Chemical-Weapons Books

For over forty years, I've been reading about the end of World War II and Japan. Were the Japanese ready to surrender? Were the atomic bombs dropped to intimidate the Soviet Union? Was racism the real motive?

Richard Frank's DOWNFALL: THE END OF THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE EMPIRE, is the best book on this subject I've ever read. Frank takes us back to 1945, and shows what the United States knew then, and how they knew it. Based on the information they had available at the time, the U.S. and British leaders had no reason to believe that the effective leaders of Japan were going to surrender any time soon, or that any alternative course they chose would lead to fewer deaths. Further, he shows that these judgments were correct: there is still no evidence that the effective rulers of Japan would have surrendered in 1945, and all the alternatives to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki would have definitely led to hundreds of thousands MORE DEATHS of civilians and soldiers.

I regard the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as atrocities and crimes, but the whole of the war was a succession of atrocities and crimes, the greatest bloodbath in history. Frank shows, convincingly, that the use of atomic weapons was the least evil among the choices Harry S Truman faced.

I was moved to reread this fine book by Richard Frank by the allegation by Presidential candidate Senator Barak Obama's former preacher and confidant Jeremiah Wright's that one of America's supposed "sins" that he was cursing it for was the use of the Atomic Bombs on Japan at the end of the Second World War. I was in High School during the Vietnam War period and I recall my teachers telling us that that use of the Bomb was unnecessary and was carried out merely to scare the Communist Soviets and didn't matter anyway since the Japanese were supposedly viewed as "racially inferior". We were taught that the United State government is inherently dishonest, so any such decision to use the bomb must have had "tainted" motiviations. Such cynicism is potentially destructive, as Frank shows in his book.
Attitudes like these have unfortunately become common in the United States over the years, and as Frank points out, are based on ignorance and self-righteousness. President Truman's aide, Admiral Leahy claimed after the war that the use of the bomb was "unnecessary" (Frank points out that there is no record of his opposition at the time the decision was made). This is, of course, true. The Japanese would have eventually surrendered even without the use of the bomb. The question, though, remains "at what cost"? There are two possible scenarios, (1) American and Allied forces invade the Japanes Home Islands in order to force a decision, or (2) no invasion is mounted, but a tight blockade and heavy air bombing keep up the pressure.
Frank shows that although a two-phase invasion was planned, Operation Olympic in Kyushu, followed by Operation Coronet on Honshu near Tokyo, as time passed, American interception and decryption of Japanese messages showed that powerful forces were being brought up to the planned invasion zones along with thousands of aircraft designed for Kamikaze attacks. The civilian population was also being trained to carry out suicide attacks (the government's slogan was "100 Million Die Together"). As a result, American enthusiasm for the invasion scheme waned and, instead, a plan to destroy Japan's railroad system to prevent the distribution of food was developed, which, along with the naval blockade, would bring starvation to the population, forcing the Japanese government to eventually capitulate. The question remained "how long would it take to reach this situation"? Frank points out that over 100,000 Chinese were dying every month during the war, in addition to large numbers of Allied prisoners and forced Asian laborers in southeast Asia. If the war dragged on longer, hundreds of thousands of these people would have died. Had the blockade "succeeded" in bring famine in addition to plague and civil disorder to Japan, hundreds of thousands, if not millions of Japanese would have died.
Frank also points out that something like 350,000 Japanese died in the Soviet campaign to conquer Manchuria, many of them civilians. In addition there were still large Japanese forces in China , the Dutch East Indies (today's Indonesia) and southeast Asia. Without the shock of a surrender brought about by the use of the Atomic bombs it is conceivable that these forces would have continued to fight on (the Japanese Army in China had a history of subordination). There was also a Soviet plan to invade the Japanese home island of Hokkaido. One can only specularte on how many deaths would this have caused, in addition to the possibility that the USSR would have set up a "Japanese Peoples' Republic" in their zone, just like they did in Korea, for which the world is still paying to this day. It is odd that those who show "compassion" for the Japanese people in saying that the bomb shouldn't have been used, seem to lack the same compassion for the oppressed thousands who were dying every day in the Japanese-occupied territories.
Frank also shows that the popular "deus-ex-machina" scenario that supposedly the Japanese government had really made a decision to surrender and were in contact with the USSR government is false. It is true that there were contacts with the Soviets, but they were on a low diplomatic level, and no decision to surrender had been made before the first use of the bomb. In addition, no contacts were made during the three days that passed before the use of the second bomb. It turns out that some Japanese leaders thought the bomb was merely a one-shot affair which the Americans couldn't repeat. Frank shows clearly that America's leaders had no choice but to make the decision they did and that this decision saved untold number of lives, both Allied and Japanese. Anybody who saw the horrific casualties at places like Iwo Jima and Okinawa in addition to the mass suicides of Japanese civilians at Saipana and Okinawa would reach the same conclusion.
Richard Frank is performing an invaluable service in destroying the "politically correct" myths demagogues like Wright are propagating and showing that a clear, open mind leads one to the truth.

Frank has done an excellent job of dispassionately presenting the facts about the endgame of the Pacific War. I appreciate that Frank laid out the evidence and left it to the reader to judge where it pointed.

What is clear from the evidence is that neither the Japanese nor American leadership had adequate information to judge the other's intentions during 1945. In fact, there is some evidence that the Japaneese High Command was being mislead by underlings regarding the state of American morale. Thus the War Council believed that they were just one decisive battle away from being able to negotiate with the Americans for softer terms than Unconditional Surrender. On the other hand, American intelligence community were not adept enough to draw out from the vast array of intercepted cable traffic a clear picture. Thus they did not provide Truman information that was 'actionable'.

As for the bomb, the preponderance of evidence amassed by Frank points to the conclusion that once the decision to build the atomic bomb was made, the Manhattan project took on its own momentum and thus made the bombs use inevitable.

All-in-all a terrific book. Since I finished it on September 30th, it makes it onto my Summer Reading Favorites of 2007 :-)

Richard Frank conclusively shatters a number of myths about the end of the Pacific side of World War II.

