Back to the Airline threats...................
Are Euro airlines
inviting next 9-11?
Officials see lax security
on cross-Atlantic flights
Posted: June 14, 2004
1:00 a.m. Eastern
Editor's note: Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin is an online, subscription intelligence news service from the creator of WorldNetDaily.com – a journalist who has been developing sources around the world for the last 25 years.
© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com
Airline-industry security officials say the potential for another 9-11-style attack on the U.S. is still high – especially from foreign, cross-Atlantic flights not heeding security precautions adopted by U.S. carriers following the 2001 terrorist-hijacking suicide assaults.
Risk analysis evaluations done by security officials show the threat of flight from Europe hitting a major U.S. target is still high, reveals Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, the premium, online intelligence newsletter published by WND.
Trans-Atlantic flights more vulnerable to terror?
The report indicates security officials have hard intelligence terrorists based in Europe or in the Middle East might once again use a passenger plane to hit a U.S. target – not necessarily a high-profile target such as in the case of the Twin Towers or the Pentagon, but rather a target that could result in mass destruction such as nuclear and chemical plants or ammunition depots.
The analysis is based in part on the fact passengers of diverse ethnicities and religions use cross-Atlantic flights from such countries as the UK and Germany. Air-travel security officers are of the opinion such a hijacking attack can be planned to occur at the end of a long flight when passengers and cabin crew are less alert.
One major weakness, which terrorists might exploit to their advantage in such a scenario, is what analysts call "the knock on the door surprise," reports G2 Bulletin. Many airlines arriving in the U.S., they say, whether originating in Europe or elsewhere, do not adhere to basic security requirements such as keeping the cockpit door locked from before takeoff until after landing.
One option being weighed is to force every airline, whether carrying a U.S. flag or not, to employ rigid measures, including training of cabin personnel on how to behave if a suspicious passenger tries to reach the cockpit area.
In one scenario, hijackers reach the cockpit by going to the washroom closest to it. This is definitely a possibility for business or first-class passengers, or even for others who simply choose the right moment to walk into the restricted area.
One analyst believes terrorists might try to threaten the lives of passengers and cabin crew to convince the pilots to open the cockpit door. Such a situation could be the most difficult to handle, since some foreign pilots are not trained to handle the horrific possibility of passengers and crew being executed by the terrorists.
Experts stress the need to have a fortified cockpit door, including the possibility of adding a small video camera covering the immediate area around the door and maybe even throughout the cabin.
Not every flight arriving in the U.S. originates from countries with high-security standards, and terrorists are known to have the ability to examine possibilities on aircraft arriving from all corners of the world.
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=38931Ugly:
Health Officials Fear New Mosquito Disease By DANIEL YEE
Associated Press Writer
ATLANTA (AP) -- As if West Nile virus wasn't bad enough, now U.S. health officials are on the lookout for another mosquito-borne disease, fearing it could become a permanent part of the American landscape if it entered the country.
Rift Valley fever, which originated in Africa and hasn't been seen outside that continent in three years, is the only disease at the top of both human health and agriculture lists of dangerous diseases.
The virus can kill people, with a near 1 percent mortality rate, making it deadlier than West Nile. But Rift Valley poses a greater threat to cattle and sheep.
It kills up to 30 percent of the livestock it infects and if it were found in animals here, it would probably prompt livestock bans by other countries.
"This is not a disease that occurs here now, but we want to make sure people are aware of the signs and symptoms," said Dr. Thomas Ksiazek, chief of the special pathogens branch of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "The medical and public health community need to be mindful of it."
Most people get a flu-like illness when infected. Some may develop serious symptoms, including liver or kidney disease, Ksiazek said.
About 14 percent of those seriously ill with Rift Valley fever in previous outbreaks died. West Nile kills about 10 percent of those with serious complications, such as brain inflammation.
The virus is worrisome because at least 30 species of mosquitoes are capable of carrying it from cattle or sheep to humans, far more than the kind of mosquitoes that can carry West Nile. People also can catch it by handling the blood or fluids of an infected animal.
Scientists said that Rift Valley fever was being researched as a possible weapon during the Cold War and showed promise because of its stability in an aerosol form.
Despite the concern, health and agricultural officials have been slow to prepare for Rift Valley, said Dr. Corrie Brown, a professor of veterinary pathology at the University of Georgia and a member of the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture's advisory committee for animal and poultry diseases.
"I think people weren't very worried about it until we started to think about agri-terror," Brown said.
The disease could appear here as mysteriously as West Nile, which first showed up as the culprit in the unexplained deaths of birds in New York in 1999.
The virus was first identified in a 1930 sheep outbreak in Kenya's Rift Valley in eastern Africa. For the next 70 years, it remained on the continent, emerging for the first time outside of Africa in outbreaks in Saudi Arabia and Yemen in 2000. In those cases, about 100 people died and 800 became ill.
Luckily, the virus seems to have disappeared, and there have been no new cases outside of Africa since 2001.
Rift Valley fever is one of several emerging viruses being studied by the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas. One focus is better vaccines, since there is no approved vaccine for people or livestock in case of an outbreak, Ksiazek said. The military developed a vaccine that has been approved for testing in people.
"It would really be hard to control this without a vaccine," said Dr. C.J. Peters, director of the biodefense center at UTMB in Galveston.