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 controvers ...
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 ...
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 and toxin weapons by prohibiting their development, production, acquisition, transfer, stockpil ...
(BWC) is disputed.
History
The operation
Project Jefferson began in 1997 and was designed to reproduce a strain of genetically modified
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 ...
Tucker, Jonathan B
Jonathan B. Tucker (August 2, 1954 – July 31, 2011) was a United States chemical and biological weapons expert.
Early life and education
Tucker was born on August 2, 1954 in Boston, Massachusetts to Deborah Tucker. Tucker earned a B.S. in bio ...
The project was disclosed in a September 4, 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 ...
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 ...
'', September 4, 2001. Retrieved January 6, 2009. 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 detailing Project Jefferson and its sister projects,
Bacchus
In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, myth, Dionysus (; grc, wikt:Διόνυσος, Διόνυσος ) is the god of the grape-harvest, winemaking, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstas ...
and
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 ...
.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, specializing in defense and military intelligence.
A component of the Department of Defense (DoD) and the I ...
and reviewed by lawyers at
the Pentagon
The Pentagon is the headquarters building of the United States Department of Defense. It was constructed on an accelerated schedule during World War II. As a symbol of the U.S. military, the phrase ''The Pentagon'' is often used as a metony ...
. 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.