In 1999, David Siegrist published one of the first articles that identified three prerequisites for a biological terrorist attack to occur: vulnerability, capability, and intent. He then concluded that while vulnerability and capability were already in place, the United States had yet to suffer a large-scale attack because no terrorist organization of that time would risk alienating its support base by resorting to such a devastating form of violence.
Now more than a half a decade later, a new form of terrorism has arisen. One in which the fear of losing a support base does not deter the intent to maximize the number of causalities. With this intent now present, it is important to revisit Siegrist’s criteria and demonstrate why the United States is at immediate risk of a bioterrorism attack.

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