You could easily do that with a few kilos of the anthrax sent to Daschle. Which do you think is the more likely threat?
I'm a radiologist involved in disaster planning for my local hospitals. I recently spoke to an FBI agent specializing in weapons of mass destruction. They are worried sick about the "dirty bomb." He thinks this is much more likely than a smallpox epidemic or true nuclear detonation.
Have you heard of the Goiania incident? About 100 grams of cesium-137, an amount you could hold in the palm of one hand, were accidentally released from a medical device in a Brazilian scrapyard in 1987. This resulted in 4 deaths and 30 people hospitalized with acute radiation sickness. Many city blocks were contaminated and 70 homes were torn down.
The Chechens allied with Bin Laden are known to have more than 150 pounds of cesium-137. It is commonly found in hospitals and nuclear waste depots all over the world.
Sweet dreams...
-ccm