5 comments about U.S. Armed Forces Nuclear, Biological And Chemical Survival Manual.

1. My New Year's resolution was to read this book - and I'm glad that I did. It took hearing about the exploits of Special Forces in Afghanistan and Iraq to make me pick up and read this book by former Navy SEAL Captain Couch. He knows what he's talking about and has given us something straight from military training manuals.



2. As a former SEAL I have read several of Captain Couch's novels and liked them all. I thought that I would take a chance on this book because of his reputation. I am glad I did and have bought several more copies through you all for relatives. There is a wealth of great material here and I'll give the sequel five stars instead of four if it's longer!



3. We assigned writer prepared this recommendation on a lovely, though warm summer day, while butterflies fluttered over a stand of purple thistles. Until he read this book, it seemed like a peaceful scene. Then, it seemed full of threats and hidden perils. He wondered if his building is strong enough to protect against a nuclear attack. What will his family do if someone sprays anthrax spores from a crop duster? Is there a clear spot in the basement to store enough gas masks, and which ones? This book will make you paranoid, too. It says that the threat of an attack is real and growing. You could laugh that off, except that the police just busted an arms dealer for trying to bring missiles into the U.S., except that someone mailed anthrax to strangers, except that there used to be towers at the World Trade Center. Are recommendation - buy this book, read it, then decide whether it is better to prepare or to take your chances. Feeling lucky? At least go buy some flashlight batteries



4. This book seems to cover it all. If times could get as bad as some on the fringe are saying, this would be a great book to have around.



5. Contains good general information and specific information that is very helpful. A little dry, but that is to be expected. My only wish is that the author would have kept going as I could not put this one down.

2 comments about War and Nature: Fighting Humans and Insects with Chemicals from World War I to Silent Spring (Studies in Environment and History).

1. World War I was just the beginning of an ongoing cultural and scientific process in which chemical based weapons were created and marketed for use against human and insect enemies. Russell reminds us that the cultural, institutional, and political evolution of twentieth century science and warfare in the United States began not with the J. Robert Oppenheimer and the physicists of Los Alamos but with chemists like James B. Conant and his colleagues at Harvard and American University, emergent corporations like Dupont and the Hooker Company, and government agencies such as the Department of Agriculture and the United States Chemical Warfare Service. With an eye for detail and a witty and readable narrative style, the author assembles scientific papers, declassified governmental and military planning documents, trade journals, and propaganda and advertising literature to reshape our understanding not only of the role of chemistry in warfare, but more importantly the reflexive nature of our understanding and relation to both technology and nature during times of peace.



2. In War and Nature Edmund Russell, Associate Professor of Technology, Culture, and Communication at the University of Virginia, cleverly traces the interaction between chemical warfare and pest control from World War I to the Vietnam War. His central thesis is that war and control of nature have coevolved: "the control of nature expanded the scale of war, and war expanded the scale on which people controlled nature" (p. 2). Following up on his dissertation (University of Michigan, 1993), which won the Rachel Carson Prize from the American Society for Environmental History, Russell culled a wide variety of recently declassified U.S. government documents, business publications, and contemporary books and articles. Russell finds that World Wars I and II and the Cold War forged close ties between military and scientific institutions, and efforts to maintain such links became hallmarks of the post-World War II era. Scientifically and technologically, pest control and chemical warfare each created knowledge and tools that reinforced the other (p. 4) For example, on the eve of World War I, there were few U.S. chemical companies. They manufactured primarily low-profit bulk chemicals. In contrast, Germany had the best chemical factories and schools and had the largest output of sophisticated products. Eight German companies made up almost 80 percent of the world's dyes (p. 18). However, the increased use of mustard and chlorine gas in the war boosted the demand by European allies for these chemicals from the United States. The "Chemical Warfare Service" was created within the U.S. Army to employ civilian chemists to conduct research on war gases. This research also stimulated the invention of new insecticides to deal with such menaces as the boll weevil (attacking cotton crops), house fly (spreading typhus), the San Jose scale (damaging fruit trees), and mosquitoes (spreading malaria).
   The use of chemicals in warfare is not new. Interestingly, Russell points out that the first recorded use of poison gas was in 428 BC, when Spartans besieging Plataea attempted to kill its defenders by burning wood soaked in pitch and sulfur under city walls (p. 4). However, chemical warfare increased throughout the twentieth century. According to Russell, at least 90,000 people were killed in World War I by gas, and estimated 350,000 were killed by gas in World War II, not including all the victims in Hitler's gas chambers. Even these figures seem low. Russell skillfully shows through cartoons how federal entomologists and chemists used insects in their propaganda as metaphors for human enemies. One cartoon depicts a conversation between two worms, one of them exclaiming: "What! Me sabotage that guy's victory garden? What do you take me for-a Jap? (p. 100)."
   The Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 sought to exclude gas from warfare and define the rights of combatants. Public outrage at the use of chemicals as weapons of war continued to mount. After World War II, the Chemical Warfare Service and other chemical companies lobbied Congress vigorously, stressing the need to develop war gases as insecticides, for which increased funding was required. Noted chemists testified before Congress, claiming also that chemical and biological warfare was "more humane" than conventional warfare. According to Russell, who interviewed several of these chemists, Chief Chemical Officer William Creasy inanely argued in 1958 that 25,000 American casualties on Iwo Jima could have been avoided had the U.S. military employed chemical weapons (p. 208). Miracle "psychochemicals" were promoted, such as LSD-25 that could temporarily incapacitate troops but not permanently harm them. Russell cites a US Army propaganda film produced in 1958 in which a cat chased and caught a mouse, inhaled an unnamed gas, and then cowered from another mouse (p. 208). This publicity campaign persuaded Pentagon authorities to increase the U.S. Army's budget to $80,000,000 for chemical research.
   Research to fight insects increased simultaneously with the development of chemicals to fight humans. As thousands of families moved to the suburbs in the 1950s, gardening became a popular hobby and stimulated the desire for pest control. Pesticide manufacturers such as Du Pont and Dow increased their marketing to this group of consumers, while federal crop dusting programs using DDT were initiated.
   Russell shows how Rachel Carson's publication of Silent Spring in 1962 galvanized the American environmental movement, leading eventually to the ban on DDT in 1972. This immediate bestseller detailed the noxious effects of DDT on plants and animals and characterized pest control as a self-defeating form of warfare (p. 229).
   Reading this book, one is struck by the immense irony of the twentieth century and the causal interaction of peace and war. Never before have so many human lives been saved (thanks to pesticides killing disease-carrying insects and increasing crop yields) and so many destroyed (mostly due to incendiaries, but also chemical weapons). Americans got better at saving lives partly because they got better at taking them, and vice versa. While War and Nature is almost too dazzling in its rich detail and sometimes a bit careless in its logic (e.g. implying that human beings should not be considered part of nature), the book breaks new ground in its connection of two traditionally disparate fields of inquiry, environmental and military history. It should be required reading in college courses in both security studies and environmental science.---Johanna Granville, Ph.D. (Stanford University)

