51.   The issue is politically sensitive since some experts say producing large quantities could be seen as violating the global treaty banning germ weapons.

52.   The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, in central California, has perfected this process for the identification of anthrax and other pathogens that can be used in germ weapons.

53.   The officials and weapons experts said Tuesday that the bacteria finding suggested that somewhere, someone had access to the sort of germ weapons capable of inflicting huge casualties.

54.   The United States has signed treaties not to use chemical or germ weapons.

55.   The threat of germ weapons is a more remote danger, in part because no one is quite sure about their utility on the battlefield.

56.   Then evidence was acquired after the Persian Gulf War confirming that Iraq also had germ weapons, heightening fears over biological warfare.

57.   The United States began its military program to make germ weapons during World War II and over the decades developed many ways to spread many diseases.

58.   Thus it is possible that someone has obtained a germ weapon that can inflict enormous casualties.

59.   U.S. intelligence officials had suspected that Baghdad and Moscow were clandestinely producing germ weapons.

60.   True enough, and methods of detecting smuggled nuclear and germ weapons need refinement.