The threat of bioweapons being used by terrorists or rogue states has continued to worsen, Bob Graham and Jim Talent, respectively chairman and vice chairman of the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism, warned at the House Committee on Homeland Security hearing this week on the WMD Prevention and Preparedness Act of 2010.

“While progress had been made in many areas, the overall assessment for biological threats was not good,” Graham and Talent said of the Commission’s latest findings. “We found that the government simply had not paid consistent and urgent attention to the means of responding quickly and effectively so that bioweapons no longer constitute a threat of mass destruction.”

Graham and Talent stressed that “the failures did not begin with the current group of leaders. Each of the last three administrations has been slow to recognize and respond to the biothreat. The difference is that the danger has grown to the point that we no longer have the luxury of a slow learning curve. The clock is ticking, and time is running out.”

The Commission concluded its work as a congressionally mandated organization as of February 26, 2010, but continues to monitor progress on the Commission’s recommendations in the newly formed WMD Center, a bipartisan, not-for-profit research and education organization.

“The Commission’s Report assessed both nuclear and biological threats, and provided 13 recommendations and 49 action items,” Graham and Talent told lawmakers this week, adding “the Commissioners unanimously concluded that unless we act urgently and decisively, it was more likely than not that terrorists would attack a major city somewhere in the world with a weapon of mass destruction by 2013.”

“Furthermore, we determined that terrorists are more likely to obtain and use a biological weapon than a nuclear weapon,” Graham and Talent stressed in their joint statement. “Shortly thereafter, this conclusion was publicly affirmed by then Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Mike McConnell.”

“There are several reasons for our conclusion that a bioattack is actually more likely than a nuclear attack,” Graham and Talent said. “Many pathogens suitable for use in a biological attack are found in the natural environment, all over the globe. The lethality of an effectively dispersed biological weapon could rival or exceed that of an improvised nuclear device. The equipment required to produce a large quantity from a small seed stock, and then ‘weaponize’ the material – that is, to make it into a form that could be effectively dispersed – is of a dual-use nature and readily available on the internet. The most effective delivery methods are well known in the pharmaceutical, agricultural, and insect-control industries. It is much more straightforward to stockpile weaponized pathogens than nuclear material, raising the terrible specter that terrorists could attack an American city using a bioweapon, then quickly ‘reload’ and attack again within a matter of days or weeks.”

WMD counterterrorism officials HSToday.us has talked to [ see the January Homeland Security Today report, “The WMD Connection”] pretty much agree with the Commission’s findings. In fact, some have expressed concern that Al Qaeda and associated movements’ could obtain biological materials to make a bioweapon through their ties to transnational criminal organizations, which could serve not only as a conduit for both the acquisition of materials for a weapon, but also delivery through one of these groups vast smuggling operations.