The Nonproliferation Review

Assessing the threat of terrorism involving chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear (CBRN) materials, often referred to as "weapons of mass destruction" or "WMD,"[1] remains difficult despite extensive literature bases in terrorism studies and WMD studies. In the absence of sufficient empirical data and analysis, policymakers and analysts often make projections based on assumptions about the increasing spread of WMD-related technology and know-how, and the vulnerability of modern society to WMD attack. However, the threat also depends on the desire of sub-national actors to use WMD-related materials, but the motivations underlying sub-national interest in WMD remain poorly understood.

Database Description

In an effort to bridge this gap, staff members at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) at the Monterey Institute of International Studies in Monterey, California, under the auspices of the Chemical and Biological Weapons Nonproliferation Project, directed by Dr. Jonathan B. Tucker, in 1997 began compiling a Database of Worldwide Incidents 1900-Present Involving Sub-National Actors and Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Materials (hereafter, the Monterey WMD Terrorism Database). Chemical agents, such as cyanide and the nerve agent sarin, harm humans, animals, or plants by means of the agents' toxic effects, as opposed to harm by burning or explosion. Biological agents are disease-causing microorganisms including viruses and bacteria, as well as toxins, such as botulinum toxin and ricin, which are produced by living organisms. Radiological agents, such as cesium-137 and cobalt-60, include materials that are radioactive but that are not capable of sustaining a nuclear chain reaction. Finally, nuclear materials, such as uranium-235 and plutonium, can serve as raw materials in the construction of a nuclear-yield device.

The Monterey WMD Terrorism Database began with 129 incidents that had been gleaned from a study by RAND of international terrorism and an unclassified study on chemical and biological weapons (CBW) terrorism by Ron Purver of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.[2] Since that time, by using an extensive but exclusively open-source collection system focused on capturing news reports from the Internet, CNS staff members have added over 550 incidents. Using a lengthy search string based on specific WMD agents and materials, staff members gather articles of potential interest; approximately 200,000 articles were collected in 1999. Once an incident has been "flagged," more specific research is conducted in an effort to identify and retrieve all available open-source material on the incident.

Each incident is summarized in terms of several categories following standardized coding criteria, supplemented by discussions among staff to resolve ambiguous cases as clearly and consistently as possible. The first category is the incident's Location. Campaigns throughout the world to acquire WMD, as in the case of Osama bin Laden, are classified as worldwide. Efforts to acquire WMD by a specific group are assigned to that group's base location, whereas use and possession of materials are assigned to the place where the agent was used or discovered. The second category is Motivation: incidents are either politically/ideologically motivated, in that the incident occurred for reasons associated with a political, social, or religious ideology, or criminally motivated, in that the incident occurred for reasons not associated with such ideologies. Two other standardized categories are Group Type, i.e., nationalist-separatist or single issue, and Delivery System.

Finally, incidents are also classified according to type of event. Use of Agent means that WMD material was actually used in the incident. Threat with Possession means that while use was only threatened, there is evidence that the perpetrator had the material, making the threat credible. Possession means that the perpetrator had the material, but did not use or threaten to use it. In such a case, there may or may not be evidence that the perpetrators intended to use the material. Attempted Acquisition means that the perpetrators tried, or in some cases tried and succeeded, to acquire the material but were either interdicted or were otherwise unable to acquire the material. Plot means that the perpetrator considered, planned to use, or threatened to use WMD material. Hoax means that although use was threatened, the threat was not credible, or an "empty threat."

For security reasons, access to the Monterey WMD Terrorism Database is restricted to law enforcement agencies and other qualifying entities, including certain international organizations and government agencies. In this report, we present an overview and abridged summary of data from the database in an effort to expand and deepen the publicly available information for making threat assessments of WMD terrorism.

We hope that policymakers, analysts, and academics will benefit from the publication of summary information from the database in several ways.[3] First, the standardized categories in the database can be analyzed over time, in the aggregate, and in relation to one another. This type of analysis can be used to focus on one particular category, such as a given group or group type, and to look at the frequency of incidents and level of interest in WMD by that particular group or group type. That information could then be cross-referenced to delivery system and geography to show regional distributions by group type and delivery-system technology. Second, analyzing the incidents by standardized category allows the identification of relationships and influences among groups, regions, and ideologies. For example, say that a particular group is involved in a WMD incident. Do other groups learn or mimic this behavior? How is interest in WMD affected? Finally, having empirical data over time creates a basis for identifying key threshold incidents, that is, incidents that may be indicative of new trends in WMD terrorism, such as the 1995 Tokyo subway sarin attack by Aum Shinrikyo. This event stands out as significantly different from other events. In contrast, interest in botulinum toxin, although also threatening, is not a new phenomenon; indeed, there has been interest in botulinum toxin for use as a weapon for at least 85 years.

Analysis of 1999 Incidents

Overall General Numbers

The Monterey WMD Terrorism Database includes 175 entries for 1999, of which 104 occurred in the United States. The total number for the year is important because as of 23 February 2000, the database contained 687 incidents since 1900. Therefore, the 175 incidents that occurred in 1999 represent over 25 percent of the total. This can be attributed to two causes. First, it is undeniable that reporting and thus the collection of incidents have improved considerably since 1900. The compilation of incidents is undoubtedly more complete for the 1980s, for example, than it is for the 1960s. However, this compilation most accurately reflects incidents reported in the media since 1990, given the relative ease of electronic information collection on events since 1990. Even with this caveat, the findings reported here are significant. Over one quarter of the incidents recorded in the database occurred in a single year, 1999. Of the 494 incidents that occurred 1990 to 1999, 35 percent occurred in 1999. This is largely the result of the second cause: the high number of anthrax hoaxes that were perpetrated in the United States. Of the 104 incidents that occurred in the United States in 1999, 81 involved anthrax threats. This wave of anthrax hoaxes began in October 1998 and continues today, although incidents have declined.

