Apples and oranges. A Nation can develop just about anything. Even backward, totalitarian regimes like North Korea can do it. A terrorist group in caves without the shield of government....not so easy.
Please do not underestimate the complexities involved in home growing these types of weapons. If those jokers had acquired a nuke, or a canister of VX, they would have used it.
No government, not even one that hates us like Iran, would provide advanced weaponry to a terrorist organization. The US would track it back to and hold responsible any government that would do so. Our boomers can reach almost any point on the planet.
These guys are desperately trying to generate headlines. Their attempts are being thwarted at every turn, and for the most part their command structure is completely compromised. Only an out-of-left-field actor has gotten through, and after that, things are going to get a lot harder for them.
That said, I think that we will see more attempts to attack the US, and it is a horrible possibility that one might succeed. But I do not let the practically impossible possibilities worry me. Much easier to stuff explosives up ones butt than assemble a working nuclear device when you have a 4th grade education.
Where have you been? A Pakistani developed (or stole depending on your source) nuclear bomb plans. They have the bomb and lots of nutcases who might take over one day. North Korea has the technology and the bomb. Iran has the bomb underway and may have prototypes for testing within the year.
While I may agree that nations might well be more careful wth their WMDs & bombs than to sell or give them to terrorists, that is using the rational linear thought process of the West and not that of some fanatic that thinks he is the reincarnation of the 13th Caliph.
Of course it is easier to “stuff explosives up one’s butt” and they have no shortage of guys willing to do that in the short term.
However, the availability of short term measures doesn’t mean that more serious WMD options aren’t simultaneously being pursued. It’s a dangerously chauvinistic to assume that backward countries can’t have some Western trained scientists that are capable of producing biologicals.
Anthrax spores aren’t all that bulky and could be transported in similar fashion.