CAPE TOWN, 22 November 2005 — A biological terror attack by Al-Qaeda poses a “clear and present danger,” Interpol warned yesterday at the opening of a three-day meeting to prevent bio-terrorism.
“Al-Qaeda’s global network... its deadly history, its desire to do the unthinkable and the evidence collected about its bio-terrorist ambitions ominously portend a clear and present danger of the highest order that Al-Qaeda will perpetrate a biological terror attack,” said Interpol secretary general Ron Noble.
“Al-Qaeda has openly claimed the right to kill four million people using biological and chemical weapons,” said Noble, adding that “no region in the world is safe from Al-Qaeda.” “Simply put, Al-Qaeda is willing, able and patient enough to plan and prepare to execute terrorists acts that would have been considered unrealistic or fantasy prior to Al-Qaeda’s having perpetrated them,” said Noble.
He said that a wide range of highly dangerous biological material including anthrax, botulism, and viral hemorrhagic fevers could be used in an attack to inflict damage.
“The potential consequence of such an attack could be so far reaching that a lack of action in preventing bio-terrorism poses an unacceptable risk to the safety of citizens and societies around the world,” said Noble.
More than 90 law enforcement, scientific and legal experts from 41 African countries are attending the three-day event in Cape Town, which is the first of three such Interpol regional workshops to be held.
The two others will take place in Singapore and Chile in 2006.
Interpol President Jackie Selebi, who is South Africa’s national police commissioner, said “the police cannot afford to be unprepared for the eventual misuse of biological agents by terrorists groups.” “Many infectious diseases caused by pathogens, that have the potential to be used in bio-terrorism, are endemic in parts of Africa, such as anthrax and Ebola,” said Selebi, who called for closer cooperation between police and public health services.
