Strategic Assessment

The events of September 11 and the wave of anthrax-laced envelopes mailed in the US during 2001 ג€“ a case that still has not been fully solved ג€“ together constituted a watershed in the perception of the non-conventional terror threat in general and of bioterrorism in particular. They served as a milestone in the recognition by Western countries, led by the US, of the immediacy of the threat and the need to fight it. These events heightened the potential link between international terrorism and Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD), with biological weapons in particular looming as a new and dangerous threat. Several reports recently published in the US on the threat of biological terror conclude that the dramatic developments expected in the twenty-first century in the field of life sciences, along with the accessibility and widespread dissemination of information, will enable terrorist organizations to obtain and prepare biological means capable of causing enormous damage.