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Protecting Critical Infrastuctures: A Challenge for 21st Century Law Enforcement

NCJ Number
179795
Journal
Law and Order Volume: 47 Issue: 9 Dated: September 1999 Pages: 95-98
Author(s)
Tony Lesce
Date Published
September 1999
Length
4 pages
Annotation
Terrorists have become more powerful in recent years by taking advantage of technology to employ increasingly deadly weapons.
Abstract
Terrorists have deployed nerve gas in the Tokyo Subway, destroyed a government building in Oklahoma City, and sabotaged computer systems worldwide. They have also experimented with germ warfare and other methods of mass destruction, and carried out a campaign of destruction against abortion clinics nationwide. As a technologically advanced and high-profile country, the United States is especially vulnerable to both foreign and domestic terrorism. Vulnerabilities of U.S. transportation systems and technological support systems to terrorist attacks are discussed, with emphasis on terrorist use of chemical, biological, and nuclear devices and materials as weapons of mass destruction (WMD). Steps the U.S. Government has taken to counter WMD terrorist threats are examined, and the need to develop new protective systems is emphasized. The role of law enforcement in dealing with terrorist threats is addressed. 1 photograph