Posted on 12/30/2004 12:22:18 PM PST by neverdem
Hoping to hasten the doomsday their leader foretold, scientists who were members of Japan's Aum Shinrikyo cult brewed batches of anthrax in the early 1990s and released it from an office building and out the back of trucks upwind of the Imperial Palace.
But the wet mixture kept clogging the sprayers the Aum Shinrikyo scientists had rigged up, and, unbeknown to them, the strains of anthrax they had ordered from a commercial firm posed no danger to anyone. Frustrated by their failure at biowarfare, they turned to a less arduous method of mass killing -- chemical attack -- and in 1995 killed 12 Tokyo subway riders by releasing sarin gas in the tunnels.
The cult's experiences demonstrate just a few of the myriad technical obstacles that terrorists who might try to manufacture biological weapons could face, problems that would confound even skilled scientists who tried to help them, biological warfare experts say.
Locating virulent anthrax specimens with which to brew an attack-size batch would be difficult given the medical community's caution about suspicious buyers. Smallpox could be next to impossible to obtain because it is thought to exist in only two secure sites, in Russia and in the United States.
Creating aerosolized microbes also requires expertise in many arcane scientific disciplines, such as culturing and propagating germs that retain their virulence and "weaponizing" them so they float like a gas and enter the lungs easily.
But specialists also say it is all but inevitable that al Qaeda or another terrorist group will gain the expertise to launch small-scale biological attacks and eventually inflict mass casualties. Information on the mechanics of creating bioweapons is easily accessible on the Internet and in technical manuals, and the equipment to do the job is readily found. Many brew pubs, for example, have fermenters that...
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Even moreso if they get assistance from a government known to support terrorism. This is why Saddam Hussein had to leave power BEFORE he succeeded. He was TRYING to obtain WMDs. Would we permit a convicted felon to "try" to buy handguns? Would we permit someone to "try" to hire a hitman to murder another person?
Saddam Hussein may not have had any ties to the 9/11 attacks but the war in Iraq is not over that. Saddam's Iraq was a state sponsor of international terrorism. He even gave money to the families of suicide bombers.
Meanwhile, I still have not heard if it was "easier" to make a "large" batch (say about what would fill one gallon milk jug) of weaponized anthrax or a "small" batch (say 4 heaping table spoons). This must be considered in determining if we saw ALL of the anthrax that was produced for the attacks near 9/11/2001.
Would it be possible for a single man to do this (and the scrub down) or was it a conspiracy of several people (or even a nation)?
No, it is the Grace of God restraining evil. We won't know how much until we get to heaven, but I believe, when the panoply of history, is revealed, all mouths will be stopped and all will be shocked by the extent of God's Grace in preventing some tragedies and allowing others.
Ask not, why God allowed it, but why he is patient with mankind at all. For he owes nothing to man, and he can do as he wills.
Mass murder was prevented in the 1993 WTC bombing when the poison gas that the terrorists used was incinerated by their bomb. Imagine if people had died trying to exit the stairwells.
From time to time, I’ll post or ping on noteworthy articles about politics, foreign and military affairs. I'd say WMD is noteworthy too. FReepmail me if you want on or off my list. Stay safe. Happy New Year!
I think this is a res ipsa loquitur proposition. There was a fairly successful bioterror attack upon the US-the perpetrators of which are apparently still at large.
Exactly.
Some of the last smallpox outbreaks were in Iraq and other mid east or Muslim nations. That is significant. Iraq was known to be working with other pox viruses which can be model systems for weaponizing smallpox.
Better safe than sorry.
Yes. We really do forget so easily. And the anthrax was well prepared indicating a high level of expertise in preparing it.
Japan tried to send a plague to the US near the end of WWII. The plan was to raise infected insects (using rats) and float the critters to our shores in clay pots with balloons.
Part of camp 731's horrors.
bttt
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