Page 118 - Encyclopedia Of Terrorism

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92———Chemical Terrorism

to have been used extensively in warfare or the However, chemical weapons need not be manu-
suppression of dissidents since that time. factured by the terrorists themselves: they might also
In 1993, most nations signed the Convention on be obtained with the cooperation of rogue states.
the Prohibition of the Development, Production, For example, the U.S. government believes that Iraq
Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons (CWC). might voluntarily supply chemical weapons to terrorist
This represented a major advance because unlike the groups. Nations that have signed the CWC are in the
1925 treaty, CWC requires nations to destroy their process of eliminating their chemical weapons and
existing stockpiles under rigorous international con- their stockpiles, and the incineration facilities used to
trol. CWC signatories are now engaged in that process. destroy them are heavily guarded. While small quanti-
ties of chemical agents might be stolen or obtained
through bribes, it seems unlikely that terrorists could
TERRORISTS AND CHEMICAL WEAPONS
obtain the large quantities needed to attack a large area
However, treaties are signed by nation-states, not and cause mass casualties.
terrorist groups. In 1995, a Japanese terrorist group In August 2002, dozens of Al Qaeda videotapes
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known as Aum Shinrikyo or “Supreme Truth” attacked were obtained by the U.S. media, revealing, among
the Tokyo subway system with sarin, a deadly nerve other training tactics, images of chemical gas experi-
gas. Twelve persons in the subway system were killed ments on dogs. The videos appear to show an Al
and thousands more were panicked by the possibility Qaeda lethal weapons experiment at a remote camp in
they had been exposed to deadly gas fumes that inter- Afghanistan.
fere with normal nerve and muscle functions causing
convulsions, paralysis, and death. The mechanism cho- TERRORIST ATTACKS
sen by the terrorist group was simple. Five cult mem- ON CHEMICAL INDUSTRIES
bers distributed sarin in packages on five separate
subway lines bound for the Kasumigaseki station. At Terrorists do not have to master advanced science to
8 A.M., as the trains approached Kasumigaseki, cult employ chemicals as weapons. From the attacks
members punctured their packages with the sharpened on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on
tip of their umbrellas, permitting the gas to escape, and September 11, 2001, we learned that terrorists could
left the train. Even though this attack in Japan did not use hijacked airliners as missiles to attack a large city.
kill large numbers of people, it succeeded in frighten- Terrorists could use this method to attack a large
ing a population and disrupting normal business. It chemical plant and cause the release of toxic materi-
also alerted the world to the potential of terrorist attack als on a large scale. An accident at the Union Carbide
with chemical weapons. plant in Bhopal in central India in 1984 killed 4,000
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Aum Shinrikyowas funded with nearly $30 million persons and devastated the vicinity. Railroad acci-
and had access to a cadre of scientifically trained dents involving shipments of tank cars of liquefied
people. The group’s chemical weapons were produced chlorine and other chemicals have forced the evacua-
in a small laboratory using commercially available tion of surrounding areas. Large tanker trucks carry-
equipment, but it was limited in its ability to produce ing toxic materials have overturned with similar
the quantities of agent required to inflict damage on a consequences.
large population. The synthesis of nerve gas is a com- Until recently, chemical plant and railroad man-
plex chemical process involving a series of chemical agers devoted most of their safety planning efforts to
reactions using toxic precursor chemicals that are dif- accident prevention. The terrorist attacks on New York
ficult to handle. Synthesizing this compound requires and Washington, D.C., now force these industries to
highly competent chemists and unusual safety pre- devote more resources to protect their systems from
cautions. Such requirements will always pose major intentional attacks. In an attempt to deter or deflect
obstacles that a terrorist group would have to over- such attacks, chemical plant complexes have improved
come. High explosives that are readily available on perimeter and internal security systems and have
the international market or an improvised explosive begun to conduct more careful screening of personnel.
such as the one used in the Oklahoma City bombing Authorities have begun taking a closer look at security
might seem much more practical to a typical terrorist at the myriad small airports and flight schools in the
group. United States; the same suicidal attack technique used