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Clinton warns of terrorism, instability over water

March 22, 2012 in 2012, America, Bio Terror, Homeland Security, Middle East, Terrorism

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www.homelandsecuritynet.com

WASHINGTON — US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned Thursday of the risk of terrorism, political instability and conflict over competition for scarce water supplies worldwide over the next few decades.

Clinton highlighted such risks that were outlined in the unclassified version of a report on global water security — which she had requested — that was released Thursday by the National Intelligence Council.

“I think it’s fair to say the intelligence community’s findings are sobering,” Clinton said about the report that focuses on the potential water problems between now and 2040.

A summary of the report said North Africa, the Middle East and South Asia “will face major challenges coping with water problems,” particularly as a result of population growth and increased economic demand.

Climate change is a third factor likely to be more strongly pronounced in the later decades.

“As the world’s population continues to grow, demand for water will go up but our fresh water supplies will not keep pace,” Clinton said in a speech at the State Department.

Clinton underscored concerns in the report that terrorists could attack dams and other infrastructure ensuring supplies of water to people, agriculture or industry. Or water could be used as a “political tool,” she said.

“These difficulties will all increase the risk of instability within and between states,” she said.

“Within states they could cause some states to fail outright. And between and among states, you could see regional conflicts among states that share water basins be exacerbated and even lead to violence,” she said.

A summary of the report said “we assess that a water-related state-on-state conflict is unlikely during the next 10 years.

“However, we judge that as water shortages become more acute beyond the next ten years, water in shared basis will increasingly be used as leverage,” the summary said.

“The use of water as a weapon or to further terrorist objectives also will become more likely beyond 10 years,” the summary said.

A senior US intelligence official told reporters on the condition of anonymity in a telephone conference call that “beyond 10 years we did see the risk increasing” of a war over water.

“It’s very difficult to be specific about where, because it depends upon what individual states do and what actions are taken right now to work water management issues between states,” the official said.

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Top Lawmakers Mull Syrian Options

March 7, 2012 in Al Qaeda, America, Bio Terror, Bomb, Explosive, Guns, Middle East, Military, Muslims, Terrorism, war

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www.homelandsecuritynet.com

An estimated 7,500 Syrians have been killed by President Bashar Assad’s military during the past year, a fact that has led Senator John McCain (R-AZ) to call for U.S.-led air strikes to stop the slaughter of unarmed civilians being carried out by the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, saying: “Providing military assistance to the Free Syrian Army and other opposition groups is necessary, but at this late hour, that alone will not be sufficient to stop the slaughter and save innocent lives.” Senators Joseph Lieberman (I-CT), and Lindsey Graham (R-SC.), followed by issuing a statement backing the Arizona Senator’s position on Syria.

Before risking a single American soldier’s life in Syria, the first question we should ask when it comes to using our military is, “Is it in America’s interest? And secondly what is the risk and what is to be gained by such actions?

 Speaking on the subject before a Senate panel recently Marine General James Mattis, head of U.S. Central Command, warned of the potential threats from the deteriorating situation in Syria. The General warned that President Bashar Assad’s regime has a “substantial” chemical and biological weapons capability and thousands of shoulder-launched missiles.

Remember what happened not long ago, when Libya fell, much of their stockpile of portable anti-aircraft missiles went missing and are believed to have crossed borders. The stash of Russian-made Grinch SA-24 and SA-7 surface-to-air missiles were reported missing along with mortars and artillery rounds from a Tripoli weapons warehouse. Experts say the shoulder-launched weapons, which can fit in the trunk of a car, can take down a commercial jet. Since 1975, similar weapons have been used in attacks on at least 40 aircraft, causing 28 crashes and more than 800 deaths.

Assad has continually said his country was clearly being targeted by outside forces seeking to undermine his regime, blaming the one-year revolt threatening his regime on what he calls, foreign-backed “terrorist gangs.” He might be at least partially right. According to an Iraqi intelligence official al-Qaeda-linked fighters have been flowing from Iraq to Syria, and the groups leader, Ayman al-Zawahri has called on Muslims in Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey to join the uprising against Assad’s regime. Consider that potential if a non-state terrorist group(s) like al-Qaeda was able to secure Syria’s cache of chemical and bio-weapons in the midst of chaos and an apparent lack of security or custody of these weapons.

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Bird Flu Research Details To Be Released

February 23, 2012 in Al Qaeda, America, Bio Terror, Emergency Medicine, Hazards, Terrorism

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Despite fear that terrorists could the information to start epidemics, the World Health Organization (WHO) recently announced they would release the “full details” of experiments done last year by research teams, at Erasmus Medical Centre, Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, and at the University of Wisconsin-Madison on the virus known as H5N1, that made the deadly bird flu virus more contagious.

Scientists around the world have been divided on the subject, and there has been a moratorium on the research and its publication once news of the experiments was known. Some urged that the results be published in full; while others say the research is so dangerous that it should never even have been done, much less published. But bio-security experts fear mutated forms of the virus that the researchers created could escape or fall into the wrong hands and be used to spark a pandemic worse than the 1918/19 outbreak of Spanish flu that killed as many as 40-million people. But on the other hand, the Unites States representative to the organization, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said that any theoretical risk of the virus being used by terrorists is far outweighed by the ”real and present danger” of similar flu viruses in the wild

Remember that biological warfare, also known as germ warfare, is the use of any organism (bacteria, virus or other disease-causing organism) or toxin found in nature, as a weapon of war. It is meant to incapacitate or kill an adversary. The level of damage depends primarily on the biological agent’s transmissibility, lethality and susceptibility to countermeasures.

