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

Anthrax. Smallpox. Incurable and horrifying Ebola-related fevers. For two decades, while a fearful world prepared for nuclear winter, an elite team of Russian bioweaponeers began to till a new killing field: a bleak tract sown with powerful seeds of mass destruction—by doctors who had committed themselves to creating a biological Armageddon. __Biohazard__ is the never-before-told story of Russia’s darkest, deadliest, and most closely guarded Cold War secret. No one knows more about Russia’s astounding experiments with biowarfare than Ken Alibek. Now the mastermind behind Russia’s germ warfare effort reveals two decades of shocking breakthroughs . . . how Moscow’s leading scientists actually reengineered hazardous microbes to make them even more virulent . . . the secrets behind the discovery of an invisible, untraceable new class of biological agents just right for use in political assassinations . . . the startling story behind Russia’s attempt to turn a sample of the AIDS virus into the ultimate bioweapon. And in a chilling work of real-world intrigue, __Biohazard__ offers us all a rare glimpse into a shadowy scientific underworld where doctors manufacture mass destruction, where witnesses to errors are silenced forever, and where ground zero is closer than we ever dared believe. **Praise for __Biohazard__** “Harrowing . . . richly descriptive . . . [an] absorbing account.”**—__The New York Times Book Review__** “Remarkable . . . terrifying revelations . . . [Ken Alibek’s] overall message is ignored at great national peril.”**__—Newsday__** “Read and be amazed. . . . An important and fascinating look into a terrifying world of which we were blissfully unaware.”**—Robin Cook, author of __Contagion__** Describes The Massive Soviet Cold War Effort To Manufacture, Stockpile, And Deploy Biological Weapons. Publisher Description: For Fifty Years, While The World Stood In Terror Of A Nuclear War, Russian Scientists Hidden In Heavily Guarded Secret Cities Refined And Stockpiled A New Kind Of Weapon Of Mass Destruction--an Invisible Weapon That Would Strike In Silence And Could Not Be Traced. It Would Leave Hundreds Of Thousands Dead In Its Wake And Would Continue To Spread Devastation Long After Its Release. The Scientists Were Bioweaponeers, Working To Perfect The Tools Of A Biological Armageddon. They Called It Their Manhattan Project. It Was The Deadliest And Darkest Secret Of The Cold War. What You Are About To Read Has Never Before Been Made Public. Ken Alibek Began His Career As A Doctor Wanting To Save Lives And Ended Up Running The Soviet Biological Weapons Program--a Secret Military Empire Masquerading As A Pharmaceutical Company. At Its Peak, The Program Employed Sixty Thousand People At Over One Hundred Facilities.^ Seven Reserve Mobilization Plants Were On Permanent Standby, Ready To Produce Hundreds Of Tons Of Plague, Anthrax, Smallpox, And Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis, To Name Only A Few Of The Toxic Agents Bred In Soviet Labs. Almost Every Government Ministry Was Implicated, Including The Academy Of Sciences And The Kgb. Biohazard Is A Terrifying, Fast-paced Account Of Tests And Leaks, Accidents And Disasters In The Labs, Kgb Threats And Assassinations. The Book Is Full Of Revelations--evidence Of Biowarfare Programs In Cuba And India, Actual Deployments At Stalingrad And In Afghanistan, Experiments With Mood-altering Agents, A Contingency Plan To Attack Major American Cities, And The True Story Behind The Mysterious Anthrax Outbreak In Sverdlovsk. But Beyond These Is A Twisted World Of Lies And Mirrors, And The Riveting Parable Of The Greatest Perversion Of Science In History. No One Knows The Actual Capabilities Of Biological Weapons Better Than Dr. Alibek.^ Many Of The Scientists Who Worked With Him Have Been Lured Away From Low-paying Russian Labs To Rogue Regimes And Terrorist Groups Around The World. In Our Lifetime, We Will Most Likely See A Terrorist Attack Using Biological Weapons On An American City. Biohazard Tells Us--in Chilling Detail--what To Expect And What We Can Do. Not Since Arthur Koestler's Darkness At Noon Has There Been Such A Book--a Report From Inside The Belly Of The Beast. Map: Soviet Biological Warfare Installations -- Military Medicine : Army Headquarters ; Rebirth Island ; Military Medicine ; The Enzyme Project -- Biohazard : Lab Work ; Building 107 ; Accident At Sverdlovsk ; Progress ; Smallpox ; Vector -- Secrets And Lies : The Institute Of Ultra-pure Biopreparations ; Bonfire ; The First Main Directorate ; Inside The Kremlin ; Visitors ; Three Days -- Fortress America : Fort Detrick ; Communist Prospekt ; Debriefing ; Buyers And Sellers ; Biodefense -- Appendixes : 1. Chart Of Soviet Biological Warfare System 2. Soviet Biological Warfare System. Ken Alibek With Stephen Handelman. Includes Index. