Biological and Chemical Terrorist Threat [Archive]

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Petronas

03-22-2005, 09:36 PM

I am starting this thread to encourage the sharing of thoughts and information about terrorist interest and capabilities in the arena of biological warfare. While the first story I am posting has no known terrorist link, it highlights the potential magnitude of a successful biological terror attack if one were to occur.

Bird flu epidemic could kill as many as 750,000 in Britain: estimate
Tuesday March 22, 09:40 PM

LONDON (AFP) - Hundreds of thousands of people may die and one quarter of the work force could be absent if Britain were hit by a bird flu pandemic, a senior government official said. "It may be somewhere between 20,000 and 750,000 extra deaths and it may be 25 percent of the population off work," the government official, speaking on a non-attributable basis, told a conference in London. "That is the shape of the event we are going to have to deal with," he said. Britain's population is nearly 60 million people, with 28 million working, according to government figures.

Contingency plans already announced by Britain's health department include the stockpiling of the anti-viral drug Tamiflu at a cost of 200 million pounds (380 million dollars, 290 million euros). The country's chief medical officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, has also previously described a national preparedness plan the government is ready to put in place should the deadly H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus develop into a new strain that spreads from human to human. Measures include closing schools and cancelling public gatherings like football matches and pop concerts, as well as issuing travel warnings.

The estimate of 750,000 dead put forward was described later Tuesday by a health department spokeswoman as a "theoretical upper limit" of a catastrophe. She said the government was sticking to its estimate of 50,000 British deaths, a number advanced earlier this month when it published its contingency plan. The higher figure, presented to an international forum at the International Institute for Strategic Studies came days, came days after a leading scientist warned that the government's estimate was "optimistic".

Professor Hugh Pennington, president of the Society for General Microbiology, said he believed up to two million Britons could perish from a mutated form of the H5N1 virus. He has criticised current planning for an outbreak, warning that a strain affecting humans will be "here before we know it". Though the government has ordered 14.6 million vaccine doses for Britain they will take up to two years to arrive, prompting some worries that the population could be at risk in the interim.

Since last January, some 46 people in southeast Asia, most of them in Vietnam, have died after contracting a type of the disease as a result of contact with sick or dead birds. Medical experts have warned that if the virus develops the ability to pass from human to human, the consequences would be devastating.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/050322/323/fet4l.html

Petronas

03-22-2005, 09:46 PM

Angolans die from Ebola-like bug
Tuesday, 22 March, 2005, 18:49 GMT

More than 90 people have died in the past five months in Angola after an outbreak of a haemorrhagic fever in the north, caused by the Marburg virus. The World Health Organization says the disease, which has particularly affected children under five years old, is from the Ebola family. The symptoms, similar to Ebola, include vomiting, bloody discharge and fever. The nature of the outbreak was discovered after blood samples were sent to the US for analysis. The Marburg disease, which was first recognised in 1967, affects humans and primates.

Mr Van Dunem said 101 cases of the illness had been reported in a hospital in the city of Uige. Ninety-three people have died and two have left the hospital without being properly discharged, he told reporters. "We are engaged in an effort with the community to find the two patients who fled the hospital and to detect new cases," he said.

WHO has suggested Angolan figures may include other deaths and said last week that at least 39 people have died. WHO has had to cope with several outbreaks of Ebola in Africa since 2000. The biggest was in Uganda four years ago, when hundreds died. It passes quickly from person to person, through bodily fluids such as mucus, saliva and blood.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4372205.stm

al-Canine

03-25-2005, 09:31 AM

EPA Urges More Bioterror Protections

WASHINGTON -- Cities are not getting all the protections President Bush ordered last year to detect a biological terrorism attack, the Environmental Protection Agency's internal watchdog said Thursday.

The report from EPA Inspector General Nikki L. Tinsley's office said the agency hasn't ensured the reliability, timeliness and efficiency of air sampling that Bush directed be part of a $129 million early warning system.

The Homeland Security Department, which pays for and oversees "BioWatch," relies on the help and expertise of EPA and other agencies to run it.

"The failure of EPA to completely fulfill its responsibilities raises uncertainty about the ability of the BioWatch program to detect a biological attack," Tinsley's report said.

Specifically, the report said EPA sometimes placed sensors too far apart, failed to make sure they were all in secure locations and didn't always factor in topography and seasonal wind pattern changes in some cities.

Bush signed an order last April directing agencies to help protect the country from an attack with biological agents. A classified version had 59 instructions for agencies to improve the nation's defenses, including improving the Biowatch system of sensors that continuously monitor and analyze the air in 31 cities.

In response to the report, Jeffrey Holmstead, EPA's assistant administrator in charge of air quality, wrote that the agency was already trying to improve the program along the lines of the inspector general's recommendations.

Holmstead attached the agency's point-by-point reply, which suggested it was natural for the "first of its kind" BioWatch program to need improvement since the monitors were set up "on an extremely tight schedule because of rising security concerns."

Using up to 50 sensors per city, the network is designed to provide coverage for 80 percent of the population in the cities in which it is used, including Washington, New York, Chicago, Houston, San Francisco, San Diego and Boston. The intent is to detect a biological agent within 36 hours of release and give authorities time to react properly.

The system was created in 2003 because of concern that terrorists might aerosolize a biological agent and spread deadly biological pathogens, including anthrax, smallpox and plague, that could kill thousands of people and also harm animals and plants.

EPA uses aerosol monitors that draw in air and pass it through disposable filters, which are collected once a day throughout the year. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is in charge of the lab analysis of the filters.

The program is among the Bush administration's most aggressive anti-terrorism efforts. It is a companion to the programs "BioSense," which tracks disease outbreaks; "BioShield," which provides vaccines, and the "National Biosurveillance Integration System," which coordinates information from the federal government, states, communities and industry.

EPA also was criticized for not doing more to help cities develop plans for dealing quickly with the consequences of a bioterrorism attack.

That lack of planning was highlighted in October 2003 when two BioWatch sensors in Houston on three consecutive days detected fragments of tularemia, a bacteria common among rabbits, prairie dogs and rodents that sometimes spreads to humans.

It turned out to be naturally occurring, not a terrorist attack, and no one became ill. But the incident marked the first time the network detected such a serious airborne threat. The U.S. military stockpiled tularemia as a bioweapon in the 1960s.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-biological-terrorism,0,5136474.story?coll=sns-ap-nation-headlines

Petronas

03-29-2005, 10:22 AM

Angola (Country threat level - 4): On 25 March 2005, reports indicate that several cases of the Marburg virus have been detected in Luanda, the capital. The virus, which has a similar pathology to the Ebola virus, first broke out in the northern province of Uige where approximately 100 people have died of the disease. Various NGOs, including the World Health Organization (WHO) and Medecins sans Frontiers, are trying to contain the epidemic.

AIR SECURITY International - HOT SPOTS 3/28/2005

Petronas

04-05-2005, 06:51 PM

Angola virus workers 'need masks'
Tuesday, 5 April, 2005, 16:51 GMT 17:51 UK

Health workers in the Angolan capital, Luanda, are complaining of not having enough protective clothing to combat the deadly Marburg virus. They say there is a serious shortfall of goggles, face masks and headgear.

The death toll has now risen to 155 people, from a total of 175 cases, the country's health ministry has said.

The outbreak, which began in October in Uige province, is the most serious ever recorded of the virus - which is spread through contact with bodily fluids. The virus is a fast-spreading haemorrhagic fever related to Ebola and causes headaches, nausea, vomiting and bloody diarrhoea. ...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4413651.stm

Reminds me of Tom Clancy's "Executive Orders", where the Iranian Ayatollahs send a medical team to an Ebola outbreak in Africa to 'harvest' the virus, and then use Hezbollah terrorists to spread it in the United States.

al-Canine

04-07-2005, 09:50 PM

U.S. Focusing on Disease Spread Through Air Travel

By John Crawley

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. government health agencies are strengthening ties to airlines and aviation regulators to guard against the spread of infectious diseases or other deadly agents aboard commercial aircraft, federal officials said on Wednesday.

"With the potential of dramatic economic losses caused either by viruses or terrorists with viruses, a proactive posture rather than a reactive posture is an absolute necessity," said Rep. John Mica, a Florida Republican and chairman of the House aviation subcommittee.

"With over 1.6 billion passengers traveling worldwide each year on commercial air carriers, there is a real threat that these sometimes deadly diseases can be transmitted around the world in a matter of hours," Mica told a hearing attended by government health and aviation experts.

The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) virus in 2002 and 2003 killed more than 700 people in two dozen countries. It limited airline service to Asia where it first occurred and frightened off many international travelers.

Of particular concern now is the outbreak of avian influenza or "bird flu" that has killed 50 people, also in Asia, since 2003. Experts fear the virus could mutate into a more contagious form and unleash a global pandemic.

Airlines have come under scrutiny for air quality in passenger cabins and complaints from flight attendants that recirculated air can become stale and unhealthful. But health experts say aircraft generally do a good job of filtering germs and the main concern is that sick travelers will spread disease, especially airborne agents, through direct contact with other travelers or after they reach their destination.

Anne Schuchat, acting director for the U.S. Center for Infectious Diseases, noted a case in 2004 when a traveler died from an acute viral illness contracted in Africa soon after arriving in New Jersey. An investigation identified a number of air and train passengers who may have been at risk for the virus but no one else turned up sick.

Schuchat credited cooperation among federal and state agencies, hospital and medical labs for a successful investigation.

But she told lawmakers that government health agencies are working harder to try to detect problems overseas before someone boards a flight to the United States.

"The best strategy for preventing disease introduction into the United States is through disease surveillance, early detection, and rapid response," Schuchat said.

U.S. airlines are working closely with the Centers for Disease Control to expedite information electronically about passengers and crew who may have been exposed to a contagious disease or who are sick.

To address the threat of a potential biological attack on the aviation system, the Homeland Security Department is concentrating on airports.

Among other strategies to mitigate exposure and spread of a biological agent, authorities are focusing on airport terminal airflow patterns and evacuation strategies. Also, the government is testing early warning technology that can detect aerosol and other deadly agents.

The Homeland Security Department is also in the early phase of studying biological detection systems to protect airliners.

© Reuters 2005

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=8107771

Petronas

04-11-2005, 02:43 PM

Fear, Ignorance Fuel Marburg Outbreak in Angola
Apr. 11, 2005

Fear and ignorance are fueling the world's deadliest outbreak of Marburg fever in Angola, where locals are too suspicious of medics in "astronaut" suits to let them take away infected loved ones, aid workers said on Monday. Terrified residents stoned World Health Organization (WHO) workers' vehicles late last week, putting a brief halt to their operations to contain the disease in Uige province, northeast of Angola's capital Luanda.

"We no longer have people coming to the isolation ward -- people are hiding their patients at home because they're scared. That means the virus keeps on spreading in the community," Monica Castellarnau, emergency coordinator for Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in Uige, told Reuters by phone from Uige.

The outbreak has killed 192 of the 213 known cases. There is no cure for the disease which is related to Ebola. "We've become scapegoats. That's how people express their fear, grief and anger at the situation. They see we've got an isolation ward with very restricted access -- they think we're doing funny things," Castellarnau said.

"People have not been given sufficient information to understand the measures that are necessary to stop the virus ... It's crucial people understand the public health risk of keeping sick people at home. Only then can we start to control the spread of the virus," she said.

Marburg, a rare hemorrhagic fever, is spread through contact with bodily fluids including blood and saliva. Symptoms include headaches, internal bleeding, nausea, vomiting and bloody diarrhea. MSF has opened the city's only isolation ward in a cordoned-off section of the general hospital.

But Castellarnau said the hospital should be closed to all non-Marburg cases to avoid it becoming a source of infection. "We have strongly recommended that the hospital be closed temporarily and this is because the risk of infection at the hospital is unacceptably high," she said. Health workers have said basic hygiene rules are still not fully observed in Angolan hospitals.

Emergency measures to deal with the outbreak have stretched to the limit Angola's healthcare facilities which have been left in tatters after decades of civil war. But many locals have not welcomed the strange-looking healthcare workers who have descended on Uige city dressed in full protective clothing. Experts say that is to be expected.

"Wherever there is (an) epidemic we are used to seeing ... hostility, sometimes from the community, because we are interfering in how they are living," said WHO country representative Fatomata Diallo. "Especially in this kind of epidemic where you have to have special clothes, like an astronaut, and come into the family to take a sick person or suspected case. When you come to take away a body, a dead body, with all this kind of clothing, sometimes it is not easy for the community to accept it," she said.

Marburg gets its name from the German town where it was first reported in the 1960s after researchers there contracted it from monkeys imported from Africa. The previous worst recorded outbreak was during a 1998-2000 epidemic in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo when 123 people died.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=659415

Petronas

04-13-2005, 12:47 AM

Labs ordered to destroy flu virus
Wednesday, 13 April, 2005, 01:30 GMT 02:30 UK

Some 4,000 laboratories in 18 countries have been asked to destroy potentially lethal influenza samples that were accidentally included in testing kits. The samples are of a strain that killed up to four million people globally in 1957 but disappeared by 1968.

Klaus Stohr of the World Health Organization (WHO) told the BBC that people born after 1968 did not have antibodies against the virus. "If the virus gets loose, it can easily cause an influenza epidemic," he said. "If this virus were to infect one person, it would spread very rapidly."

Terrorism worries

The College of American Pathologists sent out the kits over the last few months. The company has written to the laboratories affected - of which 61 are outside the US - asking them to destroy the samples.

Given the concerns that the virus could be used in bio-terrorism, letters were sent to the laboratories before the mistake was made public. Dr Stohr said the company had acted in full compliance with US regulations, which are now being revised.

"The risk is considered to be low... but as long as this is out it is possible laboratory technicians can become infected," he said. The WHO is giving its backing to the appeal. It is hoped the laboratories will have destroyed the vials by the end of the week.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4439053.stm

al-Canine

04-27-2005, 08:27 AM

Experts: Smallpox could be sent in mail

By Steve Mitchell
Medical Correspondent

Washington, DC, Apr. 26 (UPI) -- The anthrax letter attacks in 2001 are not the first time an infectious agent has been spread through the mail. A recent article in a scientific journal describes two outbreaks of smallpox in 1901 that were attributed to infected letters, and bioweapon experts said it is possible terrorists could spread the deadly disease in this manner today.

Charles Ambrose, the author's article and a microbiologist at the University of Kentucky School of Medicine in Lexington, noted that one of the outbreaks was attributed to infected letters sent from the United States to England -- a trans-Atlantic trip that at the time had to be made by boat. This suggests the virus may be able to survive extended periods in transit and raises the possibility of terrorists sending an infected letter into the United States from abroad.

Ambrose's article appears in the May issue of the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.

Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta said it was unlikely smallpox could be transmitted through infected letters, but other bioweapon experts thought it could be done -- if samples of the deadly virus could be obtained in the first place.

"It would be really, really, really difficult" to infect people by sending the smallpox virus through the mail, CDC spokesman Von Roebuck told United Press International.

Bill Kournikakis, of Canada's Chemical Biological Defense Section in Medicine Hat, Alberta, disagreed with that assessment.

"If smallpox were available, then it would be possible to transmit it through the mail," he told UPI.

Kournikakis headed a study that showed anthrax could be transmitted through the mail several months prior to the 2001 attacks.

"Smallpox was well known for its virulence, contagiousness and stability (and) was able to survive for almost a year at room temperature in exudates or crusts from smallpox patients," he said. "It would most likely survive the postal system as well."

Smallpox kills about a third of those infected by the virus. Symptoms include fever, aches and the characteristic pox or raised bumps all over the body that form scabs and can leave disfiguring scars.

William C. Patrick, former chief of the product development for the U.S. Army's biological warfare laboratories at Fort Detrick, Md., told UPI he thought it was possible smallpox could be distributed via mailed items.

"Smallpox could be sent through the mail and cause problems," said Patrick, who has served as a consultant to the FBI and the CIA.

Patrick noted although smallpox is not as stable as anthrax, "it's more infectious." Only about three to five individual virus particles are needed to cause a smallpox infection, compared to 8,000-10,000 spores of anthrax.

The bioterror experts consulted for this article said they consider the real barrier to an attack is obtaining the virus, not the mail system. The only known stocks of smallpox in the world reside at CDC headquarters in Atlanta and a lab in Russia. However, some bioweapons experts think North Korea and Iran also possess smallpox and there are concerns Russia may have leaked samples of the deadly pathogen to various countries.

Ambrose noted in his article there may be a second, unconventional source of smallpox in Russia in the Sakha Republic region in northeast Siberia -- one of the coldest inhabited regions on Earth. In 1991, bioweapons experts went searching for smallpox victims who had become frozen and mummified under the ice in the 19th Century.

The concern was terrorists could recover corpses, thaw them and gain access to smallpox, but searchers found no trace of the virus.

The United States could be very susceptible to a smallpox attack. Much of the U.S. population has not been vaccinated against smallpox -- routine vaccinations stopped in 1972 -- and it is unclear if those vaccinated prior to that still retain immunity from the deadly disease. President George W. Bush's plan to vaccinate healthcare workers and first responders against smallpox appears to have all but halted. Only a fraction of the anticipated 500,000 people targeted to be vaccinated received the medication.

Ambrose's article also cited an outbreak in Saginaw, Mich., involving 34 people and detailed in a 1901 issue of the New York Medical Journal. That outbreak appears to have originated in a Saginaw woman who developed smallpox after receiving a letter from her boyfriend, a soldier in Alaska who had written the letter while infected with the disease himself.

The other smallpox outbreak occurred at the headquarters of the Mormon church in Nottingham, England, Ambrose wrote. A report in the April 1901 issue of the British Medical Journal attributes that incident to letters from Salt Lake City, where hundreds of smallpox cases had been reported in recent months.

Dr. D.A. Henderson, professor of medicine at the Center for Biosecurity at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, said under normal circumstances there probably was very little, if any, risk of an infected person transmitting smallpox through the mail.

He said it was highly possible the cases described in the medical journal articles had not been properly investigated and there could have been other ways people became infected that did not involve contaminated letters. When he was involved in efforts to eradicate smallpox globally, he said, no instances were ever reported of infections that could be traced back to infected mail items.

Henderson did say he thought it was possible terrorists could transmit smallpox through the mail by aerosolizing the virus, similar to what was done in the anthrax attacks, which infected 18 people and killed five.

"They could do that, oh yeah, no question," Henderson told UPI.

He said it was less likely to happen with smallpox than with anthrax, however, due to difficulties of obtaining the virus in the first place, the technical knowledge required to work with it, and the dangers of self-infection.

Henderson noted, however, officials involved in the Russian Bioweapons program have admitted in recent years they produced very fine, tiny-particle smallpox and conducted outdoors experiments with it in 1971. He said it is not known whether the efforts infected anyone, but it demonstrates the feasibility of aerosolizing the deadly virus.

Henderson said if smallpox was stabilized properly, it probably could survive a trip through the mail system, "but it wouldn't survive as well as anthrax."

Bob Anderson, a spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service, said in terms of precautionary measures to prevent biological weapons from being spread through the mail system, the only monitoring systems in place test for anthrax.

