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the rollback of south africa's biological warfare program

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weaponization took place. Donald Mahley <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> U.S. State Department, who<br />

was part <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> delegation to South Africa after <strong>the</strong> demarche <strong>of</strong> 11 April 1994,<br />

also downplayed evidence <strong>of</strong> weaponization in a 30 August 2000 interview.<br />

84 Pr<strong>of</strong>essor Andre Buys, Director <strong>of</strong> Institute for Technical Innovation,<br />

University <strong>of</strong> Pretoria, in a 14 June 2000 interview.<br />

85 Pr<strong>of</strong>essor Buys, in a 14 June 2000 interview. While <strong>the</strong> project manager for<br />

<strong>the</strong> nuclear bomb project was aware <strong>of</strong> ongoing research into chemical<br />

weapons (in an interview with Helen Purkitt, July 1994), even he did not have<br />

full access to <strong>the</strong> details <strong>of</strong> specific CBW projects.<br />

86 H.E. Purkitt, “The politics <strong>of</strong> denuclearization: The case <strong>of</strong> South Africa".<br />

Presentation at <strong>the</strong> Defense Nuclear Agency's Fourth Annual International<br />

Conference on Controlling Arms, Philadelphia, Penn., 21 June 1995. Earlier<br />

draft presented at Institute for National Studies (INSS), U.S. Air Force<br />

Academy, Colorado, 9 November 1994.<br />

87 Interview with Brig. Gen. (ret.) Bill Sass, 3 July 2000.<br />

88 Interview with Gen. (ret.) Thirion, 13 June 2000. Thirion claimed that he<br />

had proposed a gendarmerie or carabinieri to serve as <strong>the</strong> “third force.”<br />

Instead, P.W. Botha, Magnus Malan, and Adriaan Vlok devised <strong>the</strong> Civil<br />

Cooperation Bureau (CCB) and o<strong>the</strong>r agencies that were more covert and far<br />

more lethal.<br />

89 Interviews with Generals Thirion and Geldenhuys, 13 June 2000.<br />

90 Interview with David Steward, Executive Director, De Klerk Foundation and<br />

President de Klerk’s chief <strong>of</strong> staff (1989-94), Cape Town, 26 June 2000.<br />

91 Mangold, Plague Wars, 242. Skepticism still surrounds Basson and<br />

Knobel’s claims about Basson’s international activities. According to several<br />

interviewees, it is doubtful if Basson ever penetrated Porton Down or U.S. and<br />

Soviet facilities.<br />

92 According to Gen. (ret.) Sass, interviewed 12 June 2000 in Pretoria.<br />

93 According to Gen. (ret.) Sass, interviewed 12 June 2000 in Pretoria.<br />

94 Arthur Allen, “Mad Scientist,” Salon.com (http://salonmag.com/health/<br />

feature/2000/06/26/bi<strong>of</strong>em), 26 June 2000 (accessed 9 August 2000). It has<br />

only been in <strong>the</strong> last few years that researchers have renewed <strong>the</strong>ir focus on<br />

finding an effective microbicide (a chemical that can kill <strong>of</strong>f <strong>the</strong> virus). Three<br />

dozen microbicides are now in <strong>the</strong> pre-clinical testing stage, and 20 o<strong>the</strong>rs are<br />

ready for safety trails in humans. Researchers were hoping that nonoxynol-9<br />

was <strong>the</strong> answer. However, in July <strong>of</strong> 2000, microbicide researchers from<br />

101

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