"In the intervening seven years, biological weapons have killed zero people and been shown, somewhat empirically, not to be so easy to make after all. In any case, a great deal of the biodefense industry in the United States now works with very little oversight. Think of it as scientific welfare for those who often claim to be defending the country against a clear and present danger."
I can't emphasize enough just how important this is. This kind of anthrax weapon is definitely NOT easy to make. If it were, incidents like the anthrax mailings would be happening a lot more often than they are. But on the contrary, it hasn't happened again in nearly seven years now! That is concrete evidence of the difficulty involved in just one or two individuals trying to make the product.
I don't want to appear argumentative, but not everyone has the same definition of the word "easy."
The average person on the street might feel that if his mother can make anthrax powder in the back of a cab while going from 43rd Street to 54th Street in New York City in the middle of the night, then "It's easy."
An experienced microbiologist, however, might feel that if you have six years schooling in biology and microbiology, a couple years professional experience working with spores, plus the right starter bacteria and unrestricted access to all the right equipment, then "It's easy."
Also, it's "easy" to stab someone in the back with a knife, but fortunately for all of us, most people have better things to do and/or require a good motive.