5 comments about A Higher Form of Killing: The Secret History of Chemical and Biological Warfare.

1. This books delivers a history of chemical weaponry from the First World War. A good insight into their uses and effects as recorded by actual use in war. This is also a frightening insight into what possibly could happen should a rogue state/terrorist were able to build these weapons.



2. Terrorism thrives on fear and imagination in designing weapons of mass destruction to inflict the most damage and death. Massive planes flown into prominent symbols of American pride, bomb-laden trucks exploding in front of U.S. embassies or Marine Corps barracks, explosive charges on a small boat rammed into a United States warship, these are the events that come to mind when one envisions terrorist attacks. Chemical and biological warfare seem an improbable choice for terrorists to use due to inability to procure materials or test for reliability. Or is it?
   
   A Higher Form of Killing offers another area for terror to grasp hold. Dubbed the "The best account of gas and germ warfare available" by the Washington Post, A Higher Form of Killing presents the history of chemical and biological warfare through several first hand accounts as well as declassified documents that grimly describe its effects. Concentrating primarily on the UK-U.S. relationship developed out of World War One continuing through to today, authors Harris and Paxman shed light on several bio/chem warfare programs developed including releasing "inert" gases over populous cities to see how far the gases would penetrate, full blown experiments using live germs and gases over deserted islands, CIA experiments using prostitutes who administered bio drugs into unsuspecting clients and many more. With several research facilities conducting experiments throughout the western world, germ and gas warfare is a mature industry capable of producing and delivering a crippling blow if employed in a devilish manner.
   
   A Higher Form of Killing is a must read for anyone wishing to learn more about the history of bio/chem warfare and for those who dare dream of its future if these deadly weapons were possessed by terrorists; however, it is NOT recommended for those with a weak stomach (graphic descriptions and pictures of physical effects from weapons in this book).
   
   A Higher Form of Killing was written in 1981 and thus is a bit outdated; however a revised edition was released in 2002 (still outdated).



3. The book was written before the events of 9/11, however the topics are even more poignant today then they were when it was originally written.
   
   Not too technical a read and this book exposes a lot of valuable information about the (expected) double-speak of governments regarding secret research projects.
   
   This book is a definite read for anyone interested in the history or possible future of biological and chemical weapons.



4. This is the kind of military history that has a special exciting and personal kick to it, revealing as it does, a whole new underworld and understructure of secrecy practiced by all the major military powers in one of the scariest areas of military technology and research known to man; secrecy that infiltrated some of the most obscure communities around the globe, including my own hometown of Pine Bluff, Arkansas.
   
   It seems that while this, the art of a "higher form of killing" with CW, may have been invented by the Germans and first used to good effect by them at Ypres during WW-I, other nations, including the U.S., UK, Russia, and Japan, quickly got in the act and followed suit. At the end of the WW-I, research and production on CW continued unabated. The 1925 Geneva Convention (which essentially was a "no first use" protocol) was signed but several of the key players including the U.S., failed to ratify it until 1972. As a result, Germany maintained, and even extended its advantage throughout the end of WW-II, where much to its surprise, the Allies discovered that its intelligence had missed German development of both Sarin and Tabun, two of the most deadly chemicals known to man.
   
   What is most significant about this historic intelligence failure is that had the German's not conned themselves into believing that the Allies had also discovered Sarin and Tabun (which of course they had not), they (the Germans) could have recognized their own insurmountable CW advantage and could have then used it to unleash a CW defensive (or counter-offensive) to repel the Normandy D-Day invasion. Such a defense could well have changed the course of history. For we can only imagine the horror the invasion forces would have confronted in the face of a full-scale Tabun or Sarin CW defensive or counter-attack by Germany. Experts all agree that under such circumstances the much herald Allied-invasion would have surely failed, giving Hitler the much-needed breathing space to shore up his crumbling forces across the military landscape.
   
