Understanding technologies of terror

Technology in Society

Volumn 27, Issue 3, 2005, Pages 263-285

  Sutton, Victoria ^a   Bromley, D Allan ^b  

^a TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^b YALE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

Chemical and biological weapons; Electromagnetic pulse weapons; Nuclear and chemical explosives; Weapons of mass destruction; WMD

Indexed keywords

CHEMICAL WARFARE; CONTRACTS; ELECTROMAGNETIC PULSE; RADIOLOGY; SOCIAL ASPECTS;

BIOLOGICAL TECHNOLOGIES; MASS DESTRUCTION; WEAPONS;

GUNS (ARMAMENT);

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS; WEAPONRY;

ASIA; EASTERN HEMISPHERE; EURASIA; FAR EAST; JAPAN; NORTH AMERICA; RUSSIAN FEDERATION; UNITED STATES; WESTERN HEMISPHERE; WORLD;

EID: 21644455606     PISSN: 0160791X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/j.techsoc.2005.04.002     Document Type: Article

References (30)

1. K. Alibek Biohazard 1999 Random House New York [A detailed description and discussion of the Soviet Union, and later Russian, Biopreparat program, of which Alibek was first Deputy Chief, from 1988-1992. This is a uniquely valuable insight into what, for much of the 20th century, was a totally secret Soviet and Russian initiative]
2. B.L. Cohen Before it's too late 1983 Plenum Press New York [This is one of, if not indeed the best, overall treatment of the effects of radiation on living systems, and provides a lucid description of the relative risks attached to activities in which the typical American citizen is involved]
3. R.A. Falkenrath R.D. Newman B.A. Thayer Richard A. Falkenrath America's Achilles heel 2001 MIT Press Cambridge, MA [This is a fact-filled volume treating all weapons of mass destruction as one group-nuclear, biological and chemical terrorism. Science and technology, as well as a discussion of the covert attack methods and technologies that might be anticipated is also included]
4. B. Frist When every moment counts 2002 Rowman and Littlefield Totawa, NY p. 129 [This is a volume written by the current leader of the US Senate, and a pediatric cardiologist, designed for the general public, and discussing the nature of a wide variety of biological weapons and the typical response to them]
5. R.L. Garwin G. Charpak Megawatts and Megatons 2001 Knopf New York p. 59 [This is by far the best overview of the current status of our military and civilian use of nuclear energy, written by two internationally recognized experts and written at a level available to any member of an interested public]
6. D.A. Henderson T.P. Inglesby T. O'Toole Bioterrorism 2002 AMA Press p. 23 [This is a collection of 15 essays by some of the nation's most prominent experts in the bioterrorism field, covering a great many aspects of the nature of bioterrorism attacks and our possible response to them]
7. M.T. Osterhold J. Schwartz Living terrors 2001 Delta New York, NY p. 14 [A book designed for the general public, based on several possible scenarios each of which is presented and discussed in detail]
8. R. Preston The demon in the freezer 2002 Random House New York p. 92 [A detailed history of the World Health Organization program to eliminate smallpox. Preston is also the author of The Hot Zone and The Cobra Event, the latter book being one that stimulated President Clinton to begin mobilization of a response to potential bioterrorist attacks]
9. V.V. Sutton Law and bioterrorism 2002 Carolina Academic Press p. 279 [This is the first book that examines the impact that potential bioterrorism attacks will necessarily have on the theory and practice of law in the United States]
10. Presidential Decision Directives Nos. 39 and 62 were issued by President Clinton and are classified, but have been redacted. They designate the FBI as the lead agency in the investigation of suspected incidents of bioterrorism.
11. United States v. Lopez. 514 US 549; 1995.
12. Private communication to D.A. Bromley from Yuri Ossipyan, former Science Advisor to President Gorbachev of the Soviet Union.
13. In addition to a multiple number of independently targetable warheads, missile technology had advanced to the point where it was also possible for the bus missile to carry either a single massive warhead with hundreds of kilograms of biological agent or one hundred or more 'bomblets,' each equipped with its own shield to protect it during re-entry. These bomblets then scatter over a wide target area before releasing their biological agents.
14. R. Zajtchuk editor. Textbook of military medicine 1997 Office of the Surgeon General 10
15. The most famous assassination with ricin was that of Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov in London in 1978, when he was stabbed in the thigh with an umbrella tip containing a pellet of ricin. See: T. Mangold J. Goldberg Plague wars, the terrifying reality of biological warfare 1999 St Martin's Griffin New York
16. Private communication to D.A. Bromley from Jay Davis; 1999.
17. J.B. Tucker Scourge - the once and future threat of smallpox New York: Atlantic Monthly Press 2001 p. 118
18. Private communication to D.A. Bromley from Irving Polayes; 1983
19. J. Miller S. Engelberg W. Broad Biological weapons and America's secret war, germs 2001 Simon & Schuster p. 42
20. L.A. Cole Clouds of secrecy: The army's germ warfare tests over populated areas 1988 Rowman and Littlefield Totowa, NY p. 75-104
21. Private communication to D.A. Bromley from Nikolai Laverov; 1997.
22. R. Harris J. Paxman A higher form of killing 2002 Random House New York p. 82
23. The effects of nuclear war: A report from the Office of Technology Assessment; 1979.
24. The Meschede Event: An outbreak in Meschede, West Germany occurred in late 1970 when a West German electrician returning from Pakistan was hospitalized in a private room on the ground floor of the Meschede Hospital and was isolated in that room. Over the next weeks, 19 cases of smallpox developed in the hospital, although only two nurses had physical contact with the patient. Subsequent tests with smoke-produced soot whose particles had roughly the same dimension as the smallpox virus demonstrated that both could and did seep through supposedly closed windows and up the side of the hospital, where the entered through, again, supposedly closed windows into rooms on both the second and third floors. It was this event that gave the frequently used multiplication factor of 17 for smallpox infection.
25. One of the authors, Victoria Sutton, chaired the legal section of the 'Pale Horse' exercise.
26. 'Select Agents' is a term of art to describe a list of biological agents that are regulated by the federal government.
27. CFR. §12; 2003.
28. CFR. §13; 2003.
29. The 'right of privacy' was first articulated by the US Supreme Court as a fundamental constitutional right in Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 US 479; 1965.
30. U.S. Constitution, Fifth Amendment.