The Pentagon's Brain (53 page)

1 He had just flown in: Teller, 531.

2 Poindexter suggested: Broad, 164.

3 lead agency:
DARPA: 50 Years of Bridging the Gap,
67. The program would not be called SDI until later. DARPA’s research and development efforts focused on directed energy systems and were later continued by the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization.

4 “But is it a bomb?”: Robert Scheer, “X-Ray Weapon,”
Los Angeles Times,
June 4, 1986.

5 a laser is: Interview with Charles Townes, March 2014; Townes, 4–6; Beason, 15.

6 had been inspired to create the laser: Interview with Charles Townes; Townes, 6. Charles Townes died in January 2015.

7 “array of small reflectors”: Quotes are from interview with Charles Townes; Townes, 3.

8 “like an imaginary story”: Hey, 95–96.

9
Fiscal Times:
Merrill Goozner, “$100b and Counting: Missiles That Work… Sometimes,”
The Fiscal Times,
March 24, 2012; Mark Thompson, “Why Obama Will Continue Star Wars,”
Time Magazine,
November 16, 2008.

10 “capture the sense of tankness”: Interviews with Jack Thorpe, May–October, 2014.

11 “The high rankers”: Quotes are from interviews with Neale Cosby, May–October 2014.

12 DARPA and the Army spent: Cosby, 4.

13 The Internal Look war games: Interview with General Paul Gorman (retired), October 2014.

14 “We played Internal Look”: Schwartzkopf, 10.

1 what struck him: Atkinson,
Crusade,
25.

2 stealth fighter aircraft: For a comprehensive story of the DARPA stealth program, see Van Atta et al.,
Transformation and Transition,
Volume 2
,
I-1–9.

3 “give them the full load”: Atkinson,
Crusade,
31.

4
“Two thoughts”: Crickmore, 63.

5 “sophisticated video game”: Ibid. Feest also discusses how war is like playing a video game in Richard Benke, “Right on Target,” AP, January 14, 1996.

6 “video game was over”: Crickmore, 63.

7 tactical advantage: Defense Department New Briefing, January 17, 1991, C-SPAN.org; Robert F. Dorr, 312. Numbers vary slightly, according to different sources.

8 Iraqi Scuds: Major General Jay Garner, “Army Stands by Patriot’s Persian Gulf Performance,”
Defense News 7,
no. 26 (1-4): 3; Atkinson,
Crusade,
182; “Intelligence Successes and Failures in Operations Desert Shield/Storm,” Report of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, Committee on Armed Services, U.S. House of Representatives, August 1993.

9 surrendering to a machine: Ted Shelsby, “Iraqi soldiers surrender to AAI’s drones.”
Baltimore Sun,
March 2, 1991.

10 JSTARS: U.S. Air Force, Fact Sheet, E-8C, Joint Stars (2005).

11 600,000 lines of code: Mahnken, 130.

12 “real-time tactical view”: JOINT STARS, Transitions to the Air Force, Selected Technology Transition, 68.

13 ten thousand more missions: According to a Defense Department timeline of the Gulf War, www.defense.gov.

14 mind-numbing statistics:
USA Today World,
1991 Gulf War chronology, September 3, 1996.

15 terrible weather: McMaster, “Battle of 73 Easting,” 10–11.

16 wrote the first handbook: Wolfe, 3.

17 “We had thermal imagery”: Interview with Douglas Macgregor, April 2014.

18 Eagle Troop: Interview with General Paul Gorman (retired) October 2014. The controversy continues over how long this battle actually lasted.

19 “slaughter for slaughter’s sake”: Powell, 505. All quotes in this section are from Powell’s book.

20 “a great idea”: Interview with Neal Cosby, May 2014.

21 Bloedorn and the DARPA team: Thorpe, “Trends in Modeling, Simulation, & Gaming,” 12.

22 “capturing”: Interview with Neal Cosby, May 2014.

