As Saddam Hussein has figured out, bio-weapons are the poor guy's atomic bomb. The World Health Organization estimates that a single anthrax attack could kill 95,000 and incapacitate 125,000. Although bio-weapons can be tricky, since you don't want to kill your own troops, it doesn't require too much sophistication to make a crude one. While not optimistic, experts do say it's worth the effort.
Scientists pride themselves on being able to share information and resources, share samples.
The basic control framework is the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention , which has been signed by 157 states, including the United States, the Soviet Union, and Iraq, and went into effect in 1975. The treaty bans stockpiling and using biological weapons. It also prohibits offensive research but permits defensive research. After concluding that the weapons were so dangerous as to be useless, the United States decided to destroy all its biological weapons in 1969, even before the treaty was signed. The key problem with the biological weapons convention is the lack of teeth.