Germs : Biological Weapons and America's Secret War

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Summary: GERMS--America's Next War?
Review: As a crime fiction writer with my debut novel in initial release, I found GERMS fascinating. Within minutes of the shameful attack on our twin towers, I mentioned to my wife the possibility that truly determined terrorists could have planted biological weapons within their luggage as they boarded those airliners they planned to turn into bombs. GERMS confirmed, to this reader, that such a possibility was at the very least possible. Fortunately, it appears now that our nation has dodged that bullet on this occasion, but this book is a must-read work. The journalists who collaborated on GERMS present frightening details involving the possibilitiy of biological warfare in our modern age. They also report on our government's attempts to prepare for and, we hope, prevent such an attack. We are living a new age. Warfare will not be what we have witnessed in the past. GERMS makes that fact clear. Anyone who wants to be an informed citizen, ought to read this bok.

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Summary: timely, extremely relevant
Review: This timely and extremely relevant book deserves your immediate and full attention. Published in 2001 but before September 11, it has also been abridged and released in audio form.

The three authors describe several attempts at biological and chemical attacks that have occurred over the past fifteen or so years, like the Japanese nerve gas subway incident. One of the more frightening sections of the book is the description of the facilities in the Soviet Union where secret research was conducted, despite the treaty banning biological/chemical weapon development. No records were kept, and we will never know how many human lives may have been lost in central Asia, as the Soviets viewed people of this area as expendable. Now, a great many scientists of the former USSR are penniless, and their expertise may be for sale to Mideast nations, or to terrorists like bin Laden.

To me, the most chilling fact the authors present is their statement: "The military-industrial complex that supports weapons systems has little interest in vaccines and public health." Neither do the private sector pharmaceutical companies, who pursue tremendous profits through such products as Viagra and Rogaine. In the US, the notion of public health seemed antiquated as such diseases as polio and small pox seem to have been conquered. Recent events have demonstrated that we must update public health systems throughout the country, as doctors and nurses are the "first responders" to new bio-chem threats.

Recombinant DNA, "designer bugs", can pose tremendous threats: Taken far enough, they could even produce a slave-race of genetically-altered individuals to serve a ruling race. There is a bright side, which I as the mother of an autistic son, am thrilled to think about: Research into the immune system, and auto-immune diseases, can produce cures for ailments as varied as M.S., diabetes, and autism. Research aimed at destroying life can be used as a source for healing.

Now more than ever we can heed the words of St. Paul, spoken in a distant time and place yet alive with truth: "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."

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Summary: A good synopsis regarding biologival weapons
Review: New York Times writers Miller, Engelberg, and Broad trace the modern history of real and potential germ warfare, starting with a warning made 50 years ago to Secretary of Defense James Forrestal: the US was defenseless against germ attacks. Better intelligence, research, drug stockpiles, and medical surveillance systems were needed--recommendations long ignored. The Bhagwan Shree cult's 1980s attack using salmonella on Oregon salad bars is narrated. US research on deadly microbes in the 1950s and 1960s is described, research discontinued in 1969 by order of President Nixon. Unfortunately, the Soviet Union secretly continued ghoulish, huge-scale research into the 1990s. The book describes efforts of US and Soviet scientists working for and against biological weapons, and the 1990s employment of Russian scientists with their dangerous knowledge. Iraq's germ-warfare work, which it vigorously tried to hide from UN inspectors, is extensively examined. Occasions when the US was tempted to use biological weapons are narrated, along with difficulties the US faces in doing defensive research work without crossing the line into the offensive weapons research forbidden by the 1972 Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention. Germs confronts future dangers (and potential organisms such as anthrax, plague, and small pox).

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Summary: Germs: Biological Weapons & America's Secret War
Review: Germs: Biological Weapons and America's Secret War Written by Judith Miller, Stephen Engelbery and William Broad is a book the reveals to the reader what kind of threat germ warfare is to us all. The writers did an excellent job tracking down government reports and interviews with people in the know.

This book is an investigative journalism style book, asking questions and later providing answers and solutions to something we really do NOT want out-of-the-box. Secret reports from the CIA, Pentagon, and details about the massive program the Soviet Union embarked upon including charges of human test subjects. There are interviews with senior government officials, including President Clinton.

Reading this book is a real wake-up call, not only to the United States government, but to the people as well. We need to protect our shores from both foreign and domestic threats... as it doesn't take a superlab to make these biological agents, but it will take a super-effort among the American people to maintain the life we enjoy today.

