Biohazard

^{Pine Bluff, Arkansas: inspecting American facilities. Sitting, from left to right: General Urakov; GRU colonel Dzuby; Lev Sandakchiev, director of Vector; Colonel Shcherbakov, chief of the scientific directorate at Biopreparat; Lisa Bronson, head of the American delegation; me. Third from the right, Handing, it Colonel Vasiliev, deputy commander of the Fifteenth Directorate. Standing in front of the pole is Grigory Berdennikov, head of the Russian team. He was appointed deputy minister of foreign affairs in 1992.}

 ^{Giant autoclave in Building 221 at Stepnogorsk, used to sterilize nutrient media and for the deactivation of anthrax cultures.}

 ^{Dismantling Stepnogorsk: Pilot plant installation for filling and sealing biological bomblets.}

^{Fort Detrick, Maryland, 1998: with three successive commanders of USAMRIID — Charlie Bailey, Dr. Dave Franz, and Dr. Jerry Parker.}

^{Fort McClellan, Alabama: a briefing at the U.S. army biological weapons reconnaissance installation. The truck behind us is equipped to detect and identify biological weapons.}

^{New York, Sunday November 9, 1997: Emergency workers evacuate a "victim" of a biological weapons attack in a training exercise a few blocks from City Hall.}

^{Visiting Charlie Bailey at home in Alabama, 1998.}

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Ken Alibek was born in Kauchuk, Kazakhstan, in 1950. He graduated from the military faculty of the Tomsk Medical Institute in 1975, where he majored in infectious diseases and epidemiology. He holds Ph.D.s in microbiology for research and development of plague and tularemia biological weapons and in biotechnology for developing the technology to manufacture anthrax biological weapons on an industrial scale. He joined Biopreparat in 1975 and was deputy chief of the agency from 1988 to 1992. Since he defected to the United States in 1992, he has briefed U.S. military intelligence, and he is now working on biodefense.

Stephen Handelman is a columnist at Time. He was Moscow bureau chief for The Toronto Star in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He is the author of Comrade Criminal: Russia's New Mafiya.

Appendix 1: Chart of Soviet Biological Warfare System

Appendix 2: Soviet Biological Warfare System

Soviet Agencies, Institutions, and Facilities Involved in Biological Weapons Research, Development, and Production, 1973–1990

This is the first comprehensive overview of the Soviet biological weapons system. The description of the services and facilities run by Biopreparat; the Ministry of Heath; the Academy of Sciences; and the Ministries of Internal Affairs, Justice, and External Trade are complete. I know only indirectly of two to three additional facilities run by the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Agriculture. I was never told of those run by the KGB. In instances in which I was uncertain as to the exact name of an institute, I have given only its location. None of this information has ever been made public before.

CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY

The central authority of the Soviet Communist system, comprising Party representatives elected from around the country. Party leaders sat on the Politburo, the Party's governing body. The general secretary of the Party was chairman of the Politburo and effectively leader of the country. One member of the Politburo was assigned responsibility for all military and defense industry issues, including biological warfare.