Al Qaeda hit by Black Death fear as medieval plague kills 40 terrorists at training camp

DailyMail ^ | 1/19/09 | DailyMailReporter

[Sammy67]

Al Qaeda terrorists have been left fearing the Black Death plague after it wiped out at least 40 insurgents at an Algerian training camp, it was reported today. The horror disease, which killed 25 million people in medieval Europe, is understood to have been found in a militant’s body dumped at a roadside. Terror group AQLIM (al Qaeda in the Land of the Islamic Maghreb) was forced to turn its shelter in the Yakouren forests into mass graves and flee, it has been claimed.

Now al Qaeda chiefs are said to fear the plague has been passed into other cells - and possibly Taliban fighters in Afghanistan. Many insurgents may choose to surrender for treatment rather than die a horrible death. ‘This is the deadliest weapon yet in the war against terror,’ a security source told The Sun: ‘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.’

[wbill]

Comes from living with a transmission vector (rats? mice?)

I think that the plague is treatable - isn't it bacterial, and able to be treated with penecillin?

[muawiyah]

No, we don't. Plague is "out there" ~ always has been. So has hanta virus. Currently it's believed that one or more strains of hanta virus were busy destroying North and South American Indians when Europeans arrived in the early 1500s.

The death rate was about 95%, and higher in some areas.

Plague has a lower death rate which varies by ethnic group. Southern Europeans saw the majority of people die, and Northern Europeans saw less than a majority die. Those who lived in the far North had very low death rates, or none at all.

If I were using bioweapons I'd look into hanta virus, not black plague.

The AlQaida guys are simply encountering it out in the desolate drylands where rats are the dominant animals.

[livius]

Is this pneumonic plague? It’s so fast-acting and spread so fast that it would seem that it might be.

[lakeman]

Bring out your dead!!

[GOPJ]

Nice long incubation period too. No telling where the stuff has spread to... Easy to cure if these guys come out of their holes.

[freema]

Ping

[dblshot]

“passed into other cells”

Speaking both organizationally and biologically that would be correct.

Probably spread into the camp by nanofleas dropped from a CIA predator rat.

[odin2008]

I believe you’re right. This sounds like they are testing germ warfare stuff and either they had an accident, or self test of the agent.

[RaceBannon]

Can you say schadenfreude?

I knew you could

(How do you spell that, anyways??)

[RC one]

Yikes. It does make one wonder. Possibly a natural event. Equally plausibe is that it was a bio-warfare experiment gone awry. If I had to bet money, I would go with bioweapon experiment gone awry.

[wbill]

From "Wikipedia", FWIW...

In modern times, several classes of antibiotics are effective in treating bubonic plague. These include the aminoglycosides streptomycin and gentamicin, the tetracyclines tetracycline and doxycycline and the fluoroquinolone ciprofloxacin. Patients with plague in the modern era usually recover completely with prompt diagnosis and treatment.

[Evil Slayer]

I remember when I was in transient to be shipped to Ft. Rich in Alaska (Army ‘67) they gave us all shots for the plague. Don't remember what type though. I bet all our guys in the service have had the shot if shipped overseas. I don't recall how long the shot last though.

[Uncle Ike]

” The Al Qaeda PR machine and CNN “

But you repeat yourself.....

[gate2wire]

‘It spreads quickly and kills within hours. This will be really worrying al-Qaeda.’

Hahahaha...ain’t that a shame.

[mkjessup]

This is a critical reason for closing up our borders, controlling the stem of immigration into our country, and reinstating health-checks before admittance.

Brace for incoming BushBots screaming 'BDS! BDS! BDS!', lol

[Oldeconomybuyer]

This isn’t Bush’s fault.

[culpeper]

Kharma’s a bitch.

[Puppage]

Tuskeegee Terrorists?

[Joe Boucher]

I’ve read the stories of folks getting strange diseases from living in huts in New Mexico.
I’ve driven various parts of New Mexico and seen where folks
live like they did when the whites weren’t here.

[Trueblackman]

Bush’s departing gift and his fault.