Historical
Cases of CW Terrorism
 he
changing nature of terrorism has led some analysts to believe that
terrorist attacks with CW agents are becoming more likely. Two
historical cases of actual or attempted CW terrorism are summarized
briefly below. (For more information on these cases and others, see
Jonathan B. Tucker, ed., Toxic Terror: Assessing Terrorist Use of
Chemical and Biological Weapons [Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2000].)
Aum
Shinrikyo
On March 20, 1995, members of
Aum Shinrikyo, a
quasi-Buddhist cult in Japan, released the chemical nerve agent
sarin on the Tokyo subway,
killing 12 people and injuring more than 1,000. The cult had earlier
manufactured the sarin in a laboratory at its main compound in the
foothills of Mount Fuji.
A closed cult with a charismatic
leader named Shoko Asahara, Aum Shinrikyo planned to carry out several
large-scale attacks with
chemical and
biological weapons in
Tokyo and other Japanese cities. Its motivations were religious and
ideological (to fulfill Asahara's apocalyptic prophecies and take
control of the Japanese state) and also tactical (to assassinate enemies
of the cult and divert the Tokyo police from a planned raid on Aum's
headquarters).
Despite having millions of dollars,
thousands of members, and several university-trained scientists among
its senior leadership, Aum Shinrikyo managed to develop only a limited
chemical weapons capability after five years of effort. The crude
delivery system used in the Tokyo subway incident also reduced the
effectiveness of the attack. On March 20, 1995, cult members boarded
five different subway trains during the morning rush hour and used
sharpened umbrella tips to puncture plastic bags filled with a solution
of
sarin. The liquid flowed
onto the floor of the trains and gradually evaporated, filling the
enclosed space with sarin vapor. Because only those individuals who were
sitting in the immediate vicinity of the puddles or came in direct
contact with the liquid sarin absorbed a lethal dose, the attack
resulted in only 12 deaths.
Although the chemical attack on the
Tokyo subway came as a total surprise to Japanese law enforcement
agencies, the incident was not the first time Aum had used sarin. In
June 1994, the group had released the nerve agent in the Japanese city
of Matsumoto in an attempt to assassinate three judges who were about to
rule against the cult in a land-use case. The Matsumoto attack killed
seven people and injured 144. At that time, however, the police failed
to identify the real perpetrators.
See a streaming video multimedia presentation on the Aum Shinrikyo CW attack.
The
Covenant, Sword, and the Arm of the Lord
In 1985, federal law enforcement
authorities discovered that a
small survivalist group in the
Ozark Mountains of Arkansas
known as The Covenant, the
Sword, and the Arm of the Lord
(CSA) had acquired a drum
containing 30 gallons of
potassium cyanide,
with the apparent intent to
poison water supplies in New
York, Chicago, and Washington,
D.C.
Led by a right-wing preacher named
James Ellison, CSA based its ideology on the
Christian Identity movement. CSA members
devised the scheme to poison urban water supplies in the belief that
such attacks could make the Messiah return more quickly by punishing
unrepentant sinners.
CSA's sole objective in using cyanide
was to carry out mass murder rather than to change government policy.
Its members believed that they were on a divine mission and did not fear
offending a broader constituency. Because of a lack of technical skills,
they acquired an industrial chemical (potassium cyanide) instead of
trying to synthesize a more toxic agent like
sarin.
The plot was also technically unsound given the vast quantities of a
toxic chemical that would be required to poison an urban water supply.
The plot failed when U.S. government
agents, who were investigating the group for other violent attacks,
raided the CSA compound and discovered the cyanide. In reality, the
amount of poison possessed by the group would not have been sufficient
to contaminate the water supply of even one city.
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