“For the past decade the risk and imminence of the use of biological agents by nonstate actors/terrorist organizations -- 'bioterrorism' -- has been systematically and deliberately exaggerated.” He immediately adds this practice “accelerated” after 9/11 and the mailings of powdered anthrax.
Because of the public and governmental perception that mitigation of allegedly catastrophic bioterrorism is of paramount importance , “the US biodefense research program appears to be drifting into violation” of the Biological Weapons Convention, an international arms control treaty which this country had an important role in building. It is a menacing development and has happened through a slippery evaluation process which justifies research into biological weapons threat capabilities and scenarios by repackaging what appears to be work with potential offensive application as defensive in nature.
BushCo. has been lying to us deliberately about the threat of "bioterrorism". This book, written by Milton Leitenberg for the Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College, accurately describes the lies and concocted movie plot threats. It would appear the motivation is simple: this country wants to develop CBW agents, but we signed a treaty saying we would not -- a treaty that we developed and pushed. By claiming instead to be working on cures and vaccines we can actually work to develop the very agents themselves. The difference between offensive and defensive development is only semantic.