Geographical Distribution

The geographical distribution of these 175 incidents is also noteworthy. Of the 175 incidents, 104 or 59 percent occurred in the United States. By way of comparison, the region with the next highest number of incidents was Asia with just 21, and then Europe with 15 in 1999. Even without the anthrax threats, the United States would have had more incidents than any other region in the world. This strongly suggests that the fear of WMD terrorism and the publicity associated with each incident within the United States have strengthened the likelihood of more incidents, and that it is therefore in the United States that the threat is most pressing. Indeed, there has been since 1995 an unprecedented focus on the threat of WMD terrorism by senior US policymakers and elected officials. However, the accessibility of US data to CNS staff because of the vast number of local-level US news sources on the Internet, may also partially explain the predominance of US incidents.

However, the type of incident that occurred in each region would appear partially to contradict the conclusion that the threat is most pressing in the United States. The overwhelming trend in the United States was one of hoaxes. These are disruptive and often demand a full emergency response, but they are unlikely to result in casualties. In contrast, 13 of 21 incidents in Asia involved the use of an agent. This could suggest that whereas incidents in the United States were intended to threaten, disrupt, or intimidate, most incidents in Asia were intended to injure. This applies to a lesser extent in other regions: in Europe, five of 15 incidents involved the use of an agent, in the Middle East it was two of 11; Latin America three of seven; and Sub-Saharan Africa one of four. Even so, it was in the United States that there were the most uses of an agent: 15 incidents in 1999. This seems likely to be a consequence of the greater number of incidents, of all types, that occurred in the United States compared to other regions.

Types of Agents Involved

The types of agents that were used in each incident is significant. Apart from the anthrax cases in the United States, the next most common agent was tear gas, of which there were 27 incidents in 1999, spread fairly evenly across the world. It is notable that apart from the US anthrax incidents, there were only 14 cases worldwide involving biological agents, about a fifth of the number that involved chemical agents. Most of the agents employed were low-end non-warfare or household agents, raising questions such as: whether their use was a product of opportunism; whether it was intended to set the perpetrators apart from other groups by using a non-conventional weapon; and whether such incidents are truly significant as indicators of the likelihood of WMD terrorism. Of the agents that were used in incidents, tear gas accounted for 20 of the 39 events. The next highest was "poison," used in three attacks, and then several agents, including cyanide, were used in two attacks. By contrast, tear gas was involved in just one hoax, compared to 82 such incidents involving anthrax. Apart from the hoaxes, there was a single incident involving anthrax: an attempted acquisition. Similarly, there were relatively few incidents of any type that involved other high-end sophisticated agents such as ricin (one threat with possession) or sarin (two hoaxes).

Motivations for Incidents

Looking at motivation type, ideological motivations accounted for about half of all incidents, approximately the same as criminally motivated incidents. When incidents are broken down by region or by event type, incidents generally remain split about half and half between ideological and criminal motivations. Although this seems to suggest that perpetrators without a link to an ideology are equally likely to be interested in WMD material, it may be that the media are more likely to report WMD incidents that are linked in some way to an ideology, which would imply that criminal motivations are actually predominant

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, 1999 saw an apparent continued division between the United States and the rest of the world in numbers and types of incident and in agents used in such incidents. Also, both criminally and ideologically motivated actors appeared equally interested in WMD materials. The trends discussed for 1999 are broadly consistent with the general findings from the database for all years. Analysis from the database, as a whole, reveals at least four significant findings. First, unknown perpetrators were responsible for more incidents recorded in the database (48.7 percent), than any other type of actor. In 1999, the number of incidents with unidentified perpetrators was 91 (52 percent), many of them involving anthrax hoaxes. Most incidents where the perpetrator was known involved lone actors. There were 43 such incidents in 1999, 51 percent of all incidents perpetrated by known actors. The figure was 48.5 percent for the database as a whole. Possibly as a result of this, the majority of incidents in the database (60 percent) were low-end incidents. In 1999, low-end incidents dominated to an even greater degree, propelled by the wave of anthrax hoaxes. Hoaxes alone accounted for 56.5 percent of incidents in 1999, and low-end incidents were 75 percent of all types of incident. Moreover, throughout the database, most uses of an agent (87.3 percent) involved ones that would be considered low-end or household agents. As was noted earlier, the majority of uses of an agent in 1999 involved tear gas. Although this cannot be considered a household agent, it is certainly at the low end of the scale compared to anthrax, ricin, or sarin. After tear gas, most uses in 1999 involved a non-specific "poison," followed by cyanide. None of these should be perceived as high-end agents, so although 1999 was an exceptional year for hoaxes, it was a more standard year for the types of agents being used in attacks. The data for 1999 do not suggest a significant trend among sub-national actors towards using WMD materials to cause mass casualties.

[1] In order to be consistent with the most commonly used terminology, this chronology uses the term WMD to refer to all chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear materials, even though few of the incidents discussed here involved mass destruction or mass casualties.

[2] The RAND-St. Andrews Terrorism Chronology: Chemical/Biological Incidents 1968-1995, University of St. Andrews, Scotland, 1997; Ron Purver, Chemical and Biological Terrorism: The Threat According to the Open Literature (Ottawa, Canada: Canadian Security Intelligence Service, 1995).