Be aware that H5N1 is a highly contagious deadly strain of bird flu. It is considered so dangerous it could potentially lead to a global pandemic. The virus has killed about 60 per cent of those it has infected, making it one of the most lethal known forms of influenza in modern history.  Until recently it was thought the virus could be transmitted between humans only through close physical contact, but the Netherlands team, led by virologist Ron Fouchier have been able to mutate a deadly strain of bird flu in a laboratory, so that it can be transmitted through the air with the potential to infect and kill millions of people.  Consider that al-Qaeda’s arm in Yemen was said to be actively recruiting specialists in many forms of terror and they had even openly discussed deploying deadly poisons in an article titled “Tips for Our Brothers in the United States of America,” in its online English-language journal, “Inspire.”

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Should we fear avian H5N1 influenza? – HSN

January 17, 2012 in 2012, Bio Terror, Emergency Medicine, Hazards

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The only thing we have to fear is fear itself – Franklin D. Roosevelt

Why is there such widespread fear of avian H5N1 influenza virus?

Why did Paul Keim, chair of the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) say “I can’t think of another pathogenic organism that is as scary as this one”.  What lead Donald McNeil, writing about H5N1 in the New York Times, to conclude that “In its natural form, it is known to have infected only about 600 people since its discovery in 1997, but it killed more than half of them.”

McNeil’s statement is incorrect. Yet it summarizes why Paul Keim, the NSABB, and many others fear the virus.

The problem is that we cannot say with any certainty that the virus has infected only about 600 people. What we do know is that among the 600 seriously ill individuals infected with influenza H5N1 who are admitted to hospital, over half of them die.

To know the fatality rate of avian H5N1 influenza virus in humans, we need to divide the number of fatalities by the number of infections. We do not know that last number – but there are hints that it could be quite large. In a recent study of rural Thai villagers, sera from 800 individuals were collected and analyzed for antibodies against several avian influenza viruses, including H5N1, by hemagglutination-inhibition and neutralization assays. The results indicate that 73 participants (9.1%) had antibody titers against one of two different H5N1 strains. The authors conclude that ‘people in rural central Thailand may have experienced subclinical avian influenza virus infections’. A subclinical infection is one without apparent signs of illness.

If 9% of the rural Asian population has been subclinically infected with avian H5N1 influenza virus strains, it would dramatically change our view of the pathogenicity of the virus. Extensive serological studies must be done to determine the extent of human infection with avian H5N1 influenza viruses.

Until we know how many individuals are infected with avian influenza H5N1, we must refrain from making dire conclusions about the pathogenicity of the virus. Doing so has only lead us down a dangerous path of fearing that H5N1 influenza virus might be used as a weapon of bioterrorism, and restricting the publication of scientific papers on the virus.

Update. A meta-analysis reveals that about 1.3% of over 8,500 study participants had serological evidence of infection with influenza H5N1 (Palese, personal communication).

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by TVR

Scientist’s Open “Pandora’s Box” By Creating Deadly Flu

December 21, 2011 in Al Qaeda, Bio Terror, Terrorism

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By: TVR – a 28 year veteran First Responder

Scientists at the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam, Netherlands claim they have developed a highly contagious deadly strain of bird flu, which potentially could lead to a global pandemic.

Be aware that H5N1 so dangerous, it has killed about 60 per cent of those it has infected, making it one of the most lethal known forms of influenza in modern history. Until now it was thought the virus could be transmitted between humans only through close physical contact, but the Netherlands team, led by virologist Ron Fouchier were been able to mutate a deadly strain of bird flu in a laboratory, so that it can be transmitted through the air with the potential to infect and kill millions of people

The researchers now want to publish full details of how they did it. As a result bio-security experts are now debating whether to allow the researchers to publish the details of their research. Critics think the information is too dangerous to be published, warning of the potentially perilous consequences if the full genetic sequence of the mutated H5N1 virus were to be published in open scientific literature. They fear that terrorists could use the research as a blueprint to replicate it and create a bio-weapon of mass destruction. In response Mr. Fouchier argues that any knowledge gained could be vital in the development of new vaccines, saying: “This process could also happen naturally.”

Be aware that biological warfare, also known as germ warfare, is the use of any organism (bacteria, virus or other disease-causing organism) or toxin found in nature, as a weapon of war. It is meant to incapacitate or kill an adversary. The level of damage depends primarily on the biological agent’s transmissibility, lethality and susceptibility to countermeasures.

Consider that al-Qaeda’s arm in Yemen was said to be actively recruiting specialists in many forms of terror and had even openly discussed deploying deadly poisons in an article titled “Tips for Our Brothers in the United States of America,” in its online English-language journal, “Inspire.” Additionally remember earlier this year according to reports, al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen had made efforts to acquire large quantities of castor beans, which could be used to produce “Ricin.” Officials feared the deadly biological agent could then be packaged in improvised explosive devices (IED), and detonated in congested and enclosed spaces, like shopping malls, airports or subway stations, thus making the white, powdery deadly toxin airborne.

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