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Pastimes : SARS - what next? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ilaine who wrote (497)	5/26/2003 1:16:59 PM
From: E.J. Neitz Jr	Respond to of 1070

Germ warfare...something we all need to be concerned with: U.S.: Bio Weapons A Qaeda Focus WASHINGTON, May 23, 2003 cbsnews.com U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded the al Qaeda terrorist network "was pursuing a sophisticated biological weapons research program," a Pentagon report to Congress says. The report also says North Korea, Iran, Syria and Libya have chemical and biological weapons programs they are working to enhance with help from companies in other countries such as Russia and China. Countries and terrorist groups probably will continue to develop more sophisticated chemical and biological weapons, "and these weapons could well be used in a regional conflict or terrorist attack over the next 15 years," the report said. Al Qaeda's interest in chemical, biological and nuclear weapons has long been known. Osama bin Laden, the group's Saudi-born leader, has called use of such weapons against American and Israeli targets a religious duty for Muslims. American forces in Afghanistan discovered documents and equipment showing often crude attempts by the terrorist network to develop chemical weapons and strong interest in biological weapons. The Pentagon report, sent to Congress in April and disclosed in a news release late Thursday, is the first government document to say al Qaeda had a sophisticated biological weapons development effort. The Pentagon report does not offer any more details on that germ weapons effort. An FBI bulletin last month said the capture of al Qaeda operations chief Khalid Shaikh Mohammed provided fresh evidence of the terror network's experiments with chemical and biological weapons. U.S. officials say al Qaeda is linked to several men arrested in London in conjunction with the discovery of traces of the biological toxin ricin. While ricin is extremely deadly and has no antidote, it can be produced easily from the beans of the castor plant. "The threat of terrorists obtaining and employing biological or chemical materials has increased" in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the Pentagon report said. But the report also noted that creating ways to deliver such weapons to kill large numbers of people requires sophisticated technology that's beyond the reach of most terrorist groups and many countries. Crude weapons could be made by "almost any nation or group," and while they might kill only small numbers of people, "they could have significant operational repercussions due to the psychological impact created by fears" of such weapons, the report said. The report says "entities in Russia and China" are the main suppliers of equipment and technology related to biological and chemical weapons. Russia, in particular, has been a source of equipment and expertise for Iran's chemical and biological weapons programs, it said. Iran has denied having chemical, biological or nuclear weapons programs. The Pentagon report says Iran may have some biological weapons stocks and has stockpiled chemical weapons in the past.

To: Ilaine who wrote (497)	5/27/2003 5:50:44 PM
From: E.J. Neitz Jr	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1070

Did This Virus Jump From Animals Or From China’s B-weapons? A US think-tank report calls for investigation into the precise origin of SARS virus HUMA SIDDIQUI New Delhi, April 30: A US think-tank has concluded that severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) virus being a man-made disaster emanating from China deserves to be investigated for lack of decisive information on “the precise origin of this virus.” It is thus necessary to continue to monitor China’s ‘biological weapon’(BW) programme, recommends a recent report of Jamestown Foundation. The thrust of reporting thus so far on the origins of the SARS points to a mutation of the coronavirus, which causes the common cold. This view holds that the virus most likely jumped from animals to humans, somewhere in China’s Guangdong province. But these are compelling reasons, however unsettling, to at least ask whether there might be any linkage between SARS and China’s biological warfare efforts. According to the report, to be sure, the dominant scientific opinion on the source of SARS— confirmed by the World Health Organisation earlier this month —points to a strain of the coronavirus thought to have originated in animals. The earliest victims of SARS are reported to have been people in Guangdong, who either ate or handled game or fowl. Even if it is a natural virus, the rapidity of the ongoing global spread of SARS illustrates the threat posed by modern BW. By contrast, chemical weapons like nerve gasses kill in a small locality and can wash away, says the report. Even though China denies it has biological warfare capabilities, the US government maintains that “China is believed to possess an offensive biological warfare capability based on technology developed prior to its accession to the 1993 Biological Warfare Convention.” It may, therefore, be unwise to rule out human error, the report points out. According to the report, in Russia at least, there is one scientist who has suggested a link between SARS and errant biological warfare activities. Sergei Kolesnikov, a member of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences and a State Duma lawmaker, has been quoted in media reports as saying: “The propagation of the atypical pneumonia (SARS) may well be caused by a leak of a combat virus grown in Asian bacteriological weapons labs.” Of course, Russian suspicion of a bioweapon accident in China does not of itself prove any relationship to SARS. But such suspicions exist because the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) maintains defensive and offensive chemical and very likely—biowarfare capabilities. China is a member of the 1993 Biological Warfare Convention and regularly denies that it has biological warfare weapons. But China does declare that it has research facilities devoted to “defensive” biological warfare. To defend against Nuclear-Biological-Chemical (NBC) attack, the PLA maintains an Anti-Chemical Corps that is reported to have 46,000 troops. In terms of total troop numbers, China is said to have a higher ratio of chemical defence troops than North Korea. The Chinese leadership’s paranoia, which led it to suppress reporting of and information about SARS starting last November, justly raises questions as to whether China may also be hiding a military-related disaster. Indeed, many Chinese harboured exactly this suspicion before the advent of more truthful reporting on SARS. But even if this suspicion is unfounded, there is another disturbing question that needs to be answered. Given that SARS has devastated China more than any other country, why hasn’t the PLA, which is capable of deploying tremendous resources, assumed the role of global leader in isolating, detecting and seeking a vaccine for SARS? URL: financialexpress.com