[3] For an example of how this trend data can be used analytically, see Jonathan B. Tucker and Amy Sands, "An unlikely threat," The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 55 (July/August 1999).

Incidents in 1999

Throughout 1999

Agent: biological weapons
Type of Event: attempted acquisition
Summary: Throughout 1999, Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida were reported to have attempted to acquire biological weapons in laboratories in Sudan and Afghanistan.

Agent: nuclear device
Type of Event: attempted acquisition
Summary: Throughout 1999, it was reported that Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida were engaged in a comprehensive plan to acquire nuclear weapons. The first such report surfaced in October 1998.

Agent: chemical weapons
Type of Event: attempted acquisition
Summary: Throughout 1999, Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida were reported to have been engaged in attempts to develop chemical weapons at laboratories in Sudan and elsewhere. Some reports alleged that bin Laden did indeed acquire chemical weapons.

Agent: HIV
Type of Event: use
Summary: In 1999, in Nakhon Nayok, Muang district, China, the 34-year-old widow of a policeman who had died of AIDS went on a rampage, trying to infect 20 policemen from the Muang police station and several politicians with HIV.

Agent: chemical and biological weapons
Type of Event: plot
Summary: US security forces allegedly warned their Israeli counterparts that Christian millenarian groups could use biological weapons for an attack in Israel during 2000. Such groups have supposedly been purchasing poisons and bacteria from a variety of sources and have been seeking scientists and engineers to help in the development of "a doomsday weapon."

Agent: sarin
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: In the first half of 1999, a man robbed a bank in the Chicago, Illinois, area with a bomb that he claimed contained sarin.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: In 1999, a high school in Mentor, Ohio, received a letter threatening exposure to anthrax.

Agent: tear gas
Type of Event: possession
Summary: During the summer, police in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, arrested 20 gang members on charges of illegal weapons, hash possession, and car theft. The gang members, most of whom came from the countries of former Yugoslavia, had access to a variety of weapons, including tear gas.

January

Agent: poison
Type of Event: use
Summary: Nine children and three adults were hospitalized during the last week of January after eating poisoned sweets that someone had intentionally scattered over a five-square-mile area in Congzhou, Sichuan province, China.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: A store in Victorville, California, was evacuated for two hours after an anthrax threat was made in a call to a 911 dispatcher on 2 January.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: At around 1 p.m. on 3 January, an unidentified caller telephoned a medical center in Ocala, Florida, claiming anthrax had been released in the emergency room.

Agent: cyanide
Type of Event: possession
Summary: On 4 January, a pistol containing ammunition with cyanide-laced bullets was reportedly found near the cells of commanders of the National Liberation Army (ELN) or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia (FARC), being held in the Itagui, Colombia, jail.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 4 January, a high school in Anaheim, California, received an anthrax threat.

Agent: HIV
Type of Event: threat with possession
Summary: On 6 January, an unmasked assailant robbed a currency exchange office in Zadar, Croatia, using a syringe allegedly containing HIV.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: At approximately 7 a.m. on 11 January, a threat of anthrax exposure was made against a car dealership located on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles, California.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: At 3 p.m. on 13 January, an unidentified individual telephoned the City Hall switchboard in Tualatin, Oregon, claiming that anthrax was in the building.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 14 January, an employee of a retail store in Cathedral City, California, received a telephone call threatening the release of anthrax.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 15 January, the United States Attorney's office in Buffalo, New York, received a letter containing a threat of anthrax exposure.

Agent: poison
Type of Event: use
Summary: According to the mainland Chinese periodical Xian Gongan Shenghuo Bao, on 17 January, authorities arrested two suspects for the poisoning of 17 people, resulting in four deaths, in Ziyang county, China.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: At 4:00 p.m. on 19 January, an anonymous caller telephoned a restaurant in Palm Desert, California, claiming that the restaurant had been contaminated with anthrax.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 20 January, a high school student in Elma, New York, reportedly perpetrated an anthrax hoax that resulted in the quarantine of around 700 students for nearly 10 hours because he wanted the day off.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: An anonymous phone call threatening anthrax, placed to the central switchboard of the West Seneca, New York, Town Hall on 21 January, resulted in the building's closure for the lunch hour.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: A 22 January Buffalo News report stated that Niagara County, New York, sheriff's deputies arrested two high school students and charged them with falsely reporting an anthrax incident to a high school principal.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 22 January, employees at a food market in East Aurora, New York, found a letter in the rear entrance threatening anthrax exposure.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 24 January, authorities arrested Christopher J. McCoy and charged him with telephoning four anthrax threats over a three-day period, 21-23 January, to a hospital in Sierra Madre, California,

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: At around 6 a.m. on 25 January, an individual telephoned a company in Alden, New York, claiming that anthrax was in the office building.

Agent: unknown
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 27 January, an anonymous phone call was placed to the commercial department of Coca-Cola Beverages Slovakia informing them that Cola-Cola beverages would be poisoned if an extortion fee were not paid.

February

Agent: radiological
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: In February, Chechen leader Salman Raduyev warned Russia that Chechens would attack Russian government targets with radiological materials unless two Chechen prisoners were released.

Agent: attack against biological facility
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: In February, Chechen leader Salman Raduyev warned Russia that Chechens would attack Russian biological facilities unless two Chechen prisoners were released.

