Page 63 - Encyclopedia Of Terrorism

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36———Anthrax

mechanisms have been developed that can distribute
anthrax spores in an aerosol.
In the spring of 1979, an outbreak of anthrax in
Sverdlovsk (Yekaterinburg) in the Soviet Union
caused at least 68 deaths. The official explanation
attributed the deaths to the consumption of infected
meat. More than a decade later, a team of Russian and
U.S. scientists investigated and concluded that spores
had been accidentally released into the air from a
military manufacturing facility; the majority of cases
in Sverdlovsk occurred in people who were directly
downwind. Ken Alibek, who defected to the United
A letter containing anthrax was sent to NBC States after decades of managing the Soviet Bio-
anchor Tom Brokaw
preparat biological warfare program, confirmed this
Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation.
conclusion.
By 1990, the Soviet Union had created the largest
and most advanced biological warfare establishment
ever known. This enormous program collapsed along
with the Soviet Union. From 1985 to 1991, Iraq man-
ufactured anthrax weapons; its production abilities
have since been limited by inspections by UNSCOM
(United Nations Special Commission on Iraq).

TERRORIST ATTACKS

During World War I, the German Secret Service used
anthrax to infect horses, sheep, and cattle in Romania,
the United States, and Argentina in an effort to prevent
the transport of livestock to Russia, Britain, and India.
In the 1970s, the Baader-Meinhof Gang threatened to
disseminate anthrax in German shopping malls, but
never did. In 1981, a British group called Dark Harvest
collected anthrax-contaminated soil from Gruinard
Island and left one bag of it near the British military
research laboratories at Porton Down and another at
the site of a Conservative Party meeting. The group
wanted to force the British government to decontami-
nate the island. A Japanese terrorist group, Aum
−
Text of the letter sent to Tom Brokaw Shinrikyo, attempted to disperse anthrax spores in
Tokyo on at least eight occasions during the 1990s, but
1969, President Richard Nixon ordered all offensive failed to cause illness.
biowarfare research to cease, but defensive research In the fall of 2001, the Centers for Disease Control
continued. reported 22 cases of anthrax in the United States.
Weapons-grade anthrax is grown as bacteria in wet Eleven cases were inhalation anthrax, five of which
solutions using fermentation vats, stressed to form were fatal. The epidemic resulted from a terrorist attack
spores, dried, and then milled into a powder fine that had used the U.S. mail as a delivery system. Four
enough to be inhaled. The earliest anthrax bombs were envelopes, all postmarked Trenton, N.J., containing
not very effective; because the anthrax was in a wet anthrax spores were found; each had a short note refer-
solution, most of the bacteria were killed when the ring to the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World
explosive charge detonated. More efficient delivery Trade Center. The envelopes were addressed to two