23 “an instrument of war”: This account is from Gorman and McMaster, “The Future of the Armed Services: Training for the 21st Century,” Statement before Senate Armed Services Committee, May 21, 1992.

24
Task Force Ranger: Stewart,
The United States Army in Somalia, 1992–1994,
10–11.

25 “a direct hit”: Norm Hooten, interview with Lara Logan, CBS News,
60 Minutes,
October 6, 2013.

26 written report: Quotes are from
Report of the Senior Working Group on Military Operations Other Than War (OOTW)
. Around this time, DARPA’s name was briefly changed back to ARPA, then restored to DARPA.

27 “Historical advice”: Glenn,
Combat in Hell,
1.

1 thirteen-man Soviet delegation: Alibek, 226. The other twelve members were scientists, Soviet army officers, diplomats, and spies.

2 regarded with wonderment: Alibek, 194; email correspondence with Ken Alibek, December 2013. Alibek now lives in Kazakhstan.

3 Alibekov’s job: Alibek, 194.

4 he later described: Ibid., 9.

5 “It wasn’t so clear”: “DARPA: The Post-Soviet Years 1989–Present 2008,” video available on YouTube at DARPAtv.

6 great instability: Office of the Secretary of Defense, “Proliferation and Threat Response,” November 1992, 35.

7 At any given time: Hoffman,
The Dead Hand,
330. As per Hoffman, there were 6,623 land-based and 2,760 sea-based nuclear warheads aimed at carefully selected targets inside the United States, and an additional 1,500 nuclear-armed cruise missiles and 822 nuclear-armed aircraft ready to fly.

8 helped conceive and design: Biography of Lisa Bronson, Missouri State University, Faculty DSS-73.

9 “At various stops”: This account is from Alibek, 239–40.

10 reached out to Lisa Bronson: Alibek 242, also discussed with Michael Goldblatt, April 2014.

11 Vladimir Pasechnik’s defection: Mangold and Goldberg,
Plague Wars,
91–105.

12 Ultra-Pure: Hoffman,
The Dead Hand,
327–328.

13 streptomycin: Poland and Dennis, WHO/CDS/CSR/EDC
Plague Manual,
55.

14 “You choose plague”: Hoffmann,
The Dead Hand,
334.

15 “one of the key acts”: Ibid., 332.

16 declared smallpox dead:
World Health Magazine,
May 1980 (cover).

17
Lederberg confirmed: James M. Hughes and D. Peter Drotman, “In Memoriam: Joshua Lederberg (1925–2008),”
Emerging Infectious Diseases
14, no. 6 (June 2008): 981–983.

18 to get the Russians to admit: Braithwaite, 141–143. As the British ambassador to the Soviet Union, Braithwaite was stationed in Moscow from September 1988 to May 1992.

19 Yeltsin confessed: Braithwaite, 142–43.

20 Congress got involved: In the spring of 1992, in an interview with
Komsomolskaya Pravda,
Yeltsin acknowledged that the Soviet Union, and subsequently Russia, had been operating a biological weapons program. He blamed the arms race. In June, while visiting Washington, D.C., Yeltsin told the U.S. Congress, “We are firmly resolved not to lie any more,” and promised U.S. lawmakers that Russia’s illegal bioweapons programs would end.

21 “the most virulent and vicious”: David Willman, “Selling the Threat of Bioterrorism,”
Los Angeles Times,
July 1, 2007.

22 Alibek confirmed: Alibek, 5.

23 provided chilling details: Testimony before the Joint Economic Committee, U.S. Congress, May 20, 1998; Alibek, 40.

24 “They did not care”: Alibek, 257.

25 “blindness to the pace”: Cited in William J. Broad, “Joshua Lederberg, 82, a Nobel Winner, Dies,”
New York Times,
February 5, 2008.

26 “very little capability in biology”: Interview with Larry Lynn; “DARPA: The Post-Soviet Years 1989–Present 2008,” video available on YouTube at DARPAtv.

