What are dark zones?
I call the area [a dark zone] when the result obtained could be used for defensive purposes and could be used for offensive purposes. Let’s analyze this situation: the genetic alteration of vaccinia [cowpox] virus. In many cases, you would never find any publication about genetic alteration of smallpox virus, because when we conduct the work with smallpox virus, it’s very dangerous and you need to explain why you are genetically altering such virus. … [however] smallpox virus (variola major) and vaccinia virus are very close genetically. When you conduct genetic engineering work with a vaccinia virus, the result of such a work would be applied to variola major. When we conduct this work, we cannot say what could be the real purpose or real result of this work. But some results obtained when you conduct work with vaccinia virus, could be applied for smallpox virus. Was there ever a fear, during the time that you were there, that the U.S. was going to discover the program and therefore
