Posted on 11/27/2008 3:09:15 PM PST by BGHater
Terrorists could strike Britain by infecting the country with bird flu or Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), a leading group of security experts has warned.
A commission led by Lord Ashdown, the former Liberal Democrat leader,identified 27 countries where terror organisations could become a threat to the UK.
The report by the Institute of Public Policy Research warns that one of the biggest emerging threats comes from terrorists turning to biological warfare.
The assessment comes from the IPPR's Commission on National Security for the 21st century which is chaired by Lord Ashdown and Lord Robertson, the former Secretary General of NATO, and includes Lord Guthrie, the former Chief of the Defence Staff and Sir David Omand, the former security and intelligence coordinator in the Cabinet Office.
It says the danger from pandemic diseases such as SARS and Avian Flu is growing and that existing arrangements to respond to serious incidents are inadequate which means "a serious disease outbreak or bio-terrorism incident in the next 18 months could tip the global economy from serious recession into a global depression."
The commission warns that the ingredients for sarin gas and mustard gas are easily available, that radioactive materials are in wide use in hospitals and industry and that there are insufficient checks on who is buying biological agents.
"This in turn could allow a terrorist to buy genes for use in the engineering of an existing and dangerous pathogen into a new more virulent strain," the report says.
It says that al-Qaeda remains the "most significant terrorist group of the current era" but "lone individuals with relevant experience can now be more dangerous than before."
"The biggest danger," says the report,"may come from state weakness and the possibility that terrorists might gain access to state laboratories and facilities that are insufficiently secure."
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Almost as scary as Bird Flu itself
Yeah, why not throw gasoline on the fire already????
Idiot media.
The human race will end up extinguishing itself one way or another.
With this croup going around my house, I’m beginning to fear the SARS.
(just kidding, but we are all sounding like a group of seals practicing for choir)
Since bird flu rarely crosses the species barrier and SARS and bird flu are less dangerous than flu I don’t see the concern.
I was not aware that they weaponized it but I definitely think bioterrorism is going to be a persistent problem in the future.
from Harvard Medical School faculty:
“One researcher noted that no H5 sub-type... has ever caused a pandemic”
“Others said that even if H5N1 [birdflu] did mutate so that it can spread easily from person to person, a prerequisite for any major epidemic, the resulting virus would be weak and unlikely to cause serious illness”
“For all the fear it has aroused, H5N1 in it’s current form has killed about 100 people worldwide and it’s been in circulation, on and off, since 1996.
http://www.aolhealth.com/conditions/bird-flu-dont-fly-into-a-panic
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