Send to a Friend 6th Century B.C.
Assyrians poison the wells of their enemies with rye ergot.
6th Century B.C.
Solon of Athens poisons the water supply with hellebore (skunk cabbage), an
herb purgative, during the siege of Krissa.
184 B.C.
During the naval battle against King Eumenes of Pergamon,
1346
During the siege of Kaffa, the Tartar army hurls its plague-ridden dead over
the walls of the city. The defenders are forced to surrender.
1422
At the battle of Carolstein, bodies of plague-stricken soldiers plus 2000 cartloads
of excrement are hurled into the ranks of enemy troops.
15th C
It has been said that during Pizarro's conquest of South America, he improved
his chances of victory by presenting to the natives, as gifts, clothing laden
with the variola virus.
1710
Russian troops hurl the corpses of plague victims over the city walls of Reval
during Russia's war with Sweden.
1763
Captain Ecuyer of the Royal Americans, under the guise of friendship, presents
to the native Americans two blankets and a handkerchief contaminated with smallpox.
1767
During the French and Indian War, the English general, Sir Jeffrey Amherst,
gives blankets laced with smallpox to Indians loyal to the French. The epidemic
decimates the tribes, arguably, resulting in a successful British attack on
Ft. Carillon.
1797
Napoleon attempts to force the surrender of Mantua by infecting the citizens
with swamp fever.
1860-1865
W.T. Sherman's memoirs contain an account of Confederate soldiers poisoning
ponds by dumping the carcasses of dead animals into them.
1914-1917
Allegations are made against the Germans that during WWI they attempted to spread
cholera in Italy, plague in St. Petersburg, and biological bombs over Britain.
1915
Allegedly, a German-American, Dr. Anton Dilger, grows cultures of Bacillus anthracis
and Pseudomonas mallei (Glanders), supplied by the German government, in his
Washington D.C. home. The agents and an inoculation device are given to sympathetic
dockworkers in Baltimore to infect 3000 head of horses, mules, and cattle, destined
for the Allied troops in Europe. It is also alleged that several hundred troops
are additionally affected.
1924
A subcommittee of the Temporary Mixed Commission of the League of Nations reports
that, although Germany was guilty of chemical warfare, there is no hard evidence
that she ever employed biological warfare tactics.
1925
The Geneva Protocol bans biological weapons on June 17. It is the first multilateral
agreement that extends the prohibition of chemical agents to biological agents.
Japan refuses to approve the ban.
1931
In 1994, according to Prince Mikasa of Japan, Japanese military officials attempted
to poison the League of Nations investigatory commission who was investigating
Japan's siege of Manchuria. They poisoned the fruit with cholera. No one fell
ill, however.
1932
As Japanese troops invade Manchuria, Shiro Ishii, a physician & army officer,
begins experiments on biological warfare.
1936
Unit 731 is formed. An actual bio-warfare unit masquerading as a water-purification
unit. Ishii constructs a 150 building complex just outside of Harbin, Manchuria
for experimental purposes. Over 9000 test cases eventually die there. Another
biological warfare site was also developed near Changchun named Unit 100. Ishii
field-tests biological warfare on the Chinese, soldiers and civilians alike.
Tens of thousands die as a result of plague, cholera, anthrax, etc. One method
was overflying Manchuria and China. Infected fleas would be dropped with grain.
The grain attracted rats. The rats became infected from the fleas (they can
regurgitate up to 24,000 organisms in a single feeding) and brought the disease
deeper into the human population.
1940
On October 4, the Japanese releases plague bacteria at Chuhsien resulting n
the deaths of 21 people.
1940
On October 29, plague is dropped by Japanese planes at Ninpo, causing 99 deaths.
1940
On November 28, Japanese planes drop biological bombs at Chinhua, but there
are no deaths.
1941
In January, plague is introduced by the Japanese in Suiyuan and Ninghsia provinces.
A serious epidemic follows.
1941
The British are experimenting with anthrax off the Scottish coast.
