Posted on 10/25/2014 7:10:30 AM PDT by yldstrk
The bioweapons program officially ended in 1991, but Ebola research continued in Defense Ministry laboratories, where it remains largely invisible despite years of appeals by U.S. officials to allow greater transparency. Now, at a time when the world is grappling with an unprecedented Ebola crisis, the wall of secrecy surrounding the labs looms still larger, arms-control experts say, feeding conspiracy theories and raising suspicions.
“The bottom line is, we don’t know what they’re doing with any of the pathogens in their possession,” said Amy Smithson, a biological weapons expert who has traveled to several of the labs and written extensively about the Soviet-era weapons complex.
At least four military labs have remained off-limits to any outside scrutiny since the end of the Cold War, even as civilian-run institutions adopted more transparent policies and permitted collaborations with foreign researchers and investors, U.S. officials and weapons experts say. Even acknowledging — as most experts do — that Russia halted work on offensive bioweapons decades ago, the program’s opacity is a recurring irritant in diplomatic relations and a source of worry for security and health experts who cite risks ranging from unauthorized or rogue experiments to the theft or accidental escape of deadly microbes.
Enhancing the threat is the facilities’ collection of deadly germs, which presumably includes the strains Soviet scientists tried to manipulate to make them hardier, deadlier and more difficult to detect, said Smithson, now a senior fellow with the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, a research institute based in Monterey, Calif.
“We have ample accounts from defectors that these are not just strains from nature, but strains that have been deliberately enhanced,” she said.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
IIRC, The Ebola virus has been in our labs for years.
I am sure you are right, but it doesn’t look like our own lab workers are dying.
It is pRes_ _ent Obola the Undocumented Moslem by Fraud
and the EXEMPT Congress who have BLOOD ON THEIR HANDS
for both tuberculosis, EV-D68 and Ebola.
They are a curse on the American People and its Constitution.
Sacajawea
I just read the article you posted in response to mine, and I am convinced now that what is happening is there was an accidental release of deadly virus from a US bio-warfare lab in Africa. That is why the administration won’t act. It is covering up its guilt.
My guess is that’s why we’re bringing certain people here...under very special circumstances...and I’m guessing that’s why Obama sent “an army”....cuz they have to keep their mouth shut.
I look forward to Wapo’s coverage of the goings on at the American bio-research labs in West Africa...you know the place this pandemic originated.
This Regime has more reasons for “guilt” than a locked psychiatric ward.
However, Russia’s Biopreparat was sloppy, underfunded, and totally without any moral sense.
Americans must realize what we are facing, from commies and muzzies.
But also in 2005 there was a Nature paper that said "Bat species eaten by people in central Africa show evidence of symptomless Ebola infection." and that bats carried the virus without symptoms and passed it to primates. By 2012 the papers say "Fruit bats are the presumptive reservoir hosts of Ebola viruses (EBOVs) (genus Ebolavirus, family Filoviridae)." So it is a more or less consensus that the bats carry the virus and survive and that they have the potential to pass it to humans. It is a scientific alternative to the theories in this thread. But It also doesn't preclude the possibility of genetic engineering. I tend to believe Mother Nature did all the genetic engineering in this case.
African villages have occasionally had Ebola for years.
Post to me or FReep mail to be on/off the Bring Out Your Dead ping list.
The purpose of the “Bring Out Your Dead” ping list (formerly the “Ebola” ping list) is very early warning of emerging pandemics, as such it has a high false positive rate.
So far the false positive rate is 100%.
At some point we may well have a high mortality pandemic, and likely as not the “Bring Out Your Dead” threads will miss the beginning entirely.
*sigh* Such is life, and death...
A compelling reason for us to get off-world if mankind is to survive.
The article says it wouldn’t be a good terrorism weapon, but I disagree. What would stop a bunch of deliberately infected people from penetrating Western Population centers and then waiting until they are in the infectious stage to go into crowded areas like sports venues? Or, to blow themselves up like they are know to do, but do it while highly infectious.
This mess has already caused an economic problem for a lot of businesses and countries. We really should quarantine travelers from infected areas, but even that might not be great if terrorist tried some type of relay method - ether live hosts or blood samples (does it survive being frozen?).
I hate the idea of an Ebola vaccine being forced on people. A cure would be much better.
At the very least we should vaccinate all the gorillas before they are wiped out and that would also be a good test of efficacy. Human safety testing is already underway but since we will never deliberately infect a human, it won't test the ultimate efficacy.
I didn’t answer your other question, but I think terrorism via the relay method is possible and the virus survives pretty well at damp and cold temperatures, on the order of days.
CBCNews: Deadly pathogens foundin US govenment labs 09/06/2014 - Sacajaweau
Consider then, also, recent reports of stolen vials of hemorrhagic fever from labs.
IIRC, there has never been a cure for a viral infection. Treatments & vaccines, but not cures.
Ken Alibek - Biohazard. Read it. The US relied upon his expertise. They also didn’t believe him and essentially ignored his wisdom and expertise.
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