Germs : Biological Weapons and America's Secret War [Hardcover]

Judith Miller (Author), Stephen Engelberg (Author), William Broad (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2, 2001

Deadly germs sprayed in shopping malls, bomb-lets spewing anthrax spores over battlefields, tiny vials of plague scattered in Times Square -- these are the poor man's hydrogen bombs, hideous weapons of mass destruction that can be made in a simple laboratory.

In this groundbreaking work of investigative journalism, Judith Miller, Stephen Engelberg, and William Broad of "The New York Times" uncover the truth about biological weapons and show why bio-warfare and bio-terrorism are fast becoming our worst national nightmare.

Among the startling revelations in "Germs: "

How the CIA secretly built and tested a model of a Soviet-designed germ bomb, alarming some officials who felt the work pushed to the limits of what is permitted by the global treaty banning germ arms. How the Pentagon embarked on a secret effort to make a superbug. Details about the Soviet Union's massive hidden program to produce biological weapons, including new charges that germs were tested on humans. How Moscow's scientists made an untraceable germ that instructs the body to destroy itself. The Pentagon's chaotic efforts to improvise defenses against Iraq's biological weapons during the 1991 Persian Gulf War. How a religious cult in Oregon in the 1980s sickened hundreds of Americans in a bio-terrorism attack that the government played down to avoid panic and copycat strikes. Plans by the U.S. military in the 1960s to attack Cuba with germ weapons.

"Germs" also shows how a small group of scientists and senior officials persuaded President Bill Clinton to launch a controversial multibillion-dollar program to detect a germ attack on U.S. soil and to aid its victims -- a program that, so far, isstruggling to provide real protection.

Based on hundreds of interviews with scientists and senior officials, including President Clinton, as well as on recently declassified documents and on-site reporting from the former Soviet Union's sinister bio-weapons labs, "Germs" shows us bio-warriors past and present at work at their trade. There is the American scientist who devoted his professional life to perfecting biological weapons, and the Nobel laureate who helped pioneer the new biology of genetically modified germs and is now trying to stop its misuse. We meet former Soviet scientists who made enough plague, smallpox, and anthrax to kill everyone on Earth and whose expertise is now in great demand by terrorists, rogue states, and legitimate research labs alike.

A frightening and unforgettable narrative of cutting-edge science and spycraft, "Germs" shows us why advances in biology and the spread of germ weapons expertise to such countries as Iran, Iraq, and North Korea could make germs the weapon of the twenty-first century.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Three reporters from The New York Times survey the recent history of biological weapons and sound an alarm about the coming threat of the "poor man's hydrogen bomb." Germs begins ominously enough, recounting the chilling attack by the followers of the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh in 1984 on the Dalles, Oregon--no one died, but nearly 1,000 were infected with a strain of salmonella that the cult had legally obtained, then cultured and distributed.

While the U.S. maintained an active "bugs and gas" program in the '50s and early '60s, bio-weapons were effectively pulled off this country's agenda in 1972 when countries around the world, led by the United States, forswore development of such weapons at the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention. The issue reemerged in the early '90s thanks to Saddam Hussein and revelations of the clandestine and massive buildup of bio-weapons in remote corners of the Soviet Union. The book's description of the Soviet program is horrific. At its peak the program employed thousands of scientists, developing bioengineered pathogens as well as producing hundreds of tons of plague, anthrax, and smallpox annually. The authors conclude that while a biological attack against the United States is not necessarily inevitable, the danger of bio-weapons is too real to be ignored. Well-researched and documented, this book will not disappoint readers looking for a reliable and sober resource on the topic. --Harry C. Edwards

From Publishers Weekly

Germs: Biological Weapons and America's Secret War by Judith Miller, Stephen Engelberg and William J. Broad. Three New York Times journalists offer their views on this timely topic.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; 1st edition (October 2, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684871580
• ISBN-13: 978-0684871585
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (100 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,500,608 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

197 of 204 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Contagion September 13, 2001

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover

Miller, Engelberg and Broad have written an outstanding and very readable history of the US and foreign germ warfare programs and of national and international efforts to ban biological weapons. Many people spoke more frankly than I would have thought possible, so that the book is very revealing.