First, Japan was NOT ready to accept unconditional surrender, even with the caveat of the preservation of the Japanese throne, until after both bombs were dropped. Frank uses extensive declassified transcripts of Ultra (military) and Magic (diplomatic) U.S. codebreaking to get members of the Japanese war cabinet's own words, or lack thereof, on this issue. Within that is the fact that Japan's attempt to use Russia as an intermediary-ally in negotiations was totally out of tune with reality, so much out of tune that Tokyo actually expected Moscow to honor the full one year's "down time" after abrogating the two countries' neutrality agreement.

Second, the Japanese Army was ramping UP the plans for Keisu-Go, the all-out defense of the Japanese homeland, after the spring firebombings of Tokyo and elsewhere. Top Army brass considered that the U.S. might well try blockade, and thought it had enough kamikazes, midget submarines, etc., to make the U.S pay enough a price for even the blockade that it would settle for a negotiated peace. Again, Frank looks in-depth at Magic and Ultra transcripts to show how much support there was for this.

Third, Frank demonstrates that U.S. casualty fears of an invasion of Kyushu were well-warranted and may even have been understated in some cases.

The determination of the Japanese Empire to resist was well-known by American troops in the Pacific who had seen the Japanese, on average, take 97 percent casualties in many of their defensive actions. A militaristic government was ready to exploit this to the death.

The atomic bomb was therefore used for reasons of the highest seriousness. It was NOT dropped on Hiroshima as a demonstration for Stalin. And, speaking of demonstrations, the fact that it took two atomic bombs on Japan to get it to surrender puts the lie to the idea that a "demonstration" bomb would have been enough to get the Japanese to a non-negotiated surrender with them attempting to hold on to territory.

I was so fascinated by this book that I read all the previous reviews. I only want to add my unlimited praise and to add a few thoughts and stories...
I was as unaware as anybody of the details of the end of the Pacific war until I met a fellow (Bill Lear, son of "the" Bill Lear) who was on a troop ship to Olympic. He said the officers told them that they all were going to die. After that the book was a natural, and I couldn`t have chosen better.
In my present line, I am in Japan a lot. If there is any one thing that makes Frank`s book fascinating, it is the detailed look at the inner workings of that eastern mind in the government and military leaders, and the resulting confusion for their hapless diplomats. In some cases it is not so radical - we Americans still get huffy about Pearl Harbor, when the Japanese were following a pretty basic tenet of war. Frank didn`t really go to a lot of trouble to remind us that the "unfathonable" Asian way of seeing things is normal to them. Perhaps it isn`t necessary. Any Japanese soldier who sees dying for his emperor/country as his highest honor will tend to see anyone who surrenders or is beaten before he can sacrifice himself, as the lowest sort of worm, not worthy of bayonet practice let alone a bowl of rice. Just an example, but with a point. Frank managed to state facts, back them up with numbers and intel documents and let it go at that. The case builds easily in the reader`s mind that this was a terrible war and that the allies/Americans were in a real conundrum about how to end it. Which brings up the sadly fascinating fact that the very thing that the allies demanded, as a way of keeping "these fascist and militarist governments from starting a world war every few years", was unconditional surrender, the very thing the Japanese couldn`t accept.
One thing which makes a really great book is that it opens discussion on the topic rather than, say, on the writer`s vocabulary. By that measure, this is one of the best. Please indulge me...
I have been to the peace museum in Hiroshima. It is very moving and also very evenhanded. It shows the little uniforms of the school kids killed - they were in town that day to help build firebreaks. It also has the army order on the wall which commanded that when the invasion came, all subjects were to show up on the beaches with pitchforks, sticks or any other weapon that came to hand. Hiroshima, by the way (to answer a previous comment) was the headquarters of the 5th Japanese Army, in charge of Japan and Korea (where they'd been since 1920, only getting to Manchuria in 1931, re another comment)It was also a recruit center, and a navy shipyard, in other words not exactly non-military.
My Dad flew in B-29s. He was a tough old farm boy, but once he met an army buddy who had also `been there` That`s the only time I saw him cry. I don`t think it`s wrong to lament the terrible things humans are capable of doing to each other and to make them stop; a basic about war, by the way. The fact that millions of innocents had died and were likely to keep dying in this war would make any way of stopping it look pretty good, ie, "moral". I personally would say, you can`t argue with success. The Japanese had been fighting since at least 1920. Days after the bomb, it was over. I`m in the camp of "the Russians had nothing to do with it." I want to thank Mr. Frank for explaning readably and in detail, how that came about.
Finally a note from my Mom... The war council was correct in believing that Americans were sick of the war (Incorrect in their eastern way in seeing Potsdam as weakness). They were beaten but wouldn`t quit. If you had a family member in the service, you put a red star in your window, and if they were killed, you changed it to a gold star. There were plenty of houses with two gold stars in the window. People in 1945 wanted the war to end and wanted the boys home. Imagine you are Truman, and a wife/mother says to you, "You mean to tell me you had the means to end this war the day before my boy was killed, and you didn`t do it?"
Read this book.

Fun (really!) popular history of gunpowder, which started and ended its career as a propellant for fireworks, and in between fueled wars between men and nations, at land and sea.

One interesting point made by Kelly is that gunpowder was an early human technology that was developed and refined by practitioners, who had an imperfect understanding of how it worked, and not theoreticians, who often had NO understanding of how it worked. And in fact gunpowder as a technology was superseded before science fully caught up with it, so that it is still to some extent an unknown quantity.

I am reminded of Jimmy Buffett's line "A bombardier, a nighttime magician" in reference to a fireworks artisan setting of a show.

Finely written, plenty of interesting details, it's a masterpiece not only for those somehow devoted to the field of military history, but also to chemists dealing with the surprising field of energetic materials. Thank you, Jack Kelly!

1/25/2007

Jack Kelly, 1949-
Gunpowder -- Alchemy, Bombards, & Pyrotechnics: The History of the Explosive that Changed the World. / Jack Kelly.
New York: Basic Books, 2005. ISBN 0-465-03722-4 (paperback).

