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Reconnissance Sampling and Decontamination Module
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Index to Reconn/Decon Webpages Biological Warfare |
Biological Warfare Biological Warfare Program of Japan Before and During the Second World War In 1931 the Japanese Army occupied Manchuria. The next year the Japanese Army established a biological warfare facility in the Manchurian city of Harbin under the leadership of Army Surgeon Shiro Ishii. The laboratory studied many diseases that could be used as biological weapons, including anthrax, plague, cholera, and tularemia. The virulence of the biological agents was determined by experiments on more than 3000 live prisoners including some Americans. None of the prisoners survived. A staff of 300, including 50 medical doctors, injected prisoners with disease, forced them to eat contaminated food, or tied them to stakes and subjected them to clouds of anthrax or plague aerosols. Ishii designed a small bomb consisted of a porcelain shell, filled with cotton wadding, wheat, rice, and live human fleas infected with bubonic plague. On October 4, 1940, a Japanese plane dropped flea bombs on Chü Hsien in Chikiang Province, resulting in 21 deaths. On October 27, 1940 plague bombs were dropped on Ningpo, a city south of Shanghai. The raid was led by Lt. General Ishii and recorded in a documentary film. There were 99 fatalities. On November 4, 1941, Japanese planes dropped plague bombs on Changteh City near Lake Tung Ting, causing an epidemic with 24 deaths. In the summer of 1942 the towns of Kinhwa, Lungyu, Chü Hsien and Yüshan in the Chekiang Province of China, approximately 250 miles southwest of Shanghai, were the scenes of intense fighting between the Japanese and the Chinese Armies. As the Japanese Army made a strategic retreat, 300 soldiers, trained by Gen. Ishii's Unit, contaminated wells, streams, rivers, water reservoirs, and houses with cholera, dysentery, typhoid, plague, anthrax, and paratyphoid. Germs were dropped from the air on Chinese troops. After the Chinese retook the area, they suffered devastating losses due to disease. However, as the Japanese advanced, they recaptured areas that had previously been contaminated, resulting in over 10,000 Japanese casualties and more than 1700 fatalities, mostly from cholera, but some from plague and dysentery. Also, during the Chekiang Campaign Ishii's Unit gave an estimated 3000 Chinese prisoners-of-war food laced with typhoid and paratyphoid. The POW's were then repatriated back to the Chinese side of the battlefront. At the end of the war when the Soviet troops were invading Manchuria, Ishii's unit released many thousands of rats infected with plague (and other diseases). This resulted in plague epidemics in 1946 and 1947 with tens of thousands of deaths. Largest Covert Biological Weapons Program in History of the World The former Deputy Director of the Soviet Union's Biopreparat Program published a comprehensive view of the largest covert biological weapons program in the history of the world. The Soviet biological warfare program started in 1920's. In 1928 the Revolutionary Military Council signed a decree to weaponize typhus--a rickettsial disease, carried by lice. In the summer of 1942 when the German Army was advancing through Western Russia, the Soviets released tularemia near Stalingrad, causing so many casualties that the Nazi campaign ground to a temporary halt. However, thousands of Russian soldiers and civilians living in the Volga region came down with tularemia within a week of the initial German outbreak. Most of the cases were pneumonic tularemia, evidently caused by aerosol releases of the bacteria. There were about 10,000 cases of tularemia in the Soviet Union in 1941 and 1943, but nearly 100,000 cases in 1942. An outbreak of Q fever in 1943 among German troops on leave in the Crimea was the result of a biological weapon developed in a Soviet biological weapons lab in Kirov. In 1945 the Soviet Army captured the Japanese biological weapons facilities in Manchuria and put a number of Japanese military officers involved in this program on trial in 1946. The same year the Soviets established a biological weapon research facility at Sverdlovsk using production plant designs captured from the Japanese. In the 1950's the Soviets developed weaponized strains of foot-and-mouth disease and rinderpest for cattle, African swine fever for pigs, and ornithosis and psittacosis for chickens. Biopreparat was established in 1973 by order of Leonid Brezhnev, eventually developing the world's most advanced program for genetically engineered biological weapons. By the late 1980's approximately 60,000 persons were employed in the development and production of biological weapons, including 30,000 Biopreparat employees. In 1987 the biological weapons factory in Stepnogorsk in Kazakstan could produce 2 tons of extremely virulent anthrax every day. In 1988 some SS-18 missiles, multi-warhead intercontinental ballistic missiles with a range of 6000 miles, were armed with 400 kilograms of anthrax instead of nuclear weapons. With 10 warheads, a single missile could wipe out New York City. Other diseases which were weaponized for use in missiles included smallpox and plague. Marburg, Ebola, and Lassa were weaponized in 1990. KGB agents obtained a highly virulent form of smallpox from India. The strain was isolated in 1967 and developed into a biological weapon. Smallpox was produced at a facility in Zagorsk (now Sergiyev Posad), northeast of Moscow and an annual stockpile of 20 tons of smallpox was maintained. Normal smallpox has an incubation period of 7 to 10 days, but the new strain needs only 1 to 