"The system is expandable -- meaning the equipment is capable of being configured to test for the presence of other biohazards in the mail -- but there are no plans to do so at this time," Anderson told UPI.

The Postal Service also irradiates some federal mail to kill potential bioweapons, but this process is used only on government mail headed for federal agencies in the Washington area, he said.

Henderson said he did not know if irradiation would kill the smallpox virus.

--

Steve Mitchell is UPI's Medical Correspondent. E-mail: sciencemail@upi.com

http://www.washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20050425-060046-6011r.htm

Petronas

06-08-2005, 10:52 PM

Al Qaeda’s bioterror threat seen down, but still real
Thursday, June 09, 2005

WASHINGTON: The threat of biochemical attacks by Al Qaeda has declined, but the availability of agents and the group’s professed interest in using them make the danger very real, a top German counterterrorism official said on Tuesday. “Why are we focusing on biological terrorism? We do so because it fits very well into the strategy, into the thinking of modern terrorists,” Georg Witschel, counterterrorism coordinator at Germany’s Foreign Ministry, told a biosecurity conference in Washington.

“Looking at Al Qaeda, since they have lost their territorial base, and since state sponsoring is in general declining, the probability of such an attack might be slightly lower than it was a few years ago, but the risk is still pretty high,” he said at the event, hosted by the European Institute public policy forum. Witschel said while the incidence of nonconventional attacks had been rare, Al Qaeda files and laboratories discovered after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks proved the militant network had sought to use chemical, biological or nuclear weapons.

Rep. John Linder, a Georgia Republican on the House of Representatives’ Homeland Security Committee, expressed concern too much effort was being spent on “fighting yesterday’s war,” for example by beefing up air travel security, at the expense of other threats such as possible biochemical attacks.

John Dinger, a deputy counterterrorism coordinator at the State Department, called the dangers of a biological attack “one of the most challenging and frightening aspects of terrorism.” He said pathogens were particularly dangerous because they could spread silently and quickly before authorities realized there had been an attack. Dinger said the time lag between the contamination and the emergence of symptoms also meant it would be difficult to identify, let alone catch the perpetrators.

Because of their potency and availability, Witschel said the most probable agents terrorists might use were bacteria such as anthrax or the plague, viruses such as smallpox, or toxins such as ricin. “Among them, anthrax and smallpox have the greatest potential for mass casualties and civil disruption, not least due to their high lethality. So I think these two ... should be in the focus of endeavors to protect our societies against a biological attack,” he said. Witschel said there was “some level of cooperation” in the international community to avert attacks and mitigate the possible fallout but that greater collaboration was needed. That included a fast and efficient worldwide reporting system to allow rapid response to attacks.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_9-6-2005_pg4_5

candypreet

06-09-2005, 11:35 AM

I think thread like this are a good idea

Petronas

06-25-2005, 12:34 PM

Group Estimates Potential Flu Death Toll
June 24, 2005 7:45 PM EDT

WASHINGTON - More than a half-million people could die and more than 2.3 million could be hospitalized if a moderately severe strain of pandemic flu virus hits the United States, a research group said Friday. The report from the Trust for America's Health assumes that 25 percent of a country's population would become infected if a strain of avian flu became highly contagious and humans had no natural immunity against it. The researchers also assumed the severity of the strain would fall about midway between the pandemic of 1918 and the pandemic of 1968.

The research group says the staggering number of potential deaths and hospitalizations would overwhelm the nation's health care system - and displays the need for greater planning and resources. It's a message that some lawmakers quickly embraced. "Unfortunately, the United States is woefully underprepared to respond in the event of a pandemic outbreak," said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn. "We have a responsibility to focus much greater energy on preparing for avian influenza and similar public-health threats, whether natural, accidental or intentional in origin." Asia's latest bird-flu outbreak began late last year and has killed 38 people in Vietnam, 12 in Thailand and four in Cambodia. People killed by the flu so far have contracted it from sick birds. The fear is that the virus will mutate to the point that it can be contracted from humans.

Seasonal flu kills an estimated 36,000 to 40,000 people annually in the United States. More than 200,000 people are hospitalized each year because of influenza, and the costs to the national economy is $10 billion, as a result of lost productivity and direct medical expenses.

The Trust for America's Health called on lawmakers to provide more than the $58 million that they've already approved for purchasing influenza countermeasures for a national stockpile. The organization specifically calls for the purchase of more Tamiflu, which it said may be an effective treatment option while scientist worked on a vaccine. The group estimated that the federal government has ordered 5.3 million courses of Tamiflu for the stockpile, but that it would require about 70 million doses to cover 25 percent of the U.S. population, which is the rate the World Health Organization has recommended.

http://enews.earthlink.net/article/hea?guid=20050624/42bb8540_3421_1334520050624-51153714

al-Canine

07-19-2005, 08:33 AM

Veterinarians worried about agroterrorism

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Nearly 10,000 veterinarians and other animal-health workers who gathered in the Twin Cities are learning what they could do if terrorists intentionally infect animals with diseases.

"Agroterror would in fact be very easy to do, and we are quite vulnerable," said Dr. Corrie Brown, head of the pathology department at the University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine.

Animal diseases that could be turned to weapons are typically highly contagious and easily obtained in less-developed countries, Brown said Saturday during a joint convention of the American Veterinary Medical Association and the World Veterinary Congress. The congress includes veterinarians from 40 countries.

Brown's presentation included an image of a scrawled list of livestock diseases -- some of which could kill humans -- that turned up in a cave in Afghanistan. The U.S. government recently declassified the list.

"We know that there are numerous operatives that were planning these things," she said.

Veterinarians and security experts worry that terrorists might intentionally infect animals and cause human plagues with diseases that can be spread to people.

They're also worried by a shortage of laboratories equipped to handle dangerous foreign diseases, and a coming shortage of veterinarians, who provide the link between animal health and public health.

Bernard Vallat, director general of the Paris-based World Organization for Animal Health, said he fears the introduction of diseases such as avian influenza, anthrax or rabies by bioterrorists intent on harming both animals and the public.

He said another concern is pathogens that strictly affect livestock, because they can devastate economies.

"The foot-and-mouth disease virus could be a terrible agent for bioterrorism because it could destroy totally the production of milk in a country," Vallat said.

Foot and mouth disease, which also attacks hogs and sheep, could sweep across the United States if not caught within the first 24 hours, said Dr. Bonnie Beaver, president of the American Veterinary Medical Association.

Veterinarians and others attended seminars that began Saturday and will continue through Tuesday on how to spot certain blisters, sores and other signs of exotic diseases.

Vallat also urged veterinarians to help poor countries fight animal diseases because they contribute to poverty, block market access and constitute a threat to countries already free of such disease.

http://webstar.postbulletin.com/agrinews/283795280428209.bsp

Petronas

11-01-2005, 03:11 PM

Al-Qaeda could spread avian flu, report warns
October 25, 2005

TORONTO - A newly disclosed Canadian intelligence study says al-Qaeda might try to spread the deadly avian flu virus as part of its campaign to sow terror in Western nations. The report by the federal government's Integrated Threat Assessment Centre describes the avian flu as a "potential terrorist-induced" pandemic and specifically mentions Osama bin Laden.

"It is significant to note that Osama bin Laden views chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear weapons as legitimate," says the report, titled "Pandemics: Avian Flu." "In addition, Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda representatives have repeatedly named Canada as a target," it says under the heading "Biology and Terrorism." A copy of the study was released to the National Post under the Access to Information Act.

Security officials have long feared that Islamic terrorists bent on disrupting Western economies and killing masses of civilians might resort to biological agents. Terrorists have shown increasing interest in biological and chemical weapons since the Japanese religious sect Aum Shinri Kyo attacked the Tokyo subway system with sarin in 1995. Al-Qaeda experimented with such weapons at its camps in Afghanistan, but there have been few attempts so far to use them, partly because they are difficult to manufacture and disseminate.

But the Canadian report says last winter's outbreak of the H5N1 strain of avian flu in Asia "is of concern due to its high mortality rate in humans" and warns of "worldwide pandemic." Aside from terrorists, the report warns of the possibility that smugglers could unwittingly bring the virus to Canada. It cites the example of a Thai man who tried to smuggle two infected birds into Belgium last October. The crested hawk eagles were concealed in plastic tubes in his carry-on baggage. The veterinarian who handled the birds was hospitalized with symptoms of avian flu but survived.

The spread of avian flu to Canada would have a devastating impact on the economy, the report says. Last year's outbreak in B.C.'s Fraser Valley cost an estimated $496-million. If an avian flu strain more easily transmissible to humans comes to the country, it "would be expected to be much more virulent and contagious than SARS," which killed fewer than 50 people in Canada in 2003.

The Canadian report says that regardless of whether it spreads as a result of terrorism, smuggling or simple transmission, a central issue is the ability of nations to identify, report and deal with an outbreak. While the World Health Organization has a monitoring system in place, it depends on the honest reporting of member nations, and some countries report false information or fail to report at all, it says.

http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=475269d1-ff50-40ef-8877-6715c8aedb32

Petronas

11-14-2005, 02:54 PM

Al Qaeda's Bio Weapons
WASHINGTON, March 31, 2005

(AP) Al Qaeda had progressed much further toward developing a particular biological weapon before the Sept. 11 attacks than the United States realized, the presidential commission investigating intelligence on weapons of mass destruction found. The intelligence community was surprised by al Qaeda's advances in a virulent strain in the disease, identified by the commission only as "Agent X" to prevent al Qaeda from knowing what the U.S. government has learned. The discovery of al Qaeda's work came only after the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan removed the Taliban from power, the report says.

"Al Qaeda's biological program was further along, particularly with regard to Agent X, than pre-war intelligence indicated," the report says. "The program was extensive, well-organized, and operated for two years before September 11, but intelligence insights into the program were limited." It was not so advanced that al Al Qaeda had a functioning weapon, the report says. U.S. officials have previously said they found signs of al Qaeda's work in anthrax weapons in Afghanistan, but it was not clear if "Agent X" referred to anthrax. Other diseases that may be turned into weapons include smallpox, plague and ebola.

The work on Agent X was done at several sites in Afghanistan, including two with commercial lab equipment. Some intelligence information suggests cultures of the disease had been isolated and basic production was possible, the report says, but notes this is uncertain information.

U.S. assessments of al Qaeda's other efforts to acquire a weapon of mass destruction did not change substantially after U.S. and Afghan forces removed the Taliban from power after the Sept. 11 attacks, the report says. Al Qaeda was studying nuclear weapons and contacted Pakistani scientists to discuss nuclear weapons, it notes. "We found that just prior to the war in Afghanistan in 2001, the Intelligence Community was able to correctly assess al Qaeda's limited ability to use unconventional weapons to inflict mass casualties," the report says. "Yet when the war uncovered new evidence of WMD efforts, analysts were surprised by the intentions and level of research and development underway by al Qaeda. Had this new information not been acquired, and had al Qaeda been allowed to continue weapons development, a future intelligence failure could have been in the offing."

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/03/31/terror/main684449.shtml

This is from earlier this year, but still is of current interest, as it is likely that Al Qaeda is pursuing the same goals elsewhere now.

Petronas

11-14-2005, 03:10 PM

If this is true: Support for Al Qaeda and demonstrated possession and recent use of chemical weapons - now there is a combination I don't like at all...

10/13/2005

Active Support of Terrorists: It is no secret that al-Qaeda affiliated members of the Yemeni military and security forces are aiding terrorists. A Yemeni government official stated that “subversive” (al-Qaeda) elements of Yemen’s secret service have established training camps for Iraqi Baathists who later fight in Iraq. Military analyst James Dunnigan wrote recently, “There are many al Qaeda sympathizers in the Yemeni military and government as well. These sympathizers have been discreetly aiding Iraqi Baath Party officials who have fled Iraq, and now Syria. There has also been some active, but covert, support for the terrorists operating in Iraq.”

Dunnigan’s assessment corresponds with that of former Yemeni ambassador to Syria, Ahmed Abdullah al-Hasani, who recently requested political asylum in London. A former commander of Yemen’s navy, al-Hasani stated at a press conference that “al-Qaida elements are at the top in Yemen, in the army and political security forces.” Yemeni Socialist Party lawmaker Mohammed Salah, said “The government deals with terrorists in a way to keep them under their control, to use them when it needs to,” the AP reported. Of 144 bank accounts in Yemen designated in 2004 by the U.N. as related to the terrorism of al-Qaeda or the Taliban, Yemen has frozen one. It has not restricted the activities or finances of U.S. classified “Major Terrorist” Sheik Zindani, who remains a prominent politician and businessman.

A recent study for the Center for Strategic and International Studies by Anthony Cordesman found that 17% of foreign fighters in Iraq were likely Yemeni. This figure does not account for fighters of other nationalities trained in Yemen. Twenty suicide bombings in Iraq were perpetrated by Yemenis, reported al-Thawry newspaper. Two individuals charged with involvement in the Cole bombings who “escaped” along with eight other suspects were later reported to have carried out suicide bombings in Iraq which resulted in dozens of deaths.

Beyond training and support, there is reportedly an established terrorist transit route through Yemen to Iraq. A Saudi source recently told the London based Saudi paper Asharq Alawsat that generally, “A young man decides he wants to fight in Iraq, illegally enters Yemen, travels to Syria, and is subsequently smuggled across the border into Iraq.” ...

Chemical Weapons: It is questionable whether the Yemeni military’s response to the Houthi rebellion was proportionate, reasonable, and justified. The primarily Shiite region of Sa’ada was decimated by a military force comprised of former Iraqi military men, Afghan Arabs, and Yemeni military personnel, under the leadership of General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, a reputed al-Qaeda sympathizer and President Saleh’s half brother. Persistent news reports and published interviews have charged that General Mohsen used gas as a weapon during the conflicts in Sa’ada.

Highly respected religious scholar Mohamed Almansour wrote a letter to President Saleh in March 2005 which stated, “We condemn all things that happened in the previous months such as excessive use of force by the Government forces and the use of internationally prohibited weapons.” In May, Alquds Alarabia reported that rebel leader Abdelmalik al-Houthi said, “The government attacked us with internationally prohibited weapons like chlorine gas that caused an inability to breathe.” He also referred to “colored gas.” An article in the opposition newspaper al-Shoura in June listed the names of imprisoned children, including Bader Aldeen Abdula Moslih who was described as “12 years old, very ill from nervous system and skin damage as a result of chlorine gas used by the army in the first war last year.” In an internet interview the same month, a Houthi partisan and purported eye witness described “some special missile which turns into many particles, yellow and then red. The cloud goes up slowly. When it explodes it is yellow, when the particles come down they are red.” The cloud caused an inability to breathe, he reported.

Yahya al-Houthi, former Member of Parliament in the ruling party and brother of slain rebel leader Hussain al-Houthi, wrote in an email: “Most of the injured persons have died especially those who were hiding in Suleiman Cave. They were exposed to chemical gas…The area surrounding Suleiman Cave is still closed by the Army to prevent any one from taking samples to be analyzed by chemical weapon experts. The Army also burned all bodies in that area so they don’t leave any evidence for the international community.

They used gas in the area of Alqari Mountain in the village of Neshoor…The result of the attack was the death of all 40 men who were protecting the area. The bodies of the dead still missing tell now. The government forces used the tanks to destroy the graves so no one can find the dead bodies if he or she needs to look for any evidence.” Certainly the Yemeni regime could put these allegations to rest by inviting international inspectors into the region which remains closed off. ...

Jane Novak is an American journalist and political analyst.

http://armiesofliberation.com/archives/2005/10/13/chemical-weapons-drug-smuggling-and-other-crimes-of-the-yemeni-dictator/

Vancouver

11-14-2005, 06:05 PM

[Yemen] has not restricted the activities or finances of U.S. classified “Major Terrorist” Sheik Zindani, who remains a prominent politician and businessman.
عبد المجيد الزنداني
Abdulmajid az-Zindani, a Qaeda recruiter and financer, who heads a bizarre but well-funded cult compound called el-Eman University in Sana'a, Yemen:
جامعة الإيمان
www.eman-univ.edu.ye

Recently Yemen has turned away foreigners who travelled to Yemen for the purpose of attending el-Eman.

Petronas

11-21-2005, 08:01 PM

Bio-terror strike 'is inevitable'
Monday, 21 November 2005, 17:06 GMT

The world must face the inevitability of a bio-terror attack by al-Qaeda, the head of Interpol has warned. Police and health authorities around the world were underprepared for such an attack, Ron Noble told a bio-terror conference in Cape Town, South Africa. An attack could see smallpox, anthrax, botulism or Ebola-style viruses released into Western cities. The Cape Town event is the first of three sessions to train medics and police how to deal with attacks. Further sessions will be held in Chile and Singapore during 2006.

Addressing delegates from 41 African nations, Mr Noble said al-Qaeda's track record of deadly, unexpected terror attacks put the threat into focus. Evidence collected from sympathetic websites also pointed to an avowed intention to stage bio-terror attacks if operatives gained the capability, he added.

"Al-Qaeda has openly claimed the right to kill four million people using biological and chemical weapons," he said. "Al-Qaeda is willing, able and patient enough to plan and prepare to execute terrorists acts that [once] would have been considered unrealistic or fantasy." Interpol says several pathogens and viruses most likely to be used in any bio-terror attack, Mr Noble told delegates.

Tactics could vary - as well as a traditional detonation, attackers could turn themselves into a "suicide bio-weapon", Mr Noble said, travelling around while highly infectious. Postal services could also be used to spread disease as shown by anthrax attacks in the US in 2001. "The potential consequences of such an attack could be so far-reaching that a lack of action in preventing bio-terrorism poses an unacceptable risk to the safety of societies around the world," he said. The Cape Town meeting follows a conference in Lyons, France, in March, in which Interpol urged governments to back a drive against bio-terror.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4457514.stm

Petronas

11-23-2005, 11:57 PM

Pentagon says mail facility had toxin false alarm
Nov 23, 2005

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Equipment that screens mail for the Defense Department detected possible trace amounts of a deadly toxin last weekend but later tests showed it was a false alarm, the Pentagon said on Wednesday. Pentagon spokesman Glenn Flood said tests that came back on Saturday on mail that had arrived a day earlier at the remote mail-delivery facility, located next to the Pentagon, indicated "a testing anomaly of possible trace amounts of botulinum toxin." Flood said follow-up tests "were all negative." "It was a false alarm. Nobody was harmed," Flood said. This marked the second false alarm for a potential germ warfare agent this year involving facilities that handle mail for the Pentagon, the colossal military headquarters in Arlington, Virginia. There was a scare in March over anthrax.

