Posted on 07/28/2008 8:37:15 AM PDT by DAVEY CROCKETT
Is U.S. Bioterror Attack Just A Matter of Time?
The overriding question is whether the U.S. is “ready” for a bioterror attack. The answer could well rely on the “other” question of what bio-agent and what’s the source? In 1991, 40,000 Russian scientists dispersed throughout the World, with knowledge of what the U.S.S.R. was doing in chemical and biological weapons. The question is to whom did they sell their knowledge? Some believe former Soviet scientists sold technology to countries like Iran, Syria, and North Korea. Lurking is the spectre of al-Qaeda, a group that the Pentagon says continues to pursue biological weapons.
Another scenario is an outbreak of a pandemic. How would the U.S. deal with an infectious disease outbreak? The picture, despite reassurances, is not pretty. Until now, the U.S. has experienced two major biological attacks.
In 1984, the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and his followers attempted to take over the town of the Dalles, Oregon by contaminating salad bars in the town. In 2001, there was the as yet unsolved mystery of the anthrax letters that killed five people.
But the question of bioterrorism extends to potential threats against our food supply and our clean water resources. It also extends to the threat of outbreaks of diseases in our animals populations. Here, the concern are diseases that attack animals but that can jump to humans. These are referred to as zoonotic diseases. The World Health Organization defines zonnotic diseases as:
Read More
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5513
Russia considers nuclear missiles for Syria, Mediterranean, Baltic
DEBKAfile Special Report
August 21, 2008, 9:10 AM (GMT+02:00)
Russia’s nuclear-capable Iskandar missile
Russia’s nuclear-capable Iskandar missile
DEBKAfile’s military sources report Moscow’s planned retaliation for America’s missile interceptors in Poland and US-Israeli military aid to Georgia may come in the form of installing Iskandar surface missiles in Syria and its Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad.
Russian Baltic and Middle East warships, submarines and long-range bombers may be armed with nuclear warheads, according to Sunday newspapers in Europe.
In Georgia, Russian troops and tanks advanced to within 30 km of Tbilisi Saturday, Aug. 15. A Russian general said Sunday they had started pulling out after president Dimitry Medvedev signed the ceasefire agreement with Georgia and president George W. Bush called again for an immediate withdrawal.
After routing Georgia over the breakaway enclaves of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Moscow appears to be eying Poland, the Middle East, and possibly Ukraine, as the main arenas for its reprisals.
One plan on the table in Moscow, DEBKAfile’s sources report, is the establishment of big Russian military, naval and air bases in Syria and the release of advanced weapons systems withheld until now to Iran (the S-300 air-missile defense system) and Syria (the nuclear-capable 200 km-range Iskandar surface missile).
Shortly before the Georgian conflict flared, Moscow promised Washington not to let Iran and Syria have these sophisticated pieces of hardware.
The Iskander’s cruise attributes make its launch and trajectory extremely hard to detect and intercept. If this missile reaches Syria, Israel will have to revamp its anti-missile defense array and Air Force assault plans for the third time in two years, as it constitutes a threat which transcends all its defensive red lines.
Moscow’s war planners know this and are therefore considering new sea and air bases in Syria as sites for the Iskander missiles. Russia would thus keep the missiles under its hand and make sure they were not transferred to Iran. At the same time, Syrian crews would be trained in their operation.
DEBKAfile’s military sources report Syrian president Bashar Assad will be invited to Moscow soon to finalize these plans in detail.
Military spokesmen in Moscow said Saturday and Sunday that Russian military planners to started redesigning the nation’s strategic plans for a fitting response to America’s decision to install 10 missile interceptors in Poland and the war developments in Georgia.
The chairman of the Israeli Knesset foreign affairs and defense committee, Tzahi Hanegbi, spoke out strongly Sunday, Aug. 17, against treasury plans to slash the defense budget. He warned that the military faced grave confrontations in the coming year - possibly on several fronts.
Briefcase left on Mich. Ave.
5:40 PM CHICAGO (WLS) — Chicago police have closed northbound Michigan Avenue at Huron on the near North Side.
Police say someone left a briefcase there along the block.
