Oh, it's Jerry Kreps who knows how to make the Devil's brew (no disrepect to Jerry intended). Here is his posting:
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>>>The worst, and easiest to sneak into the country, are the biological weapons. As a former biochemistry teacher I know how, for example, to create a 5 gallon mash of Clostridium Botulini, and from it extract 100 miligrams of botulin toxin, enough to kill 100,000 people. If I know that they know that. All we are talking about now is delivery.
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>>I was perfectly serious about the possibility of delivering the botulin toxin by air via model airplane. Some kind of container slung beneath the plane with a remote control activation. A few passes over Wash, DC at about 1000 feet. I'm guessing that shooting down the plane would help but not a whole lot.

100mb of toxin wouldn't distribute very far by that method. Without getting into details the physics of distribution is more complicated than one would think. A few years ago extremists in Japan attempted to disburse a quart of poorly made Sarin nerve agent by having the door of a subway burst the plastic bag it was in. Only 12 people were killed and a couple dozen injured. As far as botulin toxin is concerned, merely dumping 100mg into the city water reservour would probably only kill organisms with nervous systems, and the resulting contaminated shoreline would alert health officials to the problem.

>Aside to Jerry: I get the impression that this stuff if relatively easy to culture. Do you have to purchase a starter kit of Clostridium Botulini or can you find it in nature? It is possible to "wipe out their ability to manufacture the stuff"?

It is, as long as certain conditions are met. Such pathogens cannot be obtained without possession of a biological hazerds permit, to avoid making things easy for terrorists. This wouldn't stop a rogue professor, though. Ever step on a nail? Why to you think they want you to get a tetnus shot? Because C. Botulini can be easily isolated from natural sources, and the culture media obtainable from the grocery store, it is not possible to 'wipe out their ability to manufacture the stuff".

jlk