Rating: 
Summary: Contagion
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: Treaties Will Be Ineffective
Review: "Germs: Biological Weapons and America's Secret War" by Judith Miller, Stephen Engelberg, and William Broad investigates the extent to which American soldiers and civilians are threatened by a potential biological warfare attack. The conclusion the authors come to is what you would likely expect: we are exposed but the danger should not be overstated. Miller, Engelberg, and Broad have done extensive research on not just the current threats posed by rogue states and terrorist organizations but also on the history of germ warfare and its development by both the United States and Soviet Union. While the US abandoned offensive biological weapons research in 1969, the Soviet Union continued to produce germ and biological weapons even after the signing of the 1972 treaty banning such activity. The Soviets created strains of superbugs using recombinant technology originally developed by scientists at Stanford University in the 1970s. The most dangerous of which was a new potentially vaccine-resistant strain of smallpox, the disease in its natural state which has been credited with killing more people in history than any other virus or bacteria. The Soviet Union's continued efforts to produce germ weapons may be more dangerous to American interests than any threat posed by their nuclear technology. With the fall of the USSR, former Soviet scientists are now either employed in low-skill jobs or are, even worse, barely surviving the collapse of the Russian economy. "Germs" makes it all too clear that rogue nation-states like Iran and even terrorist organizations like Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda have tried to not only acquire Soviet technology but also the scientists that developed it. In light of the sometimes abysmal situations in which these scientists find themselves, it's not surprising that some of them may be willing to sell their services to the enemies of America. "Germs" also makes it clear that America's defenses against germ attacks are woefully inadequate. Like with many government programs, our anti-terrorism efforts are a hodgepodge of competing departments and agencies that neither trust each other nor know how to work together. Perhaps the recent creation of a Homeland Defense office will create a more collegial atmosphere amongst these organizations as they become accustomed to working more closely together. The only thing I will nitpick about this book is the authors' conclusion that strengthening existing germ warfare treaties will have a positive effect on keeping these weapons from proliferating. There are some countries were this may be true; but, I wouldn't bet the farm that it would work on Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Libya, China, etc. Not to mention that terrorist organizations would have no compunctions about violating a treaty they have neither signed nor would even recognize as legally binding on themselves. Threatening to imprison people who are all too willing to give their lives for their cause seems wrongheaded at best and devastatingly naive considering what we know about these groups. Germs are certainly the most dangerous potential weapon of mass destruction the United States faces in the coming years. Nuclear and chemical weapons are single use weapons that are easily identified and contained. Biological weapons are harder to detect and can be made to spread through a population quickly. With modern transportation systems, containing an outbreak created by germ weapons will be almost impossible. Quarantining victims is not going to work the way it did only 50 years ago. Our best hope is the development of a super-vaccine that could be used to defend against any number of "oldie moldies" and designer bugs which scientists may create. Failing that, the best defense in this case may well be a good offense (i.e. identify the facilities doing this type of research and target them for destruction).
Rating: 
Summary: Miller's NYT reporting needs to be remembered
Review: Anyone who's read this book, or is considering doing so, should consider what has come to light about Judith Miller's reporting in the build-up to the Iraq war (simply do a search on google for "Judith Miller" - see, in particular, the articles in Slate). Miller was regularly writing front page columns for the New York Times which contained sensational claims (now known to be wildly inaccurate) about Iraq's possession - or efforts to obtain - WMDs. One telling detail to the quality of Miller's reporting can be gleaned from her concession in May of 2003 that the now-discredited Ahmed Chalabi provided most of the scoops (aka lies) for her front page stories on WMDs.
Based on the sheer extent of errors in her pre-war reporting, I think readers of Miller's work need to utilize a heightened degree of skepticism when assessing her claims.
Rating:
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.
Rating:
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.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting but not Harrowing
Review: "Germs" covers the recent history of biological warfare as well as may be expected, given the extremely secretive nature of the subject. It sheds light on the fact that America is very unprepared for a massive biological attack, yet at the same time is not likely to experience one. While small-scale attacks are possible and maybe even likely to occur, the fact is that they are not likely to succeed to any great extent due to the difficulty of creating a bug that is sufficiently virulent and able to survive on its own outside of the lab. Certainly more can and should be done to prevent and/or contain any such attacks, but at the same time, people should not be losing much sleep over it.
Probably the most interesting thing about this book is the level of paranoia and moral superiority displayed by the American government. They spent so much time and money scrutinizing the Soviet Union, sure that they were violating the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention of 1972, even after the collapse of the Union. And of course, the soviets were doing just that and even admitted to it. But the level of moral superiority is just disgusting, as the U.S. was just as guilty as they were, probably even more guilty than the book leads one to believe.
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