   This is just one of the many stories told about the massive "Chemical Manhattan Project" of "Public health in reverse" taking place in our own backyard hidden from view, as the world's primary military actors tried to "out poison each other" with newer and more deadly "insecticides for people." Although once restricted only to governments with advance technological capabilities, today with advances in computer technology and the wide availability of information on fabricating CBW, it has now correctly been "dubbed" "the poor man's nuclear weapon." Even today, eight years later, we still do not know who was responsible for the Anthrax that killed five in Washington DC in the aftermath of 911.
   
   For me there is another important footnote to this story. I was a part of the U.S. delegation to the CBW Talks in Geneva at the same time that my stepfather had spent a whole career of 35 years as an "instrumentation Specialist" at the Pine Bluff Arsenal, one of the key CBW plants in the U.S. at the time. That arsenal had been pumping one million dollars per month into the Pine Bluff economy -- since five days before Pearl Harbor. When I was once on leave from the Geneva negotiations, where we were trying to negotiate an end to developing CW weapons, my father introduced me to the patrons who frequented his Tavern (The Duck Inn) as "my son who is trying to do away with all of your jobs."
   
   Upon his death, I was invited by the base commander at the Pine Bluff Arsenal to see the base and to see where my father had worked. I was overwhelmed by the size and sophistication of the base. It was about twice the size of the city of Pine Bluff itself. As far as the eye could see in any direction, there were little tepee huts filled with CW munitions.
   
   Now as a result of this book, I know the rest of the story. This is military history at its best. Five Stars.



5. The authors have done a great job detailing the history of biological and chemical weapons. I was hoping they would also deal with older history such as the use of chemical and biological weapons in the middle ages etc, but that's the only downside to the book; It's really only a modern history of these weapons and their uses.
   But an entertaining read about a very worrying subject.

3 comments about Greek Fire, Poison Arrows, and Scorpion Bombs: Biological & Chemical Warfare in the Ancient World.

1. If you like the interesting bits of history you will enjoy this book. The recipe for Scythian arrow poison was quite remarkable. No wonder they frightened the Greeks!



2. This is a terrible book, massively overwritten, and so rife with bold and questionable statements and hero-worship as to make the reader question its accuracy.
   
   In addition to having elastic definitions of biological and chemical warfare (war elephants and camels count, as does praying for plagues ...) the author indulges in imaginative speculation, holding (among other things) that the Ark of the Covenant was a repository of a last-ditch bioweapon in the form of disease-infested rags (and that other Near Eastern societies did the same thing), and stating that the Scythians were never without little pots of sticky arrow poison, on the sole authority of Herodotus, who reported that they hung small cups from their belts. These reveries are inextricably mixed with the author's factual statements and frequently form the basis for her elaboration of her arguments.
   
   She places unquestioning trust in the factual accuracy of myths and epic poetry, particularly in the cases of the Trojan War and Herakles. She also makes extremely selective use of primary sources: for instance, Julius Caear doesn't mention bringing an elephant in Britain in his own writings; the reference is Polyaenus's Strategemata, a document composed two centuries after Casear, which might be confusing Caesar's and Claudius's invasions.
   
   Also, for what it's worth, Alexander's army was Macedonian, not Greek; as Alexander captured Darius' elephants at Gaugamela, they weren't new to him when he fought them in India; and Carlsbad is in New Mexico, not Mexico.
   
   Finally, illustrations should illustrate the text, not just break it up, which means that pictures of painted Scythian arrow shafts are welcome, while romantic portraiture and Dover clip art are useless when they're not misleading.



3. Judging by the many positive reviews of this book in, for example, the New York Times, National Geographic, Newsweek, and by leading ancient historians, classical scholars, and experts in biochmical warfare, such as Robert Fagles (translator of Homer's Iliad), Tom Holland (Persian Fire, Rubicon), Brian Balmer (Britain and Biological Warfare), and Richard Stoneman ( Alexander The Great), this book is considered a valuable, pathbreaking study of the deep roots of toxic warfare.
   
   Each chapter, on different types of toxic warfare, is filled with exciting, little-known episodes in myths and in real battles of the earliest references to biological weapons and tactics. Also the facts that this book is chosen for History book clubs, a favorite of war game fans, widely reviewed in Europe, South America, and Asia, and translated into Polish, Greek, Turkish, Japanese, and Chinese indicates the high merit of this book. Sure, any readers combing books for errors and typos will find something to complain about, but the majority of readers realize this and judge a book on its capacity to educate and entertain.
   
   Some reviewers object to Mayor's descriptions of biological weapons in Greek mythology, but the difference between legend and history is not always clear in ancient sources. What the myths show is that the intention to wield secretly poisoned weapons is really ancient and the capacity to actually use such weapons does not require modern technology or scientific knowledge.
   
   The sum-up in the Naval War College Review by a biodefense expert called this book "comprehensive," seminal" and "highly recommended." There is not other book written on this topic and it's hard to imagine one more informative and or more fun to read than "Greek Fire, Poison Arrows & scorpion Bombs."

5 comments about Biohazard: The Chilling True Story of the Largest Covert Biological Weapons Program in the World--Told from Inside by the Man Who Ran It.

