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Photo: Gil Nechoshtan
Bioterror attack. 'Clear and present danger' (Archive photo)
Photo: Gil Nechoshtan

Interpol: Bioterror attack imminent

Interpol officials say bioterrorist attack by al-Qaeda is clear and present danger. We need to be ready today, not tomorrow, Interpol chief says

A bioterrorist attack is not a case of "if" But "when," the international police organization Interpol warned Monday, citing threats by the al-Qaeda terror network to use biological weapons to kill millions of people.

 

Interpol Secretary General Ronald K. Noble said the world was woefully unprepared to cope with the impact of such a bioterrorist attack and said there was too little cooperation between law enforcement and public health authorities on the issue.

 

"In my view, al-Qaeda's global network, its desire to do the unthinkable and the evidence collected about its bioterrorist ambitions ominously portend a clear and present danger of the highest order that al-Qaeda will perpetrate a biological terrorist attack," he said at the opening session of a three-day workshop to train African police agencies on how to reduce the risk of bioterrorism.

 

The workshop, the first of three regional meetings, follows a conference at Interpol headquarters in France on the issue earlier this year.

 

Noble cited al-Qaeda claims that it has the right to kill 4 million people using biological and chemical weapons.

 

South African police chief Jackie Selebi, president of Interpol, said there was a need for much more global cooperation and an increase in resources to reduce the threat.

 

"If it is not 'if' but 'when,' we need to be ready today, not tomorrow," Selebi said. "we should have been ready yesterday."

 


פרסום ראשון: 11.21.05, 15:15
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