I would concur with the authors of this book that our next threat will be germ weapons, the advances in biology has been mainly unchecked for years giving rise to both legitmate and illegimate research labs. Remembering that terrorists are not rational and are causal fanatics, we have to, now, account for bio-weapons labs... perfecting biological weapons is no longer a viable livelyhood... we need to use this biology with genetically modified germs to counteract the weapons and stop misuse.

The narrative flows freely and is easily understood, as this is a fast read, but more importantly a very informative and eye-opening book.

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Summary: By the time you read this....
Review: ...it's quite possible that this book's worst fears will have been proven justified. The authors are extremely well-informed, and have mapped out the recent history of biological warfare developments in some depth, based on three years of careful research for the New York Times. The problem is, despite ample warning, the US government has not treated this topic with the seriousness it deserves, relegating it to the back seat in concerns over nuclear proliferation and conventional chemical warfare (which is a second-best alternative, as all experts have realized for some time). The bugs are out there: The Soviets made enough to kill everyone on earth several times over. The Iraqis have plenty, too, thanks to the inefficiency of the UNSCOM's work after the Gulf War. Some 'favorite' bugs like anthrax and the extracted botulinum toxin only kill those they hit. Others, like smallpox, Ebola or Marburg Fever, will make the predictive powers of Stephen King's "The Stand" seem uncanny. They're "the gift that keeps on giving."
This book will give you a new respect for Bill Clinton, who was at least awake to the threat. And new contempt for the pork barrel politics of the USA, since much of the money (billions of dollars) allocated to counterterrorism -- and biological warfare in particular -- has been frittered away on technology that doesn't work, and the high-priced but fatuous work of 'beltway bandits.' There's not enough antibiotics, there aren't enough trained staff, and there are few (or no) doses of vaccines for the threats.
Read it and weep, is all I can say. If you can get a copy, that is. It's sold out everywhere I went, and I finally got one by bribing someone at Borders to give up his own copy <g>

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Summary: Miller's Motive For Bad Reporting
Review: This book came out at the same time that Judith Miller was doing the incredibly bad reporting for the NYTimes that lead the US into the Iraq War. Much of her reporting on WMD spurred interest in her book and increased its sales. I wonder how much her incredibly bad reporting that the Times has now repudiated as false and misleading can be credited to unconscious credulousness centered on the knowledge that more WMD fear would increase her book sales?

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Summary: This Book Has Been Discredited
Review: Even a week ago I would have said this is book is probably the best popular introduction to the subject. Now that the New York Times has effectively called into question every word published on the subject by its reporter, Judith Miller, I feel I should warn folks to read the book with the NYT's admitted failures in mind. It's not clear how this scandal relates to the information in the book not associated with Iraq's bio-chem weapons programs, but those sections at least are thoroughly tainted by the evolving story of how Iran/Chalabi/White House/DoD collaborated to manipulate public/government opinion by feeding Miller disinformation.

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Summary: Scary to say the least
Review: As a molecular biologist, I was shocked at what was discussed in this book. Descriptions of potential weapons, or weapons that were being worked on when the Soviet Union fell sent shivers down my spine. The authors have thouroughly researched the material and present it more as fact rather than a story.
To learn that West Nile virus was used as a "model" to demonstrate how the government could "contain" an invectious disease, only to find that we totally failed to contain demonstrates how real this danger may be. Unfortunetly, you also gain the insight of how politics actually works. The creation of the programs would cost billions and if they "work" they appear as wasted money since the programs success would result in no attacks.

Some parts of the book read rather slowly, but serve as the foundation required for the modern discussions that are addressed later in the book.

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Summary: From Oregon to the Soviet Union, bioterror can happen
Review: Since September 11 and the Anthrax letters people have become more aware of the threat of biological weapons. In this book we can read about two attacks that have happened before: salmonella by the Baghwan Cult in Oregon and the famous sarin gas attack in the Tokyo Subway.

These three journalists have done a lot of research into the different bio weapons programs in the US, USSR and other nations. Through personal interviews we also know that President Clinton was very knowledgable about the threat.

There is also a nice chapter on Iraq and their programs during the 80s and 90s and the role the US played in this.

They have been given documents by the Pentagon and the White House, so you are never really sure if they can write absolutely free, but it's worth reading as a good book on bio terrorism, a not so visible threat

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Summary: A Boring and Uninformative Book
Review: What these three authors are up to here is known in the trade as "selling your notes." This is a poorly organized, poorly written and boring account of a fascinating subject. Do not waste your money or your time.