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U.S. Northern Command Focused on WMD Defense
The commander of the U.S. Northern Command said yesterday that his “No. 1 priority” is to help prepare the nation for an act of terrorism involving a weapon of mass destruction, the White House Bulletin reported (see GSN, Feb. 1). “This potential availability of WMD to terrorist groups is of vital concern, especially as terrorists thrive in the ‘gray area’ where notions of crime and armed conflict overlap,” Gen. Victor Renuart, who has led the command since March 2007, said during a hearing on Capitol Hill. Northern Command was established in 2002 to lead Defense Department homeland security programs and to ensure the military is prepared to work alongside civilian agencies during a crisis (White House Bulletin, March 6). Meanwhile, the U.S.-based International Anticounterfeiting Coalition believes that terrorists might disguise lethal biological agents as medicine, Agence France-Presse reported yesterday. “Chemical and biological threats to the U.S. and their allies will become more widespread as such capabilities are easier to develop, hide and deploy than missiles armed with WMD,” Jeffrey Williams, managing director of the Orion Support Inc. think tank, said during a security forum in the Philippines (Agence France-Presse/Straits Times, March 6).
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