Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
This is a compilation of a half-dozen articles originally published in CovertAction, a left- wing activist magazine that in an earlier version established its credentials by publishing the identities of CIA officers operating under diplomatic cover. The editors, cofounders of the magazine, seek here to make a case for government hypocrisy by compiling evidence that America too has pursued research into chemical and biological warfare. That is no particular secret: numerous websites exist on various projects, justified on the grounds that the research is defensive. Rather than sponsoring detailed investigations of such projects and their justifications, the editors present eight essays-none less than ten years old-compiling factoids, inference and innuendo. The first article, for example, repeats charges that the U.S. employed germ warfare in Korea, including introducing toilet paper contaminated with "deadly microbes." Another presents evidence of possible government complicity with chemical companies in stonewalling Agent Orange victims, but gives no clue as to what developed after the 1993 story date. The Viral Cancer Program, according to one piece, "may well have" served as a cover for biological warfare research, while another article denounces the use of depleted-uranium rounds as a potential cause of Gulf War Syndrome and describes the use of two particular nerve gas vaccines as a possible war crime against "disposable soldiers." Another works to support Cuba's charge that its 1981 dengue fever epidemic was the result of a U.S. biological attack. The real problem with this book is that its poorly substantiated scandalmongering invites dismissal and works against appropriate oversight, rather than encouraging it. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Book Description

While Washington contemplates "first strikes" against those nations unilaterally identified as the "Axis of Evil" and said to be stockpiling weapons of mass destruction, this controversial and timely book proves that the United States itself has been the most notorious practitioner of chemical and biological warfare since blankets laced with smallpox were given to Native Americans 250 years ago.

The editors of this book, William Schaap and Ellen Ray, are two prominent U.S. authorities on the CIA. This well-documented book backgrounds several cases of development and use by the United States of chemical-biological warfare, from Agent Orange in Vietnam to the Gulf War syndrome of the 1990s.

In their introduction, the editors offer an up-to-the-minute analysis of current events concerning the issue of biochemical weapons and the "war on terror."

Among the contributors are: Robert Lederer (WBAI/Pacifica Radio journalist) Tod Ensign (director of Citizen Soldier and veterans' rights advocate) Dr. Meryl Nass (expert on anthrax and biological warfare who has testified several times to U.S. Congress)

William Schaap and Ellen Ray were co-founders of Covert Action Quarterly, the authoritative magazine which has been a multiple award-winner of "Project Censored" prizes for its decades of groundbreaking investigative reporting. William Schaap is a New York attorney, who has worked with the Center for Constitutional Rights, and has testified as an expert witness on the CIA and intelligence matters in Congressional and UN hearings, as well as federal, state and foreign courts. Ellen Ray is an independent documentary filmmaker and was a consultant for Oliver Stone's JFK. <./html>