Alibek, Ken with Handelman, Stephen. Biohazard: The Chilling True Story
of the Largest Covert Biological Weapons Program in the World -- Told from
the Inside by the Man Who Ran It. New York: Delta (Random House), 2000.
319 pages.
In 1992, Kanatjan Alibekov defected to the U.S. and changed his name
to Ken Alibek. He had been a biowarfare scientist in the Soviet Union for
seventeen years. Between 1988 and 1992, he was first deputy chief of
Biopreparat, the state agency whose primary function was to "develop and
produce weapons made from the most dangerous viruses, toxins, and bacteria
known to man." U.S. intelligence basically had no idea that this was going
on until the Cold War was over. The first revelations came from Vladimir
Pasechnik's defection to Britain in 1989 -- but as a civilian scientist,
Pasechnik had no direct access to military secrets. Alibek, on the other
hand, was an army colonel. He said the Soviets had 52 different biological
agents that could be used as weapons. They even had new germs unknown in the
West, all tested and battle-hardened, with delivery systems ready to go.
Soviet stockpiles have reportedly been mostly destroyed, but detailed
recipes for making these weapons still exist. During the early 1990s there
were secret agreements between Russia and the U.S. that allowed inspections
of facilities. A few years later the truth about the Soviet program started
leaking out in books and articles.
ISBN 0-385-33496-6
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