Posted on 04/16/2002 8:33:09 PM PDT by Nogbad
I just heard an interview with someone named Andrew ?
(I didn't get the last name)
a Canadian
who reports on a meeting held jointly by the CIA and CSIS
(Canadian Security Intelligence Services)
who claims Iraq has developed Smallpox
and another disease called Camelpox
(for which there is no vaccine),
as well as Anthrax (of course).
He claims agents already probably are infiltrating
and estimated casualties
(infecting the NY subway, etc.)
would be 1,000,000 in New York and California.
Have a good night.
It is kind of hard to take it seriously when we can't check up on Andrew the Canadian's credibility and background. Why is he in the loop, and why is he making it public on a nighttime radio talk show?
(Does radio have sweeps month like teevee does?)
THE GENOME OF CAMELPOX VIRUS
Camelpox
Iraq: Presumably if you're working on camelpox you are working on smallpox.
Here's an Iraqi Biological Weapons website. Excerpt:
Camelpox: Camelpox causes fever and skin rash in camels but rarely infects humans. It is a virus closely related to smallpox; thus, Iraq may have been studying camelpox in order to learn more about using smallpox as a biological weapon. Iraq conducted preliminary studies on camelpox beginning in 1990 but is not known to have advanced farther.
However, as a Canadian, I know that CSIS is a very leaky organization.
They even have a tendency to lose briefcases full of secret documents.
Nevertheless, there are persistent reports that Saddam Hussein has been working on camelpox.
One theory is that this would be used as a safe vehicle for testing distribution methods and the like, and provide plausible deniability too.
Another theory is that he might think that immunity would be high among Iraqis, who have been exposed to the illness because of proximity to camels, but that it might cause serious illness among others. [As far as I can tell, this is, in fact, false.]
Another possibility is that the Iraqis were working on developing a strain or variant of camelpox which would be lethal to humans.
I think I heard that too. I know I've read about it someplace and it did have something to do with bio-terror. I'll check it out too.
thanks for the ping Nog!
One of the major wild cards in Iraq's bioweapons program has always been whether they had bio-engineering capability. Since this is becoming a widely known technology, it is quite possible that they do.
If they do, one possibility that has been widely discussed is development of an antibiotic resistant variant of anthrax. This would be militarily superior to unaltered anthrax because it would make it harder to protect our soldiers. This modification is less important if civilians are the target. Civilians are less likely to have been vacinated, and less likely to get treatment soon after exposure.
Camelpox would presumably need to be bioengineered in order to be dangerous to humans. That would seem to be possible (I have not seen it discussed). Perhaps Saddam thought he could create a disease that only Iraq and its allies would have an antidote for. Such a weapon would be fearsome indeed.
PDF file from Chemical and Biological Arms Control Institute
Ever heard of baskin robbins 31 flavors... yup. For every known military grade wmd... we have about that many hybrids... not to mention, lots of different kinds of nukes and energy weapons.
Sadaam is asking for hell. thinking he has something on us... which he does... gall. his followers will pull the same "we are the victims of the USA..." when we do to him, what we plan to do. despite all his rage, he is still just a rat in a cage... I still beleive that he cannot be saved.
In August 1990 the Iraqis looked at three viral agents: hemorrhagic conjunctivitis, human rotavirus, and camel pox. Camel pox is not a disease of humans, and usually does not affect humans. The Iraqis told UNSCOM that the Iraqi population lived with camels all their lives and were immune to this disease, but coalition forces were not. UNSCOM wondered whether they selected camel pox because it can be manipulated using genetic engineering. The Iraqis denied it.
Profile of a Proliferator: Iraq's Biological Weapons Program Very interesting article!
One more:
Besides smallpox, other viruses can potentially be used as weapons. For example, camel pox is a disease that blinds its victims by making the eyeballs bleed, produces balloon-like sores on the skin, and was actually found to be developed by Iraq. It is thought to be harmless to most Iraqis but not to foreigners.
sounds pretty bad to me! Here's the link
Below is an abstract from a scientific journal. The key is Camelpox is very closely related to smallpox. That means dealing with it allows one to be able to deal with smallpox. It is like a model system for them to develop smallpox.
They can learn to grow and weaponize camlpox and it can be applied to smallpox.
Camelpox itself isn't so deadly, but the biotech aspects are almost the same.
This is bad news. I don't put much stock into inside info concerning speculations on sleepers etc...But this info seems real about the Camelpox.
J Gen Virol 2002 Apr;83(Pt 4):855-872The sequence of camelpox virus shows it is most closely related to variola virus, the cause of smallpox.
Gubser C, Smith GL. Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3RE, UK Department of Infectious Diseases, Division of Investigative Science, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College, St Mary's Campus, Norfolk Place, London W2 1PG, UK.
Camelpox virus (CMPV) and variola virus (VAR) are orthopoxviruses (OPVs) that share several biological features and cause high mortality and morbidity in their single host species. The sequence of a virulent CMPV strain was determined; it is 202182 bp long, with inverted terminal repeats (ITRs) of 6045 bp and has 206 predicted open reading frames (ORFs). As for other poxviruses, the genes are tightly packed with little non-coding sequence. Most genes within 25 kb of each terminus are transcribed outwards towards the terminus, whereas genes within the centre of the genome are transcribed from either DNA strand. The central region of the genome contains genes that are highly conserved in other OPVs and 87 of these are conserved in all sequenced chordopoxviruses. In contrast, genes towards either terminus are more variable and encode proteins involved in host range, virulence or immunomodulation. In some cases, these are broken versions of genes found in other OPVs. The relationship of CMPV to other OPVs was analysed by comparisons of DNA and predicted protein sequences, repeats within the ITRs and arrangement of ORFs within the terminal regions. Each comparison gave the same conclusion: CMPV is the closest known virus to variola virus, the cause of smallpox.
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