The South African Biological Weapons Program - Deadly Cultures: Biological Weapons Since 1945 - page 208

volving a former general in the South African Defence Force, Tai Min-
naar. The scheme began in March 2002, when Minnaar, acting as broker,
contacted a personal friend and CIA veteran, Don Mayes.
Goosen claims that before this he had visited the US vaccine produc-
tion company Bioport. 89 Goosen hoped to persuade Bioport to employ
both him and a select group of his former RRL colleagues to produce
recombinant vaccines. Bioport was half-interested. According to writ-
ten communication between Mayes and his colleague, Bob Zlockie, “Dr
Lallan Giri [vice president of the Scientific and Regulatory Affairs Group]
said...that the project is too sensitive for Bioport and that [the US] DOD
would pursue the issue, Bioport would however love to have the prod-
ucts.” 90
Minnaar wrote to Mayes in March 2002 offering an antidote for a viru-
lent strain of an unidentified organism (presumed to be anthrax), all the
“personal notes and data compiled over the years of research” (by scien-
tists at RRL), and “stock in hand” (the culture collection), as well as the
services of a research team composed of scientists who had formerly
worked at RRL. 91 The correspondence between Mayes, Zlockie, and Min-
naar indicates that from late March, when it was clear that Bioport could
not be involved in the deal, Mayes began negotiations with the FBI to
take the deal further. 92
In response to questions posed by Mayes, Minnaar specified what the
deal would involve, including:
One hundred eighty nine strains Anthrax Strains were grown DNA
finger-printed and logged. Thirty of the above strains are virulent.
Twelve are very active and virulent. Three are deadly and ideally suited
for Mass Destruction in a Warfare Programme. All cultures that were
grown have been kept under strict Lab. Conditions under the control
of the senior scientist [Goosen]. These cultures would need to be flown
to the US by a US army plane under strict safety measures and US con-
trol. Antidotes were developed for EACH of the abovementioned Strains
. . . All notes on the research of all the scientists would come with the
group. 93
According to Odendaal, RRL's culture collection only ever included 45
strains of anthrax, which had been collected in the Kruger wildlife re-
serve; 94 only one of the strains in the collection was virulent, none was