Police are investigating and have closed down traffic along that block. They hope to reopen it soon.
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=6342999
Phew! I left the area about 1 1/2 hours before this. Traffic, I hear is a nightmare now.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080821/ts_alt_afp/usvotemccainthreat_080821231905
McCain staff quarantined after suspicious letter: US Secret Service
39 minutes ago
Staff members at Republican White House hopeful John McCain’s Colorado headquarters were quarantined Thursday after receiving a letter containing a threat and a suspicious white powder, the US Secret Service said.
“McCain staffers reported that they had received an envelope containing white powder in McCain’s campaign office in Centennial, Colorado,” Secret Service spokesman Eric Zahren told AFP.
“The staff has been quarantined and the building has been evacuated.”
Zahren said the “envelope also contained a generic warning regarding the contents,” and added that Hazardous Material experts, Secret Service and FBI joint terrorism task force agents were on the scene.
continued.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/08/21/officials_threat_powder_sent_to_mccain_office/
Officials: Threats sent to McCain offices
[Two offices]
CENTENNIAL, Colo.—Threatening letters containing an unidentified white powder were sent to John McCain campaign offices in Colorado and New Hampshire on Thursday, officials said.
snipped.
Officials believe the Denver letter was a hoax sent by an inmate, according to a U.S. government official. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because nothing will be certain until the powder is tested.
The New Hampshire office called authorities when it saw a letter with Denver as the return address. The official did not know if it was the same return address as the Colorado letter.
Both letters were mailed from Denver, which currently is under a heightened state of security because of the Democratic National Convention that begins there Monday.
continued.
http://www.newsobserver.com/politics/story/1187064.html
Al-Qaida not biggest convention threat
Secret Service eyes groups in U.S
snipped............
But, perhaps surprisingly to outsiders, al-Qaida is not the leading concern.
Not that the terrorism potential is being overlooked. But the Secret Service and FBI are giving special attention to the possibility of action by other extremists — radicals from the left or right, anarchists, lone wolf crazies — who might be attracted to the conventions because of the significance and high visibility.
This year, the significance of Democratic hopeful Barack Obama’s race is not lost on anyone, either.
There has been only low-level chatter on white supremacist blogs and nothing aimed at the convention, according to Mark Potok, who regularly monitors these blogs for the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Ala. And the Secret Service and FBI say they do not have any specific threats with racist overtones.
continued.
A prayer of thanks, that you missed being there.
there was one in Vegas yesterday, turned out to be safe.
There was a time, when we heard what was in them, in detail, now it is not released.
Check out the 2 posts above this on the white powder to McCain’s Colorado office and a threat to New Hampshire, with a Denver return address.
Stay safe.......please.
http://www.newsobserver.com/2197/story/1188072.html
Angel the dog credited with saving kittens
The Associated PressComment on this story
RENO, Nev. - You’ve heard of man bites dog. What about, dog saves cats? A two-year-old dog that had been turned over to the Nevada Humane Society’s shelter in Reno is being credited with rescuing six abandoned kittens.
continued.
http://www.newsobserver.com/2197/story/1187944.html
Fla. deputies Taser Plop-Plop the unruly emu
The Associated PressComment on this story
PANAMA CITY, Fla. - Bay County Sheriff’s deputies were forced to use a Taser to subdue an escaped emu named Plop-Plop. The large female bird escaped from a farm last weekend and on Monday, she holed up with some horses and goats in a pen.
When deputies arrived, the emu “went kind of crazy,” said Sheriff’s deputy Randolph Grob.
continued.
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1187771.html
Harris nuclear plant running again
By John Murawski, Staff WriterComment on this story
RALEIGH - Progress Energy’s Shearon Harris nuclear plant resumed generating electricity at 10 a.m. today after a 10-day outage to repair malfunctions.
snipped
When restarting the nuclear reactor this week, operators discovered a problem affecting equipment that controls the nuclear reaction. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which oversees nuclear safety, said neither malfunction posed a safety risk to the public.
continue
http://www.newsobserver.com/1565/story/1188112.html
Railroad bridge collapse disrupts service
The Associated PressComment on this story
JAMES CITY, N.C. - The collapse of a 100-foot railroad bridge has disrupted train service between New Bern and the port at Morehead City, a route that includes Camp Lejeune and Cherry Point Marine bases.
continue....