Botulism is a rare illness in which a nerve toxin produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum paralyzes muscles, which can lead to respiratory failure and death. The toxin, considered one of the most toxic substances known, can be used as a biological weapon. In 2001, five people died and at least 17 others became ill when powdery anthrax spores were sent in letters addressed to news organizations and government offices in Washington, Florida and elsewhere, raising fears of bioterrorism. Those cases have not been solved. In March, Defense Department mail-handling facilities — including the same facility involved in this incident and another several miles (km) away — were closed and hundreds of workers evacuated after sensitive detection devices indicated the presence of anthrax spores. Officials said later tests at the postal centers turned up no evidence of anthrax.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1341493

Petronas

12-05-2005, 01:03 AM

Obscure al-Qaida Chemist Worries Experts
Sat Dec 3, 5:25 PM ET

ALEXANDRIA, Egypt - He's a mystery in a red beard, with a strange alias and a degree in chemical engineering. In the hands of this alleged al-Qaida operative, it's a specialty that summons visions of poison gas and mass terror. Al-Qaida is "wedded to the spectacular," notes U.S. counterterrorism analyst Donald Van Duyn, and elusive Egyptian chemist Midhat Mursi was said to be exploring such possibilities when last seen, brewing up deadly compounds and gassing dogs in Afghanistan.

Van Duyn's FBI and other U.S. agencies are interested enough in Mursi to have posted a $5 million reward this year for his capture. Egypt's government reportedly is interested enough to have seized and locked up his two sons in an effort to track down the father. The U.S. reward poster says the alleged bombmaker, also known as Abu Khabab, literally "Father of the Trotting Horse," may be in Pakistan. But "we don't think there's really a good fix on where he is," Van Duyn said in a Washington interview. "Nobody knows," said Mohamed Salah, a Cairo expert on Islamic extremists. "He could be in any country, under another ID. Or he could be on the Afghan-Pakistani border, with Zawahri."

Unlike fellow Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahri, Osama bin Laden's deputy, Mursi is largely an unknown figure. "Here in Egypt, his name doesn't represent anything for us," said Diaa Rashwan, who follows Islamic militancy for Cairo's Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies. A son of Alexandria's al-Asafirah, a noisy seaside district of rutted streets and crowded housing, Mursi, 52, graduated from Alexandria University in 1975, say the Islamist researchers of London's Islamic Observation Center. It was a period when Muslim militancy flared in this Mediterranean city, as zealots burned liquor stores and other "non-Islamic" targets.

Salah, who writes for the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat, said it isn't known what Mursi was doing in the 1980s, but he was not among scores of defendants in the terrorism conspiracy trials that followed President Anwar Sadat's 1981 assassination, the young men considered the core of Egyptian militancy. The London center says Mursi left Egypt in 1987 for Saudi Arabia, and then Afghanistan, where Egyptian militants joined the war against Soviet occupation.

In 1998, Zawahri's group, Islamic Jihad, merged with bin Laden's al-Qaida, bringing what Rashwan says were at least 100 experienced Egyptian militants into al-Qaida ranks. But the director of the Islamic Observation Center questions whether Mursi was among them. Yasser al-Sirri says the Egyptian chemist did "consult" with bin Laden's group, but "my information is that he is not a member of al-Qaida."

After the U.S. invasion in 2001, computer files uncovered by reporters in Afghanistan showed that by 1999 the man referred to as Abu Khabab, armed with a "startup" budget of $2,000 to $4,000, was working to develop chemical and biological weapons in Afghanistan. His most notorious work was recorded on videotape, eventually obtained by CNN in 2002, showing dogs being killed in gas experiments. Intelligence sources said a voice heard on the tape was Mursi's, the cable network said. Experts believe the gas was hydrogen cyanide, used in gas-chamber executions. But NATO chemical weapons specialist Rene Pita says that compound has long been viewed as an unsatisfactory mass-casualty chemical weapon because of its instability and low density.

Journalists in post-invasion Afghanistan found the "Abu Khabab laboratory," part of al-Qaida's Darunta complex 70 miles east of Kabul, to be a rudimentary site lighted by a single bulb among disorderly boxes of test tubes, syringes and vials. Specialists doubt al-Qaida could produce sufficient amounts of sophisticated chemical weapons, such as nerve agents, without a large-scale, even state-sponsored operation. "Those were very crude labs in Afghanistan," said Washington expert Jonathan Tucker, of the Monterey Institute for International Studies.

Even before discovery of his Afghan operation, Mursi was quietly being hunted as an al-Qaida bombmaker, Salah said. He said the Egyptian was suspected of having helped train suicide bombers who attacked the destroyer USS Cole in Yemen, killing 17 American sailors. Five months after that October 2000 attack, Egyptian authorities arrested Mursi's son Mohamed as he flew into Cairo with a fake Yemeni passport, Cairo's al-Ahram Weekly reported at the time. "That indicates the family was in Yemen," said Salah. "Abu Khabab must have gone to Yemen. Why Yemen? Because of the USS Cole."

Then, early last year, another son, Hamzah, was deported from Pakistan into Egyptian custody, said London's al-Sirri. Mohamed at least is believed still held, Salah said, as authorities apparently seek to extract information or pressure the father. The Egyptian Interior Ministry declined to discuss the continuing hunt for the mysterious Abu Khabab, about whom so little is confirmed that of 14 descriptors on the U.S. "Rewards for Justice" poster — from "Height" to "Status" — 10 are followed by "Unknown."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051203/ap_on_re_mi_ea/al_qaida_s_chemist

candypreet

12-06-2005, 09:46 AM

Biological Weapons and Bio Terrorism: Bio terrorism is real and is here

by Sangeeta Debashis

Of the three regimes of weapons of mass destruction- nuclear, chemical and biological, it is the last one that is most potent, accessible and the weakest regime in the global efforts to prohibit and prevent. With India having a well-developed bio technology infra structure that includes numerous pharmaceutical production facilities, bio-containment laboratories for working with lethal pathogens, it is very necessary for the government to ensure that the biological agents do not fall into wrong hands.

While the Geneva Protocol of 1925 and the Biological and Toxin weapons convention (BTWC) 1972 are in place that prohibit research, development and production of offensive biological weapons, the latter does allow defensive research. The importance and seriousness of bio terrorism has not been understood or felt until the September 11 WTC attacks and occurrence of anthrax cases reported across USA.

In India too, two cases of anthrax incidence have been reported in the states of Karnataka, and earlier in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. More cases are likely to be reported in the coming weeks. The government of India have rightly cautioned the people to be on high alert on the possibility of biological and chemical warfare attacks by terrorists in India following such incidents in USA.

The DRDO Scientists are emphatic that anthrax is endemic to India and it is learnt that the Defence ministry and the Home ministry are getting "rapid response teams " to combat threats of such terrorist attacks.

Biological weapons pose the greatest threat as these are ideal for bio terrorism for the following reasons.

* have a delayed response thus preventing immediate detection
* the easiest to acquire
* less expensive
* not easily detected
* even a small quantity can be fatal affecting masses
* has potential for major public health impact
* might cause public panic and social disruption
* require special action for public health preparedness

Biological Agents are grouped under three categories based on the potency and ease of dispersion. Anthrax comes under the top category for its powerful effect and easy availability. One redeeming feature is that it can be cured with antibiotics if detected in time.

Category A: High-priority agents include organisms that pose a risk to national security because they can be easily disseminated or transmitted person-to-person; cause high mortality, with potential for major public health impact; might cause public panic and social disruption; and require special action for public health preparedness.

Agents include variola major (smallpox); Bacillus anthracis (anthrax); Yersinia pestis (plague); Clostridium botulinum toxin (botulism); Francisella tularensis (tularaemia); filoviruses; Ebola hemorrhagic fever, Marburg hemorrhagic fever, and arenaviruses; Lassa (Lassa fever), Junin (Argentine hemorrhagic fever) and related viruses.

Category B: The second highest priority agents include those that are moderately easy to disseminate; cause moderate morbidity and low mortality; and require specific enhancements of CDC’s diagnostic capacity and enhanced disease surveillance.

Agents are Coxiella burnetti (Q fever); Brucella species (brucellosis); Burkholderia mallei (glanders); alpha viruses, Venezuelan encephalomyelitis, eastern and western equine encephalomyelitis; ricin toxin from Ricinus communis (castor beans); epsilon toxin of Clostridium perfringens; and Staphylococcus enterotoxin B. A subset of List B agents includes pathogens that are food or waterborne. These pathogens include but are not limited to Salmonella species, Shigella dysenteriae, Escherichia coli O157:H7, Vibrio cholerae, and Cryptosporidium parvum.

Category C: The third priority agents include emerging pathogens that could be engineered for mass dissemination in the future because of availability; ease of production and dissemination; and potential for high morbidity and mortality and major health impact.

Category C agents include Nipah virus, hantaviruses, tickborne hemorrhagic fever viruses, tickborne encephalitis viruses, yellow fever and multi drug resistant tuberculosis.

(CDC. Preventing emerging infectious diseases: a strategy for the 21st century. Atlanta, Georgia: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1998)

Bioterrorism: In the past there have been only two known cases of Bio terrorism which have been extensively researched and analysed The incidents involving the Rajneesh cult and Aum Shinrikyo are well known. Aum's chief microbiologist died under mysterious circumstances, perhaps felled by one of his own experiments with biological agents.

History shows that terrorists are prone to copy each other. Since terrorist groups often strike without warning, we really do not know when and where a terrorist organization might strike after taking inspiration from the previous cases and the recent incidents relating to anthrax.

CIA director George Tenet on February 2,1999 is said to have made a statement that Bin Laden, was trying to acquire chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. His operatives are trained to conduct such attacks with toxic chemicals or biological toxins and there are indications he is seeking to obtain chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear weapons,

More details of involvement of Islamist terrorists, both Afghan and Arab Afghans under the guidance of Osama bin Laden and supervision of Pakistan have been reported in www.ipcs.org/issues/articles/489-ter-kapila.html

The points made in that paper include

* The ISI had established well fortified facilities in Kandahar in Afghanistan for production of chemical, bacteriological and radiological weapon (perhaps) too. This set-up was established in May 1998 with the acquisition of plant and machinery from Yugoslavia. This plant arrived via Pakistan with assistance of ISI.

* The first WMD base at Kandahar commenced training of terrorist operatives for biological and chemical weapons from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Egypt and the Gulf states there after.

* The second WMD base is reported to have been established at Zenica in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Terrorist operative training here was being imparted to first generation European Muslims convertees and second generation emigres from the Muslim world. Sources claim that chemical and biological weapons materials/samples have been obtained or purchased for relatively small amounts of money.

Russian sources indicate that the network members( bin Laden) have allegedly purchased pedals of anthrax from an East Asian country for $3695 and the lethal viral agent botulinum from a laboratory in the Czech Republic for $7500 a sample. Representatives of the Moro National Liberation Front in the Philippines, having close links to Al Qaida are also understood to have obtained anthrax from an Indonesian pharmaceutical company. Plague and Anthrax viruses have also been bought from arms dealers in Kazakhstan. (www.pircenter.org)

Why Anthrax ?: The question that would arise- why Anthrax is being chosen for Bio terrorism when so many other equally potent agents are available? The reasons are -It is dangerous, easily available with its low cost of production. It does not need advanced technology. Knowledge about anthrax relating to source, culturing, transportation and dispersion are widely available. It is easy to produce in large quantities and easy to weaponise. The most important feature is that it is extremely stable and can be stored almost indefinitely as a dry powder and the bacteria can multiply even in its dormant stage.

Anthrax bacteria (Bacillus anthracis) remain in a dormant state as spores and when it come in contact with skin lesion, or inhaled or in intestine, are activated as rod shaped bacteria, which cause cutaneous, pulmonary, intestinal anthrax disease. It mainly affects the hooved animals but a human being can also become its victim.

With the advance in technology ( genetic engineered and drug resistant strains of the biological agents) and the increase interest of the terrorists in biological weapons, there is need to pay greater attention to Bio terrorism and steps taken to prevent attacks of biological agents.

The history of biological warfare and the international protocol on preventing biological warfare are given in Appendix I & II.

Appendix I

The history of biological warfare : The table shows the evidence of the use of BW from historical times

Mediaeval Time
Scythian archers
dipped arrow heads in manure and rotting corpses to increase the deadline of weapons

1346
Crimean peninsula, B lack Sea and Italy.
catapults to hurl the plague-infested bodies

1518
Latin America
smallpox by Spanish

1710
war between Russia and Sweden
Russian troops used the cadavers of plague victims

1767
English general, Sir Jeffery Amherst
blankets infected with smallpox to Indians who are helping the French defend Fort Carillon.

1930s & 1940s
Japan
Fleas infected with plague in China and Manchuria

1942
Gruinard Island, Scotland
British conduct anthrax tests on sheep. Today, the uninhabited island is still believed to be infected with anthrax spores.

Nov. 25, 1969
U.S.
The entire U.S. arsenal is destroyed by 1973, except for seed stocks held for research purposes.

1979
Soviet city of Sverdlovsk
outbreak was caused by an accidental release of anthrax spores from a nearby suspected biological weapons facility

1980-88
Iran-Iraq war
Iraq was forced to halt its biological, chemical and nuclear weapons programmes. The U.N. Special Commission (UNSCOM) begins post-war inspections

1984
Rajneesh cult, USA
Salmonella typhimurium in salad bar poisoning

1993
Aum Shinrikyo cult, Japan
anthrax mist spray from the rooftop in Japan killing many.

Appendix II

Protocols that prohibit the use of chemical and biological weapons:

The Geneva Protocol of 1925 prohibits the use of biological or chemical weapons in warfare, but does not ban the research or production of these agents.

All the countries ratified it except USA and Japan.

Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) 1972: The treaty prohibits the research, development and production of offensive biological weapons. The treaty does allow defensive work in the area of biological weapons. The Soviet Union and the United States both ratify the pact. The BTWC entered into force in 1975: as of July 1999 it has 143 States Parties and 18 Signatory States. United Nations, List of States Parties to the Convention on the Prohibition of the development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction, BWC/AD HOC GROUP/INF. 20, 20 July 1999.

The Fifth Review Conference in this connection is to be held in November/December 2001.

The Convention for Biological Diversity which opened for signature at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 and in January 2000 to the agreement of the Cartagena Protocol on Bio-safety which includes provisions for advanced informed agreement prior to transborder movement of such genetically-modified organisms.

The Harvard-Sussex Programme initiative to prohibit chemical and biological weapons under international criminal law as a crime against humanity

A Draft Convention to Prohibit Biological and Chemical Weapons under International Criminal Law, CBW Conventions Bulletin, Issue No. 42, December 1998, pp.1-5.

"Rapid advances and diffusion of biotechnology, nanotechnology, and the materials sciences, moreover, will add to the capabilities of our adversaries to engage in biological warfare or bio-terrorism."

In January 2001, the US Department of Defense publication 6 "Proliferation: Threat and Response" in which the then Secretary of Defense said "At least 25 countries now possess -- or are in the process of acquiring and developing capabilities to inflict mass casualties and destruction: nuclear, biological and chemical weapons or the means to deliver them.

Biological weapons have been reflected in the NATO summits -- the Washington Summit communiquéissued on 24 April 1999 by the NATO. NATO, Washington Summit Communiqué, issued by the Heads of State and Government participating in the meeting of the North Atlantic Council in Washington, D.C. on 24th April 1999. Press Release NAC-S(99)64, 24 April 1999.
http://www.saag.org/papers4/paper342.html

Vancouver

12-06-2005, 03:36 PM

About Midhat Mursi, from http://www.rewardsforjustice.net
[
Midhat Mursi al-Sayid 'Umar AKA Abu Khabab al-Masri, is an explosives expert and poisons trainer working on behalf of al Qaeda.

He operated a terrorist training camp at Derunta, Afghanistan where he provided hundreds of mujahidin with hands on poisons and explosives training. Since 1999, he has proliferated training manuals that contain recipes for crude chemical and biological weapons. Some of these training manuals were recovered by U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

The exact whereabouts of Midhat Mursi al-Sayid 'Umar are unknown at this time, though he may be residing in Pakistan. It is highly probable that he continues to train al Qaeda terrorists and other extremists.
]
http://www.rewardsforjustice.net/images/wantedCaptured/Midhat_Mursi_al-Sayid_Umar.jpg

Vancouver

12-08-2005, 06:53 PM

Again about Midhat Mursi, he was put on the UN banned-entity list
http://www.un.org/Docs/sc/committees/1267/tablelist.htm#alqaedaind #194
in Sept. 2005, along with 6 others, out of a batch of 20 whom Egypt had nominated for the list. The seven proud new members are all Egyptian. Midhat has been wanted in the States since he ran away from the al-Qaeda training camp which he commanded, but the American interest in him, and apparently the Egyptian too, has increased since then.

Petronas

01-18-2006, 11:02 AM

'Only a matter of time before terrorists use weapons of mass destruction'
17/01/2006

Biological weapons pose a far more serious long-term terrorist threat to the West than nuclear weapons, according to Washington's leading counter-terrorism expert. And Henry "Hank" Crumpton, the newly-appointed head of counter-terrorism at the US State Department, believes that it is simply a matter of time before international terrorist groups such as al-Qa'eda acquire weapons of mass destruction and use them in attacks.

In an exclusive interview with The Daily Telegraph, Mr Crumpton, who previously spent 20 years working for the Central Intelligence Agency, warned yesterday that the "war on terror" was likely to last for decades. "This threat has changed the way we will fight wars in the future," he said. We are talking about micro targets such as al-Qa'eda which, when combined with WMD, have a macro impact. I rate the probability of terror groups using WMD [to attack Western targets] as very high. It is simply a question of time. And it is not just the nuclear threat that bothers me. I think, if anything, the biological threat is going to grow. As catastrophic as a nuclear attack would be, it would be self-contained. But if you look at a worst-case scenario for a biological attack, it would be difficult to determine whether or not it was a terrorist attack, and it would be far more difficult to contain."

After the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001, Mr Crumpton, who was then a senior CIA officer, played a leading role in the campaign to overthrow the Taliban and destroy al-Qa'eda's operational infrastructure in Afghanistan, which relied heavily on covert operations. After the war, allied forces found that al-Qa'eda had been working on anthrax programmes that it intended to use on western targets. "They had hired a very experienced biologist to work on this. They were very serious about it and there is no reason to believe they have given up on their interest."

The fear that terrorist groups might be able to acquire WMD from rogue states such as Iran or Syria explains Washington's determination to confront Iran over its nuclear programme. "If we look at the threat posed by Iran, they have links with Hizbollah [the Lebanese Shi'ite Muslim militia], which is a terrorist organisation with global reach, and they are actively pursuing WMD. And the leadership has made a conscious decision to defy international treaties. I am deeply troubled by this."

As for taking action to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, Mr Crumpton insisted that "every option is on the table" - including military action. "I would not rule out anything because of the particularly grave threat that we are facing," he said.

In a distinguished career with the CIA, during which he won four of the agency's highest awards, Mr Crumpton was a key figure in its covert operations against al-Qa'eda pre-September 11. Referred to simply as "Henry" in the 9/11 Commission Report, Mr Crumpton tried to persuade the CIA to do more in Afghanistan to hunt down Osama bin Laden before the attacks, but two key proposals to tackle al-Qa'eda were turned down.

After the September 11 attacks, in which he lost many close friends, he was initially overwhelmed by sorrow. "But that sorrow was soon replaced by anger, anger that al-Qa'eda could do this to innocent people - and the anger lasted for more than a year."