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Imagine a hot zone in which Ebola is being spliced'using the latest techniques of genetic engineering'with smallpox, the most infectious disease known to man. Now imagine that cocktail is meant for you. For fifty years, while the world stood in terror of a nuclear war, Russian scientists hidden in heavily guarded secret cities refined and stockpiled a new kind of weapon of mass destruction'an invisible weapon that would strike in silence and could not be traced. It would leave hundreds of thousands dead in its wake and would continue to spread devastation long after its release. The scientists were bioweaponeers, working to perfect the tools of a biological Armageddon. They called it their Manhattan Project. It was the deadliest and darkest secret of the cold war. What you are about to read has never before been made public. Ken Alibek began his career as a doctor wanting to save lives and ended up running the Soviet biological weapons program'a secret military empire masquerading as a pharmaceutical company. At its peak, the program employed sixty thousand people at over one hundred facilities. Seven reserve mobilization plants were on permanent standby, ready to produce hundreds of tons of plague, anthrax, smallpox, and Venezuelan equine encephalitis, to name only a few of the toxic agents bred in Soviet labs. Almost every government ministry was implicated, including the Academy of Sciences and the KGB. Biohazard is a terrifying, fast-paced account of tests and leaks, accidents and disasters in the labs, KGB threats and assassinations. The book is full of revelations'evidence of biowarfare programs in Cuba and India, actual deployments at Stalingrad and in Afghanistan, experiments with mood-altering agents, a contingency plan to attack major American cities, and the true story behind the mysterious anthrax outbreak in Sverdlovsk. But beyond these is a twisted world of lies and mirrors, and the riveting parable of the greatest perversion of science in history. No one knows the actual capabilities of biological weapons better than Dr. Alibek. Many of the scientists who worked with him have been lured away from low-paying Russian labs to rogue regimes and terrorist groups around the world. In our lifetime, we will most likely see a terrorist attack using biological weapons on an American city. Biohazard tells us'in chilling detail'what to expect and what we can do. Not since Arthur Koestler's Darkness at Noon has there been such a book'a report from inside the belly of the beast. Praise for Biohazard "Harrowing ... richly descriptive ... [an] absorbing account."'The New York Times Book Review "Remarkable ... terrifying revelations ... [Ken Alibek's] overall message is ignored at great national peril."'Newsday "Read and be amazed. ... An important and fascinating look into a terrifying world of which we were blissfully unaware."'Robin Cook, author of Contagion From the Hardcover edition Anthrax. Smallpox. Incurable and horrifying Ebola-related fevers. For two decades, while a fearful world prepared for nuclear winter, an elite team of Russian bioweaponeers began to till a new killing field: a bleak tract sown with powerful seeds of mass destruction—by doctors who had committed themselves to creating a biological Armageddon. Biohazard is the never-before-told story of Russia’s darkest, deadliest, and most closely guarded Cold War secret. No one knows more about Russia’s astounding experiments with biowarfare than Ken Alibek. Now the mastermind behind Russia’s germ warfare effort reveals two decades of shocking breakthroughs . . . how Moscow’s leading scientists actually reengineered hazardous microbes to make them even more virulent . . . the secrets behind the discovery of an invisible, untraceable new class of biological agents just right for use in political assassinations . . . the startling story behind Russia’s attempt to turn a sample of the AIDS virus into the ultimate bioweapon. And in a chilling work of real-world intrigue, Biohazard offers us all a rare glimpse into a shadowy scientific underworld where doctors manufacture mass destruction, where witnesses to errors are silenced forever, and where ground zero is closer than we ever dared believe. Praise for Biohazard “Harrowing . . . richly descriptive . . . [an] absorbing account.” — The New York Times Book Review “Remarkable . . . terrifying revelations . . . [Ken Alibek’s] overall message is ignored at great national peril.” —Newsday “Read and be amazed. . . . An important and fascinating look into a terrifying world of which we were blissfully unaware.” —Robin Cook, author of Contagion “Read and be amazed. . . . An important and fascinating look into a terrifying world of which we were blissfully unaware.”—Robin Cook, author of Contagion Anthrax. Smallpox. Incurable and horrifying Ebola-related fevers. For two decades, while a fearful world prepared for nuclear winter, an elite team of Russian bioweaponeers began to till a new killing field: a bleak tract sown with powerful seeds of mass destruction—by doctors who had committed themselves to creating a biological Armageddon. Biohazard is the never-before-told story of Russia’s darkest, deadliest, and most closely guarded Cold War secret. No one knows more about Russia’s astounding experiments with biowarfare than Ken Alibek. Now the mastermind behind Russia’s germ warfare effort reveals two decades of shocking breakthroughs . . . how Moscow’s leading scientists actually reengineered hazardous microbes to make them even more virulent . . . the secrets behind the discovery of an invisible, untraceable new class of biological agents just