Free Republic

<p>Doctors, scientists and public health officials across the nation went into overdrive within hours of the World Health Organization's first global alert on SARS, the deadly new virus from Asia. The word went out over phone trees, blast faxes, BlackBerry alerts, e-mail. And inside 24 hours, the U.S. public health system stood ready to tackle SARS — severe acute respiratory syndrome — as it became the world's latest "emerging disease."</p>

<p>Continuing bioterrorism scares are breathing new life into obscure scientific projects as the nation gropes for a way to defend itself from deadly microbes.</p> <p>The sudden interest in microbiology is fueled by revelations such as the discovery of a mobile bioterrorism laboratory that traveled Iraqi highways.</p>

London The Sunday Times 25 May 03 [Report by Matthew Campbell in Baghdad: "China Linked To Iraq Bio-Weapons"] Components for Saddam Husayn's biological weapons programme were slipped into Iraq under Chinese diplomatic cover, according to documents seen by The Sunday Times in Baghdad. The documents refer to 137 kilograms of laboratory chemicals being channelled to Iraq from China in the guise of medical supplies. The cargo, flown to Jordan on May 31, 1995, was listed as "medicine" in a Jordanian customs report and the recipient was described as "Chinese embassy", Amman. Correspondence found in Baghdad shows that the 16 boxes...

May 21, 2003 U.S. Analysts Link Iraq Labs to Germ ArmsBy JUDITH MILLER and WILLIAM J. BROAD nited States intelligence agencies have concluded that two mysterious trailers found in Iraq were mobile units to produce germs for weapons, but they have found neither biological agents nor evidence that the equipment was used to make such arms, according to senior administration officials.The officials said intelligence analysts in Washington and Baghdad reached their conclusion about the trailers after analyzing, and rejecting, alternative theories of how they could have been used. Their consensus was in a paper presented to the White House late...

The mounting death toll exacted by SARS in China has triggered speculation that the virus could ultimately be traced back to a leak from military bio-weapon programs. Although most reporting favors a natural origin for SARS, a bio-weapon link should at least not be ruled out, according to Richard Fisher, a senior fellow at the Jamestown Foundation, a Washington-based think tank. "While there is no reported evidence that SARS is indeed a weapon, there are plenty of ways that a real weapon with the properties of SARS could prove decisive in a military conflict," he said. China's most famous dissident,...

Fears grow that extremists are ready to cross another threshold of terror Evidence gathered in Iraq and Afghanistan lends credence to claims that radical Islamic groups are dabbling in lethal toxins BEIRUT: A few days ago, Japanese prosecutors demanded the death sentence for the guru of the Aum Shinrikyo (Supreme Truth) doomsday cult, Shoko Asahara, for masterminding the sarin gas attack on Tokyo’s subway system on March 20, 1995. Twelve people were killed and 2,500 sickened. A year earlier, sect activists had released sarin in a residential neighborhood in the Nagano Mountains, killing seven people. Those atrocities crossed a moral...

A bio-terrorist attack might not be evident until a significant number of patients start displaying unusual symptoms, a leading health professional has warned. Healthcare systems would also struggle to cope with the extra thousands of patients needing advanced life support in the event of a major attack. The comments came from Dr Vivienne Nathanson, of the British Medical Association, who was attending a bio-terrorism conference in London. Danger There are no known vaccines or antibiotics that could deal with most potential biological weapons, said Dr Nathanson, the BMA's director of professional activities. "One of the dangers which we have to...

<p>A year and a half ago, we watched terrorists turn an airplane filled with innocent people into deadly a missile. These extremists turned our free and mobile society into a weapon against us. Unfortunately, it's only a matter of time before terrorists think of other ways to hijack our free society and our advances in science and technology. They will continue to look for ways to twist technology into a tool for terror.</p>

Daan Goosen's calling card to the FBI was a vial of bacteria he had freeze-dried and hidden inside a toothpaste tube for secret passage to the US. From among hundreds of flasks in his Pretoria lab, the South African scientist picked a man-made strain that was sure to impress: a microbial Frankenstein that fused the genes of a common intestinal bug with DNA from the pathogen that causes the deadly illness gas gangrene. "This will show the Americans what we are capable of," Mr Goosen said then. On May 6 last year, Mr Goosen slipped the parcel to a retired...

S. African Scientist Offers U.S. Agents Cache of Man-Made Pathogens First of two articlesPRETORIA, South Africa -- Daan Goosen's calling card to the FBI was a vial of bacteria he had freeze-dried and hidden inside a toothpaste tube for secret passage to the United States.From among hundreds of flasks in his Pretoria lab, the South African scientist picked a man-made strain that was sure to impress: a microbial Frankenstein that fused the genes of a common intestinal bug with DNA from the pathogen that causes the deadly illness gas gangrene."This will show the Americans what we are capable of," Goosen...

