Nexus - 0606 - New Times Magazine-pages

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© REVIEWS suggest how catastrophes—cosmic, seismic know. He reveals how the program was B oO oO K Ss and climatic—have not only shaped our expanded to create biological agents in , planet over millions of years but have quantity, weaponise them and stockpile Reviewed by Ruth Parnell caused the demise of civilisations. He them in the hundreds of tons. The agents VOICES OF THE ROCKS argues that the May 2000 planetary "align- included anthrax, pneumonic plague, small- by Robert M. Schoch, PhD, with ment" will not have destabilising effects on pox, tularemia and Marburg, to name but a Robert A uinas McNall , Earth, but that a flow of comets, expected to few. Some were genetically engineered Publish q H B y USA, 1999 enter Earth-crossing orbits around 2200, from human peptides, thus getting around a | a o 609 B0300. 8 ip or h i could pose a real threat—one that our loophole in the BWC. This expansion had SE nee Ry (25 PP <) . descendants will have to counter. Gorbachev's approval, even in the glasnost Price: AUD$n/a; NZD$nV/a; £16.99; years and as late as 1990—until the KGB, Pench Pi AUSUNEE enquire Renclom BIOHAZARD easing that the American program as Uh Endy by Ken Alibek w. Stephen Handelman —‘[0W-scate compare’ to theirs, ordered’ its House, US Ce ia. Eg shin Publisher: Hutchinson, UK, 1999 (official) dismantling in 1991. 7 offices; ‘anada— Crown Publishing, SBN: 0-09-180085-4 (336pp he, UK); Alibek tells of biological accidents, politi- tel (212) 572 2537 976 7 -0-09- 7 cal intrigue, and his involvement in hosting : ou 0-375-50231-9 (hc, USA); 0-09-180135-4 eee : eologist Robert Schoch, in Voices of 322pp tpb, Australia & NZ) US/UK monitors in the crumbling USSR The Rocks (co-written with author/poet ines : : and inspecting US biological facilities in Robert Aquinas McNally), brings an open (HONIG, He abs HSL 8s her 17.99 1991. Retaining some guilt that he broke his mind to exploring new paradigms and to Available: Aust/NZ/UK/USA— Random medical oath to "do no harm", he now works rejecting hypotheses when they don't mea- House: Europe—NEXUS office at a US research institute, developing sure up to scientific scrutiny. anatjan ‘Alibekov is a Kazakhstan-born immunological drugs to counter the detri- Prof. Dr Schoch of Boston University Ke dical doctor and scientist who mental health effects of bioweapons. admits to waking up to the validity of ge0- worked in the USSR's biowarfare program logical catastrophism, though he still sees om the early 1970s until he resigned in "punctuated equilibrium" as an evolutionary 992 and defected to the USA. Between force. He's quick to contradict his critics 1988 and 1991, Colonel Alibekov was the and point out flaws in alternative arguments irst deputy chief of Biopreparat, the Soviet espoused by everyone from Hapgood and state pharmaceutical agency whose main Sitchin to, more recently, Hancock, Bauval role was the covert development and pro- and the Flem-Aths. Having seen at first uction of biological weapons—on a scale hand the Yonaguni Monument off Japan's unsurpassed in history, and in defiance of Ryuku islands, he concludes it is a natural the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention rock formation comprising vertical joints (BWC) to which Moscow is a signatory. and horizontal fractures that may or may not In his disturbing but gripping autobio- have been assisted by human hands. graphical account, Biohazard, Alibekov Schoch is famous for having knocked back —_ (now known as Ken Alibek) exposes the the Sphinx's original construction date to secrets about the USSR biowarfare program 5000 or 7000 BC or earlier, and here he that were not only kept from the West but devotes a chapter to the story of his findings. from everyone in the Soviet military, intelli- He also critiques a number of studies that gence and bureaucracy without a need to suggest how catastrophes—cosmic, seismic and climatic—have not only shaped our planet over millions of years but have caused the demise of civilisations. He argues that the May 2000 planetary "align- ment" will not have destabilising effects on Earth, but that a flow of comets, expected to enter Earth-crossing orbits around 2200, could pose a real threat—one that our descendants will have to counter. know. He reveals how the program was expanded to create biological agents in quantity, weaponise them and stockpile them in the hundreds of tons. The agents included anthrax, pneumonic plague, small- pox, tularemia and Marburg, to name but a few. Some were genetically engineered from human peptides, thus getting around a loophole in the BWC. This expansion had Gorbachev's approval, even in the glasnost years and as late as 1990—until the KGB, realising that the American program was low-scale compared to theirs, ordered its (official) dismantling in 1991. Alibek tells of biological accidents, politi- cal intrigue, and his involvement in hosting US/UK monitors in the crumbling USSR and inspecting US biological facilities in 1991. Retaining some guilt that he broke his medical oath to "do no harm", he now works at a US research institute, developing immunological drugs to counter the detri- mental health effects of bioweapons. NEXUS -71 OCTOBER — NOVEMBER 1999