CHILLING CODE WORD

New York Post ^ | 4/13/02 | DEVLIN BARRETT

[okie01]

"the West Nile virus outbreak seems to be centered on Staten Island."

The West Nile virus outbreak in the U.S. and the foot & mouth disease epidemic in the UK are both prime candidates for consideration as bio-warfare.

[Mitchell]

Look at this NewsMax article: Saddam Connection: West Nile Virus the First Bioweapon?. Some interesting points from the article:

• The CDC sent samples of West Nile virus to a researcher in Iraq, in 1985.
• A WNV (West Nile virus) outbreak in Israel was of the same genetic strain as in NY.
• WNV appears to be spreading along Interstate 95; this wouldn't seem to be the way it would be spread by birds and mosquitos.
• Before the New York outbreak of WNV, an Iraqi defector said that Saddam Hussein was about to start using WNV as a bioweapon.
• The Iraqi bioweapons facility that was partially destroyed by the UN was called the Foot and Mouth Vaccine Plant.

The West Nile virus outbreak is often described as being centered in northern Queens, but when you look at human infections, mosquito pools, dead birds, etc., it looks like it's really centered on Staten Island. (It's hard to say where it started; I think Staten Island is more rural, so there's probably more standing water there for mosquitos to breed in.) I wonder if this Sattar or someone associated with him has a connection with this?

[StriperSniper]

I think Staten Island is more rural, so there's probably more standing water there for mosquitos to breed in.)

While SI is far more rural, Jamaica Bay is there in Queens, which is full of marshes. As for for the 'skeeters, I'd call it a toss-up.

[aristeides]

Do you know where on Staten Island the cases have occurred? Eltingville is very near the Fresh Kills dump.

I now forget the exact date, but, shortly after 9/11, a dead crow was found in the parking lot behind my apartment house in Takoma Park, right outside D.C. The crow was tested, and found to have West Nile Virus.

[aristeides]

What's the point of making your biowarfare weapon a disease that only kills the old and those with compromised immune systems? Could it be because it serves as an effective threat?

[BlueAngel]

These fundamentalists seem to hate everybody. They can't stand for anyone else to have different beliefs from their own. I wonder how many live here in the U.S.

[Mitchell]

Thanks. I don't really know the area.

[antidemocommie]

"After Saturday comes Sunday" is a famous Muslim saying, sometimes interpreted to mean that after the fundamentalists finish the Jews, they'll deal with the Christians.

5 posted on 4/13/02 4:08 AM Central by kcvl

Just one thing these idiots had better remember: Bush and company have great influence over Israel, and her response to terrorism. In the US, Christians don't take the marching orders from DC.

[Mitchell]

Do you know where on Staten Island the cases have occurred? Eltingville is very near the Fresh Kills dump.

I remember seeing Eltingville on a list of many Staten Island WNV locations, but I don't remember the date or if it was a human case or a dead bird. The thing is you'd probably have to isolate cases that occurred at the very beginning of the outbreak to get any sort of clue as to the precise release location.

I now forget the exact date, but, shortly after 9/11, a dead crow was found in the parking lot behind my apartment house in Takoma Park, right outside D.C. The crow was tested, and found to have West Nile Virus.

It has spread quite extensively on the East Coast by now. It's clear that the origin was NYC.

Here's a map from the NY State Dept. of Health, showing WNV occurrences in 2001. This is well after the first known case (which was August, 1999), but you can still see that Staten Island appears to be the center.

[okie01]

"What's the point of making your biowarfare weapon a disease that only kills the old and those with compromised immune systems? Could it be because it serves as an effective threat?"

I don't know that anybody would have ever interpreted the sudden appearance of WNV as a threat -- more like a curiosity. Instead, I suggest there could be two other reasons:

1. A speculation that it would be more destructive than it has been, simply because it was so obscure and there was no established immunity in the population.

2. More likely, it was an experiment -- to determine how far and how quickly it would spread. And how long it would take us to detect it. In which case, WNV may be serving as a precursor for something else.

Thus, a question: what other, more deadly, disease is spread in the same manner, via the same vectors, perhaps with similar symptoms?

[Mitchell]

Just to follow up on my earlier postings here on West Nile virus, I found some early information on the NYC outbreak. See Serologic Evidence for West Nile Virus Infection in Birds in the New York City Vicinity During an Outbreak in 1999 (at the CDC web site). The evidence there indicates that the original really was northeastern Queens, not Staten Island. This is from a sampling of 430 birds conducted Sept. 13-23, 1999, shortly after the outbreak started.

[Mitchell]

That should have been "origin" (not "original"). Sorry about that.

