Project Jefferson was a

covert Secrecy is the practice of hiding information from certain individuals or groups who do not have the "need to know", perhaps while sharing it with other individuals. That which is kept hidden is known as the secret. Secrecy is often controver ...

U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency program designed to determine if the current

anthrax Anthrax is an infection caused by the bacterium '' Bacillus anthracis'' or ''Bacillus cereus'' biovar ''anthracis''. Infection typically occurs by contact with the skin, inhalation, or intestinal absorption. Symptom onset occurs between one ...

vaccine was effective against

genetically modified bacteria Genetically modified bacteria were the first organisms to be modified in the laboratory, due to their simple genetics. These organisms are now used for several purposes, and are particularly important in producing large amounts of pure human prot ...

. The program's legal status under the 1972

Biological Weapons Convention The Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), or Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC), is a disarmament treaty that effectively bans Biological weapons, biological and toxin weapons by prohibiting their development, production, acquisition, ...

(BWC) is disputed.

History

The operation

Project Jefferson began in 1997 and was designed to reproduce a strain of genetically modified

isolated by Russian scientists during the 1990s. The goal was to determine whether or not the strain was resistant to the commercially available U.S. anthrax vaccine. Tucker, Jonathan B.
Biological Threat Assessment: Is the Cure Worse Than the Disease?
", ''Arms Control Today'', October 2004. Retrieved January 6, 2009.

Reportage

The project was disclosed in a September 4, 2001 article in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

''. Miller, Judith, Engelberg, Stephen and Broad, William J.
U.S. Germ Warfare Research Pushes Treaty Limits
, ''

'', September 4, 2001. Retrieved January 6, 2009. Reporters

Judith Miller Judith Miller (born January 2, 1948) is an American journalist and commentator who is known for writing about Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction (WMD) program both before and after the 2003 invasion, but her writings were later discov ...

, Stephen Engelberg and William J. Broad collaborated to write the article. It is presumed that the reporters had knowledge of the program for at least several months; shortly after the article appeared they published a book that detailed the story further. The 2001 book, '' Germs: Biological Weapons and America's Secret War'', and the article are the only publicly available sources detailing Project Jefferson and its sister projects,

Bacchus In ancient Greek religion and myth, Dionysus (; ) is the god of wine-making, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, festivity, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre. He was also known as Bacchus ( or ; ) by the Gre ...

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

Legality

Project Jefferson was operated by the

Defense Intelligence Agency The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) is an intelligence agency and combat support agency of the United States Department of Defense (DoD) specializing in military intelligence. A component of the Department of Defense and the United States In ...

and reviewed by lawyers at

the Pentagon The Pentagon is the headquarters building of the United States Department of Defense, in Arlington County, Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. The building was constructed on an accelerated schedule during World War II. As ...

. Those lawyers determined that Project Jefferson was in line with the BWC. Despite assertions from the Clinton and Bush administrations that the project, and its sisters, were legal, several international legal scholars disagreed. Notable was the fact that the clandestine program was omitted from BWC confidence-building measure (CBM) declarations. These measures were introduced to the BWC in 1986 and 1991 to strengthen the treaty, the U.S. had long been a proponent of their value and some asserted that these tests damaged American credibility. U.S. desire to keep such programs secret was, according to Bush administration officials, a "significant reason" that Bush rejected a draft agreement signed by 143 nations to strengthen the BWC.

History

The operation

Reportage

Legality

References

Further reading