-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Tim wrote:
>I speed-read Tucker's "Scourge" several days ago, and yesterday I sat >down at my local Borders and speed-read the new Judith Miller, William >Broad, etc. book "Germs." (When I "speed-read" I read for the important >parts; I can usually absorb a book like this in an hour or so. I would >read the book at my leisure, but I hate paying $30 for a book I can skim >and get the gist of.) >Nothing we didn't already know, except some stuff that goes beyond Ken >Alibek's "Biohazard." Especially about the weapons plants in Uzbekistan, >Kazakhstan, and other places very close to Afghanistan! I'd thought from >Alibek's book that most of the Biopreparat facilities were in Sverdlovsk >and other places in Siberia. (Not that shipping a flask of India-1967 or >anthrax another 2000 miles is difficult.) There's a great anthology of more technical essays previously published in JAMA called "Biological Weapons: Limiting the Threat" (Joshua Ledford, BCSIA Studies In International Security, MIT Press, 2000). I remember a particularly interesting study someone did which compared potential death rates on an unprotected target city versus one in which the population knew rudimentary bio- civil defense procedures, (ie. masks and protective clothing at the ready, sealing all windows and doors with duct tape, etc.) Huge difference. Another great resource: Bioterrorism: Homeland Defense Symposium: The Next Steps -- An Executive Summary, ed. Maurice Eisenstein (RAND conference proceedings, 2000, PDF): Seeks to identify the elements of an integrated homeland defense against bioterrorism, identify critical gaps, and offer suggestions on how a relatively cost-effective homeland defense program might be achieved. http://www.rand.org/publications/CF/CF155/ And a word to everyone stocking up on antiboitics: don't forget to stockpile gatorade or some other rehydrating solution! "Have a nice day" indeed... ~F. *** "It may be that we shall by a process of sublime irony have reached a stage in this story where safety will be the sturdy child of terror, and survival the twin brother of annihilation." - --Winston Churchill, 1955 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: Hush 2.0 wl8EARECAB8FAju+LZMYHGF1dG8zMDEwOTRAaHVzaG1haWwuY29tAAoJEKadvsVlUK4P SgAAmwQBVwQx4hURn18P8qDn09Nq3AZaAJwPgFZK85fCW6gfFiJ00BOcSgcXOQ== =LRNa -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