27 “a SCIF”: Quotes are from interview with Murph Goldberger, June 2013.

28 Lederberg: Nancy Stomach, “DARPA Explores Some Promising Avenues,” 25.

29 unclassified findings: This section is sourced from Block,
Living Nightmares,
39–75.

30 cancerous human tumors: Kevin Newman, “Cancer Experts Puzzled by Monkey Virus,” ABC News, March 12, 1994. The subject, “The SV-40 Virus: Has Tainted Polio Vaccine Caused an Increase in Cancer?” was discussed and debated before Congress on September 10, 2003.

31 Shortly after: Block,
Living Nightmares,
41.

32 Biological warfare defense: Quotes in this section come from DARPA Biological Warfare Defense Program, Program Overview no. 884, briefing slides (unpaginated).

33 “Star Wars of biology”: Ibid.

34
Preston testified: Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Technology, Terrorism and Government Information and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on Chemical and Biological Weapons, “Threats to America: Are We Prepared?” April 22, 1998.

35 “hundreds of tons”: Tim Weiner, “Soviet Defector Warns of Biological Weapons,”
New York Times,
February 25, 1998.

36 distributed to members of Congress:
Congressional Record,
March 12, 1998.

37 sharing information: Richard Preston, “The Bioweaponeers,”
New Yorker
, March 9, 1998, 52–53.

38 private meeting at the Pentagon: David Willman, “Selling the Threat of Bioterrorism,”
Los Angeles Times,
July 1, 2007.

39 Alibek became president: Executive profile,
Bloomberg Business Week,
October 14, 2013. See also Miller, Engelberg, and Broad, 302–4.

40 Popov: Quotes are from
Nova,
1998. Transcripts online at pbs.org.

41 “enigma”: Marilyn Chase, “To Fight Bioterror, Doctors Look for Ways to Spur Immune System,”
Wall Street Journal,
September 24, 2002.

42 biological warfare defense: Prepared remarks of Larry Lynn, director, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, before the Acquisition and Technology Subcommittee, U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, March 11, 1997.

43 “We hope”: “Hadron Subsidiary Awarded $3.3 Million Biodefense Contract by DARPA,” PRNewswire, May 2, 2000. In just a few years’ time, Alibek’s federal grant and contract money would total $28 million.

44 Ukraine: David Willman, “Selling the Threat of Bioterrorism,”
Los Angeles Times,
July 1, 2007.

45 “terrorist organization”: Testimony of Ken Alibek, U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Armed Services, Subcommittee on Research and Development and Subcommittee on Procurement, October 20, 1999, 15.

1 “weakling of the battlefield”: Quotes are from interview with General Paul Gorman (retired), October 2014.

2 “On the field of battle”: Colonel S. L. A. Marshall,
The Soldier’s Load and the Mobility of a Nation
(Washington, DC, 1950), 7–10.

3 Gorman wrote: Gorman, SuperTroop, VIII-7.

4 radical vision: Interview with Michael Goldblatt, April 2014. This belief is common among transhumanists.

5 with the wave of a wand: Garreau, 28.

6
“rapid healing”: Harry T. Whelan et al., “DARPA Soldier Self Care: Rapid Healing of Laser Eye Injuries with Light Emitting Diode Technology,” September 1, 2004.

7 like hydrogen sulfide: Jason, MITRE,
Human Performance,
22–24.

8 to control the lobes: Garreau, 28.

9 Mechanically Dominant Soldier: Tether, Statement to Congress, March 19, 2003.

10 look like Lance Armstrong: Garreau, 32.

11 “a wireless brain modem”: All quotes are from Statement of Dr. Eric Eisenstadt, Defense Sciences Office, Brain Machine Interface, DARPATech ’99 conference.

12 the answer was clear: Author’s tour of Gina Goldblatt’s high technology bedroom, April 2014.

