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Toxic Terror: Assessing Terrorist Use of Chemical and Biological Weapons

Edited by Jonathan B. Tucker
Published by The MIT Press in collaboration with the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs (BCSIA), Harvard University, April 2000

Content Available:

• Table of Contents and Case descriptions

• Full text of the Introduction
  (PDF format, 14 pages, 1.04 MB)
  Chapter 1, Jonathan B. Tucker

• Excerpt from "The World Trade Center Bombers (1993)"
  Chapter 11, John V. Parachini

• Full text of "The World Trade Center Bombers (1993)"
  (PDF format, 22 pages, 2.00 MB)
  Chapter 11, John V. Parachini

• Selected Motivational Factors Associated with CBW Terrorism

• Reviews

Order Toxic Terror from The MIT Press or Amazon.com.
$20.00

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Who are the terrorists who would use weapons of mass destruction?

Which terrorists might plan to kill thousands of people with chemical or biological weapons (CBW)? Toxic Terror is a major study that attempts to answer these important questions.

Policymakers, scholars, and the news media have been alarmed by the potential for CBW terrorism, and the U.S. Congress has allocated billions of dollars for counterterrorism and consequence management programs. Driving these concerns are the global spread of scientific knowledge and technology relevant to CBW terrorism and the vulnerability of civilian populations to chemical and biological attacks.

Notably lacking in the analysis of CBW terrorism, however, has been a careful assessment of the terrorists themselves. What types of terrorist groups or individuals are both capable of acquiring chemical and biological weapons and motivated to use them, and for what purposes? Further, what types of toxic agents would probably be produced, and how would they be delivered? Answers to these questions would help policymakers prepare for the most likely contingencies.

Toxic Terror provides in-depth case studies of twelve terrorist groups and individuals who, from 1946 to 1998, allegedly acquired or employed CBW agents. The cases were researched from primary sources, including interviews with terrorists and law enforcement officials, court documents, and declassified government files. The cases offer fascinating and disturbing portraits of the men and women who have used or considered using chemical or biological agents as weapons of terrorism.

By comparing the twelve cases, Toxic Terror identifies characteristic motivations and patterns of behavior associated with CBW terrorism and provides an empirical basis for prudent, cost-effective strategies of prevention and response.

Among its conclusions are that at least three alleged cases of CBW terrorism are apocryphal; CBW terrorists are often motivated by religious fanaticism, supremacist ideology, or apocalyptic prophecy; and the groups most likely to use CBW are isolated groups or individuals exhibiting a strong sense of paranoia and grandiosity.

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