1. When I first started reading Biohazard, I thought I had picked up a sci-fi novel and almost forgot that I was reading non-fiction. Easy and quick reading, the story is a narrative of Alibek's work with the secret Soviet bio-weapons program. Written for the un-technical reader, Alibek provides friendly explanations of immunology and virology suitable to the layman.
   The most redeeming part of the book is the perspective it gives the reader to make more informed assessments of the current security climate and our nation's ability to respond to potential threats. For example, Vector, the bioresearch institute Alibek worked at, and which currently houses one of the two last remaining known strains of smallpox, was known to have conducted bioweapons research on smallpox secretly during the Cold War. This brings up the question of whether research on smallpox today is actually purely for defense reasons. The most chilling part is that these threats could still exist in unknown hands; whereas the enemy of Alibek's time was the single and relatively well characterized Soviet Union, today's enemies are non-traditional and numerous rogue states and terrorist groups that we know little about.
   If you're looking for just the facts, prepare to read through a good deal of personal memoir material. The main complaint I have about this book is that it tends to drag on and give too many details. The author could easily have gotten his point across in a 150 pages, but instead takes over 300 pages. The main points tend to become bogged down by personal details. It's difficult to separate credibility from sensationalism. For example, the first page describes a scene of viral particles descending upon an island of African monkeys. Do not choose this book if your criteria is literary merit.
   Overall, the book brings up some very interesting and little-known events. I just wish that an abridged version could come out soon. Unless you're very interested in this man's personal life, a Wikipedia article may suffice.



2. As I read this book, I couldn't help but feel that Ken Alibek embellished the truth just a bit...



3. Awesome book, read this over five years ago in it's original release ( bright orange cover ) and ever since, I have been looking for this.



4. This is a very informative book about biological warfare in general and how these weapons were developed in cold war Russia.
   
   Besides those technical details there's also some information about the political climate in Russia during that time period although this is only touched upon and is sometimes hard to follow in the book.
   
   I had seen the author and this book on TV after the anthrax letter and 9/11 attacks in the U.S. when the interest in biological warfare was at a very high level. The anthrax letter investigation is another interesting story.
   
   This story has a similar feeling to the writings of the great Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. There's the same atmosphere of secrecy, fear, government informants, corruption, hypocrisy, etc.. Kanatjan isn't in the same league with Solzhenitsyn as far as his writing but he's not a bad writer nonetheless.
   
   He ties in all of the science and politics with his own personal life going back to his childhood when the kids would go exploring inside old broken down bio weapons factories. They would find mysterious containers which they were fortunately never able to pry open.
   
   The world is perhaps fortunate that genetic research and engineering was frowned upon in Russia for decades. This slowed down the pace of these mad scientists in their quest to create super germs which could probably end all life on the planet.
   
   Even so they created the most efficient and massive biological weapons industry of all time with factories that could produce this crap by the truckloads.
   
   Kanatjan and his colleagues viewed themselves as high priests of a mysterious cult and a microscopic universe which only they truly understood. Even a superficial study of the behavior of viruses reveals that these organisms appear to be alive and intelligent at some level.
   
   Ultimately Kanatjan realized that America's bio weapons program had ended in 1969 and the Russian government knew this. This lead him to the horrible realization that everything he had spent his life working on was only done to line the pockets of the Russian military industrial complex.
   
   I guess he can join all of the Viet Nam veterans and countless others throughout history who suffered for a hypocritical cause.
   
   The forgotten victims in all of this were the countless monkeys, guinea pigs, rabbits, etc., who were tormented in unspeakable ways for something which ultimately turned out to be completely unnecessary.
   
   The mistrust and fear which exists between countries may end up destroying us all.
   
   Jeff Marzano
   
   The First Circle
   
   The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956: An Experiment in Literary Investigation (Volume One)
   
   Haarp: The Ultimate Weapon of the Conspiracy (The Mind-Control Conspiracy Series)
   
   The Hunt for Zero Point: Inside the Classified World of Antigravity Technology
   
   The Truth About The Philadelphia Experiment



5. This was a fantastic book and worth every penny. I highly recommend it. This book is one of these rare gems that come out every so often. I was totally engrossed with the whole book.

5 comments about Downfall: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire.

1. For over forty years, I've been reading about the end of World War II and Japan. Were the Japanese ready to surrender? Were the atomic bombs dropped to intimidate the Soviet Union? Was racism the real motive?
   
   Richard Frank's DOWNFALL: THE END OF THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE EMPIRE, is the best book on this subject I've ever read. Frank takes us back to 1945, and shows what the United States knew then, and how they knew it. Based on the information they had available at the time, the U.S. and British leaders had no reason to believe that the effective leaders of Japan were going to surrender any time soon, or that any alternative course they chose would lead to fewer deaths. Further, he shows that these judgments were correct: there is still no evidence that the effective rulers of Japan would have surrendered in 1945, and all the alternatives to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki would have definitely led to hundreds of thousands MORE DEATHS of civilians and soldiers.
   
   I regard the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as atrocities and crimes, but the whole of the war was a succession of atrocities and crimes, the greatest bloodbath in history. Frank shows, convincingly, that the use of atomic weapons was the least evil among the choices Harry S Truman faced.



2. The historical information in this book came as quite a surprise to me, even though I consider myself fairly knowledgeable on the subject. The work put into this book is quite extensive and it is well worth reading. I highly recommend it.



3. I'm skimming a library copy and have seen a couple of passages that have caused me to cock an eyebrow; one, Frank describes the preparations of the plutonium bomb on Tinian as "frantic" (end of chapter 16), and in the brief description of Unit 731 the author repeatedly relates the term for them as "murata" not "maruta". These are exceedingly minor but do suggest to me a certain lack of editorial backstopping for the author.
   
   Still, this is an amazingly well-researched and presented work -- I'm well-read on the subject and still find interesting points and referents on nearly every page -- and I heartily recommend it to all, especially to those whose minds have been poisoned by Alperovitz's work.



