Free Republic

IT IS EXCEEDINGLY rare these days to find something that the House and the Senate, the Republicans and the Democrats, can all agree on. But after the Senate's final passage of the Project Bioshield bill last week -- by a vote of 99 to 0 -- it seems that there really is near-unanimous, bipartisan support for speeding up development and stockpiling of the vaccines, antidotes and diagnostic devices that could be used to deter or help cope with a biological terrorist attack in the United States. The bill, a version of which was passed by a comparable margin in the...

<p>HAGERSTOWN, Md. (AP) — The FBI, revisiting an old lead in the anthrax investigation, recently interviewed a former Fort Detrick researcher and his co-workers about his whereabouts when the letters were mailed, he and his lawyer said Sunday.</p> <p>Ayaad Assaad, who now works for the federal Environmental Protection Agency, said the agents also quizzed him Tuesday about his knowledge of producing finely powdered anthrax like that used in the letters.</p>

Dangerous pathogens or infectious agents can be made more deadly, and relatively benign agents can become major public health problems. Bacteria that cause diseases such as anthrax could be altered in such a way that would make current vaccines against them ineffective

December 3, 2002 C.I.A. Hunts Iraq Tie to Soviet SmallpoxBy JUDITH MILLER he C.I.A. is investigating an informant's accusation that Iraq obtained a particularly virulent strain of smallpox from a Russian scientist who worked in a smallpox lab in Moscow during Soviet times, senior American officials and foreign scientists say. The officials said several American scientists were told in August that Iraq might have obtained the mysterious strain from Nelja N. Maltseva, a virologist who worked for more than 30 years at the Research Institute for Viral Preparations in Moscow before her death two years ago. The information came to...

LONDON (AFP) - Intelligence services have warned that the British parliament faces a "specific threat" of a chemical or biological attack by the Al-Qaeda network. Members were alerted over a possible strike using anthrax or the deadly chemical ricin on the House of Commons, the lower chamber of parliament, by MI5, Britain's domestic security agency, newspapers said. Details of the warning emerged during a debate Thursday on whether to spend 1.3 million pounds (2.3 million dollars, 1.9 million euros) on a permanent glass security barrier between the House of Commons and its public gallery. The vote was passed. Peter Hain,...

The Bush administration continues to be worried that Fidel Castro's communist regime is developing biological weapons, according to U.S. Undersecretary of State for arms control and nuclear proliferation John Bolton. Geostrategy-Direct, the global intelligence news service, reports while intelligence on the biological program is uneven, Bolton said last week "there is additional intelligence information that strengthens my belief that Cuba's BW effort must be carefully monitored." Bolton said Ana Montes, a Cuban penetration agent inside the Defense Intelligence Agency, drafted a 1998 intelligence analysis that played down the threat from Cuba. "Additionally, Montes' espionage materially strengthened Cuba's denial and deception...

US develops lethal new viruses 29 October 03http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994318  A scientist funded by the US government has deliberately created an extremely deadly form of mousepox, a relative of the smallpox virus, through genetic engineering.The new virus kills all mice even if they have been given antiviral drugs as well as a vaccine that would normally protect them.The work has not stopped there. The cowpox virus, which infects a range of animals including humans, has been genetically altered in a similar way.The new virus, which is about to be tested on animals, should be lethal only to mice, Mark Buller of the University...

SOURCE: BioDefense Corporation First Ever Mail Defender(tm) System To Protect From Mailed Anthrax Debuts at Global Homeland Security Conference Today in D.C. New Mail Defender(tm) System Invented and Patented by Michael Lu Who Studied at Harvard and MIT LEXINGTON, MASS - September 24, 2003 /Xpress Press/ - BioDefense Corporation (www.biodf.com) today introduces the world's first defense against mailed anthrax and other biological agents at the 3rd Annual Global Homeland Security Conference. The conference runs September 24 -26 at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington D.C. The Mail Defender(tm) will provide protection for government agencies, corporations, and key individuals around...

Fears grow that extremists are ready to cross another threshold of terror Evidence gathered in Iraq and Afghanistan lends credence to claims that radical Islamic groups are dabbling in lethal toxins BEIRUT: A few days ago, Japanese prosecutors demanded the death sentence for the guru of the Aum Shinrikyo (Supreme Truth) doomsday cult, Shoko Asahara, for masterminding the sarin gas attack on Tokyo’s subway system on March 20, 1995. Twelve people were killed and 2,500 sickened. A year earlier, sect activists had released sarin in a residential neighborhood in the Nagano Mountains, killing seven people. Those atrocities crossed a moral...

<p>May 8, 2003 -- WASHINGTON - A suspected mobile germ warfare factory has been seized by the U.S. military in northern Iraq - the first solid evidence that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction, the Pentagon said yesterday.</p> <p>American forces in Iraq are conducting a battery of tests on what they believe is a mobile biological-weapons lab that is similar to the descriptions of vehicles provided to U.S. intelligence agencies by Iraqi defectors before the war.</p>

Iraq has admitted it has found a bomb with a possible biological warhead, and a stash of documents on weapons disposal, the chief UN inspector said yesterday. Hans Blix, the head of the UN Monitoring Verification and Inspection Commission (Unmovic), described the declarations as "positive", and said they would be investigated further. President Bush, however, dismissed the Iraqi admissions, which came in a series of letters to Mr Blix over the past few days, as token gestures designed to fend off the threat of invasion by giving the appearance of cooperation. The president told journalists he expected to see Saddam...

