Russians knew West's germ warfare secrets

The Daily Telegraph ^ | February 12, 2005 | By Ben Fenton

[Calpernia]

ping

[konaice]

Another agent ran a spy ring inside the World Health Organisation.

More likey:

Another agent ran THE SPY RING THAT IS the World Health Organization.....

[spetznaz]

According to Abalek Russia was carrying bio-capable ICBM tests as late as 1995 (the warhead's shape was different and cooler than the rest of the missile).

Anyways, whatever the case biological weapons i guess would seem to those who use them as a perfect weapon during an Armageddon scenario. After all, nukes will destroy both nations, thus why not strike with biological weapons as well to make sure that whatever is not tainted by radiation is crippled by disease? And since this would be during the occurence of a nuclear conflagration it really wouldn't matter even if super-virulent strains of spliced smallpox was released (even though it would have a high chance of eventually getting back to the nation that created it. Why care if you would not be alive!)

[GeronL]

Those leftists are still working for the KGB!

[steve86]

You never know whether to believe these defector stories. Been burned before. But assuming this is true it is quite scary. Shelf lives of some biological agents are quite limited; others, like anthrax spores, will outlast any of us.

[Dark Wing]

This will interest you.

[steve86]

And you have to wonder if there has been some breakthrough in preservation technology: something like freeze-drying bacteria that later would be reconstituted. I'm pretty sure similar scenarios exist in nature; will have to rely on my biologist friends to confirm.

[Shermy]

He added that one of the great discoveries of his department was that any exchange of biological weapons during the last stages of the Cold War would have been one-sided because the West had no plans for such a strike.

Hmmm...who was the fellow who convinced Kissinger and Nixon there was no Soviet program...

What's he doing these day?

[NordP]

Shhhh! Terrorists are listening.

sheesh.

[Rudder]

phials of lethal bacteria

[Tacis]

Of course they did! First, you got Willie and the many other leftie but promising kids who were turned on all expense paid sex and drug-fests in Moscow in the '60s and '70s (all the film Russia has on the thousands of Western kids, mostly males, may really be worth something). Then, ther are all the deep commies in the US Sate Department who have been there since McCarthy outed them and are still there to this day. Maybe, one day, we'll clean out State!

[DTA]

>>>>You never know whether to believe these defector stories.<<<<

1. Gelen's network bilked Company while providing fake information

2. Iraqi congress spun tall tales

Probably there is much more. Whoever deflected wanted to present himself/herself as valuable asset.

I am suspicious about the timing of release of this story. Yesterday, it was Novikov's "Ruskies run AQ", last week "Ruskies are comming, Ruskies are comming"...

At the same time, Dims accuse Condie of being a liar.

Methinks someone wants to provoke Condie's kneejerk reaction and put her into defensive Cold War mindset.

Not good, not good at all.

[endthematrix]

" I'm pretty sure similar scenarios exist in nature"

Bubonic Plague that ravaged the Asian steppes and Europe slowed in winter. That's when the rats nested in holes. When the weather warmed...out came the nasties again.

[esoxmagnum]

Heck it was probly Hill/Bill that gave them the secrets for campagn contributions, ala Korea and China

[SAJ]

Do that, laddie. While you're at it, ask your ''biologist'' friends -- the notion of BW has little to do with practical biology, I do hope your friends have dealt in what is usually termed the field of ''bioweaponry'' -- Question: What naturally and commonly occurring (and usually highly lethal, to H. Sapiens) **bacterial** agent, not viral, not biochemical, is it that can be absorbed right through the skin?

Just for your convenience, the answer to this Q has been known for some decades. The difficulty in turning this particular bacterium into an effective BW agent is...that noone has been willing to attempt to aerosolise it on a WMD basis; the risk of losing a top scientist IN such attempt is/has been generally deemed unacceptable. (smile...)

So...your answer to the Q is:

________________ .

Do fill in the blank, when or if you can do. Thank you!

[steve86]

Man you're strange

[steve86]

For the "first Yale graduate in logic" you sure are slow on the uptake (Alzheimer's setting in?). My "biologist" comment was with respect to natural scenarios, not bioweaponry,

[UCANSEE2]

Have you noticed the 'strange' deaths of an unusual amounts of bio-weapons scientists?

[SAJ]

With respect, m'friend -- no species of rat has ever ''spread'' any sort of plague. However, rats do and always have served as primary transport vectors FOR the little critters that DO spread almost all strains of plague, to wit, fleas. The plague flea (there are numerous different known species/sub-species, if you care -- taxonomic arguments rage on this topic) that carries Yersinia pestis, the infamous plague bacterium. will bite ANY warm-blooded critter -- rabbits, hedgehogs, horses, pigs, humans, even likely enough cold-blooded pols such as Hitlery.

What medical science knows is that the bacterium Y. pestis is generally benign, a nothing bacterium among millions in the world, that happens to live, under normal conditions, in the guts of various species of fleas. Ordinarily, this bacterium just sits around and minds its own business.

What medical science does NOT know is what event/sequence of events/dietary change/other factors cause one of Y. pestis' genes, specifically the 'hemin storage' gene, to switch on. When this gene does switch on, Y. pestis becomes incredibly virulent; somehow multiplies its rate of reproduction almost factorially over time, a rate that occurs almost nowhere else in nature. The flea's natural metabolism can't cope with this gigantic expansion of an alien organism w/in its body.

As one of many results thereof, the flea loses part or all of its ability to digest food, and -- somewhat similarly to a drunk who wants to puke out the contents of his/her/its stomach (this comparison is of course not precise) -- tries to disgorge the too-numerous bacteria into the flesh of other critters by biting any critter that has warm blood...wups, that means you and me included.

You could kill every rat, every member of any species or sub-species or variant of rat, in the world tomorrow morning, and burn the carcasses...and you would still have the occasional plague outbreak for as long a period as you would care to consider.

My apologies to all biopathologists for any and all misstatements/omissions in the process dispersion above regarding Y. pestis. Most of the above is accurate; I've doubtless omitted or poorly explained one or another significant features of the process.

Nonetheless, RATS aren't the villains, necessarily, in the dispersal of plague; they're just a common transport vector for the spread of the disease. Blaming rats (and I've no love at all for rats, btw, so pls spare me the 'Willard' comments) is just blaming the messenger for something not in its/their control.