4. I found this book often brilliant in terms of research yet at times somewhat frustrating in terms of polemic. I say that despite sharing Frank's conclusion (and premise of the book) that dropping the atomic bombs was inevitable, necessary, and demonstrably saved millions of lives.
   
   In particular, I found the book at times lapsing into polemic or argument, framing almost every fact unearthed by Frank's extensive research to fit his argument rather than letting the reader come to her own conclusions. This is most evident when Frank recounts the Japanese negotiating tactics near the end of the war, both with the Allies generally and with the Soviets specifically. It seems at times as if Frank has never negotiated something himself, as he takes every public boast by the Japanese at face value, and discounts every veiled or implied effort by elements within the military leadership as well as the Emperor to negotiate an end to the war.
   
   At the same time, he is willing to find deep complexity and subtlety in the way the Allies dictated terms, particularly at Potsdam, so that the Japanese could hold out hope of an "unconditional surrender" that was more lenient than that extended to the Germans. I would have liked to see Frank read more into the mixed and vague signals being sent by the Japanese than he seems willing to do.
   
   That said, there is no question an invasion of mainland Japan would have been an horrific event to the Allies, and to the Japanese, in that many more Japanese would have died in that invasion than in the bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Whether that could have been avoided based on this historical record is not as clear as Frank argues, though the weight of the evidence certainly suggests there was no alternative but to proceed with the deployment of atomic weapons.



5. I've read many, many books about the war in the Pacific. I've always been more interested in the Pacific theater than the European theater, probably tracing back to my 8th grade history teacher (in 1964), a Marine vet who'd made two landings. I thought that between all the books about individual island campaigns, books about the overall Pacific war, books about the Enola Gay and Bockscar missions, books about strategic bombing in general, etc., etc., I knew quite a bit. I was wrong. There is so much in Frank's meticulously researched book that I knew little or nothing about, that I wouldn't even know where to start. An exceptionally important text about one of the most significant events in human history (whatever your views may be).

5 comments about The Demon in the Freezer.

1. Before reading this book, I was ignorant of the status of smallpox in the world. Perhaps ignorance is bliss, but not knowing about something doesn't make it go away. Preston's books read better than most fiction -- the awful thing is that it's not fiction. If ever one questioned world sanity, this book will put the questions to rest. The world (or at least a lot of the governments of same) is insane. Smallpox is going to bite us in the ass someday, and there will be no excuse for it whatsoever. We will have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.



2. Before reading The Demon in the Freezer, I was not aware of the extent to which science has gone in the effort to weaponize biological agents. It was astounding to learn about the perversion of biological science , of transforming epidemic disease into a weapon. Preston provided a comprehensive overview of the history of biological weapons programs in the Soviet Union, of the international smallpox eradication program, and of the recent bioterror scares involving anthrax. Yet in attempting to cover so much historical, topical, and geographic ground, The Demon in the Freezer can feel chaotic at times. Jumping from a young researcher's accident with ebola virus to an island in Bangladesh forty years previously, it is occasionally difficult to divine a cohesive theme from Preston's book, or to process the immense variety of information he provides. On the other hand, personally profiling each of the individuals-- smallpox victims, doctors, and scientists-- helps to paint a picture of this devastating disease in a way that no medical textbook could. Preston brings frightening epidemic diseases back into the public consciousness, explaining their pathology and the widescale social and political impacts faced by those who decide to harness them as weapons. Richard Preston's book should be commended for bringing a comprehensible survey of recent epidemiology to the public. It is an entertaining, sometimes terrifying novel that provides a human face to the specter of biological weapons.



3. This book was falling apart when I got it. It was in very poor shape.



4. In the 21st century, our worries of global epidemics revolve around AIDS and maybe, H1N1. Yet Richard Preston's book Demon in the Freezer resurrects the frightening possibility of smallpox seizing the world yet again in this haunting one-of-a-kind thriller. The book is a roller coaster ride as Preston describes in swift yet intricate detail the anthrax attacks on September 11th, 2001, taking the reader into the midst of the calamity and the chain reactions that followed. His voice is astoundingly concise and his descriptions vivid. For a complex topic like smallpox, he manages to weave through the confusion to present in plain white a simple explanation.
   Preston put a significant amount of effort into researching the different people and situations in the US intelligence community. He is able to make seemingly normal people superheroes by animating them with voice and humor. His observations take the reader into the brilliance of their minds, through every hour of their day, and deep into the very feelings of joy, depression, and shock that make them human. He articulates each scene as effortlessly as a camera panning a movie. I could almost hear the dramatic music playing in the background.
   For such a small virus like smallpox, it surely is treated like Beyonce in Preston's book. The author spills descriptions upon descriptions, lavishing the virus with words and scenes of endless piles. He is an artist who pays utmost attention to the smallest, yet most important, detail. He raves about coffee with doughnuts, autopsies, Level 4 biohazard labs, all of which make his work pop off the page. He leaves us powerless in the faces of grape-loving monkeys, pulling on our heartstrings ruthlessly like a puppet master as we watch the monkeys die slowly. One. By one.
   On an informational note, Preston also educates the reader in a fascinating fashion about Ebola, the history of poxes, and the difficulties in eradicating the pox all over the world. His work is one of the more appealing biology supplements out there.
   Though his writing is more eloquent than mine will ever be, the structure of his words is quite a headache. Preston jumps around like a flea on a dog, dragging the reader with him in a dizzying way. The backtracking and fast-forwarding of the novel is comparably as hectic as the Eradication itself.
   Preston is a writer capable of drilling into the very cores of our being, stirring questions about the essence of humanity. Yet even with these powerful messages, he is never able to hit home. Towards the end, it felt as if Preston was tired of running his race, and decided instead to take a quick happily ever after. The last few sections of the book were quite the disappointment; his lingering pieces of scientific knowledge carelessly scrawled together in a fat, mashed mess. Just like black ink on a pearl-white shirt, his parting words stained his work. They blurred his ideas into obscure images, and trampled on his messages so they no longer could be understood. The core of the book, the "moral of the story", in an ironic way, was lost in the depths of the sea, lurking in the shadows.
   Just like smallpox.



