Comments on: A “Dark Winter” for Public Health: Meet Homeland Security’s New Bioterror Czarina

By: watchdogonscience

watchdogonscience — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 13:04:15 +0000

No safety rights for biotechnologists. Unsafe labs in U.S. A disaster waiting to happen. See video:
http://blip.tv/file/2061380
and
http://industry.bnet.com/pharma/10003561/pfizer-lab-worker-alleges-virus-was-loose-in-lunchroom/

By: Tom Burghardt

Tom Burghardt — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 23:44:49 +0000

Thanks for your comments. I’d like to draw your attention to a frightening statement by Dr. Alan Pearson in his 2007 testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations during hearings on “Germs, Viruses and Secrets: The Silent Proliferation of Bio-Laboratories in the United States.”

Regarding the explosive growth of BSL-3 and BSL-4 labs, Pearson wrote: “Nor should we ignore the possibility that a US biologist may become disgruntled or turn rogue while working in one of these labs.”

These are not the ravings of a paranoid or a “conspiracy theorist.” Pearson is the director of the Biological and Chemical Weapons Control Program at the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation and has studied the problem of arms proliferation for two decades.

Could some deranged individual nestled within the bioweapons complex let some hideous Frankenstein-like virus loose? Certainly, a possibility. But more pertinently, given the nature of how state research has been outsourced to corporations, the likelihood of an inadvertent release is probably orders of magnitude greater. The database assembled by Edward Hammond at the now-defunct (much lamented by this writer!) Sunshine Project (http://www.sunshine-project.org/) lays out the shockingly lax standards at these facilities in case after gruesome case.

I’d urged readers to check out an earlier piece I wrote on the subject (regrettably not posted on Dissident Voice due to problems I’ve had with DV’s new WordPress interface, not iMac friendly!), “Biological Warfare and the National Security State: A Chronology,” up on my blog, Antifascist Calling, http://antifascist-calling.blogspot.com/2009/08/biological-warfare-and-national.html

While Brad Arnold (citing Danzig) is correct that any number of skilled scientists could construct and then release a bioweapon, it should be noted, the majority of “usual suspects” have come from the American far-right.

The cases of the Minnesota Patriots Council, four of whose members derived ricin from castor beans in 1994; neo-Nazi Larry Wayne Harris who was arrested twice for his planning to build a bioweapon using anthrax spores; or Project Coast and reputed CIA asset, Dr. Larry Ford who, after attempting to murder his partner in 1999, committed suicide in Los Angeles. Authorities unearthed a small cache of weapons on his property and a veritable bioweapons lab in his basement that included hot strains of cholera, typhoid fever and brucellosis. Not one “Islamo-fascist” in the bunch!

By: Ron Harwell

Ron Harwell — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 12:42:15 +0000

I believe the real threat is the “accidental” release of one of these pathogens/bioweapons to the general population. Too many of these do not have antidotes so it is pure insanity to be working on them to begin with. Chemical warfare has been outlawed. The real threat is poverty, domestic terrorism as a result of the govt. failing to take care of its people The next threat is our own govt. playing fearmongering. I am still convinced the anthrax incident was done by some rogue elements of the govt. to go to war in Iraq. It has never been solved. Trust me. Our worst enemy are our own politicians, and those in the WH promoting Pax Americana.

By: Brad Arnold

Brad Arnold — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 06:42:44 +0000

Individuals can now construct highly contagious extremely lethal virus. Frankly, I am not sure even the author of the above paper understands the chilling implications of that statement (or this one: “pandemic are the antithesis of globalization”). A bioterrorist pandemic hasn’t happened yet in the modern world, so to some people that means the probability of such an occurrence is close to zero. Here is a taste (due to space constraint) of my challenge to consensus reality:

“Richard Danzig, a former Navy secretary and now a biowarfare consultant to the Pentagon, said that while there are 1,000 to 10,000 “weaponeers” worldwide with experience working on biological arms, there are more than 1 million and perhaps many millions of “broadly skilled” scientists who, while lacking training in that narrow field, could construct bioweapons. “It seems likely that, over a period between a few months and a few years, broadly skilled individuals equipped with modest laboratory equipment can develop biological weapons,” Danzig said. “Only a thin wall of terrorist ignorance and inexperience now protects us.”" –Washington Post, December 29, 2004

By: Don Hawkins

Don Hawkins — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 18:16:59 +0000

There is a few zero’s and ones’s out of place we just need to read between the lines. We know how to do that.

By: mary

mary — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 18:08:27 +0000

Eds .Just to let you know that there is something funny with the layout here.

By: media monarchy

media monarchy — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 16:37:47 +0000

“On June 22-23, 2001, just under 3 months before 9/11, the U.S. military held a senior-level war game at Andrews Air Force Base called Dark Winter. The scenario of this bio-terrorism drill was designed to simulate a smallpox attack in three states in which one of these states would be Pennsylvania. As a part of this war game, scripted TV news clips were made to help make this drill as realistic as possible.”

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=DC86F5AE8C0E79F4