-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Tim wrote:
I speed-read Tucker's "Scourge" several days ago, and yesterday I sat down at my local Borders and speed-read the new Judith Miller, William Broad, etc. book "Germs." (When I "speed-read" I read for the important parts; I can usually absorb a book like this in an hour or so. I would read the book at my leisure, but I hate paying $30 for a book I can skim and get the gist of.) Nothing we didn't already know, except some stuff that goes beyond Ken Alibek's "Biohazard." Especially about the weapons plants in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and other places very close to Afghanistan! I'd thought from Alibek's book that most of the Biopreparat facilities were in Sverdlovsk and other places in Siberia. (Not that shipping a flask of India-1967 or anthrax another 2000 miles is difficult.)
There's a great anthology of more technical essays previously published in JAMA called "Biological Weapons: Limiting the Threat" (Joshua Ledford, BCSIA Studies In International Security, MIT Press, 2000). I remember a particularly interesting study someone did which compared potential death rates on an unprotected target city versus one in which the population knew rudimentary bio- civil defense procedures, (ie. masks and protective clothing at the ready, sealing all windows and doors with duct tape, etc.) Huge difference. Another great resource: Bioterrorism: Homeland Defense Symposium: The Next Steps -- An Executive Summary, ed. Maurice Eisenstein (RAND conference proceedings, 2000, PDF): Seeks to identify the elements of an integrated homeland defense against bioterrorism, identify critical gaps, and offer suggestions on how a relatively cost-effective homeland defense program might be achieved. http://www.rand.org/publications/CF/CF155/ And a word to everyone stocking up on antiboitics: don't forget to stockpile gatorade or some other rehydrating solution! "Have a nice day" indeed... ~F. *** "It may be that we shall by a process of sublime irony have reached a stage in this story where safety will be the sturdy child of terror, and survival the twin brother of annihilation." - --Winston Churchill, 1955 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: Hush 2.0 wl8EARECAB8FAju+LZMYHGF1dG8zMDEwOTRAaHVzaG1haWwuY29tAAoJEKadvsVlUK4P SgAAmwQBVwQx4hURn18P8qDn09Nq3AZaAJwPgFZK85fCW6gfFiJ00BOcSgcXOQ== =LRNa -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----