This is a list of bioterrorist incidents.
Guidelines
The definitions of bioterrorism for the purpose of this article are:
- The use of violence or of the threat of violence in the pursuit of political, religious, ideological or social objectives
- Acts committed by non-state actors (or by undercover personnel serving on the behalf of their respective governments)
- Acts reaching more than the immediate target victims and also directed at targets consisting of a larger spectrum of society
- Both mala prohibita (i.e., crime that is made illegal by legislation) and mala in se (i.e., crime that is inherently immoral or wrong)
- Committed with the use of biological agents
The following criteria of violence or threat of violence fall outside of the definition of this article:
- Wartime (including a declared war) or peacetime acts of violence committed by a nation state against another nation state regardless of legality or illegality and are carried out by properly uniformed forces or legal combatants of such nation states (See biological warfare)
- Reasonable acts of self-defense, such as the use of force to kill, apprehend, or punish criminals who pose a threat to the lives of humans or property
- Legitimate targets in war, such as enemy combatants and strategic infrastructure that form an integral part of the enemy's war effort such as defense industries and ports
- Collateral damage, including the infliction of incidental damage to non-combatant targets during an attack on or attempting to attack legitimate targets in war
- Targeted murders or poisonings carried out with the use of biological agents, not for political or religious purposes
- Plans that were not carried out
List
| Date | Incident | Agent | Dead | Injured | Location | Details | Perpetrator | References |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 595–585 BC | Siege of Kirrha | Helleborus (Hellebore) | Unknown | Unknown | Cirrha | During the siege of Kirrha, Solon of Athens added hellebore to the water of the Pleistos and let it flow into Kirrha. | Solon of Athens | [1] |
| 1941-1945 | Unknown | 200 | Unknown | Poland | Unconfirmed reports indicated that the Polish resistance killed 200 German soldiers with biological agents. | Polish resistance | [1][2] | |
| 1952 | Euphorbia grantii toxin | Unknown | Unknown | British Kenya | During the Mau Mau Uprising, the plant toxin of the African milk bush was used to poison livestock by the Mau Mau. | Mau Mau | [1] | |
| October, 1981 | Operation Dark Harvest | Bacillus anthracis | Unknown | Unknown | Porton Down, United Kingdom | Dark Harvest Commando, a militant group, demanded the British government decontaminate Gruinard Island, a site which had been used for anthrax weapon testing during World War II, by distributing potentially anthrax-laden soil on the mainland. | Dark Harvest Commando | [1][2] |
| August 29–October 10, 1984 | 1984 Rajneeshee bioterror attack | Salmonella | 0 | 751 | The Dalles, United States | The Rajneeshee cult spread salmonella in salad bars at ten restaurants in The Dalles, Oregon to influence a local election. Health officials say that 751 people were sickened and more than 40 hospitalized. | Rajneeshee | [3] |
| July–December, 1989 | 1989 California medfly attack | Ceratitis capitata (Medfly) | 0 | 0 | Southern California, United States | During the summer and fall of 1989, several outbreaks of medflies occurred throughout Southern California, particularly in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The outbreaks devastated crops. | "The Breeders" (Unresolved) | [4] |
| April 1990 | Botulinum toxin | 0 | 0 | Japan | The religious group Aum Shinrikyo outfitted three vehicles to disseminate botulinum toxin at the National Diet Building, Yokosuka naval base and the Narita International Airport | Aum Shinrikyo | [2] | |
| June 28–July 2, 1993 | Kameido Odor Incident | Bacillus anthracis | 0 | 0 | Kameido, Tokyo, Japan | The religious group Aum Shinrikyo released anthrax in Tokyo. Eyewitnesses reported a foul odor. The attack was a failure, due to the fact that the group used the vaccine strain of the bacterium, and no one was infected. | Aum Shinrikyo | [5] |
| September 18–October 12, 2001 | 2001 anthrax attacks | Bacillus anthracis | 5 | 17 | United States | Letters laced with infectious anthrax were concurrently delivered to news media offices and the U.S Congress, alongside an ambiguously related case in Chile. The letters killed 5. | Bruce Edwards Ivins | [6] |
| 2003 | 2003 ricin letters | Ricin | 0 | 0 | United States | Two ricin-laden letters were found on two separate occasions between October and November 2003. One letter was mailed to the White House and intercepted at a processing facility; another was discovered with no address in South Carolina. A February 2004 ricin incident at the Dirksen Senate Office Building was initially connected to the 2003 letters as well. | "Fallen Angel" (Unresolved) | [7] |
| 15–17 April 2013 | April 2013 ricin letters | Ricin | 0 | 0 | Washington, D.C., United States | An envelope that preliminarily tested positive for ricin was intercepted at the US Capitol's off-site mail facility in Washington, D.C. According to reports, the envelope was addressed to the office of Mississippi Republican Senator Roger Wicker. | James Everett Dutschke | [8][9] |
References
- ^ Curtis E. Cummings & Elisaveta Stikova (1 January 2007). Strengthening National Public Health Preparedness and Response to Chemical, Biological and Radiological Agent Threats. IOS Press. pp. 55–. ISBN 978-1-58603-744-4.
- ^ W. Seth Carus & Center for Counterproliferation Research (2002). Bioterrorism and Biocrimes: The Illicit Use of Biological Agents Since 1900. The Minerva Group, Inc. ISBN 978-1-4101-0023-8.
- ^ Grossman, Lawrence K. (January–February 2001). "The Story of a Truly Contaminated Election". Columbia Journalism Review. Archived from the original on November 19, 2008. Retrieved November 18, 2007.
- ^ Johnson, John. "Invasion by Medfly Defies Logic, Scientists Say Infestation: Experts discover peculiar patterns in the spread of the stubborn fruit fly", Los Angeles Times, December 30, 1989, accessed February 21, 2012.
- ^ Takahashi H, Keim P, Kaufmann AF, Keys C, Smith KL, Taniguchi K et al. (2004). "Bacillus anthracis incident, Kameido, Tokyo, 1993.". Emerg Infect Dis. 10 (1): 117–20. doi:10.3201/eid1001.030238. PMC 3322761. PMID 15112666
- ^ "U.S. officials declare researcher is anthrax killer". CNN.com. 2008-08-06. Retrieved 2020-05-18.
- ^ "Ricin Letters Still A Mystery". CBS News. 2004-02-06. Retrieved 2020-05-18.
- ^ Brooks, Mike & Bash, Dana (April 17, 2013). "Envelope tests positive for ricin at Washington mail facility". CNN. Retrieved April 27, 2013.
- ^ "Dutschke arrested in ricin case". WTVA. April 27, 2013. Archived from the original on May 6, 2013. Retrieved April 27, 2013.