Leaders at the top of al Qaeda’s hierarchy, the evidence shows, completed plans and obtained the materials required to manufacture two biological toxins – botulinum and salmonella – and the chemical poison cyanide. Barton Gellman Read Quote
The gravest risks from al Qaeda combine its affinity for big targets and its announced desire for weapons of mass destruction. Barton Gellman Read Quote
Among all the upheavals of war with al Qaeda, the surest indicator of the historic stakes is the ongoing rotation of top U.S. government managers – scores at a time – into a bunker deep underground and far from Washington. Barton Gellman Read Quote
In the field of biological weapons, there is almost no prospect of detecting a pathogen until it has been used in an attack. Barton Gellman Read Quote
Governors normally have jurisdiction over public health emergencies, but a widespread biological attack would cross state boundaries. Barton Gellman Read Quote
First developed as a weapon by the U.S. Army, VX is an oily, odorless and tasteless liquid that kills on contact with the skin or when inhaled in aerosol form. Like other nerve agents, it is treatable in the first minutes after exposure but otherwise leads swiftly to fatal convulsions and respiratory failure. Barton Gellman Read Quote
The United States, a signatory to the Chemical Weapons Convention, destroyed the last of its stocks of VX and other chemical agents on the Johnston Atoll, 825 miles southwest of Hawaii, in November 2000. Barton Gellman Read Quote
The U.N. Security Council ordered Iraq in April 1991 to relinquish all capabilities to make biological, chemical and nuclear weapons as well as long-range missiles. Barton Gellman Read Quote
During the morning rush hour on March 20, 1995, the Japanese cult Aum Shinrikyo placed packages on five subway trains converging on Tokyo’s central station. When punctured, the packages spread vaporized Sarin through the subway cars and then into the stations as the trains pulled in. Barton Gellman Read Quote
Smallpox, which spreads by respiration and kills roughly one in three of those infected, took hundreds of millions of lives during a recorded history dating to Pharaonic Egypt. The last case was in 1978, and the disease was declared eradicated on May 8, 1980. Barton Gellman Read Quote
