homeland security essay

 Flu Pandemic

In this lesson, consider all of the possibilities of natural and laboratory-produced biological. Have you ever heard or read that the children’s nursery rhyme “Ring Around the Rosie” is a depiction of the effects of the Bubonic “Black Death” Plague? This week we’ll find out.

Throughout history nothing has caused more fear and panic in societies than the plague. To this day, there are extreme protocols when the plague is suspected including quarantine and medical isolation. The plague has destroyed civilizations and decimated populations and been linked to “at least three great pandemics and multiple epidemics in history. Plague was known as the Black Death, this is because symptoms of the plague include big black spots called buboes under the armpits, behind the knees and on the neck. Afterwards the tips of the fingers and toes and nose often turned black” (History 2011).  Septaecemic Plague

“Alexandre Yersin isolated the plague bacillus, developed an antiserum to combat the disease, and linked its connection with fleas and rats during the epidemic of 1894. The plague bacillus was then named Yersinia pestis in his memory” (History 2011). In a positive light it was the epidemics of the plague that pushed medicine in new directions, allowing us to treat many other bacteria today as well.

Promotion and Education n.d.). On the other hand, with an inhaled agent (water droplets from coughing or sneezing) pneumonic plague forms, which has a 100% mortality rate if left untreated (Directors of Health Promotion and Education n.d.). “With pneumonic plague, the first signs of illness are fever, headache, weakness, and rapidly developing pneumonia with shortness of breath, chest pain, cough, and sometimes bloody or watery sputum…The pneumonia progresses for 2 to 4 days and may cause respiratory failure and shock” (Division of Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases 2009). Like most biological weapons, early detection is the key to saving lives and unfortunately that early detection can be difficult. The vulnerability of this weapon and the ease of penetrating a community make it a realistic threat. Any hospital that has any cases resembling the plague must  quarantine all individuals with direct association of that person and submit the case to the CDC, who then can monitor the epidemiology and determine if there is an outbreak or risk of epidemic.  

 Smallpox

The plague was one of the first used biological weapons, used to siege castles in the medieval age. Attacking armies would hurl infected bodies over the walls to infect the occupied population or place them upstream to contaminate the water supply. Each year in the United States there is an average of 10 to 15 persons infected with the plague. Globally, the World Health Organization reports 1,000 to 3,000 cases of plague every year (Division of Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases 2009). Al-Qaeda as one of the leading terrorist organizations will stop at nothing to stop the western way of life, using suicide bombers and sleeper cells to carry out their cause. One thing many of us may not know about al-Qaeda is that in 2009 there was a number of cases involving plague that infected members of the AQLIM (al-Qaeda in the Land of the Islamic Maghreb). AQLIM is the Al-Qaeda organization in the region of North Africa. From this, one can only wonder if al-Qaeda has cultivated and maintained Yersinia pestis, or the plague bacteria from that outbreak to use in biological warfare. If so, used in an appropriate outlet, Yersinia pestis can be a very deadly weapon of mass destruction.

If Al Qaeda were to infect their own members and use their bodies to infiltrate the populous, or through contaminating a small water supply and dispersing it over agricultural areas or well-populated areas, the amount of casualties would be devastating. Another way Al Qaeda could carry out their mission would be to release infected rats or fleas in largely populated, but small vicinity- such as Disney World or Disneyland. Any way that Al Qaeda could chose to release the plague upon U.S. grounds the results are going to be catastrophic. This is because, the “bacteria is fairly persistent and can survive in the blood for 100 days and in human bodies for up to 270 days. It could also remain in water and moist meals, grains for several weeks” (Burke 2007). The unsecured southern border only adds to its fears as it is only a matter of time before any terrorist organization could unleash a biological weapon of any sort, with the research I have done I feel that the plague would be an easy and likely candidate for such an attack.