Mr Crumpton stresses the coalition's achievements in disrupting bin Laden's network. In his view, al-Qa'eda's infrastructure has been so badly damaged that it is now struggling to control the groups that would like to support it. "They can't communicate with their supporters unless the odd courier breaks through. They can't get access to money and things like that. We have made life very difficult for them."

But despite the initial success achieved during the Afghan war in 2001, he expressed disappointment with the support Washington had received from its European allies since hostilities ended. "The job was not finished and it is not finished now." Bin Laden, who escaped to Pakistan, was "in all probability" still alive, he said. The regime of President Assad in Syria also seriously threatens western security, he says. "The regime continues to support terror organisations. And we know that the Baathist leadership fled to Damascus taking with them money and terrorist expertise, and we cannot rule out the fact that some of that expertise related to WMD."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/01/17/whank17.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/01/17/ixworld.html

MohammedAli

01-18-2006, 11:49 AM

al-Canine

01-25-2006, 02:50 PM

Chemical weapons site tightens security

WHITE HALL, Arkansas (AP) -- The Army stepped up security at an arsenal where chemical weapons are stored after three people entered a restricted zone, officials said Wednesday.

The security measures were taken as a precaution at the Pine Bluff Arsenal after the intrusion at a forested federal preserve 30 miles south of Little Rock. Officials didn't know what the three people were doing there, spokeswoman Cheryl Avery said.

"We are still assessing the situation," Avery said. She wouldn't say when the people entered the property or if they had left.

The Arkansas Department of Emergency Management was notified of the intrusion but was given no indication of the seriousness of the incident, said spokeswoman Kathy Hedrick. Guards at the arsenal's gates were giving careful inspections to vehicles leaving the facility Wednesday morning.

Other than the enhanced security, operations were continuing as normal, officials said.

The Pine Bluff Arsenal stores 12 percent of the military's chemical weapons, which include nerve gas and mustard gas. It is the nation's second largest stockpile. The materials are being incinerated, and officials have said that will take about five years to complete.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/01/25/arsenal.security.ap/index.html

Petronas

01-25-2006, 05:06 PM

MohammedAli, you are mistaken. I have, with my own eyes, seen the reports on the results of tests on animals with biological and chemical weapons conducted in Al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan.

Petronas

01-29-2006, 01:29 PM

Full text posted under "Al Qaeda News". MohammedAli, you might be interested in reading this article.

Al Qaeda's Mad Scientist: The significance of Abu Khabab's death
01/19/2006 1:15:00 AM
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Utilities/printer_preview.asp?idArticle=6602&R=EAD81C077

Vancouver

01-29-2006, 03:03 PM

The American lawyer Ross Getman has done a lot of work studying the enthusiasm of the good doctor Zawahiri, and his friends, for chemical and biological weapons:
http://members.bellatlantic.net/~vze43v8m/newtableofconten.html

candypreet

01-30-2006, 08:30 AM

"Terorists racing to devlop nuclear, dirty bombs"
DAVOS, Jan. 27 (AP): It's only a matter of time before terrorists build dirty bomb or gather enough materials to build a nuclear weapon that could kill more than one million people, but the catastrophe is preventable, leaders said on Thursday at the World Economic Forum.

As weapons specialists gathered to discuss the prospects of terrorists building nuclear and dirty bombs, one of the panel's participants - Mohamed El Baradei, Director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, was called to an urgent meeting at this Swiss ski resort to talk about Iran's decision to pursue it nuclear programme despite international protests.

One way to keep materials out of the terrorists' hands is to lock up all the loose nuclear weapons, panel leaders said.

Another is to agree to a non-nuclear state. A third is to prevent countries from pursuing uranium enrichment that can be used to make a bomb, leaders said.

"That means no new national producton of highly enriched uranium from which a bomb could be made and that's the issue over Iran," said Grhaham Allison, former US Secretary of Defence under President Bill Clinton and a specialist in nuclear weapons.

When the Soviet Union dissolved, there were 22,000 nuclear tactical warheads that were allegedly all returned, but the possibility remains that some weren't, Allison said.

A small quantity of enriched uranium - about the size of a football - is all that's needed to kill up to a million people, leaders said.

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/001200601271144.htm

al-Canine

02-25-2006, 12:59 PM

Deadly ricin found in Texas dorm fell from a roll of quarters obtained from a "non-local" bank

http://www.wincoast.com/forum/showthread.php?t=27569

Petronas

03-27-2006, 10:11 AM

Growing Fears Over Rising Threat of Bioterrorism
27 Mar 06, 10:34

Police forces around the world are beginning to recognize bioterrorism as a serious threat despite skeptics who doubt that preventive measures are needed, the head of Interpol said Monday. Ronald K. Noble, secretary-general of the international police agency, warned of the danger of biological weapons during a workshop in Singapore for police and other officials from across Asia. Experts say a bioterrorist attack could be difficult to immediately detect and germs could be carried unnoticed by infected victims across continents.

"Some people still question whether the threat of bioterrorism is real, they question whether it is truly necessary to prepare for it. I have no doubt that the threat is real," Noble said. "If we have the chance to take measures to protect the citizens of our nations, to help reduce the chances of our countries of becoming a target, then we have a duty to do so," he said. "Police around the world are now also beginning to recognize and respond to this threat."

Lyon, France-based Interpol is hosting the three-day workshop on lab security, forensic work and laws to prevent bioterrorism. Nearly 80 delegates from 26 countries in Asia will also assess how to respond to a simulated bioterrorist attack.

At a separate seminar, a U.S. official said Washington considers naturally occurring or genetically engineered pathogens -- micro-organisms or viruses that cause disease -- one of the greatest global threats because they could kill hundreds of thousands of people. "Terrorists or hostile states intentionally changing the genetic design of a pathogen such that it can defeat our current defenses, this was seen as a major threat," said James Thomas, principal author of the Quadrennial Defense Review, a key U.S. Defense Department policy paper. Thomas said the Defense Department might invest in defenses against genetically engineered pathogens, with the possibility that these solutions could also stem broader health problems such as bird flu.

At the Interpol event, Ho Peng Kee, Singapore's senior minister of state for law and home affairs, urged law enforcement agencies to coordinate efforts to ward off the threat of an attack with biological agents or toxins. "We may not realize that a biological attack has occurred until perhaps days or even weeks later," Ho said. "By that time, the terrorist may already have fled the country or succumbed to the biological agent, and all the valuable investigative leads may have disappeared."

So far, militants in Southeast Asia have used conventional terror weapons. Jemaah Islamiyah, a group linked to al-Qaida, is accused of deadly bombings. The Abu Sayyaf group has carried out bomb attacks and kidnappings in the Philippines. But detained suspects include Yazid Sufaat, a former Malaysian army captain and a U.S.-trained biochemist linked to al-Qaida's attempts to produce chemical and biological arms. A Jemaah Islamiyah manual discovered in the Philippines in 2003 indicates interest in acquiring chemical and biological agents for use in a terrorist attack, terrorism experts say.

Singapore, a close U.S. ally, views its 2003 fight against SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, as preparation for a bioterrorist attack. The city-state carried out temperature tests on citizens as well as measures such as home quarantine. The disease spread from Asia across the world, killing nearly 800 people.(AP)

http://www.naharnet.com/domino/tn/NewsDesk.nsf/getstory?openform&044634FECC319B75C225713E002EFD06

al-Canine

03-27-2006, 10:49 AM

Despite 9/11 Effect, Railyards Are Still Vulnerable

By DAVID KOCIENIEWSKI

NEWARK — Two signs just inside the entrance of the Oak Island rail depot here hint at dangers inside. "Our Employees' Safety Is in Your Hands." one reads. "You Are Accountable for Your Safety," reads another.

Beyond those two placards, however, there are few visible signs that security is a high priority at the railyard, just three miles from downtown Newark and seven miles from Manhattan, where 90-ton tanker cars full of deadly chemical gases are routinely stored and shipped.

Gates to the depot are unlocked and unguarded, allowing unimpeded access to tracks where cars loaded with deadly chlorine, ammonia or oleum gases are stored.

Along the track bed, many switching devices are unlocked, so unauthorized passers-by could redirect, and possibly derail, a train by simply pulling a lever. Security is so lax that a reporter and photographer recently spent 10 minutes driving along a rail bed beside cars holding toxic chemicals without being challenged, or even approached, by railroad employees.

In the years since the 9/11 attacks, public concern about a potential terrorist strike at one of the nation's chemical plants has caused federal and local officials to inch toward tighter safeguards at manufacturing and processing plants. On Tuesday, in a speech before the American Chemistry Council, Michael Chertoff, secretary of homeland security, said he would ask Congress to adopt a series of chemical plant security measures that have largely been endorsed by the industry.

Even if the chemical plants are secure, the public could be left vulnerable by the railways running in and out of many of them. The railways transport more than 1.7 million shipments of hazardous materials every year, including 100,000 tank cars filled with toxic gases like chlorine and anhydrous ammonia.

According to a recent study by the Navy, an accident or terrorist attack involving a single car of chlorine near a densely populated area could kill as many as 100,000 people.

In New Jersey, where so many chemical factories and refineries are crowded near major population centers, including a stretch near Newark Liberty International Airport that has been called "the most dangerous two miles in America," the difficulty of managing that potentially deadly cargo is particularly complex.

Since 9/11, railroads have spent millions to install fences and security cameras and add additional officers around the state, but industry officials concede that their facilities are far too large to be completely sealed. Leaders of railroad workers' unions say it is not uncommon for tanker cars to be left unattended for days, and that security along the rails is frighteningly inadequate. And the sight of graffiti-covered tank cars filled with deadly gases is a reminder of the holes in the security system.

State and local officials say they are limited in what they can do to regulate the thousands of tank cars of deadly gases hauled around New Jersey each year. In other cities and states, proposals to reroute dangerous chemicals away from major population centers, most notably in Washington, D.C., have faced fierce opposition and legal challenges from both the railroads and local communities where the chemicals would be rerouted. The courts have also upheld the railroads' assertion that only the federal government can regulate rail traffic.

The Homeland Security Department has been reluctant to tighten regulations regarding the transportation of deadly chemicals by rail. In his speech last week, Mr. Chertoff made only passing reference to the risks of transporting the deadly cargo, and there is no indication that the department will require the kind of changes in equipment and procedures that security experts say will reduce the risk of a terrorist attack or catastrophic accident.

"Chemical transport is clearly the greatest vulnerability in the country today, and for some reason — and I'm not sure what it is — the federal government has not acted," said Richard A. Falkenrath, President Bush's former deputy homeland security adviser. "There's no legislation necessary, the government already has the authority to require stronger containers, reroute shipments, and allow the kind of tracking that would allow local police agencies to know what they have to contend with in their communities. But to date it hasn't been done."

The risks involved in moving toxic rail cargo are a particular concern in New Jersey. Last fall, it became the first state to enact regulations intended to deter terror attacks on chemical plants by requiring companies to explore the feasibility of switching to safer technologies.

Because many of the railyards in New Jersey are near petroleum storage tanks, natural-gas depots, or propane tanks, the effect of an attack on a rail car is likely to be magnified, said Paul DeMatteis, a security analyst at Global Security Risk Management, a corporate security company.

When Gov. Jon S. Corzine was still in the United States Senate, he helped write federal legislation to tighten safety standards for both chemical plants and the railroads that supply them.

Since being sworn in as governor two months ago, Mr. Corzine has earmarked $20 million to strengthen security around New Jersey's critical highways, rail links and bridges against possible terror attacks, and vowed to strengthen safeguards at railway chemical depots and plants around the state.

The vulnerability of the rail lines has even undercut some of New Jersey officials' progress in making chemical plants safer. Last fall, owners of the Keene Chemical plant in Kearney agreed to reduce their stockpiles of chlorine by keeping no more than one tanker car of chlorine on the premises at a time. That policy means that tanker cars that were once stored in the moderately guarded chemical plant will spend more time waiting on less secure railway sidings.

"It's this shell game," said Rick Engler, director of the New Jersey Work Environment Council, a union group that has lobbied for an assortment of restrictions on toxic chemicals. "But shifting around the problem doesn't solve the problem."

Railroad officials say their self-imposed security measures have provided a web of security far more effective and sophisticated than that in virtually any other industry. Peggy Wilhide, spokeswoman for the Association of American Railroads, said that major rail carriers have spent more than $200 million since 9/11 on security measures, including fences and motion detectors, training, high-tech scanning devices, and tracking to monitor the shipment of some dangerous cargo.

After two accidental derailments in 2004 and 2005 caused toxic chemical releases that killed 12 people and injured hundreds, the railroads have also been considering a requirement that chemical companies replace their aging tankers with a newer, more highly reinforced generation of cars, Ms. Wilhide said.

Ms. Wilhide said that the industry opposed the plan to reroute shipments because it would actually increase the chance of an accident by forcing trains to haul the tankers full of toxic chemicals for longer distances, over older, less well-maintained rails.

Homeland Security Department officials have praised the rail carriers' cooperation, saying the railroads have moved responsibly to bolster the security of their facilities and to give law enforcement officials the information needed to develop a real-time tracking system for the most dangerous toxic rail cars. Homeland Security officials are also working with the railroads and the federal Department of Transportation to devise buffer zone protection plans to provide security near the most perilous rail sites.

But the Homeland Security Department has not embraced calls to reroute trains carrying toxics or require that chemical companies update their fleet of tank cars.

Brian Doyle, a Homeland Security Department spokesman, said it wanted to complete a thorough assessment of the system before imposing any restrictions on the railways. "It's one thing to just throw money at something and say it is fixed," he said. "But you want to do it right." In his speech on Tuesday, Mr. Chertoff said the department supported the one policy that local communities, environmental advocates and the railroads all agree on — that chemical plants and manufacturers should be urged to adopt processes that reduce, or eliminate, the need for toxic chemicals like chlorine and ammonia.

But the department will not require any shift to safer technology, Mr. Chertoff said, and the chemical security bill he is now advocating is likely to prevent states from adopting any such requirement.

In Spotswood, N.J., about 17 miles northeast of Princeton, many residents were startled to learn in the months after 9/11 that their community was home to a plant that had enough chlorine on hand kill as many as 960,000 people if an accident or terrorist attack caused it to be released and carried on the wind. Local officials worked with the company, Schweitzer-Mauduit, which makes cigarette papers, to tighten its security procedures and adopt more sophisticated plans for evacuation, detection and cleanup.

Bill Foust, a spokesman for the company, said switching to new technology that would eliminate the need for chlorine would be too expensive.

Barry H. Zagnit, mayor of Spotswood, said that despite the continuing risks, he could understand why company officials did not feel the investment was warranted.

"You have a mill that's our largest employer, our largest taxpayer," he said. "It's essential to the economy of the borough. "We certainly would never want to see Schweitzer move the plant," he said. "That would have a devastating effect on the borough, where people are already saddled with high property taxes."

A similar political struggle has been simmering in Paulsboro in South Jersey, where the Valero refinery has enough toxic hydrofluoric acid on hand at one time to create an airborne plume 19 miles long that could affect as many as three million people, according to a study by the Work Environmental Council based on federal Environmental Protection Agency data.

The company has spent more than $5 million on bolstering security since 9/11, according to its spokeswoman, and has several systems designed to dissipate toxic gases in the event of a discharge. But Valero officials have resisted demands that they move to a process that would not use hydrofluoric acid, saying that it would be unworkable.

Steven M. Sweeney, the state senator whose district includes the Valero plant and at least three others that use large amounts of toxic gases, said that unless the state and federal governments intercede, little will be done to make communities like his safer.

"In Fieldsboro, there are a few trains a week that roll through town, 125 cars long; at least 80 of them are the kind of toxic chemicals that could cause a catastrophe, just devastate a community," he said. "Anyone who feels safe is living in a dream world."

Copyright 2006The New York Times Company

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/27/nyregion/27secure.html?

candypreet

03-27-2006, 09:58 PM

good posts here

candypreet

04-01-2006, 09:35 AM

Pakistan’s first DNA lab set up

By Shahzad Raza

ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao on Friday inaugurated a DNA testing laboratory that would help law enforcement and intelligence agencies in their fight against domestic terrorism and crime.

“The government is committed to making the latest DNA testing technology available to law enforcement agencies,” Sherpao said, while inaugurating the DNA laboratory that has been established by the National Police Bureau (NPB).

He said that the lab was a major step in the ongoing efforts of the interior ministry to better equip police and law enforcement agencies in their fight against crime.

He said that DNA technology was the most remarkable crime-fighting tool of the 21st century and was being used in all developed countries. He said that in recent years, scientific development had increased public awareness about the use of DNA evidence in civil and criminal cases. Most of the lab equipment that would be used for identification and profiling has been donated by the Chinese government. The Institute of Forensic Sciences of China’s Ministry of Public Security has also trained two Pakistani scientists in using the DNA technology. Sherpao said that the lab was another testimonial to the friendship between Pakistan and China. “We are extremely grateful to the government and the people of China and shall be looking forward to continuing cooperation and support in our future endeavours,” he said.

Interior Secretary Syed Kamal Shah said that use of forensic DNA technology to associate individuals with crimes, had brought a revolution in solving crimes. “Forensic DNA now has the ability to prove the guilt or innocence of an individual even when the suspect is unknown to the victim,” Shah said.

Zhang Chunxing, the Chinese ambassador to Pakistan, said that his country valued its relations with Pakistan. He said that Chinese cooperation to Pakistan would continue in future. Muhammad Shoaib Suddle, director general of the NPB, thanked the minister and secretary for their support in establishing the lab.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006%5C04%5C01%5Cstory_1-4-2006_pg11_10

Petronas

04-02-2006, 10:53 AM

A Dry Run for Handling a Disaster in the City Railyards
Published: March 27, 2006

How would New York City respond if a bomb filled with arsenic trichloride, a highly toxic liquid compound, were to explode on a freight train moving through a Queens railyard — just when a commuter train carrying weekend passengers was traveling in the other direction? Emergency workers carry away an actor posing as a victim. The scenario involved a bomb with toxic chemicals exploding next to a commuter train.

Emergency workers would rush in, try to determine what threat was involved and begin decontaminating the dozens of wounded. A temporary morgue would be set up to receive the dead — estimated at 28, including two of the rescuers. That nightmarish situation was the basis for a four-hour simulation yesterday involving 1,500 police officers, firefighters and other emergency workers and tested the city's ability to respond to a chemical emergency, though not necessarily a terrorist attack. The Office of Emergency Management planned the field exercise, named Trifecta because it emphasized three activities: search and rescue, victim identification and handling of the dead.

Despite the grim nature of the exercise — the casualties would have included 74 injured — the commissioner of emergency management, Joseph F. Bruno, said it demonstrated the effectiveness of the Citywide Incident Management System, a protocol that governs how various city agencies are to interact during a major emergency. "I'm happy and I'm actually a little surprised that it worked as well as it did," Mr. Bruno said at an afternoon news conference, after most of the exercise had been completed. A critical element of the response plan gives the Police Department overall command of the city's emergency agencies in most major disasters, at least until the possibility of terrorism has been ruled out. The Fire Department had sought control of several types of situations, including those that involve hazardous materials.