1941-1943
US launches its own studies surrounding the use of and defense from biological
agents. The Army (Chemical Warfare Service) develops Camp Detrick, Frederick,
MD into a site for biological R&D.
1943
Camp Detrick in Maryland becomes operational. Field-testing is established in
Mississippi.
1944
Dugway Proving Grounds in Utah replaces Mississippi's testing facilities.
1945
Unit 731 is blown up by the Japanese in the final days of WWII. Investigations
by US officials begin. There is also speculation that over 3000 American, Korean,
British, Australian, Soviet, and Mongolian POWs were used as guinea pigs.
1945-1949
The US Bio-program devolves to research capabilities only.
1946
US announces its involvement in BW research to the world.
1946
The initiation of an alleged deal between the US and 731 leaders. Germ warfare
data were to be exchanged for immunity from war crimes prosecution.
1949
A Soviet military tribunal tried twelve Japanese POWs for preparing and using
bacteriological weapons.
1950s
Mau Maus use plant toxins to kill livestock.
1950
The US BW program gears up during the Korean War.
1951
A BW bacterial production facility is started at the Pine Bluff Arsenal in Arkansas.
1952
An international group of scientists conducts an investigation concluding that
biological weapons were used on the North Koreans and the Chinese. The Americans
deny using germ warfare. China and North Korea refuse another investigation
by the International Red Cross.
1953
Biological R&D capabilities expand at Camp Detrick. Studies concentrate
on defensive measures.
1954
Pine Bluff Arsenal provides Brucella suis for antipersonnel BW cluster bombs.
1955
Pine Bluff Arsenal begins the production of large quantities of Francisella
tularemia.
1956
U.S.S.R.'s Marshal Zhukov announces that Soviet forces, in the future, will
have the capability of using chemical and biological warfare agents.
1956M
USAMRIID (known then as the Army Medical Unit) becomes operational.
1960s
The Vietcong use fecally contaminated spear traps during the Vietnam war.
1961
Kennedy administration reassesses BW.
1962
The Desert Test Center is established at Ft. Douglas, Utah. One of its missions
is the testing of BW weapons and defense systems.
1964
Pine Bluff Arsenal constructs a Virus and Rickettsiae Production Plant.
1966
Pine Bluff Arsenal becomes the storehouse of active BW weapons. The munitions
are used for testing purposes only.
1966
A simulated covert BW attack, with a benign agent, in the subway system of NYC
reveals that large numbers of Americans can be exposed with just one release.
1967-1969
The US BW program experiences a continual decline in funding and an upsurge
in adverse publicity.
1969
The World Health Organization issues a report that describes the unpredictability
of BW weapons and associated risks due to lack of complete control.
1969
The Army Medical Unit officially becomes the US Army Medical Research Institute
of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID).
1969
On November 25, President Nixon renounces BW and limits future research to defensive
measures only. Toxins are not expressly mentioned.
1970
On February 14, President Nixon closes a loophole when he prohibits the weaponization
of toxins and limits its research to defensive purposes only.
1970
Allegedly, the Weathermen, a group opposed to American imperialism and the Vietnam
war, attempts to obtain biological agents to contaminate the water supply systems
of US urban centers.
1971
From May 10 to May 1, 1972, there is the total destruction of antipersonnel
BW agent supplies and munitions in the US.
1972
Members of the right-wing "Order of the Rising Sun" are arrested in
Chicago. They possess 30-40 kg of typhoid cultures that are to be used to poison
the water supply in Chicago, St. Louis, & other mid-west cities. The 2 arrested
are betrayed by recruits. It was felt that had the detailed plan succeeded it
would have caused no problem due to chlorination of the water supplies.
1972
Biological Weapons Convention (a.k.a. Convention on the Prohibition of the Development,
Production, and Stockpiling of Bacteriological and Toxin Weapons and on their
Destruction). It is eventually signed by 103 nations.
1975
On January 22, President Ford signs the Biological Weapons Convention.
1975-1983
The countries of Laos and Kampuchea come under attack by planes and helicopters
that deliver multi-colored aerosols ("Yellow Rain") over the population.
