Following the annihilation of Raccoon City, Umbrella was hit hard with multiple lawsuits for their involvement in the incident. But there was an organization that was hit even harder by the fallout of that incident: the Global Pharmaceutical Consortium, an organization comprised of pharmaceutical companies from around the world.
Umbrella's development of and experimentation with Bio-Organic Weapons (B.O.W.), along with the sale of those weapons on the black market, caused people to distrust the Global Pharmaceutical Consortium, and the fact the Umbrella was an executive board member only deepened their misgivings.
If things had ended there, the consortium may have just escaped with a tarnished reputation. But in today's world, medicine is an integral part of almost all medical procedures. The public is also quite informed when it comes to which medications are trusted and which are not. If the population loses trust in the pharmaceutical company responsible for creating certain medications, it can quickly bankrupt said company.
The Umbrella trials took a turn for the worse for the consortium when prosecutors presented evidence that incriminated many other pharmaceutical companies.
Prosecutors showed that Umbrella acquired medicines and techniques developed by other companies and employed them in their own bioweapons research. They commissioned each of the respective companies to only partially develop certain medications so that they could not be traced to what was ultimately being developed. The responsible companies thus unwittingly contributed to the development of bioweapons.
Until this development in the case, the consortium looked at the lawsuits as Umbrella's problem. Now the problem was thrust into their laps as well.
The companies that were linked to Umbrella faced the possibility of sharing blame for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent people, and if Umbrella lost the lawsuits, they would face bankruptcy as well. Even if Umbrella was found not guilty of any wrongdoing, the negative publicity would not only be disastrous for sales, but the governments of the world would revoke the companies' permits to sell their products.
Not having permission to distribute their products worldwide would effectively dismantle their businesses.
The pharmaceutical companies realized they had no choice but to take drastic measures to counter their dismal prospects.
The consortium decided to strike a deal with the prosecutors. They would put all their efforts into assisting with the case against Umbrella, even to the point of turning over any internal company documentation. The prosecutors in the case, being obsessed with seeing Umbrella fall, agreed to accept the help of the consortium's companies, and in return they would not pursue legal action against them.
In 2003, Umbrella was found guilty on all charges. With its fall, the scandal that rocked the pharmaceutical industry to its core could finally be put to rest.
But Umbrella's dismantlement led to an unforeseen situation.
In the fallout of Umbrella's collapse, B.O.W.s began to show up on the black market. The weapons wound up in the hands of terrorists, guerrilla fighters, and unstable state governments. Soon the threat of these B.O.W.s began to be felt around the world.
Faced with a new Umbrella-like crisis, the Global Pharmaceutical Consortium knew they would have to take immediate action.
It was then that the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance (BSAA) was formed to fight threats from B.O.W.s.
Upon its initial foundation, only eleven elite individuals were made part of the BSAA. Their job was limited to that of observers to armies and police units around the world that conducted counter-bioterrorism operations. Unfortunately, the world's bioterrorism problem was much bigger than anyone had anticipated, and so a new course of action was required to handle the problem.
To that end, consideration was given to creating a team that could react instantly to threats, but the BSAA was still only a civilian-led organization. They could not operate freely in sovereign nations, and thus were unable to conduct investigations, make pertinent arrests, or even use force when the situation dictated it. It was clear now that the threat of bioterrorism was now the entire world's problem, and something would have to be done.
The BSAA was then reformed under the U.N.'s jurisdiction.
As a U.N.-controlled special forces team, the BSAA's acceptance by the U.N.'s member states was taken as a given.
The truth of the matter was that only 70 percent of the member states would approve of BSAA activities on their soil, and the remainder of the states would only approve BSAA activities in their countries on a conditional basis.
That is how the current incarnation of the BSAA was formed.
The BSAA's headquarters was located in England, but any further details of the location were not released to the public. Since a BSAA team had to be able to be deployed within 12 hours, it was assumed that they were located near an airport hub or an air force base. Some sources claimed that the BSAA had bases in the area under their jurisdiction.
The following is a list of areas under the jurisdiction of their respective BSAA branches.
European Headquarters: Europe and western Russia
Middle East Branch: The Middle East and part of Africa
North American Branch: The entire North American continent (Chris Redfield is stationed here)
South American Branch: The entire South American continent
West African Branch: The western part of the African continent (Sheva Alomar is stationed here)
East African Branch: The eastern part of the African continent
Far East Branch: Eastern Russia and the countries east of India
Oceanian Branch: Australia is the center of operations for Oceania
(Antarctica, where Umbrella's Antarctic Base was located, falls under the jurisdiction of the Oceanian Branch.)
Each BSAA branch had a considerable number of people on their tactical teams, most of them coming from police special forces and militaries around the world.
The support staff for the teams was also quite large, and they came mainly from government organizations in different countries. There were many groups of experts on the staff that provided technical, medical, physical, and mental support to the teams.
The BSAA deployment teams were divided into two groups.
The first group was the Special Operations Unit (SOU). The SOU were sanctioned to infiltrate an area, engage in combat, and subdue offenders. Teams were usually comprised of 12 members, and each team was divided into three four-man cells.
A special feature of the SOU is the flexibility of its personnel during operations. In order to match the scale of an operation, cells from other teams are brought in on a regular basis. For one specific joint operation, there were 70 elite members working together.
Dan DeChant is currently the leader of Alpha Team for this operation. The team is comprised of his own standard team along with cells from other teams. (The designation Alpha Team will only be used for this operation.)
Reports indicate that because unknown B.O.W.s are involved, the efficacy of the tactical team's methods for handling them may be low, and consideration has to be given to the strong points that raise their efficacy.
Another key part of the BSAA is the Special Operations Agent (SOA). Usually they are referred to as just "agents", and unlike the SOU, agents work alone. The agents are primarily involved in investigations and espionage activities, and as such, they are considered the eyes and ears of the BSAA. During certain operations, it may become difficult for tactical teams to penetrate to the front, so it is up to the agents to carry out the missions.
During those types of missions, a two-man cell is the basic deployment unit required to carry out the mission.
Sometimes agents must go beyond the jurisdiction of a BSAA branch to carry out their missions. Many of them are dispatched to areas with unlawful activities. This mission sees agent Chris Redfield in that role.
Agents who work alone are highly capable, and they rank higher than SOU members; however, agents are not chosen so much for their abilities or technical prowess, but for the psychological state and aptitude in handling situations. In actual skills and abilities, they may be outperformed by SOU members.
The BSAA is a public organization with an international staff, but owing to the logistics of running such an organization, it is a well-known fact that most of their funding comes from the Global Pharmaceutical Consortium.
While this relationship has been the target of much criticism, the consortium's funding removes the financial burden from participatory nations, and as such, any motivation to change the situation and incur unwanted expenses. As for the consortium, their sponsorship acts as a much needed industry-wide PR service. So far this partnership has been beneficial to all parties involved.
On a final note, the eleven members who were part of the BSAA from the beginning are highly respected within the organization, and are known as the Original Eleven. The name comes from the Original Seven, who were the seven astronauts selected for Project Mercury.
One of these Original Eleven is Chris Redfield. A number of other members of the Original Eleven also work alongside many of the tactical teams.
