Recently in WMD Category

The UN is asking for total disarmament of all nuclear weapons around the world, beginning with the Western powers and not confronting Iran or North Korea.

I am all for this program, however, IF the UN really means it. The UN is big on expensive programs that provide millions of dollars for the managers of those programs. They are not big on actually doing anything that does not enrich themselves.

Urging world to disarm, Ban kicks off countdown to UN Day

13 June 2009 - Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today launched the "WMD-WeMustDisarm" campaign, beginning the 100-day countdown to the 2009 United Nations International Day of Peace, which this year focuses on nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation.

Over the next 100 days leading up to the International Day, observed annually on 21 September, Mr. Ban and others will raise awareness of the need to eliminate nuclear weapons by issuing a daily message, via Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, email and radio, urging the world to disarm.

The Secretary-General is taking the lead by issuing the first 10 'tweets' of the campaign.

"Over the next 100 days, the United Nations and our partners around the world will work to raise awareness of the true costs and dangers of nuclear weapons," Mr. Ban said in a message to mark the start of the countdown.

"Unless we vigorously work for nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, we will continue to face threats from existing nuclear weapons, as well as additional risks that more States, even terrorists, might acquire and deploy such weapons, potentially annihilating millions of people," he stated.

Most people tend to forget about the chemical and biological weapons programs that North Korea and Iran have. Nuclear is the most violent, but biological is possibly the most deadly. There is no way that these are passed up by anyone as crazy as the North Koreans.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D98T6QOO1&show_article=1

Pyongyang's missile and nuclear programs are centerpieces of the regime's catalog of weapons of mass destruction.

But the impoverished nation, which has put most of its scarce resources into boosting its military capabilities under its "army-first" policy, also has a large chemical arsenal, as well as capabilities to produce biological weapons.

On Thursday, an international security think tank warned that these weapons are no less serious a threat to the region than the North's nuclear arsenal.

The independent International Crisis Group said the North is believed to have between 2,500 and 5,000 tons of chemical weapons, including mustard gas, phosgene, blood agents and sarin. These weapons can be delivered with ballistic missiles and long-range artillery and are "sufficient to inflict massive civilian casualties on South Korea."

"If progress is made on rolling back Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions, there could be opportunities to construct a cooperative diplomatic solution for chemical weapons and the suspected biological weapons program," the think tank said in a report.

It also called on the U.S. to engage the North in dialogue to defuse the nuclear crisis, saying "diplomacy is the least bad option." It said Washington should be prepared to send a high-level special envoy to Pyongyang to resolve the tension.

I have been asked where I am getting my information about the Swine Flu. Well, this is a new site that has all the links and information required.

Now, can you stop bugging me?

National Swine Flu Situation Page

http://www.reuters.com/article/homepageCrisis/idUSISL436837._CH_.2400

Five Afghan teachers and 40 of their pupils, most of them girls, have been admitted to hospital with severe headaches after a suspected airborne poison attack, the Public Health Ministry said on Monday.

They fell ill on Sunday afternoon during a ceremony at a school in the Sadiqi district of Parwan province, some 70 km (40 miles) north of the Afghan capital, Kabul.

"Among them there are 5 adults and 40 children, most of them girls, who have been affected," Dr Abdullah Fahim, spokesman for the Public Health Ministry said.

"For the time being, it seems to be airborne poisoning. But it's not confirmed yet what the actual reason is," Fahim said.

Attacks on girls schools have increased in the past year, particularly in east and south Afghanistan. Last year a group of schoolgirls in Kandahar had acid thrown in their faces by men who objected to them attending school.

http://www.stratfor.com/analysis/20090425_u_s_mexico_swine_flu_and_potential_pandemic

Summary

A new strain of flu has spread from Mexico to the United States, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as the World Health Organization have issued statements indicating that they are very concerned about the possible spread of the virus.
Analysis

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced April 25 that the so-called "swine flu" that has spread from its apparent origin in Mexico to the United States cannot be contained. Similarly, the World Health Organization (WHO) has indicated the new strain of flu has the potential to become a pandemic, although the organization did not raise its pandemic alert level. The situation is developing extremely rapidly, and information is limited. STRATFOR is watching the issue closely, and will await further news from health officials monitoring the outbreak at the CDC.

