New Yorker – Where and how terrorism begins. Osama bin Ladenís first lessons in jihad.
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BBC – The world must face the inevitability of a bio-terror attack by al-Qaeda, the head of Interpol has warned.
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UPI – A New Scientist magazine study suggests it would not be difficult for a terrorist to obtain genes from the smallpox virus or a similarly vicious pathogen.
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Washington Post – A look at what the possible effect of a bioterrorist attack could be on Washington DC.

Related editorial: Washington Post – The Anthrax Metaphor.
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Washington Post – In facilities across the former Soviet Union, stockpiles of deadly pathogens remain vulnerable to terrorists and organized crime.
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UPI – It is all too easy to “cry wolf” in a post-Sept. 11 world, but the risk of biological terrorism is only one more risk among thousands of other risks that affect human society.

Triage is just as essential an element of counterterrorism as it is of medicine and public health policy. In a world where car and truck bombs can kill over 100 people without warning on a crowded street, and where there are so many other competing priorities for government action, one has to be extremely careful about giving any given threat priority over the others, and even more careful about what to call for in terms of public policy.

The years since Sept. 11 have shown that it is far easier to throw money at a problem than it is to solve one, and it is far easier to focus noisily on the worst case than it is to produce credible risk assessments.
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Pitt News – Dr. Tara O’Toole, the CEO of the Center for Biosecurity at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, believes that the use of biological weapons is “potentially imminent.”
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Associated Press – Al Qaeda had progressed much further toward developing a particular biological weapon before the Sept. 11 attacks than the United States realized, the presidential commission investigating intelligence on weapons of mass destruction found.

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New York Times – The Department of Homeland Security, trying to focus antiterrorism spending better nationwide, has identified a dozen possible strikes it views as most plausible or devastating, including a scenario involving an anthrax attack.
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BBC – The world is ill prepared for the looming threat of a biological terror attack, the head of Interpol has said.
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National Intelligence Council – The Executive Summary of the report quoted last month as saying that the US would be at risk in the future of an attack by terrorists using biological weapons.
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Frontline – An investigation into the threat radical jihadists pose to Western Europe and its allies – including the U.S. Read the Transcript, and the Interviews, Special Reports, and essay on Al Qaeda Today.
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New York Times Magazine – Where terrorism begins – In a Pakistani religious school called the Haqqania madrasa, Osama bin Laden is a hero, the Taliban’s leaders are famous alums and the next generation of mujahedeen is being militantly groomed. This article, written before 9/11, remains timeless.
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Guardian – The chaos of Iraq is giving rise to a new generation of “professional” terrorists who will eventually replace al-Qaida as a global threat, according to a report by the National Intelligence Council. The report warns that the US faces an increasing risk of an attack involving biological agents.

More from the Washington Times – Inside the Ring
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Sunday Times – The international pursuit of Osama Bin Laden has not stopped his Al-Qaeda network from seeking to build weapons of mass destruction, senior US officials said last week. Recent intelligence indicates that the group is turning its attention to chemical and biological weapons.
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Washington Post – A look at the myriad technical obstacles that terrorists who might try to manufacture biological weapons could face, problems that would confound even skilled scientists who tried to help them, biological warfare experts say.
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New Yorker – Were the Madrid bombings part of a new, far-reaching jihad being plotted on the Internet? An excellent look into what Al-Qaeda is morphing into???
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Defense and the National Interest – An interesting evaluation of the current state of the war on terrorism.
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Reuters – The CIA believes al Qaeda’s biological warfare program is primarily focused on anthrax for mass casualty attacks.
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Australian Associated Press – Terrorist groups were using chemical and biological agents in their training and it was just a matter of time before they used them for war, Dr Rohan Gunaratna, the head of the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research at Singapore’s Institute for Defence and Strategic Studies, said at a conference yesterday.
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