A- NBC terrorism, a "Damocles effect"?
Arguing about a definition of terrorism is useless and I would say basically
that it's a criminal activity generating a situation of terror among people,
using small – asymmetrical - means to achieve political goals.
The key words are, of course, "situation of terror".
When a Nation-State is the key actor, this situation of terror makes people frightened
every morning.
When it's a terrorist group using an invisible threat, people are afraid of living.
Everything is the vector of terror: the food you eat, the water you drink, the
letters you receive even the air you breathe…
In March 1989, the most intensive food safety investigation in FDA history took
place when a terrorist threatened to poison this nation’s fresh fruit supply,
to focus attention on the living conditions of the lower classes in Chile. The
terrorist made a convincing phone call to the FDA and two grapes were found laced
with small amounts of cyanide.
Fortunately no one was poisoned, but the incident cost millions of dollars to
investigate and had a significant impact on Chile’s national economy, where
fruit and vegetable exports are second in importance only to copper.
A biological toxin could have been used just as easily as cyanide in this instance.
The amounts of toxin needed to obtain the desired effect are exceedingly small.
For example, about 30 grams of Ricine, easily concealed anywhere, would be sufficient
to lethally poison one batch of 150 pounds of meat, enough to produce 1,500 hot
dogs.
The threat is real and the knowledge required is not esoteric.
As with the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, the 2001 anthrax
strikes have been conducted using simple, unconventional methods converting America's
communications infrastructure into a delivery method for bio-agents. A few mailed
letters have resulted in several thousand of false alarms and hoaxes tying up
police, fire, medical and hazmat teams, stirring panic among the populace, interfering
with mail delivery and worrying politicians and the military.
This kind of actions could easily be repeated in several places, with or without
warning calls, with or without claims, allowing some deaths, then stop. And this
could be randomly repeated in different ways, different places, with different
products.
One can easily figure there is no need for large amounts of NBC products or a
mass destruction of people to create a real panic.
Most asymmetrical! This kind of actions could really create a "Damocles
Effect", with officials and people living in a permanent situation of terror
and paralysis created by this deadly psy-war, fearing that anytime, as with the
legend, the horsehair breaks.
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