Re: Fear of Flying -- from HotWired

[frantz@netcom.com (Bill Frantz)]

At  1:16 PM 9/12/96 -0500, Declan McCullagh quoted:
>... former CIA director James Woolsey: responded with some seemingly 
>   gratuitous anti-Net
>   rhetoric. Terrorists may use biological weapons like anthrax, he said.
>   "Anthrax is colorless, odorless, and has a 90 percent lethality. One
>   gram has 100 million lethal doses." Then Woolsey delivered the zinger:
>   "The knowledge of how to make anthrax is widely available, including
>   on the Internet."

Gee, biotech has come a long way.  Now I can download the Anthrax DNA
sequence from the net and insert it in some carrier bacteria and start
making Anthrax bacteria.  Neat!

Or did he mean I can chemically synthesize Anthrax toxin?  Or did he mean I
can get information on culturing bacteria on the net, but must obtain a
sample of the bacteria from other sources?

BTW - My dictionary says that Anthrax is primarily an animal disease which
only occasionally infects humans.  It sounds like a poor choice for bio-war
terror.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bill Frantz       | "Lone Star" - My personal  | Periwinkle -- Consulting
(408)356-8506     |  choice for best movie of  | 16345 Englewood Ave.
frantz@netcom.com |  1996                      | Los Gatos, CA 95032, USA