According to preliminary test results from the CDC, the swine flu appears to be a combination of bird, swine and human flu strains from all around the world. The virus appears to cause slightly higher-than-normal levels of diarrhea and vomiting, and can develop into an acute respiratory infection after about five days of sickness. Infected persons have included healthy adults between 25 and 44 years old -- so those afflicted are not just the old, very young and already sick. The virus appears to be responding to Tamiflu, particularly when caught at an early stage. Tamiflu manufacturer Roche has indicated that it is prepared to release stockpiles of the drug. Mexico reportedly has only 1 million doses of the drug stockpiled, and is only distributing the drug through doctors. This could hamper the country's ability to halt the spread of the disease in Mexico City, which has a population of just under 9 million people.

Many of the details on the spread of this flu are unclear because the tests used to confirm the presence of this strain take several days. However, so far there might be as many as 68 deaths and up to 1,000 possible infections in Mexico, mostly in Mexico City. There have been no deaths in the United States; however, there have been a number of confirmed cases of swine flu in San Diego, Kansas and San Antonio. There is a cluster of 75 flu cases at a high school in New York City, eight of which have been confirmed as probable cases of swine flu.

The CDC's statement that the swine flu is unable to be contained is not as dire as it may sound, and essentially reflects the reality of the rapid and wide distribution of the swine flu thus far. True containment is possible only when exposed individuals or communities can be effectively isolated. With the extremely high rate of people and goods moving by plane, car, boat and foot across the U.S.-Mexican border, the two countries are highly interconnected. Once the swine flu is inside the United States and located in major metropolitan areas, the capacity to isolate individuals is even smaller.

This is not to say that there are no precautions that can be taken. Government officials in the United States and Mexico have announced school closures and advised individuals to avoid crowded areas. In response to the spread of the disease, Mexican President Felipe Calderon has declared a state of emergency, giving him broad powers to cancel public events. Basic precautionary measures such as frequent hand washing and avoiding contact with infected persons are also being promoted. The CDC is publishing its own findings on the new strain of flu (updated information can be found at http://www.cdc.gov/flu/swine/).

At this point, the information is too limited to make any real predictions about the possible impact of the disease. STRATFOR is taking this seriously and is awaiting the results from the CDC's ongoing study. In the event of too little information or bad news from the CDC's analysis, it is possible that the financial markets could react very poorly come Monday, April 27. However, the situation is developing extremely rapidly, and the CDC may be able to present more concrete findings before the weekend is through.

This is horrible, but it does seem that anyone, no matter how careful, can have an accident. A silver lining, of a sort, is that this new anti-virus is finally getting human tests.

I hope this Frau gets better. One, even a clumsy genius is still deserving to live. Two, I really hope that the vaccine works and can save even more lives. Three, no one deserves to have Ebola. It is one nasty bug!

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,511096,00.html

BERLIN -- It's a nightmare scenario worthy of a sci-fi movie script: A scientist accidentally pricks her finger with a needle used to inject the deadly Ebola virus into lab mice.

But in this case, it really happened -- to an unidentified 45-year-old woman in Germany.

Within hours of the accident on March 12, several of the scientist's colleagues held a trans-Atlantic telephone conference to map out a way to save her life.

Within 24 hours, an experimental vaccine -- never before tried on humans -- was on its way to Germany from a lab in Canada.

Within 40 hours, the at-risk scientist was injected with the vaccine.

So far, so good. If the woman is still healthy on April 2, she can consider herself safe.

It's not a 100 percent certainty the researcher was actually infected with Ebola.

If she doesn't become infected, scientists may not know if it was the vaccine, or luck.

I am not sure why the BBC is running this article. I think they are talking about a real and scary threat. That is most unlike the BBC. Usually the threats they find involve Jews or conservatives taking over the world.

Anyway, this article is a wonderful look at what the Muslims want to deliver to us.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7960466.stm

Threat of dirty bombs 'increased'

There is an increased risk terrorists could get hold of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons to attack the UK, the Home Office has said.

The assessment comes as Home Secretary Jacqui Smith unveiled a new UK strategy to tackle an evolved terrorist threat.

It warns failed states such as Iraq have made it easier to obtain materials for weapons such as dirty bombs.

Ms Smith said the threat is "severe" - meaning an attack is "highly likely" and "could happen without warning".

