An investigation into the 2001 U.S. anthrax attacks leads to the realization that a new and terrible arms race may soon be upon us, one that spans the globe and is driven by an array of forces working with deadly microorganisms. Penetrating what they regard as an international “bioweapons mafia,” Bob Coen and Eric Nadler encounter scientists, capitalists, politicians, and assassins — all playing with the world’s most dangerous germs.Coen and Nadler pursue leads across four continents in an attempt to illuminate the secret world of international biological weapons research. They probe the mysterious deaths of some of the world’s leading germ war scientists, including the death of Bruce Ivins — the man the FBI controversially insists is the lone perpetrator of the anthrax attacks. They also examine the suspicious suicide of British scientist and weapons inspector David Kelly, who was found dead in the woods the same week U.K. officials killed an investigation into illegal human experimentation at the top-secret facility where he once worked.As the plot darkens, it becomes clear that the 2001 anthrax attacks are a portal into a new and lucrative “biomilitary-industrial complex,” and one of the most frightening stories of our time.
Оглавление
Bob Coen. Anthrax War
ANTHRAX WAR. Dead Silence . . Fear and Terror on the Anthrax Trail
Contents
Preface
CHAPTER ONE. The Ghost of Bruce Ivins
CHAPTER TWO. Enter Stephen Dresch
CHAPTER THREE. The Ghost of David Kelly
CHAPTER FOUR. The Ghost of Frank Olson
CHAPTER FIVE. The Ghosts of Sverdlovsk
CHAPTER SIX. The Ghost of Vladimir Pasechnik
CHAPTER SEVEN. The Ghosts of Africa
CHAPTER EIGHT. The Ghost of Larry Ford
CHAPTER NINE. The Ghost of Sunshine
CHAPTER TEN. The Ghost of Stephen Dresch
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Notes
Photo Credits
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Bob Coen and Eric Nadler
Berkeley, California
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As it became clear to Ivins in late 2007 that he had become the Feds’ primary suspect, he reportedly turned up the crazy. According to the FBI narrative, he was drinking heavily, stalking his therapist, telling his AA group that he had a list of witnesses he planned to kill. He bought weapons and ammo and hid them in his house. He spent a week in a psych ward and when he came home, he killed himself. The FBI spun this tale into closure. They said they were days from an indictment. But that Ivins beat them to it.
Anthrax was in the headlines again for about a week. The media speculated, and the public recalled an anxious time years ago. Then they both turned the dial—there were Olympic gold medals to be won in Beijing and higher-stakes games to be played in the Caucasus, where fighting in a mountainous enclave between Russians and Georgians promised to bring back the Cold War. But in a small studio office with a river’s edge view of the post-9/11 New York skyline, two veteran journalists had a moment of deeper ambivalence. Bob Coen and Eric Nadler were four years into their own investigation; they were working on a documentary on the dangers posed by today’s biological weapons, the genesis of which was the 2001 anthrax attacks. Since those attacks, they had tracked the deadly bacteria through numerous covert and overt military and civilian programs to determine just how extensively anthrax has infiltrated the global armory. They found traces of it everywhere. Like the bodies of the five unfortunate victims of the October letters, the twenty-first century map was thoroughly contaminated. And the infection was spreading, fueled by fear, cultured with money.
