The proliferation of chemical and biological weapons is the greatest threat the world faces today. Far easier to make than nuclear bombs, their effects are scarcely less devastating. And many of the world’s most dangerous regimes – Iraq, Iran, Syria, Libya and North Korea – either possess them, or are trying to get hold of them. In the hands of terrorists, they could kill thousands, or even millions.Updated in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, this classic account of the history of chemical and biological warfare, by two of Britain’s leading journalists, spans almost a century of horror, from the mustard gas of the First World War to the germ weapons built up by Saddam Hussein.