Have domestic terrorists used weapons of mass destruction?
Yes. In 1984, followers of the Indian-born guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh in Oregon tried to disrupt a local election by poisoning salad bars with salmonella bacteria. No one died, but 751 people became ill. And some experts speculate that the fall 2001 anthrax letters were sent by an American scientist. Domestic terrorists have become increasingly interested in obtaining weapons of mass destruction, experts say, and right-wing extremists have been prosecuted for possessing ricin, a biological toxin derived from the castor-bean plant. How dangerous is domestic terrorism? Its difficult to sayespecially since experts worry more about small groups than large ones. An estimated 10,000 to 100,000 people belong to right-wing militia groups, but their level of involvement varies, and the extremist core of this movement is smaller. Although experts think only a fraction of animal-rights and environmental activists would turn to terrorism, nobody knows how many autonomous cells of eco-terrorists t
