Biohazard

In December 1998, a committee of scientists appointed by the National Research Council's Institute of Medicine and chaired by Peter Rosen, director of the emergency medicine residency program at the University of California's school of medicine in San Diego, proposed that new research be undertaken into "broad-spectrum anti-bacterial and anti-viral compounds" to counter biological and chemical terrorism — in other words, nonspecific protection against a variety of biological weapons. This recommendation was only one of sixty projects identified by the committee, but it was singled out as a high priority. Endorsed by a panel of twelve prominent U.S. scientists, including Dr. Donald Henderson, one of the architects of the worldwide campaign against smallpox, and the Nobel prize-winning biologist Joshua Lederberg, it represented the first time such an idea had received professional review anywhere in the world.

The marines learned of my proposal before the panel delivered its findings. A congressional aide told them about my testimony before the Joint Economic Committee hearing on terrorism, and a meeting was arranged at the offices of the scientific research and development company where I now work. The two colonels took notes as I went over my ideas. I couldn't help but notice the irony of the situation. To these men I was just another civilian, a scientist with an interesting proposal.

A month later, in November, the marines called my office to report that they had received preliminary approval from their superiors to test a program of nonspecific immunity. Plans for a pilot project are under way.

In helping my adopted country create a new system of defense against the weapons I once made, I often remember Russia, which I loved and continue to love. I want this country to have a different fate. In an interview with a Russian paper, one of my friends called me a betrayer. I am certain he is not alone in thinking this. As I return to this question again and again, I have come to the conclusion that I did not betray Russia so much as it has betrayed its people. As long as it makes heroes of the people who create prohibited weapons, as long as it continues to help foreign dictators who murder civilians and to wage wars against its own people, as long as it trains its physicians and teachers to kill and considers as criminals those who try to speak against this — to call what is immoral by its name — as long as this continues, there can be no hope for a better future. We talk about economic and structural reform, but what is needed in Russia is moral reform, and until that happens, Russia will not change.

As a young boy in Kazakhstan I once came across a book about a doctor who risked his life and health to heal his patients. He was the physician I dreamed of becoming. I cannot unmake the weapons I manufactured or undo the research I authorized as scientific chief of the Soviet Union's biological weapons program; but every day I do what I can to mitigate their effects. The realization that even today, in Iraq or China, another father of three may be sitting down at a conference table to plot the murder of millions of people is what spurs me on. This is my way of honoring the medical oath I betrayed for so many years.

ILLUSTRATIONS

^{My grandfather Abdrahman Aitiev at his desk in the 1920s. One of the leaders of the Communist revolution in Kazakhstan, he was the first People's Commissar of Internal Affairs, responsible for police and security services in the 1920s and 1930s. A Kazak national hero, he was imprisoned in 1936 and died that year in a prison hospital in mysterious circumstances. Several streets in Kazakhstan are named after him.}

^{My parents, Rosa and Byzak Alibekov, in 1950, when my father was a junior police lieutenant and my mother was pregnant with me.}

^{Taking the army oath to enter the military faculty of the Tomsk Medical Institute in 1973.}

 ^{A break from military training with fellow medical cadets in 1974. I am second from the left. To my right is Talgat Nurmagambetov, recent chief of medical services for the Kazak army.}