Al-Qaeda Targets Lethal Disease Research Facility on NY Island

Scary. Despite the outcry from the Left and the Muslims that the CIA has held onto this terrorist for years, and not admitted it or paid out the bounty on her head, it is great to find her. Just think of all the stuff she must know about who helped her hide for all these years. Who trained her? Who takes care of her? We have a lot to learn.


Pajamas Media » Al-Qaeda Targets Lethal Disease Research Facility on NY Island: "Until her arrest in Afghanistan this summer, Aafia Siddiqui was the FBI’s most wanted woman in the world. Now the U.S.-educated, Pakistani mother of three is being held in New York’s Metropolitan Detention Center facing attempted murder charges.

Aafia Siddiqui holds biology and neuroscience degrees from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) and Brandeis University. In 2003, she vanished from Pakistan and reappeared on July 17, 2008, outside the governor’s compound in Ghazni, Afghanistan. According to the FBI indictment against her, Siddiqui was carrying “various documents, various chemicals, and a computer thumb drive.”

Aafia Siddiqui is believed to be an al-Qaeda operative. Among the documents in her possession were handwritten notes referring to a “mass-casualty attack” listing locations commonly known to be targets: Wall Street, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Statue of Liberty, and the Empire State Building. But one target, Plum Island, remains virtually unknown to the American public. If Siddiqui really is an al-Qaeda operative, the consideration that this government facility (officially known as the Plum Island Animal Disease Research Center) is a target is unnerving.

Located approximately eight miles off the coast of Connecticut, the 840-acre research facility is home to the most virulent zoonotic diseases in the world. The lethal diseases stored and studied on Plum Island are transmitted to humans by animals. The only U.S. strains of foot-and-mouth disease (eradicated from American soil in 1929) are secured in freezers on Plum Island, as are strains of polio, hog cholera, and African Swine Fever. None of the animals on the island ever leave; those that come uninvited, like deer that sometimes swim there from the mainland, are shot."

CDC Campaign Targets MRSA Infections

I am glad that the CDC is working on getting the word out so that the families might be able to see if they are infected.


CDC Campaign Targets MRSA Infections - Infectious Diseases: Causes, Types, Prevention, Treatment and Facts on MedicineNet.com: "A national campaign to teach parents how to protect kids from skin infections caused by dangerous methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteria was launched this week by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

MRSA, a type of staph bacteria that's resistant to certain antibiotics, can cause severe infections in people in hospitals and other health care facilities. It can also cause skin infections in healthy people who haven't recently been hospitalized, the CDC said.

MRSA is spread through direct contact with an infection, sharing personal items such as towels or razors that have touched infected skin, or by touching surfaces contaminated by MRSA.

Parents need to teach children about the signs and symptoms of MRSA skin infections, which appear as a bump or infected area on the skin that may be red, swollen, painful, warm to the touch, or contain pus or other drainage. Fever may be another symptom.

The CDC said parents also need to help children keep their cuts and scrapes clean and covered with a bandage and encourage children to have good hand washing and general hygiene habits."

1 Dead, At Least 41 Hospitalized in Oklahoma E. Coli Outbreak

FOXNews.com - 1 Dead, At Least 41 Hospitalized in Oklahoma E. Coli Outbreak - Health News | Current Health News | Medical News: "State health officials are confirming a type of E. coli bacteria has been found in 10 patients who were sickened by a severe illness in northeastern Oklahoma.

The outbreak killed 26-year-old Chad Ingle and at least 41 people have been hospitalized and several children are undergoing dialysis because of kidney failure.

Laboratory specimens will be sent to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for further analysis.

Health officials say many who became sick ate at the Country Cottage restaurant in Locust Grove but the restaurant has not been pinpointed as the site of the outbreak.

The restaurant is normally closed on Mondays and voluntarily closed yesterday and today as the investigation continues.

The illnesses are a very severe and bloody diarrhea with symptoms also including vomiting and severe abdominal cramping."

UPDATE: Anthrax Attack Suspect Dead

Too true. Now we will never know the truth about who did this. Too bad. Maybe someday we will know more. I hope.

Homeland Security Watch » Anthrax Attack Suspect Dead: "It is unclear if anything Ivins did before the attacks in September and October 2001 was suspicious. We’ll never know whether Bruce Ivins was indeed the perpetrator among the 20-30 scientists at Ft. Detrick under investigation. Ivins had been told about the impending prosecution and apparently committed suicide by overdosing on Tylenol with Codeine."

So begins the hand-wringing about mad biodefense scientists « BGG

The vast majority of these biodefense scientists are stable family guys who want nothing more than to end the threat of all the germs and diseases that Nature throws at us. We should thank them rather than cast aspersions upon them.

