I've been doing some reading on bioweapons lately, and ran across the interesting question of just what exactly went down in Zimbabwe in the late '70s.
I'm getting this from sources whose reliability I'm uncertain of, but in brief, there's some evidence that the Rhodesian government attacked the black population with biological weapons, initially with cholera, and later with anthrax. The cholera was allegedly spread by contaminating water supplies, and was quickly abandoned, both due to risk of blowback and the fact it didn't work very well. There are insider accounts of the cholera spreading that, at least to my untrained eye, appear reliable. But the cholera was small potatoes compared to the anthrax.
Unlike the cholera, as far as I know, there aren't any reliable insider accounts of the Rhodesians spreading anthrax. But the circumstantial evidence is compelling. From 1978 through 1980, during the worst phase of the war, Zimbabwe was the site of what I believe was the biggest anthrax epidemic of modern times. Over 10,000 people died, and a vast number of cattle. The infections were almost entirely confined to black tribal lands. This all occurred in a country where, before the epidemic, most doctors had never even seen a case of anthrax in humans before.
It is possible that this was some kind of horrible coincidence, but the papers I've read all say that it's almost impossible to figure out a way that the disease could have spread so far so fast without human help. Given that there were almost no pulmonary cases in humans, if it was biowarfare, then it probably was not spread by spraying, and humans were probably not the direct target. Rather, the aim was probably to attack the cattle, both to damage the economy of the tribal areas and to reduce the food supply available to the guerillas. The disease was probably spread by infected cattlecakes, ala Operation VEGETARIAN, either distributed by air or by the Selous Scouts.
Now, like I said, the sources I'm relying on here have uncertain reliability, but they're not obviously wrong. So, in the spirit of Agent Lavender, let's assume that the anthrax really was spread deliberately by the Rhodesian government. And let's assume they get caught.
There are a couple of ways this could happen. The simplest is that somebody notices aircraft dropping cattlecakes followed by cattle disease and puts two and two together. If one of these cattlecakes can be gotten to a lab, then the rest follows. Especially since it's entirely possible that the original anthrax samples were obtained from abroad, meaning that they would be a strain not endemic to Zimbabwe. What happens next?
I'm getting this from sources whose reliability I'm uncertain of, but in brief, there's some evidence that the Rhodesian government attacked the black population with biological weapons, initially with cholera, and later with anthrax. The cholera was allegedly spread by contaminating water supplies, and was quickly abandoned, both due to risk of blowback and the fact it didn't work very well. There are insider accounts of the cholera spreading that, at least to my untrained eye, appear reliable. But the cholera was small potatoes compared to the anthrax.
Unlike the cholera, as far as I know, there aren't any reliable insider accounts of the Rhodesians spreading anthrax. But the circumstantial evidence is compelling. From 1978 through 1980, during the worst phase of the war, Zimbabwe was the site of what I believe was the biggest anthrax epidemic of modern times. Over 10,000 people died, and a vast number of cattle. The infections were almost entirely confined to black tribal lands. This all occurred in a country where, before the epidemic, most doctors had never even seen a case of anthrax in humans before.
It is possible that this was some kind of horrible coincidence, but the papers I've read all say that it's almost impossible to figure out a way that the disease could have spread so far so fast without human help. Given that there were almost no pulmonary cases in humans, if it was biowarfare, then it probably was not spread by spraying, and humans were probably not the direct target. Rather, the aim was probably to attack the cattle, both to damage the economy of the tribal areas and to reduce the food supply available to the guerillas. The disease was probably spread by infected cattlecakes, ala Operation VEGETARIAN, either distributed by air or by the Selous Scouts.
Now, like I said, the sources I'm relying on here have uncertain reliability, but they're not obviously wrong. So, in the spirit of Agent Lavender, let's assume that the anthrax really was spread deliberately by the Rhodesian government. And let's assume they get caught.
There are a couple of ways this could happen. The simplest is that somebody notices aircraft dropping cattlecakes followed by cattle disease and puts two and two together. If one of these cattlecakes can be gotten to a lab, then the rest follows. Especially since it's entirely possible that the original anthrax samples were obtained from abroad, meaning that they would be a strain not endemic to Zimbabwe. What happens next?