Laura Donohue argues that the best way for society to protect itself against both natural threats (ex. pandemics) and unnatural threats (ex. terrorism) is to facilitate the free flow of scientific information.
So-called new terrorists may not always escalate to unconventional weapons. Inordinate attention on the comparatively unique challenges of WMD terrorism draws scarce resources and focus away from the more basic but essential activities to stop terrorism in the first place.
Al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups are currently capable of conducting attacks with different types of weapons of mass destruction, according to an internal CIA report.
The U.S. has doubled financing for counterterrorism research, including improved detectors, in each of the last two years. While the research has generated promising advances, accurate systems are slow, bulky, expensive and prone to "false positives," finding danger where none exists.
Al Qaeda leaders, long known to covet biological and chemical weapons, have reached at least the threshold of production and may already have manufactured some of them, according to a newly obtained cache of documentary evidence and interrogations recently conducted by the U.S. government.
Russia's decision to blow an aerosolized form of a powerful narcotic through the ventilation system of a theater to end a hostage crisis raised anew an inevitable and terrifying question: what if a terrorist unleashed a potentially lethal chemical in this country?
Russian use of chemical weapons in a recent hostage crisis and the announcement that the U.S. is investigating new substances that can be used to disable terrorists has forced chemical and biological weapons back on to the world agenda.
Sandia National Laboratories has created a new "Simcity-like" war game that will help train public officials on how to detect and respond to terrorist use of weapons of mass destruction.
The authors propose the development of a virtual border security program that would protect the U.S. from terroist use of the intermodal transportation system to attack the homeland.
Bioterrorism fears are spawning innovation in early warning detection networks and systems.