Biological weapons are more frightening than poison gas, and more deadly than 767s loaded with fuel. Bio-terrorism surely poses a much greater risk to the United States than any possible ballistic missile attack from a "rogue" state.

It is likely that an attack on the US with a communicable disease or a natural outbreak of one of the emerging influenza viruses that appear from time to time and have a mortality rate of 30%, comparable to smallpox, could devastate the country and place the Constitution and democracy at risk. The authors make this clear.

"Germs" is not perfect; the authors get the story on the failure of the proposed agreement to strengthen the Biological Weapons Convention wrong, because they reported based on only one point of view, and that a tiny minority one.

Nevertheless, "Germs" tells a frightening story, and tells it well and accurately. Anybody interested in U.S. national security, the public health system, and the efforts of our country and our adversaries to develop these terrible weapons must read it.

48 of 52 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Read The Books They Reference March 28, 2002

By taking a rest HALL OF FAME

Format:Hardcover

The threats that are described in this book are extremely serious and they deserve serious, accurate, and consistent documentation. This book contradicts itself and gives tabloid phrasing to issues instead of explaining them.

Page 166, "Since 100 grams of dried Anthrax was theoretically enough to wipe out a small city", on page 216 they recounted when a five pound bag of sugar was used as a prop to explain that if the five pounds were dried Anthrax, it would kill half the population of the city of Washington, the nation's capital, or about 300,000 people. They then go on at length to discredit this example. If on page 166 100 grams of dried Anthrax would wipe out a small city, why would 5 pounds of dried Anthrax, or 2.25 Kilograms, or 2,250 Grams, or 22.5 times of their example on page 166 be worthy of their ridicule? On the same page they also state that theoretically 5 pounds would kill the 300,000.

Hemorrhagic Fevers like Ebola are incredibly lethal, and the symptoms they create are gruesome. If you are interested in the basics of how this type of disease causes death and massive bleeding, this book will not tell you. It is described as a disease that will, "bleed you dry", a great tabloid headline, worthless for understanding the disease. It has been suggested that the terrorists who brought down The World Trade Center could have brought some Bioweapon on board with them. Delivery systems specifically designed to spread disease kill 98-99 percent of the load they carry. How likely would it be that the 1 or 2 percent that would survive a device meant to deliver it alive and lethal would have survived the inferno the planes created? The United States and others have improved on the weapons that deliver these pathogens, and while the efficacy is improved no numbers have been shared. Delivery by aerosol would have been possible, but taking down 2 1500-foot high buildings and many others that surrounded them was evidently enough for one day.

There are excellent books that are referenced in, "Germs", that are vastly superior to this work. Some books were written by defectors from the former Soviet Union (mentioned in this book) who ran Soviet production facilities that could make 300 metric tons of Anthrax every 220 days, others by Doctors from The Center For Disease Control who not only worked in Level 4 Biohazard Labs, they also pursued bugs like Ebola out in the field in Africa. "Scourge", is a recent work that is an excellent history of Smallpox and its eventual, "eradication".

There have been a number of books on these topics, and they seem to break in to two categories, there are those that are written by people who are part of the groups that either produce, track these viruses, or work to create defenses against them. And then there are books like this, that from the bibliography appear to be a summation of other primary sources. The former educate, the latter sensationalize. This is a poorly constructed book that is delivered with an editorial slant.

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars important work October 2, 2001

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover

I bought this book in the days after the attacks on 9/11, thinking that it might help me feel better to be well informed and to not fall prey to rumors and gossip. Unfortunately, it has not been a comfort.

Well-researched (though I checked a lot of the information online, and found that it had been accessible all of the time had we only looked for it), this is an excellent overview of the history of biological warfare, from the US point of view.

I appreciated the writing style .. while accessible to just about anyone, it didn't feel "dumbed down" either.

... I was a little dismayed, though. People should be doing more practical research in the area of preparedness, and realize that gas masks are not going to save you if your city is attacked (unless you have a really good one and plan on wearing it 24 hours a day), and that smallpox vaccine you received back in 1972, is unlikely to give you much resistance at this point. This book might prepare you for the fact that an attack could happen at any time, but does not outline any of the precautions you can and should take.