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 warfare" ...
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Ill- Suited for War
The LA Weekly looks at how prepared American soldiers are in the face of toxic chemicals being used in Iraq. As this reporter reveals, soldiers who served in the 1991 War have fallen ill, some permanently disabled. This report also finds out that with the present design of suits the soldiers are equipped with, they could physically perform for just 20 minutes especially with the prevailing high temperatures in Iraq.
Tags: biological warfare; Iraq War; gulf war; operation desert storm; 1991 war; Saddam Hussein; American soldiers in Iraq; suits to protect against chemical warfare
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Ill Wind
This in-depth article traces the after effects of the 1991 Operation Desert Storm. The article takes a look at how the casualties from of biological warfare have been ignored. The story reveals that the effects on veterans who have been exposed to biological warfare can have effect even 20 years later.
Tags: FOI; Gulf war; Operation desert storm; Saddam Hussein; biological warfare
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Dr. Death and His Accomplice
CBS News 60 Minutes tells the story of Dr. Larry Ford, a gynecologist who hired a hitman to kill his business partner and committed suicide after police connected him to the attempted hit. "When police went to search Dr. Ford's home in Irvine, CA, they found guns and explosives buried in his backyard and a cache of biological agents -- including botulism, salmonella, cholera and typhoid -- in his refrigerator. Police found evidence that Dr. Ford had allegedly poisoned women with some of his germs or chemicals, and (60 Minutes) discovered that a number of female acquaintances of his had long-term debilitating symptoms which rendered them legally disabled. Tips poured in to local police that Dr. Ford had military and intelligence connections, and that he had worked for South Africa's apartheid-era bio-warfare program. (60 Minutes) discovered strong evidence linking Dr. Ford to the leader of the South African program, Dr. Wouter Basson, who has been dubbed 'Dr. Death' by the African press, for his mandate to kill blacks and other opponents of the white-ruled government."
Tags: Dr. Larry Ford; Dr. Wouter Basson; Irvine; California; war; South Africa; TAPE; TRANSCRIPT
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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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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 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
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BioWar
CBS reports that many Navy ships were part of a secret biological warfare tests conducted in the 1960s. These tests, according to a Pentagon briefing film, were conducted to test the vulnerability of Navy ships to germ warfare attacks. CBS examines the fact that many sailors aboard the ships may have been unaware that they were exposed during these secret germ-warfare experiments.
Tags: VIDEOCLIP; TAPE; TRANSCRIPT germ warfare; U.S. government; U.S. Navy; military; bio war
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A Plague on all Your Houses
Westword looks at tests being done in Denver to prepare for a biological weapons attack. Also examines the possibility the U.S. may be overpreparing, spending too much money to prevent bioterrorism.
Tags: biological warfare; anthrax; bubonic plague; smallpox; Denver
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Biological Weapons: A reawakened concern
The 1990s have witnessed a resurgence of concern regarding biological weapons and biological warfare. This has occurred for three reasons.
Tags: Biological weapons