NOVA Online | Bioterror | Links and Books

Links and Books
Links | Books | Credits | Special Thanks

Centers for Disease Control (CDC)
http://www.bt.cdc.gov/
Since the first anthrax attack in Florida in October 2001, the CDC Web site has become the Internet ground zero for official, up-to-the-minute information on the emerging reality of bioterror in the United States. Direct your browser here for accurate breaking news, FAQs, and detailed information on potential biological agents. Portions of this site are also available in Spanish at http://www.cdc.gov/spanish/esmedia/comunicado.htm.

Center for Civilian Biodefense Studies
http://www.hopkins-biodefense.org/
The Schools of Medicine and Public Health at Johns Hopkins University offer this vast Web site dedicated to increasing public awareness of the threats posed by biological weapons. Visit this site to peruse fact sheets on biological agents, read articles in the center's Biodefense Quarterly, and learn more about the results of Dark Winter, a fictional exercise carried out in June 2001 to simulate a covert smallpox attack on U.S. citizens.

New Scientist Bioterror and Bioweapons Special Report
http://www.newscientist.com/hottopics/bioterrorism/
The editorial staff of New Scientist present this special report on the scientific nitty-gritty of bioterror. The site includes links to all related articles from the magazine's past issues.

Center for the Study of Bioterrorism and Emerging Infections
http://bioterrorism.slu.edu/
The primary aim of this center at the St. Louis University School of Public Health and its Web site is to provide information for healthcare facilities on dealing with naturally occurring and intentional outbreaks. Visitors to this site, both laymen and medical professionals alike, will find ample resources related to biological attacks, including a reading list, an archive of case studies, and detailed protocols for dealing with bioterrorism.

Anthrax Vaccine Immunization Program
http://www.anthrax.osd.mil/
The anthrax vaccine, mandatory for all military personnel since shortly before the Gulf War, has been at the center of a storm of controversy. Is it safe and effective? Should all Americans be vaccinated? Explore these questions for yourself with this overview provided by this U.S. military Web site.

Center for Defense Intelligence
http://www.cdi.org/issues/cbw/
The Center for Defense Intelligence, a nongovernmental organization, weighs in on the who, what, when, where, and why of bioterror on its well-organized Web site, which features fact sheets written by the center's luminary analysts.

World Health Organization (WHO)
http://www.who.int/emc/deliberate_epi.html
In April 2000 the World Health Organization launched a global network of 72 centers around the world to monitor outbreaks for signs of an intentional biological attack. The organization maintains several pages on its Web site related to this effort. To browse the WHOs collection of technical guides, papers, and press releases on the deliberate use of biological and chemical weapons, visit this regularly updated site.

Cato on Terrorism
http://www.cato.org/current/terrorism/threat.html
The Cato Institute, a public policy research organization, poses all the hard questions related to bioterror: How do we balance civil liberties with security? What are the economic and political impacts of bioterror? Are we prepared? How do we fight back? The complete site is available in Spanish at http://www.elcato.org/index.html.

World Anthrax Data Site
http://www.vetmed.lsu.edu/whocc/mp_world.htm
It has been widely reported that the October 2001 anthrax cases were the first in the U.S. since 1978. But how often do humans contract anthrax in other countries? To find out, visit this detailed global map, which offers a history of known anthrax cases in every country.

The Stimson Center Chemical and Biological Weapons Nonproliferation Project
http://www.stimson.org/cbw/
The Stimson Center is a nongovernmental organization run by experts on national and international security. Since 1993, the center's Chemical and Biological Weapons Nonproliferation Project has been studying the status of chemical and biological weapons programs around the world and has worked to halt production of biological agents and lobby for the destruction of existing arsenals. Its Web site maintains an extensive archive of documents related to their discoveries and progress.

Monterey Institute Center for Nonproliferation Studies
http://www.cns.miis.edu/
The Monterey Institute provides information on the biological capabilities of Middle Eastern nations and Russia. Among other valuable resources, visitors to this site will find terrorist profiles of several different groups, including Al-Quaida, and reports on their alleged biological weapons capabilities.

Federation of American Scientists
http://www.fas.org/nuke/intro/bw/index.html
Experts continually stress how complicated it is to create and spread an effective biological agent. For information on the science behind turning germs into weapons, visit this site.

