Global Security Newswire

A U.S. lobbyist and biological defense expert believes that Australia is not adequately prepared for potential attacks involving deadly biological agents, the Australian reported today (see GSN, Dec. 13, 2007).

John Clerici said people often have trouble understanding the potential impact of the dispersal of anthrax, smallpox or other disease material.

Australia considers biological terrorism more deeply than European nations, but its “proximity to the hotbeds of terrorism in Asia means there needs to be a greater awareness of the threat here," said Clerici, who has helped craft U.S. biodefense legislation.

"In the U.S., we have put close to $10 billion into producing large amounts of smallpox vaccines and anthrax vaccines, but there is still a lot to do," he said during a biotechnology industry conference in Melbourne.

"There seems to be a greater awareness of the bioterrorism threat [in Australia] than in Europe," Clerici said. "But obviously, the further we get away from the events of 9/11, the more people become lax in their notion of the reality of the threat."

He added that many nations still lack critical measures to protect against radiological “dirty bombs,” which could use conventional explosives to spread radioactive material across a wide area.

"If a dirty bomb were set off near the White House, it would make a five-block radius unlivable for many years. We are not yet ready to deal with something like that,” Clerici said.

Australia opened a WMD intelligence collection office last year and plans to spend $3.2 million on biological-weapon response readiness over four years.

In addition, the country plans to organize a mortuary unit that could handle as many as 5,000 deaths resulting from a single incident (Cameron Stewart, The Australian, Oct. 27).