Officially known as the "Convention on the Prohibition of Development, Production, and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and Destruction." The BWC works toward general and complete disarmament, including the prohibition and elimination of all types of weapons of mass destruction.

The official political party in Iraq until the U.S. debaathified Iraq in May 2003, after a war which lasted a little over a month. Saddam Hussein, the former ruler of the Baath party, was targeted by American-led coalition forces and fled. Baath party members have been officially banned from participating in any new government in Iraq.

rocket-powered guided delivery instrument for use against ground targets. Due to the fact that that they are difficult to deter, these missiles are the optimal delivery systems for weapons of mass destruction. A large part of its flight is a freefall (or ballistic) trajectory.

For nearly a month in October, 2002, the Washington D.C., Maryland, and Virginia area was the hunting grounds for 41-year old John Allen Muhammad and 17-year old Lee Boyd Malvo. Dubbed "the Beltway Sniper" by the media, they shot people at seemingly random places such as schools, restaurants, gas stations, and malls.

bin Laden, Osama

(Also spelled "Usama")

A native of Saudi Arabia, was born the 17th of 24 sons of Saudi Arabian builderMohammed bin Oud bin Laden, a Yemeni immigrant. Early in his career, he helped the mujahedeen fight the Soviet Union by recruiting Arabs and building facilities. He hates the U.S. and apparently this is because he views the U.S. as having desecrated holy ground in Saudi Arabia with their presence during the first Gulf War. Expelled from Saudi Arabia in 1991, and from Sudan in 1996, he operated terrorist training camps in Afghanistan. His global network al Qaeda is credited with the attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, the attack on the USS Cole in 2000, and numerous other terrorist attacks.

Collective term for use of both chemical warfare and biological warfare weapons.

Terrorism using as weapons biological or chemical agents.

Ammunition designed specifically to release a biological agent used as the warhead for biological weapons. Biological ammunition may take many forms, such as a missile warhead or bomb.

The deliberate release of germs or other biological substances that cause illness.

Officially known as the "Convention on the Prohibition of Development, Production, and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and Destruction." The BWC works toward general and complete disarmament, including the prohibition and elimination of all types of weapons of mass destruction.

The use of biological agents in a terrorist operation. Biological toxin would include anthrax, ricin, botulism, the plague, smallpox, and tularemia.

The use of biological agents to cause harm to targeted people either directly, by bringing the people into contact with the agents or indirectly, by infecting other animals and plants, which would in turn cause harm to the people.

Agents which cause pain and incapacitation instead of death and might be used to injury many people at once, thereby overloading medical facilities and causing fear in the population. Mustard gas is the best known blister agent.

Agents based on cyanide compounds. More likely to be used for assassination than for terrorism.

The botulinum toxin is exceedingly lethal and quite simple to produce. It takes just a small amount of the toxin to destroy the central nervous system. Botulism may be contracted by the ingestion of contaminated food or through breaks or cuts in the skin. Food supply contamination or aerosol dissemination of the botulinum toxin are the two ways most likely to be used by terrorists.