Both man and animal are affected and some die. There is no definitive evidence
that these aerosol attacks were examples of biological warfare, but there is
a belief among many that, at least some of these attacks, involved T-2 mycotoxins.
1978
On September 7, Bulgarian exile Georgi Markov, in London, is injected in the
leg with a steel ball impregnated with ricin via a specially constructed umbrella.
He feels immediate pain at the injection site and within 5 hours becomes weak
and dizzy. Fifteen to 24 hours later, Markov is febrile, nauseated and vomiting.
He is admitted into a hospital 36 hours after the attack where he is found to
be febrile, tachycardic, and with swollen lymph glands near the injection site.
About 2 days after the attack, he becomes suddenly hypotensive. By the third
day he is anuric and begins vomiting blood. He also is in complete heart block
and eventually succumbs. The reason for the area of induration and redness on
his leg is unknown to Markov or his doctors until the necropsy. This represents,
in recent history, the first example of state-supported bioterrorism. The assassination
is carried out by the communist Bulgarian government with technology supplied
by the Soviet Union. The platinum-iridium pellet is the size of the head of
a pin and cross-drilled with 0.016-inch holes to contain the toxin. Only 10
days earlier, a similar assassination attempt was made against Vladimir Kostov
in Paris. Only heavy clothing prevented the steel ball from entering any farther
than Kostov's subcutaneous tissue. After he learned of his comrade's death,
he went in for an examination and the pellet was found before any of the toxin
was absorbed.
1979
In April, in the city of Sverdlovsk, USSR, an explosion from Military Compound
19 results in a toxic release. Over the next several days, citizens downwind
are stricken with high fevers, difficulty breathing, and death. There are over
40 fatalities. Some believe the estimated death toll approaches 1000. While
local doctors announce an outbreak of inhalational anthrax, the government blames
the situation on anthrax-contaminated beef. The military takes over a hospital
to attend to these victims exclusively. The official cause is made known by
President Boris Yeltsin in 1992 when he states that it was an accidental release
of anthrax spores in a BW program.
1981
Dark Harvest spreads dirt contaminated with anthrax.
1981
John Powell, former publisher of a Shanghai magazine, exposes the deal between
the U.S. and leaders of unit 731 in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.
1982
LAPD and FBI arrest a man who was preparing to poison the city's water supply
with a biological agent.
1983
FBI arrests 2 brothers who had manufactured an ounce of pure ricin.
1984
On August 29, Rajneeshee cultists give water laced with S. typhimurium to 2
county commissioners. Both get sick, 1 hospitalized. No criminal investigation
done.
1984
In September, the Rajneeshee cult, an Indian religious cult, contaminates salad
bars of The Dalles, OR & Wasco County, OR with Salmonella typhimurium. Over
750 are poisoned and 40 hospitalized. The purpose is to influence the outcome
of a local election. It is only discovered a year later when members of the
cult turned informants. Two were arrested eventually. Sheela, the chief of staff
for Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh serves 21/2 yr. and then is deported.
c. 1980s (early)
There is the reported discovery in a Red Army Faction "safe house"
in Paris, of a primitive laboratory said to have contained a bathtub filled
with flasks of Clostridium botulinum. The report is later repudiated by the
German government.
1985
A former Lt. Colonel, Dr. Murray Sanders, who served as an advisor on bio-warfare,
claims he persuaded Gen. Douglas MacArthur to approve the immunity deal with
members of Unit 731.
1989
CIA Director, William Webster, announces that "at least 10 countries"
are developing biological weapons.
1991
It is alleged that members of the Minnesota Patriots Council attempt to harm
an IRS official, local law enforcement, & a US deputy marshal with ricin.
They extracted the toxin from castor beans they received from a mail order house.
The plan is to deliver the ricin through the skin with DMSO & aloe vera
and by aerosol. Four members are arrested when the group is infiltrated by the
FBI.
1991
The Iraqi government announces that it has conducted research into a number
of biowarfare agents. Only a number of these R&D facilities are destroyed
during the Persian Gulf war.
