For what it's worth, here's a potentially disturbing report:

On a call-in to the George Putnam show today a biochemist Dr. "Mary" outlined 5 points about the current bioterror alert that is in effect for the period during Ramadan:

Iraq is at war with the US.

A debriefing of a DOD agent Larry Harris of the Iraqi Mariam Irif has yeilded this info.

120 American cities are being simultaneously targeted on a muslim holy day - the end of Ramadan is the most likely date.

120 Iraqi cell groups of various Iraqi's such as students with visas may be carrying the spores in body cavities for anthrax production in the US. 900 pounds is all that is necessary to overwhelm the US.

Iraqi Sufis are mentioning attacks in 1999 or in 2001. These could reduce the US population to 50 million, says Dr. Mary.

Spores would be launched by venturi devices possibly mounted on motor cars. The onset of anthrax symptomes, a seeming mild cold, takes a couple days at which time the person has little chance of surviving.

A book outlining all this is published by The American Sentinel "Bioterrorism: the coming..." (704) 365-1845 but the book is back ordered for 4 weeks, beyond any event this year. Politicans have access to positive pressure tents with approximately 0.03 micron filters.

FEMA is planning not to panic the public in their approach to this.

As a preventative, Dr. Mary reported that she considered a mix of penicillin and tetracycline what she would be taking over the next month, though the spores may be tailored to avoid these antibiotics. The only other preventative is to leave the larger cities for the countryside for a few weeks, she said.

-- Rainman (rainman@uh-oh.com), December 13, 1999

Answers

"Politicans have access to positive pressure tents with approximately 0.03 micron filters." Wow, just think about it.

Is there a guard standing OUTSIDE that tent to protect it? Is he happy about that? Does the guard need the politician as much as the politician needs the guard? Or is the tent in a secret location that needs no guards?

Is there a hoard (oops, prepositioned strategic reserve) inside it? How big is this thing? If you happened upon a bubbled politician, is there any good reason to NOT try to get inside with him/her (other than having to listen to him/her)?

I mean, the imagination runs amok!

-- bw (home@puget.sound), December 13, 1999.

bw, I must confess I have since childhood had an irresisable impulse to pop ballons, poke bubbles, and knock down the blanket tent fortresses of my siblings. I'm nearly salivating at the prospect of popping a politicians bubble.

-- Nikoli Krushev (doomsday@y2000.com), December 13, 1999.

Uh-oh.

rw

-- rw (ridleywalker@aol.com), December 13, 1999.

I don't guess Dr. Mary bothered to mention that this sort of thing has been possible since the middle of the LAST century? Didn't think so. And it hasn't been done in all that time.

The reason nobody uses bioweapons is really simple, you can't control the spread of an epidemic. Didja notice that two days of sniffles? Thats the contaigon spread time. Go ahead, hit NYC, in a week your own people start dropping. Planes from NYC go everywhere in the world, those sniffles will spread the disease to everyone in a sealed pressure cabin (seem to be responsible for the spread of TB lately) and planes fly to Iraq and Iran from many points in the MidEast.

Chemical weapons, maybe, if you intend to give the US an excuse for a nuclear strike. They are both considered weapons of mass destruction. But bioweapons come right back and smack you in the face.

Not even a maniac fool will take the chance of killing 70% of his own population.

-- Why now? (nowayrightnow@nope.com), December 13, 1999.

http://www.pathfinder.com/time/daily/0,2960,35887-101991213,00.ht ml

Is Bin Laden Plotting a Y2K Catastrophe? Washington, citing specific terrorist threats, warns Americans to lay low. But we're not getting any details

Madeleine Albright knows a really good reason to stay home for New Year's Eve, but she's not going to tell you exactly what it is. Hinting that there is danger of a "Bin Laden-related" terrorist action (isn't everything these days?), the State Department over the weekend warned those Americans living beyond U.S. borders that they are in considerable danger this holiday season. Though officials say they have received word of a specific threat, Washington isn't saying where Bin Laden or other terrorists may strike, simply asking all Americans living or traveling abroad to take extra precautions  avoiding crowds and keeping a low profile are two suggestions offered  between now and the first week of January.

