My Father’s Involvement in the CIA’s Secret Biological Weapons Program
1 John Moffat was still a university student, when he began his career in biological warfare.
1.1 The Naval Biological Laboratory was then based at UC Berkeley: John did his PhD there, on virulence in psittacosis.
1.2 In the wake of the student protests, his experiment, among others, was moved to the premises of a nearby pharmaceutical company, Bulwer-Sutton Industries.
2 Psittacosis is more commonly known as parrot fever. It is classed as an incapacitating, not a lethal, weapon. Its mortality rate is close to zero: only young children and the elderly are at risk of death. It’s only mildly contagious: its only practical use is to disable enemy soldiers, in time of war.
2.1 John told Denise: “We used to kid the guys who worked with the plague.”
3 Vietnam came along, he did the honorable thing.
3.1 He lasted his two years, then, what do you know, the bigwigs are crying for biologists.
3.2 “They made me an offer I couldn’t refuse, two more years risking my life for peanuts.”
3.3 His new job was studying the efficacy of defoliants. He took aerial photographs, he collected botanical samples. He had a little lab in Saigon he called Rat Central Station.
3.4 In this new post, he worked for the CIA.
4 In the spring of 1971, John Moffat was going home.
4.1 He was looking forward: his wife was nuts how she was looking forward.
4.2 Hot baths, real steak – a list of things he’d do first.
4.3 He’d hardly set eyes on his two-year-old son.
4.4 Then his CIA boss came to him with an offer.
5 The first test of biological weapons in real conditions was due to take place in Guatemala that year.
5.1 There were rebels in the hills: infection would disable them, allowing their arrest by local forces with reduced violence. If successful, the strategy could be invaluable in dealing with Communist insurgents, worldwide.
5.2 The US planes could fly in and out of Panama, never touching down on Guatemalan soil. The CIA man called it “a zipperless fuck.”
5.3 “I thought of you right off. I know you did that work with parrot fever. That’s what they’re using, my man said to give him a call.”
5.4 “Well, I couldn’t let it go, you know. That was my baby.
Worked so hard on that thing, six years of my life. You’ll make fun of me, but I thought it was going to end war. No lie, the dreams I had back then. All the bombs in the world were going on the scrap heap, worst ever you’d fear would be a bad stomach bug.”
6 He was in Guatemala nine months, waiting for the drop.
6.1 The day after the bacteria was spread, however, he flew home, deserting his post without warning or leave.
6.2 He never carried out his studies. He would not consult with his replacement, and he had nothing to say at his debriefing.
6.3 The CIA offered to send him to an in-house psychiatrist.
7 John left both science and the military behind.
8 He took up blackjack:
• just, to buy time, while he figured what he’d do
• ran into Peter Cadwallader, John always had a soft spot for Karen and
• you know guys get to talking.
8.1 He played for six years. Secretly, and died.
8.2 In the Casino Atlantic, Ecuador, he told Denise:
8.3 “You know, I put myself between a rock and a hard place. Never could tell my wife, it’d break her heart, she ever thought I was . . . I never meant it, you know that. Always thought I’d have plenty of time, this was supposed to be a part-time job! Well, I sure hate leaving you, is the only thing. But I guess I better face, I’m not a young man. Children growing up!
“No! I guess if nothing else, we certainly learned to trust each other. You, Dees, no question, I would trust you with my very life.”