1992
In October, Soko Asahra, head of the Aum Shinrikyo cult, with 40 followers,
travels to Zaire in order to assist victims of the Ebola virus. According to
an October 31, 1995 report by the US Senate's Permanent Sub committee on Investigations,
the cult's real motive was to obtain virus samples to be used for biological
attacks.
1995
With the defection of Iraqi General Hussein Kamal Hassan, evidence continues
to grow that the Iraqi biological warfare program is more advanced than previously
believed. The Iraqi authorities acknowledge that at the time of the war they
had 100 botulinum toxin, 50 anthrax, and 16 aflatoxin bombs, 13 botulinum toxin,
10 anthrax, and 2 aflatoxin Scud missile warheads, and 122-mm rockets filled
with anthrax, botulinum toxin, and aflatoxin.
1995
According to sources cited by the Office of Technology Assessment and at US
Senate committee hearings, there are 17 countries suspected of manufacturing
biological weapons (Iran, Iraq, Libya, Syria, North Korea, Taiwan, Israel, Egypt,
Vietnam, Laos, Cuba, Bulgaria, India, South Korea, South Africa, China, Russia).
1995
It is reported that on at least 10 occasions Aum Shinrikyo attempted to disperse
anthrax, botulinum toxin, Q fever, & Ebola against the mass population and
authority figures in Japan. No reported infections occur.
4/90
Outfitted car to disperse botulinum toxin through an exhaust system and drove
car around parliament building.
6/93
Attempted to disrupt the wedding of Prince Naruhito by spreading botulinum in
downtown Tokyo via an auto.
6/93
Spread anthrax in Tokyo via a sprayer system from the roof of a building. Done
over 4 days.
3/15/95
Planted 3 briefcases designed to release botulinum in a Tokyo subway. The attack
was averted when a cult member substituted a non-toxic agent instead.
1995
On May 5, a lab tech from Ohio (Larry Wayne Harris), orders the plague bacterium
from a Maryland biomedical supply firm, American Type Culture Collection. 3
vials of Yersinia pestis are mailed to him using no more than a credit card
and a false letterhead. Spurred on by his impatience in receiving the order
and in his apparent ignorance in lab techniques, the company contacts federal
authorities. An investigation reveals that he is a member of a white supremacist
organization.
1995
In November, the lab tech from Ohio pleads guilty to mail fraud.
1997
In April, the Counter Holocaust Lobbyists of Zion allegedly send a package claiming
that it contains anthrax.
1997
The FBI opens 74 investigations involving the acquisition or use of NBC agents.
The vast majority are hoaxes.
1998
The FBI opens 181 investigations involving the acquisition or use of NBC agents.
The vast majority are hoaxes.
1998
On February 18, Larry Wayne Harris, a microbiologist said to have been linked
to white-supremacist groups, is arrested after he, allegedly, threatened to
release anthrax in Las Vegas. The strain in his possession is a harmless veterinary
vaccine strain.
1999
According to the Monterey WMD Terrorism Database, in 1999 there have been 175
reports involving NBC incidents. This represents over 25% of the incidents that
have been reported since 1900 and 35% of the incidents that have occurred since
1990. Of the 175 incidents in 1999, 104 have occurred in the US (81 involved
anthrax threats). The vast majority are hoaxes.
1999
It has been reported that Osama bin Laden has attempted to acquire biological
weapons in Sudan and Afghanistan.
1999
In Nakhon Nayok, China, a widow of a man who died of AIDS tries to infect 20
policemen and several politicians with HIV.
1999
On January 6, a perpetrator tries to rob a currency exchange office in Zadar,
Croatia using a syringe allegedly containing HIV as a weapon.
1999
On August 17, a bag of medical waste bearing a swastika is found outside of
a synagogue in Stamford, CT.
1999
On August 19, a bag of medical waste is found outside of a synagogue in Norwalk,
CT.
1999
On August 24, a man, armed with a syringe claimed to be filled with HIV-infected
blood, attempts to hold up 3 people.
1999
On October 17, Russian soldiers discover plans to use biological weapons on
the bodies of Chechans killed during fighting in Dagestan.
