Bio-warfare and terrorism.

• Author: Boyle, Francis
• Position: Biodevastation

During the Fall of 2001, we witnessed anthrax attacks on the United States government that were obviously designed to shut down the government at a very critical time immediately after September 11. It was during this time that Congress should have been in session, making decisions regarding oversight of the Executive Branch of government. This note will discuss some historical background for the law policy and science of biological weapons here in the United States.

Early US Bio-War Program

The US has had, at least going back to World War II, an extremely aggressive offensive biological warfare program. In 1969, President Richard Nixon decided to discontinue this program (at least with regard to biological "agents," which are used as weapons, as opposed to "toxins," which were theoretically for researching methods of immunization and therapy). There were two reasons for discontinuing the weapons program: (1) it was counterproductive militarily, as biological weapons were very difficult to control, and (2) the US already had massive superiority in nuclear weapons. Biological weapons were seen as the "poor man's atom bomb" and Nixon wanted to get rid of them to prevent Third World nations from acquiring relatively inexpensive weapons of mass destruction.

In accordance with President Nixon's order, the total destruction of antipersonnel biological agents and munitions was completed by May of 1972. (1) It is believed, however, that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) continued to research biological weapons in spite of the President's order.

The US signed on to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) on 10 April 1972. (2) The BTWC entered into force on 26 March 1975. This convention prohibits the research, development and testing of biological weapons, agents and compounds. The convention has an exception for prophylactic and defensive purposes. There remained, however, a Chemical and Biological. Warfare unit lurking in the Pentagon, starved for funds and wanting to come back to life.

The Reagan Administration

The administration of President Ronald Reagan came to power in 1980. The Reagan administration took the position that the US was going to exploit its superior technology with regard to all types of weapons. This also included the new technologies of gene splicing and genetic engineering. Massive amounts of money, hundreds of millions of dollars, were poured into researching and developing what were claimed to be "defensive"...