Technical data presented here, particularly technical data on protective and detection equipment, first aid techniques, and methods of preventing exposure to chemical, toxin, and biological weapons, inevitably reflect the authors’ individual beliefs and experience with particular equipment and components under specific circumstances, which the reader cannot duplicate exactly. The information in this book should therefore be used for guidance and informational purposes only and approached with great caution. Neither the authors nor the publisher assume any responsibility for the use or misuse of information contained in this book.

 

Introduction

"This is my view. There is a possibility of a biological or chemical attack."
-- General Singlaub, the former US supreme commander of all US forces in Korea.



In our 1996 edition of this book, we included a brief "Prologue" which consisted of a fictional account of how a terrorist attack might employ biological weapons to bring war to US soils. Many scoffed at our suggestion that there was any great likelihood of such a happenstance. Biological weapons, we were told, were far to sophisticated to be used by terrorists.

Likewise, many had assumed that no terrorist group or nation would be insane enough to mount attacks against American citizens within US borders. The response of the US made such attacks suicidal, it was argued. Therefore, they were unlikely and nothing to be fearful of.

The attacks on September 11, 2001, followed by the protracted terror letter campaign using letters containing anthrax spores, proved these assumptions wrong. These events revealed that our enemies are now operating with a new set of rules, without a code of honor, where madmen will not only kill the innocent, but do so on a wholesale scale that would have made the Nazis proud. Nor were biological or other weapons any longer off the table. The attacks of September and October proved that the terrorists and nations supporting them would do anything they could to destroy the United States of America and our way of life.

And it seems very possible that we have only seen the very beginning of such attacks. Following the World Trade Center (WTC) attacks of 2001, the World Health Organization warned that terrorists could use biological weapons to kill not just hundreds or thousands of people, but millions; the agency warned that nations should prepare for this possibility and start making preparations for the recovery and the treatment of victims following such a disaster.

This isn’t idle speculation on the part of the World Health Organization. In fact, US officials have found that some of our enemies have not only been developing chemical and/or biological weapons, but training their terrorist operatives how to use them. For example, spy-satellite photos show what appear to be dead dogs leashed to poles outside one of Osama bin Laden's Afghanistan camps. While it is speculation, experts believe that bin Laden was experimenting with biological or chemical weapons. This is backed up by the fact that bin Laden operatives on trial for bombing US embassies in Africa testified that their boss was seeking technology for chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. Additionally, in a 1998 interview with ABC News, bin Laden said about biological and chemical agents, "If I seek to acquire such weapons, this is a religious duty. How we use them is up to us."

The anthrax letter attacks of 2001 aren’t an odd bump on the roadway to the future. It is just a hint of what lies ahead. The question is not if terrorists or rogue nations will use chemical or biological weapons against us. Rather it is where, when, and how often they’ll be used. As Rep. Christopher Shays, chairman of a House subcommittee on national security put it, ''I am absolutely convinced we'll have a chemical, biological or nuclear attack. The question is not if, it's when, where and what will the magnitude be."

And the worry isn’t just a few terrorist cells scattered here and there. Major nations including Iraq, Iran, North Korea, and Libya are all believed to have active chemical and biological weapons programs. If that weren’t bad enough, the break up of the old Soviet Union has left many former scientists who worked on the USSR’s chemical and biological weapons development destitute; some of these scientists are undoubtedly willing to work for anyone who will pay them well. With many terrorists well financed by government sponsors, it isn’t hard to imagine that Russian scientists might well be busy, as you read this, helping terrorists create ever-deadlier weapons to unleash against the US.

In fact, you don’t need to go many miles beyond America’s southern border to find a grave danger. While the liberals in congress and the mainstream media would prefer not to draw attention to the fact, Cuba is known to have a variety of biological and chemical weapons stockpiled, with ongoing research to develop more. Cuban scientists have received training in former East Germany, the former Soviet Union, North Korea, Iraq, Iran, Vietnam, and China. With the possibility of unrest in Cuba following the death of this nation’s aging leader, this does not bode well for our future. (In fact, we may already have been attacked by Cuban-made biological weapons in the late 1990’s; there’s speculation that the outbreaks of the West Nile virus in the US may have resulted via migratory birds coming through Cuba, either infected accidentally or perhaps even as part of a stealth attack on Cuba’s northern neighbor.)

