the rollback of south africa's biological warfare program

Basson’s arrest was the result of the NIA losing out in a bureaucratic battle,
after “others blew the whistle” on Basson’s drug activities. At the time of
Basson’s arrest, several South African press reports attributed the timing of the
arrest to CIA reports to the South African government that Basson was getting
ready to flee the country, possibly to work in the Middle East, a few weeks
before his arrest. The reports described how Basson had been under the
protection of the NIA due to concerns that he would be the target of a foreign
assassin. Chris Bateman “The man who knows too much about killing” Cape
Times, (12 June 1998), 17. Another news report, which claimed to be based on
OSEO sources, reported that Basson had sent four cases (three of them were
worth R6m, R5,57m, and R220,815) out of country to banks in Luxemburg
and Belgium, shortly before his arrest. The account went on to allege that
British and Belgium secret agents were involved in these transactions. See
Chris Bateman “Evil Einstein,” Cape Times, (12 June 1998), 17.
185 At the time of Basson’s arrest, all of these investigators shared a sense of
urgency because there was some question as to whether the government would
be able to keep these records. These documents had been found towards the
end of the week and the investigators were concerned that Basson's lawyers
would be able to successfully argue in court the following week that the
contents of the trunks were personal property. (Interview with Dr. Villa-
Vicencia, 20 July 2000).
186 The “verkope lys” was a list of items, allegedly ordered by Dr. Basson and
given to CCB operatives. This list includes anthrax-infected cigarettes,
shampoo poisoned with an insecticide, and poisoned chocolates. Orr, 328-9.
See Appendix I for the complete list.
187
Interview with Dr. Villa-Vicencia, former senior investigator for the TRC,
21 July 2000.
188
Interview with Dr. Villa-Vicencia, former senior investigator for the TRC,
21 July 2000.
189 For additional details of this meeting that included representatives of the old
and new military and political guard, see Orr, 331-2. Dr. Orr notes that she
arrived at this hastily called meeting and found that she was the only TRC (and
the only woman) representative among the 40 participants.
190 Orr, 332. She notes that Dr. Folb made himself forever unpopular with
many participants at this meeting by making this observation.
191 Chandre Gould confirmed the agreement regarding the status of documents
in a telephone interview in July 2000.
192 Telephone interview with Dr. Peter Folb, Cape Town, 20 July 2000.
111