5. In The Demon in the Freezer, author Richard Preston pulls the reader from the modern doom-and-gloom world of HIV and N1H1, and into the even-more-unimaginably-horrific universe of ebola, anthrax, and smallpox.
   Contrary to what the title suggests (even though one new to smallpox may find it not-so-obvious), the book actually provides additional information on the anthrax attacks of 9/11, the impact of ebola had on the globe, and much more. Of course, the majority still revolves around smallpox, especially the push toward its eradication. Basically, when he began writing this book, it looked like Preston was prepared with a college textbook's load of research.
   Despite the book's background on medicine and top-secret government bio-hazard research labs, which may be difficult to understand, the author spares the reader the necessity of coming equipped with the internet or dictionary using well-thought out analogies that characterize each concept. Preston's descriptions keep his book flowing smoothly, at least for the beginning.
   Unfortunately, as with all other books, not everything in Preston's work is flawless. The book has very few but major problems, ranging from repetitive sentence structure to overused details that simply kill the story, if there was any actual plot to start with. There are so many instances where Preston flips between storylines/time frames. For example, whereas the reader is looking at the evolution of smallpox, in a flip of a page they are back in the 21st century, in a biohazard lab. Even what was supposed to be the climax of the book (the government research facility that clashes with smallpox) tips towards the "weak" end of the suspense scale.
   I say that the ending was where Preston really "crashed and burned." The beginning of the book is a quiet thriller, beautifully written so that that the reader can indulge in the world of medical research and terrorist threats. However, as the book comes closer to the end, the reader is presented with lifeless, monotonous narration from the author. Preston probably had all of this "good stuff" in his arsenal of research that was readily available for his use for the end of the book, but in the very end he failed to use it in a way that would make his story consistently enticing. And even if he did have mediocre ones that he did not use in his list, he could have at least made an effort to elaborate and improve on those. And those details, which Preston still kept up from the very start of the book, didn't make anything better.
   The book was good (good, not great) overall, but that sour aftertaste at the very end was just something I couldn't wash out.

5 comments about Seeds of Destruction: The Hidden Agenda of Genetic Manipulation.

1. A disturbing exposé on the manipulation of a few to gain global dominance through something we often take for granted: Food.
   
   Engdahl offers up a banquet of information pertaining to the relationship between eugenics, genetics, the impact and importance genetic modification of our food is having on our society on a micro and macro level. For those that are pro-GM, this is not a book written by someone with an axe to grind on interfering with nature and perceived scientific progress, but rather, this is a well researched volume of information that explains how the likes of the Rockefellers (and their 'non-profit' organisations), Kissinger and the big agri-corps manipulated people and produce by promising great results, covering up bad ones and then turning poor farmers into serfs.
   
   This exposure shows in a nutshell how and why wealthy American Elites were able to manipulate the government into burying research, backing their disguised eugenics ideas and churning out new organisations to change the face of agriculture into agribusiness. Doesn't affect you because you're not a farmer? You eat: therefore it does. Not American? The information put forth in this research affects almost every living thing on the face of this planet and it's about to get worse.
   
   There is too much in this book to relay in a simple review.
   
   This is an absolute must read and I have not seen it appear for sale at traditional bookstores. Too hot to handle?



2. The facts are interesting, but the book is poorly written. The editing is horrible. The author repeats himself over and over almost in verbatim fashion. There are better books on GMO.



3. is an excellent book detailing how the rich 'elite' have usurped power over many aspects of our lives and most especially the government. It gives relevant explanations for why we go to war, why we hate who we hate, and who is the victim.
   It is really only nominally about GMOs, so the title is somewhat misleading. I would recommend this book for anyone interested in any of the topics mentioned in this review.



4. What do you think about using advanced biotechnology to develop a few plants that are resistant to highly toxic pesticides, and then laying waste to the environment with said pesticides, so that when the "dust clears", the only plants left standing are your proprietary super-resistant crops?
   
   What do you think about genetically modifying plants so they don't produce any seeds -leaving the entire world perpetually dependent on your closely-guarded "seed crops" for each next season's food supply?
   
   If you have anything like "morals" or "ethics" or an abiding sense of natural law, these ideas are probably abhorrent to you. But of course these ideas were not developed with ethics or morals in mind; they are part of an aggressive business model that has been in development since the 1970's. Henry Kissinger wrote a point paper in 1974...
   WHOA! BACKUP! Henry Kissinger?? He's not a businessman! Well, he has a successful consulting business now, but he's not PRIMARILY a businessman; he's a strategic political thinker, who's been in the employ of the Rockefeller family for the past fifty years!
   