5 days for incubation (based on experiments with monkeys). In addition, new strains of genetically altered smallpox were developed for which there are no vaccines. Vaccine-resistant tularemia was developed in1982. Genetically-altered plague, resistant to all known antibiotics, was also developed, as were antibiotic-resistant strains of anthrax and glanders. In 1989 and 1990 Biopreparat was developing weaponized diseases in a form that could be released in canisters from high-speed cruise missiles flying so low that they could evade detection by radar. The canisters would break apart on impact with air shortly after being released, dispersing the disease as a line of aerosol clouds. The Soviet Academy of Sciences discovered that one group of peptides, regulatory peptides, have toxic properties. One was found that damages the myelin sheath that protects the nerves in the spinal cord. It was called the myelin toxin and was unknown in the West. Because the compound is produced in the human body, it is not banned by the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention of 1972. Genetic engineering was used to produce the myelin toxin in quantities large enough for military purposes. Genetic engineering was also used to combine the myelin toxin with a virulent strain of plague resistant to antibiotics to produce a kind of SuperGerm. Some of the biological warfare agents developed by Biopreparat were supplied to the KGB as agents to be used for assassinations. In 1990 Gorbachev issued a decree that Biopreparat should cease to function as an offensive weapons agency. However, the decree also ordered Biopreparat to keep all of its facilities for further manufacture and development. Biological Warfare in the Far East From 1974 to 1981, toxic agents were used by the Soviet Union and client states in Laos, Kampuchea, and Afghaniston. "Yellow rain," generated by air-to-surface rockets in Laos, contained trichothecene mycotoxins--toxins produced by fungi. The weaponized T-2 toxin is particularly effective. Aum Shinrikyo's Biological Weapons Lab In March, 1990 several cult members made trip to the Island of Hokkaido to find a toxic strain of the botulinum bacteria in the soil. Soil samples were collected and brought back to the Aum Shinrikyo compound where they were cultured. Although much bacteria grew, the medical doctor who supervised the experiments, Tomomasa Nakagawa, was unable to isolate the Clostridium botulinum bacteria from the "brew." The brew did not kill rats. However, the cult leader ordered that it be used anyway. The next month, April, 1990, a large truck equipped with an air compressor and sprayer was used to spray the bacteria as the truck drove around in downtown Tokyo, at the Tokyo International Airport, and at the U.S. Navy bases at Yokohama and Yokosuka. There were no fatalities. Later that month the cult leader took a group of 40 followers to Zaire, Africa. The trip was billed as an African Salvation Tour to aid victims of the Ebola virus. The real purpose of the trip was to obtain the Ebola virus, but cult members were unsuccessful. The biological weapons program was run by Seichi Endo, a Ph.D. candidate in molecular biology and Hideo Murai, who had taken graduate-level courses in astrophysics. They tried cultivating anthrax, but the strain that they were using was a veterinary vaccine strain that was non-lethal. The anthrax production facility was in the cult's 8-story headquarters building in Kameido, a district of Tokyo. In June of 1993 to test the effectiveness of the anthrax they were producing, they used an industrial sprayer to spray anthrax from the top of the building. The bacteria created a noticeable smell causing complaints from the neighbors, but did not cause any fatalities. The next month they used air compressor in the large truck to spray anthrax along the streets of Tokyo, again with no fatalities. On March 15, 1995, just 5 days before the sarin attack on the Tokyo subway, the cult left 3 briefcases in a Tokyo subway station. Each briefcase contained a small fan designed to disperse botulinum toxin into the subway. The botulinum was ineffective, the fan failed, and the briefcases were discovered before any damage was done. The Aum Shinrikyo Cult spent more than $10 million on developing biological weapon production facilities. The Kamikuishiki facility near Mt. Fuji was equipped with optical microscopes, incubators, freeze dryers and 160 drums of peptone used for bacteria growth medium. At Naganohara the 4-story structure to produce botulinum toxin had HEPA air filters, advanced design incubators, and an electron microscope. In retrospect, Aum Shinrikyo had the laboratories and financial resources to create effective biological weapons, but lacked personnel experienced in industrial biological production techniques. The cult's Minister of Finance was Hisako Ishii. Was there a connection to the notorious Shiro Ishii, who was so active in developing biological weapons for the Japanese Army 60 years previous? The Largest BioTerrorist Attack in the U.S. In September of 1984 there was an outbreak of Salmonella poisoning at 10 different restaurants in The Dalles, Oregon, affecting at least 751 persons. In 1981, Bhagwam Shree Rajneesh and his followers bought a large ranch near Antelope, Oregon. The county seat is in The Dalles. The cult grew to 10,000 members; and in the process of taking over the town of Antelope and renaming it "Rajneesh," created many conflicts with local residents and Wasco County. The cult leaders decided to try to change the outcome of the election for County Commissioners by poisoning so many voters that they could not vote in the November election. A nurse, born in the Phillipines, but