The Bioterror Pipeline: Big Pharma, Patent Expirations, and New Challenges to Global Security

Some even suggest that, based on open intelligence and the relative ease of access to dual-use biological pathogens and equipment, al-Qaeda may have advanced further in this field than in the nuclear realm.5 For instance, upon searching the evacuated terrorist camps after the invasion of Afghanistan, U.S. forces discovered al-Qaeda's 5,000-page "Encyclopaedia of Jihad," which included precise instructions for manufacturing biological weapons.6 Mohammed Atta, one of the September 11 hijackers, attempted to purchase a crop-dusting aircraft that could have been used for biological weapons dissemination.7 And Ahmed Ressam, the so-called "Millennium Bomber" who intended to blow up Los Angeles International Airport, testified that al-Qaeda was experimenting with deadly chemicals and poisons.8 For years, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) tracked al-Qaeda's fascination with weapons of mass destruction. Writing in 2007, former CIA Director George Tenet observed that Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaeda leaders saw the Aum attack as a model for achieving al-Qaeda's own ambitions.9 And testifying before Congress in March 2010, FBI Director Robert Mueller told lawmakers that al-Qaeda remains committed to its goal of conducting attacks inside the United States, and that al-Qaeda's continued efforts to access chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear material pose a serious threat to the [country].