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Author | Judith Miller, Stephen Engelberg, William J. Broad |
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Country | United States |
Language | English |
Subject | Biological warfare |
Genre | Nonfiction |
Publisher | Simon & Schuster |
Publication date | October 2, 2001 |
Media type | Hardcover |
Pages | 382 |
ISBN | 0-684-87158-0 |
OCLC | 47182085 |
358/.38/0973 21 | |
LC Class | UG447.8 .M54 2001 |
Germs: Biological Weapons and America's Secret War is a 2001 book written by New York Times journalists Judith Miller, Stephen Engelberg, and William Broad. [1] It describes how humanity has dealt with biological weapons, and the dangers of bioterrorism. It was the 2001 New York Times #1 Non-Fiction Bestseller the weeks of October 28 and November 4. [2]
Germs, is a work of investigative journalism employing biographical and historical narrative to provide context. [3] The three authors interviewed hundreds of scientists and senior U.S. officials, and reviewed recently declassified documents, and reports from the former Soviet Union's bioweapons laboratories.
"Germs were always what I call the Caboose of the weapons of mass destruction train." (Judith Miller, November 18, 2001)
The book opens with an account of the 1984 salmonella poisonings in The Dalles, Oregon, caused by followers of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh who sprayed salmonella onto salad bars. Other research shows how Moscow scientists created an untraceable germ that would induce the body to self-destruct, and reveals that the U.S. military planned for germ warfare on Cuba during the 1960s. [1] Three classified U.S. biodefense projects are detailed: Project Bacchus, Project Clear Vision, and Project Jefferson. [5] Germs concludes with an assessment of the United States' ability to deter future bio-attack. [6]
The New York Times Book Review was favorable, though it criticized the book's tone as "somewhat alarmist". [3] BusinessWeek was also generally favorable, except for pointing out some conflicting views on bioterrorism. [6] The Guardian's book review by British psychiatrist Simon Wessely, cautioned against panic, stating that biological weapons can cause destruction through fear, effectively giving the biodefense industry "the equivalent of a blank cheque". [7]
On November 13, 2001, the science TV series Nova aired an episode entitled Bioterror. Two years in the making, it chronicled Miller, Engelberg, and Broad's research and investigation into biological weapons. [8]
Biological warfare, also known as germ warfare, is the use of biological toxins or infectious agents such as bacteria, viruses, insects, and fungi with the intent to kill, harm or incapacitate humans, animals or plants as an act of war. Biological weapons are living organisms or replicating entities. Entomological (insect) warfare is a subtype of biological warfare.
Bioterrorism is terrorism involving the intentional release or dissemination of biological agents. These agents include bacteria, viruses, insects, fungi, and/or toxins, and may be in a naturally occurring or a human-modified form, in much the same way as in biological warfare. Further, modern agribusiness is vulnerable to anti-agricultural attacks by terrorists, and such attacks can seriously damage economy as well as consumer confidence. The latter destructive activity is called agrobioterrorism and is a subtype of agro-terrorism.
Biodefense refers to measures to restore biosecurity to a group of organisms who are, or may be, subject to biological threats or infectious diseases. Biodefense is frequently discussed in the context of biowar or bioterrorism, and is generally considered a military or emergency response term.
Judith Miller is an American journalist and commentator who covered Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) program both before and after the 2003 invasion, which was later discovered to have been based on inaccurate information from the intelligence community. She worked in The New York Times' Washington bureau before joining Fox News in 2008.
Richard Preston is a writer for The New Yorker and bestselling author who has written books about infectious disease, bioterrorism, redwoods and other subjects, as well as fiction.
Anthrax hoaxes involving the use of white powder or labels to falsely suggest the use of anthrax are frequently reported in the United States and globally. Hoaxes have increased following the 2001 anthrax attacks, after which no genuine anthrax attacks have occurred. The FBI and U.S. postal inspectors have responded to thousands of "white powder events" and targets have included government offices, US embassies, banks and news organizations.
Audrey Gillan is a British journalist and screenwriter.
William J. Broad is an American science journalist, author and a Senior Writer at The New York Times.
The Cobra Event is a 1998 thriller novel by Richard Preston describing an attempted bioterrorism attack on the United States. The perpetrator of the attack has genetically engineered a virus, called "Cobra", that fuses the incurable and highly contagious common cold with one of the world's most virulent diseases, smallpox. The disease that results from the virus, called brainpox in the novel, has symptoms that mimic those of Lesch–Nyhan syndrome and the common cold. The book is divided between descriptions of the virus and the government's attempt to stop the imminent threat posed by it.
Ma Anand Sheela is an Indian-Swiss woman who was the spokesperson of the Rajneesh movement. In 1986, she was convicted for attempted murder and assault for her role in the 1984 Rajneeshee bioterror attack.
Jeanne Harley Guillemin was an American medical anthropologist and author, who for 25 years taught at Boston College as a professor of Sociology and for over ten years was a senior fellow in the Security Studies Program at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She was an authority on biological weapons and published four books on the topic.
The United States biological weapons program officially began in spring 1943 on orders from U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt. Research continued following World War II as the U.S. built up a large stockpile of biological agents and weapons. Over the course of its 27-year history, the program weaponized and stockpiled the following seven bio-agents :
Project Clear Vision was a covert examination of Soviet-made biological bomblets conducted by the Battelle Memorial Institute under contract with the CIA. The legality of this project under the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) of 1972 is disputed.
Project Bacchus was a covert investigation by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency US Defense Department to determine whether it is possible to construct a bioweapons production facility with off-the-shelf equipment.
In 1984, 751 people suffered food poisoning in The Dalles, Oregon, United States, due to the deliberate contamination of salad bars at ten local restaurants with Salmonella. A group of prominent followers of Rajneesh led by Ma Anand Sheela had hoped to incapacitate the voting population of the city so that their own candidates would win the 1984 Wasco County elections. The incident was the first and is still the single largest bioterrorist attack in U.S. history.
Project Jefferson was a covert U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency program designed to determine if the current anthrax vaccine was effective against genetically modified bacteria. The program's legal status under the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) is disputed.
The Stepnogorsk Scientific and Technical Institute for Microbiology, also known as the Scientific Experimental and Production Base, was one of the premier biological warfare facilities operated by the Soviet Union. It was the only Biopreparat facility to be built outside of Russia proper, and one of the few ever visited officially by Western experts. As of 1998 the site conducted civilian biological research overseen by director Vladimir Bugreyev. At the time the United States Department of State and the U.S. Civilian Research & Development Foundation provided significant funds supporting civilian research at Stepnogorsk.
The United States Biological Defense Program—in recent years also called the National Biodefense Strategy—refers to the collective effort by all levels of government, along with private enterprise and other stakeholders, in the United States to carry out biodefense activities.
Rear Admiral Kenneth Bernard is an American public health physician and expert on biodefense and health security policy. He served at the George W. Bush White House from 2002-2005 as Special Assistant to the President for Biodefense and as Assistant Surgeon General.
Riley D. Housewright was an American microbiologist who conducted research on germ warfare. Having been assigned to the Fort Detrick laboratory in the mid-1940s and appointed scientific director in 1956, Housewright played a major role in the development of bioweapons for a proposed attack on Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis. In 1966, he was appointed president of the American Society for Microbiology. He left Fort Detrick in 1970 following President Nixon's moratorium on US bioweapons research, and later published several books on water safety for the National Academy of Sciences. In the 1980s, Housewright became executive director of the American Society for Microbiology. He died in Frederick, Maryland, in 2003.