Thanks guys and gals! We are safer because of you. Despite the fear mongers who want us to think otherwise.

So begins the hand-wringing about mad biodefense scientists « BGG: "This issue has been debated for a long time. Several years ago I would have pooh-poohed the idea that highly trained and vetted scientists would present such a risk. But for at least the last couple of years I’ve felt that the expansion of biodefense labs is related not to research need but to homeland defense money. If you build it they will come, and a couple of them might be frakking nuts. Do we not now have enough investment in the study of the most dangerous, but least likely threats? How much more likely do these threats become, due to expanding the numbers of labs people handling them?

On the other hand, if Ivins was our guy, he’s been working in biodefense for nearly 20 years. Who knows when he could have gone over the edge? Would anyone have known? His coworkers seem to have liked him and don’t believe he was responsible, by the statements we’ve seen so far."

Apparent suicide in anthrax case

Well, this is not too good. How can this guy be proved beyond a shadow of a doubt as the psycho if he is dead?

Well, at least the FBI finally caught someone. Sort of.

Apparent suicide in anthrax case - Los Angeles Times: " A top government scientist who helped the FBI analyze samples from the 2001 anthrax attacks has died in Maryland from an apparent suicide, just as the Justice Department was about to file criminal charges against him for the attacks, the Los Angeles Times has learned.

Bruce E. Ivins, 62, who for the last 18 years worked at the government's elite biodefense research laboratories at Ft. Detrick, Md., had been informed of his impending prosecution, said people familiar with Ivins, his suspicious death and the FBI investigation.

Ivins, whose name had not been disclosed publicly as a suspect in the case, played a central role in research to improve anthrax vaccines by preparing anthrax formulations used in experiments on animals.

Regarded as a skilled microbiologist, Ivins also helped the FBI analyze the powdery material recovered from one of the anthrax-tainted envelopes sent to a U.S. senator's office in Washington.

Ivins died Tuesday at Frederick Memorial Hospital after ingesting a massive dose of prescription Tylenol mixed with codeine, said a friend and colleague, who declined to be identified out of concern that he would be harassed by the FBI."

U.S. official: Iraqis told me WMDs sent to Syria

Well, more proof yet that the US covered up the existence of the Iraqi WMD.
Why the cover up?
Why not just find the weapons and destroy them? Even if it means we have to invade another hostile country?

The world is not safer with anyone having these kinds of weapons. Especially unstable countries.

U.S. official: Iraqis told me WMDs sent to Syria: "A former American overseer of Iraqi prisons says several dozen inmates who were members of Saddam Hussein's military and intelligence forces boasted of helping transport weapons of mass destruction to Syria and Lebanon in the three months prior to Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Don Bordenkircher – who served two years as national director of prison and jail operations in Iraq– told WND that about 40 prisoners he spoke with 'boasted of being involved in the transport of WMD warheads to Syria.'

A smaller number of prisoners, he said, claimed 'they knew the locations of the missile hulls buried in Iraq.'

Some of the inmates, Bordenkircher said, 'wanted to trade their information for a release from prison and were amenable to showing the locations.'

The prisoners were members of the Iraqi military or civilians assigned to the Iraqi military, often stationed at munitions facilities, according to Bordenkircher. He said he was told the WMDs were shipped by truck into Syria, and some ended up in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley."

World warned over killer flu pandemic

World warned over killer flu pandemic - Health News, Health & Wellbeing - The Independent: "The world is failing to guard against the inevitable spread of a devastating flu pandemic which could kill 50 million people and wreak massive disruption around the globe, the Government has warned.

In evidence to a House of Lords committee, ministers said that early warning systems for spotting emerging diseases were "poorly co-ordinated" and lacked "vision" and "clarity". They said that more needed to be done to improve detection and surveillance for potential pandemics and called for urgent improvement in rapid-response strategies.

The Government's evidence appeared in a highly critical report from the Lords Intergovernmental Organisations Committee, which attacked the World Health Organisation (WHO) as "dysfunctional" and criticised the international response to the threat of an outbreak of disease which could sweep across the globe.

The Government said: "While there has not been a pandemic since 1968, another one is inevitable." Ministers said it would could kill between two and 50 million people worldwide and that such an outbreak would leave up to 75,000 people dead in Britain and cause "massive" disruption.

Peers joined ministers calling for urgent action to build up early warning systems across the Third World that can identify and neutralise outbreaks of potentially deadly new strains of disease before they are swept across the globe by modern trade and travel. Peers also called for new action to monitor animal diseases, warning of the potentially disastrous effects of conditions such as the H5N1 bird flu virus jumping to humans and demanded that Britain step up funding for the WHO to tackle the threat.