Dirty bomb

The BBC's home affairs correspondent, Daniel Sandford, said chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear weapons "have always been something al-Qaeda have aspired to" but the report warns they are now within terrorists' grasp.

"There is a concern now among officials in the Home Office that the chances of them getting hold of this material have increased in a world of failed states, in a world of easy availability of radiological material in hospitals and in a world of greatly increased smuggling of these kinds of materials."

I highlighted two parts of this story that are slanted.

First, the crowd was not laughing at the thought of Chicago being nuked, they were laughing at the thought of Liberals thinking one nuked city is morally different from ten.

Second, if this is the objective mainstream media, why are they making wisecracks?

This report is not objective at all. It is mocking and almost slanderous.

Besides, Mr Bolton is right. Allowing the Iranians and their terrorist followers access to nuclear weapons is foolish. It does not matter if they have one Bomb or twenty, it is still too many.

http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/Crowd-Laughs-at-Nuclear-Threat-to-Chicago.html

Former U.N. ambassador John Bolton, speaking to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Thursday, had the audience in stitches with his comments about nuking Chicago.

Referencing remarks made by Barack Obama on the campaign trail, Bolton claimed the then-candidate said he thought "Iran was a tiny threat."

Crowd Laughs at Nuclear Threat to Chicago NBC Chicago.flv

ThinkProgress.org reported that Bolton tried to up the fear quotient in the room by raising the prospect of an Iranian-sent nuclear attack on an American city."

"It's [a] tiny [threat] compared to the Soviet Union," Bolton said to the group, "but is the loss of one American city -- pick one at random: Chicago -- is that a tiny threat?"

The audience erupted in cheers and laughter at the idea of Obama's home city being obliterated.

Unfortunately for Bolton, he got the then-candidate's quote wrong. Speaking in Pendelton, Ore., on May 18 last year, Obama said "strong countries and strong presidents talk to their adversaries. That's what Kennedy did with Khrushchev. That's what Reagan did with Gorbachev. That's what Nixon did with Mao. I mean, think about it. Iran, Cuba, Venezuela -- these countries are tiny, compared to the Soviet Union. They don't pose a serious threat to us the way the Soviet Union posed a threat to us. And yet, we were willing to talk to the Soviet Union at the time when they were saying, 'We're going to wipe you off the planet.'" [YouTube Video]

We surmise that must mean the joke... well, bombed.

This is scary! I hate hemorrhagic fevers. They are not one of the Lords kinder creations.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5icwnbejl-iJTMsx_JWAIgMXlweOAD9671DF00

The first U.S. case of Marburg hemorrhagic fever has been confirmed in Colorado, and authorities say the patient -- who contracted the rare illness while traveling in Uganda -- has since recovered.

The disease, caused by a virus indigenous to Africa, spreads through contact with infected animals or the bodily fluids of infected humans. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention spokesman Dave Daigle said no previous cases have been reported in the United States.

The patient had traveled to Uganda, visited a python cave in Maramagambo Forest in Queen Elizabeth Park and encountered fruit bats, which can carry the Marburg virus. The Ugandan government closed the cave after a tourist from the Netherlands died from Marburg in July.

The patient was treated at Lutheran Medical Center in January 2008 and sought follow-up care in July, after learning of the tourist's death. The patient recovered and his or her identity wasn't disclosed.

Two dead mice disappear? that is creepy. I am fairly sure that they did not just walk off into a hole in the wall. Ghost mice?

If this strain of virus ends up in a bio-weapon, then I think the head of the school and the department heads involved should be locked up in supermax to learn about high security procedures. Maybe even lock them up for a couple weeks to learn a few things right now!

No threat? Prove that!

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,489595,00.html

The frozen remains of two mice injected with the organism that causes plague have not been accounted for seven weeks after being discovered missing at a University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey facility in Newark, the university said Friday.

The FBI investigated and determined there was no risk to public health or any indication of the terrorist link.

It wasn't the first time plague-infected mice have disappeared from the New Jersey facility. Four years ago, in September 2005, three live mice infected with bubonic plague bacteria disappeared from various cages. Officials later said they believed the rodents had died.

UMDNJ's Public Health Research Institute issued a four-paragraph statement about the December incident late Friday saying it believes the red hazardous waste bag containing the dead mice was sterilized and incinerated along with another bag.