Customer Reviews

Biohazard: The Chilling True Story of the Largest Covert Biological Weapons Program in the World--Told from Inside by the Man Who Ran It

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I had read this book a few years back when it first came out. Now that the issue of bioterrorism and biowarfare is a front page issue, I decided to give it another read. Though not as compelling as some books on the dangers of unchecked plagues devastating the world (Richard Preston's The Hot Zone is still one of the scariest books I've ever read--fact or fiction), it focuses specifically on the use of biological agents as weapons. In this respect, it is an eye-opener.

Alibek was one of the key leaders and scientists in the Soviet Union's biological weapons. Until he defected in 1992, little was know in this country about the extent of the Soviet program--a program that was supposed to be dismantled by treaty agreement in the early 1970's. Alibek made us aware of how advanced the Soviet program was. And he warns us that Russia still works on advancing their program despite claims to the contrary.

Certainly this is a frightening prospect, especially in light of recent events in this country. Though I do not personally consider Russia a threat, it is painfully clear that Russian technology is leaving Russia and falling into the hands of people who are not afraid to use it. One of the things I like most about Alibek's book is that he gives tremendous insight into the Russian mentality. How even he, as a high-level soldier in the Soviet military, was brainwashed into believing the United States had an extensive bioweapons program. (I am not naive enough to think our program is non-existent despite treaty agreements but it certainly does not compare to the Russian production machine.) Additionally, he points out that in the trying economic times of post-communist Russia, anything and everything is up for sale.

I am not easily made paranoid. I prefer knowledge and will not have my life altered by fear. Despite the current anthrax scare, I am not afraid to open my mail or travel to Manhattan. This book did not change any of that for me. If you are a worry-wart, however, I would suggest you stay away from this book. If you want to be aware of what's out there, I suggest you take a look at this interesting story.

Ken Alibek's *Biohazard* is shocking even to a seasoned observer of the strategic weapons scene. It exposes the terrible danger that US and other world leaders prefer we don't think about: the vulnerability of human populations to biological weapons, and their inability to do anything about it.

While Alibek is certainly telling the story from his perspective, the fact that Americans were ignorant of the extent of the KGB's bioweapons program is undeniable. After reading this book, I personally cannot see any defense against the inevitability of a large-scale bioattack, and our helplessness in the face of such an attack. Viruses respect no geographical boundaries.

In one especially horrifying sequence, the Biopreparat researchers are forced to witness a colleague's slow death from Marburg (a cousin of Ebola) as a result of accidental exposure. When the colleague finally dies, the researchers are ordered by the KGB to weaponize the virus in the man's bloodstream, since it is now considered more lethal after having been inside a human host.

The moral of the story: Never assume we really know what those governmental institutions are up to. Highly recommended.

If you read one book about biohazards/bioterrorism, make it this book! Dr Alibek does a superb job of presenting the terrifying facts concerning the extent of biological weapons of mass destruction that have been developed and are currently available to anyone looking for such a weapon. If you think stockpiling vaccines, vaccinating the military against specific agents, and/or there is no threat to the US from these weapons, you really need to digest the info provided here by an author "in the know". To make these facts even more frightening, think about this... I'm sure there are some things Dr Alibek could not include in this account as they are considered classified information. As Dr Alibek clearly shows, the R&D didn't stop just because the USSR collapsed. What horrors have been engineered and perfected since his defection in 1992?

When one thinks about it, the world was probably safer before the Soviet collapse. At least there were massive safeguards in place to provide ultimate secrecy to this program and to keep the organisms in check in case of accidents. Now, there measures have dissolved with the Soviet state..... who is controlling/maintaining these bioweapons? Dr Alibek makes you think about these very hard questions.

It is also very interesting to realize that both Yeltsin and Gorbachev were deeply involve in propogating these weapons under the guise of countermeasures/vacine development. All this was done with total disregard to the 1972 Bioweapon Treaty signed by the USSR. This certainly gives a new meaning to Peristroika!

