2. Chemicals as Weapons
• Historical attempts to poison enemy
food supplies
• Scientific advances increase mass
casualty potential
• Technical advancements
• New delivery methods
National Institute for Occupational
Safety and Health Image
3. Chemical Weapons on
the Battlefield
• World War I use
• Chlorine and mustard gas
• World War II developments:
• Tabun, Sarin, and Soman by Germany
• VX by Great Britain
• Rocket delivery
• Worldwide outcry for chemical weapon
treaties
4. • Potential chemicals for use as WMD
• Organophosphates
• 50,000 known chemicals
• Manufacturing information available to public
• Nicotine sulfate as lethal aerosol
Chemical Weapons on
the Battlefield
5. • Potential chemicals for use as WMD
• Blood agents
• “Choking” agents
• “Blistering” agents
• Other likely chemicals: Prussic acid
(hydrocyanic acid), LSD, pure nicotine,
CX
Chemical Weapons on
the Battlefield
6. • 1970’s: moral aversion to CW waning
• Groups unsuccessfully attempted to
obtain chemical weapons
• Weathermen group
• Animal Liberation Front group
• Neo-Nazi “skinhead” groups
Growing Threat of
Chemical Terrorism
7. • 1980’s: reports of seizures of chemical
stockpiles and arrests of individuals in
possession of CW
• Covenant, Sword, and Arm of the Lord
group
• Various Palestinian groups
Growing Threat of
Chemical Terrorism
8. • 1990’s: Increasing use
• Iraq’s chemical weapons use:
• Against Iranian Soldiers
• Against own Kurdish population
• Aum Shinrikyo sarin attacks in Tokyo
Growing Threat of
Chemical Terrorism
9. CW: The Terrorist Risk
• Five levels of risk for terrorist use
• Threatened use, with no real capability
• Unsuccessful attempts to acquire CW
• Actual possession of CW
• Unsuccessful attempts to use CW
• The successful use of CW
10. CW: The Terrorist Risk
• Why haven’t we seen more use by
terrorists?
• Groups seeking political legitimacy may
fear severe backlash
• Bombs provide greater shock value and
carnage for media coverage
• Most likely reason: Uncertainty
11. CW: Advantages
• Advantages
• Inexpensive
• Easy availability
• Long “shelf life”
• High level of control and containment
• Effect (death or disability) is immediate
• Destroys infrastructure
• Low risk of detection
• Lack of a “signature” allows anonymity
12. CW: Availability
• Nerve Agents are a chemical of choice
• Formula and chemical process
declassified information
• Easy to manufacture from readily
available components
• For sale on the “black market”
13. CW: Availability
• Commercially available pesticides
easily purchased or stolen
• Military and Law Enforcement agents
may be stolen under the lax security
• State Sponsorship of terrorist groups:
provision of labs & production facilities
14. CW: Toxicity
• Falls between conventional weapons
and biological or nuclear weapons
• Environmental conditions are key
factor
• Goal of the terrorist
• Harassment vs. death
• Determines type of agent used
15. CW: Toxicity
• Quantity required to produce heavy
casualties within square-mile area
under idealized conditions
16. CW: Toxicity
Weapon Grams
Aerial explosives 320 million
Fragmentation cluster bombs 32 million
Hydrocyanic acid 32 million
Mustard gas 3.2 million
Sarin nerve gas 800,000
“Crude" nuclear weapon
(fissionable material only) 5,000
Type A botulinal toxin 80
Anthrax spores 8
17. CW: Toxicity
• Attack on a water supply
Agent Grams
Potassium cyanide 18,000
Nerve agent VX 100
Typhoid culture 1
19. CW: Delivery
• Municipal water systems attacks
• 4 billion gallon reservoir, community of
20,000, and each person consuming 16
oz of water
• Requires over 14 billion lethal doses to
deliver one dose per person
• Fluoroacetates
• Requires 600 metric tons to achieve lethal
dose
20. CW: Delivery
• Delivery by terrorists
• Covert contamination of selected foods
and beverages
• Covert generation of volatile agent in
enclosed space
• Covert dissemination of non-volatile
agent in enclosed space
• Overt attack using “bursting” munitions or
thermogenerators
21. CW: Current Trends
• High probability of terrorists use in
near future
• Likely candidate groups
• Various Palestinian groups
• Al Qaeda and other state-sponsored,
Islamic fundamentalist groups
• Extremist groups in US and Europe
• Western European and South
American terrorist groups not high on
list at this time
22. CW: Defense
• Limited defensive capabilities
• Deny terrorists access to weapons and
chemicals needed for production
Los Alamos National Laboratory Image
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