Arms control and nonproliferation treaties are among the fingers in
the dike preventing the unthinkable nuclear, biological, and
chemical catastrophe. For decades the ability to ascertain whether
states are hiding germ weapons programs has been nonexistent
because the 1975 bioweapons ban has no inspection measures. Yet, in
1995 a small United Nations inspection corps pulled off a
spectacular verification feat in the face of concerted resistance
from Iraq's Saddam Hussein and popular skepticism that it was even
possible to conduct effective biological inspections. Working from
sketchy intelligence--and hampered by the Iraqis' extensive
concealment and deception measures--the inspectors busted open
Iraq's cover stories and wrested a confession of biowarfare agent
production from Baghdad. This rigorously researched book tells that
compelling story through the firsthand accounts of the inspectors
who, with a combination of intrepidness, ingenuity, and a couple of
lucky breaks, took the lid off Iraq's bioweapons program and pulled
off an improbable victory for peace and international security. The
book concludes by drawing lessons from this experience that should
be applied to help arrest future bioweapons programs, by placing
the Iraq bioweapons saga in the context of other manmade biological
risks, and by making recommendations to reduce those risks.
While written as an engaging, analytical historical narrative that
explains what the biological inspectors knew, when and how they
knew it, and how they outmaneuvered the Iraqis, this book's real
contributions are the inspectors' blueprint to "get it right" with
regard to the verification challenges associated with the
bioweapons ban, and the author's roadmap to address the overall
biological threats facing the world today.
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