# New York Times Sep 4 **[BBC/Susan Watts, March 2002:](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/archive/1873368.stm)** *The New York Times carried a major investigation which at any other time would have been a story of huge significance. .. It revealed *(private)* contractors have been involved in **classified** bio-defence projects .. in the **first few days** of **September** last year* *- immediately prior to the attacks of the 11th.* **[NYT, Sep 4, 2001: ](https://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/04/world/us-germ-warfare-research-pushes-treaty-limits.html)*** In a program code-named **Clear Vision**, the Central Intelligence Agency built and tested a model of a **Soviet**-designed **germ bomb** that agency officials **feared** was being sold on the international market. * *At about the same time, Pentagon **experts** assembled a **germ factory** in the **Nevada desert** from commercially available materials .. (that) demonstrated the **ease** with which a **terrorist** or **rogue nation** could build a plant that could produce pounds of the deadly germs.* *Over the past several years, the United States has embarked on a program of secret research on biological weapons that, some officials say, **tests the limits** of the global treaty banning such weapons.* *The 1972 treaty forbids nations from developing or acquiring weapons that spread disease, but it allows work on **vaccines** and other **protective measures**. Government officials said the secret research, which **mimicked** the major steps **a state or terrorist** would take to create a biological arsenal, was aimed at better **understanding** the threat.* **[BBC/Susan Watts, March 2002:](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/archive/1873368.stm) ***One - run by a contractor - [Battelle](https://www.geekwire.com/2015/a-peek-inside-battelle-the-quiet-rd-giant-behind-copy-machines-compact-discs-and-barcodes/) - was to create **genetically altered anthrax.*** **[NYT: ](https://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/04/world/us-germ-warfare-research-pushes-treaty-limits.html)** *(A)dministration officials said, the Pentagon drew up plans to ****engineer genetically*** *a potentially* ***more potent*** *variant of the bacterium that causes* ***anthrax,*** *a deadly disease ****ideal*** *for* ***germ warfare****.* *The **experiment** has been **devised** to assess whether the vaccine now being given to millions of American soldiers is effective against such a superbug, which was first created by **Russian** scientists. A Bush administration official said the National **Security** Council is expected to give the final **go-ahead** later this month.*