NCJ Number
190920
Date Published
1999
Length
29 pages
Annotation
This document provides an assessment of vulnerabilities against attacks on the U.S. homeland and what can be done to better secure the country.
Abstract
The United States is not prepared to develop, deploy, and operate a wide range of defensive measures for the protection of the U.S. homeland. The country is now addressing the possibility that terrorists might use a mass destruction weapon within the United States. If such an attack took place, the Defense Department, not the Justice Department will have to be prepared to take the lead. Only the armed forces would have the logistical capabilities to mount the all-out defensive effort required. What the Defense Department mainly lacks for the defense of the U.S. homeland is not the legal authority but the necessary equipment and training. Research and development efforts concentrating on instruments and equipment to detecting, interdicting, or rendering harmless weapons of mass destruction holds great promise. The programs should be expanded to develop prototypes of equipment for countering chemical and biological attacks against the U.S. homeland and for detecting nuclear weapons smuggled into the United States. The purpose of the research should be to give the United States a mobilization capacity to respond rapidly to a sudden increase in the threat. The defense against biological weapons is a particularly high priority. Biological attack will become increasingly difficult to cope with because the technology used to make the agent will proliferate; dictatorships will exploit the technology; and agents can easily be smuggled across international borders. To deal with this, a biotechnology and chemical defense center should be established. References