It is not easy to like or even accept the choices the author made in his life. He is quite frank in how he came to his decisions and the realizes the abhorrent results of his decisions. He apologizes for none of his work which is understandable considering the mindset of the Cold War mentality of a Soviet official in his position. It is amazing to read the extent to which Soviet leaders went to elude Western detection and keep their own reseachers "propagandized" against the West in order to perpetuate this deadly research. I applaude Dr Alibek's candor in stating his involvement and forthright reasons for participation in this research even I am totally opposed to such work. The past is done...Dr Alibek has shown tremendous courage in writing this very readable account that warns the world of what is out there and is a very real threat to all living thing. But, be forewarned... you may find the information presented here extremely disconcerting, creating more questions in your mind than the book has answered! This is a must read for everyone, but most especially for our civilian/military leaders!

As this review is written, in October 2002, it is well to remember that Ken Alibeck first brought his revelations of the massive Soviet (and now, Russian Federation) bioweapon production to the public in his book BIOHAZARD more than two years ago. His defection to the U.S. occurred almost four years earlier.

And yet, as I travel the country to promote my own book --a fiction bioterrorist assault on the U.S. that threatens humanity itself-- I'm dumbfounded to discover that the majority of my audiences have no idea of who Ken is.

Worse, they have no conception of the horrors that he, as deputy director of Biopreparat/Vector, the massive organization the Soviet Union created to develop and mass-produce lethal viruses and other bioagents BY THE METRIC TON, has visited on today's world.

Today we live with the very real threat of a worldwide pandemic of smallpox --a disease officially eradicated in nature three decades ago-- that could be sparked by any number of rogue nations or their terrorist clients who possess the weaponized form of smallpox that Biopreparat/Vector produced.

And because that hideous form of variola virus is likely to have been genetically modified, it is entirely possible that existing smallpox vaccines (such as that being recommended for mass immunization in the U.S., Israel, Australia and elsewhere) simply will not work against it.

While I was researching my novel of bioterrorism, Final Epidemic, I met many experts in the field of national security, medicine and government. In private conversations, those who consented to be interviewed all agreed on one point: a staggering volume of bioweapons exist today, and could be released upon mankind at any time by a ruthless ideologue... or a madman.

But almost as many agreed on a second point, too: the majority of these weapons are likely to have come from Russian stocks, or to have been newly manufactured by Russian scientists formerly employed by Vector and recruited by nations such as Iraq, Iran, Syria and North Korea.

BIOHAZARD is the basic primer for how this all began, as well as a detailed indictment of those in Russia who coldly ignored both international treaties and simple respect for life in their quest for the single-cell killing machines they created.

Today, even two years after its initial publication, it remains a horrifying chronicle of cold-blooded preparation for mass murder.

By all accounts, Ken Alibeck himself is a charming individual, highly intelligent and possessed of an eloquent manner.

Without doubt he is a gifted scientist, as evidenced by his own personal lead role in developing a particularly lethal and persistent variety of anthrax which is still a prized part of the Russian bio-arsenal. Alibeck is reported also to be a man of conscience, as evidenced by his disillusionment and ultimate defection.

Would that his crisis of conscience had come far earlier, or at least had been shared by more of his Vector colleagues. Humanity would have been far safer that it has proven now to be.

As it is --and as BIOHAZARD so clearly shows us-- we are facing the barrel of a gun, loaded and cocked and aimed at the heart of human society by fanatics and the possibly insane.

Buy and read BIOHAZARD; if you already have, re-read it. No other book so clearly underlines the genesis of the threat facing the human species today.

Earl Merkel

Glanders. Vaccine-resistant smallpox. Bolivian hemorrhagic fever. Pneumonic plague. Pulmonary anthrax. Tularemia. This book is a rare chance to evaluate a man who devoted most of his working life to making them more deadly.

I read this book with morbid fascination, I must admit; it suggests to me that bioweapon research is much further along than I'd realized. On the downside, I'm not sure how much of what Alibek says can be verified, particularly the details of the biological attack by the USSR during WWII, but I suspect he's mostly telling the truth.

