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Becoming a biological terrorist may not be as hard as many people think. Sure, it’s not exactly a wise career move (Most terrorist organizations neither have dental nor retirement plans), but if you have a liking for hours of research, dedicated experimenting, playing god, wanton violence, organized and indiscriminate murder, that sort of thing, do give Sadam Hussein a ring and schedule an interview.Hiding a nuclear weapons program is difficult and downright messy. How many uses of Uranium-235 are there? However, hiding a makeshift lap is child’s play. Within an hour, the lab can be cleared of anything suspicious and if nosy neighbors ask why you have a large vat in your backyard, you can tell them that you’re making beer.
Even mass production of pathogens can be done on a small scale. A small vial of microorganisms can yield a huge number in less than a week. For some diseases, such as Anthrax.
Even inhaling a few thousand bacteria--which would cover an area smaller than the period at the end of this sentence, can be fatal.Anthrax can be grown to mass quantities within 4 days and the level of expertise needed to carry out such an operation is also much lower when compared to the level of expertise required for making a nuclear bomb.
A lot of the techniques, procedures and shortcuts can be found in any good biology textbook (I have yet to see a Bio Terrorism for Dummies book, though). These factors came to light when the French Police raided a suspected "safe house" for German Red Army fugitives and found in the bathroom cultures of Bacillus anthracis growing in huge jugs. Only with BW do we need to consider how easy it is to possess, but how hard it is to control.
Nowadays, experts aren’t asking if a biological attack will happen, but when. Perhaps we should buy invest in companies producing gas masks, no?