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The US warned on Sunday night that a bioterrorist attack that could kill thousands was inevitable and urged industrial and developing nations to spend tens of billions of dollars more to gear up medical systems to cope with the threat. "There is going to be an attack. Whether it is in western Europe, the US, Africa, Asia or wherever, you have got to anticipate that there is going to be a bioterrorism attack and the only way to defend yourself is by getting prepared," said Tommy Thompson, health secretary. In an interview with the Financial Times, he said the wave...

<p>WASHINGTON — Discoveries in Afghanistan show that Al Qaeda's research into biological weapons was more advanced than previously estimated by the United States, a new intelligence report says.</p> <p>While terrorists still prefer conventional bombs and other traditional methods of attack, they are becoming increasingly interested in using poisons, disease weapons and other biological weapons, the U.S. report says.</p>

Al Qaeda prepares bio-terror for US and Israel Summary of DEBKA-Net-Weekly article of Jan. 3 January 4, 2003, 10:13 PM (GMT+02:00) DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s intelligence sources report mounting fears within US and Israeli counter-terrorism agencies that al Qaeda’s three command centers are preparing mega-terror attacks for US and Israeli targets. (To subscribe to DNW click HERE ) . They believe that, for the time being, al Qaeda has foregone a nuclear, radiological or chemical option in favor of biological warfare, because of the weapons systems believed to have been made available by Iraqi military intelligence and already in the hands of three...

US, British and French consulates in Germany have received detailed letters warning of biological weapon attacks in Europe by the al-Qaeda network, German magazine Stern reported today. The magazine quoted German security sources as saying that the lengthy letter, received by the three consulates in the western cities of Duesseldorf and Frankfurt, warned of some 50 "very dangerous people" who belong to al-Qaeda and live in Germany. The suspects, whose names, addresses and telephone numbers were included in the letter, were planning biological attacks "soon" in Europe, Stern reported. Potential targets mentioned in the letter included embassies, banks, large buildings...

ORLANDO, Fla. — At least 60 people on the Disney cruise ship Magic have contracted a flu-like illness this week even after the vessel was scrubbed because of an earlier outbreak, officials said Tuesday. The ship was disinfected Saturday after 275 people became sick on the Magic's last seven-day trip. The source of the virus that caused the illness has not been determined, Disney Cruise Line spokesman Mark Jaronski said. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta was investigating and should have test results identifying the virus by the end of the week, spokeswoman Bernadette Burden said.

<p>Dr. Alan Zelicoff is willing to go many extra miles to combat the threat of bioterrorism.</p> <p>The Albuquerque physician-turned-researcher just returned from a trip to the NATO Summit in Prague, where he hoped to persuade President Bush and the other 19 member nations that a global health surveillance network is the best way to protect people from manufactured disease.</p>

AN elusive fleet of nondescript trucks crisscrossing Iraq is believed by Western intelligence sources to be carrying biological weapons. The suspected mobile weapons labs that rumble along Iraq's highways and crowded streets may look like ice cream trucks, motor homes or 18-wheeler tractor trailer trucks, officials and experts told the Los Angeles Times. But their cargo is believed to be germ agents such as anthrax, botulinum toxin and aflatoxin that theoretically could kill hundreds of thousands in an attack. The vehicles have been dubbed "Winnebagos of death", and are extremely difficult to find, even with sophisticated sensors. They now pose...

The scientists could have been studying germ warfare Some of Britain's top laboratories were infiltrated by Iraqi scientists researching germ warfare in the run-up to the Gulf War, a scientist has claimed. Iraqi scientists - financed by generous grants from the Iraqi government - reportedly applied for and gained research posts in academic and medical institutions. Dr Joseph Selkon, a leading Oxford microbiologist, told BBC Radio 4's File on 4 that the infiltration was discovered after he became suspicious about one Iraqi research applicant. His suspicions sparked extra security checks, which revealed that leading microbiology laboratories had been targeted by...

Bioterror scientists 'infiltrated UK university research facilities' By Andrew Johnson 17 November 2002 Iraqi scientists working on biological weapons infiltrated British research laboratories in the early 1990s, an Oxford scientist said last night. The revelations have led to calls for tighter vetting of overseas students. At least 10 Iraqi scientists were accepted by university laboratories in the run-up to the Gulf War in 1992. Andrew Mackinlay, a Labour member of the foreign affairs select committee, told a Radio 4 programme to be broadcast this week that Britain is "extremely vulnerable" to infiltration by foreign scientists looking to use UK research...

