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An investigation into the deadly world
of germ weapons, Anthrax War begins in New York in the days
following 9/11. Anthrax-laced letters, mailed to media and U.S.
senators, killed five people and spread fear and panic throughout
the nation.
For filmmaker Bob Coen, who was raised in Zimbabwe where the former
white regime has been accused of unleashing anthrax against the
black population, biological weapons have a deep personal meaning.
He embarks on a journey that raises troubling questions about the
FBI's investigation of the 21st century's first act of biological
terrorism.
Coen's investigation takes him from the U.S. to the U.K. and from
the edge of Siberia to the tip of Africa.
In a rare interview, Coen
confronts "Doctor Death" Wouter Basson, who headed Project Coast,
the South African apartheid-era bio-warfare program. Project Coast
used germ warfare against select targets within the country's black
population.
Anthrax War also investigates the mysterious deaths of some of the
world's leading anthrax scientists, including,
The FBI claims - despite the doubts
of highly ranked U.S. officials - that Ivins was the only person
behind the U.S. anthrax murders.
In tracing the 2001 bio-terror attacks in the U.S. to the heart of
the U.S. bio-defense program, this film raises an alarm. These
attacks that helped prepare a country for war have also spawned a
multi-billion dollar bio-defense boom.
The line between bio-offense
and bio-defense is becoming extremely thin. Biological weapons
research is now being conducted by corporations and private labs
without effective government oversight.
The international treaty
prohibiting the development of offensive bio-weapons may no longer
be sufficient to keep the world from drifting towards the
unthinkable biological warfare. |
