Biological attacks 'getting easier for terrorists'

Biological attacks 'getting easier for terrorists'


Terrorists will find it increasingly easy to launch attacks using biological
weapons, a senior security official has warned.








The Home Office report on
British counter-terrorism warned that the UK faces a more complicated and
widespread threat, which is more costly to address Photo:
AFP/GETTY




Charles Farr, the Director of the Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism,
said that extremists have ever greater access to the information and technology
required to create and spread germ agents or other biological weapons.



He spoke as an official assessment suggested that countering the threat to
the UK from international terrorism is becoming harder and more expensive.



The Home Office has published an annual report on its Contest
counter-terrorism strategy, which warned that Islamic terrorist threats are now
spread more widely across the world, requiring “very significant resources” to
combat.


The report showed that security officials and intelligence agencies believe
that a priority for Britain is improving its ability to detect biological
attacks, treat victims and decontaminate attack sites.


“Biological will get easier from a terrorist point of view,” Mr Farr said.

Factors facilitating such attacks include the availability of formulae and
other information on the internet; increasing teaching of biological sciences at
universities, and “greater availability of technology,” he said.


Mr Farr, a former MI6 officer, declined to give further details of the
threat, but the Home Office report hints at a range of new precautions.

Last year, the Home Office began enforcing a new list of controlled
biological agents to “ensure that dangerous pathogens and toxins that are
required in important medical and scientific research are used and held
securely.”

Lessons learned from the security operations for the London Olympic Games
have “informed the wider programme of planning for high impact biological
attacks,” the report said.

The Home Office report also said that British authorities continue to plan
for a Mumbai-style attack by terrorist gunmen.

In particular, the emergency services have been working on plans to treat and
extract casualties from an attack scene even while violence continues.

Details are secret, but it is believed that special teams of armed police
officers and volunteer paramedics have been trained to operate under fire.

Mr Farr also revealed that even as officials prepare for such attacks, the
counter-terrorism budget is coming under pressure to make cuts.

Security and intelligence agencies are having to “find savings” to fund the
battle against al-Qaeda, he said. In some cases, that means reducing manpower.


The warnings about the money available for counter-terrorism come as
ministers discuss a Spending Review that is likely to impose more cuts on the
Home Office budget after the next general election.

Danny Alexander, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, told the Daily
Telegraph last week that the Home Office could not be spared cuts in the 2015/16
round.

The Home Office report on British counter-terrorism warned that the UK faces
a more complicated and widespread threat, which is more costly to address.

“The terrorist threats we face are now more diverse than before, dispersed
across a wider geographical areas, and often in countries without effective
governance,” it said.

“This poses significant challenges to our national security and to the
security and intelligence agencies and departments working on counter-terrorism:
operating in these areas is difficult and dangerous, requires very significant
resources and is complicated and at times made impossible by the breakdown of
governance and law and order.”

Mr Farr said that the changing nature of the threat puts new financial
pressure on the Home Office and other agencies.

“It takes more to do the same amount of counter-terrorism work,” he said. “We
have to find savings.”

He added: “Across the whole of the CT budget, which is in the region of £1
billion, you would expect to find some efficiency savings. Technology means that
in some areas, you can do the same with fewer people.”

The Home Office report also warned that British Muslims fighting in Syria’s
civil war could return home to carry out terrorist attacks.