Ten Pounds of Anthrax And A Crop Duster = More Deaths Than World War II. Are We Asleep At The Switch?

The Heritage Foundation recently convened a meeting of experts to discuss "Weapons of Mass Destruction and America's Communities," the various ways our terrorist enemies might attack us and our allies in the future, and what might be done to stop them. You can imagine what a merry gathering this was.

The most obvious concern: the spread of nuclear weapons. Within the group, there was consensus that if Iran, the world's leading sponsor of terrorism, is not prevented from acquiring nukes, the result will be a nuclear proliferation "cascade." Before long, so many countries would have so many nuclear devices that the chances of terrorist groups getting their hands on at least a few would increase exponentially.

A scenario perhaps even more frightening: Terrorists using biological weapons, setting off epidemics of smallpox, Ebola virus, or other hemorrhagic fevers; a crop duster spreading ten pounds of anthrax causing more deaths than in World War II; genetically engineered pathogens - for example, a super-contagious form of HIV. A bio attack would be much easier to carry off than a nuclear attack; biological weapons can be manufactured in hidden laboratories and spread by unarmed and innocent-looking individuals.

We also discussed radiological dispersal devices (RDD), more commonly known as "dirty bombs." Such weapons are fairly simple to construct: radioactive materials - e.g. radium, radon, thorium - are wrapped around a core of conventional explosives. Though an RDD would not carry the lethality of a nuclear or biological weapon, its psychological and economic impact could be substantial.

How else might terrorists advance toward their goal, succinctly articulated by Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as "a world without America"? Adm. Mike McConnell, until February of this year the director of National Intelligence - America's top spy - recently told Steve Kroft of 60 Minutes that he was increasingly concerned about cyber warfare, the use of computers and the Internet as weapons.

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