The plan, which took effect under an executive order signed last April by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, was prepared after a lengthy examination of poor coordination and communication among city agencies, particularly the Police and Fire Departments, during the terrorist attack of Sept. 11, 2001. Yesterday was the first major field test of that agreement. Police commanders set up a "unified command," which provided for top officials from the police, fire, health, environmental protection and other departments to make joint decisions. "It's a matter of respecting their core competencies," Mr. Bruno said.

Although police and fire officials clashed during the formation of the plan, leaders from both sides said yesterday that it was effective. "I think CIMS is clearly the way to go, and I believe it's been accepted by all the agencies," Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said. Frank P. Cruthers, first deputy commissioner at the Fire Department, said the test was "a very realistic exercise" and added, "The level of cooperation was terrific."

The exercise, financed by $700,000 from the federal Department of Homeland Security, began with a mock explosion at 10 a.m. in the railyard at Maspeth, Queens, an industrial neighborhood dominated by factories and warehouses. The New York & Atlantic Railway provided the freight train for the exercise, while the Metropolitan Transportation Authority supplied a Long Island Rail Road passenger train. Several federal and state agencies participated, as did nonprofit groups including the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army.

The Fire Department was the first to respond after the simulated explosion, followed by the Police and Environmental Protection Departments. "When you look at this incident, it seemed at first to move very slowly in the beginning," Mr. Bruno said afterward. "That's just the way it has to. We do not know if there are other explosive devices here. We do not know the nature of the chemical." Once the various officials evaluated the danger, he said, they made "good, crisp decisions."

Mr. Bruno said the exercise proceeded with only a few glitches. At one point, he said, a centralized operations post had to be separated from the command post because "there was too much confusion." Since 9/11, the city has had other drills involving the premise of a terrorist attack, including one at Shea Stadium in March 2004 and another at the Bowling Green subway station, in Lower Manhattan, in May 2004.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/27/nyregion/27test.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Petronas

04-19-2006, 03:37 PM

No indication of foul play here, though one would most likely not know yet for the first case even when a biological atttack happens.

Rare bubonic plague case reported in Los Angeles
Apr 18 6:14 PM US/Eastern

A case of bubonic plague has been reported in the second largest US city of Los Angeles for the first time in 22 years, health officials said. An unidentified woman came down last week with symptoms of the disease, known as the Black Death when it devastatingly swept across Europe in the 14th century. Health officials said they believed the infected woman, who remains hospitalised, was exposed to fleas in the area around her house and stressed that the likelihood of a spread of the rare disease was very unlikely. ...

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/04/18/060418221440.ge1hwj2v.html

al-Canine

07-30-2006, 12:07 PM

The Secretive Fight Against Bioterror

The government is building a highly classified facility to research biological weapons, but its closed-door approach has raised concerns.

By Joby Warrick | Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, July 30, 2006

On the grounds of a military base an hour's drive from the capital, the Bush administration is building a massive biodefense laboratory unlike any seen since biological weapons were banned 34 years ago.

The heart of the lab is a cluster of sealed chambers built to contain the world's deadliest bacteria and viruses. There, scientists will spend their days simulating the unthinkable: bioterrorism attacks in the form of lethal anthrax spores rendered as wispy powders that can drift for miles on a summer breeze, or common viruses turned into deadly superbugs that ordinary drugs and vaccines cannot stop.

The work at this new lab, at Fort Detrick, Md., could someday save thousands of lives -- or, some fear, create new risks and place the United States in violation of international treaties. In either case, much of what transpires at the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center (NBACC) may never be publicly known, because the Bush administration intends to operate the facility largely in secret.

In an unusual arrangement, the building itself will be classified as highly restricted space, from the reception desk to the lab benches to the cages where animals are kept. Few federal facilities, including nuclear labs, operate with such stealth. It is this opacity that some arms-control experts say has become a defining characteristic of U.S. biodefense policy as carried out by the Department of Homeland Security, NBACC's creator.

Since the department's founding in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, its officials have dramatically expanded the government's ability to conduct realistic tests of the pathogens and tactics that might be used in a bioterrorism attack. Some of the research falls within what many arms-control experts say is a legal gray zone, skirting the edges of an international treaty outlawing the production of even small amounts of biological weapons.

The administration dismisses these concerns, however, insisting that the work of NBACC is purely defensive and thus fully legal. It has rejected calls for oversight by independent observers outside the department's network of government scientists and contractors. And it defends the secrecy as necessary to protect Americans.

"Where the research exposes vulnerability, I've got to protect that, for the public's interest," said Bernard Courtney, NBACC's scientific director. "We don't need to be showing perpetrators the holes in our defense."

Tara O'Toole, founder of the Center for Biosecurity at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and an adviser to the Defense Department on bioterrorism, said the secrecy fits a larger pattern and could have consequences. "The philosophy and practice behind NBACC looks like much of the rest of the administration's philosophy and practice: 'Our intent is good, so we can do whatever we want,' " O'Toole said. "This approach will only lead to trouble."

Although they acknowledge the need to shield the results of some sensitive projects from public view, critics of NBACC fear that excessive secrecy could actually increase the risk of bioterrorism. That would happen, they say, if the lab fosters ill-designed experiments conducted without proper scrutiny or if its work fuels suspicions that could lead other countries to pursue secret biological research.

The few public documents that describe NBACC's research mission have done little to quiet those fears. A computer slide show prepared by the center's directors in 2004 offers a to-do list that suggests the lab will be making and testing small amounts of weaponized microbes and, perhaps, genetically engineered viruses and bacteria. It also calls for "red team" exercises that simulate attacks by hostile groups.

NBACC's close ties to the U.S. intelligence community have also caused concern among the agency's critics. The CIA has assigned advisers to the lab, including at least one member of the "Z-Division," an elite group jointly operated with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory that specializes in analyzing and duplicating weapons systems of potential adversaries, officials familiar with the program confirm.

Bioweapons experts say the nature of the research envisioned for NBACC demands an unusually high degree of transparency to reassure Americans and the rest of the world of the U.S. government's intentions.

"If we saw others doing this kind of research, we would view it as an infringement of the bioweapons treaty," said Milton Leitenberg, a senior research scholar and weapons expert at the University of Maryland's School of Public Policy. "You can't go around the world yelling about Iranian and North Korean programs -- about which we know very little -- when we've got all this going on."

Creating the Weapons of Terrorism

Created without public fanfare a few months after the 2001 anthrax attacks, NBACC is intended to be the chief U.S. biological research institution engaged in something called "science-based threat assessment." It seeks to quantitatively answer one of the most difficult questions in biodefense: What's the worst that can happen?

To truly answer that question, there is little choice, current and former NBACC officials say: Researchers have to make real biological weapons.

"De facto, we are going to make biowarfare pathogens at NBACC in order to study them," said Penrose "Parney" Albright, former Homeland Security assistant secretary for science and technology.

Other government agencies, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, study disease threats such as smallpox to discover cures. By contrast, NBACC (pronounced EN-back) attempts to get inside the head of a bioterrorist. It considers the wide array of potential weapons available. It looks for the holes in society's defenses where an attacker might achieve the maximum harm. It explores the risks posed by emerging technologies, such as new DNA synthesizing techniques that allow the creation of genetically altered or man-made viruses. And it tries in some cases to test the weapon or delivery device that terrorists might use.

Research at NBACC is already underway, in lab space that has been outsourced or borrowed from the Army's sprawling biodefense campus at Fort Detrick in Frederick. It was at this compound that the U.S. government researched and produced offensive biological weapons from the 1940s until President Richard M. Nixon halted research in 1969. The Army continues to conduct research on pathogens there.

In June, construction began on a $128 million, 160,000-square-foot facility inside the same heavily guarded compound. Space inside the eight-story, glass-and-brick structure will be divided between NBACC's two major divisions: a forensic testing center tasked with using modern sleuthing techniques to identify the possible culprits in future biological attacks; and the Biothreat Characterization Center, or BTCC, which seeks to predict what such attacks will look like.

It is the BTCC's wing that will host the airtight, ultra-secure containment labs where the most controversial research will be done. Homeland Security officials won't talk about specific projects planned or underway. But the 2004 computer slide show -- posted briefly on a Homeland Security Web site before its discovery by agency critics prompted an abrupt removal -- offers insight into NBACC's priorities.

The presentation by NBACC's then-deputy director, Lt. Col. George Korch, listed 16 research priorities for the new lab. Among them:

"Characterize classical, emerging and genetically engineered pathogens for their BTA potential.

"Assess the nature of nontraditional, novel and nonendemic induction of disease from potential BTA.

"Expand aerosol-challenge testing capacity for non-human primates.

"Apply Red Team operational scenarios and capabilities."

Courtney, the NBACC science director, acknowledged that his work would include simulating real biological threats -- but not just any threats.

"If I hear a noise on the back porch, will I turn on the light to decide whether there's something there, or go on my merry way?" Courtney asked. "But I'm only going to do [research] if I have credible information that shows it truly is a threat. It's not going to be dreamed up out of the mind of a novelist."

Administration officials note that there is a tradition for this kind of biological risk assessment, one that extends at least to the Clinton administration. In the late 1990s, for example, a clandestine project run by the Defense Department re-created a genetically modified, drug-resistant strain of the anthrax bacteria believed to have been made by Soviet bioweaponeers. Such research helped the government anticipate and prepare for emerging threats, according to officials familiar with the anthrax study.

Some arms-control experts see the comparison as troubling. They argued, then and now, that the work was a possible breach of a U.S.-negotiated international law.

[b]Legal and Other Pitfalls

The Bush administration argues that its biodefense research complies with the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention, the 1972 treaty outlawing the manufacture of biological weapons, because U.S. motives are pure.

"All the programs we do are defensive in nature," said Maureen McCarthy, Homeland Security's director of research and development, who oversees NBACC. "Our job is to ensure that the civilian population of the country is protected, and that we know what the threats are."

Current and former administration officials say that compliance with the treaty hinges on intent, and that making small amounts of biowarfare pathogens for study is permitted under a broad interpretation of the treaty. Some also argue that the need for a strong biodefense in an age of genetic engineering trumps concerns over what they see as legal hair-splitting.

"How can I go to the people of this country and say, 'I can't do this important research because some arms-control advocate told me I can't'?" asked Albright, the former Homeland Security assistant secretary.

But some experts in international law believe that certain experiments envisioned for the lab could violate the treaty's ban on developing, stockpiling, acquiring or retaining microbes "of types and in quantities that have no justification" for peaceful purposes.

"The main problem with the 'defensive intent' test is that it does not reflect what the treaty actually says," said David Fidler, an Indiana University School of Law professor and expert on the bioweapons convention. The treaty, largely a U.S. creation, does not make a distinction between defensive and offensive activities, Fidler said.

More practically, arms experts say, future U.S. governments may find it harder to object if other countries test genetically engineered pathogens and novel delivery systems, invoking the same need for biodefense.

Already, they say, there is evidence abroad of what some are calling a "global biodefense boom." In the past five years, numerous governments, including some in the developing world -- India, China and Cuba among them -- have begun building high-security labs for studying the most lethal bacteria and viruses.

"These labs have become a status symbol, a prestige item," said Alan Pearson, a biologist at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation. "A big question is: Will these labs have transparency?"

Secrecy May Have a Price

When it opens in two years, the NBACC lab will house an impressive collection of deadly germs and teams of scientists in full-body "spacesuits" to work with them. It will also have large aerosol-test chambers where animals will be exposed to deadly microbes. But the lab's most controversial feature may be its secrecy.

Homeland Security officials disclosed plans to contractors and other government agencies to classify the entire lab as a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility, or SCIF.

In common practice, a SCIF (pronounced "skiff") is a secure room where highly sensitive information is stored and discussed. Access to SCIFs is severely limited, and all of the activity and conversation inside is presumed to be restricted from public disclosure. There are SCIFs in the U.S. Capitol, where members of Congress are briefed on military secrets. In U.S. nuclear labs, computers that store weapons data are housed inside SCIFs.

Homeland Security officials plan to operate all 160,000 square feet of NBACC as a SCIF. Because of the building's physical security features -- intended to prevent the accidental release of dangerous pathogens -- it was logical to operate it as a SCIF, McCarthy said.

"We need to protect information at a level that is appropriate," McCarthy added, saying she expects much of the lab's less-sensitive work to be made public eventually.

But some biodefense experts, including some from past administrations, viewed the decision as a mistake.

"To overlay NBACC with a default level of high secrecy seems like overkill," said Gerald L. Epstein, a former science adviser to the White House's National Security Council and now a senior fellow with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. While accepting that some secrecy is needed, he said the NBACC plan "sends a message that is not at all helpful."

NBACC officials also have resisted calls for the kind of broad, independent oversight that many experts say is necessary to assure other countries and the American public about their research.

Homeland Security spokesmen insist that NBACC's work will be carefully monitored, but on the department's terms.

"We have our own processes to scrutinize our research, and it includes compliance to the bioweapons convention guidelines as well as scientific oversight," said Courtney, the NBACC scientific director.

In addition to the department's internal review boards, the agency will bring in small groups of "three or four scientists" on an ad-hoc basis to review certain kinds of potentially controversial experiments, Courtney said. The review panels will be "independent," Courtney said, but he noted that only scientists with government security clearances will be allowed to participate.

Some experts have called for unusual forms of oversight, including panels of well-respected, internationally known scientists and observers from overseas. While allowing that the results of some experiments should be kept confidential, O'Toole, of the Center for Biosecurity, argues that virtually everything else at NBACC should be publicly accountable if the United States is to be a credible leader in preventing the proliferation of bioweapons.

"We're going to have to lean over backward," O'Toole said. "We have no leverage among other nation-states if we say, 'We can do whatever we want, but you can't. We want to see your biodefense program, but you can't see ours.' "

In recent weeks, NBACC's first officially completed project has drawn criticism, not because of its methods or procedures, but because heavy classification has limited its usefulness.

The project was an ambitious attempt to assess and rank the threats posed by dozens of different pathogens and delivery systems, drawing on hundreds of studies and extensive computer modeling. When delivered to the White House in January, it was the most extensive survey of its kind, and one that could guide the federal government in making decisions about biodefense spending.

Six months later, no one outside a small group of officials and advisers with top security clearances has seen the results.

"Something this important shouldn't be secret," said Thomas V. Inglesby, an expert at the Center for Biosecurity who serves on a government advisory board that was briefed on the results. "How can we make policy decisions about matters of this scale if we're operating in the dark?"

The Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/29/AR2006072900592.html?)

al-Canine

10-31-2006, 09:43 AM

Suspect and A Setback In Al-Qaeda Anthrax Case

Scientist With Ties To Group Goes Free

By Joby Warrick
Washington Post | Tuesday, October 31, 2006

In December 2001, as the investigation into the U.S. anthrax attacks was gathering steam, coalition soldiers in Afghanistan uncovered what appeared to be an important clue: a trail of documents chronicling an attempt by al-Qaeda to create its own anthrax weapon.

The documents told of a singular mission by a scientist named Abdur Rauf, an obscure, middle-aged Pakistani with alleged al-Qaeda sympathies and an advanced degree in microbiology.

Using his membership in a prestigious scientific organization to gain access, Rauf traveled through Europe on a quest, officials say, to obtain both anthrax spores and the equipment needed to turn them into highly lethal biological weapons. He reported directly to al-Qaeda's No. 2 commander, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and in one document he appeared to signal a breakthrough.

"I successfully achieved the targets," he wrote cryptically to Zawahiri in a note in 1999.

Precisely what Rauf achieved may never be known with certainty. That's because U.S. officials remain stymied in their nearly five-year quest to bring charges against a man who they say admitted serving as a top consultant to al-Qaeda on anthrax -- a claim that makes him one of a handful of people linked publicly to the group's effort to wage biological warfare against Western targets.

Rauf, 47, has been under scrutiny in Pakistan since he was detained there for questioning in late 2001, according to U.S. and Pakistani officials who agreed to talk about the case for the first time. But officially he remains free, and Pakistan now says it has no grounds for arrest. Last year, in an acknowledgment of the impasse in its four-year joint investigation with Pakistan, the FBI officially put the case on inactive status.

"We will never close the door, but the chances of getting him into the United States are slim to none," said one U.S. intelligence official, who, like others, agreed to discuss the case on the condition that he not be identified by name.

The documents that first revealed Rauf's role were part of a large stack of papers discovered in a house after coalition forces overran an al-Qaeda base in Kandahar, in southern Afghanistan. He emerges from documents and interviews as one of the most intriguing, and in some ways most troubling, figures in an international investigation into al-Qaeda's biological weapons program.

With the evidence against Rauf, some U.S. officials say they are perplexed about why Pakistani authorities have refused to further pursue him, while acknowledging that the case presents both legal and political difficulties for Pakistan.

To terrorism experts, Rauf is a symbol of a dangerous convergence: a marriage of militancy and technical expertise that could someday yield new kinds of highly lethal weapons to be used against civilians.

"He was someone who at least understood the professional procedures and methods," said Milton Leitenberg, an expert on biological weapons with the University of Maryland's Center for International and Security Studies who reviewed the seized documents. "In theory, if he went in the laboratory and tried and tried, maybe he could have gotten it right."

Exactly how far al-Qaeda progressed with Rauf's help is not publicly known. No one has turned up any links between his work and the U.S. anthrax attacks, in which spores were mailed in letters to news organizations and U.S. Senate offices. Coalition forces discovered rudimentary laboratories in Kandahar but no evidence of bioweapons production. Yet both the White House and a presidential commission have hinted at additional findings suggesting that the terrorists were much further along than was first thought.

Last year's presidential commission on intelligence failures, led by retired judge Laurence H. Silberman and former senator Charles S. Robb (D-Va.), described al-Qaeda's biological program as "extensive" and "well-organized," particularly with regard to "Agent X," a pathogen that terrorism experts say was almost certainly anthrax.

"Al-Qaeda had acquired several biological agents possibly as early as 1999, and the necessary equipment to enable limited, basic production of Agent X," the commission said.

U.S. officials are even more reticent in discussing possible links between al-Qaeda's anthrax program and the 2001 U.S. attacks, which killed five people and briefly shut down the U.S. Capitol. Privately, FBI officials doubt that such a link exists. They note that the attacks came with an explicit warning -- a letter advising the victims to take penicillin, resulting in a far lower death toll -- but without an explicit claim of responsibility. "It doesn't fit with al-Qaeda's modus operandi," one intelligence official said.

Yet U.S. officials have been unable to rule out al-Qaeda or any other group as a suspect. Earlier this month, FBI officials acknowledged that the ultra-fine powder mailed five years ago was simply made and could have been produced by a well-trained microbiologist anywhere in the world.

Several leading bioterrorism experts still contend that the evidence points to al-Qaeda or possibly an allied group that coordinated its attack with the Sept. 11, 2001, strikes on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. These experts point to hijacker Mohamed Atta's inquiries into renting a crop-duster aircraft and to an unexplained emergency-room visit by another hijacker, Ahmed Ibrahim A. Al Haznawi, for treatment of an unusual skin lesion that resembled cutaneous anthrax.

