Nope, Occam's Razor suggests that it was exactly what it appeared to be, a followup Islamist terror attack right on the heels of 9/11.
I think reality is even more interesting than fiction. But this new bioterror novel is interesting because the fellow was in the business and had access to classified information. So the plot perhaps is more plausible than the recent “The Other Abraham.” My favorite bioterror novel for beach reading is THE FAITHFUL SPY, by a NYT correspondent. It was riveting.
Here is are excerpts from an article on the new book put out by Penguin.
August 12, 2007, The Age (Australia)
“Reality, fiction collide as terror comes to town”
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When d’Hage (”Darj” to his mates) was head of military security for the 2000 Sydney Olympics, it was his job to think up horror scenarios - and find ways to stop them. He had also dealt with the Pentagon, the FBI, the CIA and the top echelons of the NSW police, enjoying access to top-secret documents that would have made ideal source material for a fictional terror plot.
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The book begins with a warning from fictional al-Qaeda operative Dr Khalid Kadeer, a microbiologist and member of the persecuted Uighur Muslim Chinese minority. The terrorist hints at the location of the first of three “warning attacks” that, if ignored, will precede a cataclysm that will destroy Western civilisation.
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The cesium poisoning of an Australian city’s water supply is one of many catastrophic events in The Beijing Conspiracy. The book begins with a warning from fictional al-Qaeda operative Dr Khalid Kadeer, a microbiologist and member of the persecuted Uighur Muslim Chinese minority. The terrorist hints at the location of the first of three “warning attacks” that, if ignored, will precede a cataclysm that will destroy Western civilisation.
The novel’s fundamentalist Christian US president Denver Harrison threatens, a la George Bush, to smoke the terrorists out of their hideouts. But the more subtle task of working out the details of Kadeer’s threat is taken up by CIA agent and bioterrorism expert Curtis O’Connor and Australian-born microbiologist Dr Kate Braithwaite, who is working on a US secret weapons program to mix smallpox with the even deadlier Ebola and Marburg viruses. The pair discover that Kadeer’s scientists are only one of two groups planning to unleash an “ Ebolapox” supervirus at the Beijing Olympics. And so begins a desperate chase to prevent the death of millions.
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Revelations about the Soviet weaponisation of smallpox and anthrax, made by defecting former Soviet scientist Dr Ken Alibek, were also on his mind.