Miller, Judith; Engelberg, Stephen; and Broad, William. Germs: Biological
Weapons and America's Secret War. New York: Simon & Schuster (Touchstone
Edition), 2002. 407 pages.
This scare book is by New York Times reporters. Miller is a senior
reporter specializing in anti-Arab stories, Engelberg covered intelligence
for the NYT during Iran-contra and deftly sidestepped all the big stories,
and Broad doesn't do spin because he's a science reporter. Mix and shake,
and you get a book that is one-third technically interesting and two-thirds
hysteria. In fact, just as this book was hitting the bestseller lists,
Miller was pumping out anxious reports on Iraq's (nonexistent) weapons of
mass destruction, based on rumors from Iraqi exiles and defectors.
The best part of this book is the description of Soviet biowarfare
research, which was revealed gradually during the 1990s as Cold War secrecy
crumbled further. There are also fascinating portraits of two cults, one
in the U.S. and another in Japan, that used germ attacks. The worst part of
this book is the assumption that U.S. biowarriors all have white hats, and
everyone else in the world wears black hats. For example, a book of this
scope should have covered the U.S. biowarfare program during the Korean War,
which has been so well documented by Canadians Stephen Endicott and Edward
Hagerman. But alas, you lose spin control if you practice objectivity, and
New York Times reporters never lose control.
ISBN 0-684-87159-9
Extract the names from this source
Back to search page