the rollback of south africa's biological warfare program

The limited news coverage of the Basson case continued, even when the
trial took the unprecedented step of shifting its venue to Jacksonville, Florida
in September 2000. This unusual move was taken in order to hear evidence
from American witnesses, including Basson’s accountant, David Webster.
However, no English-speaking national newspaper or international wire
service covered the story. 201
Several other aspects of the legal wrangling over the Basson bail
application and subsequent court case may have relevance for those interested
in promoting non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and democracy
worldwide. It is notable that the move to open the Basson legal process to the
public was taken by an NGO, with a small staff of 4-6 individuals. The past
and current senior administrators of FIX are highly experienced civil
libertarian activists, who worked for years against the apartheid regime in
well-known NGOs. 202 NGOs continue to play a useful watchdog role of
criticizing governmental actions that may be placing unnecessary limitations
on the rights of individuals in the new South Africa. 203 Even the prosecutor in
the Basson hearing, while downplaying the importance of this legal action in
light of what has come out in public court, acknowledged that it was an
important test of individual guarantees included in the new constitution. 204
From the State’s perspective, the legal action took up too much of their
time during two critical months when they were also trying to finish their
criminal investigations of Basson. The prosecution had opposed publicizing
the bail account because they wanted to continue investigating murder charges
without publicity. They supported the NIA position that all documents should
go through standard declassification procedures. In camera sessions of
Basson’s bail hearing, the State argued that holding court proceedings in
public would endanger national security and individual lives. The prosecution
noted that the publicity surrounding the bail hearing had made the job of
convicting Basson much more difficult. The trial judge had excluded a large
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