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Germs:
Biological Weapons and America’s Secret War by Judith Miller, Stephen Engelberg
and William Broad Recommendation: •••• |
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Click on title or picture to buy from amazon.com |
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Wash Your Hands In the aftermath of September 11, many
people are reading about what other horrors could face citizens around the
world as a war on terror develops. Three New York Times writers have
collaborated to present a comprehensive investigative story about biological
weapons in a new book, Germs:
Biological Weapons and America’s Secret War. Judith Miller, Stephen
Engelberg and William Broad take readers around the world on a story that examines
the development of biological weapons that have the power to destroy all
human life. If that’s not scary enough for you, especially in light of the
recent anthrax deaths, the revelations of what former Soviet scientists
developed, and the weak security surrounding these germs, will likely cause
you to lose a little sleep. Here’s an excerpt about the Soviet work: “Scientists had
long struggled to overcome disease. Yet here at Stepnogorsk, the Soviet Union
had spent billions of dollars mobilizing disease for war. It had devoted some
of its best brains, virtually unlimited resources, and Russian science itself
to the mass production of epidemics – a strategy as chilling as it was
perverse. Stepnogorsk was a standby production facility, on orders to produce
mass quantities of germs in the event of an international crisis. Disease by
the ton was its industry.” At the end of the book, the authors
conclude: “Is the threat of
germ weapons real or exaggerated? Our answer is both. At key points in recent
years, senior officials overstated the danger of biological attack, harming
their cause with hyperbole. In most conditions, a five-pound bag of anthrax
could kill many people, but not as many as half the inhabitants of
Washington, D.C. Similarly, political leaders undermined their credibility by
asserting that a biological attack against the United States was inevitable
in the next few years – a matter of ‘not if, but when.’” “If we as a
nation believe that the germ threat is a hoax, we are spending too much money
on it. But if the danger is real, as we conclude it is, then the investment
is much too haphazard and diffuse. We remain woefully unprepared for a
calamity that would be unlike any this country has ever experienced.” If this is subject about which you want to
become informed, Germs
provides a very effective starting point for your gathering of information. Steve Hopkins, December 26, 2001 |
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ã 2001 Hopkins and Company, LLC |
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