"In the Soviet playbook for all-out war with the United States, the wasting of U.S. cities by nuclear bombs was to be followed by something equally horrifying: waves of plagues to kill any survivors. Soviet scientists spent decades preparing for the second attack, concocting new kinds of biological weapons more lethal than any ever invented."

"None of these weapons were used during the Cold War, but a new book suggests that the dangers posed by the program never completely abated. The authors reveal new details about the deadly achievements of Soviet weapons scientists -- from multiple-drug-resistant anthrax to "stealth" bugs that elude detection -- and they say the strains probably still exist inside the freezers of military laboratories inside Russia.

The book also suggests that U.S. intelligence operatives may have inadvertently fueled the Soviets' experimentation with germ warfare, in part by spreading false stories that convinced communist leaders that the United States was also secretly making such weapons after the U.S. program was officially halted in 1969."

Joby Warrick reports for the Washington Post August 8, 2012. [2]