ABSTRACT

The issue of the potential terrorist use of biological weapons in the United States has swept the national security sector of official Washington since 1995. The catalyst for this process and a major influence on it was the discovery in 1995 that the Aum Shinrikyo group in Japan, which had produced Sarin and had used it to cause large-scale public injury, had also attempted to produce and disperse botulinum toxin and Bacillus anthracis.' The intervening four years have already witnessed the resultant establishment of major national-security policies in the United States, the planned expenditure of billions of dollars, and the involvement of a plethora of institutions and contractors. None of the elements of this process are likely to be reversible or to be reconsidered.