The provocative new film and book about the untold story of the 2001 U.S. Anthrax Attacks and the dark secrets of the shadowy world of modern day germ weapons research.
“Fear and Terror on The Anthrax Trail” – Anthrax War Trailer:
When the 2001 anthrax attacks hit the USA in the days following 9/11, it was like a one-two punch against the Republic. Workers in New York’s media center who had seen the planes swoop too low over their heads en route to the Twin Tower were now terrified of their mail. In Washington, Capitol Hill was evacuated and White House staffers were chewing CIPRO tablets.
It was our scariest collective nightmare come to life – the attack of deadly invisible bugs. It seemed like a self-fulfilling prophecy, the preceding years filled as they were with scores of films, best-selling books, TV shows and articles on the coming of “Bio-Terror.” Indeed, for the first time in history, national leaders and the military actually acted out high-tech “germ attack” war games, one of which had a scenario shockingly close to the actual events.
So after the government pledged the most thorough investigation it could muster, we hoped the feds would get to the bottom of it all. Thus, we were saddened but not really surprised when the attacks disappeared from public discourse – unmentioned, for example, by any major candidate during the 2008 election contest. And when the FBI announced suddenly last summer that the cold case was red-hot, identified a lone culprit – U.S. Army Scientist Bruce Ivins, just slain by his own hand, and quickly closed its seven-year investigation, it felt to us – and to most polled citizens – that something was not quite right.
In the 30 years we’ve covered international politics for newspapers, magazines and television networks, rarely – if ever – had we seen such a big story buried so deep. Relying on our network of government, journalistic and intelligence contacts, it soon became clear that the powers that be were for a variety of reasons loathe to open wide the Pandora’s box where the real anthrax answers could probably be found.
We’ve made a non-fiction film ignited by those germ attacks of 2001 and written a book to fill out a story that our 90-minute documentary could only outline. We invite you to come along for the ride and hope that the open minds that elected the new president are just as open to what we’ve learned about the new “Bio-Terror Industrial Complex”.
Bob Coen, Eric Nadler
Brooklyn, New York
SYNOPSIS
ANTHRAX WAR is a provocative new investigative documentary by filmmakers Bob Coen and Eric Nadler that examines the 2001 Anthrax Attacks and offers a frightening glimpse into today’s secret and dangerous world of germ weapons. DEAD SILENCE is the accompanying book that fills out the story of the global investigation that the documentary could only outline.
The story begins in the days following the 9/11 terrorist attacks when anthrax-laced letters, mailed to media offices in New York and to the U.S. Senate in Washington, spread fear and panic across the United States and beyond. The filmmakers probe troubling questions surrounding the FBI’s investigation of the 21st Century’s first act of biological terrorism.
The search for answers takes them from the United States to the United Kingdom, then to the edge of Siberia and to Southern Africa and leads them into an underworld in which leading scientists working with germs die under mysterious circumstances. The growing list includes Bruce Ivins, who the FBI claims was the only person behind the U.S. anthrax murders; Dr. David Kelly, the former head of UK bio-defense; and Dr. Vladimir Pasechnik, the mastermind behind the Soviet Union’s vast and illegal bio-weapons complex who defected to the West.
The filmmakers penetrate what they come to call the “international biological warfare mafia” and uncover the development of terrifying new weapons — genetically mutated germs, some with the ability to target specific ethnic groups. In a rare interview, the man known as “Doctor Death”, who headed South Africa’s apartheid-era biological warfare program that developed germs aimed at the country’s black population, reveals that he received help from the U.S. and U.K. The filmmakers also learn that some of these germs may be for sale on the black market today.
ANTHRAX WAR goes on to reveal how the 2001 Anthrax Attacks have spawned a $57 billion dollar “Bio-defense” boom in which germ weapons research is now being conducted, with little oversight, by corporations and private labs — the new ‘Bio-Terrorism Military Industrial Complex’.
The investigation underscores how fear of terrorism combined with the lure of extraordinary profits may be leading to a global germ war arms race that could be hurtling the planet toward catastrophe.
