vb
2009-02-24 16:49:03
JFM,
I suspect that the story about biologicals is one that was covered rather thoroughly by the International Herald Tribune. An American company that supplies bacterial strains to research institutes did send strain samples of anthrax to a lab in Iraq. I believe it occurred sometime in the late 90s. It was a standard order and it was not illegal at the time. Pasteur Institute send similar sample strains at the same time. There were just no flags. Known, characterized strains are essential for controlled reseach experiments. Furthermore, anthrax can be isolated from the soil, so if you aren’t interested in repeatable experiments but just want some nasty bugs, you can get them.