Whether or not al-Qaeda was involved, U.S. officials and bioterrorism experts agree on this: The alliance between the terrorist group and a little-known Pakistani scientist could have yielded disastrous results in time.

The Quest for Anthrax

For all his expertise, Rauf was hardly the ideal candidate for helping al-Qaeda realize its ambition of making biological weapons.

The tall, thin and bespectacled scientist held a doctorate in microbiology but specialized in food production, according to U.S. officials familiar with the case. He had to learn about anthrax and other bioterrorism agents as he went along, slowing his progress considerably.

"He could potentially do a great deal of harm because of his knowledge and skills," said one U.S. intelligence expert connected with the case. "On the other hand, he lacked the specific knowledge and training al-Qaeda needed most."

Exactly how he became acquainted with Zawahiri remains unclear. Rauf worked at the prestigious Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research in his home town of Lahore, and officials speculate that he may have crossed paths professionally with Zawahiri, a physician.

In any case, captured documents suggest a close collaboration between the two men as they sought equipment for a bioweapons lab.

"I hope my letter will find you in the best of health and circumstances by the God Almighty," Rauf writes to Zawahiri in one of three intercepted notes.

The heavily redacted notes and other documents were obtained from the Defense Department through the Freedom of Information Act after they were first described in the journal Science in a 2003 article by three researchers at the National Defense University. Rauf's name was redacted, but U.S. and Pakistani officials confirmed his authorship in interviews with The Washington Post. Rauf's name was first publicly associated with the documents by Ross Getman, a New York lawyer who maintains a Web site devoted to the 2001 anthrax attacks.

Rauf was a member of the Society for Applied Microbiology, an international professional organization based in Britain, and he appears to have used his membership to make contacts and arrange visits related to his quest. One note from Rauf was handwritten on the group's stationery, apparently while he was attending a 1999 scientific conference at Porton Down, Britain's premier biodefense research center in the southern city of Wiltshire.

Rauf, who writes to Zawahiri in occasionally faltering English, admits in one note to several setbacks. For starters, he had found a supplier who could sell him Bacillus anthracis -- the bacterium that causes anthrax -- but it was a harmless strain incapable of killing anyone.

"Unfortunately, I did not find the required culture of B. anthrax -- i.e., pathogenic," he writes to Zawahiri. He then describes a new attempt to acquire a lethal strain from a different lab.

In a later note he is more upbeat, telling his patron he had "successfully achieved the targets" and had "tried to solve technical problems of our work." He ticked off a list of items he had acquired or arranged to purchase, including respirators, a fermenter used for growing bacteria and vaccines to protect lab workers against accidental exposure.

Rauf also describes an unusual visit -- apparently as the guest of another scientist -- to a high-containment biological lab where dangerous pathogens such as anthrax are kept.

"I visited along with [the host] all the units . . . including the special confidential room in which thousands of cultures are placed," the note reads.

Another handwritten note includes a crude diagram of a biological lab, identifying how space should be allocated for major tasks such as animal testing and growing bacteria.

A recurring theme in the notes is money, or Rauf's apparent lack of it. He complains in one note that his salary was cut while he was on leave from his job for postdoctoral research. "This is highly objectionable, unaffordable and unpracticable with me," he writes.

Rauf's money demands may have led to a falling-out with Zawahiri, who appears to have decided to explore other options for obtaining bacteria and lab equipment, said Rohan Gunaratna, an al-Qaeda expert with the Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies in Singapore.

Gunaratna said al-Qaeda leaders also collaborated with Yazid Sufaat, a member of an allied Southeast Asian group called Jemaah Islamiyah, in purchasing equipment for the Kandahar lab. Sufaat, who once studied chemistry at California State University at Sacramento, has been in custody since late 2001.

"Rauf was financially driven, and al-Qaeda didn't entirely trust him," Gunaratna said.

Investigation Breaks Down

Rauf's detention kicked off a joint U.S.-Pakistani investigation that at first was remarkably successful.

"There was great cooperation at the start," said one U.S. intelligence official who closely followed the case.

The FBI's New York office took the lead U.S. role, and its agents worked closely with the CIA and bureau officials in Pakistan in carrying out interrogations. Though not formally charged with any crimes, Rauf consented to questioning and provided useful leads, U.S. and Pakistani officials said. But problems began when the U.S. side sought to expand the investigation with the goal of pursuing criminal charges, including possible indictment and prosecution in the United States, officials from both countries confirmed.

In earlier cases, the Pakistani government incurred the wrath of Islamic leaders when it sought to prosecute professionals for alleged ties to al-Qaeda.

In 2003, the Pakistanis shut off U.S. access to Rauf. According to Pakistani officials familiar with the case, there simply was not enough evidence showing that he succeeded in providing al-Qaeda with something useful.

Since then, Rauf has been allowed to resume his normal life. Whether he has returned to his former workplace is unclear; officials at the research council declined to respond to requests for information about the scientist. Attempts to contact Rauf in Lahore were unsuccessful.

"He was detained for questioning, and later the courts determined there was not sufficient evidence to continue detaining him," said Tariq Azim Khan, Pakistan's information minister. "If there was evidence that proved his role beyond a shadow of a doubt, we would have acted on it. But that kind of evidence was not available."

Special correspondent Kamran Khan in Karachi, Pakistan, contributed to this report.

The Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/30/AR2006103001250.html)

rectar

10-31-2006, 12:41 PM

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j6/al_gy/xpTue228210320.gif

candypreet

10-31-2006, 01:03 PM

good post

Vancouver

10-31-2006, 07:53 PM

This former anthrax-seeker "Rauf" also goes by Abderrauf Ahmad. There is some background about him at Ross Getman's site:
http://www.anthraxandalqaeda.com/

al-Canine

10-31-2006, 09:48 PM

wow, I just could not restrain myself from posting this tidbit... this belongs in The Canine's Daily Dish (http://www.wincoast.com/forum/showthread.php?t=26383) thread. :D

f. Use of Code: Jennifer Lopez Letter and Atta's "Jenny" Code

One unresolved question concerns how the anthrax was transmitted to AMI in Florida. In an article about the contamination at AMI, Abby Goodnough for the New York Times wrote in August 2003, "The anthrax spores that infested the building are believed to have arrived in a letter addressed to the singer and actress Jennifer Lopez." (AMI publishes the National Enquirer and other tabloids). Phil Brennan, a conservative commentator who knew the two victims there, reports that he is confident that the letter transmitting the anthrax was sent before 9/11. It consisted, he says, of a goofy love letter to Jennifer Lopez, and included an open soap packet and a cheap Star of David charm. Such symbolism was not unknown to Al Qaeda operatives. For example, Hambali and two al-Qaeda minions considered attacking an Israeli restaurant, with a Star of David above it, in the Khao San Rd. backpacker area in Bangkok.

Jennifer Lopez' fame had withstood a number of underperforming movies, to include the movie "The Cell" in the year 2000. In the movie, following a trail of bodies, an FBI agent tracks down and captures a disturbed serial killer. Before the killer can reveal the whereabouts of his next victim (a woman trapped in a cell on the verge of drowning), he falls into a coma. Enter FBI psychologist Lopez, who uses a radical link to the killer's brain that could destroy her own sanity. "Her mission: Find the cell's location before time runs out, and avoid getting trapped inside the killer's head." How apt. According to an early National Enquirer, Stevens held it up to his face and then put it down on the keyboard (where traces of anthrax were found). Note that the publisher's wife was the real estate broker who rented to two of the hijackers. Small world, eh?

Petronas

11-23-2006, 12:02 AM

World's most deadly bugs... in the hands of terrorists
Tue 14 Nov 2006

NEW technology that would give terrorists the power to create deadly bacteria and viruses from scratch is only years away from completion and threatens to make existing controls on biological weapons obsolete, experts warned yesterday.

Synthetic biology is an emerging field that allows scientists to build micro-organisms from simple genetic material, in theory enabling the creation of deadly pathogens such as ebola or anthrax without access to existing stockpiles of the bugs.

The technology could also allow terrorists or scientists in rogue states to jumble the genetic signature of the bugs in order to render them unrecognisable to health experts dealing with an outbreak, potentially delaying treatment and preventing authorities from tracing the origin of an attack.

The concerns were raised at a biosecurity conference at Edinburgh University yesterday in the run-up to a major review of the Biological Weapons Convention in Geneva later this month.

Dr Ronald Atlas, a biosecurity expert, from the University of Louisville in the United States, said there was a "loophole" in current oversight measures.

"The looming threat right now is what synthetic biologists can do.

"There is significant oversight over who can acquire ebola or Marburg. But with synthetic biology, you can potentially synthesise de novo [from scratch] so you don't have to get the viruses from someone. If you can synthesise without the organism, by just taking chemicals, mixing them together and making Marburg; if I can just go out and make it from a chemistry set, that is a looming threat and in the near future that technical barrier is going to be falling."

Scientists have already shown how easy it can be to create synthetic viruses.

Last year, a team in New York created a synthetic polio virus using information about its gene sequence readily available on the internet and genetic material from one of the many companies that sell made-to-order DNA.

Alistair Hay, a toxicologist from Leeds University, said synthetic biology offered an opportunity to improve human health by, for example, allowing scientists to create DNA sequences that may help produce vaccines.

Jo Husbands, an arms control specialist at the US Academies of Science, said those working in synthetic biology had scared themselves with what the technology was capable of, and were already taking steps to safeguard their work.

"It's a fascinating case of a scientific community and people doing this research trying to minimise the risk," she said.

Synthetic biology has been added to the agenda of the Biological Weapons Convention review, but it is unlikely to prompt an amendment to the treaty. The convention has been a source of international disagreement ever since its adoption in 1972. Unlike non-proliferation agreements on chemical and nuclear weapons, the BWC does not include a policing or enforcement function to tackle non-compliance.

• Al-Qaeda is determined to acquire the technology to carry out a nuclear attack on the West, a senior Foreign Office official said yesterday.

The official warned that Osama bin Laden's terrorist network was trawling the world for the materials and know-how to mount an attack using nuclear, chemical or biological weapons.

Deadly organisms
• EBOLA: One of the most deadly viruses known to man, ebola causes massive internal bleeding, which spills out through the orifices. Nine out of ten people die within ten days.

• SMALLPOX: Highly contagious with 30 per cent mortality rate, smallpox exists only in labs in the US and Russia. Soviet scientists tried to combine it with ebola into a "doomsday" bug.

• MARBURG VIRUS: Almost identical to ebola, it causes haemorrhagic fever and internal bleeding for which there is no effective treatment. It has a fatality rate of about 30 per cent.

• ANTHRAX: A bacteria that is fatal without antibiotic treatment. It becomes "weaponised" when in aerosol form. Used in a terrorist mail attack in the US in 2001, killing five.

• INFLUENZA: Concerns were raised earlier this year when scientists re-created a strand from the deadly Spanish flu outbreak of 1919, which killed more in total than the First World War.

• SALMONELLA: Although not the most lethal virus, this tummy-bug was used in the first bioterrorism attack, in Oregon in 1984, when 751 people were infected by tainted salads. All survived.

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1681602%20006

Petronas

11-24-2006, 12:26 PM

FSA summit plans UK food terror response
15/11/2006

Plans to deal with widespread contamination of the UK food supply caused by a terrorist attack have been discussed by industry, food safety and security officials amid concerns at the terror threat facing the country, BeverageDaily.com can reveal.

The meeting, called by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) last Thursday and the first of its kind in recent years, discussed the fallout from wide scale contamination of a range of foodstuffs, following a deliberate attack. Delegates representing retail, manufacturing, enforcement and security services, worked on ways to reduce the risk of an attack and communicate effectively to control contamination.

Concerns over the terror threat posed by al-Qaeda and its associates to the UK have deepened in the last week, following stark warnings from government officials and ministers. Security services knew of around 30 plots to attack the UK, domestic security arm MI5 said on Friday. ...

http://www.dairyreporter.com/news/ng.asp?n=72075-fsa-uk-food-terror-contamination

Petronas

12-05-2006, 02:30 PM

US says Iran probably has biological warfare weapons
21/11/2006 12:00 AM (UAE)

Iran probably has germ warfare weapons, North Korea may have developed them and Syria could have carried out research into such banned weaponry, the United States told an arms control conference yesterday. Addressing the opening session of the sixth review conference of the Convention on Biological Weapons (BWC), US delegation head John C. Rood said those countries were of particular concern given their 'support for terrorism'.

"We believe that Iran probably has an offensive biological weapons programme in violation of the BWC," Rood said. "We also believe North Korea has a biological weapons capability and may have developed, produced and weaponised for use. Finally, we remain seriously concerned that Syria ... has conducted research and development for an offensive biological weapons programme," he said. ...

http://www.gulfnews.com/region/Iran/10084096.html

iranshiapower

12-06-2006, 02:47 PM

yes we have and u can do nothing about it--because stupid bush is begging iran for help in iraq--suck iranian dick bitchass yankees

Petronas

01-30-2007, 09:59 PM

Henry A. Crumpton - Remarks at Black ICE
Monday, 29 January 2007, 10:36 am

Imagine you awoke to the news this morning that a country with fragile infrastructure and few resources had been the victim of a smallpox attack. Our international political and social landscapes would be altered in an instant. I'm sure that each of you are immediately and keenly aware of the implications a bioterrorism attack, especially one employing a high-consequence agent like smallpox, would have for nations and societies around the world.

As we have learned from Switzerland's Ambassador Ziswiler a few minutes ago, Black ICE, a U.S.-Swiss co-hosted bioterrorism tabletop exercise for senior leaders from international organizations, emphasized the role of international organizations in a bioterrorism response and how they would interact with national governments. ...

The Black ICE tabletop exercise scenario simulated a smallpox attack with self-infected terrorists traveling via airplane from South Asia to Central Asia, and then moving about a major city during a large, outdoor event to infect as many others as possible. Eventually, over the course of the Black ICE scenario, the disease spreads throughout Europe, South Asia, Central Asia, and North America, resulting in cases in 17 nations, with 357 individuals infected, and 108 dead.

The disease is first discovered when an extremely ill, apparently homeless young man is brought to a hospital and diagnosed with smallpox. He turns out to be one of the terrorists who had traveled from South Asia. The scenario's fictional terrorist group was called The Council of Eight, a radical student group at a medical college in South Asia. The Council of Eight has a history of threatening propaganda with unclear intent and vague motivations. ...

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0701/S00380.htm

Petronas

02-23-2007, 12:57 AM

U.S. troops find chemicals in Iraq raid
Thu Feb 22, 10:57 AM ET

U.S. troops raided a car bomb factory west of Baghdad with five buildings full of propane tanks and ordinary chemicals the military believes were to be used in bombs, a spokesman said Thursday, a day after insurgents blew up a truck carrying chlorine gas canisters.

Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said the chlorine attack Wednesday — the second such "dirty" chemical attack in two days — signaled a change in insurgent tactics, and the military was fighting back with targeted raids. "What we are seeing is a change in the tactics, but their strategy has not changed. And that's to create high-profile attacks to instill fear and division amongst the Iraqi people," he told CNN. "It's a real crude attempt to raise the terror level by taking and mixing ordinary chemicals with explosive devices, trying to instill that fear within the Iraqi people."

But he suggested the strategy was backfiring by turning public opinion against the insurgents, saying the number of tips provided by Iraqis had doubled in the last six months. One of those tips led U.S. troops to a five separate buildings near Fallujah, where they found the munitions containing chemicals, three vehicle bombs being assembled, including a truck bomb, about 65 propane tanks and "all kinds of ordinary chemicals," Caldwell said. He added that he believed the insurgents were going to try to mix the chemicals with explosives.

The pickup truck carrying chlorine gas cylinders was blown up Wednesday, killing at least five people and sending more than 55 to hospitals gasping for breath and rubbing stinging eyes.

On Tuesday, a bomb planted on a chlorine tanker left more than 150 villagers stricken north of the capital. More than 60 were still under medical care on Wednesday. Chlorine causes respiratory trouble and skin irritation in low levels and possible death with heavy exposure.

Brig. Gen. Qassim Moussawi, an Iraqi military spokesman, said the investigation into the attack was still under way. "But what is obvious to us that the terrorists are adopting new tactics to cause panic and as many casualties as they can among civilians. But our plans also are always changeable and flexible to face the enemy's new tactics."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070222/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_factory_raid;_ylt=A0SOwmlQDt5FUVwA1QrMWM0F

Petronas

03-17-2007, 12:33 AM

America's Bio-Terrorism Nightmare
March 14, 2007

The recent revelation from an American bio-defense analyst living in Europe that Syria is ready to respond with biological weapons of mass destruction if the U.S., Israel or Europe attack Iranian nuclear installations has again brought forth the reality that such weapons in the hands of our enemies represent an intolerable threat to our national security.

According to Jill Bellamy-Dorsey, who currently directs the Public Health Preparedness program for the European Homeland Security Association under the French High Committee for Civil Defense: “Syria is positioned to launch a biological attack on Israel or Europe should the U.S. attack Iran. The Syrians are embedding their biological weapons program into their commercial pharmaceuticals business and their veterinary vaccine-research facilities…” she said. [1] Bellamy-Dorsey anticipates a variation of smallpox (cryptosporidium) as the biological agent Syria would use probably by infecting water supplies. Cryptosporidium is a one-celled parasite that causes a gastrointestinal illness with symptoms of diarrhea, abdominal cramps, headaches, nausea, vomiting, and a low-grade fever, the symptoms of which could last for weeks. The resulting mass illness would greatly inhibit the ability of any nation to defend itself. It is believed that the Syrians have tested their biological weapons in Darfur and that the Syrian military is planning the eventual integration of these weapons into its tactical and strategic arsenals by mounting biological warheads on its long-range surface-to-surface missiles and using them against military and civilian targets.

The Syrian revelation is only the latest in a long line of related warnings that have arisen in the West in recent years. Diseases such as SARS, AIDS, West Nile virus, hoof-and-mouth disease, and mad cow disease have highlighted the challenges of managing deadly pathogens in our shrinking world. But few are truly aware of the horrific nature of these weapons. The accidental release of anthrax from a military testing facility in the former Soviet Union in 1979 and Iraq's admission in 1995 to having quantities of anthrax, botulinum toxin, and aflatoxin ready to use as weapons led President Clinton's Secretary of Defense, William Cohen on November 25, 1997 to give a briefing on a Pentagon report dealing with the threat of chemical and biological weapons in the hands of then Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. After showing a picture of a Kurdish mother and her child who had been gassed by Saddam's army in Halabja in March 1988, he stated: "One drop (of VX nerve agent) on your finger will produce death in a matter of just a few moments.” He then sketched an image of a massive chemical attack on an American city. Recalling Saddam's use of poison gas and the Sarin gas attack in Tokyo, Cohen warned that "we face a clear and present danger today" and reminded people that the "terrorists who bombed the World Trade Center in New York had in mind the destruction and deaths of some 250,000 Americans that they were determined to kill." Years later, a UN panel of experts found that the only thing holding al Qaeda back from using chemical and biological weapons was its lack of technical know-how, but the decision, it appears, has already been made to use chemical and biological weapons in future attacks. The CIA has said that an analysis of an al Qaeda document recovered in Afghanistan in the summer of 2002 "indicates the group has crude procedures for making mustard agent, Sarin and VX", and could also attempt to build a cyanide-based chemical weapon using material readily available on the market.

