Bruce B. Auster and Linda Fasulo

About the author: Bruce B. Auster is a journalist for U.S. News & World Report. Linda Fasulo is an NBC news correspondent to the United Nations.

Despite the efforts of UN inspectors in the wake of the Gulf War, Iraq maintains chemical and biological weapon delivery systems (mainly missiles and launchers) and stockpiles of chemicals yet unaccounted for. Because biological agents are inexpensive to create, the threat of Iraq quickly rebuilding its chemical and biological arsenal is real and immediate.

Not for nothing are biological weapons called the poor man's nuclear bomb. An anthrax culture costs $45. To begin producing the organisms requires a 5-gallon fermenter, the sort used to brew beer at home. Cost: $50. Inhaling just 10,000 spores of anthrax—an amount the size of a...