ABSTRACT
The concept of terrorism using microorganisms exploded into public awareness in 2001 with the episode of the anthrax spore-bearing letters in the United States shortly after the destruction of the World Trade Center in New York City on September 11. However, the concept of biological warfare actually is very old. It has a long history in North America. After small pox-infected blankets had been distributed to one Indian tribe, it is said that in July 1763, Sir Jeffrey Amherst, the British commander in the American colonies, suggested in reference to an uprising among the Pontiac that, “could it not be contrived to send the small pox among those disaffected tribes of Indians.” In 1781, the British general Alexander Leslie wrote up plans to use small pox against supporters of General Washington during the revolution by sending infected African Americans down the Potomac to infect the rebel plantations.