The Ever-Growing Dangers

Likewise, there is no guarantee that a homegrown terrorist here in the US won’t mount a war of his own. Randy Larsen, the former chairman of the military department at the National War College, recently put it when interviewed about how easy it would be for terrorists to produce biological weapons, "We’ve had a biological revolution since then [when biological weapons were hard to produce]. People with as much money as Osama bin Laden can buy the Russian scientists they need. My point is, this stuff can be made with equipment bought from LABEX.com. It is not difficult to do anymore."

Imagine the Unibomber using bombs laced with anthrax spores and you will have a vision of where we may be headed.

Likewise, the know-how needed to produce any of a variety of deadly chemical compounds is also widespread (with many chemical plants already having deadly chemicals on hand, waiting to be hijacked or released by terrorists). And most college chemistry textbooks can give the formulas that would enable a killer to create any of a variety of poisons that might be employed for attacking people.

Terrorists have demonstrated that they’re willing to kill thousands of innocent civilians, and if anything, one can assume that the more casualties produced, the happier these madmen will be. It is logical to think that an attack with biological weapons is a question not of whether it will happen, but rather one of when it will happen.

In April 2001, the US CIA’s "Global Trends" report listed one of the primary dangers the US faced was that of chemical and biological weapons in the hands of terrorists. As with previous warnings of these growing dangers, this report was ignored by most of the press and the US Congress, until the attacks of September and October 2001.

As Jeffrey D. Brake, a national defense fellow for the Congressional Research Service and the National Intelligence Council noted about the CIA’s report, it predicted that biological weapons would soon get into the hands of America’s enemies. He went on to say that the CIA report predicted,

Prospects will grow that more sophisticated weaponry, including weapons of mass destruction -- indigenously produced or externally acquired…. The likelihood will increase over this period that weapons of mass destruction will be used either against the United States or its forces, facilities and interests overseas.

Chemical and biological threats to the United States will become even more widespread…. such capabilities are easier to develop, hide, and deploy than nuclear weapons.

Asymmetric threats in which state and non-state adversaries avoid direct engagements with the US military but devise strategies, tactics and weapons -- some improved by 'sidewise' technology -- to minimize U.S. strengths and exploit perceived weaknesses.

The consequences of failing to deter, detect or preempt terrorist attacks -- some possibly with weapons of mass destruction -- would be devastating… In addition to the tragedy of hundreds or thousands of dead and injured citizens, the long-lasting serious economic and psychological damage to American society could well prove to be the terrorists' greatest victory.

The predictions of this report are now a reality. Terrorists with chemical and biological weapons in their control is no longer seen as the wild speculations of people like the authors of this manual or extremists in the CIA. The dangers are real and they must be dealt with now. Failure to deal with them could well spell the difference between life and death.

And, unfortunately, your government isn’t doing much to help you.

Every Man for Himself

While many European nations, as well as Israel, not only train their citizens to deal with these weapons, they also make sure that men, women, and children all have access to gas masks and other protective equipment. Some, like Switzerland, even require new buildings and homes to have a large enough shelter, equipped with filters to remove dangerous pathogens from the air, in each structure, and dictate that the shelter have enough room to accommodate everyone that might live or work in it.

The US Congress, while busily building such shelters for its members and staff, as well as stocking up on gas masks and other equipment, is strangely quiet when it comes to supplying US citizens with such equipment. Had they forgone shelters and masks themselves, one might suppose they simply thought such precautions unmerited. Yet during the attacks on the WTC on September 11, 2001, the public saw their legislators whisked off to bunkers, just in case there were any of a variety of attacks, including biological or chemical.

You and most other citizens in the US were left to fend for yourselves should biological or chemical attacks be mounted by the terrorists. Nor has this situation changed much; as this is written, government officials in DC are busy bringing in experts to check for anthrax and evacuating their offices so they can be fully decontaminated. At the same time, those workers exposed to anthrax in contaminated US Postal Service buildings are expected to keep a stiff upper lip and continue at their job.

Our elected officials know that biological and chemical attacks are possible -- and have even occurred. They also apparently think it is possible to survive such attacks since they have been busy building shelters for themselves and buying gas masks for use by congressmen and their staffs. But our "fearless leaders" don’t seem to care whether you or your loved ones survive. At least these leaders don’t care enough to spend a few dollars to issue gas masks to our citizens, or (as this is being written) to start a viable civil defense program that will teach people what to do to minimize their risks during such attacks.