I would guess this conversation took place in Malaysia or Indonesia.
[This is the plan the democrats are pushing for Denver.
“Recreate 68”
granny]
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7572276.stm
Eyewitness: Prague Spring crushed
Ondrej Neff was a 23-year-old journalist at Czechoslovak Radio at the time of the Soviet-led invasion of his country on 21 August 1968.
Czechs and Slovaks are marking the 40th anniversary of the invasion, when 200,000 Warsaw Pact troops, backed by tanks and aircraft, marched in to crush Alexander Dubcek’s liberal reforms, known as the Prague Spring.
Here Mr Neff describes how he helped broadcast news of the invasion. Today he is a freelance journalist, blogger and science fiction writer living in Prague.
I was very young at the time, and I’d only been working for Czechoslovak Radio for two years. The foreign desk was the elite of the radio station, and I was the youngest person there.
I lived quite near the station, about 10 minutes’ walk, so I was one of the first people to arrive. It was shortly after 0200. I’d been woken up by the sound of the aircraft overhead: Antonovs carrying troops. It was a very scary sight - this dark night, and all these planes without lights, like huge dark crosses flying over our heads.
When I got to work there were already about 10 or 15 people there; some of them had been on the night shift of course. We were helpless, because the minister of telecommunications had switched off the radio and television transmitters, but the technicians managed to find a way of broadcasting via the telephone lines.
I can remember the sense of desperation I felt in those early days of the occupation. I felt my future had been lost. But of course hope dies last, and we thought that somehow our political leaders - some of whom had been kidnapped and taken to Moscow - would be able to get through to the Russians.
But none of us really had any illusions. Dubcek wasn’t strong enough as a person to fight against Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, who was a dictator in the style of Stalin.
Makeshift studio
I remember very well the face of the first Russian soldier I saw. He was carrying a huge machine gun, and looked like he’d just stepped out of a film about the battle of Stalingrad. He was very dirty, and his face was full of sweat. It was absolutely ridiculous, absolutely absurd.
continued, with videos and photos also..................
Is there no one in the democratic party smart enough to think that “Recreate 68” might have other meanings???
Or was the “take over theme” the real goal all along?
Maybe I am also spooked with the Georgia war, a replay of the old methods of take over by Russia.
Poland is already on the Russian list of countries to squash, is Hungry the next one?
Estonia has been under attack for years.
granny
[How bout that, Pelosi and crowd are using the Venezuela take over plan...........granny]
Cemex challenges nationalisation
Mexican cement giant Cemex plans to go to the World Bank to seek arbitration after Venezuela’s government seized the firm’s local subsidiary.
Cemex argues that the move to take over the firm’s assets in Venezuela and nationalise the business, is illegal.
Unlike other cement firms Holcim and Lafarge, which have agreed to hand over local subsidiaries to the Venezuelan government, Cemex has yet to agree.
President Hugo Chavez plans to nationalise a number of businesses.
‘International law’
Government officials, with the backing of the National Guard, took over the firm’s factories on Monday after 60 days of talks ended without agreement.
Cemex now intends to go to the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, arguing that the move was a “flagrant violation” of the country’s constitution.
The firm said it was offered $650m for its local operations - a sum that “significantly” undervalued the business. It had wanted $1.3bn (£697m)
“The Venezuelan government actions highlight a lack of respect for the principles of international law and the treaties relating to reciprocal protection of investments,” said the firm.
France’s Lafarge and Swiss group Holcim had already handed over local subsidiaries to Caracas by the time Cemex was seized on Monday.
Other industries set to be nationalised include banking and telecommunications.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/business/7573830.stm
Published: 2008/08/21 06:40:59 GMT
© BBC MMVIII
Russia’s neighbours go their own way
By Bridget Kendall
BBC diplomatic correspondent
It is easy to assume that escalating tensions between Russia and the West could mean an end to the blurry fudges of the post-Cold War years and a recasting of East-West relations into black and white antagonism, with two opposing camps, each surrounded by its own sphere of influence.
