Posted on 10/13/2001 5:02:03 PM PDT by Diogenesis
Iraq 'behind US anthrax outbreaks'
David Rose and Ed Vulliamy, New York
Sunday October 14, 2001
The Observer
American investigators probing anthrax outbreaks in
Florida and New York believe they have all the
hallmarks of a terrorist attack - and have named Iraq
as prime suspect as the source of the deadly spores.
Their inquiries are adding to what US hawks say is a
growing mass of evidence that Saddam Hussein was
involved, possibly indirectly, with the 11 September
hijackers.
If investigators' fears are confirmed - and sceptics
fear American hawks could be publicising the claim to
press their case for strikes against Iraq - the pressure
now building among senior Pentagon and White
House officials in Washington for an attack may
become irresistible.
Plans have been discussed among Pentagon
strategists for US air strike support for armed
insurrections against Saddam by rebel Kurds in the
north and Shia Muslims in the south with a promise of
American ground troops to protect the oilfields of
Basra.
Contact has already been made with an Iraqi
opposition group based in London with a view to
installing its members as a future government in
Baghdad.
Leading US intelligence sources, involved with both
the CIA and the Defence Department, told The
Observer that the 'giveaway' which suggests a state
sponsor for the anthrax cases is that the victims in
Florida were afflicted with the airborne form of the
disease.
'Making anthrax, on its own, isn't so difficult,' one
senior US intelligence source said. 'But it only begins
to become effective as a biological weapon if they
can be made the right size to breathe in. If you can't
get airborne infectivity, you can't use it as a weapon.
That is extremely difficult. There is very little leeway.
Most spores are either too big to be suspended in air,
or too small to lodge on the lining of the lungs.'
As claims about an Iraqi link grew, senior health
officials in Britain revealed they warned all the
country's GPs last week to be vigilant about the
disease. 'I think we have to be prepared to think the
unthinkable,' said the Government's Chief Medical
Officer, Dr Liam Donaldson. The Department of
Health confirmed the Government is conducting an
urgent review of Britain's ability to cope with chemical
or biological attacks.
US intelligence believes Iraq has the technology and
supplies of anthrax suitable for terrorist use. 'They
aren't making this stuff in caves in Afghanistan,' the
CIA source said. 'This is prima facie evidence of the
involvement of a state intelligence agency. Maybe Iran
has the capability. But it doesn't look likely politically.
That leaves Iraq.'
Last autumn Mohamed Atta is said by US intelligence
officials to have met in Prague an agent from Iraqi
intelligence called Ahmed Samir al-Ahani, a former
consul later expelled by the Czechs for activities not
compatible with his diplomatic mission.
The Czechs are also examining the possibility that
Atta met a former director of Saddam's external
secret services, Farouk Hijazi, at a second meeting in
the spring. Hijazi is known to have met Bin Laden.
It was confirmed yesterday that Jim Woolsey, CIA
director from 1993 to 1996, recently visited London on
behalf of the hawkish Defence Department to 'firm up'
other evidence of Iraqi involvement in 11 September.
The story doesn't suggest that the Iraqis were behind the distribution of the Anthrax to the victims, only that they supplied it to the terrorists.
An entire nation's economy going through a solitary dictator's hands, and he spends it bribing, extorting, researching and manufacturing weapons, while the "Great Satan" of the Western world spends more money on keeping his citizens alive then he does. OPEC oil can buy a lot of weak American lab workers.
A few tactical nukes are far better than that virus loose.
"Skeptics" is a code word for "Guardian writers and editors."
But ultimately, I think their objective is not so much murder, or even just simply causing mass fear and panic, but rather MASSIVE ECONOMIC DISRUPTION. What are some of the common threads for the attacks so far: key pieces of our societal infrastructure and economy. Air travel, postal service, media, microsoft(and perhaps later cyber attacks on our internet related infrastructure). Other targets subjected to suspicious activities so far(though perhaps diversionary) include water supply, electrical supply, and entertainment complexes. If I were them, I'd forget the Sears tower, and go after random strikes in suburban areas on icons of the consumer economy: walmarts, grocery stores, malls, restaurants, theaters. And then the most chilling blows of all, children, such as in daycare centers, via both violent and infectious methods. Most effective way reduce mothers in the workforce.
Goodness I hope that I'm wrong, but they seem to be methodical, patient, and well-planned.
I agree. Incinerate them. We would have done as much to the Soviets during the Cold War, had they been so foolish as to move against us with a chemical, biological, or nuclear "weapon of mass destruction." Such was the stated U.S. policy, I believe. It's unfortunate, perhaps, but if Iraq is indeed behind this, the entirety of the country and its inhabitants need to be eliminated from the face of the Earth.
This actually presents us with a golden opportunity. If it can be traced to that bufoon in Baghdad, we have a Casus Belli. We even have a legal right to use low-yield burrow nukes (that B-61 model) on his WMD bunkers.
Again, there is a reason that Powell never completely ruled out Iraq as a coconspirator.
Be Seeing You,
Chris
I have my pencil eraser at the ready. Please inform me when I can rub "Baghdad" from the map of the Middle East. I'm serious. Even if they didn't have anything to do with the current anthrax outbreak, we know they are working around the clock on biological and nuclear weapons to use against us. It's them or us.
Two things on this. One is that there is a part of the Bible that tells about Iraq being desolate and never being lived in again. It's something that happens to them, and makes it uninhabitable over there. One can only guess what that may be that makes it so. Perhaps a series of atomic bombs? Don't know...
And secondly, all the Arab countries have already erased Israel from their maps. They don't have "Israel" on their maps at all. Some have it labeled Palestine, others have it labeled with absolutely nothing on their maps. One example of that -- is Egypt airlines, and the maps which show where they fly. They don't even label Israel as existing at all. Hmmmm...
Are they trying to "say something"?
Just how much proof do you think it should take. 100,000 dead, or would it take 1,000,000. Just wondering.
Right. But there are a number of places in this world that need attention. Israel is one of them, for sure. Also Indonesia, ect. The list goes on.
For now however, Osama is the man, and the Taliban is the faction.
Never split your forces!
"I will give each of you each one wish, that's three wishes total," says the Genie.
The Canadian says, "I am a farmer, my dad was a farmer, and my son will also farm. I want the land to be forever fertile in Canada."
With a blink of the Genie's eye, 'POOF' the land in Canada was forever made fertile for farming.
Osama bin Laden was amazed, so he said, "I want a wall around both Afghanistan AND Iraq, so that no infidels, Jews or Americans can come into our precious state."
Again, with a blink of the Genie's eye, 'POOF' there was a huge wall around Afghanistan and Iraq.
George W. Bush (A former civil engineer), asks, "I'm very curious. Please tell me more about this wall."
The Genie explains, "Well, it's about 15,000 feet high, 500 feet thick and completely surrounds the country; nothing can get in or out---virtually impenetrable."
George W. Bush says, "Fill them with concrete."
So what is supposed to motivate Hussein to do attack us with antrhax, according to those who pin the deed on him?
I guess someone might speculate that Hussein would be hoping to inflame Muslims in the Middle East through instigating a massive U.S. response. But how Hussein is supposed to see his own government surviving an American retaliation, whatever else might come of the situation in the Middle East afterward, is very hard to see.
So, I'm skeptical that Hussein himself is behind any anthrax release in the U.S. That terrorists might have gotten ahold of anthrax through contacts in Iraq without the Iraqi government knowing about it seems more likely to me.
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