Posted on 01/18/2009 7:29:17 PM PST by null and void
ANTI-TERROR bosses last night hailed their latest ally in the war on terror — the BLACK DEATH.
At least 40 al-Qaeda fanatics died horribly after being struck down with the disease that devastated Europe in the Middle Ages.
The killer bug, also known as the plague, swept through insurgents training at a forest camp in Algeria, North Africa. It came to light when security forces found a body by a roadside.
The victim was a terrorist in AQLIM (al-Qaeda in the Land of the Islamic Maghreb), the largest and most powerful al-Qaeda group outside the Middle East.
It trains Muslim fighters to kill British and US troops.
Now al-Qaeda chiefs fear the plague has been passed to other terror cells — or Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.
One security source said: “This is the deadliest weapon yet in the war against terror. Most of the terrorists do not have the basic medical supplies needed to treat the disease.
“It spreads quickly and kills within hours. This will be really worrying al-Qaeda.”
Black Death comes in various forms.
Bubonic Plague is spread by bites from infected rat fleas. Symptoms include boils in the groin, neck and armpits. In Pneumonic Plague, airborn bacteria spread like flu.
It can be in the body for more than a week — highly contagious but not revealing tell-tale symptoms.
The al-Qaeda epidemic began in the cave hideouts of AQLIM in Tizi Ouzou province, 150km east of the capital Algiers. The group, led by wanted terror boss Abdelmalek Droudkal, was forced to turn its shelters in the Yakouren forest into mass graves and flee.
The extremists supporting madman Osama bin Laden went to Bejaia and Jijel provinces — hoping the plague did not go with them.
A source said: “The emirs (leaders) fear surviving terrorists will surrender to escape a horrible death.”
AQLIM boss Droudkal claims to command around 1,000 insurgents. Training camps are also based in Morocco, Tunisia and Nigeria.
AQLIM bombed the UN headquarters in Algiers in 2007, killing 41. Attacks across Algeria last year killed at least 70 people.
In an interview last July, Droudkal boasted his cell was in constant contact with other al-Qaeda “brothers”.
Well damn the luck. Shame they don't have the technical skills to develop so much as an aspirin, let alone an antibiotic. Live by the sixth century, die by the sixth century.
The question is, how well would it spread today in a modernized western country?
A problem in 12th century Europe was they did not know the cause, they did not know the organism, and they did not have anti-biotics.
The cause were rats which were carrying infected fleas from trade ships. There was also sanitary problems back then. We don’t typically have rats running through our homes. In the west, we keep the rat population restrained with traps and poison. Flas are also bombed with chemicals. We know what symptoms for hospitals to look for which activate quarantine procedures. And we also have anti-biotics that can cure the disease. The original strain is not yet resistant to anti-biotics.
Of course, there can be a serious problem if this were to hit a 3rd world country.
But it is not likely you will have an epidemic anywhere near as severe as Europe experienced in the 12th century. But the fear caused by any outbreak at all would do the job the terrorists want it to do.
well, they do live in the dark ages.
Don't need one. Just basic antibiotics fixes it. The southwest US is a reservoir for yersinia pestis, due to it being imported along with all the Chines railroad workers in the 19th century - the fleas carrying it infested the local rodentia, and we'll never get rid of it now. There's a case or two every year. I got curious and called the CDC in Atlanta a few years ago and they sent me a large envelope of information - several hundred pages, and I read them all. No worries.
They musta been lying to us!
Yeah, in terms of being from a rat infestation. But, did I read somewhere that this was something that was spread in the air? I think so... so this might be somewhat different.
I got this from a CDC website:
“PLAGUE VACCINE
Plague vaccines ** have been used since the late 19th century, but their effectiveness has never been measured precisely. Field experience indicates that vaccination with plague vaccine reduces the incidence and severity of disease resulting from the bite of infected fleas.”
I agree with you about the nukes. They are far more reliable than hoping for an effective spread of the plague.
Depending on who is involved, some exotic agents might be loosed in urban areas to create terror, especially some of the strains modified for warfare during the cold war.
Nuke Mecca.
How reliable is The Sun? It seems to be the only source for this story.
Bubonic plague that infects the lungs then becomes pneumonic plague -- which is airborne and infectious. Same bacteria, different delivery.
God's hand or a weapon - or a little of both?
It will boomerang back at them. Western countries are way healthier, have better nutrition, have lots of medical facilities and antibiotics, and public sanitation, rat poison on every shelf and flea killer too for that matter, we also bath rather frequently and launder our clothes..
Muslim countries have bad health, bad nutrition, tons of other endemic diseases that reduce their immune system and much fewer medical resources, poor personal hygeine, poor public sanitation and fewer rat and flea killing options.
Much harder to get it vectored into a healthy and clean population than it is to vector it in to a filthy camp full of filthy undernourished men.
It’s not like bubonic plaque and it’s vectors don’t exist in America. Yet somehow cases are few and isolated (usually skid row bums and spelunkers (bat fleas are a vector).
“heard that they were experimenting”
That was my thought when I first read this. What if they were experimenting with a bio weapon and it was accidently released?
These are powerful weapons and if they actually did have them, we might expect that some of their own would be infected by mistake.
Any thoughts?
Three. Hitler was gassed in WWI and had a horror of chemical weapons.
(OTOH a lot of Jews and other 'undesirables' did get gassed)...
A bio attack during The Hajj would be far more effective.
Eh? Didn't we bomb an "aspirin" factory?
From your lips...
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