Recommended with mild reservations as to accuracy and as to the self-portrayal of the author. While he's honest enough to admit to having personally done a great deal to make these abominable weapons still more abominable, I am not so sure he switched sides for the most altruistic of reasons.

This book was a joy to read! The book was informative, easy to read, factual, and accurate (I worked in the field). The author is to be commended for writing such a daring book....naming people, places, things, timing, etc. It was a candid, "from-the-heart" book. Nice job!

While the prose and presentation of the book's style is a bit clunky, the information contained within is crucial to understanding what may face us in the future.

An important expose of 'normal military operations' and the infrastructure of the bioweapons program within the former Soviet Union - operations that now have been or may be compromised.

This information is dated, but the technology, people who worked with the technology and the weapons themselves as described in this book may still be viable. 15 year old technology to make hundreds of kilos of anthrax a day is still very dangerous technology.

Very well-written in plain language thanks to Steve Handelman, this is a quick read. It is educational without being pedantic, and covers a well-balanced gamut of subjects, including:

- the history of Soviet bio-weaponeering: the vast resources they (including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mikhail Gorbachev) put into developing biological weapons in direct violation of the 1972 treaty and hiding it from the rest of the world, as well as from their own people;

- the evolution of pathogen manufacturing processes;

- the morality and justification (or lack thereof) of such weapons;

- interesting details about various pathogens and the diseases they cause;

- the dismal outlook for biodefense (sorry), with informative discussion of the shortcomings of vaccines, as well as the most promising possibilities;

- Alibek's personal involvement and ascension through the Soviet military and scientific community, and the internal power struggles that hampered the Soviet regime; and

- the truth --finally-- about the 1979 anthrax outbreak at Sverdlovsk, its exact cause, the elaborate KGB attempts at a cover up, and simple, common sense refutations of the "contaminated meat" story proffered by the Soviet oligarchy. The book tells how a well-meaning Boris Yeltsin (who was then the Communist party boss of Sverdlovsk) inadvertently worsened the epidemic by ordering an inexpert clean-up.

Straightforward explanations are given of viruses, the human immune system, cellular biology, and related topics. In the style of that most excellent author Jon Krakauer, this book occasionally makes a fascinating historical flashback; for instance, there are quick side bars on Edward Jenner and the history of immunology.

There are also some somber, one-sentence paragraphs with the enormous weight of a British understatement. These gave me pause.

Names of people and places are given freely, and the book includes a good index. I learned a lot and feel thankful for every healthy day. The amazing thing is how little harm has been done considering what's possible! :-)

I picked up this book about a year ago, long before the Sept. 11 incident and the latest anthrax developments, and I found it chilling even then. In light of what has been going on, there is in my mind no person who is better qualified to discuss bioweapons and their effects on a nation and society than Ken Alibek, the former head of Soviet bioweapons development. His revelations are absolutely horrifying, and do a great deal in explaining why the U.S. government needs to take the threat of bioloigical warfare more seriously. As an interesting sidenote to this book, Ken Alibek recently briefed the house of reps on the implications of the Anthrax incidents, which stands as a testiment to his level of understanding of biological warfare. A must read for anyone who has any interest in biological warfare at all.

Left, with a desire to know more,I was disappointed when I had finished the terrifying chapters of information this book has to offer. Fascinating details offer a glimpse into the Science, Politics and History of the Bioweaponeering Enemy that was the USSR, which has now shattered into many smaller, poorer and possibly more unstable enemies with information to sell.
Also interesting is how a human being such as Kanatjan Alibek started out his educational career desiring to help his fellow man as a physician, but even after taking the Hipocratic oath, his government was able to corrupt his talents to use them for death. His escape to the United States has freed him to use his knowlege and expertise for good and not evil, one such deed being enlightening the public by publishing his work in this writing.
Hopefully it will help to influence readers to realize that although we are a peaceloving nation, wishing no harm upon the innocent, some nations, such as the once USSR, do not view life nor the world through the same eyes. Americans and America should be aware of what has been developed secretly, blatantly in spite of treaties in place. This book is a revelation that truly grasps the reader and doesn't let go.