As for the answer to the question, “is the children’s nursery rhyme ‘Ring Around the Rosie’ a depiction of the  effects  of  the  Bubonic  “Black  Death”  Plague”. Please go to Snopes.com and make your own determination. (http://www.snopes.com/language/literary/rosie.asp)  

Biological Threats from Abroad

Iran continues to challenge the United States by being unsupportive when it comes to the balance between nonproliferation and cooperation of chemical, nuclear and biological weapons sharing of technology, research and production. “The action plans on national implementation and on Article X, which relates to cooperation for peaceful purposes under the convention, proved to be more contentious” (Arms Control Association 2007). The Western states [especially the US], had proposed an action plan which listed a number of specific measures to convince states to join the BWC. Of course, Iran, supported by other non-aligned states, opposed the action plan and insisted that their input to the action plans be implemented as well. This put the Western states, especially the US in a predicament; however, they did not relent to the wishes of the opposing states. This has continuously placed pressure on the United States during such conferences, and degrades the trust among the parties involved.  Smallpox

Since 2001, the US government has opposed efforts to establish a legally binding compliance protocol for the Biological Warfare Convention on the grounds that any system that could gain support from countries such as Iran would prove insufficiently demanding, providing loopholes for Tehran to pursue the manufacture of biological weapons (Jane’s Intelligence Digest 2009). U.S. policymakers have continued  to  coerce  other  countries  to  limit their  transfers  of  biotechnologies  to  help with reducing the proliferation of offensive biological weapons. The Iranian government does not view the transfer of such technologies as a threat; they claim it to be an opportunity for peaceful biological research to stimulate their country’s economic growth.

It was obvious that he was working for an Egyptian doctor who was one of the top leaders for Al-Qaeda; however, the Pakistani microbiologist was seeking to weaponize Anthrax more for money than any other reason. Prior to being detained by United States and Pakistani officials, he had objected to the amount of money that he would receive for doing the job. After being interrogated, Pakistani officials denied any further questioning by U.S. officials stating, “there was not enough evidence to prove that he successfully transferred useful materials to Al-Qaeda.” (Jane’s Terrorism & Security Monitor 2006, 8). The article explains that the availability of the Ames strain of Anthrax was larger than initially believed. This was confirmed in a book published by the US Institute of Medicine’s Board on Global Health, which stated, “The Ames strain of Bacillus Anthracis used in the attacks is distributed throughout the world, making it difficult to track down a potential source” (Jane’s Terrorism & Security Monitor 2006, 8). Sergei Popov, a former Soviet biological weapons scientist claimed that the Ames strain of Anthrax might have been stolen from Fort Detrick during the early 1980s when Cold War era espionage was at its peak. A former KGB agent named Alexander Kouzminov later confirmed this information in a book he wrote by stating that a Soviet agent had infiltrated the military base (Jane’s Terrorism & Security Monitor 2006).

 Hemmorrhagic Fever

One of the major lessons that can be learned from this reading is that we should not underestimate our adversaries. The KGB agents of the early 1980s were capable of infiltrating a secure military facility here in the United States. If individual groups, state, or non-state entities for that matter want to obtain a WMD, they will go to great lengths to do so. Al-Qaeda and other groups such as the Aum; have demonstrated their ability to recruit individuals with the capability of obtaining and cultivating biological specimens for weapons use. It is in the best interest of all governments to work together to keep a close eye on these materials and the individuals who have been empowered to work with them. I believe that the United States finds it difficult to trust countries such as, Iran, North Korea, etc. today because many of those countries do not have the security measures in place as the United States does today. Additionally, some of these countries simply cannot be trusted.  The American government has learned some hard lessons over time, and has suffered some grave consequences as well. The Russians may not have initiated the Anthrax attacks in 2001; however, they could have sold the spores to someone else, and from there who knows where they were transferred to before being dispersed in the mail to politicians and media in the United States.

References:

Burke, R. 2007. Biological Terrorist Agents. In Counter-Terrorism for Emergency Responders (pp. 144-147). Boca Raton, FL: Taylor & Francis Group.

Arms Control Association. 2007. News Analysis: “States Strengthen Biological Weapons  Convention.” http://www.armscontrol.org/act/2007_01- 02/NewsAnalysisBWC

Center for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC]. 2006. Plague. http://www.cdc.gov/plague/

Directors of Health Promotion and Education. (n.d.). Plague [Fact Sheets]. http://www.dhpe.org/infect/plague.html

Division of Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases. 2009. CDC Plague Home Page. http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/plague/

History for Kids Organization. 2011. The Black Death (Bubonic Plague). Retrieved from

http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/medieval/history/highmiddle/plague.htm

Jane’s Intelligence Digest. 2009. US and Iran's biological clock.

Jane’s Terrorism & Security Monitor. 2006. Anthrax investigation setbacks.