1999
On November 5, James Kenneth Gluck is arrested for threatening to poison 2 Colorado
judges with ricin. The raw materials for making the toxin are found in his Tampa
home.
09/18/2001
A 38 year old assistant to NBC anchorman, Tom Brokaw, handles a letter containing
powder which was postmarked on this date. On 9/25 she notices a raised skin
lesion on her chest and over the next three days there is progressive erythema
and edema. On 9/29, she develops malaise and a headache. By 10/1, the lesion
has developed into a 5cm oval with raised borders and satellite vesicles. There
is left cervical lymphadenopathy and a black eschar soon develops. This turns
out to be the first case of cutaneous anthrax. The patient recovers with antibiotics.
9/25/2001
FBI contacted about suspicious letter at NBC News.
9/26/2001
FBI arrives to investigate suspicious letter at NBC News. That letter is proven
to be negative for anthrax.
9/28/2001
A seven month old son of a ABC producer is taken to his Mother's worksite at
ABC, New York. On 9/29, a large, weeping skin lesion is noted on his left arm.
Over the course of days, the lesion develops into an ulcer with a black eschar.
The child is hospitalized and develops hemolytic anemia and thrombocytopenia.
He is diagnosed as having cutaneous anthrax and recovers uneventfully with antibiotics.
Subsequently, cases of cutaneous anthrax turns up at CBS, the NY Times, and
the NY Post. All recover.
10/2/2001
Robert Stevens, 63, is admitted to a Lake Worth hospital gravely ill with the
presumptive diagnosis of meningitis. The diagnosis of inhalational anthrax was
made after further testing. Initial reports from HHS discount the possibility
of terrorism. A co-worker, Ernest Blanco is admitted to a Miami hospital with
the diagnosis of pneumonia which over the course of time is diagnosed as inhalational
anthrax. He eventually recovers.
10/5/2001
Robert Stevens dies from inhalational anthrax-- the first bioterrorist casualty
of this millenium. Anthrax was found at his workspace at American Media Inc.
10/8/2001
A letter postmarked Trenton, NJ is mailed to Senate Majority leader, Tom Daschle.
It contains a finely milled version of anthrax that has contaminated Capitol
Hill and dozens of personnel. Twenty-eight are exposed.
10/12/2001
Cutaneous anthrax is the cause of the lesion on the skin of Tom Brokaw's assistant
at NBC News. The origin may have been another letter that was postmarked "Trenton,
NJ".
10/14/2001
An aide to Majority Leader Senator Tom Daschle opens a letter with a return
address from fictitious Greendale School in NJ. The letter was loaded with high-grade,
light, fine-textured anthrax. Three days later, 28 others are tested positive
for exposure. This letter comes from the Brentwood postal facility where 2 workers
will soon die from inhalational anthrax.
10/16/2001
Joseph Curseen Jr., a postal worker, falls ill with flu-like symptoms.
10/19/2001
A worker, Thomas Morris Jr., from the Washington DC post office that handles
all mail delivered in the city is admitted from the ER at Inova Fairfax Hospital
in Virginia. He is subsequently diagnosed as having contracted inhalational
anthrax. He is the third person to have contracted inhalational anthrax. This
is the same postal center, Brentwood, that handled the mail sent to Daschle's
office. As a result, many Federal office buildings shut down for varying periods
of time ( e.g. The Supreme Court, CIA, etc).
10/21/2001
A D.C. postal worker, Thomas Morris Jr., 53, dies of inhalational anthrax. Meanwhile,
Joseph Curseen Jr. goes to Southern Maryland Hospital Center for his flu-like
symptoms. He is released.
10/22/2001
The D.C. postal worker, Joseph Curseen Jr., 47, is brought back to the hospital
and dies of inhalational anthrax. More than 2,200 D.C. postal workers are placed
on a 10-day supply of ciprofloxacin.
