Threat Matrix: Daily Terror Threat - Thread 5

CNN ^ | March 12, 2004

[thecabal]

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- This week's deadly train bombings in Spain will not lead to a rise in the U.S. color-coded terror threat alert system, a Department of Homeland Security spokesman said Friday.

"Based on the current intelligence, we have no specific indicators that terrorist groups are considering such an attack in the U.S. in the near term," said department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse.

[JustPiper]

Drug-resistant TB raging in Eastern Europe, Central Asia
Mon Mar 15

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=1508&u=/afp/20040316/hl_afp/health_tuberculosis_040316000401&printer=1

Netherlands facing large outbreak of drug resistant tuberculosis
Tue Mar 16 2004 10:28:07 ET

On the same day the World Health Organisation warned of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis raging in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, the Netherlands announced Tuesday that it is facing a large outbreak of the disease.

An Eastern European patient has infected six Dutch nationals with drug-resistant tuberculosis (MRD-TB), two of whom have developed pulmonary tuberculosis, the Dutch KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation and the Dutch Association of Municipal Health Services said in a joint press release.

"Although new cases cannot be ruled out as of yet, the outbreak is now under control," the statement said.

This is the first major outbreak of the disease in the Netherlands. Up to now the country had reported five to 10 isolated cases of drug-resistant TB each year. Usually the patients were not Dutch nationals, the health organizations said.

Developing...
http://www.drudgereport.com/flash5.htm
__________________________________________________________

Depressed man suffering from vCJD

Richard Poole probably caught the disease through infected meat A fashion photographer sectioned under the Mental Health Act was actually suffering from the human form of mad cow disease, an inquest heard.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/3516326.stm

Soldier first to get new 'mad cow' treatment

By LEON ALLIGOOD
Staff Writer

A Green Beret from Fort Campbell has become the first person in the nation to receive a new drug treatment for the human variant of mad cow disease.

http://www.tennessean.com/iraq/101/archives/04/03/48332780.shtml
_________________________________________________________

Locusts swarm across Australia

Locusts have moved into towns in New South Wales
A plague of locusts that has devastated crops in the Australian outback has begun migrating south.
Heavy rains that ended a long drought in north-eastern Australia has provided ideal breeding conditions for the bugs.

Officials said the swarms that appeared in remote parts of Queensland had moved to more built-up New South Wales.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3516132.stm
__________________________________________________________

Officials Worry of Pre-Election Attack

By TERENCE HUNT
AP White House Correspondent

March 15, 2004, 6:11 PM EST

WASHINGTON -- Even before the bombings in Madrid, White House officials were worrying that terrorists might strike the United States before the November elections.

Now, with the Socialists' surprise election victory in Spain, analysts believe the ballot box rebuke of one of President Bush's closest allies in the war in Iraq could embolden terrorists to try the same tactics in the United States to create fear and chaos.

http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-terrorism-election-impact,0,4359264,print.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines

[Teri0811]

"Bush vowed that terrorists will 'never shake the will of the United States. We understand the stakes.'"

Is that a dare or a double-dog dare?

[knak]

well jeesh, if you can't afford a wife.........

[Teri0811]

Well now I don't have to look later, the story's already been found...eesh, you guys are fast.

[JustPiper]

UNDIAGNOSED POISONING - IRAQ

Suspected poisoning due to gastrointestinal infections

---

50 cases of gastrointestinal illness (rather than 300-400 cases as
mentioned in the media) have been reported in Dohuk in northern Iraq.
27 percent of cases were reported from a housing complex in Khanak
inhabited by a religious sect, the Yazedia.

The clinical features shown were abdominal pain, diarrhoea, nausea,
vomiting, fever (especially in children), dehydration, headache, and
prostration. There has been one death from a heart attack in a doctor
recovering from diarrhoea.

Stool sampling has been carried out and has shown a high incidence of
_Entamoeba histolytica_, moreover water samples taken from housing
supplies in Khanak have shown the presence of _E. coli_ [_Escherichia
coli_ we presume]. The water supply network is in poor condition, and
there is contamination with sewage. Measures have been taken to
improve food hygiene and to treat domestic water supplies, and the
frequency of cases is now declining.

Dr. Omer Mekki
WHO Medical Officer, Amman
{{We are happy that there was no case of malicious poisoning and the
cause turned out to be a leaking sewage pipe. - Mod}}
_________________________________________________________

AVIAN INFLUENZA, H7, POULTRY - CANADA (BRITISH COLUMBIA)

Dr. Robert Parker Robert.Parker@fraserhealth.ca

The originating source interview (CP/Canadian Press wire story, on
mytelus.com/news) of this ProMED article below -- 20040313.0704 --
contains an error. It states the H7N3 virus causes "pink-eye" in
humans ....8th paragraph - "H7N3 commonly manifests as pink eye in
people, but there is worry that it could mutate and become more
deadly in people who are already suffering from the flu."

In Fraser Health Authority, we are not aware of any literature
stating that H7N3 causes human disease. The reporter/news article may
well have meant to say "some" H7 strains (or specifically the H7N7
strain, such as in Holland during 2003) is known to cause human
conjunctivitis, but not H7N3 strains specifically. There has been no
detected human illness in relation to this virus in BC. We are the
public health officials doing the symptom surveillance among the
exposed farm workers.