<p>Adrian Ponce's job as a Caltech chemist is preventing spacecraft from contaminating distant planets with dangerous microbes from Earth.</p> <p>But now he has turned his technology to develop what he calls an "anthrax smoke detector" that would quickly signal whenever terrorists have loosed a cloud of potentially deadly bacterial spores into buildings, stadiums or subways.</p>

<p>Woman with rash, who sparked hospital lockdown due to smallpox concerns, upgraded to good.</p> <p>A North Fort Myers woman brought to Cape Coral Hospital Tuesday afternoon with an infectious disease was upgraded to good condition Wednesday, but hospital and health officials said they still haven’t determined her illness.</p>

Health officials say nurse reused large syringe 2002-10-11 By Jim Killackey The Oklahoman A nurse anesthetist who might have exposed hundreds of Oklahomans to hepatitis C used a large syringe and needle over and over again to inject small doses into patients' intravenous lines, the state Health Department said Thursday. James C. Hill used the improper and dangerous practices involving syringes, needles and IV portals on patients' hands or arms at Norman Regional Hospital and at two Oklahoma City pain management clinics, state epidemiologist Dr. Mike Crutcher said. "By my understanding, this is the biggest outbreak of hepatitis C that...

Millions of doses of the smallpox vaccine are to be stockpiled by the government to prepare for mass vaccination in the event of a bio-terrorist attack. The Department of Health said that while there was no evidence of a specific threat it was carrying out "intensive planning" just in case. Key health workers, including doctors and nurses, will be first to be offered the vaccine. They will form the first line of defence in any outbreak, caring for those taken ill in isolation.We should have in place enough vaccine to vaccinate on a mass population basis if necessary .... However,...

One of the doctors who helped eradicate smallpox said Thursday he did not believe it was a viable weapon of bio-terrorism. Dr. Daniel Blumenthal, a professor and department chair at the Morehouse School of Medicine, was literally one of the last doctors to see a case of smallpox. When in India, in the early 1970s, during a smallpox outbreak, thought the disease was too difficult to control. "I said this is hopeless we can't eradicate this disease there's too much of it,” he recalled. A few years later, however, the disease was eradicated except for the known samples that remain...

Bush Administration Prepares to Offer Vaccine to Public WASHINGTON (AP) - Moving aggressively to steel the nation against bioterrorism, the Bush administration is preparing to offer the effective but risky smallpox vaccine to every American before an attack ever occurs. The decision, which goes well beyond earlier thinking, stems from practical and philosophical concerns including the looming war with Iraq and the fact that, for the first time in decades, the government will have enough vaccine on hand to inoculate everyone. Just three months ago, federal advisers were recommending that only select hospital workers get the smallpox vaccine, maybe 20,000...

he two men identified themselves as pilots when they came to the emergency room of Holy Cross Hospital in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., last June. One had an ugly, dark lesion on his leg that he said he developed after bumping into a suitcase two months earlier. Dr. Christos Tsonas thought the injury was curious, but he cleaned it, prescribed an antibiotic for infection and sent the men away with hardly another thought.But after Sept. 11, when federal investigators found the medicine among the possessions of one of the hijackers, Ahmed Alhaznawi, Dr. Tsonas reviewed the case and arrived at...

Last May, someone sat down at an IBM desktop here and typed out a polite letter to a bitter foe of al-Qaida, the anti-Taliban leader Ahmed Shah Massoud. The writer tapped at the computer for 97 minutes, according to its internal record, then printed out the fruit of his labor: a request for an interview with Massoud, to be conducted by “one of our best journalists, Mr. Karim Touzani.” ON SEPT. 9, two men posing as journalists, one carrying a passport in the name of Karim Touzani, detonated a hidden bomb as they interviewed Massoud. The legendary Afghan commander was ...

THE simplicity of many of the techniques contained in the terror training manuals used by groups such as al-Qaeda are the key to their success. Years of campaigning in unfavourable terrain such as the Hindu Kush mountain range in Afghanistan have allowed them to develop a portfolio of easy-to-use but devastating devices. While Western intelligence agencies may be vigilant in tracking larger groups of possible terrorists and suspect materials, they are less successful in detecting individuals and small cells making the sorts of devices found in the manual. It is precisely these sorts of home-made devices, using components found in ...

ASHINGTON, March 22 — The United States has discovered a laboratory under construction near Kandahar, Afghanistan, where American officials believe Al Qaeda planned to develop biological agents, officials said today.According to a confidential assessment by the United States Central Command, the laboratory was intended to produce anthrax. The assessment was presented to senior American officials in recent days and is based on documents and equipment found at the site.No biological agents were found in the laboratory, which was still under construction when it was abandoned. American intelligence officials still believe that Al Qaeda would need assistance from foreign experts...

Special Dispatch 297 – Jihad and Terrorism Studies November 7, 2001 Terror in America (24): Hamas Weekly: Anthrax should be put into America's drinking water In his weekly op-ed, Dr. 'Atallah Abu Al-Subh, a columnist for the Hamas[1] weekly Al-Risala (Gaza), writes open letters to prominent figures, ideologies, and events. His most recent letter, No. 163, was titled "To Anthrax": "The truth is that I wondered how to begin! Should I greet you [i.e. anthrax], or should I curse you? Should I hold my tongue?… I will begin by saying: Oh Anthrax, despite your wretchedness, you have sown horror ...