New Material Cleans Air, Water Upper Valley Scientists Say Nano-Mesh Removes Contaminants POSTED: 8:41 p.m. EDT April 14, 2003 WINDSOR, Vt. -- A Vermont-based company is working to safeguard the air and water. A start-up company called Seldon Technologies is developing a material that eliminates biological contaminants, like anthrax and smallpox. For nine years, Christopher Cooper and five other Upper Valley scientists have worked to develop a black circular material made of carbon molecules. It's called a nano-mesh and its developers said it can eliminate just about any biological threat. "This material is capable of completely sterilizing all the...

Chemical and Biological Weapons China is widely reported to have active programs related to the development of chemical and biological weapons, although essentially no details of these programs have appeared in the open literature. China is believed to have an advanced chemical warfare program that includes research and development, production and weaponization capabilities. Its current inventory is believed to include the full range of traditional chemical agents. It also has a wide variety of delivery systems for chemical agents to include artillery rockets, aerial bombs, sprayers, and short-range ballistic missiles. Chinese forces have conducted defensive CW training and are prepared...

Panel wonders if West Nile is bioterrorism, Diana Washington Valdez El Paso Times -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Is West Nile virus bioterror? The U.S.-Mexico Border Commission plans to take up as one of its topics later this year the West Nile virus. Dr. Laurance Nickey, one of the commissioners, said experts are projecting a favorable season for the mosquito that transmits the virus. It is intriguing that the Centers for Disease Control says on its Web site that the virus was not detected in the Western Hemisphere until 1999, when it hit New York City. Before that, the CDC reports, the virus was...

Last week the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced the award of two contracts together worth $20 million to develop safer smallpox vaccines. According to HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson, "To protect ourselves from the remote but extremely grave threat of a deliberate release of smallpox virus, we need a vaccine that can be safely given to all Americans, including individuals with weak immune systems, children and pregnant women." Pamela McInnes, the deputy division director of microbiology and infectious diseases at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, says the problem with the current vaccine is that...

The Bush administration, seeking to rescue its foundering smallpox immunization campaign, has agreed to a limited compensation package for medical personnel and emergency responders who are injured by the vaccine, health officials said yesterday. After months of pressure, the administration acquiesced to demands from unions, hospitals and public health departments in the hope that providing financial protection for the nation's front line against bioterrorism would entice skeptical health care workers to be immunized. The decision to provide disability and death benefits comes when just 12,404 health care workers have answered President Bush's call for 500,000 volunteers to be vaccinated. Hundreds...

The bioterror bible Know what Army lab knows about deadly germ agents WASHINGTON – Have you seen the government's new tips for protecting yourself from biological and chemical attack? Some counterterrorism experts say they're so general they're virtually useless. And you can put away the duct tape and plastic sheeting the Homeland Security Department initially recommended to shut out deadly agents. They won't likely protect you from a biological attack – not unless you plan to seal your doors and windows right now and live like a hermit. Symptoms from most agents take several days to show up, and even...

The latest news, as reported by UPI and carried in the NewsMax.com wires, has not underestimated the seriousness of the infection caused by the West Nile virus. Indeed, in Louisiana, which has already reported five deaths so far, Lt. Gov. Kathleen Blanco, who doubles as the head of the state's tourism agency, announced on Aug. 6 that cans of insect repellent will be made available free of charge at visitor centers located near the state's borders. And yet, so far only NewsMax.com, the Medical Sentinel of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, the appendices in my book "Cuba in...

<p>Most researchers, policy analysts and public observers disapproved of last month's recommendation by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices to vaccinate only about 20,000 U.S. health-care workers against smallpox. Now, officials at the Department of Health and Human Services say they want to vaccinate even more workers, perhaps upwards of a half-million, beginning as early as the fall.</p>

Where some see a crisis, others see an opportunity. Last fall, five victims were murdered by anthrax-laced letters, but according to recent reports in such diverse sources as the socialist New York Times and neo-conservative weekly standard, the feds now have dozens, even hundreds of potential suspects. But not according to Barbara Hatch Rosenberg, whom I have dubbed the Dr. Strangelove of the American Left, far and away the most quoted "scientist" in anthrax stories. Rosenberg, who neither teaches nor conducts research, is a tenured, activist professor of environmental science at New York State's performing arts college at Purchase,...

........ The CDC does not expect a high level of public demand for the vaccine prior to an outbreak, Grant said. Mohammad Akhter, executive director of the American Public Health Association, agreed and said there has not been the same level of demand from the public for the smallpox vaccine as there was for Cipro during last year’s anthrax attacks. ........