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.
Maybe that's why they say it's an exclusive?
In general, that’s true, but I could see problems with an outbreak of pneumonic plague in the illegal alien or the less-well-educated sections of cities. Such an outbreak would be contained fairly rapidly, but I could see a couple thousand people dying from it.
The hajj just finished.
Diphtheria, tetanus and anthrax are all bacteria and they have vaccines.
U.N. will fly in medical teams tomorrow.
No date given on this “incident”?
Could this have happened back when that idiot Joe O Biden leaked his warning about Obama facing a manufactured crisis within 6 months?
Writer almost makes it sound like it was used against the terrorists, rather than them misusing something they were playing with.
We haven’t heard much about al Qaeda in Algeria, or British troops operating there.
Once it goes pneumonic, rats and fleas are no longer necessary. It becomes transmitted human to human.
Infected human vectors boarding a number of transatlantic flights would infect thousands of new infected carriers to take it around the globe quickly.
what is the source of that?
A friend of mine visits in South Dakota and while there they shoot prairie dogs. A few years back they called it off due to the plague getting them (the critters) first. These guys in Algeria, living in caves in the desert, would be sitting ducks for exposure. A shot of penicillin will knock it right out, but they’ve probably never seen a doctor in their lives so it’s a moot point.
That doesn't mean THEY developed the aspirin factory. Many 6th century Islamic countries have western technology, and like monkeys, they can be trained to operate it. But should it go into disrepair, they can neither fix it or build a new one.
If I recall correctly, in 1972 there was an epidemic in Yugoslavia (Kosovo) of smallpox. The index case brought it back from the hajj. Disease doesn't necessarily stay put.
God trumps the Evil Ones, with an appropriate biblical punishment.
I guess they were used to it out there as no one panicked. Being new there I thought the world was about to end but the locals said it was common. Not to worry. Just don't try to play with the cute little critters.
Every year about a half-dozen people, mostly hunters, contract plague in the western states. Rabbits are the wildlife reservoir for it here. Originally introduced through the port of San Francisco from China, in the late 19th century. A real shame the National Health Service wasn’t on the ball back then, becuase it could have been erradicated on the SF penninsula before spreading throughout the western states.
It is treatable with antibiotics. No need to panic.
Just be very careful when you go hunting, fishing, backpacking, or camping. Those fools in Algeria got sloppy.
Here is a very interesting article about occurrences in the US.
http://include.nurse.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080211/SW02/80208036
If this started in the cave shelters — where, one guesses, there was a certain lack of hygiene — it sounds to me like this might be a natural occurrence, to be attributed to the rodents (or rather, the fleas thereof) who might have been scurrying around in that environment. Not to be all prejudiced and everything, but if they’d take a bath once in a while ... and keep pets like terriers and cats, who both give rats what-for ... hm, I’m guess I’m really saying that if they were more like us, this wouldn’t be a problem, would it?
They were obviously trying to weaponize it without adequate safeguards. Good riddance, but- there may be others!
We used to get those all the time down range, figured it was just staph, tetracycline knocked it right down. No rats, but fleas everywhere. Shoot, could have been plague for all we knew. Keep rubbing on the DEET.
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