Dead Silence
Fear and Terror on the Anthrax Trail
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- $24.99
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- $24.99
Publisher Description
Dead Silence—the first in-depth look into the new biological arms race—tells the inside story of the U.S. anthrax attacks and their connection to the existence of a frightening global germ warfare underworld.
Dead Silence follows a journalist and a private eye as they pursue leads that take them across four continents, inside classified labs in the U.S., and to an off-limits Russian military compound. In South Africa they track down “Doctor Death,” the apartheid army scientist who—using the expertise of his U.S. and U.K. intelligence contacts—worked on an array of germ weapons, including one targeting black people, a weapon that may be for sale on the black market today.
Their investigation intensifies to include the mysterious deaths of some of the world’s leading germ war scientists in the wake of 9/11, including that of Bruce Ivins—the man the tabloids called “Doctor Doom” and the FBI controversially insists is the lone perpetrator of the anthrax attacks.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
For years after its 2001 appearance in the U.S. mail, filmmakers and journalists Coen and Nadler followed the trail of panic-inducing anthrax, uncovering events worthy of a spy thriller and concluding that the biggest biochemical threat comes from the government, not terrorists. In a dramatic play-by-play, they detail sojourns through the U.S., Siberia, Africa, and England, following clues, a surprising number of deaths and the testimony of those brave enough to go on the record. Although extraneous detail can occasionally distract, the authors move smoothly through biotechnological advances, strange misfortune and political machinations around the globe; horrifying stories of recent germ warfare research worldwide includes a reported lack of regulation for such research in the U.S. (where billion were spent on anthrax research in 2006 alone). As they follow a path of dead scientists, Coen and Nadler find that "the walls went up wherever anthrax was found... Those that looked behind the walls did so at their own peril." Engaging and populist, this volume should prove interesting to a range of politically-minded readers, from policy wonks to conspiracy theorists.