As horrible as it was to have thousands of innocent Americans killed on September 11th, that is nothing compared to what terrorists could do with the biological and chemical weapons that we know they already possess. A mass-attack with Sarin, anthrax or some other biological agent could bring about civilian casualties and catastrophic damage to our country on a scale far beyond anything we experienced on September 11th, 2001. Experts cite the uncovering of several canisters of unidentified chemicals, possible residues of a “tetanus virus-carrying chemical,” a bio-terror manual in a police raid on a Jemaa Islamiyah hideout in the southern Philippines and the recent discovery of a seven-pound block of highly-toxic cyanide salt in an al Qaeda safe-house in Baghdad believed to have been produced by Abu Musab Zarqawi, al Qaeda’s former “poisons specialist.” These discoveries suggest that al Qaeda is developing a new generation of lethal biological weapons of mass destruction.

In one of the more sinister aspects of “al Qaeda research,” Jamal Ahmed al-Fadl, a former Bin Laden associate testified during the U.S. trial on the 1998 embassy bombings in Africa that he himself had met with al Qaeda representatives and the Sudanese army where joint discussions were held in the early 1990s on the manufacture of chemical weapons to be mounted on artillery shells. Al Qaeda, at that time, had also been experimenting with biological weapons by gassing dogs with cyanide. Known as the "poor man's atomic bomb," these microscopic killers are easily made, easily dispersed and easy to transport though airports and across borders.

Nasser Asad al-Tamimi, an Islamic Jihad leader who died in 1998, said in Amman shortly before his death, that chemical and biological weapons were "the way to win the jihad." Around the same time, former CIA Director James Woolsey cited reports that Hezbollah operatives had acquired chemical and biological weapons with the help of two Swiss businessmen and a captured Hamas activist Mohammed Salah, under interrogation in Israel in 1993, confessed that he and Moussa Abu Marzook, the then-head of Hamas operations in the U.S. had sought recruits in America with chemical and biological expertise. Steven Emerson, the maker of the film "Jihad in America," (an exposé of Islamic fundamentalist activities in the U.S.) told a Congressional hearing in February 1998 that after smashing a Hamas cell in Hebron in 1998, Israeli agents found computer records of plans to use chemical and biological agents to contaminate food and water.

Thus, long before the anthrax scare of 2001 made the threat real, U.S. officials were expressing concern over the implications of a terror cell in the U.S. unleashing a biological or chemical agent on American soil. The threat became even more sinister with the knowledge that Libyan dictator Muammar Ghadaffi had provided al Qaeda with chemical and biological weapons before changing heart and agreeing to destroy his own weapons program. U.S. forces invading Afghanistan in 2001 discovered and destroyed two production centers that were preparing to manufacture cyanide and the botulinum and salmonella toxins and possibly anthrax. Two terrorism manuals seized from al Qaeda operatives in several locations contained detailed instructions on making and using the toxin. One was found by British journalists in November 2001 at a deserted al Qaeda safe house in Kabul, Afghanistan; another was a 7,000 page manual titled, "The Encyclopedia of Jihad" which recommended the use of ricin as one of the "poisons that the holy warrior can prepare and use without endangering his health.” Since then, ricin-making equipment or traces of the toxin have been discovered during police raids on al Qaeda-affiliated cells in Britain, France, Spain, Russia, Georgia, and Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq. [2]

Deadlier by far than cobra venom, a speck of pure ricin the size of a pinhead can kill an adult if injected into the bloodstream. A slightly larger dose - roughly a pinch - is fatal if swallowed or inhaled. Ricin is water-soluble and virtually odorless, so it can be used to contaminate water or food supplies on a large scale. In 2002, 29-year-old Menad Benchellali, an al Qaeda “chemist” was discovered to have set up a laboratory in his parents' spare bedroom in Lyons, France and began to manufacture ricin. Today, exactly how many jars of ricin Benchellali may have produced - and their whereabouts - is an urgent question for European governments facing a wave of terrorist attacks and threats. Last year, similar containers turned up in Britain in the possession of North Africans who were allegedly planning an attack. At least one other jar is known to be missing, and French investigators suspect that still others exist.

But that was only the beginning of the nightmare scenario. On April 13, 2005, Kamel Bourgass, al Qaeda-trained Algerian, was convicted of plotting to launch chemical and bomb attacks in London and there have been other such planned attacks broken up by British intelligence since then. Police had raided Bourgass's small flat in north London in January 2003 after receiving the tip-off in December 2002. Inside, they found recipes and the raw ingredients for making the deadly toxins ricin, cyanide and botulinum with instructions on how to make nicotine poison, rotting meat poison and potato poison and details on making explosives. There were also instructions explaining how to turn the poisons into gases with the detail that once gaseous, rotting meat poison was 1,000 times more deadly than nerve gas. Bourgass’s fingerprints were found on a cup containing apple seeds and paper containing cherry stones. Both can be used to produce cyanide. His fingerprints were also found on a bottle of acetone, which can be used to extract poison from the seeds as detailed in instructions found in the flat at Wood Green. The search also found more than twenty castor beans, the base ingredient for ricin. Bourgass and other British plotters were keeping the deadly ricin poison in a jar of skin cream and planned to smear it on the handles of cars and buildings in North London. Although police did not find the poison, they did find recipes to make it and that was enough to cause a national stir. [3]

These fears became reality on April 13, 2004. On that day, Bin Laden’s terror network targeted a Jordanian Military Intelligence installation, a luxury hotel, and the U.S. embassy in Amman, Jordan for its first poison gas attack designed to kill thousands of people. Fortunately, Jordanian security authorities intercepted one of the pickups loaded with the explosives and poison gas containers as it crossed from Syria into Jordan. Their cargoes of explosives combined with twenty tons of nerve and blister agents could have killed an estimated 80,000 people within a half-mile radius had the cargo detonated as planned. [4] The cell was later identified to be linked to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al Qaeda’s former terrorism “contractor.”

With the knowledge that al Qaeda is also working to produce weaponized anthrax and other biological weapons, each moment that passes brings America or Europe closer to a national biological or chemical nightmare.[5] The Jordan episode sent shock waves through every Western capital. Warnings have been issued from the Director General of MI5 in Britain who spoke on the inevitability of such an attack in a Western city. It did not take long for the British to react. On April 22, 2004, Peter Hain, Leader of the House of Commons, told MPs that MI5 had issued a "clear intelligence" warning of the possibility of an anthrax or ricin attack on the heart of British democracy, and called on MPs to approve a permanent glass screen to prevent terror attacks on the chamber. Hain said, "If an al-Qaeda group managed to throw a phial of anthrax or ricin down into the chamber, or even worse a suicide agent released it without anybody noticing, which we have been advised is quite feasible, the particles would immediately begin spreading throughout the chamber.” In typical British understatement, he added: “Within minutes total contamination could occur." [6]

Designer Viruses
The fear of a biological or chemical attack in America or Europe also extends well-beyond the known range of known chemical and biological agents. Anne Applebaum writing in the Washington Post [7] analyzed the easy way in which “designer viruses” could be constructed and the catastrophe that such viruses could cause if released on an unsuspecting population. She noted that “there are already 20,000 labs in the world where a single person could synthesize any existing virus within the next decade. In the same 20,000 labs, five people with $2 million would be able to create an enhanced pathogen - a virus that could infect people who have been immunized with conventional vaccines - and kill perhaps a billion of them. With an additional $3 million, the same five people could build a lab from scratch, using equipment purchased online. The threat, then, is not merely from the diseases we know about - anthrax, smallpox, and plague - but from the diseases that haven't been invented yet. It isn't possible to distinguish "safe" lines of biological engineering research from "dangerous" ones, since they are identical.”

This is especially troubling in view of a recent report prepared by a panel of outside experts that warned the CIA that technology emanating from genomic research could produce diseases “worse than any known to man” - a pandemic - and “the most frightening” biological weapons. The report titled “The Darker Bio-Weapons Future” summed up a January 2003 workshop which discussed with the CIA potential threats from new biological weapons. Growth in biotechnology and a knowledge explosion due to the genomic revolution have provided an understanding that genes can be used in unpredictable ways, say the experts.

Thus, the same science that may cure some of our worst diseases can also be used to create the world’s most frightening weapons - “designer” diseases created to be antibiotic resistant or evade immune response. The experts warned that traditional intelligence methods could prove inadequate to deal with this development. Detection will increasingly depend on human intelligence and require a closer working relationship between the intelligence and science communities. Our nation desperately needs to bolster existing bio-defenses against these new pathogens especially since, on average, it takes more than a decade and over $800 million to create, approve and distribute a new drug.

Bio-Terrorism Preparedness
To prepare the nation for a possible bio-terror attack, a government-wide counter-terrorism exercise called TOPOFF2 (short for "top officers") was initiated in May 2003 led by the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice. This was a national, full-scale, fully functional exercise intended to simulate two separate terrorist attacks - the detonation of a "dirty bomb" in Seattle and the aerosol release of plague in Chicago. The exercise involved participation from seventeen federal departments and agencies, the state governments of Washington and Illinois, the local governments of the affected cities, and the Canadian Government. [8] A FEMA Report issued following the exercise however found that there were significant communications problems, serious shortages of medical supplies and hospital rooms, a lack of information-sharing, uncertainties as to chains of command among U.S. agencies, and confusion over where the residue of a radiological attack would spread.

In addition, emergency response teams were unable to obtain vitally-needed equipment because it was unknown which agency was responsible for them. The Report also said that officials deployed emergency response personnel and equipment without notifying their superiors, that federal agents did not share intelligence because of a lack of security clearances and that there was widespread confusion over Homeland Security’s color-coded terrorist threat level. A government observer at the exercise said the extent of confusion was especially significant because it occurred despite extensive prior notice to the state and federal officials. Obviously, the United States was and is not yet prepared for such an attack. [9]

The failings of TOP OFF 2 led directly to an even more comprehensive exercise two years later in early April 2005 (another is planned for mid-2007 in Portland, Oregon and Guam). TOP OFF 3 involved more than 10,000 participants in Connecticut, New Jersey, the United Kingdom and Canada representing more than 200 federal, state, local, tribal, private sector, and international agencies and organizations and volunteer groups in a coordinated national and international response to a large-scale, multi-point terrorist attack. The New Jersey scenario involved a simulated biological attack in Union and Middlesex Counties and the Connecticut scenario involved a simulated chemical attack in New London. Personnel conducted search and rescue, hospitals treated the injured (played by role players), subject-matter experts analyzed the effects of the attack on public health, and top officials deployed resources and made the difficult decisions needed to save lives. The drill pointed out at least two specific problems. One was the difficulty in maintaining effective communication among state agencies and more than 560 municipalities. Another was the need for better facilities for handling thousands of dead bodies in a very short time.

In addition, the government's performance on bio-defense came under criticism. In 2002, President Bush had called for millions of U.S. health workers to be immunized for smallpox, but only about 40,000 have actually been vaccinated. Another December 2003 study by the Trust for America's Health found that while states now have better communications capabilities, improved bio-terrorism response plans and better-equipped laboratories than they had on 9/11, bureaucracy still prevents states from fully drawing on federal bio-terrorism funds, that only two states are fully prepared to distribute and administer emergency treatments from national stockpiles (Florida and Illinois) and that many states will soon be facing a shortage of trained public health personnel. Other concerns included the fear that hospitals had not done enough to prepare to handle mass casualties and that states were having trouble hiring specialists such as epidemiologists and laboratory technicians.

At the same time as the Trust for America's Health was releasing its findings, an "Advisory Panel to Assess Domestic Response Capabilities for Terrorism Involving Weapons of Mass Destruction" (known as “the Gilmore Commission”) released its findings [10] on improving bioterrorism preparedness. The Commission made a series of recommendations such as simplifying the funding applications process and improving communications among first responders, government representatives and law enforcement officials. Most importantly, the Commission recommended that Congress should re-establish a federal office specifically to support emergency medical service (EMS) operational and systems issues and sustain funding to enhance EMS response capacity for acts of terrorism (estimated at $462M).

Based upon the Gilmore Commission findings and recommendations, the Bush administration launched a new Initiative on April 28, 2004 designed to increase the nation’s preparedness for a chemical or biological attack by a terrorist organization. The "Bio-Defense for the 21st Century Initiative” was designed to correct numerous bureaucratic problems that had arisen in the bio-terrorism response system. The Initiative included boosting research into biological threats, expanding a network of sensors that continuously monitor air particles for potential chemical and biological agents in our major metropolitan areas, and increasing America's capacity to respond to a catastrophe that could lead to widespread illness and casualties.

As a result, stockpiles around the nation now include large quantities of antibiotics, chemical antidotes, anti-toxins, life-support medications and many other surgical items and they are stationed in strategically located, secured warehouses ready for immediate deployment. These stockpiles contain enough smallpox vaccine for every U.S. resident and enough antibiotics to treat as many as 60 million people who might be exposed to the deadliest form of anthrax. But getting these supplies into the hands of the people who would need them remains one of the most vexing problems the government struggles with to prepare the nation for a possible bioterrorism attack. [11]

In effect, nearly six years after anthrax attacks in October 2001 killed five people and put the nation on alert, and despite a $20 billion government investment in bioterrorism preparedness since 2001, the nation remains woefully unprepared to respond to a bioterrorism attack. Not a single American city has a contingency plan on to handle crowd control following an attack or even how and what to do if health officials recommend quarantines that need to be enforced. Worse, the government may have created a national stockpile of medical equipment and supplies and can move the supplies to any city within twelve hours of an attack, but not a single American city is prepared to deliver the material to its citizens in time to save lives. Furthermore, a $5.6 billion, 10-year government program to spur pharmaceutical firms to develop new vaccines and antidotes has yet to produce the necessary drugs despite President Bush's 2003 Project BioShield* promise that the government would purchase much of the new antidote drugs and treatments against small pox and anthrax, botulin toxin, E-bola plague and other possible agents of bio-terror if they met certain standards. Major pharmaceutical companies have simply ignored the program in large measure because of liability concerns. Moreover, the nation's 5,000 hospitals are still unprepared to handle the surge of patients that can be expected in the event of biological or chemical attack.

Studies like the Markle Foundation's Task Force on National Security in the Information Age issued in early 2004 and again in July 2006 also suggest that the Bush Administration has yet to improve upon how hospitals can share information on epidemics and act as early-warning systems in the event of a bio-terror attack.

Conclusion
Although a bio-terror attack on America is seen as a high consequence - low probability event, with the availability of chemical, biological, nuclear and radiological weapons on the international black market, the Bush administration has recognized that it faces the distinct possibility of mass civilian murder the likes of which this country has never known. The reconstituted al Qaeda organization has already established an affinity to attack large symbolic targets repeatedly (including New York, Yemen and Kenya) and on September 11th, it announced to the world that it meant to destroy the infidel, to expel it from Muslim lands, and to turn America into an Islamic Republic. Al Qaeda has openly claimed the right to kill four million people using biological and chemical weapons, and has posted instructions on how to make these weapons on its website. It is a threat this country must take seriously. Al-Qaeda's global network, its proven capabilities, its deadly history, its desire to do the unthinkable and the evidence collected about its bio-terrorist ambitions, ominously portend a clear and present danger of the highest order that al-Qaeda will perpetrate a biological terrorist attack. We dismissed the warning signs prior to 9/11. The stakes are much higher now.

*Project BioShield directed government agencies to purchase 75 million doses of an improved anthrax vaccine for the strategic national stockpile. It approved spending for a safer, second-generation smallpox vaccine, an antidote to botulinum toxin, and better treatments for exposure to chemical and radiological weapons, including a children's version of an anti-radiation pill. The government has already put in place advanced environmental detectors to warn of such an attack and has stockpiled enough smallpox vaccine for every American.

Endnotes

1. Jerome R. Corsi, “Syria ready with bio-terror if U.S. hits Iran,” WorldNetDaily, March 5, 2007

2. Joby Warrick, “An Al Qaeda 'Chemist' and the Quest for Ricin,” The Washington Post, May 5, 2004; Page A01; See also: "Suspect and A Setback in Al-Qaeda Anthrax Case: Scientist with Ties to Group Goes Free," October 31, 2006; A01

3. Joby Warrick, Reuters, April 13, 2005

4. DEBKAfile Exclusive Report, “Al Qaeda Goes Regional: Basra, Riyadh Bomb Blasts - Coordinated with Thwarted Chemical Strike in Amman,” April 21, 2004

5. DEBKAfile Special Report, "UN: Al Qaeda Has Decided to Use Chemical and Bio weapons," November 15, 2003

6. Ben Russell, “MPs warned of al-Qa'ida terror threat to Commons,” The Independent, April 23, 2004

7. February 18, 2004

8. Phil Shenon, “Terrorism Drills Showed Lack of Preparedness, Report Says,” New York Times, December 19, 2003, Section A, Page 32, Column 1

9. Robert Block, Wall Street Journal, Oct. 31, 2003; Global Security Newswire, October 21, 2003

10. December 15, 2003

11. For a detailed status report on national preparedness for biological attacks, see: “News Release - HHS Fact Sheet: Biodefense Preparedness Public Health Emergency Preparedness "Transforming America's Capacity to Respond" April 28, 2004

http://www.newmediajournal.us/staff/silverberg/03142007.htm

Petronas

03-30-2007, 09:45 PM

Chlorine cache found in Iraq
March 23, 2007

U.S. troops sweeping Baghdad have found containers of nitric acid and chlorine, raising concerns that insurgents are expanding their use of chemicals in the war for power in Iraq, military officials said yesterday. The containers were found as part of a larger cache of weapons discovered as U.S. and Iraqi troops cleared house after house in the Sunni-majority Ghazaliyah neighborhood in western Baghdad.

In a new twist in the Iraqi conflict, chlorine gas set off by suicide bombers in villages west of Baghdad killed at least eight and sickened hundreds last week. It was the first time the chemical was found in the capital.

Although both nitric acid and chlorine have a variety of industrial uses, finding them alongside weapons stashes in known terrorist havens signified a change of tactic for the fighters, said a U.S. military official who asked not to be named. "We've seen them use caustic acid with improvised explosive devices to burn the skin," said the official, adding that although the acid does not increase the lethality of a bomb, it does make it "nastier." ...

http://washtimes.com/world/20070322-113046-8576r.htm

Petronas

07-15-2007, 01:35 PM

Indonesia: Southeast Asian nations told to prepare for bioterrorism
15 July 10:33

Jakarta, 13 July (AKI/Jakarta Post) - Senior police officers in Indonesia have called on Southeast Asian countries to prepare for bioterror attacks. "We cannot ignore the possibility that terrorists might use biological or chemical weapons, although they're now still using explosives and firearms," National Police chief of detectives Comr. Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri told reporters after opening a two-day counterterrorism workshop in Jakarta organised by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). "We will discuss this (issue) in this workshop," he said. Bambang added that the Indonesian police would remain alert to transnational crimes by cooperating with other countries in capturing terror suspects.

