SCHRODER COVERED UP IRAQI SMALLPOX STOCKPILING [Part II]

Andrew Sullivan/Talkingpoints.com ^ | Feb 18, 2003 | Andrew Sullivan/Talkingpoints.com

[The Raven]

From Andrew Sullivan's Blog:

THE GERMANS AND SMALLPOX: Josh Marshall [see below] picks up the baton on the growing story that German officials deliberately concealed evidence of Saddam's smallpox stockpiles last summer to avoid any campaign distraction from the notion that it's the U.S. that's the main threat to world peace. Josh cites this Deutsche Welle piece with the following astonishing sentence:

In the interviews, two German government ministers let readers know that there is little danger now that American-hating terrorists could unleash the small-pox virus on the German population.

Don't worry, in other words. By appeasing these thugs, we could deflect the horror toward the Brits and Americans. I do think that's an underlying assumption on the part of Germany and France. By taking the anti-American line, they risk nothing. They know the US will deal with the threat; but by appeasing the Islamofascists, the Franco-German axis hopes to avoid any blowback. This is what they call being an ally.

--------------------------------------------------

Posts will be few and brief until tomorrow morning. But do take a look at this article at the Deutsche Welle website about a brewing scandal in Germany. A news report alleged that the German government had held back its own intelligence about possible stockpiles of smallpox in Iraq. The idea being that they would hold it back during last summer's election to sustain the government's opposition to US policy on regime change. Look at the response from two German government ministers, however, as reported by Deutsche Welle ...

In the interviews, two German government ministers let readers know that there is little danger now that that [sic] American-hating terrorists could unleash the small-pox virus on the German population. For a number of reasons, I think it's very unlikely that the Iraqis have weaponized smallpox or any smallpox for that matter. I certainly hope not. And I'm curious to hear more about just what these ministers said, the precise quotations and context and so forth. But, as it reads, that quote really does tend to confirm the least generous interpretation of German motivations in the current situation: why stick our necks out when it's the Americans who are going to take the hit anyway?

[The Raven]

See also SCHRODER COVERED UP IRAQI SMALLPOX STOCKPILING [Part I]

[Siobhan]

Gerhard Schröder ist der Teufels Sohn.

[fightinJAG]

I agree that the German and French government think let the Yanks take the terrorist heat, we'll appease them and not have any trouble in our homeland.

[The Raven]

fyi ping

[expatpat]

He's related to Bill Clinton?

[Siobhan]

It would explain a whole lot ....

[xkaydet65]

Just an historical footnote: Didn't the powers of Europe pay the tribute to that earlier band of Muslim terrorists, The Barbary Pirates? Was it not a small, ill prepared, new nation that refused to pay, and its semi pacifist president who sent the navy he did not want to uphold the nation's honor? Well that nation is neither small nor ill prepared today, but the powers of Europe seem caught in their willingness to accommodate evil. At least the Brits seemed to have learned. As Churchill said after Munich," Britain had to choose between dishonr and war. She chose dishonor. She shall have war!" Are you listening Gerhard???

[Right Wing Professor]

If smallpox gets out in a big way, it won't matter if they sic it on the Americans or the Germans first. It's incredibly contagious. Them that's vaccinated will survive, half of them that ain't will die, and the other half will be living their lives looking like someone threw acid in their face.

(My guess is, both we and the Krauts will be able to vaccinate everyone, and the third world will die. Oh well. Shoulda supported us in the Security Council)

[Carry_Okie]

Between using the euro to attack us financially and this, I think our "allies" have shown their true colors. This is a series of acts intended to bring us under the yoke of global socialism, one under their control. It is an act of war on America and should be regarded as such.

[Grand Old Partisan]

Both George Washington and Abraham Lincoln survived smallpox, Lincoln while he was President.

[Lion's Cub]

fyi

[Robert_Paulson2]

yup....

"SIEZE THEM!!!"

[concerned about politics]

Those that support Saddam already fear him. He has control over them already, which means it can only get worse for them someday.

[wonders]

Part I has been posted in English on FR here:Major German Paper (FAZ): German Government Knows Iraq Has Biologicals, thanks to longjack's kindness in providing a good translation for all of us (I was working on one, but he beat me to it and his was better anyway.)

Maybe you'd like to be added to the German news ping list?

[Rain-maker]

What a loser the German populace elected,

especially when this deception threatens global security.

 

If small pox breaks out,

the first person the should burn at the stake

and hang should be Chancellor Ger-tard

[P-Marlowe]

Barbary Wars
The Barbary The four Barbary States of North Africa - Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli - had plundered seaborne commerce for centuries. Surviving by blackmail, they received great sums of money, ships, and arms yearly from foreign powers in return for allowing the foreigners to trade in African ports and sail unmolested through the Barbary waters. They demanded tribute money, seized ships, and held crews for ransom or sold them into slavery.
During the Crusades (1095-1295), Muslim pirates operating from bases in North Africa had plundered ships carrying Crusaders and pilgrims and sold many Christians into slavery. By the sixteenth century, Hapsburg Spain and the Ottoman Turks were pitted in a struggle for supremacy in the Mediterranean. Piracy, which for both Christians and Muslims was a dimension of the conflict between the opposing powers, lured adventurers from around the Mediterranean to the Maghribi coastal towns and islands. Among them was Khair ad Din, called Barbarossa, who in 1510 seized Algiers on the pretext of defending it from the Spaniards. Barbarossa subsequently recognized the suzerainty of the Ottoman sultan over the territory that he controlled and was in turn appointed the sultan's regent in the Maghrib. The term "Barbary" derives from Barbarosa ["red beard"].

