Was Plague Outbreak Really an Al Qaeda Chemical Weapons Mishap?

Washington Times/Yidwithlid ^ | 1/20/09 | Yidwithlid

[Shellybenoit]

That little attack of bubonic plague may have been a Biological Weapons screw up. The al-Qaeda cell wiped out by Black Death may have infected ITSELF while developing biological weapons according to some sources.

The terrorists to infect on Western targets but fell victims to their own weapon, a leading expert on chemical warfare believes.

The news broke yesterday that the plague killed at least 40 fanatics at a terror training camp in Algeria earlier this month. It was thought they caught the disease through poor living conditions in their forest hideouts. Well maybe not according to the Washington Times:

[GOP Poet]

I believe this is exactly what happened.

[tiki]

I think it is quite likely and quite amusing if true, I hope they suffered greatly and had some time to regret being blood thirst monsters who wanted to inflict such a thing upon others.

[Forward the Light Brigade]

Maybe infected terrorists are coming to US cities soon. They may even be walking around Washington now! Plague might be the next 911? I will replace my tinfoil hat and renew my subscription to Conspiracy theory magazine. I really don’t think the terrorists are smart enough to think of this.

[GOP Poet]

Never underestimate your enemy. I guess you are not in a war then. News to me.

[SisterK]

Was Plague Outbreak Really an Al Qaeda Chemical Weapons Mishap?

coming to a neighborhood near you

[jwparkerjr]

It would be hard to spread the plague by sending those infected with it into an area. First off, it is spread by fleas, who live on rats, and unless an infected person is bitten by a flea which then bytes an uninfected person. Flea infestations are not that rare in the US, but getting a bunch of them to bite specifically people and then bite other specific people would be tough. People who have the plague are pretty sick and probably not around long enough to share their misery with a lot of others. It was a major problem in Europe because of the living conditions. Those conditions are not prevalent in most of America today.

I am not an expert on the subject and make no claim to be. It’s possible they have found a way to spread it without the rats that carried the fleas, but if that’s the case then all bets are off.

[panthermom]

I sure as heck care! It gives us an idea of what they are planning. Would you care if next time they don’t make a mistake and they actually release the Plague in a city?

[panthermom]

Not smart enough? Ha, they are smart, evil and very patient.

[silverleaf]

that is just too silly to say for so many reasons

[silverleaf]

you need to do more reading about pneumonic plague, which is not spread by fleas, but among infected people, person-to-person, airborne

[jwparkerjr]

Here is what the NYC Dept. of Health website says about the disease:

“Bubonic plague is usually transmitted by the bite from infected fleas; however, transmission can occur by bites or scratches from infected wild rodents and cats, or after skin contact with tissue from infected animals.”

[silverleaf]

that is “bubonic plague”

Now, look up “pneumonic plague”

Pneumonic plague is the bioweapon variant

[jwparkerjr]

The article, and several others I looked at, referred to bubonic plaque, made no reference to the other variants. That was the point of my post. Bubonic plague would be a tough one to use as a bio weapon! I'm sure someone would get suspicious if billions and billions and billions of fleas, and several hundred thousand rat hosts, were released in an American city! Sorry for the confusion. I should have been more specific. I tend to get lazy!

[jwparkerjr]

I know that, but the article was about bubonic plague. It made no mention of the other variant.

[Ramius]

In the original article it also notes that the “unnamed intelligence official” discounted the report that it was specifically bubonic plague. He seems to say that they believe it is some chemical or biological agent, but that they don’t know exactly which one.

Troubling development, whatever it is.

[silverleaf]

“bubonic” plague was a presumption (not an accurate one) made by the blogger who repeated an erroneous presumption made by the uneducated tabloid reporter for the Sun.

Most people are conditioned to say plague = bubonic
A classic example of spreading misinformation

The variant of plague that will be used as a bio weapon is the penumonic variant- if and when the weaponeers can figure out how to contain it for mass dispersal, such as an aerosol, and deliver it only on the intended targets. Human vectors could be used but would be a much more limited and sloppy operation

No one is going to deliver an aerosolized bioweapon like plague bacteria by a flaming missile attack, that is just stupid

However airburst delivery of chemical agents is possible as we have seen

[Big_Monkey]

"Shouldn’t the enemy at least wonder if we would?"

I understand what you're saying, but no. Besides the humanitarian and ethical challenges that BIO/CHEM weapons inherently have, they are also volatile, unpredictable and in some cases unctrontrolable.

If, as I believe, terrorist are experimenting with these horrible weapons, they are certain to have some type of mishap (we had plenty of them through the first half of last century). When this happens, unless the US position is clear and public and unwavering, it would be too easy to blame us. Our position on BIO/CHEM agents must be unambiguous - always.

There is plenty of confusion in this war, but one thing the enemy understands perfectly; the US possesses the most lethal fighting machine the world has ever seen. We don't need biological or chemical weapons to kick their a$$. That's why they live in caves.