-Caveat Lector-
Biological Weapons and America's Secret War
By Judith Miller, Stephen Engelberg, and William Broad
Simon & Schuster
Pub. Date: October 2, 2001
Price: $27.00
ISBN: 0-684-87158-0
Book Reports on Secret U.S. Biological Weapons Research
Tue Sep 4 20:39:00 2001 GMT
NEW YORK, Sept. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Today's New York Times reported that
U.S. germ warfare research pushes the limits of a 1972 global treaty that
forbids nations from developing or acquiring weapons that spread deadly
germs and disease. This never before reported information is included in a
new comprehensive book on bio terrorism entitled:
GERMS:
Biological Weapons and America's Secret War by Judith Miller, Stephen
Engelberg and William Broad (Simon & Schuster).
In the past decade, the government has quietly concluded that the United
States is all but defenseless against the rising threat of attack with germ
weapons. The stunning advances in biotechnology, the increasing audacity of
global terrorists, and fears that rogue scientists are hawking their skills
to the highest bidders have thrown America on the defensive. Miller,
Engelberg and Broad reveal the existence of secret, government-funded
research that in recent years has taken the United States to the limits, if
not beyond, what is allowed by the global treaty banning germ arms.
Drawing on hundreds of interviews with scientists, intelligence officers,
and senior government officials as well as declassified documents, GERMS
takes readers into a hidden world in which the "bio-defenders," as they
call themselves, are struggling to fend off weapons capable of igniting
global epidemics. The authors trace a half century of failed attempts to
contain the danger, notably the international treaty that was blatantly
violated by Moscow, Baghdad and others.
Among the revelations chronicled in GERMS are:
* Secret U.S. experiments in which scientists replicated a Soviet-designed
biological bomb, built a working germ factory and began to genetically
engineer a new form of anthrax -- a superbug that might defeat America's
only vaccine against the disease.
* How gloomy warnings from a Nobel Laureate and the spine-tingling plot of
a best-selling novel helped persuade President Clinton to embark on a
multi-billion dollar program of civil defense to protect Americans that
many critics see as wasteful and uncoordinated.
* Previously undisclosed efforts by a handful of government officials to
penetrate the closed laboratories where Soviet germ warriors used the
wonders of gene splicing for evil, creating new, more lethal forms of
ancient killers like plague or smallpox.
* The panic as American military officers realized, on the eve of the Gulf
War, that decades of neglect of bio-defenses had left them vulnerable to
Iraq, a nation armed with enough germs to kill everyone on earth several
times over.
* Plans by the American military in the 1960's to attack Cuba with a
coctail of debilitating germs intended to sicken millions of
civilians and soldiers.
The authors tell the story through the eyes of the men and women who
esigned germ weapons and defenses. Readers meet an American scientist who
devoted his life to perfecting the mass production of hideous germs in the
decades before the United States renunciation of biological arms in 1969.
They follow the dogged efforts of a young Pentagon official as he traipses
across the former Soviet Union just ahead of Iranian recruiters offering
cash and other blandishments. And they are introduced to a former Soviet
germ warrior who worked on a new kind of weapon that could cause the human
body to destroy itself.
Written in a riveting, accessible style, GERMS offers a glimpse at the dark
side of the astounding advances in biotechnology that dominate he
headlines. The authors describe America's vulnerability to attack in
chilling detail. "If we as a nation believe that the germ threat is a
oax, we are spending too much money on it," they write. "But if the danger
is real, as we conclude it is, then the investment is much too haphazard
and defuse. We are woefully unprepared for a calamity that would be unlike
any this country has ever experienced."
About the Authors:
Judith Miller is a senior writer at The New York Times. Since joining the
paper in 1977 she has reported extensively from throughout the world
including the Middle East where she served as Cairo Bureau Chief. Her most
recent book is God Has 99 Names. She lives in New York City.
Stephen Engelberg is a senior investigative editor for The New York Times
whose projects include a series of articles on germ warfare and terrorism.
He lives in Pelham, NY. William Broad is a senior writer at The New York
Times and has twice shared the Pulitzer Prize with colleagues there. His
most recent book is The Universe Below. He lives in Larchmont, NY.
For further information about GERMS, or to arrange an interview with Judith
Miller, Stephen Engelberg, or William Broad, please contact Aileen Boyle at
212-698-7277 or [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT
FROM THE DESK OF:
*Michael Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends
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