October 6, 2006

Evolving Bioweapon Threats Require New Countermeasures

By HELEN PURKITT and VIRGEN WELLS

To better understand possible development and uses of biological weapons by nations and terrorist groups, we have studied past covert government programs in South Africa and Iraq, and recent trends in civilian biotechnology in South Africa.

U.S. monitoring of bioweapon threats is geared primarily toward uncovering large-scale, highly sophisticated programs, like that of the former Soviet Union during the cold war. But covert bioweapon development has become more diffuse, and many

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