Have terrorists been actively seeking chemical and biological weapons capabilities? If so, what have they been doing with them?
Media reports that a handful of terrorist organizations have been exploring chemical and biological weapons are accurate, including the terrorist organization Al Qaeda. The terrorist group headed by Usama bin Laden may well have acquired a rudimentary chemical weapons capability, but that does not automatically translate into an ability to conduct a mass casualty attack with a chemical warfare agent. When all is said and done, there are no guarantees that terrorists groups may not overcome the technical hurdles involved. However, for the reasons discussed below, the technical hurdles to actually developing an effective large-scale chemical or biological weapons program—as opposed to investigating or experimenting with them—may well turn out to be so sizeable that terrorists would choose to remain reliant on more conventional means of attack.
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