Israel begins producing smallpox vaccine for fear Iraq could attack

They should start vaccinating as soon as they have enough vaccine for the whole population of Israel. They should not vaccinate the Arabs living in the West Bank.

That should be left to their Arab "brothers". Don't hold your breath. Such is their much vaunted ummah.

Just heard on Michael Savage's radio program that the Jerusalem Post had an article in October 2001 speculating that the West Nile Virus may be a terrorist creation!

Report also said that the US West Nile is the same strain as the outbreaks in Israel and Saudi Arabia. Iraq suspected.

Hmmmmmm ...

g

Here's an oldie mentioning West Nile:

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The Jerusalem Post, April 13, 1990
BAGHDAD'S THREAT OF BIOLOGICAL WARFARE NOT NEW TO ISRAEL

Iraq has developed powerful biological weapons capable of endangering whole cities ranging from Teheran to Tel Aviv, NBC television news has reported.

It was the third weapons' controversy involving Iraq in recent weeks, as British customs' officials on the same day seized a cargo at an English port of what were reported to be parts of a huge 40-metre gun capable of delivering chemical, biological or nuclear warheads over a range of 1,600 kms.

Two weeks earlier, at Heathrow Airport, the British seized 40 U.S.-made components for nuclear bomb triggers as they were being put aboard an Iraqi Airways flight bound for Baghdad.

The American television network, quoting U.S. intelligence sources, said on Wednesday that Iraq was using an ultra-modern plant with West European equipment to make weapons from anthrax, typhoid and cholera bacteria. Iraq's germ warfare laboratory was said to be at Salman Pak, south of Baghdad. The network showed a satellite picture of what it said was the production facility complete with an animal experimentation area.

NBC said experts at the Central Intelligence Agency, Defence Intelligence Agency and the Pentagon believed Iraq's germ warfare capabilities "could endanger whole cities in the Middle East."

The report added that the U.S. Centre for Disease Control, a U.S. government agency in Atlanta, Georgia, unwittingly added to Iraq's stockpile of viruses in 1985 when it sent Baghdad three shipments of West Nile Fever.

The reports that Iraq was developing biological weapons did not come as a surprise in Tel Aviv. Officially, at least, Israel was playing down its significance.

Last Friday, Deputy Chief of General Staff Aluf Ehud Barak told reporters that Iraq - and possibly Iran - were making "efforts" to develop a biological capability. Yet it seemed that the IDF did not consider this threat to be very serious for the time being.

In any case, Israel has been preparing itself for both chemical and biological attacks. It has stockpiled millions of gas masks, and recently, schoolchildren took part in a drill where they donned masks. Hospital and IDF Medical Corps staffs periodically practice emergency treatment for gas victims. But if the army is preparing Israel for a bilological attack, the preparations are so secret that the thousand of doctors and medics supposed to treat the victims are not aware of the preparations.

Germ warfare is rare. Military historian Prof. Martin Van Creveld, of the Hebrew University, yesterday recalled that in the Middle Ages combatants catapulted dead horse carcasses into besieged towns. In modern times, biological agents were apparently used only once and even that has not been proven.

In the 1980s, the Vietnamese reportedly sprayed Cambodian jungles with "yellow rain," a very poisonous form of aflatoxin extracted from vegetables, but that did not decide the war. Vietnam withdrew.

The typhoid, cholera and anthrax germs mentioned in NBC's report could cause slow and painful death. Each can be effective within three days and is highly contageous, but causing epidemics of these diseases is not easy.

Typhoid and cholera germs will not survive in the air, and they must contaminate food or drink fairly quickly. Anthrax, however, remains on the ground to infect cattle and the people who eat the meat of the infected animals.

Mass vaccinations are no sure defence. Prof. Dan Michaeli, former head of the IDF Medical Corps and now director of Ichilov Hospital, said that the enemy could learn about the inoculations and alter the bacteria to provide some "new" strain.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for Sheffield Forgemasters, which has been identified in news reports as the manufacturer of the seized cannon parts, claimed that "we were supplying a pipe for a petrochemical production unit," adding that the order had been approved by the government Department of Trade and Industry.

"The Department of Trade saw specifications, drawings, everything."

The Iraqis have denied any wrongdoing. "Everything that is said about these pipes is baseless," said Naiel Hassan, press attache at the Iraqi Embassy in London. "The British and the Israelis are trying to make a fuss about this matter. Even the company itself said that these pipes are used for only petrochemical industries."

The Times of London reported without attribution, that "the only man capable of designing such a weapon was Mr. Gerald Bull."

Bull, 62, a Canadian-born U.S. citizen, was slain March 22 in Belgium. Police said he was shot twice in the head by a gunman using a silencer. They added that the motive was not robbery, because $20,000 were found in the victim's pockets.

Bull, who was also involved in last month's abortive attempt to smuggle nuclear triggering devices from San Diego to Baghdad, via London, was a leading authority on long-range, high-calibre artillery.

Reports of the cannon parts seized in England were downplayed here. According to former chief artillery officer Oded Tira, the reports are "not serious," and he contended that there is no such cannon.

Henry Dodds, armaments expert at Jane's Defence Weekly, however, was taking the Iraqi threat very seriously. The British-manufactured gun, he said, could be used to deliver a chemical shell containing up to two tons of nerve agent, over a range of some 1,500 km., thus placing both Tel Aviv and Teheran within easy range.

The gun could also carry nuclear weapons, but Dodds considered it unlikely that it would be used for delivering nuclear weapons, as these could be fired from a far smaller device.

After Western accusations about his armaments programme, Saddam Hussein said yesterday that he was ready to dismantle weapons of mass destruction if Israel did the same.

Backing for Iraq came from Cuba yesterday. Havana condemned what it termed a hostile campaign by Israel and the U.S. against Iraq, and said it backed Baghdad's efforts to defend Iraqi sovereignty and promote the Arab cause. Cuba's Foreign Ministry noted the Western hostility against Iraq came at a time when President Saddam Hussein was reaffirming Iraqi support for the Palestinian cause and denouncing the U.S. naval presence in the Gulf.

Can someone please get me the name of the company producing the vaccine?

I'd like to import it into the United States.

"It would take Israel a few days to vaccinate the population."

They ought to get with it.

ping

When asked if the vaccines would be supplied to the more than three million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip and West Bank as well, Hadari said: "When the time will come we will decide how to use the vaccines."

Good answer!

If the Palestinians let smallpox loose and Israel is vaccinated will it be called a mass work accident? And will the smallpox epidemic spread past Palestine?

"Can someone please get me the name of the company producing the vaccine?

I'd like to import it into the United States."

Ask your local congressman.
I am sure he already has made provisions to have himself and his family vaccinated.

When asked if the vaccines would be supplied to the more than three million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip and West Bank as well, Hadari said: "When the time will come we will decide how to use the vaccines."

What about arafat and hamas? Surely they would not be left out of any innoculation program.