Ken Alibek
People who make biological weapons live with the risk that they will die by them. Ken Alibek found that out in a visceral way one Sunday evening in 1983 when a phone call to his home informed him that the tularemia plant he directed had a problem. When he arrived at the plant, Alibek went to inspect a room suspected of being contaminated by a leak from Zone 3, the interior area reserved for culture of tularemia bacteria. Entering alone and turning on the lights, he found himself standing in a puddle of Francisella tularensis.

Tularemia is a plaguelike disease transmitted by bites from fleas, ticks, and flies. First described in the county of Tulare, in California, its potential as a weapon was recognized before World War II. America, Great Britain, and Canada once had tularemia battlefield weapons. Alibek was one of the few who knew Russia...

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