-Caveat Lector- The Electronic Telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=000140326706927&rtmo=VDMk6JJK&atmo=VDMk6JJK &pg=/et/01/2/18/nsar18.html ISSUE 2095 Sunday 18 February 2001 Police foil terror plot to use sarin gas in London By Chris Hastings and David Bamber A SPECIAL Branch raid on a house in London has exposed a terrorist plot to release the poisonous nerve gas sarin in Britain. Senior police officers have confirmed to The Telegraph that detailed plans containing instructions on how to manufacture and deploy the poison, which kills in seconds, were discovered by detectives. They believed that a group was plotting to release the gas on the London underground in a copy of an attack in Japan that killed 12 people in 1995. The find coincides with growing tensions in the Middle East following the US and British bombing of military installations in Iraq and the unrest in Israel. It confirms the worst fears of police, who are convinced that London, for so long a hiding place for international terrorists, is now at the top of their list for targets. Detectives are linking the plot with a major arms find in Germany in December last year when police in Frankfurt arrested four foreign nationals known to have had links to Saudi terrorist Osama Bin Laden. Weapons including grenades and guns were found in their homes. A senior police source said: "We have feared for some time that there would be a major terrorist incident in London. It is amazing it hasn't happened before. It is no secret that people in London have links with terrorists abroad. What is causing concern now is that those people are regarding the capital as a target and not just a hiding place. There was an alert just before Christmas because there was evidence of an attack. Nothing happened but that doesn't mean we are safe." Scientists said last night that the chemical was easy to manufacture and a tiny amount released in an underground station could kill thousands of people. Terrorist groups are increasingly keen to experiment with chemical weapons. Sarin, which is 26 times more deadlier than cyanide, is particularly sought after because being odourless it is almost impossible to detect. It was developed as a chemical weapon by the Nazis during the Second World War and its potential for terrorist use was realised in 1995 when the Japanese cult Aum Shinrikyo used it during an attack on an underground train. Twelve people were killed and more than 5,000 injured. In 1999, as a direct result of the Tokyo attack, police in London established a unit to advise key installations on how best to safeguard themselves from a chemical attack. --end file-- The Independent http://www.independent.co.uk/news/World/Russia/2001-02/smallpox180201.shtml Russian germ war store danger 18 February 2001 Secret smallpox supplies which Russia is thought to have stockpiled may be traded on an international black market for deadly germs, scientists warned yesterday, writes Steve Connor. Deadly strains of plague, anthrax and smallpox could be traded by unscrupulous Russian officials who have access to the immense biowarfare infrastructure of the former Soviet state, said Kathleen Vogel, a biological weapons analyst with the peace studies program at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Russia's Ministry of Defence denies the international community access to four military facilities that are believed to have been involved in the Soviet biowarfare programme. Dr Vogel, a research chemist, told the AAAS's annual meeting that lax security and bribery are allowing dangerous microbes to be stolen from laboratories. "Because of unstable economic conditions in Russia, you can't rule out people engaging in proliferation through temptation or corruption," she said. The World Health Organisation said in 1980 that the smallpox virus had been eradicated. Only two repositories were left, one at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia and one at the State Research Centre for Virology and Biotechnology in Koltsovo, Russia. --end file-- UPI http://www.vny.com/cf/News/upidetail.cfm?QID=161021 U.S. still unprepared for bioterrorism Saturday, 17 February 2001 23:32 (ET) U.S. still unprepared for bioterrorism By HARVEY BLACK UPI Science News SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 17 (UPI) -- The threat of a bioterrorist attack on the United States is not being adequately addressed though progress on preparations is being made, a panel of scientists and physicians told the annual meeting of American Association for the Advancement of Science Saturday. "The threat is very real and growing, we cannot afford to be complacent," said Margaret Hamburg, former assistant secretary for planning and evaluation at the Department of Health and Human Services. Even the several hundred millions of dollars invested in research and development on methods to deal with a bioterrorist threat is too low, said Col. Edward Eitzen, commander of the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Md. A recent Internet search, said Eitzen, turned up 54 firms that will ship and sell anthrax microbes and 18 that will do the same for plague-causing bacteria. The public health infrastructure in the U.S. is not up to dealing with such a threat, said Hamburg. It is not well integrated into the existing medical system and most medical practitioners simply would be unable to recognize the symptoms of illnesses brought on by a biological weapons attack. Such a biological attack could be particularly insidious said Eitzen. For example smallpox symptoms can take 10 to 14 days to develop -- during that period, infected individuals can be unknowingly spreading the disease. The response of the public health and medical system will be crucial in determining whether a bioterrorist attack can be dealt with in a timely way or becomes a "runaway event," said Morse. But even determining if an attack is underway may not be easy. Many of the symptoms of biological agents, such as the microbes causing tularemia and Q-fever, can't be distinguished from the flu, explained Stephen Morse, director of the Center for Public Health Preparedness at Columbia University. New genetic technologies, if implemented, can make an important contribution to speedily detecting the infectious agent causing an outbreak, said J. Craig Venter, president of Celera Genomics of Rockville, Md. Obtaining the complete genome of pathogens offers the ability to distinguish a bioterrorist attack from a naturally emerging pathogen, he said. Such information can play an important role in protecting public health and in the government's response to such a situation. Also needed are new, speedy portable technologies to detect and diagnose whether people have been exposed to pathogens in a bioterrorist attack. Such technologies are being developed, said Morse, "but we're not there yet." Copyright 2001 by United Press International. All rights reserved. ================================================================= Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT FROM THE DESK OF: *Michael Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends ================================================================= <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html <A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html">Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/">ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
