This new concentration of population in and around mega-metropolises in geographically delimited areas has also given terrorism -- a major threat to civilized countries around the world -- easier targets. For federal and local governments, the very real threat of potential terrorist attacks on large urban centers is a nightmare many city, state and federal officials live with, plan for and hope they will never have to deal with the real thing.

In recent years, terrorists have struck in Algiers, Baghdad, Cairo, Delhi, Istanbul, Jakarta, Kabul, London, Madrid, New York and several other cities.

As Hayim Granot, a former researcher at the City University of New York, and Jay Levinson, a former CIA specialist on counter-terrorism and disaster-response issues, wrote in their newly released book "The Global Urban Threat," in recent years there have been more than 2,000 acts of terror against Americans at home and abroad.

As the authors point out, "The chance of urban terror striking the average citizen may objectively be remote, but the emotional impact of these incidents on our sense of security is profound."

The recent outbreak of swine flu, which began in Mexico and traveled as far as New Zealand in just more than 48 hours, illustrates how vulnerable the world community remains in the face of potential biological terrorist attacks.

Biological weapons are often called the poor man's weapon because of their low price when compared to other weapons of mass destruction.

As far back as 1969, the United Nations was already studying the threat of bioterrorism. Consider the following: A large-scale operation targeting a civilian population with the use of conventional weapons costs $2,000 per square kilometer; $800 with nerve gas and the unbelievably low price of $1 with biological agents. Admittedly, the cost may have risen with inflation in 40 years, but nevertheless, you see the striking price differential.

In addition to the low price when compared to chemical or particularly nuclear weapons, biological weapons such as anthrax, for example, have a far greater kill capacity. A study conducted by the World Health Organization in 1970 showed that a hypothetical dissemination by aircraft of 50 kilograms of anthrax along a 2-kilometer line upwind of a population center of 500,000 would kill 95,000 and incapacitate 125,000.

The question is if and when such an attack does take place, would we be ready for it?

In October 2000 Anthony Zinni, retired U.S. Marine general and former commander in chief of U.S. Central Command, told the Senate Armed Services Committee, "We will eventually see a weapon of mass destruction used in a terrorist act. And I would say we had better start thinking about how we're going to be prepared for the threat because we're woefully unprepared for that event, and that's inevitable."

Dr. Faith Fitzgerald, a professor of medicine and associate dean at the University of California-Davis School of Medicine, listed 23 viruses that could be used to wage biological warfare. Of these, she said, smallpox and the 1918 influenza virus were most likely for harm.

Several nations produce and stockpile biological (and chemical) agents, as do so-called rogue nations. When U.S. forces entered Afghanistan they found evidence that al-Qaida was experimenting with chemical and biological agents.

The advantage for terrorists trying to use bio-weapons is that there is no need for expensive or sophisticated delivery mechanisms. Bio-agents can be delivered through aerosol or garden sprayers, and in some instances the only delivery mechanism needed can be something as banal as a dishrag contaminated with the proper bio-agents.

Furthermore, biological agents can spread far more than chemical and/or nuclear, both of which are limited to a defined geographic area.

Several years ago the outbreak of West Nile virus in the United States attracted the attention of several federal agencies, including the CIA, the FBI and others. The virus, which first appeared in parts of New York City, found its way in very little time as far north as Vermont and as far south as the Carolinas. Strains of the West Nile virus had been found in Egypt, Israel and Iraq. Scientists who were familiar with the case admitted there was no sure way to prove whether the virus migrated naturally from these places or was humanly introduced as part of a terrorist operation directed against the United States.

And finally, unlike nuclear and chemical agents that leave "signatures" allowing forensic scientists to trace the weapons back to their perpetrators, biological weapons make it hard to determine if the cause is intentional or natural.

(Claude Salhani is editor of the Middle East Times.)

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