Project Bacchus was a covert investigation by the

Defense Threat Reduction Agency The Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) is a combat support agency within the United States Department of Defense (DoD) for countering weapons of mass destruction (WMD; chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and high explosives). Accor ...

US Defense Department The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national secur ...

to determine whether it is possible to construct a

bioweapon A biological agent (also called bio-agent, biological threat agent, biological warfare agent, biological weapon, or bioweapon) is a bacterium, virus, protozoan, parasite, fungus, or toxin that can be used purposefully as a weapon in bioterrorism ...

s production facility with off-the-shelf equipment.

History

The project

Project Bacchus operated from 1999-2000 to investigate whether would-be terrorists could build an

anthrax Anthrax is an infection caused by the bacterium ''Bacillus anthracis''. It can occur in four forms: skin, lungs, intestinal, and injection. Symptom onset occurs between one day and more than two months after the infection is contracted. The sk ...

production facility and remain undetected. During the two-year simulation, the facility was constructed, and successfully produced an anthrax-like

bacterium Bacteria (; singular: bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one biological cell. They constitute a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria were among ...

. The participating scientists were able to make about of highly refined bacterial particles.MacKenzie, Debora
Anthrax in Florida and New York "the same strain"
, ''

New Scientist ''New Scientist'' is a magazine covering all aspects of science and technology. Based in London, it publishes weekly English-language editions in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia. An editorially separate organisation publishe ...

'', October 18, 2001. Retrieved January 6, 2009.

Reportage

The secret Project Bacchus was disclosed in a September 2001 article in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''. Reporters

Judith Miller Judith Miller (born January 2, 1948) is an American journalist and commentator known for her coverage of Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) program both before and after the 2003 invasion, which was later discovered to have been based on ...

, Stephen Engelberg and

William J. Broad William J. Broad (born March 7, 1951) is an American science journalist, author and a Senior Writer at ''The New York Times''. Education Broad earned a master's degree from the University of Wisconsin in 1977.Germs: Biological Weapons and America's Secret War'', and the article are the only publicly available sources concerning Project Bacchus and its sister projects,

Clear Vision ''Clear Vision'' is series of mobile games developed by the Swedish developer Eldring Games and was for a period the most downloaded game in the Android Appstore. Plot and gameplay The game's plot revolves around a sniper-for-hire named Tyler ...

and

Jefferson Jefferson may refer to: Names * Jefferson (surname) * Jefferson (given name) People * Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), third president of the United States * Jefferson (footballer, born 1970), full name Jefferson Tomaz de Souza, Brazilian foo ...

.Enemark, Christian. ''Disease and Security: Natural Plagues and Biological Weapons in East Asia'',
Google Books
, Routledge, 2007, pp. 173-75, ().

History

The project

Reportage

References

Further reading