Biological Weapons Found in Ji Raid

The Philippines military says it has discovered traces of possible biological weapons in a raid on a suspected hideout of Southeast Asian terror group Jemaah Islamiah in the southern Philippine city of Cotabato.

A senior military official says possible residues of a "tetanus virus-carrying chemical was among those found" in Sunday's raid, along with a "bio-terror manual".

Bomb-making materials, documents and notes on assembling rocket-propelled grenades were also found during the raid, but no suspects were arrested.

Military spokesman Major General Rodolfo Garcia says the documents refer to Jemaah Islamiah, but has refused to elaborate further.

Last week authorities arrested key Jemaah Islamiah suspect Taufiq Rifqi in another raid in Cotabato. He’s said to be the second most important Jemaah Islamiah operative in the Philippines after fellow Indonesian Fathur Roman Al-Ghozi, who was killed by security forces in a gun battle on October 12.

Sorry, I wasn't very clear. And I missed your post forever ;-)

Clostridium sp. (tetanus, gangrene, botulism) is different from Bacillus sp. (anthrax, food poisoning, etc.). Clostridium is strictly anaerobic (loves low or no-oxygen environments such as cans or infected wounds), while Bacillus can live under both conditions. Both clostridia and bacilli are spore-formers when environmental conditions aren't favorable for them, though clostridial spores aren't as narly as hardy as those of bacilli.

Tetanus (Clostridium tetani) causes disease by excreting a toxin which bonds to nerve end-plates, causing severe spasms - similar but not quite the same as that which nerve agents do. Clostridium botulinum is the reason for the canning industry, and his cousin Clostridium perfringens is the reason for the autoclave (basically a smaller version of the pressure-steam can heater). These diseases are generally treated with anti-sera or anti-toxins.

Anthrax (Bacillus anthracis) causes disease by direct infection, and these bacteria grow so fast that they choke the host's cells with their waste products. Bacilli are so wimpy with regards to antibiotics that some are used to test food products for the presence of antibiotics.

But... when the Anthrax scare was going around, I was carrying some of this stuff in my pocket ;-)

Speaking of al Ghozi :

During his clandestine operations Sufaat is said to have met several times with Fathuir Rahman Ghozi, an extremist Indonesian militant living in the Philippines and suspected of having organized an attack last December against the U.S. embassy in Singapore. ------ "Al Qaeda's Malaysian Links ," Intelligence Online POLITICAL INTELLIGENCE; TERRORISM / MALAYSIA; N. 425 March 14, 2002

so who's this Sufaat guy?

Well, he's this guy:

Sufaat was arrested in December last year following a petition filed by the FBI against a French-Morocan citizen Zacharias Massaoui, who is believed to be the first Al-Qaeda operative charged in court. In the pettition, Yazid Sufaat’s name was mentioned as a business sponsor of Massaoui, who was entitled to a salary of US2000 for representing the import export company of Sufaat. ------- "Alleged Al-Qaeda Operative Sufaat Denies Terror Charges," Islam Online ^ | April 14 2002 | Kazi Mahmood

So, what about Sufaat? Seems he was into bioweapons research :

[Abdur] 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.
-------- "Suspect and A Setback In Al-Qaeda Anthrax Case - Scientist With Ties To Group Goes Free," Washington Post ^ | October 31, 2006 | Joby Warrick

So who is this Abdur Rauf?

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. ------- "Suspect and A Setback In Al-Qaeda Anthrax Case - Scientist With Ties To Group Goes Free," Washington Post ^ | October 31, 2006 | Joby Warrick

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.