By the way folks, GREAT discussion on Talk of the Nation today on smallpox. Their guests were both well informed and polite to each other. One of the guests was the author of "Devil in the Freezer." (BTW, both thought that mass vaccination, as of now, was a bad idea, because we lose immunity so quickly.)

One of the most interesting points, in light of this discussion, was that if Iraq has been pursuing smallpox as a biological weapons, there's a commonly known and not very difficult avenue to developing a vaccine-resistant form. In 1995, Iraq admitted that prior to 1990 they had been developing a genetically ehanced bioweapon program. (Must like the US and Soviet programs). They stopped because they needed to spend their limited funds on research that would have quicker payoffs.

I personally doubt that Iraq has since aquired the resources to continue that research... question is, given that this vaccine-resistant smallpox is supposed to be fairly easy... did they complete it prior ending/redirecting/stalling bio research.

Food for thought.