The terrorist attacks of September 11 played a crucial role in awakening
the world to the possibility of advanced warfare. Before this tragedy, the
world could hardly imagine that our good old airplanes could actually be
used as missiles to kill ten of hundreds of unsuspecting souls. But
September 11, proved that terrorists were far ahead of the intelligence
agencies and the general public when it came to designing and deploying
sophisticated war tactics. War for a terrorist need not involve the
military or military tactics of any nature; it is simply a conflict where
the side with best strategies and most unique weaponry stands a better
chance of emerging victorious. It appears that United States and the entire
world was largely unaware of this perspective on war and thus
underestimated the intelligence of terrorist groups since they merely
focused on conventional ways of securing the nation that had little or no
protection to offer against advanced terrorist tactics and strategies.
However September 11 was a big eye opener, not only did it divert the
attention of the public and government to the horrific nature of new
terrorist strategies, it also opened their eyes to the possibility of
chemical and biological warfare that had hitherto been ignored as nothing
but science fiction.
Biological warfare or terrorism refers to the kind of conflict where one or
both parties employ biological weapons prepared with natural agents such as
viruses, fungi and bacteria. Biological conflict is characterized by the
use of "living organisms, whatever their nature, or infective material
derived from them, which are intended to cause disease or death in man,
animals or plants, and which depend for their effects on their ability to
multiply in the person, animal or plant attacked." (1) In other words, when
a person or a terrorist group/country aims at killing a large number of
people through biological weapons, they can rele...