Fire speaks to us, says Jack Kelly. Considering that fire is in all liklihood one of the oldest -- if not the oldest -- of mankind's technological inventions, that's not surprising. Mr. Kelly succeeds admirably in keeping the fire metaphor close at hand throughout all 242 pages of his text, from the explosions of burning bamboo -- intended to frighten away the Chinese semi-human shan -- to our present-day nuclear fire.

Along the way, we're treated to a much larger panorama than most of us ever consider. The Chinese, most people are aware, came up with what we term "gunpowder" in the ninth century. They didn't call it gunpowder, of course -- no such thing as a gun -- but it was used as an elixer designed to render the user immortal; the stuff was made of sulfur, saltpeter, and dried honey. Developments were not quick in the orient, but by the early 1400's, China's military was equipped with cannon and individual firearms of a sort.

Gunpowder was to be widely used in Europe, though. While the "cannon" at Crecy and Agincourt may not have been terribly effective, they sounded the death knell for the armored knight / moated castle feudal system. (True, arrows could penetrate plate armor, but an accomplished archer required a lot of training; a soldier could be taught to use a simple firearm -- a matchlock, say -- relatively quickly.) Most of us have some familiarity with the military changes wrought by gunpowder ant its associated firearms, but how many of us know that:

* Christiaan Huygens attempted to devise an internal-combustion 'moteur a explosion' using gunpowder as the fuel. Only an inability to come up with a way to deliver successive charges to the cylinder prevented the actual fabrication of Huygen's engine.
* The proximate cause of the American Revolution could be considered British General Gates' determination to seize all gunpowder in and near Boston. The fights at Lexington and Concord in 1775 were simply the last of a series of raids. (Hmmm... "gun control" through ammunition control... nothing much seems to have changed, has it? One is permitted to cynically hope that the modern-day controllers are no more successful than General Gates.)
* Fulimates and nitrated hydrocarbons (nitrocelulose -- guncotten, and nitroglycerine) were at first developed as substitutes for gunpowder. Their applications were greatly modified, of course: fulminates into the "primers", and the nitro- compounds as components of so-called smokeless powder.

There's a lot to like in this book, and not much to dislike. The proofreading appears to have been exemplary: there are no glaring spelling arrors, misplaced paragraphs, orphaned sentences, or similar horrors to be found. The illustrations, a mixture of photgraphs, line drawings, and reproductions of what appear to be woodcuts, nicely compliment the text. One point which is at most, a minor annoyance: projectile speeds given in miles per hour jar a bit when one is used to thinking in terms of feet per second. (Yes, it's easy enough to multiply MPH by 1.47 to get FPS; even 1.5 is pretty close.)

The major strength of this volume is, however, the mixture: it's not a technical treatise, nor a chemical text, nor a tactical manual, nor a governmental history, nor yet a philosophical tract. It's all of these; literally, how gunpowder changed the world... the whole world. Jack Kelly has succeeded in fulfilling the promise of his title, and carries us along quite merrily, all the way through to the end. In our present day, he observes that gunpwder, its thousand-year history notwithstanding, has been largely relegated to two of its earliest uses: celebrations and entertainment.

Mr. Kelly thoughtfully supplies an informal "sources consulted" style bibliography, organized by chapter, and a working index, both of which are very welcome, indeed.

Jack Kelly has written an easy-to-read overview of the evolution of gunpowder development and use from its invention at the turn of the first millennium until it was replaced by synthetics in the 19th century. In fact, synthetics so thoroughly replaced gunpowder that what was once gunpowder is differentiated from its replacements by the term "black powder" while synthetics have taken over the germ gunpowder.

Beginning with its invention and use by the Chinese, who first used gunpowder in an early version of (ineffective) hand grenades, through its first effective use in bombards in Europe, until it became the staple for small arms in the early modern period of history Kelly presents an interesting narrative history on how gunpowder impacted the world. Although there is a technological deterministic aspect to the book (a natural result of the subject) the book does do a good job of putting gunpowder into context - in some cases gunpowder drives further military developments, in others the refinement of gunpowder is driven by other needs. This book is especially interesting if you have any interest in the concept of "military revolution." It focuses on one type of tool over a 900 year period, which allows you to see how one technology evolved, and was integrated into the transformation of war, over a significant period of time.

Gunpowder: Alchemy, Bombards, & Pyrotechnics: The History of the Explosive that Changed the World, by Jack Kelly, Basic Books, NY, 2004. Kelly had done a very nice job with this crisp, well written history of gunpowder. He covers the subject nicely, in survey fashion, but with some detailed stories. There's history, technology, and science-all in fine factual detail but for the general audience. The chemistry, mathematics, metallurgy, and physics are there, but not in rigorous detail. Just enough to whet the appetite for further study. References are included for each chapter, though footnotes are lacking.

A detailed study of the history of gunpowder and related technologies could have gone on for thousands of pages. The author has selected certain stories for focus. He begins in China, and tells especially the European story, and the use of firearms in battle, on land and at sea. He includes some stories from America including the Revolutionary War, the story of Samuel Colt, and the Dupont story of gunpowder. He ends with development of the A-bomb, but really coverage ends at the beginning of the Twentieth Century with smokeless powder. There is no mention of lead mining or the famous shot towers. Kelly covers the abundance of saltpeter in the warm climate of China, its general shortage in Europe, and the extensive efforts to collect and extract it in Britain and France. But there is no mention of the Nobel Prize winning Borne-Haber process, invented in World War I in Germany, that resolved the nitrate shortage by making synthetic nitric acid from air and fossil fuels (natural gas, naphtha, coal), as is still practiced today.

The book is highly readable and will be appreciated by those interested in history, science, and technology. Index.

I bought and read the book when it first came out, and I bought a second so I can loan it to others to read and not worry about my first book getting lost. Besides the Donnellys, some of the people and events in the book were apart of our life as well. Very well written!