The error is an important difference to be corrected; if the
erroneous impression is left that the current H7N3 virus in BC is
causing some degree of human illness (conjunctivitis)... we have not
found that to be the case thus far.

Dr. Rob Parker
Medical Health Officer
Fraser Health Authority
#400 - 22470 Dewdney Trunk Road
Maple Ridge, B.C. V2X 5Z6

[JustPiper]

Muslim girl seeks $80,000 in lawsuit
2004-03-15
By The Associated Press

MUSKOGEE -- A lawsuit on behalf of a Muslim girl suspended from school for wearing a head scarf was amended Monday to include a demand for $80,000 in damages.
Attorneys for 11-year-old Nashala Hearn also added a claim in the lawsuit that Muskogee Public Schools violated the equal protection clause of the Constitution.

http://www.newsok.com/cgi-bin/show_article?ID=1198534

[JustPiper]

GLOBAL JIHAD
Al-Qaida plotted attacks to split Spain from allies
Document shows strategy to topple pro-U.S. government

Posted: March 16, 2004

Al-Qaida planned to carry out attacks to sever Madrid from the U.S. and its other allies in the war on terror, according to a document published months before Spain's national elections.

CNN said it obtained a copy of the document, posted in December on an Internet message board used by al-Qaida and its sympathizers.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=37605

WAR ON TERROR
Threats, action brought Gadhafi's in line Bush's bloodless victory in Libya shows role of force in diplomacy

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=37594

[TexKat]

Australia Says It Stands by the U.S.

Tue Mar 16,11:33 AM ET

By MIKE CORDER, Associated Press Writer

SYDNEY, Australia - Australia's foreign minister promised Tuesday that the government would not back away from its close alliance with the United States despite the terrorist bombing attacks on Spain, another member of the U.S.-led occupation force in Iraq.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer urged Spain's new prime minister not to pull its 1,300 troops from Iraq, as he has promised to do unless the United Nations takes over peacekeeping by June 30.

"It is enormously important that the international community send a strong message to al-Qaida," Downer told reporters. "We will maintain our determination and our resolve to defeat terrorism, not to have our policies dictated by terrorists," he added.

The Madrid bombings last Thursday, which killed 201 people have been blamed on Islamic militants linked to al-Qaida, and raised worries that Australia could be next. Australia sent 2,000 troops to Iraq as part of the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein and still has 850 military personnel there, while President Bush has described Prime Minister John Howard as his "sheriff" in Asia.

Howard has ordered a review of the vulnerability of Australia's sprawling transport network — from crowded Sydney trains and ferries to remote air strips and ports where security is virtually nonexistent.

John Pistole, the executive assistant director for counterterrorism with the FBI, acknowledged the risks Australia faces.

"Any country that allies itself with the United States, unfortunately, is a target," Pistole told Sydney's 2UE radio station. "I would agree with the statement that an attack is likely inevitable."

Howard's opponents see clear parallels between what happened in Spain last week and what could happen in Australia.

The new Spanish prime minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero won an upset victory in elections Sunday over the ruling Popular Party. Most Spaniards opposed former Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar's support of the Iraq war, and many believed he made Spain a target for terrorists by his pro-U.S. policies.

Australia has elections later this year. The opposition Labor Party, which currently leads Howard's government in opinion polls, was against the Iraq conflict and Howard's decision to join the U.S.-led invasion.

Howard and his conservative government acknowledge the terror menace, but deny that it is any worse since it sent 2,000 troops to the Iraq war last year. His alliance with the United States is unlikely to change.

He firmly believes that Australia's military alliance with Washington signed after the war remains key to his country's national security.

Australians have fought alongside American forces in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq. But now the threat of terror looms closer to home.

On Oct. 12, 2002, al-Qaida-linked Islamic extremists bombed two bars on the vacation island of Bal. Eighty-eight of the 202 people killed were Australian tourists.

After the Bali bombs, federal police and intelligence agents raided homes of Muslims across Australia in an attempt to gauge the strength here of Jemaah Islamiyah, the Southeast Asian group held responsible.

Authorities said they found no al-Qaida cells.

Howard downplayed the fears, but also conceded Australia is no longer immune from terror attacks.

"This is still by world standards a very safe country, but I'm very sad to report as prime minister that because of changed circumstances nobody can assume that this country is safe from attack," Howard told Sydney radio station 2GB on Tuesday.

[JustPiper]

Algeria having a problem just before their's also, posted after this

[Mrs. Xtrmst]

There are no words to describe such depravity.

[Mrs. Xtrmst]

There are no words to describe such depravity.

[JustPiper]

I have a sick feeling that every ally with an election this year is going to steadily be hit

[Mrs. Xtrmst]

There are no words to describe such depravity.

[JustPiper]

SC look what Mama Found!

[JustPiper]

State of the Union by Brad Thor is more real for us than Clancy even -shiver-

[JustPiper]

Drudge is saying there is now two more

[GOPJ]

"I'm a bean counter" is fake, right?

When you consider the big picture, outsourcing is is the way to go, says Ima Beancounter of the US Government General Accounting Office. "It makes sense.

[JustPiper]

It was bad this morning, it is horribly slow now!

[JustPiper]

Wow!

[JustPiper]

That is exactly what they are saying! I posted two posts about the scarf thing...one is a kid suing her school in OK!