But look at how the Georgia crisis is being received around Russia’s edges. The response is often evasive, and sometimes downright surprising.
Among the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), which 20 years ago were constituent parts of the USSR whose loyalty to Moscow was automatic, Russia has won remarkably few endorsements. Some Central Asian states have sent in aid to South Ossetia. But on the whole the response has been decidedly muted.
To be fair, Georgia too has drawn criticism. But gone are the days when Moscow could rely on satellite states to speak up for it. For Russia’s leaders to declare that Russia was and always will be the “guarantor of stability” in the Caucasus is now a risky statement that could repel as well as draw regional backing.
Its neighbours are now independent countries whose priority is not to please the Kremlin but turn any crisis to their advantage, or worry about how it might adversely affect them.
Economic interests first
So Azerbaijan, a Caucasian neighbour of Georgia and now a confident oil producer, has unambiguously backed Georgia. Its main concern is to keep the pipeline that runs from Baku through Georgian territory to Turkey free from threat of attack by Russia.
Landlocked Turkmenistan too, with its immense gas fields on the other side of the Caspian Sea, has a lively interest in making sure the Baku pipeline is not disrupted and Georgia remains a stable reliable partner.
It competes as well as collaborates with Russia as an energy supplier. It does not want one of its main outlets threatened.
And beleaguered Armenia, at the southern tip of the Caucasus, has even more reason to be alarmed. Any prolonged conflict in Georgia would disrupt all its supply routes.
Further west and closer to Europe in the “former Soviet space”, there has been an even more marked shift in governmental responses.
Tiny impoverished Moldova, on the border between Romania and Ukraine, has its own “frozen conflict” unsolved from Soviet days: the Russian-supported and heavily armed enclave of Trans-Dniester.
So this week Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin pointedly turned to the European Union for help in finding a peaceful way out of that stand-off.
Ukrainian ambivalence
In Ukraine, President Viktor Yushchenko from the very start saw Russia’s military intervention in Georgia as an implied threat. Ukraine too is a Nato aspirant, and Russia has frequently warned it that Nato membership is something it will not tolerate.
So President Yushchenko was swift to define himself as the champion of Ukraine’s right to join Nato and defy Russian pressure.
Not only did he fly to Tbilisi to offer moral support, he issued a presidential decree to remind Russia that its Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol in the Crimea does, after all, use a Ukrainian port.
In future, he demanded, Russia must give 72 hours’ notice before moving its vessels and he once again raised the prospect that Ukraine might not renew its lease for the port when it expires in 2017.
But how Russia’s relations with Ukraine might unwind is not straightforward.
The fear has certainly been expressed in Kiev that a restive pro-Russian population in the Crimea might provide a pretext for another Russian military intervention. Russian nationalists who see the Crimea as historically Russian territory would seize any pretext to realise their ambitions, goes the argument.
What is certainly true is that a clash between Moscow and Kiev over the Crimea would probably cleave Ukraine in half and open up a dangerous conflict with widespread repercussions. But a more likely scenario is less dramatic.
Russia has only to wait for a change in Ukrainian politics. President Yushchenko may be a prominent leader but his long term-durability is not guaranteed. Opinion polls put his popularity at under 10%.
With presidential elections due in 18 months, the Kremlin may well reckon it can look for a more reliable partner in his likely opponent and current Prime Minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, who has been remarkably quiet on the Georgia crisis.
Mixed signals from Minsk
But perhaps the most interesting response has come from Belarus and its President, Alexander Lukashenko, sometimes described as “Europe’s last dictator”.
Only a few years ago Russia was such a close ally, there was talk of the two countries merging, so one might have expected him to back Russia’s action in the Caucasus.
But Belarus has had a series of bad-tempered rows with Russia over energy supplies and has recently shown more interest in improving Western contacts.
The initial response from Minsk to Russia’s intervention in Georgia was decidedly ambivalent - so much so, that the Russian ambassador there even publicly expressed his displeasure.
President Lukashenko then travelled to Sochi to reassure President Medvedev that Moscow’s military operation had been conducted “calmly, wisely and beautifully”.
