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.

[Domestic Church]

"Also Midhat Mursi is still at large"

He's their top banana bomb expert. Hope they have his photo up all over the southwest.

[jerseygirl]

I just went over to the CDC site- where they have an extensive list of biopathogens.
(E.coli is one of them.)

[WestCoastGal]

Haven't been able to find a picture of him anywhere.

[Letitring]

PING. :)

[WestCoastGal]

All kinds of stories with no answers or that just fade away. I hope someone is minding the store on all of these besides us. I wonder if this e-coli thing could be somehow manipulated into a weapon by contaminating food.

I see your movie came out today. :-)

[Myrddin]

The answer is C - "Everyone should know where it is located in case of an emergency" What does this mean? I think that it is obvious.

The obvious answer is so you can turn it OFF if the equipment is malfunctioning. Fancy transmitters with voice activation (VOX) can key up and stay up in error. Turning off the equipment is sometimes necessary to regain control. Old tube equipment and even some new equipment can have component failures that will initiate a fire. Killing power is imperative.

Nobody is going to castigate you for making a call that is necessary to save a life. When help arrives, the justification to bend the law ceases.

If you already have your 2m rig, check for a local ARES net. They often meeting on a Sunday evening on 146.52 simplex. Listen to how the communications are conducted. Once you get your license, get active with the local emergency services people. You want to know their names, call signs and how they fit into the local picture. The time to do that is well before an emergency occurs. When it occurs, you will know who to call and they will know that you are present and prepared a participate.

I keep a 2m rig that works a 1/2 watt, 1 watt, 5 watts and 45 watts. A cigarette lighter power adapter and mag mount antenna round out the package. Put it in a small gym bag with a flashlight, spare fuses, a local repeater frequency book and some light snacks. You'll be ready to roll immediately in your own vehicle or as a liason to the police, fire, public works or city staff. You would be surprised at how easily the expensive police/fire radios fail to get the job done. Especially with an unexpected power outage.

Do you have a laptop computer? Get a cigarette lighter adapter,TNC packet controller, GPS and some decent mapping software. Those are essentials to support the logistics at a fire camp. A small 5 element beam can be useful for a fire camp too...sometimes you need the extra oomph to get the signal out of a remote site. Practice sending textual messages between stations. In a real fire, you'll be making lists of people, materials and locations and transmitting them error free to the remote location.

It sounds like you are working on your license already. Get it and have fun. Get all the experience you can muster. When the time comes to serve in an emergency situation, you'll be ready to be a value asset.

[jerseygirl]

:)
Maybe we ought to develop some kind of chart-incident/date-followup?

[Myrddin]

Thanks to both of you for the additional information about dealing with diabetics. My dad did a very good job of controlling his blood sugar. Unfortunately, it was more of what I would term the "Irish coffee" method. Way too much carbohydrate intake balanced with enough insulin to lock his sugar levels at the approved point. My personal opinion is that he kept his circulating insulin levels too high and paid for that decision with deteriorating eyesight. He also showed signs of Parkinson's or Alzheimer's over the last year. He passed on from a sudden case of pneumonia that struck just after Thanksgiving. His condition went steadily downhill until Dec 17th when the doctors admitted that his brain, liver, kidneys and lungs were permanently and irretrievably damaged. We are out of the diabetic business for now.

[jerseygirl]

I remember reading somewhere that e.coli could be used as a weapon.

Any ideas on what those children in PA may have?

[Myrddin]

I wonder if, given all the threats, emergency room doctors are alerted to suspect bioterrorism when large clusters of people come in with the same symptoms.

I'm afraid the emergency room docs in my town would not recognize a disease even if it was tattooed on the victim's forehead. Many ER docs are very focused on dealing with stabilizing trauma cases, drug overdoses and acute stuff like heart attacks. The offer top notch service on the common problems.

Large clusters of people with the same symptoms is likely the only way that a diagnostic process would go down a correct and consistent path...assuming the staff even recognizes a pattern of common symptoms within the set of patients waiting to be seen.

[WestCoastGal]

Do you want to volunteer or we should ask MamaDearest?

[jerseygirl]

"I'm afraid the emergency room docs in my town would not recognize a disease even if it was tattooed on the victim's forehead"

Thanks for the humor break!

[jerseygirl]

I'd be glad to Help sort through incidents and followup- MamaDearest and others are so much more organized!

[WestCoastGal]

Amazing what you find when you go looking. These were tests done many years ago by our DOD, I have never heard of before. One was e-coli.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Civilians were not believed to have been affected in California because the four tests conducted there – including two first reported Wednesday – were all conducted off the San Diego coast in the Pacific Ocean, according to the Pentagon analysis.

Defense officials insisted that civilians were exposed only to live biological agents that simulated more deadly agents in the way they spread, but were themselves believed to be harmless. However, the simulated substances included E. coli and other agents that were later found to be harmful or fatal to young children, the elderly and those with compromised immune systems.

http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/bioter/coldwarbioweapontests.html

[Myrddin]

E. coli is a common enteric bacterium. Humans depend upon E. coli to synthesize vitamin K in our guts. There is a specific antigenic variant (0157:H7) that produces a toxin that attacks the kidneys and causes bloody diarrhea. Meat processing plants (chicken and beef) end up with a fair amount of fecal contamination. That's why it is critical to cook meats to a "done" level to kill the bacteria.

It can take up to 3 days for an E. coli 0157:H7 infection to start showing symptoms. Slipping it into a water or fruit juice source would be harder to detect and avoid. Spraying a contaminated solution over the shredded lettuce and tomatoes at a fast food joint would be a simple technique as well. The kitchen entry door at a fast food restaurant would be a simple target too. This is all "kitchen table" biowarfare.

[JustPiper]

Have you seen this?

Arab men with weapons, maps, Mexican driver's licenses, apprehended attempting to enter U.S.
Rick Roberts Radio Show AM760 KFMB, San Diego | March 26, 2004 | Rick Roberts Show caller

Posted on 03/28/2004 12:55:28 PM CST by John Jorsett

I heard this on Friday and have been waiting to see if it got picked up anywhere. So far, total silence in the news media
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1106749/posts

[WestCoastGal]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/2634753.stm

From the link................
"There are hundreds if not thousands of micro-organisms out there which a terrorist could use instead of smallpox, " he said.

"So are we now going to have to stock up vaccines for each of these too? I could name ebola, plague, botulin, or e-coli, to name just a few of those which could be used.

"We also know that our actions tend to educate terrorists as well as cranks. And the one thing you can almost guarantee now is that they would be unlikely to try to use smallpox."

[JustPiper]

Amen

[WestCoastGal]

Hee's one more, I guess we could go on forever on this subject.....(this one could be courtesy of the illegals coming across the border)

Even before the clamor over smallpox's potential as a bio-terror weapon, scientists raised the alarm about the growing number of potent and easily transmittable diseases.

One of the most urgent growing threats is multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), which is caused by an organism that is essentially the same as the one that causes regular TB — but has developed an immunity to the antibiotics usually used to treat it.

Scientists fear a sufferer of MDR-TB could be used as a sort of human germ bomb, a disease passed from one person to the next and the next. And it's not the only disease that could be used this way.

There's much more information about all bio/weapons at link...


http://abcnews.go.com/sections/world/DailyNews/biothreats020930.html

[JustPiper]

Good to see you Cindy ;)
Went out and bought an external modem for my laptop today!