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DIY WMD

So I was taking the Red Cross online WMD training course earlier this week and one of the high-level bullets on biological attacks was that they're typically more difficult for terrorists to pull off than chemical attacks, simply because of the lesser availability of exotic pathogens to your average jihadi than the components needed to produce fairly exotic chemical weapons.

But shoestring saboteurs need not worry.  Modern technology promises to offer ways to cook up any bug from anthrax to smallpox - from scratch!

New technology that would give terrorists the power to create deadly bacteria and viruses from scratch is only years away from completion and threatens to make existing controls on biological weapons obsolete, experts warned yesterday.

Synthetic biology is an emerging field that allows scientists to build micro-organisms from simple genetic material, in theory enabling the creation of deadly pathogens such as ebola or anthrax without access to existing stockpiles of the bugs.

The technology could also allow terrorists or scientists in rogue states to jumble the genetic signature of the bugs in order to render them unrecognisable to health experts dealing with an outbreak, potentially delaying treatment and preventing authorities from tracing the origin of an attack.

If that doesn't give you pause, take a few minutes to read the comment thread below that story.  It's jammed full of cross-Atlantic jabs between Americans and Brits, the majority of whom (on both sides) are America-bashers and/or acknowledged terrorist-sympathizers.  It quickly devolves from any commentary on the article in question, but it's nonetheless simultaneously entertaining and troubling.

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DIY WMD

So I was taking the Red Cross online WMD training course earlier this week and one of the high-level bullets on biological attacks was that they're typically more difficult for terrorists to pull off than chemical attacks, simply because of the lesser availability of exotic pathogens to your average jihadi than the components needed to produce fairly exotic chemical weapons.

But shoestring saboteurs need not worry.  Modern technology promises to offer ways to cook up any bug from anthrax to smallpox - from scratch!

New technology that would give terrorists the power to create deadly bacteria and viruses from scratch is only years away from completion and threatens to make existing controls on biological weapons obsolete, experts warned yesterday.

Synthetic biology is an emerging field that allows scientists to build micro-organisms from simple genetic material, in theory enabling the creation of deadly pathogens such as ebola or anthrax without access to existing stockpiles of the bugs.

The technology could also allow terrorists or scientists in rogue states to jumble the genetic signature of the bugs in order to render them unrecognisable to health experts dealing with an outbreak, potentially delaying treatment and preventing authorities from tracing the origin of an attack.

If that doesn't give you pause, take a few minutes to read the comment thread below that story.  It's jammed full of cross-Atlantic jabs between Americans and Brits, the majority of whom (on both sides) are America-bashers and/or acknowledged terrorist-sympathizers.  It quickly devolves from any commentary on the article in question, but it's nonetheless simultaneously entertaining and troubling.