right for use in political assassinations . . . the startling story behind Russia’s attempt to turn a sample of the AIDS virus into the ultimate bioweapon. And in a chilling work of real-world intrigue, Biohazard offers us all a rare glimpse into a shadowy scientific underworld where doctors manufacture mass destruction, where witnesses to errors are silenced forever, and where ground zero is closer than we ever dared believe. Praise for Biohazard “Harrowing . . . richly descriptive . . . [an] absorbing account.” — The New York Times Book Review “Remarkable . . . terrifying revelations . . . [Ken Alibek’s] overall message is ignored at great national peril.” —Newsday Ken Alibek's straightforward story of massive, state-sponsored bio weapons research by the Soviet Union and Modern Russia was too far ahead of its' time. Looking back with post-9/11 vision, "too far" was a mere two years ahead of its' time. *Biohazard* is an eyeopening autobiography of Ken Alibek, AKA Kanatzhan (Kanat) Alibekov, a leading bio weapons developer and Soviet officer of Kazakh ancestry who was determined to expose the former Soviet Union's extensive covert biological weapons program in the 1990's. It was first published by Hutchinson in the United Kingdom in 1999, then re-released by Arrow Books in 2000. Filled with equal parts terrifying details about the gigantic military bio weapons research operation in Russia and of mundane life in the oppressive former Soviet Union, Biohazard was widely dismissed by so-called "experts" upon its' release as sensationalist baloney, nothing more than a mass of outright lies. The facts and allegations Alibek was putting forth about the magnitude of the illegal weapons research the Soviet Union was doing at that time could have led directly into World War III, but for the most part it was never recognized for what it was until long after he had been published in England. Most of the book's assertions have since been investigated and confirmed by U.S. and other Western microbiological and bio weapons authorities. Visits to the laboratory and weapons production sites have confirmed the majority of the pathogens and the level of research performed there. The vast Soviet Union biological weapons infrastructure dwarfed any known bio weapons program anywhere else, and makes for a truly disturbing read. Anthrax. Smallpox. Incurable and horrifying Ebola-related fevers. For two decades, while a fearful world prepared for nuclear winter, an elite team of Russian bioweaponeers began to till a new killing field: a bleak tract sown with powerful seeds of mass destruction by doctors who had committed themselves to creating a biological Armageddon. This book is the never-before-told story of Russia's darkest, deadliest, and most closely guarded Cold War secret. No one knows more about Russia's astounding experiments with biowarfare than the author. Now the mastermind behind Russia's germ warfare effort reveals two decades of shocking breakthroughs, how Moscow's leading scientists actually reengineered hazardous microbes to make them even more virulent, the secrets behind the discovery of an invisible, untraceable new class of biological agents just right for use in political assassinations and the startling story behind Russia's attempt to turn a sample of the AIDS virus into the ultimate bioweapon. This book offers us glimpse into a shadowy scientific underworld where doctors manufacture mass destruction, where witnesses to errors are silenced forever, and where ground zero is closer than we ever dared believe For fifty years, while the world stood in terror of a nuclear war, Russian scientists hidden in heavily guarded secret cities refined and stockpiled a new kind of weapon of mass destruction - an invisible weapon that would strike in silence and could not be traced. It would leave hundreds of thousands dead in its wake and would continue to spread devastation long after its release. The scientists were bioweaponeers, working to perfect the tools of a biological Armageddon. Ken Alibek began his career as a doctor wanting to save lives and ended up running the Soviet biological weapons program - a secret military empire masquerading as a pharmaceutical company. At its peak, the program employed sixty thousand people at over one hundred facilities Biohazard is a terrifying, fast-paced account of tests and leaks, accidents and disasters in the labs, KGB threats and assassinations. The book is full of revelations - evidence of biowarfare programs in Cuba and India, actual deployments at Stalingrad and in Afghanistan, experiments with mood-altering agents, a contingency plan to attack major American cities, and the true story behind the mysterious anthrax outbreak in Sverdlovsk. But beyond these is a twisted world of lies and mirrors, and the riveting parable of the greatest perversion of science in history A former leader of the Soviet Union's bioweapons program describes his covert work with deadly viruses in a program that masqueraded as a pharmaceutical company and the lab disasters, KGB threats, and assassinations that became part of his life before his 1992 defection to the U.S. 25,000 first printing. Late in the winter of 1988, I was called to a meeting at Soviet army headquarters on Frunze Street in Moscow.