Agent: cyanide
Type of Event: plot
Summary: In February 1999, information surfaced indicating that the Revolutionary Army Forces of Colombia (FARC) plotted to kill three hostages in Colombia using cyanide.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: Two 14-year-old boys confessed to phoning in a 2 February anthrax threat to a high school in Lackawanna, New York.

Agent: unknown
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 3 February, UK police identified convicted murderer Michael Sams as the perpetrator of several consumer-tampering extortion threats against supermarkets.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: A letter purporting to contain anthrax was received on 3 February, at The Washington Post offices in Washington, DC.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: The local NBC news offices in Atlanta, Georgia, received a letter containing an anthrax threat at 11:40 a.m. on 4 February.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: Three boys were arrested on 5 February and charged with aggravated harassment and falsely reporting an anthrax incident the day before in Cattaraugas County, New York.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: A letter purporting to contain anthrax was opened on 4 February, at the Old Executive Office Building in Washington, DC.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: A post office in Columbus, Georgia, received a letter on 4 February addressed to the postal service containing the message, "You have now been exposed to anthrax."

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 5 February, the principal's office at a middle school in Douglasville, Georgia, received a letter claiming to contain anthrax.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 5 February, a school in East Aurora, New York, was closed following the discovery of an anthrax threat written on the front door.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: An abortion clinic near Elkins, West Virginia, received an anthrax threat the week of 8 February.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 9 February, a letter threatening anthrax exposure was opened in the US State Department building in Washington, DC, at around 11 a.m.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: According to the Gwinnett County Police Department, a county resident located near Snellville, Georgia, received a telephone call at 3:30 a.m. on 10 February threatening that an anthrax bomb was in his mailbox.

Agent: cyanide
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 10 February, a retail company in Taiwan received a letter claiming that the 2,000 stores on the island would be under the threat of cyanide product contamination during the Chinese lunar new year unless a NT $21 million sum was paid to the extortionists.

Agent: tear gas
Type of Event: use
Summary: Police and Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) officials were searching for the identity of a man who walked through a MARTA car on 11 February, at the Oakland City station in Oakland City, Georgia. The man may have been contaminated with an irritant such as tear gas. Twenty-one people were treated for injuries.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 12 February, an employee in the mailroom of The Los Angeles Times newspaper office in Los Angeles, California, found and opened a letter containing a small amount of gray powder purported to be anthrax along with a note stating, "If you open this letter, you will be exposed to anthrax."

Agent: tear gas
Type of Event: possession
Summary: On 13 February, in Aalborg, Denmark, leftist Danish demonstrators protesting a neo-Nazi organization were found in possession of approximately 30 gasoline bombs and an undisclosed number of tear gas canisters stored in two apartments.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: During the week of 14 February, an abortion clinic in Asheville, North Carolina, received a package with a threatening note attached, causing the employees to suspect anthrax.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 16 February, a letter threatening to use anthrax to kill US and British citizens living in Yemen was faxed to the London, United Kingdom, office of an Arabic newspaper.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 17 February, an agency of anti-abortion activist Reverend Ralph Ovadal in Monroe, Wisconsin, received by mail a suspicious letter that contained a white powder.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 18 February, a women's health organization in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was the site of an anthrax threat through a letter.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 18 February, a Cincinnati, Ohio, abortion clinic received a letter containing a threat of anthrax exposure and an unidentified powder.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 18 February, a clinic in Rapid City, South Dakota, was shut down at about 12:30 p.m. due to an anthrax threat in a package received through the mail.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 18 February, a clinic in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, was shut down at about 2:00 p.m. due to an anthrax threat in a package received through the mail.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 18 February, an abortion clinic in Washington, DC, received a package with a label on the outside warning that the package contained anthrax.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 18 February, a medical center in Charleston, West Virginia, received an anthrax threat in a letter.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 18 February, a clinic in Manchester, New Hampshire, received and opened an envelope around 11:45 a.m. containing a threat of anthrax exposure and a brown or white powder.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 18 February, a healthcare provider's headquarters in Burlington, Vermont, received an anthrax threat through the mail.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 18 February, a package allegedly containing anthrax was delivered to the loading dock of the US Court of Appeals in Atlanta, Georgia.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 19 February, an abortion clinic in Nashville, Tennessee, received a suspicious letter in a business-size envelope with a handwritten address and carrying no return address. As the letter was not opened, it is unclear from news reports if the letter truly contained a threat, since it was described as only containing a piece of paper.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 19 February, a Birmingham, Alabama, clinic, the site of a fatal 1998 bombing, received an envelope that appeared to be similar to letters sent to abortion clinics nationwide containing threats of anthrax exposure.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 19 February, the office of a clinic in Des Moines, Iowa, received a letter that, according to the attached message, had been "treated" with anthrax. A Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) spokesman stated that it contained a powdery substance.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 19 February, the Portland, Maine, office of a clinic received a suspicious letter bearing a Kentucky postmark and the return address of a lab not used by the clinic.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 19 February, a clinic in St. Paul, Minnesota, received a letter similar to those sent to other abortion clinics around the country claiming to contain anthrax.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 19 February, a clinic in Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a letter similar to those sent to other abortion clinics around the country claiming to contain anthrax.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 19 February, a clinic in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, received a suspicious envelope similar to envelopes used in an anthrax hoax at a planned parenthood clinic in Burlington, Vermont, on 18 February.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 20 February, a medical center in Cranston, Rhode Island, received an envelope with a Lexington, Kentucky, postmark, similar to anthrax threats received at other clinics.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: At around 1:20 p.m. on 22 February, the head of the New York, New York, National Organization for Women (NOW) office received an anthrax threat.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 22 February, a clinic in St. Louis, Missouri, received a letter threatening anthrax contamination.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 22 February, the administrative office of a family planning organization in Sandy Springs, Georgia, received a suspicious letter with "PAACO" shown as the return address. This clinic was bombed in January 1997, allegedly by Eric Rudolph.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: At about 8:15 a.m. on 22 February, a dental office adjacent to a clinic in Spokane, Washington, received a Christmas card, postmarked in Lexington, Kentucky, showing a brown stain, but no clear threat of anthrax. The secretary who opened the letter did not read the card after seeing that it contained a "powder."