I just found out about Michael's death through the Gulflink website. My sympathy goes out to his family. His story, with the help of his sister Denise, will be with us all always. He could have chose to sit back and just kept his disease and facts to himself, but he chose to share it with all in the hopes it might make a difference to someone. What a legacy to leave. And thanks Michael, for helping my family live through our anger we had at my brother's death, and dealing with Gulf War illness. My prayers are with your family....
Kelly Seibert
Hillsborough, NC

In this story there is a message for millions of Americans. In this story the reader will learn about the "wheels of justice."

I obtained a tape of this book from the library of the blind , on tape.
I was fascinated with the whole process of his student days as well as the way they worked in the present time illness.
My heart goes out to him and his family and ALL other Soldiers who became ill with no apparent cause after the war.
I would like to know what his present status is, and would like to help in any way that is possible.
In thinking that our present war situation probably is as tentative, to hold this VITAL information back from those who serve makes a mockery of the Ideals our Country was founded on.
I used to participate in Living History, and the good thing about that is that we seem to LEARN from the past.
War does NOT change minds or hearts.
I would hope and pray that this present generation does not have to pay the price of this brave Soldier, Officer, and Gentleman.

I first came across the book in the fall of '99. It was at a critical time in my air force career. Soon, the mandate to submit to the anthrax vaccine would require a decision that would obviously affect the rest of my life. Take a vaccine that has been proven to cause terrible reactions and has been whispered to be a root cause of Gulf War Illness or refuse and be subject to military justice and the end of my career.

In my squadron, the most asked question to management was "If we become ill following the vaccine, will the Air Force take care of us?" As I saw in this book, the answer to the question is NO.

As pilots, our most treasured asset is our health. Without it, we can no longer perform the mission that we love. The manner in which Michael and Denise describe the physical and mental anguish he endured was truly overwhelming. I could imagine myself in his position and the way I would react; how I would feel.

In my months of research, this book proved to be one of the many determining factors in my decsion. When I talked to former commanders who reminded me of their experiences with Agent Orange or when I spoke with members at my own base that had testified to Congress about their illnesses following the anthrax vaccine, in the back of my mind was Michael Donnelly.

I ultimately made my decision to resign in lieu of taking the vaccine which has led to the end of my aviation career. The only salvation I have is the knowledge that I will never need to worry about unexplained illness in the future.

My most heartfelt sympathy and gratitude go out to Michael and Denise's families. Michael's story is one that I will never forget. Thank you for helping me make my decision.

This book should be required reading for all folks at DHS, FBI and DOD involved in counter-terrorism activities. It's full of new material and research on an 80 year old case, which speaks volumes about Mr. Koenig's excellent research, analytical and writing talents, especially in light of the repetitive and often erroneous pablum cranked out by government history offices... Koenig's research and analysis into Dr. Anton Dilger's past on both sides of the Atlantic reveals the man's predisposition for intelligence work for Germany, in spite of his US citizenship. Solid, ground-breaking research, more readable than a fiction thriller, fantastic book...

I've read the book a couple of times and have gotten more out with each reading. Bob Koenig has done a tremendous job in terms of the accuracy of his research. His writing style draws the reader into the story. Excellent and highly recommended.

Robert Koenig's portrayal of Anton Dilger's mission to bring germ warfare to America during WWI is far more than just a gripping story of biological warfare and sabotage in one of its first modern instances. Koenig's work resonates to our own contemporary struggle against terrorism in a number of different ways. First, Koenig delves into the psyche and family history of Anton and with painstaking research presents to the reader the fascinating story of how an American born medical student becomes an agent for Imperial Germany. Second, we are reminded of the response of the US government in dealing with the supposed "enemy within", in both its indiscriminate nature and ineffective results. Finally, Koenig also reminds us of the societal response towards the supposed German-American "threat", one that had its own "liberty stakes" (taste great when combined with "freedom fries", one would assume).

This is a very well researched book that combines intrigue of the mysterious world of spies during WWI with a personal story of a man who chose to betray his country, one that his father served proudly during the Civil War. In a way, Koenig offers a reminder that our current predicament is not so unique.

To someone from outside the US, this book brought many revelations, foremost of which was the insight into the thriving German community that existed there prior to 1914, but now is no more. We are familiar with Italian, Greek and Polish influences, but the Germans, as the enemy after a bitter war, had to subsume their culture.

The anti-hero of this gripping book, Anton Dilger, belonged to a family which was more American than German already, but he felt the pull back to earlier roots. The personal letters and insights that Rob Koenig has painstakingly researched show how horrific incidents like the Corpus Christi Massacre in Karlsruhe can have far-reaching effects through people struggling with their identity.

Koenig tells this story in such a way that you do not know what is coming, and thus every chapter has an impact. Throughout, he reveals his mastery of scientific writing for the public. I've read some of his other work on contemporary science, and was delighted to see this historical work. I hope he does another book. This one, meanwhile, is highly recommended to those who like biography, travel, history, science and warfare, all rolled up in one.

My name is Tim O'Neil (husband of Christine). For a decade, Robert Koenig and I worked together as reporters at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. I offer this as personal disclosure and testimony to my knowledge of Mr. Koenig's fine work. He is thorough in research and careful to confirm information. His writing is clear and absorbing. He applied those skills in writing The Fourth Horseman. He read family files and forgotten government archives. He searched hard for single documents to explain or confirm information on Anton Dilger, and then wrote a full narrative of the motivations and acts of a man who worked hard to cover his tracks. He took time to explain Dilger's era, especially its reliance upon horses, to provide the setting for one man's trail. The result is a fine book.

This book by F. WIlliam Engdahl details the politics behind genetically modified organisms (GMOs). If people read this book, there would be a demand for labeling. Sadly, most corn and soy is now genetically modified. Canola oil is also always genetically modified.

