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Summary: Frightening Picture of Russian Biowarfare Program
Review: You would be a fool not to be frightened by Ken Alibek's chilling depictions of the Russia bioweapons program. Alibek, the former #2 man in Biopreparat--the Russian cover for a large facet of their weapons work--defected to the United States after going there on a weapons inspection program, and his account is detailed and frightening.The United States officially ended their biowarfare programs under Nixon, and for years most of the western world naively believed the Soviet claims that they, too, had done so. Yet under the guise of ostensibly civilian medical entities like Biopreparat, the Soviets and then Russians continued their work toward creating the world's deadliest microbes--as told here by one of those at the very top of the effort. Himself the innovator behind the Russian's weapons-grade anthrax, Alibek saw the makings of bioweapons from his own anthrax to turlaremia (which he himself accidentally contracted), plague, smallpox, and such emerging threats as Ebola and viral encephalitis. The Soviet program became so compartmentalized that with the fall of the Soviet Union, not even those involved know the full extent of what was done or what has become of many of those working on such weapons--many of whom have been courted by North Korea, Iran, and Iraq. Alibek left Russia in the 90's, yet even today there is admission from their government of continued work with smallpox at the viral facility of Vector (to where they illegally moved their WHO-sanctioned smallpox stores). The same individuals from the Communist regime still run a now largely-bankrupt program... who knows what horrors are even now being cooked up in their secret labs? Alibek's true tale leaves one incredibly scared as to the answer.
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