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 22 February, a clinic in Wood County, West Virginia, received a letter containing an anthrax threat.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 22 February, a letter containing a threat of anthrax exposure was found at a Newark, Delaware, clinic.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 22 February, an anthrax threat was reported by the Motor Vehicle and Licensing Division Administrator and Commander of Hawaii Army National Guard 29th Infantry Brigade, in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 22 February, a center in Washington, DC, received an anthrax threat similar to those received at abortion clinics since October 1998.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 22 February, a clinic in Kansas City, Missouri, received a letter with a Louisville, Kentucky, postmark containing a stained piece of paper warning of anthrax exposure, a powdery substance, and a hand-drawn skull and crossbones.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 23 February, a letter possibly threatening anthrax contamination was received at a clinic in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 23 February, an internist based in Honolulu, Hawaii, received an anthrax threat, postmarked in Kentucky.

Agent: tear gas
Type of Event: use
Summary: On 23 February, a bus traveling in Tel Aviv, Israel, was sprayed with tear gas by an unknown assailant. One passenger who had difficulty breathing was taken to a hospital, and six others with only light exposure to the tear gas refused medical attention.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 23 February, a letter that contained an anthrax threat arrived at a women's center in New York, New York.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: At 8:30 a.m. on 23 February, an abortion clinic in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, received a letter containing an anthrax threat.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 24 February, at a car wash in Spring Hill, Florida, a gallon milk jug was found with the words "Anthrax Saline" written in black marker on the side.

Agent: unidentified chemical
Type of Event: use
Summary: On 24 February, a woman at Orlando International Airport sprayed two security officers with an unknown chemical to escape a search by the guards, before fleeing.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 26 February, at a clinic in Boise, Idaho, a worker opened a plain white envelope containing a note stating that the opener of the letter had just been exposed to anthrax.

March

Agent: nuclear weapons
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: In March, Vladimir Mikhaylin and Oleg Tikhonov, from Kaluga, Russia, sent threatening letters via the Internet to approximately 20 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, and Israel, threatening nuclear strikes against these states.

Agent: chloropicrin
Type of Event: possession
Summary: On 3 March, Moscow officials arrested Warrant Officer Vladimir Karpov, of the Russian Civil Defense Ministry, for attempting to sell almost 100 liters of what was believed to be chloropicrin.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 3 March, in a church mailroom building in Salt Lake City, Utah, a package was discovered containing a note stating that the opener of the letter had just been exposed to anthrax.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: According to the city manager of Lumberton, North Carolina, an anonymous phone call on 4 March reported that anthrax had been released in a city clinic.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 5 March, a letter containing an anthrax threat arrived at the office of a Baptist organization in Nashville, Tennessee.

Agent: nitric acid
Type of Event: use
Summary: On 8 March, 148 persons were poisoned by nitric acid placed in the food of a restaurant in Luoyang City, China. The perpetrators hoped to damage the business of the restaurant.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 12 March, a staff member at a high school in Hamburg, New York, found a note on the floor of one of the classrooms stating that anthrax would be released by the end of classes that day.

Agent: unknown
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 15 March, employees at a Chicago, Illinois, clinic discovered what they believed to be a suspicious package. Though there was no confirmation available to suggest that the package threatened anthrax exposure, the assumption by clinic personnel and police was that it was indeed an anthrax threat.

Agent: radiological agent
Type of Event: possession
Summary: By 18 March, Fu'ad `Abduh al-Shuwayri and Butrus Michael Najim had been arrested by Lebanese security agents on charges of attempting to sell six kilograms of uranium.

Agent: poison
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 18 March, a rumor that the city's water supply in Istanbul, Turkey, had been contaminated with an unknown poison reached the media.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 20 March, a Spring Hill, Florida, resident found a milk jug with the word "anthrax" written on it in thick black marker.

Agent: HIV
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 21 March, Manuel Basulto and Miguel Quevedo were arrested for mugging people on the streets in Havana, Cuba. The suspects allegedly threatened to expose their victims to HIV by cutting themselves.

Agent: tear gas
Type of Event: possession
Summary: On 23 March, police in Brussels, Belgium, confiscated tear gas canisters belonging to French far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen's bodyguard. The canisters were stored in a vehicle and were intended for Le Pen's protection in Belgium.

Agent: anthrax, Ebola virus
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 26 March, a man placed two plastic vials labeled "anthrax" and "Ebola" on a ticket counter at Pittsburgh International Airport, Pennsylvania. The vials were a practical joke from one of the man's colleagues.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 26 March, a jogger in Spring Hill, Florida, found a plastic milk jug with the word "anthrax" written on it in pen.

April

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 16 April, a note bearing an anthrax threat was handed to a faculty member of a high school in Chautauqua County, New York.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: A computer-generated note was discovered in the parking lot of the courthouse in Biloxi, Mississippi, on 19 April. The note, found by a sheriff's deputy in a bag of crumpled napkins, alleged that anthrax had been spread throughout the building's ventilation system.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 19 April, an envelope containing an anthrax threat arrived at the Blackfeet Tribal Office in Browning, Montana.

