Germs: The Ultimate Weapon - Softcover

* A sober, frightening yet unforgettable narrative of cutting-edge science and spycraft The atrocities in New York and Washington on 11 September have highlighted as never before the Western world's vulnerability to terrorist attacks of all kinds. As the global coalition seeks justice and retribution so millions of people around the world consider their exposure to further outrages. Bio-terrorism, the subject of this book, is at the heart of many fears: the poor man's hydrogen bomb, a biological weapon of mass destruction can be made in a laboratory and transported in a briefcase -- yet it can silently devastate an entire population. This chillingly authoritative report reveals the spread of germ weaponry throughout the world and the massive, and until now largely undisclosed, effort to stop it. Readers see first-hand the vast extent of the Soviet Union's biological weapons program, with its rows of silos filled with tons of anthrax germs. They learn of efforts by Iran, Iraq and other rogue states to recruit the scientists who created this horror. And they learn of the West's secret effort to thwart the spread of such germ technology to those who would use science not to heal but to kill.

JUDITH MILLER has been a correspondent for the NEW YORK TIMES since 1977, reporting from throughout the world, concentrating on the Middle East and the former Soviet republics. WILLIAM BROAD, science writer for the same newspaper, has twice shared the Pulitzer Prize. STEPHEN ENGELBERG has reported on national security for over a decade and is now investigations editor for the paper.