| View Larger Image | Germs: Biological Weapons and America's Secret War | Paperbackby Judith Miller (Author), William Broad (Author), Stephen Engelberg (Author)
| List Price: | $14.00 | | Price: | $11.90 | | You Save: | $2.10 (15%) | | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours |
| | Binding: | Paperback | | Publisher: | Simon & Schuster | | Page Count: | 416 Pages | | Publication Date: | September 17, 2002 | | Sales Rank: | 424,718th |
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FEATURES | - ISBN13: 9780684871592
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- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
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. |
Amazon.com Review
Three reporters from The New York Times survey the recent history of biological weapons and sound an alarm about the coming threat of the "poor man's hydrogen bomb." Germs begins ominously enough, recounting the chilling attack by the followers of the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh in 1984 on the Dalles, Oregon--no one died, but nearly 1,000 were infected with a strain of salmonella that the cult had legally obtained, then cultured and distributed. While the U.S. maintained an active "bugs and gas" program in the '50s and early '60s, bio-weapons were effectively pulled off this country's agenda in 1972 when countries around the world, led by the United States, forswore development of such weapons at the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention. The issue reemerged in the early '90s thanks to Saddam Hussein and revelations of the clandestine and massive buildup of bio-weapons in remote corners of the Soviet Union. The book's description of the Soviet program is horrific. At its peak the program employed thousands of scientists, developing bioengineered pathogens as well as producing hundreds of tons of plague, anthrax, and smallpox annually. The authors conclude that while a biological attack against the United States is not necessarily inevitable, the danger of bio-weapons is too real to be ignored. Well-researched and documented, this book will not disappoint readers looking for a reliable and sober resource on the topic. --Harry C. Edwards |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 100 reviews)
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Somewhat dull by N. Perz (St. Louis)  3 Stars
May 19, 2009
This seems to me to be a rather superficial book about the subject of biological warfare. The early chapters are about fairly well-know incidents of biological "attacks" (i.e., the Japanese subway attack and that cult in Oregon who tried to give an entire town food poisoning). I guess this is to scare the reader into taking the subject seriously.
Most of the rest of the book is about the cat-and-mouse game between the Soviet Union and the U.S. regarding their own bio-weapons programs. A lot of ink is also spent on the political history of trying to get the powers-that-be in the U.S. to take the threat of bio-weapons seriously and better fund research labs.
In all, the book was somewhat dull. I suppose it works o.k. as a primer on the subject but it wasn't quite what I was expecting.
Not terrible but not recommended.
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As much propaganda as fact by Clear Thinker (USA)  1 Stars
April 05, 2009
Miller and friends have written an easy-to-read, mass-market book on biological weapons. It is very focused on alleged biological weapons programs of other countries, without acknowledging our own dog in the fight. In other words, when I began to see Miller outline certain outrageous actions allegedly taken by the Russians or Iraqis, she omitted the fact that the US had taken the same actions, and worse. These glaring omissions made me question the purpose and intent of this book, as well as the "facts" presented. Indeed, it was as if Miller was beating the drum of war for the Bush Administration. The "facts" in this book are extremely slanted to the point of propaganda. As a scholar who has spent well over a decade studying biological and chemical weapons, I advise anyone who wants a truthful understanding of biological weapons, to avoid this book.
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"A Treatise on Biological Warfare" by Russell A. Rohde MD (West Covina, California USA)  4 Stars
September 10, 2007
"Germs: Biological Weapons & America's Secret War," J. Miller, Engelberg & Broad. Simon & Schuster 2001, NY. ISBN: 0-684-87158-0, HC 382 pgs., which includes Index 12 pgs., Notes 44 pgs., Biblio. 4 pgs., 6.5" x 9.5"
All three authors are accomplished, active journalist correspondents (NY Times & Times) who write using well-researched data of the scope & depth of biological research warfare carried out, mostly secretively, by world powers including the Soviets, USA, Iran and Iraq.
