Terrorist weapon

Badolato, Edward V. and Dale Andrade. Red Mercury hoax or the ultimate terrorist weapon rhttp //www.cmsinc. freeservers.com/redmercurv.pdf1. 

This section summarizes the key events that led the United States to be the first country to successfully develop the atomic bomb. It also discusses the world s current nuclear weapons arsenal and details the uses of other types of radioactive materials as terrorist weapons. 

Hundreds of biological agents are candidates for terrorist weapons however, some are more likely than others. The U.S. Department of Defense published a list of the 17 most likely biological agents that fall into three categories ... 

J. Wang, Microchip devices for detecting terrorist weapons, Anal. Chim. Acta, 507 (2004) 3-10. 

David E. Nikles, University of Alabama I would like to change the subject to roadblocks, but first I have a disclaimer. I fully believe in health and safety and in educating my students to be professionals, but one thing that I have worried about for the past 15 years is the intrusion of regulatory health and safety into the laboratory. I spent a month in 1990 bar code labeling all my chemicals, and then my managers wanted to get the chemicals out of my laboratory. Recently at the university, somebody said I couldn t take a chemical from my laboratory out of the chemistry building because it could be used as a terrorist weapon. 

Ricin, a toxic glycoprotein derived from the castor bean, causes hypotension and myocardial hemorrhage. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) lists it as a category B agent due to its easy availability as a terrorist weapon. Only a limited amount of information is available... 

Botulism toxins can be used as a terrorist weapon (Osborne et al, 2007 Adler et al, 2008). This group of toxins can easily be produced at low cost. Exposures to botulism toxins are oral, and these toxins have been formed in feedstuffs, or in vivo from toxin production by Clostridium botulinum growing in the gut or wounds (Critchley, 1991 Bohnel et al, 2001). The production of botulism toxin is considered to be inexpensive and requires a low level of technology. 

Cyanide is considered a terrorist weapon (Wismer, 2007 Ballantyne and Salem, 2008). Cyanide has a history of use in controlling problem wildlife and unwanted farrow animals (Westergaard, 1982 Wiemeyer et al, 1986). Cyanide in a solid form could be used to adulterate feedstuffs. Two common forms of cyanide salts are sodium cyanide and potassium cyanide. Cyanide could be ineor-porated into animal feedstuffs, especially concentrate and mineral mixes. 

Heavy metals can be used as terrorist weapons by incorporation into animal feeds. There are reports of zinc sulfate... 

Authorities consider vesicants potential terrorist weapons for several reasons (15) ... 

There are probably more - yet to be identified - infections and poisonings that could be used as terrorist weapons than are in the Guide. 

Designation of hazardous chemicals that may be used as terrorist weapons ... 

Szilard s assessment of American vulnerability is just as applicable today as it was 60-plus years ago, particularly if you replace atomic bombs with biological or chemical terrorism weapons—though radiological threats may be another potential terrorist weapon. 

Ricin as a potential biological threat agent has received much popular press. In 2003, suspects were arrested in London for making ricin from castor seed in their apartment (Risen and van Natta 2003). The popular press has speculated that if ricin were made, it could be used to contaminate food in military mess halls. All of these instances indicate that biological and chemical materials may be a potential terrorist weapon to compromise the safety of the military and civilian food supply or other vulnerable areas. Given the extreme toxicity of ricin, the relative ease with which it can be obtained, and the fact that references to its use have been discovered in terrorist haunts, the ability to accurately and precisely detect ricin is a critical need. 

Chemical weapons were used by Saddam Hussein s Iraqi government both on the battlefield in the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s and by Saddam Hussein s troops as a terrorist weapon in Kurdish villages in the northern part of Iraq. The attack on and massacre in Halabja, Iraq, on March 16, 1988, did not at the time create concern in most countries or most people, but increased awareness of the potential consequences of chemical attacks has made the Halabja massacre and its photographs a symbol of chemical weapons use against civilians around the world. 

Considering influenza virus to be the most powerful potential bioterrorism weapon, Madjid et al. proposed several steps to address the threat of influenza as a terrorist weapon, including the following [349] ... 

Militarily Significant (or Terrorist Weapon) Any weapon capable of affecting—directly or indirectly, physically, or through psychological impact—the outcome of a military operation. 

Learn about the different types of terrorist weapons including explosives, kidnappings, hijackings, arson, and shootings. 

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