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Flu virus 'is the greatest bio-terror threat of all' By Roger Highfield, Science Editor (Filed: 28/11/2003) Nature's "on-going experiments" with influenza strains "may be the greatest bio-terror threat of all", with the world alarmingly unprepared for a global epidemic, researchers warn today. Another pandemic of the kind that killed up to 40 million people worldwide in 1918 is inevitable - and could be imminent, according to a team from St Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis. The threat of such a pandemic influenza is much greater than that posed this winter by the Fujian strain, which is already circulating in...

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (Reuters) - Brazilian (news - web sites) authorities urged residents of Rio de Janeiro on Friday to be careful after lab samples of cholera and typhoid fever were stolen with a biologist's car. Doctors and police in the Brazilian city said the bacteria had been securely packed and represented no risk if not opened, but acknowledged the samples could be dangerous if removed from the package. Silvio Valle, a biosecurity expert with the government's Fiocruz research institute, graded the biohazard of the stolen material as two on a scale of four in televised comments, asking viewers...

The Philippines military says it has discovered traces of possible biological weapons in a raid on a suspected hideout of Southeast Asian terror group Jemaah Islamiah in the southern Philippine city of Cotabato. A senior military official says possible residues of a "tetanus virus-carrying chemical was among those found" in Sunday's raid, along with a "bio-terror manual". Bomb-making materials, documents and notes on assembling rocket-propelled grenades were also found during the raid, but no suspects were arrested. Military spokesman Major General Rodolfo Garcia says the documents refer to Jemaah Islamiah, but has refused to elaborate further. Last week authorities arrested...

Sandia National Laboratories bills it as a computer-based sentinel, offering early warning of a biological weapons attack. But the sentinel is going nowhere, bottled up in the lab, while Sandia squanders the chance to move it into widespread use, according to Al Zelicoff, one of the scientists who led the technology's development. Sandia has given exclusive rights to the technology to a small startup company founded by one of the labs' scientists, in the process turning away inquiries from a major national company interested in taking the technology out of the lab and putting it into widespread use. Zelicoff, nationally...

Lethal Virus from 1918 Genetically Reconstructed US Army scientists create "Spanish Flu" virus in laboratory - medical benefit questionable (Austin and Hamburg, 9 October 2003) – The 'Spanish Flu' influenza virus that killed 20-40 million people in 1918 is currently under reconstruction. Several genes of the extraordinarily lethal 1918 flu virus have been isolated and introduced into contemporary flu strains. These proved to be lethal for mice, while virus constructs with genes from a current flu virus types had hardly any effect. These experiments may easily be abused for military purposes, but provide little benefit from a medical or public...

A Trying Time for Science Bioterrorism-related charges are sending a noted researcher into court for his handling of plague vials. In U.S. labs, the case elicits an outcry. By Charles Piller, Times Staff Writer LUBBOCK, Texas — Dr. Thomas Butler entered the courthouse in chains. Clad in a blue prison jumpsuit, the 62-year-old physician shuffled into the building led by armed federal agents, his hands and legs bound. The image of the white-haired doctor in court has shaken American science to its roots. [snip] The seriousness of the threat many scientists feel is implicit in the National Academies letter supporting...

On biological weapons, a single vial of a strain of botulinum, a poison that can be used as a weapon, located at the home of a known biological weapons scientist

Panel wonders if West Nile is bioterrorism, Diana Washington Valdez El Paso Times -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Is West Nile virus bioterror? The U.S.-Mexico Border Commission plans to take up as one of its topics later this year the West Nile virus. Dr. Laurance Nickey, one of the commissioners, said experts are projecting a favorable season for the mosquito that transmits the virus. It is intriguing that the Centers for Disease Control says on its Web site that the virus was not detected in the Western Hemisphere until 1999, when it hit New York City. Before that, the CDC reports, the virus was...

Is Al Qaeda Making Anthrax?Oct. 9, 2003 Al Qaeda may be hard at work trying to produce weaponized anthrax and other biological weapons. In an exclusive report, CBS News Correspondent Mark Phillips recounts details U.S. interrogators have extracted from a top al Qaeda operative. The new worry comes from the man accused of masterminding last year's terrorist bombing in Bali that killed more than 200 people and last summer's Jakarta hotel blast that left another 12 people dead. Riduan Isamuddin, better known simply as "Hambali," has been in the hands of U.S. intelligence agents since his arrest in Thailand...