The book lists the dangers of eating GMOs:

1) NEW TOXINS CREATED: Toxins are unintentionally created when new genes are introduced into a plant's cells. (page 6)

2) SMALLER SIZE IF THOSE WHO EAT GMOs: In a study in which rats were fed GMO potatoes, they were found to have smaller body size, smaller liver and heart sizes, and smaller brain sizes! (p. 23)

3) UNPREDICTABILITY: A given DNA molecule may be stable in a test tube, but can become unstable in living organisms, interacting in extremely non-linear and complex ways. (p. 156) Biologist Dr. Mae-Wan Ho stressed, "Entirely new genes and combinations of genes are made in the laboratory and inserted into the genomes of organisms to make GMOs. Contrary to what you are told by pro-GMO scientists, the process is not at all precise. It is uncontrollable and unreliable, and typically ends up damaging and scrambing the host genome, with entirely unpredictable consequences." (p. 159)

4) BAD HEALTH OR DEATH WHEN EATING A LOT OF GMOs: Glockner, a university trained farmer, was shocked to find his cattle having gluey-white feces and violent diarrhea after he increased the dosage to a diet of pure GMO corn! Their milk contained blood, and some cows stopped producing milk. Five calves died! Glockner ultimately lost almost his entire herd of 70 cows! (p. 231)

5) INFANT DEATH: In 2006, a story in a respected London newspaper, The Independent, carried a story called, "Unborn Babies Could be Harmed by GMOs." A Russian scientist found that half of the offspring of rats fed a GMO diet of soybeans died in the first three weeks of life---six times as many as those born to mothers with normal diets!

In the book Seeds of Deception: Exposing Industry and Government Lies about the Safety of the Genetically Engineered Foods You're Eating, author Jeffrey M. Smith gives more dangers of GMOs:

6) GMOs may have genes spliced from plants or sources not listed, and someone could unknowlingly eat some food she or he is allergic to.

Incidentally, Dr. Gabriel Cousens adds this:

7) GMOs deregulate our cells' DNA into premature aging.

IF IT IS LABELD ORGANIC, IT IS NOT A GMO. Yet, even organic standards are diminishing now that the government is in control. Some foods are only 70% organic, though labeled organic.

After his remarkable book, `A Century of War', about the fierce battle for world energy (oil) control, F.W. Engdahl examines here a second extremely important world power instrument: food.
He integrates carefully this power line in a much bigger framework concocted by the world power elite in order to control world demographics and even eugenics.
The world power elite (see Daniel Estulin's shocking book `The true Story of the Bilderberg Group') created a transnational agribusiness in order to open new markets for energy products (petro-chemical fertilizers). This agribusiness, however, developed a more effective weapon for worldwide food control: genetically modified organisms (GMO), thereby creating through patent registration a world oligopoly of 4 transnational companies: Monsanto, Dow Chemical, DuPont and Novartis.

Risk assessment of GMO
Risk data remain mostly hidden behind the veil of `confidential business information'. However, certain experiments on rats showed that GMO food could be responsible for lower body, liver and heart, but also brain size. Possible effects on birth defects are also a big question mark.
The scientific policies of these companies seem to be `don't tell, don't ask'. In this context, they seem to use the whole world population as guinea pigs.
Another risk constitutes the reduced genetic plant diversity (monocultures).
One blatant lie was the statement that GMO would lead to a lower use of herbicides, but, in fact, more herbicides were necessary to combat herbicide-resistant weed.

Seed serfs
Farmers became totally dependent on the members of the oligopoly. Each year they had to pay a fee and were forbidden to re-use seeds from previous year.
As it became extremely difficult, even with an army of Pinkertons, to control the re-use, more effective technologies were developed: `Terminator food', whereby GMO plants `commit suicide' after one harvest season and `contraceptive corn' where the genes of antibodies in women with immune fertility were used.
Besides the plant seed patents, other ones will be introduced for animals (semen of pigs and bulls).

Politics
One of the goals of the world power elite is the drastic reduction of the world population (the author uses the term `genocide') through control of the human reproductive process. Genetically engineered crops are part of this strategy. As one member of the military stated: `GMO-based biological weapons are `cost-effective' weapons of mass destruction.'

WTO
The transnational corporations tried to force their seeds patents into all national and international markets during the WTO negotiations. They played it very hard, as they stipulated that `food standards and measures aimed at protecting people from pests can be potentially used as a deliberate barrier for trade'; in other words, `Free market über Alles', even health.

F. William Engdahl wrote a frightening book. It is a must read for all those interested in the future of mankind.

I found this book to be very informative on a topic - Agribusiness - that most people ignore. It appears to be well researched and assembled from start to finish regarding the Multinational Corporations cornering of the global GMO market and insulating themselves from the eventual resistance from consumers....as Kissinger stated, if you control the food - you control the people.

This book seems at first glance to be primarily about genetically modified organisms (GMO), but is actually a frightening history of the power elite's largely successful attempt to gain control over food and food production. In the last 50 years food has gone from being an agricultural product grown by small farmers, to being a national security concern, to now being a weaponized commodity under the control of a few corporate owners.

Mr. Engdahl lays out his case in a methodical, scholarly, yet riveting manner, much as he did in A Century Of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order. He begins with the GMO Revolution launched by a few powerful corporations, aided and abetted by a cooperative USA government. He then explores the birth of "agribusiness" and the oxymoronic Green Revolution. He monitors the revolving door between corporate advocates of GMO and government officials charged with policing food safety. The Rockefeller brothers' roles in these machinations are painstakingly revealed.

The eugenics movement -- very popular in early to mid-20th century USA until the Nazis lowered its public acceptance -- is shown to be alive and well under the new guises of genetics and molecular biology. I was more surprised by this than anything else in the book, but Mr. Engdahl proves this point beyond dispute. Along these lines, the only part of the book that I felt needed more explanation was the role of Darwinism, actually neo-Darwinism, in molecular biology. One could almost be left with the impression that a belief in evolution has led to the abuses of molecular biology in genetic manipulation. Once Mr. Engdahl got that far into the discussion, I wish that he had made a brief mention of the symbiogenesis interpretation of evolution now challenging the neo-Darwinists, e.g., in the books by Lynn Margulis. (Acquiring Genomes: The Theory of the Origins of the Species is one good example.) I'm not a scientist, but I would tend to think that a subscriber to the symbiogenesis interpretation would be less likely to want to create Frankenfoods.