May

Agent: chemical weapons
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: The Kashmiri militant group, Hizbul Mujahiden, claimed that their fighters in Kargil and Drass possessed chemical weapons and napalm bomb-like devices. They threatened to use them against Indian troops if India used napalm bombs against the militants.

Agent: unknown chemical weapons
Type of Event: plot
Summary: On 9 November 1999, the Middle East Newsline reported that members of Hamas, the Islamic Resistance Movement, had planned to attack Israeli targets with chemical weapons in May.

Agent: cyanide
Type of Event: attempted acquisition
Summary: On 12 May, Masanobu Okamura, was arrested for the attempted sale of 450 grams of potassium cyanide in Nishiyodogawa-ku, Osaka, Japan.

Agent: tear gas
Type of Event: possession
Summary: On 12 May in the Gauteng Province of South Africa, police issued arrest warrants for four men suspected of possession of unlicensed firearms, including two detonators, 10 tear gas canisters, six automatic rifles, and 62 handguns.

Agent: butyric acid
Type of Event: use
Summary: On 13 May, the German foreign minister, Joschka Fischer, was hit in the face with butyric acid by a protester in Bielefeld, Germany. The attack occurred at a congress of Fischer's Green Party to discuss the Party's continued support of NATO air strikes on Yugoslavia.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 15 May, a public library, in Nashville, Tennessee, received an anthrax threat.

Agent: tear gas
Type of Event: use
Summary: On 17 May, a white military policeman sprayed a black colleague with tear gas in Pietersburg, South Africa.

Agent: tear gas
Type of Event: use
Summary: On 18 May, seven police officers were sprayed with tear gas in a pinball parlor in Kashihara, Nara, Japan.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 22 May, a college located in Syracuse, New York, received a letter containing an anthrax threat.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 22 May, a high school located in Syracuse, New York, received a letter containing an anthrax threat.

June

Agent: nuclear facility
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: In June or July, Chechens threatened to attack a nuclear power plant and other nuclear facilities in Russia.

Agent: tear gas
Type of Event: possession
Summary: On 2 June, four teenagers were arrested in Barberton, South Africa, for allegedly having stolen weapons, including tear gas grenades, from a police substation in Emjindini.

Agent: tear gas
Type of Event: use
Summary: On 6 June, a self-proclaimed grand wizard of the Invisible Empire of Pennsylvania Ku Klux Klan received burns to his face and chest when a tear gas canister was thrown into the living room of his home in Walston, Pennsylvania.

Agent: tear gas
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 8 June, a suspicious brown paper bag was discovered by a patrol officer at an elementary school in Bergen County, New Jersey. It was found to hold tubes containing a clear liquid similar to tear gas.

Agent: weed killer
Type of Event: plot
Summary: On 10 and 11 June, three threatening letters were received by public figures in the United Kingdom. The letters demanded the withdrawal of British troops from Northern Ireland by 16 June. The author, Adam Busby, threatened to poison the United Kingdom's water supply with the herbicidal weed killer paraquat if the British government did not comply with his demand.

Agent: tear gas
Type of Event: use
Summary: On 10 June, a 15-year-old boy, armed with a knife and tear gas spray, held hostage a student at the National Defense Medical College, Tokorozawa, Japan, for five hours. The suspect, who called for the destruction of the Japanese Constitution, also sprayed another student with the tear gas.

Agent: unidentified chemical
Type of Event: plot
Summary: On 19 June, the newspaper Yidyout Ahranout reported that members of Hamas, the Islamic Opposition Movement, had plans to poison water supplies in Israel with "chemical substances."

Agent: unidentified chemical
Type of Event: use
Summary: On 19 June, an unidentified substance was deposited on a merry-go-round at a park in Indianapolis, Indiana. Eleven children and one adult required hospital treatment for chemical burns. Delin Swanigan was subsequently charged in connection with the incident.

Agent: tuberculosis bacilli
Type of Event: attempted acquisition
Summary: On 28 June, a physician reported that a vial of live tuberculosis bacilli that she had brought to a tuberculosis conference had been stolen in San Francisco, California.

July

Agent: fluorine
Type of Event: possession
Summary: On 5 July, police arrested Jesse Spurgin after finding six fluorine-based gas bombs hidden outside his Hastings, Nebraska, apartment. Roughly 40 small bottles of chemicals were removed from the apartment, and an Environmental Protection Agency member suggested that Spurgin had been attempting to produce mustard gas.

Agent: tear gas
Type of Event: use
Summary: A tear gas canister was set off in the middle of a gay pride parade in San Diego, California, on 24 July. About 15 people were treated at the scene and another three required hospital treatment.

Agent: caustic liquid
Type of Event: use
Summary: On 30 July, a man splashed an unidentified caustic liquid that injured five postal workers and two customers in a post office in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Agent: unknown
Type of Event: use
Summary: On 30 July, 20 mostly elderly members of a group called Tablig Jamaat became ill after eating contaminated food at a mosque in Chandpur, Bangladesh. Apparently, burglars tainted the members' food, causing the patrons to fall unconscious. The burglars then took the victims' money and valuables. Seventeen of the 20 did not fully regain consciousness until 6 p.m. on 31 July.

August

Agent: tear gas
Type of Event: use
Summary: On 6 August, the fans of the Paris Saint Germain soccer team tossed tear gas and other articles during a soccer match in Rennes, France.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 12 August, an Internet service company in Seattle, Washington, received an envelope containing a threatening letter and a white powder purported to be anthrax.

