An Iowan who is a former U-S State Department official says Iowa officials should launch a special commission to prepare for possible terrorist attacks here. Kenneth Quinn worked in the State Department for years, and when he was U-S Ambassador to Cambodia, his home was shelled by terrorists. While he was deputy Ambassador in the Philippines, terrorists attacked the U-S Embassy and killed ten people. He says terrorists have tried to destroy America’s economic strength for the last ten years. They started with attempts to counterfeit U-S currency.Now, Quinn lives in Des Moines and is president of the Iowa-based World Food Prize Foundation. He says Iowa’s farm community needs to prepare itself for a possible terrorist attack as the terrorists may try to strike at crops or livestock to try to disrupt the food supply.Quinn says experts don’t know what the terrorists plan next, but C-I-A officials believe Osama bin Laden has acquired chemical and biological weapons. He says that threat has to be considered real.Quinn made his comments during taping of Iowa Public Television’s “Iowa Press” program.
