Description
Biological warfare
Dr RC Spencer,
Bristol Royal Infirmary
The bombings of the World Trade Center, New York in 1993 and the Alfred P Murrah Federal Building Oaklahoma City in 1995 were a rude and violent awakening for the Western world, to the threats posed by the fundamentalist and religious apocalpytic terrorist groups. This real threat was re-emphasised, by the Aum Shinrikyo sarin attack on Toyko’s subway system in 1995. Experts have argued that moral and political constraints have inhibited organisations from employing WMD Recently however there has been increasing recognition that this model may not apply to all terrorist groups, who find mass murder consistent with their objectives. Biological weapons can be bacteria, viruses, fungi or parasites, designed to kill or incapacitate military and civilian populations, in addition to targeting crops and livestock.