With international tourist journeys now reaching 800 million a year, giving unprecedented potential for epidemics to spread across borders, and many cities rapidly growing in developing countries, which would provide "fertile ground" to spread disease, peers on the committee warned that conditions such as Sars, avian influenza and ebola "have the potential to cause rapid and devastating sickness and death across much of the world if they are not detected and checked in time". "

Lab holding fatal germs loses power

Lab holding fatal germs loses power: "An Atlanta laboratory holding several potentially harmful germs, including a fatal strain of avian flu, lost power for at least an hour, officials said.

Four buildings were left without electricity Friday when a backup generator malfunctioned at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

CDC spokesman Tom Skinner said no employees or members of the public were harmed in the incident.

The power failure is the most recent incident in a series of technical problems at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention campus, the newspaper said.

It's important for people to understand that even though we lose power to these facilities from time to time, worker safety and the public's safety is not in jeopardy because multiple, redundant systems are in place, separate from those that rely on power, Skinner said."

Iraq War Media Deceptions 101

SBVOR: Iraq War Media Deceptions 101: "1) Iraq had WMD stockpiles and the United Nations knew it!

If Saddam had no stockpiles of WMD, how do you explain 17 UN Security Council Resolutions over a period of 12 years, 14 of which deal directly with WMD?

Pay special attention to UNSCR 1441, which essentially said to Saddam (paraphrasing):

“Better hide the WMD, The United States will be invading 30 days from today”


But, that notice was given on 11/8/02 and we did not invade until 3/20/03. No wonder we have not found most of the WMD which the United Nations KNEW was there!

Even so, ISG, post war, REPORTED they found limited quantities of WMD. ISG also found clear evidence of intent to produce more WMD, including thermonuclear weapons. They failed to find clear evidence of large quantities of recently manufactured WMD. But, they were also:

“unable to rule out the possibility that WMD was evacuated to Syria before the war.”


Various other sources offer evidence that the WMD was evacuated to Syria.

Given fighter jets were buried in the desert, there clearly exists the possibility that WMD was buried in the desert."

Mediterranean union wants to rid Mideast of WMDs

This 'union' sounds predestined to fail. But it is a nice idea.

Mediterranean union wants to rid Mideast of WMDs: "Forty-three nations, including Israel and Arab states, pledged Sunday to work for a Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction at the close of a summit to launch an unprecedented Union for the Mediterranean aimed at securing peace across the restive region.

In a final declaration, Israel, Syria, the Palestinians along with countries across Europe, the Middle East and North Africa agreed to 'pursue a mutually and effectively verifiable Middle East Zone free of weapons of mass destruction.'

The countries committed to 'consider practical steps to prevent the proliferation' of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and their delivery systems. It was unclear, however, how the signatories—who included Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Syrian President Bashar Assad—would enforce the pledge.

Israel is widely believed to have a stockpile of nuclear weapons but neither confirms nor denies it has them—an ambiguity meant to scare potential enemies from considering an annihilating attack while denying them the rationale for developing their own nuclear deterrent."

Analysis: Will terrorists go nuclear?

Of course the terrorists want something with a big boom! They love to demonstrate power. The ones who want bioweapons do not want power, they want deaths. They want to destroy life on this planet. They are pure evil.

This article is simple enough for even a Liberal to understand. I think. I have trouble reading down to that level, so it might be too advanced still. You might want to forward it to your Liberal friends so that they can understand what the Experts fear.

Analysis: Will terrorists go nuclear? - UPI.com: "One recurring question that has been at the forefront of most intelligence agencies since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks by al-Qaida on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon just 1 mile outside Washington concerns the ongoing efforts by terrorist groups to acquire weapons of mass destruction: chemical, biological and mostly nuclear.

Each of the NBC (nuclear, biological, chemical) weapons comes with a certain advantage and disadvantage -- for the terrorist, that is."

‘Germ warfare’ fear over African monkeys taken to Iran

All the credible intelligence agencies know that Iran has huge stock piles of bioweapons. This is not news, except to the Left.

‘Germ warfare’ fear over African monkeys taken to Iran - Times Online: "Hundreds of endangered monkeys are being taken from the African bush and sent to a “secretive” laboratory in Iran for scientific experiments.

An undercover inquiry by The Sunday Times has revealed that wild monkeys, which are banned from experiments in Britain, are being freely supplied in large numbers to laboratories in other parts of the world. All will undergo invasive and maybe painful experiments leading ultimately to their death.

