Super-Terrorism (From Behavioral and Quantitative Perspectives on Terrorism, P 343-361, 1981, Yonah Alexander and John M Gleason, eds. - See NCJ-84379)

• NCJ Number: 84385
• Author(s): Y Alexander
• Date Published: 1981
• Length: 19 pages
• Sale Source: Pergamon Press, Inc
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Security measures against terrorist acts should take seriously the possibility that the arsenal of tomorrow's terrorist might include chemical, biological, and nuclear threats of massive destruction potential.

Abstract

The accessibility of chemical and biological poisons which may be delivered through water systems and other means that will widely disperse them make them attractive weapons for determined terrorist groups that have been frustrated from achieving their goals through less destructive means. The proliferation of nuclear weapons and nuclear power plants also promises to make the use of nuclear weapons and radioactivity increasingly attractive to terrorist groups. The accessibility and possession of such weapons of mass destruction should be continuously monitored by national and international agencies. In adopting security measures against such dangerous unconventional terrorism, the guidelines recommended at the 1978 Ditchley Conference on Terrorism should be followed: (1) exceptional measures of law enforcement should be kept to the lowest necessary level; (2) all such measures should be specifically expressed as temporary deviations from the norm and subject to review, renewal, and revision; and (3) they should be tightly framed so as to ensure that the civil liberties of the people as a whole are affected as little as possible. Further, emergency preparedness countermeasures must necessarily include contingency planning and sound crisis management policies at various governmental, intergovernmental, and nongovernmental levels. A total of 72 notes are listed.