13 the
Dark Winter
script: Quotes are from
Dark Winter,
Bioterrorism Exercise, Andrews Air Force Base, June 22–23, 2001; U.S. House of Representatives, Hearing on Combating Terrorism, “Federal Response to a Biological Weapons Attack,” July 2001.

14 Nunn told Congress: Nunn, statement to Congress, July 23, 2001.

15 all BASIS could do: Interview with Dr. Alan P. Zelicoff, October 2013.

16 “Any technology”: Vin LoPresti, “Guarding the Air We Breathe,”
Los Alamos National Laboratory Research Quarterly
(Spring 2003), 5.

1 asks Bray: Quotes are from interview with David Bray, July 2014. Per Presidential Decision Directive 39, the Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Program was a joint effort between the CDC, the FBI, and the Association of Public Health Laboratories.

2 supercomputers would scan: David Siegrist and J. Pavlin,
^“
Bio-ALIRT Biosurveillance Detection Algorithm Evaluation,” Centers For Disease Control,
Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report,
September 24, 2004/53, 152–158. Carlos Castillo-Chavez, “Infections Disease Informatics and Biosurveillance,”
Springer,
October 2010, 6–7.

3 “It was a clear day”: Cheney, 339.

4 “He grabbed me”: Cheney interview with John King, CNN, September 11, 2002.

5 laying plans for war: Cheney, 341.

6 sitting in his office: Rumsfeld, 335;
Larry King Live,
December 5, 2001.

7 Davis later told: This account is from Cockburn, 1–3.

8
Secretary Rumsfeld helped: Armed Forces Press Service, September 8, 2006, photographs.

9 “Best info fast”:
9/11 Commission Report
, 559; Joel Roberts, “Plans for Iraq Attack Began on 9/11,” CBS News, September 4, 2002.

10 “We all knew”: Rice, 83.

11 “We were embarking”: Cheney, 332.

12 Rumsfeld, Known and Unknown, 356–57.

13 Tenet sent out a memo: Memorandum from George J. Tenet, The Director of Central Intelligence, “Subject: We’re at War,” September 16, 2001, CIA.

14 “On October first”: Quotes are from interview with David Bray, July 2014.

15 “A war of nerves”: R. W. Apple, “A Nation Challenged: News Analysis; City of Power, City of Fears,”
New York Times,
October 17, 2001.

16 DARPA was asked: Interview with Michael Goldblatt, April 2014.

17 “a little bit of pride”: Ibid.

18 “There had been”: Quotes are from Cheney, 341.

19 “a virtually zero rate”: Vin LoPresti, “Guarding the Air We Breathe,”
Los Alamos National Laboratory Research Quarterly
(Spring 2003), 5,
Science and Technology Review,
October, 2003; Arkin, 288n.

20 “Go call Hadley”: Rice, 101.

21 In New York City: Cheney, 340–42.

22 “Feet down”: Rice, 101.

23 additive called bentonite: ABC News,
World News Tonight,
October 26, 2001.

24 “Iraqi intelligence agent in Prague”: ABC News,
This Week,
October 28, 2001.

25 disinformation campaign: William Safire, “Mr. Atta Goes to Prague,”
New York Times,
May 9, 2002.

26 indication of his significance: Anthony Tether, biography, AllGov.com.

27 five stages: Tether, Statement to Congress, March 19, 2003.

28 nearly three times: FY 2003 budget estimates, determined in February 2002.

29 “Kenneth Alibek”: “George Mason University Unveils Center for Biodefense: Scientists Kenneth Alibek, Charles Bailey to Direct,” press release, George Mason University, February 14, 2002.

30 “prototype biodefense products”: PRNewswire, Analex Corporation, May 1, 2002.

31 $60: “National Security Notes,” March 31, 2006, GlobalSecurity.org.

32 Al Qaeda spent:
9/11 Commission Report,
169. The plotters spent between $400,000 and $500,000.

33
“The match is about to begin”: John Diamond and Kathy Kiely, “Tomorrow Is Zero Hour,”
USA Today,
June 19, 2002.