One Tanzanian dealer, Nazir Manji, who runs African Primates, an animal-supplying company based in Dar es Salaam, said that in recent years he had been selling up to 4,000 vervet monkeys a year to laboratories, charging about £60 each.

Vervets are protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites). Despite this they are being routinely caught and sold to any buyer prepared to pay.

...

Manji said scientists at the Razi Vaccine and Serum Research Institute in Iran had bought 215 vervet monkeys from him this year but he had become suspicious about their true motive, although he was still trading with them. They had “spent a lot of money” on getting the monkeys, even sending over scientists to check on each consignment.

“Iran is very secretive,” said Manji, who has been exporting monkeys for 22 years. “They said it [the monkeys] was for ‘our country’, for vaccine. [They said] ‘We don’t buy vaccine from anywhere; we prepare our own vaccine’.

“But I think they use it for something else. You know why? Because they don’t go on kilos. Iran wants [monkeys weighing] 1.5kg to 2.5kg, [but] 1.5kg for vaccine is not possible.”

Rubibira indicated that finding out what the Iranians wanted the monkeys for would be difficult. “They cannot say, you know. They are secretive. They wouldn’t tell the truth.”

The revelation will fuel speculation that the monkeys may be used for research involving biological weapons. Primates are typically used by scientists wishing to test both the effectiveness of germ warfare agents and defences against them.

The Razi Vaccine and Serum Research Institute, which has its headquarters in Karaj, near Tehran, has been accused in the past by an Iranian opposition group of conducting biological weapons testing. "

CDC Still Searching for Source of Salmonella

Since multiple Media/Leftist sources have called for the President to be impeached because some tomatoes might be contaminated, will they now apologize? I am not going to hold my breath! Leftists only apologize for things they have no control over, like the slavery that some people practiced a few hundred years ago. And the many millennium before. Name a ancient society that did not have some form, if you can.

Fine all the Media that get blatantly involved in politics. Just a thousand dollars for inserting biased comments into a news story. Make them return to honest reporting. The Leftist Fairness Doctrine is to silence Right-wing voices, when a fine for blatant bias would silence Leftist voices. Anyone deny this? Which Right-Wing voice in the Media would be silenced? Limbaugh? No, he is a pundit, not a news personality. Just as the pundits on Comedy Central would be safe, as long as they do not try to claim to report the news and admit that they are just commenting on the news. It is a fine line for some, but a huge step for others.

CDC Still Searching for Source of Salmonella: "... the Centers for Disease Control had the produce [tomatoes] pulled from store shelves and off menus.

But, as testing continued certain types of tomatoes passed safety tests and went back on the shelves.

However, Salmonella cases continued popping up and over the past week the CDC admitted there may be 'something else' behind the outbreak.

'Everything we have done and all of our conversations with people who have gotten ill and people who haven't gotten ill, probably 80-percent have eaten tomatoes so that's where the focus has been,' said Emily Palmer, of the Dept. of State Health Service.

The CDC hasn't said what else may be linked, but it's looking at other produce.

So far, the health department has approved grape, cherry and tomatoes on the vine ..."

Illinois Man Arrested for Extremely Poisonous Puffer Fish Toxin

I think that if we want to know why this nut wanted this poison, we can just put some of the dust in the room with him until he talks. He will be too terrified to move and will be dying to get out! Sounds simple to me!

What could be a possible legitimate reason for having this stuff? I can't think of one.

FOXNews.com - Illinois Man Arrested for Extremely Poisonous Puffer Fish Toxin - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News: "A suburban Chicago man was charged Monday with possessing an illegal toxin found in puffer fish.

Edward Bachner, 35, was charged with one count of illegal possession of tetrodotoxin, a felony. He was being held in federal custody pending a detention hearing Wednesday.

Using the alias Edmond Backer, Bachner allegedly claimed he was a doctor when he ordered 98 milligrams of the toxin from a New Jersey chemical company, the FBI said. An employee of the company became suspicious due to the large amount ordered and alerted the FBI.

Bachner was arrested Monday when he allegedly tried to get the tetrodotoxin from a member of the FBI, authorities said. Bachner faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted, according to the FBI. His telephone number was unlisted.

It's not clear why Bachner wanted the toxin, authorities said.

Tetrodotoxin is a poison so potent the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says it can 'produce rapid and violent death.' It is 1,200 times deadlier than cyanide, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Puffer fish, called fugu in Japan, is consumed by thrill-seeking gourmets once the poison is removed. Eating the toxin can cause paralysis, vomiting, heart failure and death."

FBI Warns: New al-Qaida WMD Threat

Another day, another threat. Is it terrorists desperate to seem relevant or Bush trying to scare people?

I know which I think!

