December 17, 1997: Biological Warfare - Richard Preston

Richard Preston, author of "The Hot Zone" and "The Cobra Event," joins Art Bell to discuss biological warfare, anthrax, Ebola, and bioterrorism after Joyce Riley's first-hour warning about military anthrax inoculations. Riley presents alarming findings about the Pentagon's plan to inoculate 1.4 million military personnel against anthrax. She cites Senate Report 103-97, which states that the vaccine's effectiveness against inhaled anthrax is unknown, despite being FDA-approved for skin contact exposure. Riley warns that the inoculation program uses a vaccine considered investigational for biological warfare purposes and notes that 43 percent of Gulf War veterans reported immediate side effects from the same vaccine.

Preston describes the 1989 Ebola outbreak at a monkey facility in Reston, Virginia, where military biohazard teams in spacesuits secretly killed 600 infected monkeys over 18 days. He reveals that Ebola has been weaponized and loaded into warheads by Russia, and that the Japanese cult Aum Shinrikyo sent teams to Zaire to collect Ebola blood samples, bringing them back to a biological laboratory that Tokyo police have still not entered.

Preston explains how anthrax presents like a common cold before killing victims in mid-sentence, and describes Russia's development of antibiotic-resistant super anthrax at the Obolensk laboratory. He warns that the FBI currently has approximately 50 open cases involving biological or chemical weapons and terrorism, suggesting that a scientifically trained individual will eventually succeed in carrying out a devastating attack.