the rollback of south africa's biological warfare program
the rollback of south africa's biological warfare program
the rollback of south africa's biological warfare program
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http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/plague/sa/ .<br />
Many individuals, who worked on Project Coast or had contact with<br />
Basson within <strong>the</strong> military, including most former SADF generals and <strong>of</strong>ficers,<br />
continue to respect him as a brilliant heart surgeon. Many <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>se individuals<br />
assert that Basson did nothing wrong since all <strong>of</strong> his actions, including <strong>the</strong><br />
alleged fraudulent ones, were approved by superiors. O<strong>the</strong>rs stress that <strong>the</strong>y<br />
did not know specifics about most Project Coast <strong>program</strong>s or Basson’s<br />
financial activities until press revelations started to appear in <strong>the</strong> 1990s.<br />
44 Interview with Magnus Malan, 23 June 2000.<br />
45 See Lt. Gen. (Dr.) D.P. (Niels) Knobel’s testimony to <strong>the</strong> Truth and<br />
Reconciliation Commission (TRC), July 1998.<br />
46 Chris Oppermann, “How <strong>the</strong> taxpayer footed <strong>the</strong> bill for Project Coast,”<br />
Weekly Mail and Guardian archive, 27 June 1997.<br />
47 According to Helmut Heitmann, Jane’s Defense Weekly and defense expert,<br />
in a 26 June 2000 interview, <strong>the</strong> evidence was not conclusive.<br />
Heitmann was among <strong>the</strong> first journalists to raise questions about South<br />
African allegations that <strong>the</strong> Cubans had used chemical weapons in Angola and<br />
highlighted <strong>the</strong> difficulty <strong>of</strong> verifying <strong>the</strong> source <strong>of</strong> alleged CBW attacks<br />
(Heitmann, 1985, 1990; see also Steenkamp, 1989).<br />
48 Interview with Magnus Malan, 23 June. 2000. Despite concerns by senior<br />
military leaders about <strong>the</strong> possibility that Cubans might use CBW in Angola,<br />
little time was spent on defensive CBW training during <strong>the</strong> 1970s. From <strong>the</strong><br />
mid-1970s through <strong>the</strong> late 1970s only a few hours during one day <strong>of</strong> training<br />
was devoted to CBW <strong>of</strong> SADF infantry personnel. Most <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>se sessions<br />
focused on <strong>the</strong> use <strong>of</strong> CS gas. Many more hours <strong>of</strong> training were devoted to<br />
how to counter urban violence. Interview with Mark Malan, former SADF<br />
<strong>of</strong>ficer and senior researcher at <strong>the</strong> Institute for Strategic Studies-South Africa,<br />
23 June 2000.<br />
49 According to Chandre Gould, formerly <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> TRC, interviewed 29 June<br />
2000 in Johannesburg, South Africa.<br />
50 Mangold, Plague Wars, 236. They estimate four to five million pounds.<br />
51 Interview with Dr. Ian Phillips, 13 June 2000.<br />
52 Interview with Rocky Williams, ISS-South Africa, 5 July 2000.<br />
53 Interview with Gen. (ret.) Meiring, 3 July 2000.<br />
54 Mangold, Plague Wars, 243.<br />
55 Mangold, Plague Wars, 241.<br />
98