Newsmax.com - FBI Warns: New al-Qaida WMD Threat: "The FBI issued a bulletin to 18,000 law enforcement agencies this week warning that al-Qaida has made new threats to use weapons of mass destruction against U.S. targets.

ABC News reported late Tuesday that intelligence sources have confirmed that al-Qaida plans to release a new video on the web sometime tomorrow. U.S. intelligence believes the terror group will advise its 'jihadists to use biological, chemical and nuclear weapons to attack the West.'

An FBI spokesman confirmed the threat 'calling for the use of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) against civilians.' The U.S. has no 'intelligence of any specific plot or indication of a threat to the U.S.,' the Bureau spokesman said. Still, the FBI has taken the precautionary step of alerting other agencies of the potential threat.

Such threats are not unusual for the Bureau. Earlier this year, Dr. Vahid Majidi, the bureau’s assistant director in charge of the WMD Directorate, told Newsmax that the FBI gets at least several dozen cases a year involving weapons of mass destruction. [My emphasis]

The Bureau takes such threats seriously."

Death toll in China HFMD outbreak hits 34

I hope it is finally starting to slow, even if almost no one out of China has noticed all these sick people.

Channelnewsasia.com: "The number of Chinese children confirmed dead from hand, foot and mouth disease has risen to 34 with nearly 25,000 people infected but the outbreak's spread may be slowing, state media said on Friday.

Xinhua news agency reported four new deaths, including an eight-month-old girl in southern China's Guangdong province and a one-year-old boy in the southwestern Guangxi region.

Two more children also had died in the hard-hit eastern province of Anhui, it said, adding that the number of cases nationwide had risen to 24,934 as of Thursday.

However, the national Health Ministry said those discharged from hospitals in Anhui now exceeded new cases for the first time.

Most new cases there also were less severe than previously, it said in a statement on its website."

UPDATE: Train Death And Series Of Illnesses Unrelated Says Chief Medical Officer Of Health

Good to know that it was not something horrible!

CityNews: Train Death And Series Of Illnesses Unrelated Says Chief Medical Officer Of Health: "What initially looked to be a frightening infectious disease outbreak that led to the death of one woman aboard a Via Rail train turned out to be a remarkable series of unconnected coincidences, Ontario's Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. David Williams, explained during a Friday afternoon press conference.

The elderly woman died during the train ride from Vancouver to Toronto, but health officials say she likely didn't have an infectious disease. Six other passengers also fell ill, with the most serious being rushed to hospital with a respiratory illness of some sort. Officials, however, believe that passenger was suffering from a pre-existing condition, and the five others who were reportedly ill with flu-like symptoms were all determined to have been feeling sick before they boarded the train.

Williams says the death and illnesses seemed to 'a confluence of two or three events' and were unrelated."

Train quarantined in Canada after passenger dies

Anyone know more?

Train quarantined in Canada after passenger dies: "Canadian authorities quarantined a Via Rail passenger train after one person died and several were seriously ill on Friday, local media said.

Police and ambulances rushed to the scene in the hamlet of Foleyet in northern Ontario to tend to those with flu-like symptoms and find out what was causing the illness, said public broadcaster CBC.

'They've got the train quarantined,' town official Deborah DesRochers told CBC. 'They're trying to isolate what it is.'

According to reports, as many as 10 people were ill with flu-like symptoms when the train crossing Canada with 260 passengers and 30 crew made its regular morning stop in Foleyet.

The illnesses appeared to be contained in two rail cars.

Via Rail and health officials were not immediately available to comment."

China orders nationwide fight against fatal virus

Another major outbreak of something disgusting. Really disgusting! Thank the Lord it is not very fatal.

Khaleej Times Online - China orders nationwide fight against fatal virus: "China ordered authorities across the nation on Saturday to fight hand, foot and mouth disease, after a rapidly spreading outbreak killed at least 23 children and infected nearly 4,000.

'Our doctors will leave hospitals to find potential patients rather than sitting in the hospitals to wait for them,' deputy health minister Liu Qian told state television in the worst-hit area, Fuyang city in the eastern province of Anhui.

The Ministry of Health said cases of the disease might increase in coming months, because June and July were the peak season for it. Cases in some Chinese provinces, as well as Taiwan and Singapore, are running above year-ago levels, it said.

It ordered health authorities across the country to report all cases within 24 hours. Officials would visit nurseries and primary schools to educate staff on hygiene and prevention steps, and Chinese scientists would step up research into the disease.

In Fuyang, 22 children have died from hand, foot and mouth disease and 3,321 have been infected, of which 978 were in hospital and 58 were critically ill or in serious condition, the ministry said."