DTRA Chief: Al Qaeda, Iraqi WMD Work Validates New Weapons Research

By Adam J. Hebert / July 17, 2002 at 5:00 AM
Al Qaeda terrorists based in Afghanistan were assembling components to begin a biological weapons program and Iraq is assumed to have ongoing weapons of mass destruction programs, a senior Pentagon official said today. The Defense Department must therefore consider a wide range of weapons, including thermobaric bombs and the controversial low-yield Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator, to destroy or disable WMD facilities, Defense Threat Reduction Agency Director Stephen Younger said. Although the nascent al Qaeda bio-weapon program was "not in a...

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