   Yes. That's kind of what's at the heart of this book. Control of the world food's supply is partly a business ambition, partly political, and partly maniacal class/race-based warfare (aimed particularly at indigenous peoples of the Amazon basin, and at the middle classes of developed nations). Kissinger and associates have been fostering gene modification technologies since at least the 1970s, with an aim of "weaponizing" (his term, not mine) the food supply. As he cheerfully notes: "Control oil and you control nations. Control food and you control people".
   
   And it doesn't get much clearer than that. Seeds of Destruction is about the already highly-centralized world of agribusiness, and how agribusiness is just one small aspect of a much larger unfolding story of worldwide genocidal class warfare. This is a story about capitalism without ethics, and how third-world nations who treat farming as a ECONOMIC activity, rather than a SURVIVAL activity are essentially "bringing a knife to a gunfight".



5. What goes around comes around! Henry Kissinger said in the 1970s: Who controls the oil is in the position to control whole nations; who controls food controls the people. According to the author the American Rockefeller foundation has taken over this business. It is not all about money, it is also about the execution of power. Some kind of eco-politics through GMO (Genetically manipulated organisms). The author says, although our civilization is grounded on humanitarian ideals, all in this new neo-liberal age has gone into the hands of some magnates of worldwide operating enterprises and their political hangers-on. Affected are science, trade and agriculture.
   Whoever controls the production of food controls the people. Or how Bertini, board member of the world food program of the UN expressed it:
   "Food is power! We use it to change behaviour. Some could call it bribery. We do not excuse ourselves! " What is behind this? The moderate wish that the difference in welfare between the West and the rest of the world is preserved? It was the Rockefeller foundation which in 1984 enticed the first extensive research of the economic possibilities of genetic technology in plants.
   Though the natural variability was gigantic new sorts were bred which were to press the natural ones out of business for the sheer reason of making money. Seeds provided and monopolized from firms make money.
   Natural cultivation is only useful for those who cultivate, that is to say the little farmer or the locally limited enterprise in the Third World. If the farmer has to order the seeds he is becoming dependent, dirigible and prone to manipulation.
   The spread of GMO was accompanied by political coercion, pressure on governments, fraud, lies and even murder. Can we believe the author?
   Yes, we should. The crime was committed in the name of agricultural improvement, environmental acceptability and the salution of world hunger problems. The author tries to prove that the assertions to back a broad commercial asset of GMO is based on scientific fraud and lies of enterprises. As if we would not have expected it!
   Example Iraq: The country received besides the seed of democracy some other seeds also: GMO! A patent law was imposed on the Iraq that gives the supply of food into the hands of private US-companies.
   Example Argentinia: Rockefeller`s greed for power and money is responsible that in Argentinia the traditional, productive agriculture was transformed into a monoculture for the export on the world market, as well as to a laboratory for genetically changed agricultural products. Huge areas of forests, where Indios had been living traditionally were felled only to get more space for soja beans. This exhausted the ground which only served the provider of fertilizer. The cattle was concentrated in mass animal plants because of pasture scarcity. Fields with traditional cultivation almost vanished.
   Resistances diminished, diseases spread. Since soja cultivation expelled thousands of farmers from their ground poverty grew and starvation began. The standard of living in Argentinia fell continually and notably. The winners were some politicians, a few enterprises and the banks in New York who made the deal perfect.
   But there is more than this. There is scientific proof that GMO products result in heavy health problems. What nature has not done in a million years should not be produced compressed in a laboratory. This can only be unhealthy. What nature produced genetically is balanced and proved to function well in the eco-system. Man disturbs the balance with his punctual intrusion. The results are foreseeable, but man is insatiable in his greed. What has been done in the name of the national security of the USA is eye-opening! Mostly in favour of the Monsanto enterprise, the world leading provider of GMO seeds. Cosy contacts with the governments?
   To start with support in elections and to continue with one hand that washes many others with filth and in the end all are filled with dirty dollars. Details can be read in this book!
   The Rockefellers created the petro-dollar after the oil crises of 1973 and made the going of the South American debt crisis to enable friends of the US business world to take over the economics of Latin America cheaply. But there is something else. Race hygienics! John D.
   Rockefeller III is said to be a fervent purporter of eugenics. The author says that methods also represented by him were responsible for more deaths than the sum of people who were killed by Hitler, Stalin and Mao. He speaks of genetic Armageddon, terminator-seeds and sperm killing maze. While other countries send money in case of starvation, the USA offers GMO which many countries reject because of health threatening risks. If food makes unfertile in deed another problem of humankind is solved. Starvation and overpopulation! Where no eater there is no hunger! Instead of costly wars to gain domination over the Third World just control them genetically! Reduction of population is in union with domination. Soft biologic warfare! Is this what world politicians in the West are aiming at?
   This really sounds so weird that it is hardly conceivable that it has originated in the authors fantasy. Perhaps too much of conspiracy and secret plotting! But that love for money is corruptive is a well known fact. For a handful dollars people do not care for lives. Meanwhile seed is developed, with lost potency for self-reproduction so that farmers lose all their independence and their providers get even more powerful.
   But what if they suffer bankruptcy or politics close the trade? Or the only available seeds get unusable? It could lead to starvation crisis and the uprising of the Third World countries against the West. Just fancy! Mankind digs its own grave!
   This is no book to make you feel good! Except you are a self-provider with a strong tendency to have a liking in self-destruction of mankind.

5 comments about Silent Warfare: Understanding the World of Intelligence, 3d Edition.

