www.IranPolicy.org
Biography
An intelligence professional for over 25 years, Ms. Lopez began her career as an operations officer for the CIA, serving in postings around the world. Since 2000, Ms. Lopez has worked as a strategic policy and intelligence analyst in the defense contractor sector of the WDC metro area, with a focus on Middle East, WMD and counterterrorism issues. She engages widely in speaking, teaching and writing on a range of issues related to U.S. national security and the Middle East.
Ms. Lopez received her M.A. in International Relations from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University and holds a B.A. in Communications and French from Notre Dame College of Ohio. She serves as the Executive Director of the Iran Policy Committee, is a Visiting Researcher and occasional guest lecturer at Georgetown University.
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Session SP15: WMD - Chemical & Biological Weapons
February 18, 15:00 - 15:45
Biowarfare Intel
Abstract:
The nexus between rogue states, terrorist organizations, and modern technology remains the major concern for United States national security. The threat that al-Qa’eda or another such radical Islamist organization may acquire a Nuclear, Biological, or Chemical Weapons capability must be taken seriously in an era when regimes and individuals from North Korea to Iran to A Q Khan consistently flout international regulatory frameworks, and are aided and abetted by a global network of commercial firms for which profit is the only consideration. Increasingly, intelligence and security services are seeing, too, the opportunistic involvement of organized crime (including narcotraffickers) in this deadly mix.
While nuclear weapons concerns rightly grab a large share of the headlines these days, in many ways, the risk of a biological or chemical weapon attack against a potential myriad of soft targets throughout the world is actually greater. Understanding the enemy and the enemy’s capabilities, motives and intent, past history, and current targeting efforts is critical to preparing our defenses and countermeasures to stop such an attack and to mitigate the consequences if one should occur.
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