10/23/2001
Attorney General John Ashcroft releases the text from the anthrax letters sent
to Daschle, Brokaw, and the NY Post. The letters dated September 11 contain
the phrases "Take penacilin (sic) now", "Death to America",
"Death to Israel", and "Allah is Great". Meanwhile, CDC
faces public criticism at a bioterrorism hearing at the Capitol. Defenders cite
the CDC's lack of adequate resources. Two cases in point: CDC operates out of
W.W.II-era buildings; bad wiring caused a power outage that delayed by 15 hours,
CDC's ability to identify the anthrax case at NBC News.
10/24/2001
Bayer Corp. - the supplier of Cipro- agreed to sell the government 100 million
pills at $0.95 instead of the original $1.77/pill. There has been a movement
to push the Bush administration to contract with other companies to produce
a cheaper, generic form of Cipro-- thereby by-passing patent regulations.
10/24/2001
A 59 year old D.C. postal worker presents to an ER with a fever of 100.8F, sweats,
myalgias, chest pain, cough, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain.
A chest x-ray and CT scan reveal a widened mediastinum. The patient was placed
on ciprofloxacin, rifampin, and penicillin. Blood cultures diagnose anthrax.
10/25/2001
Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge reports that the anthrax sent to Daschle's
office was highly concentrated and designed to be disseminated and inhaled more
easily. The US Postal Service to begin environmental testing at 200 postal facilities
along the East Coast. Number of confirmed anthrax cases rises to 13- 7 inhalation
and 6 cutaneous. Most of the cases are linked to mail passing through NJ, NY,
or Washington, D.C. An estimated 10,000 people have been placed on prophylactic
antibiotics.
10/25/2001
Kathy Nguyen, a 61 year old female who worked in the stockroom at Manhattan
Eye, Ear, and Throat Hospital falls ill with myalgias and malaise. Over the
course of the next few days she develops shortness of breath, chest discomfort,
and a cough productive of blood-tinged sputum.
10/26/2001
The Supreme Court building is closed for anthrax testing.
10/26/2001
CDC reports that it will administer anthrax vaccine to high risk lab workers
and decon specialists because of their constant exposure. This may also be expanded
to postal workers.
10/28/2001
Officials confirm a new case of inhalational anthrax in a NJ postal worker.
He works at the same facility that processed three anthrax-laden letters going
to NY and
10/28/2001
Nguyen is brought to Lenox Hill Hospital ER in respiratory distress requiring
mechanical ventilation. She is found to have a temperature of 102 F, a chest
x-ray displaying pulmonary venous congestion and bilateral pleural effusions.
A chest CT scan also demonstrates a widened mediastinum. Blood cultures grow
out B. anthracis < 24 hrs. of admission. The patient is placed on levofloxacin,
rifampin, and clindamycin.
10/29/2001
Anthrax toll to date: Seven with cutaneous anthrax and 8 with inhalational anthrax
(3 of whom have died). The 15th victim, with the cutaneous form, is the first
with no direct ties to the media or postal service.
10/29/2001
CDC reports two new cases of anthrax in NJ. One is inhalational in a postal
worker and the other is a private citizen who may have contracted the cutaneous
form fom the mail. This totals 15, the number of confirmed anthrax cases in
NY, NJ,
10/30/2001
CDC announces that there have been 16 confirmed cases of anthrax: 6 cutaneous
and 10 inhalational (2-FL, 1-NY. 2-NJ, 5-Washington, D.C.
10/31/2001
Nguyen dies of inhalational anthrax. Health officials are puzzled by the fact
that she had no direct ties with postal services or with the media-- an epidemiological
mystery.
11/2/2001
CDC reports 21 anthrax cases (16 confirmed, 5 suspected).
References
Eitzen EM, Takafuji ET: Historical
Overview of Biological Warfare.
In Textbook of Military Medicine, Medical Aspects of Chemical and Biological
Warfare, 1997. Published by the Office of The Surgeon General, Department of
the Army,
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www.sciam.com/1296issue/1296cole.html:
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www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol5no4/tucker.htm:
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www.ocean.ic.net/ftp/doc/disaster/bio/biowfaq.txt:
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cns.miis.edu/pubs/npr/wmdchr72.htm:
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