Agent: biological agent
Type of Event: use
Summary: On 17 August, a bag of medical waste bearing a taped-on newspaper picture of Buford O. Furrow and a swastika drawn in marker was found outside of a synagogue in Stamford, Connecticut.

Agent: tear gas
Type of Event: use
Summary: On 18 August, a soccer fan threw a canister of tear gas into the crowd at a soccer match between Yugoslavia and Croatia at the Red Star stadium in Belgrade, Yugoslavia.

Agent: biological agent
Type of Event: use
Summary: On 19 August, a container of medical waste was found by an employee in the parking lot outside of a synagogue in Norwalk, Connecticut.

Agent: tear gas
Type of Event: use
Summary: On 19 August, a tear gas grenade was thrown at the speakers' podium at a rally attended by 150,000 people in Belgrade, Yugoslavia.

Agent: phosphorous-32
Type of Event: use
Summary: On 19 August, 32-year-old former lab technician Andrew Andris Blakis was arrested and charged with assault with a deadly weapon and unlawful disposal of radioactive material, phosphorous-32, in Los Angeles, California.

Agent: Drano
Type of Event: use
Summary: On 20 August, a woman in Prince Frederick, Maryland, laced soda cans with Drano in an effort to poison co-workers at a mental institution because she felt the workers mistreated the patients at the facility.

Agent: HIV
Type of Event: threat with possession
Summary: On 22 and 23 August, a man held up three people at an automatic teller machine in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and threatened to stab them with a syringe filled with what he claimed was blood tainted with HIV.

Agent: uranium
Type of Event: possession
Summary: On 24 August, the French-language newspaper Cambodge Soir reported that Cambodian anti-drug police had arrested four Vietnamese nationals for attempting to smuggle uranium into the country.

Agent: tear gas
Type of Event: use
Summary: During the course of a post-soccer game riot on 25 August at Amman International Stadium in Amman, Jordan, a member of the Libyan national soccer team allegedly threw a canister of tear gas towards the opposing Palestinian soccer team's locker room.

Agent: nuclear components
Type of Event: possession
Summary: On 30 August, Shim'on Na'or, Ion Menciu, and Ivan Busuioc were arrested as the middlemen in an illegal operation to smuggle arms, explosives, and nuclear components to and through Romania to export-embargoed nations and possibly terrorist organizations.

September

Agent: tear gas
Type of Event: use
Summary: On 3 September, two men approached a woman walking home and sprayed tear gas in her eyes in the Goi district of Ichihara, Japan.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 13 September, a postal worker in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, opened a letter that claimed to contain anthrax. As a precaution, nine postal workers were decontaminated at a nearby hospital.

Agent: virus
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 17 September, Diazien Hossencofft, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, threatened to release a code for a virus to the Chinese government that "would kill the entire population except for a few people."

Agent: strontium
Type of Event: possession
Summary: During the week of 20 September, officials in Uzhgorod, Ukraine, confiscated two lead cylinders containing radioactive strontium (according to early reports) or strontium-90 (according to later reports) from a group of Russian and Ukrainian citizens during a routine passport check.

Agent: cyanide
Type of Event: use
Summary: On 23 September, police in the Anantnag district of South Kashmir, India, recovered 3 to 3.5 kilograms of cyanide powder from an abandoned house at Marwan in the city of Qazigund.

Agent: chemical agent
Type of Event: possession
Summary: On 27 September, the daily newspaper Jehad-e-Kashmir, of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (POK), reported that Islamic separatists in POK possess chemical weapons.

Agent: tear gas
Type of Event: use
Summary: On 28 September, emergency services responded to a reported fire in the basement of a house in Springfield, Massachusetts. One police officer and nine firefighters needed treatment after a tear gas grenade exploded in the basement. The owner of the house was a member of a military unit and kept tear gas for training purposes. The grenade was found and set off by one of the children who lived in the house.

Agent: nuclear facility
Type of Event: hoax/plot
Summary: On 30 September, Yoichi Clark Shimatsu, formerly an editor of the Japan Times Weekly and currently an investigative reporter, authored an article concerning the possible involvement of Aum Shinrikyo in a nuclear accident at Tokaimura, Japan, that occurred in September.

October

Agent: rat poison
Type of Event: threat with possession
Summary: In October, the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) mailed envelopes containing razor blades laced with rat poison to over 80 medical researchers working in the vivisection industry in Canada and the United States.

Agent: sarin
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: By 1 October, the mayor of Kunming, Yunnan, China, had received a threatening letter. The author of the letter threatened to release sarin at the World Horticulture Exposition that was held in Kunming on 1 October if the city did not pay him five million yuan.

Agent: tear gas
Type of Event: possession
Summary: On 11 October, thieves stole a large amount of tear gas from Taoyuan Air Force Base in Taiwan.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 12 October, a television office in Lexington, Kentucky, received a letter-size package containing an unknown substance and a letter that stated that whoever opened the letter had been exposed to anthrax.

Agent: biological
Type of Event: plot
Summary: On 17 October, Russian soldiers discovered, on the bodies of Chechens killed during fighting in Dagestan, plans to use biological weapons.

Agent: CS gas
Type of Event: threat with possession
Summary: On 17 October, police reported that members of Reclaim the Streets had purchased 34 containers of CS gas over a six-week period, for use at an anti-World Trade Organization (WTO) protest, scheduled for 30 November in London, United Kingdom.

