Could the foot and mouth outbreak in Britain have been caused by a biological attack? New Scientist interview Kanatjan Alibekov (who was second-in-command at Biopreparat (the soviet porton down analogue) so his defection made him a fabulous prize for the US. Now he's a key researcher at a major US biodefence contractor) about whether scientists may have been examining a bovine source of the outbreak when in fact a perfectly good scapegoat is available:
"I'm 100 per cent sure that all intelligence and counterintelligence services are going to be working on this epidemic. But don't expect to get any official response. Nobody is going to say we suspect it was a case of terrorism or a sabotage of some kind, but we have no proof. If you say this, you create panic, and you encourage other would-be terrorists. Don't expect anything, even any information about the existence of an investigation." Until there's an election due....
