Britain could be paralysed by bioweapons,
radioactive attack
BRITAIN: The devastating impact of a terrorist attack in
Britain using bioweapons or radioactivity could be further amplified by
the panicked reaction and “alarmist media,” a leading think-tank warned
Thursday.
To counter this, authorities should provide calmly-presented
information about possible scenarios before any attacks take place, said
Paul Cornish, head of London-based Chatham House’s international
security programme.
His report looked at the threat from chemical, biological,
radiological and nuclear (CBRN) weapons here and said they could be used
by extremist groups “from the largest to the smallest... from the
poorest to the best funded.”
“A good deal of the effect of a terrorist attack in the United
Kingdom using CBRN could prove to be self-inflicted by the victims of
the attack — the general public, business leaders, and government
officials — or magnified by alarmist media,” Cornish wrote.
“The United Kingdom might prove to be rather brittle in the face of a
CBRN attack...and it seems reasonable to assume that terrorists might
hope for such brittleness in order to expand the effect of their
attack.”
The findings come after Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, head of the MI5
domestic intelligence agency, warned in November that her agents were
investigating nearly 30 terror plots and tracking over 1,600 suspects.
She also stressed that future terror attacks could involve chemical,
bacteriological, radioactive and nuclear material.
London, Thursday, AFP |