[okie01]

"Northeastern Queens was selected as a central sampling location to coincide with the region of greatest density of human WN encephalitis cases."

I don't know that this study establishes that Northeastern Queens was necessarily the epicenter of the WNV outbreak. They focussed on NE Queens because of the incidence of human cases.

Out of the 430 birds tested, the vast majority (253) came from NE Queens. But that was a function of the distribution of their traps -- five were located in NE Queens, only one in Richmond (Staten Island). The latter accounted for 43 birds, suggesting a similar distribution of infected birds.

In any event, from your earlier map, it is clear that the source of the outbreak (attack?) was somewhere in NYC.

[Alamo-Girl]

Hmmmm .... very interesting! Thank you for all the research!

[Lancey Howard]

Classic planted story, "Call recorded in 2000"

What do you mean?
As far as 'evidence' goes, this is fairly fresh and is certainly worthy of mention in this news story about yesterday's bail hearing.

[Mitchell]

I now forget the exact date, but, shortly after 9/11, a dead crow was found in the parking lot behind my apartment house in Takoma Park, right outside D.C. The crow was tested, and found to have West Nile Virus.

I suggested earlier that this was just part of the spreading out from the introduction in NYC, but look at the following quote from a NewsMax article, West Nile Virus: I Still Do Not Believe in Coincidences:

By this week [the article is dated 9/25/2000] it has been reported that in parts of New York City, the Maryland suburbs surrounding Washington, D.C., the mid-coastal region of Israel and the southern Saudi coastal areas have all seen a precipitous rise of the incidents of West Nile Fever. Israel even calls it an epidemic.

I haven't checked into the evidence for this yet, but the author is suggesting that Iraq introduced West Nile virus into four different areas: NYC, Washington DC, Israel, and Saudi Arabia.

[Mitchell]

What's the point of making your biowarfare weapon a disease that only kills the old and those with compromised immune systems? Could it be because it serves as an effective threat?

I don't think that's the reason; mortality is very low, so it's not an effective threat. I suspect that it may have been a test or experiment.

There was apparently a book published in 1999, just months before the NYC outbreak, by an Iraqi defector; in it, he claimed that Saddam Hussein was preparing to release a modified form of West Nile virus with a 97% fatality rate. Notwithstanding the incorrect fatality rate, it seems like quite a coincidence: that somebody would say that a release of WNV as a bioweapon was in the works, just a few months before an actual outbreak. (I've done searches, and West Nile virus was not commonly in the news or otherwise referred to, until the NYC outbreak.)

One guess would be that the bioengineering effort failed, but that Saddam Hussein decided to proceed with an experiment anyway. WNV is a good choice for a test; it had never occurred in the Western Hemisphere before, so he could try a particular method of release and track its spread, with no possibility of confusion with native viruses.

Biowarfare is new. I'm sure Saddam Hussein would want to carry out some experiments before a full-fledged attack, to learn how to use this new method of warfare effectively.

[Mitchell]

I don't know that this study establishes that Northeastern Queens was necessarily the epicenter of the WNV outbreak. They focussed on NE Queens because of the incidence of human cases.

That's what I thought at first. But there are three pieces of evidence suggesting that Queens was, in fact, the origin (these are all from the CDC article I mentioned in an earlier post):

• In retrospect, the first indication of the outbreak was "in late July 1999, when deaths in crows and other birds were observed in the Queens Borough of New York City and later in other boroughs and surrounding counties."
• Testing of birds for antibodies to WNV, carried out Sept. 13-23, 1999, showed that 50.1% of the birds in Queens tested positive. In contrast, neighboring counties showed much lower rates (11.3% for Westchester County, 6.6% for Nassau County, 5.0% for Kings County [Brooklyn], and only 2.3% for Richmond County [Staten Island]). (It's true that part of this difference might be due to the prevalence of different bird species in different counties, but the Queens percentage is much higher than the others.)
• As you say, northeastern Queens "was the region of greatest density of human WN encephalitis cases" (at least at the time of the study, in September, 1999).

[PRND21]

Agreed. Allegedly, indeed.

[Lion's Cub]

From Reply #22-

The West Nile virus outbreak is often described as being centered in northern Queens, but when you look at human infections, mosquito pools, dead birds, etc., it looks like it's really centered on Staten Island. (It's hard to say where it started; I think Staten Island is more rural, so there's probably more standing water there for mosquitos to breed in.) I wonder if this Sattar or someone associated with him has a connection with this?

Betty Jo's been researching the bin Laden biolabs/healthcare network--maybe she's come across something to help...