[rightinthemiddle]

City, at least.

I don't have the info, but I remember an analysis of what the Sarin from one shell would do in Manhattan if it was released...20,000 casualties???

I wish I could remember where I saw it.

[Robert A Cook PE]

Actually, even if it were Sarin, it isn't easy to kill lots of people ...

Best would be aerosol (little droplets) on a calm day, spread by an airplane over an OPEN or EXPOSED crowd. A marathon or 6k run or baseball or football stadium -> someplace where the droplets actually fall on the people.

If the nerve gas doesn't actually touch the skin, or the skin doesn't touch the fallen droplets (handrail, seat, bus grab strap, etc.) before they get washed off, it is much harder to kill people.

So the theoretical (scare people) numbers are for ideal distribution on a nekkid crowd in a windless day with no rain or medical help.

Kind of like the one gram of Pu239 will kill ten million people numbers. Not realistic. It's a real threat, but when the Japanese terrorists released nerve gas into a crowded subway train during rush hour, it didn't kill everybody in the car.

[The 9 11 Generation]

Let's not hype up the amount of damage that one sarin shell could do... 20,000 casualties in Manhattan resulting from one sarin canister is certainly an overblown figure.

However, if released in an enclosed area like a subway system (which we know that Al Qaeda was planning on doing) sarin could plausibly kill tens or even hundreds, while resulting in thousands of casualties and quite a bit of panic.

Either way, it cannot be denied that sarin and mustard are deadly chemical munitions, and this proves (once and for all?) that Saddam Hussein had, in fact, maintained at least parts of his WMD programs, and was still in possession of at least some chemical weaponry.