President of the United States. They cite advances in personalized gene therapy as evidence. In 2016, Foreign Policy magazine suggested the possibility of a virus used as an ethnic bioweapon that could sterilize a "genetically-related ethnic population." Israeli "ethno-bomb" controversy In November 1998, The Sunday Times reported that Israel was attempting to build an "ethno-bomb" containing a biological agent that could specifically target genetic traits present amongst Arab populations. Wired News also reported the story, as did Foreign Report. Microbiologists and geneticists were skeptical towards the scientific plausibility of such a biological agent. The New York Post, describing the claims as "blood libel", reported that the likely source for the story was a work of science fiction by Israeli academic Doron Stanitsky. Stanitsky had sent his completely fictional work about such a weapon to Israeli newspapers two years before. The article also noted the views of genetic researchers who claimed the idea as "wholly fantastical", with others claiming that the weapon was theoretically possible. Russian ban on export of biological samples In May 2007, it was reported that the Russian government banned all exports of human biosamples. The reason for the ban was allegedly a report by the head of FSB Nikolay Patrushev presented to Vladimir Putin. The report claimed about on-going development of "genetic bioweapons" targeting Russian population by Western institutions. The alleged report mentioned the Harvard School of Public Health, American International Health Alliance, Department of Medical Biotechnology of Jagiellonian University, United States Department of Justice Environment and Natural Resources Division, Institute of Genetics and Biotechnology Warsaw University, and United States Agency for International Development. See also Biological warfare Race and health SARS conspiracy theory Pharmacogenomics Toxicogenomics References External links Genetic weapons: a 21st-century nightmare?, Ethirajan Anbarasan, UNESCO Courier, March 1999 Is all fair in biological warfare?, Journal of Medical Ethics, June 2009. New biological weapons: Science fiction or moral imperative?, Robin Coupland, Red Cross Red Crescent, July 1999 US military agency invests $100m in genetic extinction technologies Neslen, Arthur, 2017-12-04, The Guardian, access date 2018-05-01 Biological warfare Bioterrorism Ethnic cleansing Genocide