What motivates the Genetic Manipulators, huge profits and control over the world's food production? As usual with the power elite, it's not just about the money, it's about power and control, but with a particular goal in mind. That goal is an elitist Utopia; a modern world much as it is, only with a whole lot fewer people, especially poor dark-skinned people who live in resource rich places like Africa, South America and parts of Asia. Complete control over food production is one of the primary means to this end, ethno-specific diseases being another. I had read this assertion before, but regarded it as the rantings of right-wing loonies until I read this book.

Mr. Engdahl is a regular contributor to on-line journals on the topic of geopolitics.

This is my first Amazon.com book review and it is this book, Seeds of Destruction, that finally moved me to write such a review.

I have purchased literally thousands of dollars worth of books from Amazon.com alone and I find this book, Seeds of Destruction, is THE most important book I have come across.

I haven't read the entire book yet, but from what I have read so far (especially the chapter on Argentina), this is one of THE most important and timely books of the past 100 years and this new century.

There are only a few books that are worth their weight in gold and this book by F. William Engdahl is one of them. This work will be remembered as a "signature service" to humanity (a term used in the intelligence world to denote exceptional work).

What a priceless work of research and documentation (some 17 years of hard research) into the heart of absolute Evil that is masquerading behind this GMO movement--the veritable cancer that is metastasizing upon the Earth body--and that has been behind the so-called eugenics movement since 1913. But this book is much more than GMO. It is about the people behind the GMO and eugenics movement and why they are doing what they are doing.

If you really care about your children, your family, and the survival of the human race and of planet earth, then you must first buy and read this book, and then buy 10 more copies as I did and give them to all your friends and family members.

Tell them that this book might save their lives.

I have said this many times, "Knowledge is only a seed, only illumined action produces fruits!' This book is that vital seed without which we are looking toward to some really dire eventualities.

Avigdor Haselkorn provides a very serious examination of the weapons of mass destruction available to Iraq during the Gulf War and presents a sobering insight into the dangers that the possession of these weapons by the Iraqi regime presents to it's neighbours and the West today.

A very well-timed book in view of current events.

The book also examines the circumstances surrounding the reasons why the Gulf War was so abruptly terminated. Some arguing that the coalition might have collapsed if any further advances had been made into Iraq, others of the opinion that such allied actions would have forced the use of Iraq weapons of mass destruction. Other opinions leave the matter open to some debate.

Although a military defeat for Iraq, it was a conflict that did not remove the Iraqi dictator's regime from power. We now face the inevitable consequences and the world is in a turmoil as to how to approach the present situation.

The contents of this book are disturbing. The weapons of mass destruction available are examined in some detail together with the effects that the delivery of these weapons could have on the military or the civilian populace. One cannot but remain convinced that this matter is as dangerous and significant now as it was at the time of the Gulf War. Recommended read.

Excellent book!!! Haselkorn brings a new dimension to our understanding of the Gulf War. In a nutshell Haselkorn argues that the reason the Coalition did not go "all the way" to Bagdad was due to the Chemical/Biological threat posed by Saddam. This is a fascinating thesis, though Haselkorn, in my opinion places to much weight on some flimsy evidence. Haselkorn argues that when the Iraqis fired a Scud missile at Israel with a concrete block attached instead of a warhead it was intended to warn Israel and the coalition that Saddam was prepared to fire missiles with biological warheads. Haselkorn further argues that the concrete block was intended to be seen as some kind of biological delivery vehicle. Is it not far more likely that in the heat of battle the Iraqis fired a missile with a dummy training round or that due to the pressure of the coalition bombing explosive warheads were not available? There are any number of reason why the Iraqis could have fired a missile with a concrete warhead, I think its a stretch to say that because the Iraqis fired a concrete warhead they were signaling their intenion to escalate to Chemical and Biological weapons. Nonetheless, this is an informative, well researched and well written book; moreover, it forces the reader to take a new look at the more conventional histories of the Gulf War. Good read, worth the money!!!!

"[The Continuing Storm] is the mother of all books on the gulf war written by one of today's most brilliant political-military analysts, Avigdor Haselkorn...The author's extraordinary documentation--the encyclopedic footnotes alone are a sort of volume two--and reasoning must be attended two."

"'As long as we accept the arguments of Bush and his colleagues as they struggle to explain their stated reasons for ending the war,' writes Mr. Haselkorn,'it will be impossible not to conclude that the president was either dangerously out of touch with the events at the close of the war or was simply acting irrationally. It is far better to believe that he and his cohorts are simply less than truthful.'"

Arnold Beichman in WASHINGTON TIMES, April 18, 1999

"This is an impressive and well written book about the part played by biological and chemical weapons in the Gulf War, their impact on in-war deterrence and their continuing relevance as the war drew to a close and thereafter. There are lessons to be learned from the Iraq experience that must be applied in the future not only in Iraq itself but further afield. quiescent alongside the Kosovo turmoil, we should stay aware of savagely unfinished business of vital interest." part played by biological and chemical weapons in the Gulf War, their impact on in-war deterrence and their continuing relevance as the war drew to a close and thereafter. There are lessons to be learned from the Iraq experience that must be applied in the future not only in Iraq itself but further afield. quiescent alongside the Kosovo turmoil, we should stay aware of savagely unfinished business of vital interest." Rear Admiral Richard Cobbold, Director Royal United Services Institute for Defence Studies (RUSI, RUSI Journal, London, August 1999

"[This book] is an essential companion to whatever other reading one does on the Gulf War. The Continuing Storm is a highly readable and extremely valuable book for understanding not only the American decision to end the war and the continuation in power of Saddam's regime, but also the impact of weapons of mass destruction in the hands of ruthless regimes and the psychology of 'terrorist deterrence.' Its insights are keen and its scholarship is thorough, as evidenced by more than 900 footnotes, many of them containing multiple citations and informative content. This is not a book just for scholars and experts, however; it is written also for the interested layman."ÿ

An authority in the field of artificial intelligence and computer science in general, Joseph Weizenbaum provides insight in proceedings in that area but mainly warns about what these developments may lead to. It is very entertaining to read this book some 20 years after original publication and see how many of what we believe are recent developments were actually implemented back then already (on one or two priceless "super" computers).
Very dogmatic and patronizing at times, it still is a good read if only for the thought provoking ideas like: if electronic computers would have been used in the manhattan project, today we would assume that development of the atomic bomb would have been impossible without it.