By the end of the 18th Century the effectiveness of Tripoli's corsairs had long since deteriorated, but their reputation alone was enough to prompt European maritime states to pay the tribute extorted by the pasha to ensure safe passage of their shipping through Tripolitanian waters. American merchant ships, no longer covered by British protection, were seized by Barbary pirates in the years after United States independence, and American crews were enslaved. In 1799 the United States agreed to pay $18,000 a year in return for a promise that Tripoli-based corsairs would not molest American ships. Similar agreements were made at the time with the rulers of Morocco, Algiers, and Tunis.

In May, 1801, the United States refused to succumb to the increasing demands of the Pacha of Tripoli; in return, the Pacha declared war against the States. While Tripoli was not a strong power and little effort was necessary to watch and blockade it, the fear was that the other Barbary powers would join against the United States. The United States sent naval squadrons into the Mediterranean under the slogan of "Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute!" Under the leadership of Commodores Richard Dale and Edward Preble, the Navy blockaded the enemy coast, bombarded his shore fortresses, and engaged in close, bitterly contested gunboat actions.

On 16 February 1804 LT Stephen Decatur led 74 volunteers into Tripoli harbor to burn the captured American frigate The Philadelphia. British Admiral Lord Nelson called the raid "the most daring act of the age". Boatswains Mate Ruben James volunteered to go on the raiding party. James was seriously wounded during hand-to-hand combat. Despite his wounds, or perhaps because of them, James put himself between an attacking pirate and the commander of that raid, Decatur, who remained uninjured thanks to James. Ruben James recovered from his wounds and continued to proudly serve his Navy for another 32 years. Lieutenant Stephen Decatur's exploit in destroying the captured frigate USS Philadelphia, and Captain Richard Somers attempt with the fire-ship USS Intrepid to blow up enemy vessels in Tripoli harbor, set valorous examples for the young naval service.

In 1805 Marines stormed the Barbary pirates' harbor fortress stronghold of Derna (Tripoli), commemorated in the Marine Corp Hymn invocation "To the Shores of Tripoli." First Lieutenant O'Bannon is remembered for heroism in the battle for Derna. O'Bannon's Marines were the first U.S. forces to hoist the flag over territory in the Old World. The "Mameluke" sword, carried by Marines officers today, was presented to O'Bannon in 1805.

In June 1805, Tobias Lear negotiated a peace settlement with the Pacha. However, this treaty was made only by stepping on the toes of William Eaton. William Eaton had been appointed consul to Tunis in 1798. When war was declared by Tripoli in 1801, he and special diplomat James L. Cathcart tried to work out a settlement. They believed that to effect a peace with that country, they needed to reinstate the exiled Hamet Karamanli to the throne. This ruler had been overthrown and exiled by his brother. Eaton returned to the states to present their plans to Congress. In 1804, he returned to the Mediterranean with the new title "Navy Agent to the Barbary States" and permission to carry out his plans. Just as Eaton was about to see his ideas come to fruition, he was suddenly ordered to leave Tripoli. Lear's treaty was accepted instead. and the phrase "to the shores of Tripoli" was added to the Marine's battle hymn.

Following the War of 1812 two naval squadrons under Commodores Decatur and Bainbridge returned to the Mediterranean. Diplomacy backed by resolute force soon brought the rulers of Barbary to terms and gained wide spread respect for the new American nation. Decatur obtained treaties which eliminated the United States paying tribute. In the years immediately after the Napoleonic wars, which ended in 1815, the European powers forced an end to piracy and the payment of tribute in the Barbary states.

Sources and Methods
Pirate Utopias Moorish Corsairs & European Renagadoes By Peter Lamborn Wilson

[goody2shooz]

I'm going to go out on a limb here because I cannot locate the source for what I'm about to say next. (I'll keep looking and will post it when I find it!)

A woman who was part of Russia's secret smallpox program was supposed to have taken and sold several vacuum bottles of smallpox to Saddam Hussein a few years ago. Only it wasn't just ordinary smallpox virus.

She sold the Iraqis Blackpox, the hemohagaic smallpox that has a kill rate of 97%. It kills like Ebola, blowing out the human body like a an old sack.

[Carry_Okie]

She sold the Iraqis Blackpox, the hemohagaic smallpox that has a kill rate of 97%. It kills like Ebola, blowing out the human body like a an old sack.

For which I would hazard the current vaccine might be relatively ineffective.

Remember, it was the Russians who proposed eradicating smallpox in the 1950s. Twenty years later, it was done. The UN pressured Reagan to destroy CDC stocks. He told them to pack sand. Ten years after that...

Think of where we might be had Carter won a second term.