Agent: cobra venom
Type of Event: possession
Summary: On 29 October, The Independent reported that police in Bangladesh had confiscated two shipments of cobra venom in Khaka and Tongi, Bangladesh.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 29 October, an employee at a bank in Concord, New Hampshire, opened an envelope containing an unidentified white powder.

November

Agent: tear gas
Type of Event: use
Summary: Twice during the week beginning 1 November, a woman used tear gas or pepper spray to rob women in supermarket parking lots in St. Petersburg, Florida. Neither of the victims required treatment.

Agent: rat poison
Type of Event: use
Summary: On 3 November, 48 people were poisoned as a result of eating contaminated meat rolls at a fast food restaurant in Deyang City, China. The meat rolls had been tainted with rat poison, which police believed was deposited in the rolls by an enemy of the restaurant's owner.

Agent: ricin
Type of Event: threat with possession
Summary: James Kenneth Gluck threatened to poison two Colorado judges using ricin. He was arrested on 5 November, and the raw materials for making ricin were seized from his Tampa, Florida, home.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 8 November, the administration building at a former uranium processing plant in Hamilton County, Ohio, had to be evacuated when an employee found a coffee cup with an attached note that read, "Anthrax sample. Do not touch." No anthrax was subsequently discovered.

Agent: tear gas
Type of Event: possession
Summary: On 11 November, materials including tear gas canisters were found in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin, house of Kenneth R. Allen, who died in a fire after dousing police officers with burning liquid when they attempted to execute a search warrant.

Agent: carbamite-based insecticide
Type of Event: use
Summary: On 12 November, 12 students at a high school in Hat Yai, Thailand, became ill after consuming instant noodles that were contaminated by a classmate with a carbamite-based insecticide.

Agent: tear gas
Type of Event: possession
Summary: Sid Ahmed Rezala was arrested and then released by French customs officials on a train at Pontarlier, France, on 13 November. He was searched and found to be carrying a knife, drugs, and a canister of tear gas.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 18 November, there was an anthrax threat at a high school in New York. The following day, police arrested a juvenile who was charged with falsely reporting the incident.

Agent: tear gas
Type of Event: use
Summary: On 29 November, two robbers sprayed tear gas in the eyes of a saleswoman and a security guard in a store on Avenue Montaigne in Paris, France.

Agent: tear gas
Type of Event: use
Summary: On 30 November, protestors at the World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting in Seattle, Washington, threw back at police officers tear gas canisters that had been used by the police against the protestors.

December

Agent: pepper spray
Type of Event: use
Summary: On 2 December, pepper spray was released in a high school in Overland Park, Kansas. Eleven students and one faculty member were treated in hospital. Two 17-year-old students were suspended as a result of the incident.

Agent: cyanide
Type of Event: possession
Summary: On 3 December, Kevin Ray Patterson was arrested in connection with a plot to blow up a 24-million-gallon propane storage facility in Elk Grove, California. Explosive materials and cyanide were found during a search of his house.

Agent: tear gas
Type of Event: use
Summary: On 12 December, members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) attacked a naval base and police station in Jurado, Colombia, with tear gas grenades and other weapons, completely destroying the police garrison.

Agent: gas bombs
Type of Event: use
Summary: On 13 December, rebels from the FARC used "gas bombs filled with shrapnel" to attack a police station in Piendamo, Colombia.

Agent: anthrax
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: On 13 December, a man phoned and claimed he had placed anthrax in a high school in Bedford, Indiana.

Agent: toxic gas
Type of Event: use
Summary: On 14 December, rebels from the FARC attacked the police headquarters in Cubara, Colombia, using "gasoline and toxic gas."

Agent: tear gas
Type of Event: use
Summary: On 14 December, it was alleged that an individual belonging to the National Movement for the Defense of Sovereignty (MONADESO) threw a canister of tear gas during a demonstration that occurred during the rehearsal for the Panama Canal transfer ceremony in Panama City, Panama.

Agent: chemical agent
Type of Event: use
Summary: On 17 December, the Manila Times claimed that rival groups vying for control of gold mining operations in Monkayo, Philippines, had used "poison gas very much like the chemical warfare employed by Saddam Hussein against his enemies in Iraq." The dispute began on 19 September .

Agent: cyanide
Type of Event: use
Summary: On 18 December, seven students at a law school in Springfield, Massachusetts, became ill after drinking water from a cooler that had been contaminated with potassium cyanide.

Agent: cyanide
Type of Event: possession
Summary: On 25 December, two members of the Mujahedin Khalq (MKO) were killed near Andimeshk, Iran. They, and a third man who was arrested, intended to attack military installations in Iran. All three were found to be carrying cyanide capsules.

Agent: poison
Type of Event: hoax
Summary: During the night of 31 December, individuals drove through the streets of Al Kosheh, Egypt, with a megaphone, warning that Christians had poisoned the village's tap water in an effort to kill Muslims. The event was part of an escalating dispute between Muslims and Coptic Christians in the village.

Agent: chemical agent
Type of Event: plot
Summary: On 31 December, Angolan Armed Forces (FAA) discovered a bunker filled with military equipment belonging to the rebel group UNITA in Andulo. Among the materiel recovered were gas masks and chemical warfare gloves and boots. Angolan government sources claimed that the find reinforced their belief that UNITA had used chemical weapons in the Calosinga region of the state.

Agent: chemical agent
Type of Event: plot
Summary: An FBI affidavit in January 2000 asserted that millennium night attacks planned by Al-Qaida against Westerners at holy sites in Jordan may have included plans to use unconventional gas bombs.