MedLine Plus
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/biodefenseandbioterrorism.html
The National Library of Medicine provides this useful site, which contains, among other things, a wealth of information on the specific conditions associated with a range of biological agents. The site also features related breaking news provided by Reuters and a database of articles on biological agents and their effects.

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
http://www.ceip.org/files/nonprolif/weapons/weapon.asp?ID=1&weapon=biological
The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace's Web site is the only Internet resource that offers an archived compendium of reports, statements, hearings, treaties, and international agreements related to biological weapons. The site also maintains a dauntingly extensive (and continually growing) list of related links.

Germs: Biological Weapons and America's Secret War by Judith Miller, Stephen Engelberg, William J. Broad. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2001.
In their eerily prescient new book published on September 11, 2001, three veteran New York Times reporters explore the recent history and the foreseeable future of biological weapons, drawing on hundreds of interviews with scientists and senior officials as well as recently declassified documents detailing the former Soviet Union's biological weapons program. Engleberg, Miller, and Broad are featured in the upcoming NOVA program "Bioterror".

Toxic Terror: Assessing Terrorist Use of Chemical and Biological Weapons by Jonathan B. Tucker. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2000.
Jonathan Tucker, director of the Chemical and Biological Weapons Nonproliferation Project at the Monterey Institute for International Studies, provides in-depth case studies of the 12 terrorist groups that are currently seeking to deploy biological weapons.

Scourge: The Once and Future Threat of Smallpox by Jonathan B. Tucker. Cambridge: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2001.
Thanks to the World Health Organization's smallpox eradication program, the world was freed of smallpox in 1978. Yet even as the last cases of smallpox came and went, the Soviets were seeking to use smallpox as a weapon in their military arsenal. In his gripping book, Tucker traces the history of smallpox as a biological weapon and soberly observes that the disease could return at the hands of bioterrorists.

Biohazard: The Chilling True Story of the Largest Covert Biological Weapons Program in the World—Told from Inside by the Man Who Ran it by Ken Alibek. New York: Delta Books, 2000.
A former scientist in the Soviet Union's biological weapons laboratories, Ken Alibek offers this personal account of his experience developing the perfect weapon.

Living Terrors: What America Needs to Know to Survive the Coming Bioterrorist Catastrophe by Michael T. Osterholm and John Schwartz. New York: Delacorte, 2000.
Science journalist John Schwartz and epidemiologist Michael T. Osterholm join forces to present a frightening view of just how unprepared for a large-scale bioterror attack we might be. To point out the many gaps in our public health infrastructure, the authors draw on hypothetical scenarios that seem less and less make-believe every day.

Super Terrorism: Biological, Chemical, and Nuclear by Yonah Alexander and Milton M. Hoenig, eds. New York: Transnational Publishers, 2001.
By the authors' definition, Super Terrorism is a covert act of mass destruction carried out with sophisticated biological, chemical, or radiological weaponry. Are we ready for Super Terrorism? Read the carefully edited speeches, testimony, and reports on terrorism's newest breed by former president Bill Clinton, former secretary of state Madeline Albright, and other experts.

Anthrax: The Investigation of a Deadly Outbreak by Jeanne Guilleman. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2001.
Medical anthropologist Jeanne Guilleman probes the 1979 deaths of 64 Soviet citizens from anthrax in the Ural Mountains. Blamed at the time on tainted meat, Guilleman and her research team embark on a medical mystery and discover a far more sinister source of anthrax than meat.

Lauren Aguirre, Executive Editor
Katie Caldwell, Associate Designer
Rick Groleau, Managing Editor
Brenden Kootsey, Technologist
Lexi Krock, Editorial Assistant
Susan K. Lewis, Contributing Editor
Peter Tyson, Editor in Chief
Anya Vinokour, Senior Designer

Lori Beane, Associate Producer, "Bioterror"
Rocky Collins, Writer and Producer, "Bioterror"
Lisa Swenarski de Herrera, Centers for Disease Control
Dr. Ronald C. Kennedy, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center
Dr. Alan L. Rothman, University of Massachusetts Medical School
Dr. Jonathan Tucker, Monterey Institute of International Studies
Dr. David B. Weiner, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
Dr. Mark Wheelis, University of California at Davis
Kirk Wolfinger, Director, "Bioterror"

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