"There have been a slew of threat reports over the past few weeks, mainly Bin Laden-related," an official told the Los Angeles Times. "And then one emerged in the past couple of days that seemed much more credible and specific than all the others." Global cautions to the millions of Americans spread around the globe are issued each time the U.S. does anything that may be deemed offensive to terrorists anywhere, which makes them fairly commonplace: Sunday's was the fifth since October. But senior officials went out of their way to warn the media not to treat this as a case of crying wolf. "This sounds to me larger than many of the ones we've put out," an official told the Los Angeles Times. "You don't want to over-alarm them, but if we have this information, there's an obligation to tell them." Some specifics would be nice.

 TONY KARON

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WRITE TO US

editions TIME ASIA | TIME FOR KIDS | TIME EUROPE

Copyright ) 1999 Time Inc. New Media.

-- Homer Beanfang (Bats@inbellfry.com), December 13, 1999.

If I am not mistaken, Anthrax cannot be spread via the "sniffles." One must be exposed directly by the spores, not by someone else.

That's why terrorists will use it! Iraq, Iran, Libya, Syria, Sudan, etc., etc., etc. can wipe up 100's of US cities with NO, repeat NO, damage to their people and/or cities.

Go smoke that in your pipe.....

-- Vernon Hale (create@premiernet.net), December 13, 1999.

How quickly do you think flights would stop if it were announced in the global press simultaneously?

The mechanisms are in place for something to happen, or not. Until then, I lurk, and consider myself cursed for having read so much.

I think that, from the senses of conscious experience, this has been the end of the world as I once knew it.

I was living in the past-imprefect, on to present--tense.

rw

-- rw (ridleywalker@aol.com), December 13, 1999.

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=00207Z

Looks like somebody's on their toes...

-- Deb M. (vmcclell@columbus.rr.com), December 13, 1999.

Seems I also read that anthrax is not contagious, you have to directly inhale the spores. So when's the last day of Ramadan?????I still think that the chemtrails are our govmint's desperate attempt to innoculate us without creating a panic.If, as some suggest,a vaccination program is useless against anthrax, why is the military requiring all service members to get the vaccine?

-- Ralph Kramden (And@awayWeGo.com), December 13, 1999.

120 American cities are being simultaneously targeted on a muslim holy day - the end of Ramadan is the most likely date.
120 Iraqi cell groups of various Iraqi's such as students with visas may be carrying the spores in body cavities for anthrax production in the US. 900 pounds is all that is necessary to overwhelm the US.
Iraqi Sufis are mentioning attacks in 1999 or in 2001. These could reduce the US population to 50 million, says Dr. Mary.

I wonder what gov.org is going to do wit these Iraqi students?

-- Butt Nugget (catsbutt@umailme.com), December 13, 1999.

Ramadan starts Dec 8, 1999 and ends Jan 6, 2000 in North and South America. It starts Dec 9, 1999 and ends Jan 7, 2000 for Europe, Africa, Asia and Middle East.

-- peabody (peabody@yahoo.com), December 14, 1999.

"Not even a maniac fool will take the chance of killing 70% of his own population. "

Pol Pot? Mao? Stalin? Hitler?

Saddam?

-- Forrest Covington (theforrest@mindspring.com), December 14, 1999.

This story about Iraq planning an anthrax attack has been on the internet for a long time, perhaps a year. I really wonder if a country as Iraq could plan such a large operation without getting caught. It would take a lot of people to carry it out. On the other hand, I have to wonder what the role of the chemtrails is. It is an act of desperation by our government as Ed Dames said?

-- Dave (dannco@hotmail.com), December 14, 1999.

