Project Bacchus was a covert investigation by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency

Defense Threat Reduction Agency

The Defense Threat Reduction Agency is an agency within the United States Department of Defense and is the official Combat Support Agency for countering weapons of mass destruction . DTRA's main functions are threat reduction, threat control, combat support, and technology development...

 US Defense Department to determine whether it is possible to construct a bioweapons production facility with off-the-shelf equipment.

Revelation to the public

The secret Project Bacchus was revealed to the public in a September 2001 article in The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

. Reporters Judith Miller

Judith Miller (journalist)

Judith Miller is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist, formerly of the New York Times Washington bureau. Her coverage of Iraq's alleged Weapons of Mass Destruction program both before and after the 2003 invasion generated much controversy...

, Stephen Engelberg and William J. Broad collaborated to write the article. It is presumed that the reporters had knowledge of the program for at least several months; shortly after the article appeared they published a book that detailed the story further. The book, Germs: Biological Weapons and America's Secret War

Germs: Biological Weapons and America's Secret War

Germs: Biological Weapons and America's Secret War is a #1 New York Times Nonfiction Best Seller. It was written by The New York Times journalists Judith Miller, Stephen Engelberg, and William Broad...

, and the article are the only publicly available sources concerning Project Bacchus and its sister projects, Clear Vision

Project Clear Vision

Project Clear Vision was a covert investigation of Soviet-built biological bomblets conducted by the Battelle Memorial Institute under contract with the CIA. The legality of this project under the Biological Weapons Convention is highly disputed....

 and Jefferson

Project Jefferson

Project Jefferson was a covert U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency program designed to determine if the current anthrax vaccine was effective against genetically-modified bacteria...

.

Project

Bacchus ran from 1999-2000 and investigated whether "would-be" terrorists could build an anthrax production facility and remain undetected. In the two-year simulation, the facility was constructed, and production of anthrax

Anthrax

Anthrax is an acute disease caused by the bacterium Bacillus anthracis. Most forms of the disease are lethal, and it affects both humans and other animals...

-like bacterium was successfully completed. The participating scientists were able to produce about one kilogram of highly-refined bacterial particles.

Further reading

• Tucker, Jonathan B. "Biological Threat Assessment: Is the Cure Worse Than the Disease?", Arms Control Today, October 2004, accessed January 6, 2009.
• Miller, Judith
  Judith Miller (journalist)
  Judith Miller is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist, formerly of the New York Times Washington bureau. Her coverage of Iraq's alleged Weapons of Mass Destruction program both before and after the 2003 invasion generated much controversy...
  
  , Engelberg, Stephen and Broad, William J. Germs: Biological Weapons and America's Secret War, (Google Books), Simon and Schuster, 2002, (ISBN 0684871599).
• -- " U.S. Germ Warfare Research Pushes Treaty Limits", The New York Times
  The New York Times
  The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
  
  , September 4, 2001, accessed January 6, 2009.