The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "Biological weapons" ...
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Toxic Utah
The Deseret News looks at Utah's toxic legacy -- at the beginning of the Cold War the U.S. government chose the state and others in the "remote West" for a weapons testing program that "sacrificed the lives of American citizens. From uranium mining to chemical and biological weapons, from the military to the industrial complex built to support the Cold War, the region became ground zero for an environmental assualt that poisoned the air, water and land for millions who now live there, oblivious to the toxic legacy that continues to contaminate."
Tags: nuclear weapons; West; Cold War; Utah; environment; toxic; cancer; diseases; death; destruction; bombs; radiation
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Germs: Biological Weapons and America's Secret War
The book takes a look at biological weapons programs around the world, including the United States. The book investigates many aspects of biological warfare including secret bioweapons testing by the CIA, the Pentagon's efforts to make a "superbug," and our efforts to combat biological weapons in the Persian Gulf War. The book attempts to shed some light on the changing global climate the lead to everyone at the Department of Defense being inoculated against Anthrax.
Tags: BOOK; bioterrorism; biological weapons; U.S. government; CIA
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Clear and present danger
The Washington Post Magazine describes the disastrous epidemics that can ensue, if smallpox is ever used as a biological weapon. The story reveals that smallpox is known as a highly contageous ancient scourge, which "has killed countless millions." The article focuses on the expert knowledge of Ken Alibek, former second-in-command manager of Biopreparat, the Soviet Union's vast biological weapons program. "Bioterrrism experts now believe the smallox virus exists in clandestine biowarfare laboratories in at least three, and possibly more, countries," the magazine reports. The article depicts the symptoms of the deadly disease, and warns about the unbelievable speed that infection can spread with.
Tags: Biopreparat; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; World Health Organization; defense; research; Russia; Iraq; North Korea; variola; immunization; pox; epidemics
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Worries About Safety of Its Anthrax Vaccine Put the Army in a Bind
The Wall Street Journal reports on side effects from anthrax vaccine, which have put the U.S. Army in a difficult position. The story reveals that hundreds of soldiers have claimed harm or disability from the anti-anthrax shots, and 102 people have been court-martialed for refusing to take the vaccine. The article follows the developments in the army anthrax vaccination program in recent years, and exposes failures in the performance of BioPort, the military's anthrax vaccine supplier.
Tags: vaccines; terrorism; biological weapons; FBI; FDA; BioPort; Department of Health and Human Services; defense; Steven-Johnson syndrome
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The Germ Front
The American Prospect looks at the threat of biological weapons. "Our public-health system would buckle under a massive epidemic," is one of the main findings, based on a report of the General Accounting Office. The story follows the history of bioterrorism through the centuries, and depicts major developments in the field during the Cold War and in recent decades. The reporter finds that the threat of biological weapons is indisputably growing.
Tags: Biological Weapons Convention; bioweapons; Iran; Iraq; China; anthrax; smallpox; plague; biowarfare; Mideast; Afghanistan; CIA; Johns Hopkins Center for Civilian Biodefense Studies; Epidemic Intelligence Service; vaccines; medicine; Marburg virus; Ebola; Osama bin Laden
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Chemical Weapons Buried In the Backyard
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists reports on the burial and sea-dumping of large quantities of chemical weapons by the U.S. Army since World War I. These weapons are not only immediately dangerous if uncovered, they also pose serious environmental and health risks. Expensive clean up programs are underway across the country.
Tags: chemical weapons; mustard gas; Spring Valley; Environmental Protection Agency; War Department; American University; Army Toxis and Hazardous Materials Agency; Chemical and Biological Defense Command; Non-stockpile Chemical Materiel Program
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The Poison Keeper: Biowarrior, brilliant cardiologist, war criminal, spy -- can a landmark trial in South Africa reveal who Wouter Basson really was?
South African cardiologist Wouter Basson, founder and leader of a top-secret chemical- and biological-warfare program called Project Coast, has been called "the most diabolical aspect of apartheid" by Bishop Desmond Tutu. Finnegan writes of Basson's trial, which began in October 1999, for 67 counts of murder, conspiracy to murder, drug offenses and fraud. Among the work done by Project Coast: "research into a race-specific bacterial weapon; a project to find ways to sterilize the country's black population; discussion of deliberate spreading of cholera through the water supply...; the fatal poisoning of anti-apartheid leaders" and other programs.
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Germs on the Loose: Bioweapons Tests Tainted Sites Around the Globe
"Every major World War II combatant had a biological weapons program," Choffnes writes, "and many of these countries' field test sites remain reservoirs of disease. Although the programs may have ended, the pathogens they released persist in the test sites' animal, bird, reptile, and insect populations. Unless extreme measures are taken to secure testing grounds, pathogens once released into the environment will adapt to new hosts and spread diseases to new areas...As it becomes harder to obtain pathogenic materials from private and public sources, terrorists or nations seeking to acquire a biological weapons capability might be tempted to obtain pathogen seed stocks from wildlife collections or other environmental sources of pathogenic materials." Story discusses in particular biological weapons testing sites in the U.S., Britain, and the former Soviet Union.
Tags: biological weapons; testing sites; field test; anthrax; bioweapons; disease; Vozrozhdeniye; U.S. Cooperative Threat Reduction Program; Gruinard; U.S. Biological Defense Research Program; Chemical Warfare Service; Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention
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Weapons of Mass Confusion: How pork trumps preparedness in the fight against terrorism
The 1995 sarin gas attack that killed 12 people and injured 5,000 others on a Tokyo subway alerted U.S. officials to the potential for biological and chemical terrorism on U.S. soil. In 1996, Congress passed the Defense Against Weapons of Mass Destruction Act of 1996, which authorized spending billions to prepare local officials for attacks and to create specialized military response teams. Now, five years after the law was passed, Green writes, pork-barrel politics has prevented the anti-terrorism effort from fulfilling its duties. "The billions of dollars spent to prepare for an attack has only created an expensive and uncoordinated mess...In the end, more than 40 agencies, overseen by a dozen congressional committees, received a role in the nation's terrorism defense plan. The waste was enormous...The (law) spawned 90 different programs for the single purpose of training local officials. Today they compete just to find clients." After 3 years and $137 million, the U.S. Army National Guard team that was designated to respond to terrorist attacks, has not yet been certified by the Defense Department as ready for duty.
Tags: Defense Against Weapons of Mass Destruction Act; Nunn-Lugar-Domenici Act; domestic terrorism; Aum Shinrikyo cult; Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Team; chemical weapons; biological weapons; pork barrel politics; U.S. Army National Guard
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Weapons of Mass Destruction
"This report detailed the multi-million dollar national effort to train and equip local emergency responders in the event of a terrorist attack using chemical, biological or nuclear weapons. And the report revealed for the first time the folly and wastefulness of the program."
Tags: TAPE; TRANSCRIPT; chemical warfare; biological warfare; safety; terrorists