Germs: Biological Weapons and America's Secret War

I found Germs: Biological
Weapons and America's Secret War by William
Broad, Judith Miller, Stephen Engelberg a
fascinating and frightening account of the
dangers of disease caused by deliberate human action.

Let's get something out of the way first.

"Judith Miller" is such a common name that
you may not wonder why it sounds so familiar
to you.

Until recently a reporter for THE NEW YORK
TIMES, she has made a lot of news recently.

In a strange footnote to this book (which was
written and published before September 11),
she was one of the the targets of
the anthrax envelopes that followed September 11.

Thus, after writing about bio-terrorism, she
became an intended victim of the biggest so far
bioterror incident in United States history.

She apparently wrote various articles on
weapons of mass destruction in Iraq -- which
many think never existed, just because they
haven't yet been found.

(I have a different opinion but I'll get to
that later.)

But it is fair to keep that in mind when
reading this book's chapters on the Gulf
War and Iraq under Saddam.

Plus, she recently spent time in jail for
refusing to reveal an information source
for a story about Valerie Plame.

The book starts out describing an actual incidence
of bio-terrorism, although fortunately
it was on a small scale.

In 1984 followers of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh
spread salmonella on salad bars and in
salad dishes in 10 restaurants in Antelope
Oregon.

Salmonella is a bacteria that cause diarrhea,
chills, fever, stomach cramps and sometimes
vomiting.

It's normally not lethal but it can be
dangerous to the very young and old,
and the dehydration it causes through the
diarrhea is dangerous if not treated.

Fortunately, none of the 1000 or so known
cases died (a major highway goes through Antelope,
so it's possible that many victims just
suffered through what they thought was
food poisoning hundreds or thousands of
miles away from the investigation).

The Indian guru (many consider him a
cult leader) had moved his followers
from India to Oregon about 3 years
before. And they had clashed with
the good people of Antelope over various
issues. The followers of Rajneesh were
trying to make so many citizens of
Antelope so sick that they could not vote
in an upcoming election, so the guru's
candidates would take over the town board.

Next we meet Bill Patrick, one of the
main leaders of the United States germ war
research conducted at Fort Detrick, Maryland.

The book describes some of the bone-chilling
work those scientists did -- testing and
producing some of the most horrible
substances on the Earth.

I have to be glad of the treaty of 1972 that
bans this work. Yes, even though the Soviet
Union and probably other countries failed
to abide by the treaty.

Some people think this book has an agenda.
I think it's tries hard to be balanced.

There are points of view that the 1972 treaty
helped to prevent the spread of germ warfare.

There are points of view that it hindered
the United States from researching ways to
defend itself from germ warfare.

Perhaps it's my scientific ignorance, but I
don't see a strong connection between
knowing how to produce tons of super-anthrax
and knowing how to produce a vaccine against
it.

I understand some anthrax needs to be
produced and stored and studied and used in
animal tests etc. to produce that vaccine --
but why the need to study the best way to
distribute it?

Anyway, they go into a lot of interesting
detail on the discovery of Joshua Lederberg
that bacteria actively trade DNA. Before him,
scientists assumed that bacteria changed
only through random mutations from
reproducing through cell division.

This genetic mixing and matching in bacteria
meant that a harmless species of bacteria
could randomly acquire genes that would enable
it to do something harmful to us.

It also helped explain how bacteria could become
so resistant to antibiotics so quickly.

For this discovery, he received the Nobel Prize
at the age of 33.

Through his struggles to upgrade public health
and defenses against germ warrior, Lederberg is
one of those heroes who should be given more
credit than he is.

This book briefly discusses the allegations that
the Soviet Union sprayed some kind of toxin on
Hmong refugees from Laos. This story of "yellow
rain" has never been resolved.

A lot more attention is paid to an incident that
occurred in the Soviet city of Sverdlovsk in April 1979.

An explosion through up a cloud of anthrax spores
that killed a thousand or more people.

This is still somewhat controversial. Some people
still claim that the people died from eating
tainted meat. The defector Ken Alibek who was a
high official in the Soviet bio war program at
the time, has confirmed that it was an anthrax
accident.