The computer and natural language is a sub-domain of computer science in which one of the major aims is to imitation of man, focusing on two topics: psychology and linguistics. If we wish the machine to do something, we must tell it what to do and it must be able to understand us. The easiest way to tell a computer what to do is to give it a program to run. "Humans, if they are machines at all, are vastly general-purpose machines and what, is most important, they understand communications couched in natural language." Work must be done for a machine to understand natural language. "Man's capacity to manipulate symbols, his very ability to think, is inextricably interwoven with his linguistic abilities." A machine must be able to extract semantic content from the messages impinged upon it, adopt a syntactic structure of a visual scene and adopt a certain conceptual framework. The question of what comprises a visual symbol is in question. The developer defines the elements of the machines primitive vocabulary. Robert Lindsay said, "high quality translations could be produced by machines supplied with sufficiently detailed syntactic rules, a large dictionary, and sufficient speed to examine the context of ambiguous words for a few word in each direction."

Eliza was a program consisting mainly of general methods for analyzing sentences and sentence fragments, locating so-called keywords in texts, assembling sentences from fragments and so on. Eliza created the remarkable illusion of having understood in the minds of the many people who conversed with it.

In ordinary two person communication, each has a working hypothesis, a conceptual framework, concerning who the person is and what the conversation is about. The hypothesis serves an indicator of what the other person is going to say and what he is going to mean by what he is about to say. Often, the erroneous prediction is falsified before the sentence is completed and the listener makes corrections on the fly and virtually unconsciously. Each brings into mind an image of the other person, the image consists in part of the other's identity, attributes based on evidence derived from independent life experiences of the participant. "Our recognition of another person is thus an act of induction on evidence presented to us partly by him and partly by our reconstruction of the rest of the world; it is a kind of generalization". Eliza starts with the hypothesis that the system does understand.

Rogar C. Shank, based his theory on the central idea that every natural-language utterances is a manifestation, an encoding, of an underlying conceptual structure. Understanding an utterance means encoding it. The theory proposes a formal structure for the conceptual bases for making predictions. The theory creates formal rules for converting utterances into a conceptual base. One difficulty is that every individual's belief is constantly changing mean that an individuals entire base of conceptions is changing. "When a person enters a conversation he bring his belief structure with him as a kind of agenda."

Terry Winograd, of M.I.T, was working with a group were building a computer-controlled "hand-eye" machine; the computer could see its environment and manipulate objects in its environment by means of a computer-controlled mechanical arm. Winograd design and coded the software to enable humans by natural language, too instruct the computer, how to manipulate and explain events with respect to the toy world of blocks, in a natural language. "The robot can manipulate toy blocks on a table containing simple objects like a box." The robot could be ask to manipulate the objects, doing such things as building stacks and putting things in a box. It could be questions about the configuration of blocks on the table, about events that were going during the discussion, and it could be told simple facts about the objects which could be stored and used for reasoning later. The conversation goes on within a dynamic framework - "one in which the computer is an active participant, doing things to change his toy world, and discussing them."

I read parts of this book, thinking highly of it. I thought one particular passage from it, as quoted in Gates by Stepehen Manes and Paul Andrews, particulary stood amid the limelight: [t]he computer programmer . . . is a creator of universes for which alone is the lawgiver. . . .No playwright, no stage director, no emperor, however powerful, has ever exercised such absolute authority to arrange a stage of field a battle and to command such unswervingly dutiful actors or troops.

This book is a basic philosophical treatment of computing. I think that it should be included as a basic part of any Computer Science / Computer Engineer curriculum in respectable universities, along with Roger Penrose book, The Emperor's new mind, it creats a better understanding of what is human and what is mechanic for all those who need to know it.

Should Computer Science / Engineering freshmen/women in universities know? My answer is YES, in their first year !

This is perhaps the best book ever written on issues of computer technology and modern life, in the sense that it says a lot of really important things and is also very readable by both lay persons and technical persons. People like Jacques Ellul, Arnold Gehlen et al. have written very important texts in this area, but are much less "accessible". If the truth only counts when it is absorbed by persons, Weizenbaum's book stands out as being engrossing and a pleasure to read, as well as saying what needs to be said. It is very sad that the second edition which was supposed to be out a year or so ago has not appeared. But in no way has 20 years "dated" the present text. _Computer Power and Human Understanding_ explains why we have such problems as Y2K, etc.

He was my Grandfather and this is excellent work. Job well done.
George Patton Waters

Patton's Photographs War as He Saw It


Author Kevin M. Hymel
Publisher Potomac Books

ISBN 1 57488-871-4 Hardcover
Pp 137
Pictures
List Price Hardcover $39.95 also available in Soft Cover

Wow, the book Patton's Photographs War as He Saw It is a unique book. I have read many books about Patton but never had he taken pictures to document his war time experiences. I thought I knew Patton but I did not realize how much I did not know about him. Patton's photographs tell his story from his campaigns in North Africa, Italy, France and Germany.
At a recent AUSA (Association of the United States Army) meeting, I was fortunate to hear Kevin Hymel speak about his book and show some of the photos he used in illustrate the book. Hymel spent seven years researching this. It is not just only just photo book but descriptions of the photos and the events that they represent. Kevin Hymel tells how he stumbled on some of Patton's photographs while researching another project. He was surprised at the amount of previously unpublished photos available. The author used a collection of fifteen volumes of Patton's photographs. The reader learns that Patton refused to take pictures of deceased American GIs, but would take pictures of the dead German soldiers and their blown up equipment. Patton often took photos of enemy tanks and make notes about their armor and their ability to withstand a hit from a weapon system. He forwarded the photos and notes to Aberdeen Proving Grounds so they could make improvements on our tanks.
If you have read Patton's history take a look at this book. Descriptions of campaigns and battle maps that Patton participated in will give you a good over view. The photos in this book bring Patton to life. Patton will always be remembered for his good and bad actions. I just hope the good outweighs the bad.