<p>October 10, 2003 -- Al Qaeda may be trying to weaponize anthrax and other bio-weapons - and a key operative of the terror group was trying to set up an anthrax lab in the Far East when he was arrested in Thailand in August, it was reported last night.</p>

(CBS) Al Qaeda may be hard at work trying to produce weaponized anthrax and other biological weapons. In an exclusive report, CBS News Correspondent Mark Phillips recounts details U.S. interrogators have extracted from a top al Qaeda operative. The new worry comes from the man accused of masterminding last year's terrorist bombing in Bali that killed more than 200 people and last summer's Jakarta hotel blast that left another 12 people dead. Riduan Isamuddin, better known simply as "Hambali," has been in the hands of U.S. intelligence agents since his arrest in Thailand last August, and he's been singing. According...

<p>WASHINGTON — The besieged Postal Service continued spot checks at facilities nationwide Friday as a State Department mail handler lay ill with inhalation anthrax and the nation's bioterror scare widened.</p> <p>"We still don't know who is responsible," said Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge Thursday at the White House.</p>

<p>WASHINGTON (CNN) --A Department of Homeland Security advisory issued Thursday warns that al Qaeda is working on plans to hijack airliners flying between international points that pass near or over the continental United States.</p> <p>A Department of Homeland Security official said most of the flights fitting this description originate in Canada, and that U.S. officials have been working with Canada over the past month to ensure it is improving screening and other security measures.</p>

The FBI is warning that terrorists might try to poison food or water supplies, and senior bureau officials said al-Qaeda was determined to attack Americans at home even though the organisation appears to have a relatively small US presence. The FBI has not detected any individuals or cells actively planning attacks such as those almost two years ago that killed some 3000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. Most al-Qaeda operatives in the US provide logistical support such as travel documents, recruitment and fund raising, Larry Mefford, the FBI's chief counterterrorism official, said today. "My view is, it's very...

On Drudge...

Panel Urges Caution on Smallpox Vaccine Email this Story Aug 12, 11:49 AM (ET) By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID WASHINGTON (AP) - Despite worry about the possibility of a terrorist attack using smallpox, a panel of scientists is recommending that members of the general public not get vaccinated against the disease unless they are part of a carefully monitored research study. The Institute of Medicine committee cited potential risks from the vaccine, for those receiving it as well as people with whom they have close contact. The committee was sending its recommendation to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on...

<p>Companies that ship meat, poultry and eggs should tighten security in places where terrorists would be likely to tamper with food, according to new guidelines by the Agriculture Department.</p> <p>The guidelines issued Monday are voluntary, but department officials said meatpackers, shipping companies, retailers and other distributors have a vested interest in making sure food is safe for consumers.</p>

7 more cases of mystery illness Military trying to identify malady that killed lake area soldier By Marsha Paxson Lake Sun LAKE OF THE OZARKS -- Seven more soldiers in Iraq have contracted the same puzzling illness that has killed two soldiers, including one from the lake area. The latest cases bring the number of affected troops to 19. All have been evacuated to the same Landstuhl, Germany, hospital where Spec. Josh Neusche, 20, of Montreal was treated before he died July 12. It is believed Neusche contracted the illness, first thought to be pneumonia, while conducting cleanup operations with...

A top federal health official worries that Americans have been "lulled into a false sense of security" about the threat of smallpox, because biological agents have not yet been found in Iraq. The need to prepare for an attack is just as urgent, Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Wednesday. Federal officials must work hard to explain this to state and local health officials, who have been slow to get vaccinated against smallpox, partly because they do not believe the virus poses a real threat, she added. "It concerns me very much that...

No doubt everyone here has heard the familiar refrain by now re: the WMD's. Yes it's true that none have turned up yet, and this has resulted in the expected open skepticism about the administration and its intents - "What's the real reason for our going in there", "This calls their credibility into question", you know the drill. But that's not what I'm here to talk about. I'm not asking "Where are the WMD's" in the rhetorical accusatory sense (the way a teacher would ask a student "Where is your homework?"), but I'm asking it in the very literal sense:...