But he took steps to clear the way for better relations with the US and Europe.
In the last few days the final three political prisoners in Belarus have been suddenly released - the beneficiaries, it seems, of an unexpected presidential pardon.
“It’s very significant,” said Britain’s Ambassador to Minsk, Nigel Gould Davies. “For the first time in a decade Belarus does not have any political prisoners.”
And watch this space. Whether Belarus is really serious about improving its relations with the West will be tested in September, when it holds parliamentary elections.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/7575813.stm
Published: 2008/08/21 23:05:12 GMT
© BBC MMVIII
Russia eyes new Syria arms deal
Moscow has announced it is ready to sell new weapons to Syria, triggering alarm from Israel.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said any arms sales of “a defensive character” would not change the strategic balance in the Middle East.
But Israel’s foreign minister said such sales could destabilise the region.
The comments came as Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad met at Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi.
Moscow and Damascus are reportedly preparing deals on anti-aircraft and anti-tank missile systems, as well as surface-to-surface Iskander missiles.
Tzipi Livni, Israeli foreign minister, told a news conference in Jerusalem: “Russia has its own interests in the region and nobody wants to destabilise the region.
“And I think according to this assessment it is of mutual interest of Russia, Israel and pragmatic leaders of states in the region not to send this kind of long-range missiles to Syria.”
She also said Syria was linked to Iran, Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and Palestinian militants Hamas.
Before the talks in Sochi, Syria’s president had spoken of the need to speed up military and technical co-operation with Russia.
Syria was a close ally of the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
Relations between Moscow and Damascus have been getting closer recently - this visit is Mr Assad’s third to Russia in three years.
Mr Assad said on Thursday Russia’s military campaign in Georgia was a justified response to provocation from Tbilisi.
Russia has been strongly criticised by the West for its military operations in Georgia launched earlier this month.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/7574311.stm
Published: 2008/08/21 22:34:17 GMT
© BBC MMVIII
It’s going to get crazy these next couple weeks and months through the election. I’ve stopped taking the train lately as the train schedule has been undependable. The amount of people getting hit by trains around here this summer has been astounding.
I hadn’t read it yet, thank you.
007 is in jail, so it’s for sure not him.
Hopefully this will be Nemo...soon:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/165/420005318_c5c40a74cd_o.jpg
“Recreate 68”
I thought ‘recreate 68’ was in reference to the 68’ Dem Convention in Chicago - riots and all.
Thanks for the ping.
...the main concern would be, dare I eat whatever they end up sending? ;’)
I thought ‘recreate 68’ was in reference to the 68’ Dem Convention in Chicago - riots and all.<<<
Most of us thought that.
Then history and the take over of Ces., started turning up as this week, then the Georgia war and now to ME, ‘recreate 68’, means the commies showing us who is boss.
I am aware that they will not do anything in Denver, that has not been done before, but I am still in shock.
Earlier this evening, I had the Denver scanner on, in an hour there were 4 or more calls, reporting young mothers, standing on the streets, smoking pot..............with babies in strollers with them.
And one father, who came home from work, to find his 14 year old daughter and wife, smoking pot.............LOL, good man he called the cops, himself.
No, it does not shock me, as I knew Denver had passed a law a couple years ago, making it legal to have marijuana, even if it is still against the federal laws.
It makes me sad, as I know what it has done to members of my own family........
Maybe what scares me, is that the Democrat’s choose to run a convention theme that would attract the anarchists.
I do think and have all along, that the democrats want to have a big riot, they have planned it all along.
Why? that is a cloudy answer, did they think that they were so powerful and had won the country, that the convention would show them as a powerful army?
The democrats of today, no, not those like my mother, who never rioted in her life........seem to think they are God, with the dope, abortions and free sex, the “if it feels good, do it” platform, that I think they want people to be excited by the riots, as sex and drugs are old hat and boring .....
They planned this mess and I do hope it gets them out of office, it is time for America to wake up.
LOL, I guess I missed all the Nemo movies........I do get lucky at times.
When I read the article, it said he had a baby and I thought of the one I asked you about a week or two ago, LOL, yes I have forgotten the name, but think of you when I see it.
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