Patton's was a front line soldier and if you look at the pictures you will see him in the thick of things. Patton's Photographs War as He Saw is IT worth taking the time to read and discover a Patton that we did not know.

MAJ (ret) Eric Shuler NJARNG

Throw away all of the previous biographies of Patton (and Patton's own posthumously published diaries) regarding his exploits in World War II unless you read them in conjunction with, and in light of, this book, which stems from an historian's treasure trove of 15 oversized albums of photographs by Patton and other memorabilia he sent to his wife during World War II, often with stories behind the photos and mementos. (His wife, and then one of his daughters after the slapping incidents[s] in Sicily, helped to put the albums together.)

Patton's photo collections, for reasons that are best explained by prior biographers of Patton, lanquished untouched, unviewed, and unused in any history of Patton until the author of this book discovered them in the U.S. Library of Congress in 1996 and was eventually able to publish this selection of those materials in 2006.

The result is an unparalled insight into the mind of one of the greatest military visionaries, strategists, and tacticians of his, or any other, generation.

You cannot claim to understand Patton and his mindset unless, and until, you see the war from his perspective, which this book does in an astounding way as it includes about 150 photographs taken by Patton of things he found to be of interest as he and his armies progressed from North Africa to Sicily to France to Germany.

Also included are about 75 other photographs relating to Patton and his military adventures, including photos taken of him by others and maps/diagrams on which he outlined his strategies and tactics.

The book basically tells the otherwise well-known story of Patton in his various campaigns, beginning in North Africa in November 1942, to the end of the Third Reich and Patton's brief post-war experiences until his untimely death in December 1945 from a vehicle accident (his famous, almost last words, when the doctors arrived on the scene were: "I think I'm paralyzed" [he was, from the neck down and died from complications 11 days later]).

Each chapter of the book is enriched by numerous sidebars about Patton and those around him as well as enhanced by footnotes for the many quotations by, and anecdotes about, Patton sprinkled liberally throughout the text and the captions of the photographs.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. I have read dozens and dozens of photographic histories relating to World War II on a wide, wide variety of topics (not to mention hundreds of standard works and texts and the not too occasional foray into historical fiction). (In this regard I disagree with those people who believe - mistakenly - that a book is somehow beneath them and has nothing to offer unless it is a dry, poorly written, dusty tome devoid of illustrations and about some minuscule aspect of history that more often than not fails to put its subject matter into any kind of context because the author suffers from the syndrome of being unable to see the forest for the trees.) This stands out far and above as the best photographic history that I can recall, especially as it relates to a specific person or subject. It is must reading (and viewing) by any serious student of Patton or World War II in general.

This book is great. Not only does the reader get a general history of Patton, but also many, many photographs taken by the great General himself! It is amazing to think that when you are looking at these photos, you are really seeing what Patton saw! Imagine what it would be like of Julius Caesar, George Washington, or Napoleon had carried a camera so that we could see what they saw. Well, essentially, that is what this book is - it allows you to see what a great hero saw.

I congratulate Mr Hymel on his wonderful find, and encourage all who are interested in Patton or just WWII in general to take a look at this great book...

Excellent book - would recommend to any fan or person interested in General George S. Patton. Photographs show his interest and focus as he battled through WW 2.

Chemical And Biological Warfare analyzes the key issues related to chemical and biological warfare, detailing known chemical and biological agents, how they may be used in weaponry, and the possibilities of their use in modern conflicts. Readers seeking a technical survey of proliferation and basic concepts of chemical and biological weaponry receive more in-depth information here than in many titles.

A first class presentation of Chem/Bio warfare basics. Highly recommend it.

A first-rate survey of this important topic. Croddy has produced a calm and clear overview that should prove invaluable to both students and scholars.

I read, and enjoyed, Judith Miller's Germs book, but its sometimes superficial journalistic treatment left me wanting more concrete information: on chemical and biological agents, where they come from, who has them, how they could get used, what we can do to stop or counteract them, etc. I found all that and more in this excellent book, which, in spite of its straightforward presentation, is every bit as gripping as Germs. Croddy is no alarmist---he thinks a lot of the recent hoopla is overblown given the difficulties any terrorist would have spreading an agent like anthrax (and, thank God, he appears to be right on this score)---but there's plenty to get alarmed over in this book, and now is the right time to read it and digest its lessons, rather than waiting for the next chemical or biological panic attack.

Chemical and Biological Warfare: An Annotated Bibliography is a great book to read before bed, on the subway or lounging on the beach. It is sensitively written, and though the roto-protagonist isn't very well developed as a character, the subplot and the overall romance is beautiful. If you liked The Firm, you'll love this book. (I have gotten some great pick-up lines from this book, too!)

I needed this book for a class I am taking, however, I would have read this book just for pleasure, I finished it before the class even started

In a very good way, I got more than I bargained for by reading this book. While seeking a solid source to inform myself on the "nuts and bolts", policy implications, and development of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), I continued to come across this title. Expect some dense and intense reading; there is not a wasted word here. The book focuses exclusively on the covert delivery of a nuclear, biological, or chemical weapon against an American target, exploring possible methods, limitations, locales, preventive measures, and consequences. This book will considerably broaden the knowledge of any first-timer looking into WMD and likely provides substantive material for discussion among policy makers and experts in the field.

This is a comprehensive analysis of the threat without being alarmist.

It is far too easy to find shocking explanations of the biological weapons potential that do not describe some of the difficulties in their procurement and delivery. This "sexy" approach captures our attention and makes for good entertainment, but the `Chicken Little' approach doesn't help us develop rational methods for dealing with the issue.

Read this book if you want a levelheaded examination. It also contains a good description and solid recommendations for a national strategy.

I picked up this book as a research tool for a paper. Not only did I find the book to contain everything I needed, I became so enveloped in the reality of what I was reading that I couldn't put it down. A fan of Tom Clancy novels, this book describes the harsh reality that we live in, while detailing both the strengths and the weaknesses of the US response to bioterrorism. A must read for those with an interest in national security issues.