I've been studying virology, epidemiology and bioterrorism for some time now. A few comments:

- Anthrax is a "stone age" type agent. It takes approx. 5,000-10,000 particles ingested to overwhelm the average person's system. It is not infectious as someone pointed out. A lot more than 900 lbs. of anthrax would be required to do major damage to the U.S. While accurate info about the accidental release of anthrax in a soviet bioweapons plant has been impossible to get it appears that the release of approx. 2 pounds of weaponized powdered anthrax in a city killed 60 people over the course of 2 months. The deaths were all within 4 miles of the plant.

- There are many bioagents that are far worse than anthrax. Plague, smallpox, VEE, Tulermia and bot-tox would be far more effective. Iraq produced enough botullism toxin to cover a football field 9 feet deep and none of this has ever been found. Bot tox is about 1000 times more lethal than anthrax and also isn't infectious.

- When most of Biopreparat, the russian group responsible for biological agents production was disbanded (most of it...) many of the former scientists there joined development efforts outside russia. Some are reported in the employ of Iraq and Iran. Whether they took seed cultures with them is unknown.

- Russia had 20 tons of weaponized smallpox in their arsenal at one point. Smallpox is an infectious agent and 1 to 3 particles is usually sufficient to infect if breathed or it gets in the eyes. Did any of this get out?

- Their is generally a generational drop in the lethality of infectious agents such as smallpox or ebola filovirus. The official estimate of the death toll from the spread of an infectious agent during a "concerted" attack on the U.S.is pegged at 25-30 million people. By the time an infectious bioagent released in the U.S. would make it back to it's makers (Iraq/Iran for this discussion) by human carriersit's lethality would have dropped quite a bit. Life is considered pretty cheap over there so I don't know their hand would be stayed by this consideration.

More info on chemical and biological agents is available at:

http://www.nbc-med.org/SiteContent/HomePage/WhatsNew/MedAspects/ contents.html

-- Don Kulha (dkulha@vom.com), December 14, 1999.

I've been studying virology, epidemiology and bioterrorism for some time now. A few comments:

- Anthrax is a "stone age" type agent. It takes approx. 5,000-10,000 particles ingested to overwhelm the average person's system. It is not infectious as someone pointed out. A lot more than 900 lbs. of anthrax would be required to do major damage to the U.S. While accurate info about the accidental release of anthrax in a soviet bioweapons plant has been impossible to get it appears that the release of approx. 2 pounds of weaponized powdered anthrax in a city killed 60 people over the course of 2 months. The deaths were all within 4 miles of the plant.

- There are many bioagents that are far worse than anthrax. Plague, smallpox, VEE, Tulermia and bot-tox would be far more effective. Iraq produced enough botullism toxin to cover a football field 9 feet deep and none of this has ever been found. Bot tox is about 1000 times more lethal than anthrax and also isn't infectious.

- When most of Biopreparat, the russian group responsible for biological agents production was disbanded (most of it...) many of the former scientists there joined development efforts outside russia. Some are reported in the employ of Iraq and Iran. Whether they took seed cultures with them is unknown.

- Russia had 20 tons of weaponized smallpox in their arsenal at one point. Smallpox is an infectious agent and 1 to 3 particles is usually sufficient to infect if breathed or it gets in the eyes. Did any of this get out?

- Their is generally a generational drop in the lethality of infectious agents such as smallpox or ebola filovirus. The official estimate of the death toll from the spread of an infectious agent during a "concerted" attack on the U.S.is pegged at 25-30 million people. By the time an infectious bioagent released in the U.S. would make it back to it's makers (Iraq/Iran for this discussion) by human carriersit's lethality would have dropped quite a bit. Life is considered pretty cheap over there so I don't know their hand would be stayed by this consideration.

More info on chemical and biological agents is available at:

http://www.nbc-med.org/SiteContent/HomePage/WhatsNew/MedAspects/ contents.html

Prepped with suits, NBC masks, filters and a good stock of antibiotics here (and praying some cowardly terr doesn't try to hit our country with this stuff).....DCK

-- Don Kulha (dkulha@vom.com), December 14, 1999.