ve emergency-room personnel and other health-care providers (Henderson, 1999). Further to that point, Zilinskas and Pate (2002) explain that "terrorist use of chemical weapons would create a markedly different situation than if biological weapons were employed." Contamination and response dynamics would be radically different because chemical attacks might mandate acute quarantine, isolation, and decontamination protocols for groups of victims, whereas biological attacks with contagious pathogens would "creat[e] a very difficult situation for first responders, health providers, and public health services" (Zilinskas & Pate, 2002, pp. 4-5).
It has been observed that although biological weapons are "most feared" of weapons of mass destruction--chemical and nuclear weapons being other WMDs--"the country is least well prepared to deal with them. Virtually all federal efforts in strategic planning and training have so far been directed toward crisis management after a chemical release or an explosion" (Henderson, 1999, p. 1280).
Experience of criminal use of biological and chemical agents prior to 9/11 was limited but not unknown in the US. According to reports prepared for the US Department of Energy and the State of California, since 1945 four known biological attacks, including the attacks of 9-10/11/01, have occurred worldwide that yielded more than ten casualties each.
1. In 1981, members of an Indian religious cult established a colony in The Dalles, Oregon. Over the next three years, the Rajneeshees, as they were called, "transgressed both state and county land-use laws and in general antagonized the population of Wasco County." In order to circumvent prosecution, the group's leadership cultivated a serotype of Salmonella enterica, with which members proceeded to seed local salad bars and because of which 751 persons fell ill. The object in view was to prevent Oregon voters from voting and thereby sway the election.
2. In ...