Biohazard

Ken Alibek's straightforward story of massive, state-sponsored bio weapons research by the Soviet Union and Modern Russia was too far ahead of its' time. Looking back with post-9/11 vision, "too far" was a mere two years ahead of its' time. *Biohazard* is an eyeopening autobiography of Ken Alibek, AKA Kanatzhan (Kanat) Alibekov, a leading bio weapons developer and Soviet officer of Kazakh ancestry who was determined to expose the former Soviet Union's extensive covert biological weapons program in the 1990's. It was first published by Hutchinson in the United Kingdom in 1999, then re-released by Arrow Books in 2000. Filled with equal parts terrifying details about the gigantic military bio weapons research operation in Russia and of mundane life in the oppressive former Soviet Union, Biohazard was widely dismissed by so-called "experts" upon its' release as sensationalist baloney, nothing more than a mass of outright lies. The facts and allegations Alibek was putting forth about the magnitude of the illegal weapons research the Soviet Union was doing at that time could have led directly into World War III, but for the most part it was never recognized for what it was until long after he had been published in England. Most of the book's assertions have since been investigated and confirmed by U.S. and other Western microbiological and bio weapons authorities. Visits to the laboratory and weapons production sites have confirmed the majority of the pathogens and the level of research performed there. The vast Soviet Union biological weapons infrastructure dwarfed any known bio weapons program anywhere else, and makes for a truly disturbing read.