Iraq and Cuba – Fitting Pieces in the West Nile Virus Puzzle?

The latest news, as reported by UPI and carried in the NewsMax.com wires, has not underestimated the seriousness of the infection caused by the West Nile virus. Indeed, in Louisiana, which has already reported five deaths so far, Lt. Gov. Kathleen Blanco, who doubles as the head of the state's tourism agency, announced on Aug. 6 that cans of insect repellent will be made available free of charge at visitor centers located near the state's borders.

And yet, so far only NewsMax.com, the Medical Sentinel of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, the appendices in my book "Cuba in Revolution: Escape From a Lost Paradise" (www.haciendapub.com), and a few other sources have brought up the frightening possibility that these outbreaks may be a direct result of a joint biological terrorism project between Iraq and Cuba.

Two experts, Ken Alibek, author of "Biohazard" and former deputy head of the Soviet biological warfare project, and Dr. Manuel Cereijo, professor at Florida International University, believe that this indeed could be the case.

Moreover, Prof. Cereijo reported last April (2002) that Iraq received the West Nile virus in the late 1980s from the CDC, while Cuba received the St. Louis encephalitis virus, which is very similar to the West Nile virus, for medical research.

Incidentally, Iraq has also obtained lethal strains of anthrax from the American Type Culture Collection in Rockville, Md., one of the world's largest libraries of microorganisms. For $35 the Iraqis were also able to obtain strains of tularemia and Venezuelan equine encephalitis, once selected for biological weaponry at Fort Detrick, Md. By the early 1990s, Iraq had transferred these virulent anthrax strains to Cuba for further development.

Additionally, two Cuban scientists, Dr. Luis R. Hernandez, who defected in London in 1995, and Carlos Wotzkow, an ornithologist living in exile in Switzerland, have asserted that Castro created the Frente Biologico (Biological Front) to wage biological warfare against the U.S.

Why? Because the Castro brothers, who have a visceral hatred for the United States, blamed the U.S. for several outbreaks of dengue fever in the eastern part of the island in the late 1980s and 1990s. That disease not only imperiled the growing Cuban tourism industry but also personally embarrassed Fidel Castro, who had previously claimed that mosquitoes had been eradicated from the island!

Dr. Hernandez worked in the Frente Biologico and has asserted that "those were laboratories to identify and produce viruses to be used in birds as 'hosts' for their dissemination." Wotzkow relates in his 1998 book, "Natumaleza Cubana," that he lost his job at the Institute of Zoology in Cuba when he objected to the work of developing viruses that could be carried by migratory birds into the U.S.

It turns out that the strain of West Nile virus found in New York in 1999 and last year in Israel is the same strain. In 1999, Iraqi president Saddam Hussein referred to "his final weapon, developed in laboratories outside Iraq … Free of U.N. inspection, the laboratories to develop the SV1417 strain of the West Nile virus." The missing link of cooperation between Iraq and Cuba is Dr. Rodrigo Alvares Cambria, a Cuban orthopedic surgeon who operated on Saddam's son after he hurt his back in an accident.

When former U.S. president Jimmy Carter visited Cuba earlier this year, he didn't include any biological weapons experts in his entourage to inspect the Frente Biologico. He simply took Fidel Castro's word at face value that Cuba did not possess such weapons of mass destruction. And yet, what better place for Cuba and Iraq to conduct biological terrorism against the United States than 90 miles from U.S. shores!

Before 1999, this viral infection was unknown in the Western Hemisphere. Thus, I am citing several references below that may be of interest to the reader given the fact that frightening new cases of West Nile virus are emerging in other states in the nation. The references provide several pieces to the puzzle of why we may be experiencing this new infestation. Isn't it time for the supranational arm of the United Nations to send impartial inspectors to communist Cuba?

2. Betancourt E. West Nile virus – Is Castro's bioterrorism threat being ignored? Medical Sentinel 2001;6(4):121-122; and Blazquez, Agustin. Cuba, Castro and bioterrorism. Medical Sentinel 2001;6(4):118-120.

3. Faria MA Jr. Cuba in Revolution ‹ Escape From a Lost Paradise. Macon, GA, Hacienda Publishing, Inc., 2002, Appendix K, pp. 380-387 and Appendix L, pp. 388-392.

4. West Nile virus: The first bioweapon. NewsMax.com, August 6, 2002; and West Nile virus claims 5th life in Louisiana, NewsMax.com Wires, August 7, 2002.

5. Rivero Dessy Mendoza, Fuentes Ileana. ¡Dengue! – La Epidemia Secreta de Fidel Castro. Washington, DC, Center for a Free Cuba, 2001.

6. Arostegui M. Fidel Castro's deadly secret – five biochem warfare labs. Washington Times, July 20, 1998.

8. Cereijo M. If Ana Belen Montes would have been …? April 2002, http://www.amigospais-guaracabuya.org

However, if you want to pin this one on Castro and Saddam, hey, why not?

But I don't want, I don't want. I think that's silly.

I was just shocked to see all the parrot nests this year in mr. hellinahandcart's old neighborhood, that's all. They weren't there last year. I just wondered how there could suddenly be such a number of parrots living wild. "Breeding quite happily" is an understatement.

Thats why we all come here! Cut thru all the chaff .. Get the latest skinny .. However, I, like many, need to be more aware of what could happen or be happening. We're living in times when enemies are not too caring of how they deliver their terror, only that they inflame the masses. That's when
the panic sits in.

I don;t consider it panicking to take a good look at things. People die, Birds Fly, Bereaucrats Lie, Next thing ya know, we got an epidemic.

Don't be shocked; be happy. Guess what...
THEY TASTE LIKE CHICKEN.

Cuba Offers to Help U.S. Contain West Nile Virus*** HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba offered on Friday to help the United States contain an outbreak of West Nile virus because it says the disease could spread to the Caribbean and Central America when infected birds begin migrating south in the autumn. "The government of Cuba is prepared to cooperate in any way it can with the authorities of the United States and other countries in research and efforts to counter this new danger to the health of the population of this hemisphere," the Cuban government said in a statement.

Cuba has made major advances in tropical medicine and recently controlled an outbreak of dengue, a disease that is spread to humans by mosquitoes, as is the West Nile virus. Cuban doctors currently are helping fight dengue in Honduras, one of the Central American countries hit by an outbreak of the potentially fatal disease. No case of West Nile virus, which is moving across the United States mainly through bird migration, has been detected south of the U.S. border, in Cuba or in any other Caribbean and Latin American nation, the statement published by the ruling Communist Party's daily Granma said. ***

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