Chemical and Biological Weapons China is widely reported to have active programs related to the development of chemical and biological weapons, although essentially no details of these programs have appeared in the open literature. China is believed to have an advanced chemical warfare program that includes research and development, production and weaponization capabilities. Its current inventory is believed to include the full range of traditional chemical agents. It also has a wide variety of delivery systems for chemical agents to include artillery rockets, aerial bombs, sprayers, and short-range ballistic missiles. Chinese forces have conducted defensive CW training and are prepared...

In a chilling signal to the Allies, the woman who runs Iraq's chemical warfare programme has been shown on TV at Saddam Hussein's war cabinet. Scientist Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, known as Mrs Anthrax to Western intelligence, was sitting next to Saddam Hussein's son Qusay. The pictures, broadcast by Iraqi television, send a clear message to the West and increase fears that the Iraqi dictator is on the brink of using his weapons of mass destruction. The woman is the key figure behind Iraq's illegal weapons programme and helped rebuild his biological capibility after the Gulf war in 1991. But...

Berlin (CNSNews.com) - Adding another sticking point to strained relations with the United States, Germany says its troops will not come to the rescue of American soldiers if they invade Iraq and face a chemical or biological attack there. German defense minister Peter Struck said Friday that his forces will only defend and assist American soldiers and civilians based in Kuwait, where some German troops are currently stationed. German soldiers in Kuwait possess equipment to detect contamination by biological and chemical weapons. But if the attack takes place in Iraq, German troops will not go forward to assist U.S....

Vet Groups Decry U.S. Force Protection Dave Eberhart, NewsMax Monday, Mar. 3, 2003 The National Gulf War Resource Center and the Vietnam Veterans of America say that public laws designed to protect soldiers on the battlefield are being ignored, thereby setting the stage for mystery illnesses to again present themselves after a war with Iraq. The vet groups’ complaint, spelled out in a recent letter, obtained by NewsMax, to Congress, the Association of Governors and National Guard Headquarters, maintains that the Department of Defense, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Congress are not following their own recommended Force Health Protection...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. TUXTLA GUTIERREZ, Mexico (Reuters) - Tucked away in southern Mexico's jungly Chiapas state, scientists work around the clock using radiation and powdered blood to produce one of the area's most cutting-edge exports -- man-eating flies. Tuxtla Gutierrez, the capital of Chiapas, better known for spawning an armed rebellion in 1994 by guerrillas fighting for Indian rights, is home to the world's only New World screwworm plant, breeding millions of insects each week. Named for the corkscrew motion with which they burrow into flesh, the screwworm larvae can kill their victim --...

Military cremation would alter tradition WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Pentagon is considering cremating remains of troops who may die in a chemical or biological attack in a possible war with Iraq, officials said Thursday. Use of field cremation would alter a longtime U.S. military tradition of making every effort to return each person's body home in a flag-draped coffin. It is not yet clear if the military would operate a crematorium in the Middle East or how the ashes would be sorted and returned to families. The Pentagon also would have to address cultural and religious objections by some service...

Toxic Tugs - Public Poisons by J.B. Stone - 04/17/02 What do Maryland, Utah, Alaska, Hawaii, Johnston Atoll, and the Marshall Islands have in common? BioChemical warfare tests were conducted in all of them behind a blinding haze of Cold War secrecy. And hardly a word of warning was ever issued, before during, or afterward the test conductors, subjects, or citizens living in surrounding areas. Marine jets and Army artillery sprayed "harmless simulants" and live biological and chemical agents on unsuspecting citizens for 15 years on land and sea during Operation Deseret. The randomly selected human test rats onboard ships...

AN EXPERIMENTAL plague vaccine will be given to thousands of British troops in the event of war against Iraq, Scotland on Sunday can reveal. It is feared Saddam Hussein has developed a super-strain of the ‘Black Death’ bacterium which could wipe out millions. The Ministry of Defence last night confirmed that its scientists had created a new vaccine, which they expect to be licensed for use within weeks. The inoculation will be among a cocktail of drugs - including anthrax vaccine - administered to British troops if Saddam ignores demands to allow inspections of his weapons stockpile. It can also...

The June 2002 Draft Supplemental Smallpox Recommendations recommended that states should designate initial smallpox isolation care facilities (type C facilities) and these facilities, in turn, should pre-designate individuals who would care for smallpox patients for vaccination. However, further discussions with state health officials and hospital administrators identified problems with this approach. It was problematic to designate type C hospitals since suspected smallpox patients are likely to present at the hospitals and health care facilities which are their usual source of care, and not only at designated hospitals. Therefore, health and bio-terrorism officials indicated it was preferable to offer all acute...