Canadian Ambassador to Indonesia John Holmes concurred, saying at the workshop's opening that "although the possibility of terrorists getting biotechnology might be remote, the potential exists. And because of the threat these natural weapons hold, Canada believes that it's critical that countries prepare." He added that his country supported any country that had a commitment to fighting terrorism. "That's why we're involved in these areas," said Holmes.

Indonesia is the coordinator of the workshop, which is aimed at establishing strategies to combat potential terrorism acts using biological weapons. Participating in the workshop are high-ranking law enforcers from 10 ASEAN member countries - Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Brunei Darussalam, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar - and bioterrorism experts from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the International Criminal Police Organization, the Singapore Police Force and the Hong Kong Police. The law enforcers are expected to share their experiences in preventing bioterrorism threats and to cooperate in dealing with terrorism acts.

Director of ASEAN politics and security at the Foreign Ministry I Gede Ngurah Swajaya said the workshop was meant to improve the police forces' ability in the form of training. "I think preparation (against bioterrorism) is really needed," said Ngurah. The workshop is being held as a follow-up to the sixth ASEAN Senior Officials Meeting on Transnational Crime, which was held in Bali last month. It implements the joint declaration between ASEAN and Canada on combating terrorism.

The Canadian government has provided a grant worth 225,000 US dollars to the Indonesian government to anticipate possible terror attacks using chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear weapons. Holmes presented this assistance to the secretary of the office of Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Agustadi Sasongko in the form of counterterrorism equipment and training programs for members of the police's Special Detachment 88 antiterror squad, the Justice and Human Rights Ministry, the Health Ministry and the Army's Special Forces.

http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Security/?id=1.0.1103199483

candypreet

07-15-2007, 01:55 PM

and thats scary

al-Canine

01-09-2008, 09:18 AM

New York Presses To Deploy More Bioweapons Sensors

DHS Priority Is Development Of Next-Generation Devices

By Spencer S. Hsu
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 9, 2008

NEW YORK -- City officials last month quietly activated some of the nation's newest generation of early warning sensors to detect a biological attack, turning on a limited number of filing-cabinet-size air filters in sensitive, high-volume areas of Manhattan.

But city officials say their effort to expand the program has run into surprising resistance from the White House, which is not widely deploying the machines.

Five years ago, officials here note, the Bush administration was prodding local authorities to move faster to detect the use of biological weapons and pouring billions into biosecurity-related initiatives. New York's leaders now say the administration's enthusiasm and sense of urgency has flagged in its final year in office.

The dispute is partly over whether the new sensors -- each with a $100,000 price tag -- are reliable and affordable enough for widespread deployment. But it is also about whether Washington's early support for such security enhancements has been undermined by distraction and competing budgetary demands.

"We'd like to see a little bit more focus in that area. . . . I think the federal government could do a better job," New York Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said in an interview this week. He was referring to New York City officials' desire for more detectors and enhanced capabilities under a federal government program known as BioWatch, under which air samplers were installed in 2003 in more than 30 major U.S. cities to detect the airborne release of biological warfare agents such as anthrax, plague and smallpox.

BioWatch was meant to speed up the response of health authorities in the critical hours before disease could spread and symptoms appeared in people. More than $400 million has been spent so far, but officials in New York and elsewhere say the older air samplers installed under the program do not work as well as intended.

The older samplers catch airborne particles in filters that are manually collected once a day and taken to a laboratory, requiring up to 30 hours to detect a pathogen. They may not preserve live organisms that scientists use to select treatment options. And the process is cost- and labor-intensive, leading to false alarms, quality-control problems and limits on the system's size, despite an $85 million-a-year national budget.

New York officials say they prefer the newer model activated last month, known as Autonomous Pathogen Detection Systems and developed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory with federal support. They can automatically sniff the air hourly for a week unattended, identify up to 100 harmful species by using two types of genetic and biochemical reaction tests, preserve live specimens and transmit results immediately to headquarters.

"The whole name of the game with BioWatch is to buy yourself time," said Richard A. Falkenrath, Kelly's deputy commissioner for counterterrorism and a former Bush White House homeland security aide.

The faster authorities can pin down the time of exposure, the more aggressively they can go after perpetrators, treat victims in time to help them and avoid the overwhelming logistical challenge and likely panic of having to distribute vaccines or antibiotics to millions of people. "We won't have to make the worst-case assumption," Falkenrath said.

In New York, which Kelly notes was targeted in both the 2001 World Trade Center and anthrax mailing attacks, authorities believe that model could help investigators pin down the moment a pathogen is released. "We see ourselves in the cross hairs here," Kelly said.

In President Bush's 2003 State of the Union address, he cited the early deployment of air samplers as an example of "unprecedented measures to protect our people and defend our homeland." Now Jeffrey W. Runge, chief medical officer and assistant secretary for the Department of Homeland Security's office of health affairs, said more research and technical improvements are needed before a costly full-scale deployment.

BioWatch backers in New York say they have a sympathetic ear and strong partner in Runge, but that it has been hard to him to obtain the administration's support to move faster. Runge, however, called Kelly's criticism unfounded, given that DHS has paid 90 percent of the cost to install New York's system and all of its operating costs.

Runge said technical challenges remain in ensuring new sensors' accuracy and reducing their size and operating costs. He said DHS plans to begin pilot tests this year of alternative sensors -- which it hopes will be better than those made by Lawrence Livermore -- and to oversee a competition between two private bidders, IQuum and Microfluidic Systems, beginning in 2009. As a result, Runge said, decisions on what and how big a system to deploy will be left to the next administration. "That decision has not been made," he said, "and I won't be around for this decision."

"I don't know what better job Washington can do other than having a multiyear, multimillion-dollar research program in how to get better automated pathogen detection," Runge said. "But what we have to do as a federal government is improve on the technology, to make sure other cities that don't have the billions that New York has can actually afford automated detection."

Some policy experts and members of Congress take an even more skeptical position, questioning the premises of the BioWatch program. Last month, for example, lawmakers set aside $2 million of BioWatch's $77 million operating budget for a "cost-benefit" analysis by the National Academy of Sciences of whether BioWatch's basic strategy -- of detecting the use of bioweapons through technology rather than through careful monitoring of disease patterns -- is flawed.

The study is meant to examine whether it would be better to improve diagnostic tests at traditional medical facilities such as hospitals, expand electronic medical recordkeeping and upgrade data links that enable the government to monitor unusual health and agricultural sector disease patterns.

Tara O'Toole, director of the Center for Biosecurity at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, asked Congress in October, "Does it make sense to invest limited biodefense funds in more advanced BioWatch technology even as we cut funds for public health personnel needed to analyze BioWatch data, as we are now doing?"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/08/AR2008010803892.html?

NYer

01-09-2008, 10:14 PM

Does the NY City Council (http://www.nysun.com/article/69100) know this?

Petronas

02-13-2008, 10:12 AM

Al-Qaeda Resumes Developing Weapons of Mass Destruction
2/11/2008

Senior American intelligence operatives believe Abu Khabab Masri (a.k.a. Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umaran), an Egyptian engineer who specializes in chemical weapons and who the Pakistanis at first believed to have been liquidated in an aerial strike in January 2006, is alive and well and is working on developing weapons of mass destruction for al-Qaeda, according to a Los Angeles Times report.

These same intelligence experts note, with due caution, that al-Qaeda has managed to revive part of its research and development efforts that it had forfeited in Afghanistan after its headquarters were bombed at the end of 2001. They believe there is a renewed effort to obtain or develop chemical, biological, radioactive and even nuclear weapons, to be used against the United States and its allies.

Intelligence authorities believe that the effort is focused on the development and use of cyanide, chlorine and other toxic materials, and that they have not yet reached the level of destructiveness found in weapons of mass destruction. The information was gathered from electronic intercepts, captured Al Qaeda members and militant websites.

They attribute to Abu Khabab Masri the setup of laboratories where scientists conducting chemical experiments are employed. Recently it was learned that Abu Khabab, 54, is also training European recruits to carry out attacks on European or US territory. This is reminiscent of the way he managed al-Qaeda's Camp Khabab in the Tora Bora region of Afghanistan prior to September 11.

Opinions vary regarding al-Qaeda's extensive progress in manufacturing weapons of mass destruction. A senior official in US intelligence described al-Qaeda's efforts as "very small" and not equal to the development level that was at their disposal in Afghanistan. "Because you don't have the size, the security, you don't have the ease of movement that the Taliban government provided."

On the other hand, Chris Quillen, a former CIA analyst specializing in al-Qaeda's race for weapons of mass destruction, believes their network in Pakistan can achieve significant progress even without governmental assistance, and that they can work in small groups, as they did in Afghanistan. "I am not saying the programs are great and ready for an attack tomorrow," said Quillen, "but whatever they lost in the 2001 invasion, they are back to that level at this point."

Of 40 people involved in developing weapons of mass destruction for al-Qaeda, only 20 have been assassinated and half of them are still at large.

http://www.omedia.org/Show_Article.asp?DynamicContentID=2840&MenuID=726&ThreadID=1014017

candypreet

02-13-2008, 10:24 AM

good post

al-Canine

02-29-2008, 08:34 AM

"This is not a terror incident at this point..."

Highly Poisonous Ricin Possibly Found At Las Vegas Motel

Friday , February 29, 2008

LAS VEGAS —

Preliminary tests indicate that a package found at a motel contained the toxin ricin, and seven people have been taken to hospitals, authorities said.
Police were called to the Extended Stay America Motel on Thursday and retrieved a package from the motel manager that was determined to be a chemical or controlled substance, Officer Ramone Denby said.

Two preliminary tests indicate it contained ricin, he said. Results from further tests by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and a second local lab are expected Friday, police said.

"Ricin has no medical uses other than cancer research," police Captain Joseph Lombardo said at a news conference Thursday night. "An individual citizen other than being involved in cancer research or cancer prevention would not have any legal means or proper means of having that."

Investigators did not immediately believe the substance was intended for an attack. "This is not a terror incident at this point," Lombardo said.

Police cordoned off the area and isolated the room where the substance was found.

Three motel employees and another person were quarantined and decontaminated at the site, then taken to hospitals for further testing, Denby said. All appeared to be in good condition, he said. Three police officers who had been exposed were also taken to hospitals.

It takes between six and eight hours for someone exposed to ricin to show signs of contamination, Denby said.

Homeland Security officials joined local police in the investigation. Officials from the FBI, Las Vegas Health District, a hazardous materials team and the National Guard were also at the scene.

A woman who answered the phone at the motel declined comment.

Ricin is made from the waste left over from processing castor beans, and can be extremely lethal. As little as 500 micrograms, or about the size of the head of a pin, can kill a human, according to the CDC.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,333781,00.html

Petronas

03-13-2008, 01:54 AM

Jihadi Website Supplies Instructions for Anthrax Production
Volume 5, Issue 10 (March 11, 2008)

Much has been said about al-Qaeda’s quest to acquire weapons of mass destruction (WMD) as a means of striking at the heart of their number one enemy, the United States. The latest example of these ongoing efforts to acquire WMD capabilities is a recent posting in a jihadi internet forum entitled: “Good News – Anthrax Production Technique” (al-ekhlaas.net, March 3).

A forum participant, nicknamed al-Faz, posted a detailed description of anthrax production techniques dedicated to jihadis everywhere: “Long awaited good news for you, God’s soldiers. It’s time to use biological weapons against God’s enemies.” Al-Faz commences his posting with an introduction to anthrax and the pathology of the disease, including symptoms, parts of human body infected when exposed to anthrax and fatality percentages. Al-Faz notes that anthrax bacteria can be found in Africa, Asia and in some parts of Europe where the soil contains 10 anthrax bacteria per gram.

According to the jihadi forum, the following factors make anthrax the weapon of choice:

• Anthrax is powerful, lethal, cheap and easy to prepare.
• 50 grams of anthrax, when dispersed in a 2-kilometer line, forms a deadly cloud that can cover 20 kilometers.
• One kilogram of anthrax can be produced in a small laboratory in 96 hours.
• Anthrax bacteria spores are available worldwide and can be easily extracted.
• Production costs are low; one kilogram of anthrax bacteria costs about $50 even though a lethal dose can be as little as one millionth of a gram.
• Colorless and odorless anthrax is easily concealed.
• Anthrax is a stable and dry substance that can be easily transported and used.

Before proceeding to anthrax production, al-Faz includes in his posting a picture of one of the anthrax-contaminated letters used in the 2001 U.S. anthrax attacks that killed five and infected 17 others. Undoubtedly included in an effort to encourage jihadis to try anthrax as a weapon, the letter reads: “You cannot stop us. We have this anthrax. You die now. Are you afraid? Death to America. Death to Israel. Allah is great.” The photo of the letter in no way establishes a jihadi connection to the still unsolved anthrax attacks—it is one of several released by the FBI and is easily available on the internet. Nevertheless, anthrax continues to be a feared weapon—only last week an Albany, Oregon courthouse was closed and the National Guard called in to deal with threats of anthrax contamination, which later proved to be a hoax (Albany Democrat Herald, March 4).

The second part of al-Faz’s posting elaborates on two methods of anthrax production. Photos are included of the microscopic phases of the process, including the extraction of anthrax bacteria from a sample of dirt that contains the infected remains of dead goats or other grazing animals’ remnants. A sample of a dead animal’s blood or tissue can also be used by cultivating it in a blood agar substance containing 0.7% sodium bicarbonate.

The attached pictures illustrate bacilli bacteria, spirochetes and bacteria clusters. The posting further includes precautionary instructions for the different phases of production. “Agar is a nutrient environment for cultivation that can be bought without drawing any suspicions from research centers for 70 Riyals or $20 per one kilogram,” says al-Faz.

The second method of producing anthrax involves cultivating the anthrax in horse
blood and bentonite clay for five hours. Bentonite clay, an absorbent form of clay with multiple industrial uses, can be found in Iraq and two other countries in the region.

In conclusion, al-Faz says, “I wanted to contribute in the preparations against enemies of God. Consider me the servant of the mujahideen. I closely follow your news. May God reward you for your sacrifices. It would make me very happy to see you use biological weapons against God’s enemies. Wait for my next detailed posting on how to build a Cessna 128 aircraft,” which is an easily maintained agricultural aircraft designed to carry and spread a chemical load of 200 to 280 gallons.

Although there is no tangible evidence to confirm that jihadis have produced or procured mass quantities of biological weapons, the use of anthrax spores in bioterrorism has been discussed by jihadis for some time now. In theory, at least, cultivating anthrax spores can be achieved with minimum know-how and equipment, suggesting it is only a matter of time until jihadis succeed in producing some kind of biological weapon. There are, however, many dangers involved in the process and the development of a weaponized aerosol version of the bacterium requires scientific skills and equipment unavailable to most jihadis.

http://www.jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?articleid=2374023

NYer

03-13-2008, 11:24 AM

http://planetquo.net/Israel/Anthrax/Uncb.jpg

freeman

03-13-2008, 11:36 AM

Hysterical fear mongering bullshit

(................................................. ..................................../) TOTAL BS

Petronas

03-23-2008, 03:02 AM

Ricin Cop Tests for Castor Derivative
2 days ago

A police officer who went to a motel room where ricin was later found has tested positive for trace amounts of a substance that can be derived from the poison's source, authorities said Thursday.

The male officer has shown no signs of illness or symptoms of ricin poisoning, officials familiar with the investigation told The Associated Press. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity, citing the ongoing investigation into the discovery of the vials of ricin and the raw material, castor beans, in the motel room. "We did have one sample that had trace detectible levels of ricinine," said Pat Armour, manager of the Southern Nevada Public Health Laboratory.

The motel room's occupant remains in a hospital after police said they found vials of ricin, a poison that can be lethal in minuscule amounts, along with castor beans.

Officials have said since ricin was discovered Feb. 28 that they had not found evidence in the motel room or elsewhere of ricin contamination. The substance for which the police officer tested positive is an alkaloid extracted from the seeds of the castor plant and does not derive directly from ricin.

It was not immediately clear Thursday what effect that could have on the investigation into where the ricin came from. Las Vegas police declined to comment on the investigation.

KTNV-TV in Las Vegas identified the officer as Jim Mitchell and aired an interview with his wife, Regina Mitchell, who said she was concerned about the test result. Police would not confirm the officer's identity to the AP. About 5 percent of the U.S. population is believed to have similar trace levels of ricinine in their system, Armour said. It's not dangerous at that level, and it's possible that the officer's urine test results stemmed from exposure to castor oil, cosmetics, particle board, paints or other products derived from castor beans, Armour said. An FBI spokesman said the officer was the only person involved in the case to have tested positive for ricinine.

Officials have said they could not conclusively say the man who lived in the room, Roger Bergendorff, was poisoned. The poison wasn't discovered in his room until two weeks after his hospitalization. "Beyond the possibility of Mr. Bergendorff, we are not aware of anyone else who has become ill as a result of ricin exposure from this matter," said agent Joseph Dickey, a spokesman for the FBI office in Las Vegas.

Bergendorff, 57, an unemployed graphic artist, summoned an ambulance Feb. 14, complaining of respiratory distress. He spent almost four weeks in a coma and has been treated for kidney failure. He remained in fair condition Thursday at a Las Vegas hospital. Bergendorff told his younger brother he believed he had been exposed to the ricin powder. But he also told family members he had no intention of hurting anyone, and that he had the deadly poison for "self-defense."

Authorities have refused to say whether they plan to charge Bergendorff with state or federal crimes. Ricin is categorized as a biological agent under a federal law that provides for the possibility of life in prison and fines for production, acquisition or possession of it.

http://ap.google.com:80/article/ALeqM5jHS90ne-2-wjkHu_N158TrQ_wJpwD8VHI5BO0

Petronas

03-23-2008, 03:11 AM

Police make chip that can ID bioweapons quickly
The Yomiuri Shimbun
Mar. 19, 2008

The National Research Institute of Police Science has developed a new type of DNA chip that can identify which biological weapon has been spread in the event of a bioterrorist attack. Using the chip should substantially reduce the time needed to identify the virus or bacteria used in such an attack, which currently takes nearly half a day, enabling protective measures, such as evacuation and preparation of vaccines, to be put in place quickly.

The DNA chip was developed jointly by the institute, Toshiba Corp. and Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine's Research Center for Animal Hygiene and Food Safety.

The chip is encased in a cassette measuring 5.3 centimeters by 3.5 centimeters. It contains DNA information on 20 potential biological weapons, such as anthrax and other bacteria and viruses. When a collected agent is put inside the chip and an electric current applied, the agent multiplies, and it takes only about an hour before the chip determines whether the agent matches a reagent inside.

Police across the country are equipped with devices for detecting sarin and other toxins and drugs that could be used for chemical terrorist attacks. But police can do nothing about a bioterrorist attack other than bring the agents collected at the site of the attack to a laboratory and test them on reagents, one by one, which takes half a day. The institute, an affiliated body of the National Police Agency, said it hoped to put the chip into practical use as soon as possible.

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features/science/20080319TDY03301.htm