I found the sections on Saddam's germ programs in
Iraq, and how worried our government was about
his possible use of them during the Gulf War
fascinating.

I suppose that die-hard leftists will maintain that
it's all part of the plot to defend American
imperialism.

Look, I demonstrated against the Gulf War. But
there is strong evidence that Saddam had biological
and chemical weapons.

Why didn't he use them in the Gulf War?

Who knows for sure?

I think the most plausible answer is that he knew
that the mandate from the UN was to kick him out of
Kuwait and nothing more.

He was counting on such allies as France to tie
President Bush's hands and prevent the Allies from
taking Baghdad after crushing his military.

Which is exactly what happened. The war ended with
Saddam still in power. He didn't care how many
of his people had died or how badly the country
was damaged. He was alive and still dictator in
charge.

He knew that if he unleashed massive biological
weapons against the allied forces that his European
friends who were simply embarrassed by his
aggression -- although forgiving of his rape and torture
inside Iraq itself -- and his moderate Muslim allies would
abandon him if he poisoned or infected thousands of
allied soldiers (and his own soldiers and citizens)
with anthrax or smallpox.

That's my theory anyway -- this book doesn't indulge
in that level of speculation.

As a side note, it's interesting to read how Lewis
Libby was involved in arguing for preparations to
deal with the threat of germ warfare. Though this
book never calls him "Scooter."

They do go into interesting detail about how the
Gulf War leaders from Colin Powell to General
Schwartzkoff to President Bush were all
frightened that Saddam would unleash his
chemical or biological weapons.

It's frightening to read just how ill-prepared
we were for that. I would like to read a
follow up book to learn if we did a better
job during the Iraq war.

The next portion of the book details how after
the end of the Gulf War Saddam continued to
build up his germ warfare capabilities.

I'm sure many readers now scoff at this.

Personally, I think Saddam's weapons of mass destruction
are either buried in the Iraqui desert or hidden in
Syria. He had 9 months to accomplish this. He planned
for the post-war period quite extensively while President
Bush built up to the war.

As far as I'm concerned, the only "failure of intelligence"
was the assumption that he would keep his bioweapons in
place and therefore they apparently did not observe what
he did with them.

I heard years ago that we had satellite cameras so powerful
that if a Cuban threw a cigarette package onto the ground
we could read the brand label. So why weren't they trained
on all of Iraq 24/7 while we were preparing for the war?

Anyway, that's my personal opinion -- and years ahead of where
this book leaves off.

It also describes a continuing build up of interest in
defending the military from bioweapons during the Clinton
administration.

In fact, it's a surprise just how concerned and informed
Clinton was about the threat of terrorists using bioweapons.

Although Judith Miller is supposedly too much on President
Bush's side, this book presents Clinton and his security
staff in a good light, as least as far as the subject of
bioweapons goes.

If this book has a big weakness it's that while it describes
the germ warfare programs of the United States and the
Soviet Union and what is known of what's happened in
Russia since the fall of communism, there is hardly
a mention of China.

Can it be that China has no bioweapons program?

And what about North Korea? It's mentioned as a rogue
state but there're no specifics.

Iran is mentioned many times as trying to recruit
former Soviet bioweapons scientists, but how much have they
succeeded?

Obviously, since these are considered ongoing threats,
whatever our government knows about these countries --
and about what Al Quaida and other terrorist groups
have available is classified.

Unfortunately, it's probably true that we have hardly a
clue as to what's going on inside these countries.

It's obvious that most of what we learned about the
Soviet germ warfare program came from several
important defectors. Without them, this book would be
a lot shorter.

So how much do we NOT know about what's going on inside
these other countries?

Since I'm writing this while there's a lot of attention
on Iran's nuclear program, I have to wonder just how
much more dangerous its bioweapons may be.

And of course, given the course of history after this
book was published, we should all want to know whether
or not President Bush is doing a better job at
preparing the military and the country for bio-terrorism
post September 11 than Clinton was about to do in
the 90s when most of us considered terrorism a minor
threat.

Has the Department of Homeland Security been able to solve
some of the jurisdictional and organizational problems
that concerned government officials ran into in the
1990s?