Health, Fitness & Dieting, Biological & Chemical, Reference, Biology, Arms Control, Military, International Relations 

"Deadly germs sprayed in shopping malls, bomblets 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 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." "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, is struggling 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."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved  

In the wake of the anthrax letters following the attacks on the World Trade Center, Americans have begun to grapple with two difficult truths: that there is no terrorist threat more horrifying -- and less understood -- than germ warfare, and that it would take very little to mount a devastating attack on American soil. In Germs, three veteran reporters draw on top sources inside and outside the U.S. government to lay bare Washington's secret strategies for combating this deadly threat. Featuring an inside look at how germ warfare has been waged throughout history and what form its future might take (and in whose hands), Germs reads like a gripping detective story told by fascinating key figures: American and Soviet medical specialists who once made germ weapons but now fight their spread, FBI agents who track Islamic radicals, the Iraqis who built Saddam Hussein's secret arsenal, spies who travel the world collecting lethal microbes, and scientists who see ominous developments on the horizon. With clear scientific explanations and harrowing insights, Germs is a masterfully written -- and timely -- work of investigative journalism. - from Amzon 

CONTENTS

1. The Attack .............................p. 15

2. Warrior .............................p. 34

3. Revelations .....................p. 66

4. Saddam .............................p. 98

5. Secrets and Lies .....................p. 124

6. The Cult .............................p. 151

7. Evil Empire .....................p. 165

8. Breakthrough .....................p. 183

9. Taking Charge .....................p. 202

10. The President .....................p. 223

11. Defenders .............................p. 256

12. The Future .............................p. 287

Afterword .............................p. 315

Notes .............................p. 343

Select Bibliography ..............p. 385

Acknowledgments ..............p. 389

Index ..............................p. 395