raised in California, was responsible for the aquisition and use of biological agents. The nurse, Ms. Onang, a.k.a. Puja, had previously worked in the Kern County Medical Center Outpatient Clinic. In the Rajneesh cult she had authority over the Rajneesh Medical Corporation, the Pythagoras Clinic, and the Pythagoras Pharmacy. Puja considered several biological agents, but decided to use Salmonella, specifically Salmonella enterica serotype Typhimurium--a strain of bacteria that is a common cause of food poisoning. Rajneesh Medical Corporation had a state-licensed medical laboratory. The Salmonella bacteria came from a set of laboratory reference bacteria (bactol disks) used by medical labs to meet state requirements for assuring the quality of their lab test procedures. Puja and a lab tech used an incubator to cultivate Salmonella bacteria. In August 1984 Sheela J. Laatz, second in command in the Rajneesh hierarchy, contaminated lettuce in the Produce Department at Albertsons Supermarket in The Dalles. On August 29, 1984, all 3 Wasco County Commissioners visited Rajneesh Headquarters. Two of the commissioners, who were hostile to the cult, were given water laced with Salmonella, causing them to become sick. In September, 8 cult members contaminated salad dressing in salad bars and coffee creamers at 10 different restaurants in The Dalles. At least 751 persons became sick with food poisoning from the restaurants. The Rajneeshees also smeared Salmonella on doorknobs and urinal handles at the Wasco County Courthouse. Useful Links to Other Sites The Japanese Biological Warfare Program A detailed description of the activities of Shiro Ishii's Unit 731 is given by Williams and Wallace. The revised edition of Factories of Death by Harris also contains considerable detail. These books also describe how and why none of the many military officers, medical doctors, biological researchers, or university professors were ever prosecuted for the atrocities committed before and during the Second World War. Many held prominent positions in government and business and at universities after the war. Shiro Ishii visited the US after the war. The Soviet Biological Weapons Program Ken Alibek was the Deputy Director of the Soviet BioWeapons Program. His book describes how the program employed 60,000 workers at 50 institutes devoted to the development and production of biological weapons. Aum Shinrikyo Cult The books, Holy Terror and Cult at the End of the World, describe the remarkable reluctance of Japanese authorities to prosecute the Aum Shinrikyo Cult. The cult founder is in prison. The cult is currently being run by his daughter and is growing. There are also many chapters of the cult in Russia, including some at locations where biological warfare agents have been manufactured. The US Federal Government has placed the Aum Shinrikyo Cult on its list of Terrorist Organizations. Salmonella Poisoning of Salad Bars by the Rajneeshees The chapter on the Rajneeshees by Seth Carus describes the details of how Samonella was cultivated and how the attacks were carried out. The article in the Journal of the American Medical Association describes the epidemiological investigation of the outbreak. Is There a BioTerrorism Threat? The Center for Disease Control has a website for "BioTerrorism Preparedness and Response" that is a good starting point. There is a link on this site to the review article by Col. Robert Kadlec, MD, who was an UNSCOM Inspector in Iraq. Col. Kadlec discusses two recent articles that represent opposite ends of the spectrum of opinion on biological weapons. In the first article Milton Leitenberg at the Center for International and Security Studies at the University of Maryland, downplays the threat of biological weapons, indicating that biological weapons are not that effective, compared with other forms of warfare. He gives a careful review of the activities of the Aum Shinrikyo Cult in Japan and also lists the nations developing biological weapons. In contrast the other article by Laurie Garrett focuses on the recent great advances in molecular biology and estimates a genetically engineered disease could impact millions, if not billions of people. (To view the abstract, go to the site for the Council on Foreign Relations, click on the topic "Terrorism" in the blue menu on the left, and find the article by Garrett.) Col. Kadlec concludes that the truth is probably somewhere between these two very different views. In the Aftermath of the World Trade Center and Pentagon Attacks
The Response Network of Federal, State, and Local Agencies A network of government agencies is being set up to respond to a bioterrorist event. The realization that the first responders are local hospitals and clinics has prompted increased training and coordination. See, for example, the organizations that have been set up in Montana and South Dakota. On-Line Medical References The chapter on biological warfare in the on-line textbook on dermatology has many illustrations of both the appearance of various symptoms and views through the microscope of the bacteria and viruses responsible for the diseases. The U.S. Army guide (Technical Guide #103) for the "Prevention and Control of Plague" has a detailed discussion of vectors and hosts for plague.
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WMD Reconn-Decon Module Specs for Module Chemical Terrorism Chemical Response Kit Bio-Sampling Kit Anthrax Plague Tularemia DNA Studies Decon Shower Decon Solutions & Foams
The attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon by the al Qaeda terrorist network on
September 11, 2001 has awakened America and the world to the threats posed by terrorism. The
discovery of a