Bioterror: Manufacturing Wars the American Way - Mixed Media - Brief Article

New Internationalist, March, 2003 by Vanessa Baird

edited by Ellen Ray and William H Schaap

(Ocean Press, ISBN 1-876175 64 8)

The trouble is, when it comes to biological and chemical weapons of mass destruction the US knows what it is talking about. This book isn't about Iraq, though, or North Korea. It's about the US itself -- that great stockpiler, developer and user of chemical and biological weapons. And the only nation in the world to have deployed the most lethal 'weapon of mass destruction' -- the nuclear bomb.

Edited by the co-founders of the US-based and multiple award-winning CovertAction Monthly, Bioterror pulls together articles detailing the US's long term commitment to chemical-biological weapons. Historical examples include the use of Agent Orange in Vietnam. But there are other less well-known claims, such as the introduction of dengue fever into Cuba and Nicaragua or anthrax into Zimbabwe during its independence struggle.

The role of pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer in providing viruses for the US army biological warfare programme is another factor. Pharmaceutical companies are out to make a killing from both ends of bioterror: the US Bioterrorism Preparedness act of June 2002 allocates more than $600 million to produce and stockpile vaccines.

Who knows exactly what the US is up to now? We are unlikely to find out. While declaring Iraq part of the 'Axis of Evil' because of its supposed weapons programme, the Bush administration has abandoned an international effort to strengthen the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention on the grounds that it would grant foreign inspectors 'too much access to US installations and companies'. The hypocrisy is simply stunning -- and Bioterror is a timely spotlight on it.

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