Those who study the region agree that the Islamic State’s
potential access to chemical weapons would achieve one of the fundamental goals
of a terrorist group.
“The strength of chemical and biological weapons is the fear
factor,” says Ben Connable, an intelligence analyst with the RAND Corporation
and a retired Marine Corps intelligence officer. “That’s what really separates
them apart from other munitions: There’s something inherently terrifying about
chemical and biological and radiological weapons.”
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“The reason they’re able to take territory to begin with is
they have at least some support among local populations,” says Geneive Abdo, a
Middle East scholar and fellow at the Stimson Center and Brookings Institution.
“What’s going to crush — if they’re ever crushed — the Islamic State is a
lack of support.”
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