1. After finishing this book I immediately lent it to a good friend of mine that was looking at getting into the intelligence community and he said the knowledge he gained from the book proved priceless when it came down to picking a career in an industry that can be very diverse and confusing. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in how the intelligence process comes together, and I would insist on someone reading it if they were thinking about getting into it!



2. This book is an excellent introduction to Intelligence gathering. The three sources are human intelligence (HUMINT), technical means and Open Source (OS). I remembered reading where the Soviet Union shipped 5 tons (that's right - tons!) of openly available documentation, magazines, newspapers, trade magazines, journals, etc., to the KGB for analysis. The next question is what to do with all this information and form it into `Product'. Shulsky intended this book as an academic tome for an introduction into this arcane world. He does a good job, analyzing the process and using historical cases to enlighten the reader. Security Studies is a growing field due to increased unrest in the world, the rise of Radical Islam and the potential for conflict with globalization.
   
   Michael Mandaville, Author - "Stealing Thunder" and the coming "Citizen Soldier Handbook: 101 Ways for Every American to Fight Terrorism"



3. Authors Abram Shulsky and Gary Schmitt have written a excellent book on the world of intelligence. Areas covered---covert action,counterintelligence,double agents,propaganda and much more. You'll learn what official and nonofficial cover means,tradecraft,counterespionage and different ways our government collects intelligence. There may be other books on this subject, but for me it was a good place to start to learn about the world of intelligence. Easy to read and plenty of examples. Well done.



4. One of the challenges of teaching Intelligence is getting the student, and the general reader, past the stereotypes, mythology and conspiracy theories to the basics of the world of Intelligence. "Silent Warfare", by Abram Shulsky and Gary Schmitt, does that in under two hundred clearly written pages, plus extensive endnotes.
   
   This third edition was published in 2002, as the US conflict with militant Islamic terrorism was turning into a sustained campaign. "Silent Warfare" has however avoided the difficulties of chasing current events by focusing on the theoretical basis of the Intelligence business.
   
   The authors start with a definition of intelligence, then describe its basic process--the collection of information and the production, through analysis, of intelligence. They gamely tackle the controversial subjects of covert action and counterintelligence. They include a thoughtful discussion of the proper management of the intelligence community. The authors' peneultimate chapter describes a uniquely American view of intelligence and the moral issues associated with it. Their concluding chapter lays out a theory of intelligence that may be a useful organizing construct for the student.
   
   The great strength of this book is its commonsense, non-sensational approach. The authors use simple language and lots of historical examples to illustrate their points. The emphasis placed on the value, when properly utilized, of open source information and information technology is noteworthy. If in places it oversimplifies a complex business, it does so to keep the topic within the view of the reader. "Silent Warfare" is very highly recommended as an introductory textbook to the study of Intelligence.



5. I bought this text a few months ago, having read so many positive reviews on Amazon. While I am not regretting having bought it, I wasn't all too impressed by it. As others have noted, one thing the text does well, is it gives a solid background on what intelligence is and what it is not.
   
   I understand that older books are out of date. I have read and appreciated many of them during my studies. However, for a book whose latest edition came out in 2002 to be this out of touch is laughable. The section about satellites was particularly amusing. It provided a lenghty definition of the term 'resolution', which was obviously aimed at a generation that has never used a home computer. Similarly, the book predicted how the cost of satellite imaging might go down and that it may become more common for smaller states to use it. In this day and age of Google Earth, I literally burst out laughing when reading this section.
   
   There are other sections like this, but these two examples were particularly amusing and memorable.
   
   To sum up, the less timely sections of this text on humint are well worth your time. Similarly, it does give sound definitions of basic terms and the scope of intelligence. Just be warned that you'll have to really bite your lip when reading some of the chapters on 'technology'.

5 comments about The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and its Dangerous Legacy.

1. i heard about this book on CSpan Book review. I thought that it probably was going to be an eye opener for me, i lived through all those years, but i was too busy raising babies, and forgot a lot. Well the book was wonderful, very well written, easy to read even for a foreigner like me. it is definetly a 5 stars.



2. The author really emptied his notebook on this, and that's a problem because the book is too long by at least a third. I found myself skipping many long and tedious sections on biological/chemical weapons. Just because the author interviewed many former Soviets about their roles in the development of these weapons doesn't make each one of them interesting. Quite the contrary. The names and acronyms begin to blur. Also, its focus is very much weighted towards the very end of the Cold War and the aftermath, as nuclear weapons have seemed to get lost in places like Iran. I would have enjoyed more about the hardcore early days, though obviously it was harder to research those very secret times. The book is best when it tries to humanize the top leaders who negotiated the end of the Cold War: Reagan and Gorbachev. Every time the author went back to the top to tell his tale is when the book comes alive again, only to slump back into too many details about the little people who worked behind the scenes. If you don't know this history, it's a decent primer. Just prepare to skim.



3. WHY DOES THIS BOOK COST MORE THAN 50% MORE IN THE KINDLE VERSION THAN IN PRINT??



4. Outstanding summary of the end of the Cold War and how the Russian and US governments dealt with the consequences of it. Well-written, informative and easy to read. I highly recommend this book.



5. I bought this book as I've always been interested in the Cold War and the history around the Soviet Union - although I've never researched or read up on it. This book, as other reviews mention, was a little dry in certain sections - but this still didn't stop me from reading it from cover to cover. I highly recommend this to anyone like myself who was only a child in the 80s, and wasn't old enough to understand the fall of the Iron Curtain and its implications at the time.
   
   It's certainly an eye-opener to show how close mankind came to obliterating all life on this planet - many times over!