these types of threats. DOD has spent a iarge amount of money on the research and deveiop-ment for suoh vaooines with great suooess—in the iast 8 years or so, approximateiy 12 new vaccines have been deveioped and proven effeo-tive on rhesus monkeys. 

Thoughts and Questions on Countering the Terrorist Threat 11 25 DISCUSSION 11 45 LUNCH... 

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