United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office National Security and International Affairs Division author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 1999-09-07 monographic deposited born digital 40 p. GA 1.13:NSIAD-99-163 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-99-163 P0b002ee18037fcd5 f:ns99163 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-28 GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-99-163 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-99-163 NSIAD-99-163 Chemical warfare Biological warfare Strategic planning Crime prevention Terrorism Emergency preparedness Domestic intelligence Letter Report NSIAD S99163 Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the scientific and practical aspects of a terrorist carrying out large-scale chemical or biological attacks on U.S. soil, focusing on the: (1) technical ease or difficulty for terrorists to acquire, process, improvise, and disseminate certain chemical and biological agents; and (2) extent to which the U.S. government has assessed the threats and risks posed by chemical and biological terrorism in the United States to serve as a basis for planned investments.<p/>GAO noted that: (1) chemical and biological experts and intelligence agency officials believe that the ease or difficulty for terrorists to cause mass casualties with an improvised chemical or biological weapon or device depends on the chemical or biological agent selected; (2) specialized knowledge would be needed to acquire the right biological agent or precursor chemicals, process the chemical or biological agent, improvise a weapon or device, and effectively disseminate the agent to cause mass casualities; (3) some virulent biological agents and precursor chemicals are difficult to obtain, and others are difficult to process or produce, especially in the quantities needed to cause mass casualities; (4) in addition, effective dissemination of chemical and biological agents can be disrupted by environmental and meteorological factors; (5) terrorists with less sophistication could make a chemical or biological weapon and disseminate agents, but these would be less likely to cause mass casualities; (6) preventive measures and medical treatments are available for some, but not all chemical and biological agents that might be used by terrorists; (7) the intelligence community has recently produced National Intelligence Estimates and other high-level analyses of the foreign-origin terrorist threat that include judgments about the more likely chemical and biological agents that would be used; (8) unlike the foreign-origin terrorist threat, the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) analysts' judgments concerning the more likely chemical and biological agents to be used by domestic-origin terrorists have not been captured in a formal, authoritative, written assessment; (9) moreover, a national-level risk assessment of potential chemical and biological terrorist incidents also has not been performed; (10) soundly performed risk assessments could help ensure that specific programs and related expenditures are justified and targeted according to the threat and risk of validated terrorist attack scenarios generated and assessed by a multidisciplinary team of experts; and (11) in the case of the Department of Health and Human Services national stockpile initiative, without valid threat and risk assessments, GAO questions whether stockpiling for the items and quantities discussed in the Department's plan is the best approach for investing in medical preparedness. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-99-163/html/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-99-163.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-99-163/pdf/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-99-163.pdf GAO/NSIAD-99-163 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-99-163 Letter Report GAO/NSIAD-99-163; Combating Terrorism: Need for Comprehensive Threat and; Chemical warfare Biological warfare Strategic planning Crime prevention Terrorism Emergency preparedness Domestic intelligence Public Law 104-264 Public Law 104-293 Public Law 105-261 Public Law 105-277