"Germs" opens with a desription of how an Oregon cult of Rajneeshees in 1984 deliberately placed cultured Salmonella bacteria in food to poison hundreds (751) of people in an Oregon power grab to take over a county government. They were caught & convicted.
Subsequent chapters are fairly technical, but compelling, on the details of the R & D by the US & its CIA of chemical & biological germ warfare efforts on colossal scales including methods for delivery, dispersal & protection of military using (both cultured normal and genetically altered) bacteria, viruses, & rickettsia: this included tularemia (plague), TB, smallpox, botulism, Valley fever, encephalitis (VEE) organisms and food-poisonings, snake venoms, ricin, etc. The contributing expertise of genetist Joshua Lederberg and the dismal role played by President William Jefferson Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky affair is discussed in detail. All in all, "Germs" is an unsettling read, and the book ends just prior to the 2nd. attack on the Twin-Towers.
"Germs" highlights the unpreparedness of the United States to deal adequately with any major catastrophe, documented by failures in several mock disasters including the May 17, 2000 Denver, "Operation TopOff." The book also details the 1999 misdiagnosis and ineptness of the CDC in finding the cause of the mysterious human and bird cases of encephalitis in Queens, NY - first citing St. Louis Encephalitis (SLE) - but later discovering it to be a West Nile virus and learning it could be spread sans mosquito vector. If you must know where millions, nay billions, of US tax dollars are spent, read "Germs". This is non-fiction at its finest and at its scariest.
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The evil man does! by Sahra Badou (Tokyo, Japan) 4 Stars
July 26, 2007
My conclusion after reading this book: How evil man is! It seems that all what mankind is really concerned about is how to destroy itself by the cruelest, most wicked and gruesome ways possible. The atomic bomb was not enough to satisfy man's craving for destruction. Newer means of killing one's adversaries had to be created. Germs, bacteria, and viruses could fulfill man's desire for gruesome killings - for now!
The book starts in 1984 Dalles, Oregon, when an Indian sect, the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, poisons the residents with salmonella. No one died, but nearly 1,000 were infected with a strain of salmonella that the sect had legally obtained, then cultured and distributed by spraying it on the food of the unsuspecting residents. The goal of the sect was to incapacitate the residents in order to keep them home and unable to vote in the coming elections! The authors show how easy it is for anyone to acquire and then scatter biological agents.
The authors then describe other instances when biological agents were used, such as the Aum Shinrikyo sarin attacks on a Tokyo subway. They also trace the history of biological warfare, starting from World War II to the present.
The authors also show how politics play a role in this biological warfare. Governments trick each other, making the other believe they have no biological weapons when in fact they do! They sign treaties between each other banning the culture of biological agents, but secretly break those treaties. The authors explain the biological agents that governments have cultured for warfare (such as Anthrax, and Ebola). They also make us aware that many scientists around the globe (especially in the former Soviet Union) who worked on biological warfare can now be easily recruited by other countries such as Iran and North Korea. The threat of biological warfare is still rising, according to the authors.
Furthermore, they argue, germ warfare is suited to unconventional attacks by terrorists. Germs can kill as many people as atomic bombs, are more discreet to manufacture, transport, and use on targets. They also give time for the terrorist to escape (i.e. leave the country).
The question that will linger on your mind at the completion of the book is whether doomsday will be a result of a massive nuclear war, of microscopic biological agents, or of as now an undiscovered and more horrific weapon!
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A lot of it rings true in my experience by Rick Wingender (Knoxville, TN)  5 Stars
May 30, 2007
There are a lot of people who want to discredit the entire book for one reason or another, and they're just plain wrong. In the early 90's, I was an Army infantry officer; I had gone through the army's NBC school (Nuclear, Biological, Chemical), served as my unit's NBC officer, and did a lot of additional reading on these topics, including reading this book. Almost everything I read in this book rings true. The average American would be smart to read this book (although most Americans are too lazy, too self-absorbed in Reality TV, and too stupid to be able to comprehend the highly-technical information in the book) and to be aware that biochemical weapons are very enticing to terrorists.
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