Bill Gates: Bio-Terrorism Could Kill Tens Of Millions

The Guardian: Bill Gates warns tens of millions could be killed by bio-terrorism

Microsoft founder and philanthropist tells Munich security conference genetic engineering could be terrorist weapon

A chilling warning that tens of millions of people could be killed by bio-terrorism was delivered at the Munich security conference by the world’s richest man, Bill Gates

Gates, who has spent much of the last 20 years funding a global health campaign, said: “We ignore the link between health security and international security at our peril.”

Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft who has spent billions in a philanthropic drive to improve health worldwide, said: “The next epidemic could originate on the computer screen of a terrorist intent on using genetic engineering to create a synthetic version of the smallpox virus ... or a super contagious and deadly strain of the flu.”

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WNU Editor: My brother works in the bio-tech field .... this is his biggest fear.

More News On Bill Gates Warning That Bio-Terrorism Could Kill Tens Of Millions

Bill Gates: Bioterrorism could kill more than nuclear war — but no one is ready to deal with it -- Washington Post
Biological terrorism could kill hundreds of millions of people as genetic engineering unleashes terrifying new weapons, warns Bill Gates -- Daily Mail
Bill Gates Warns Of Epidemic That Will Kill Over 30 Million People -- Forbes
Bill Gates isn't kidding around when he says bioterrorism could kill '30 million people' -- Mashable
BILL GATES: A new kind of terrorism could wipe out 30 million people in less than a year — and we are not prepared -- Business Insider

Spanish Intelligence: Jihadists Want To Weaponise Ebola

Spanish Intelligence Intercepts Plot To Weaponise Ebola -- Breitbart

Spanish intelligence has intercepted messages passed between jihadists online discussing the weaponisation of the deadly Ebola virus for use against the West, while a blackmailer in Prague has threatened to unleash the virus unless the Czech Republic pay him one million bitcoin, a volume of online currency worth over £200 million.

The national secretary of state for security in giving evidence to the Spanish Senate revealed online jihad propagandists had issued an edict to followers to kill Westerners by any means possible. Some of the methods suggested included “deadly chemical products from laboratories”, “poisonous injections” and “Ebola as a poisonous weapon”, reports theLocal.es.

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My Comment: It is not going to happen ... and this is why .... How hard would it be to weaponize Ebola? Pretty hard -- Anna Mulrine, CSM

Despite Bio-Terrorism Fears, H5N1 Research Will Be 'Eventually' Published

An image taken through an electronic microscope of the H5N1 virus, also known as the "bird flu." Virologist Ron Fouchier of the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam has developed a new mutation of the H5N1 virus. Outside the lab, the disease has only been transmitted from animals to humans. Fouchier's mutation makes it airborne, creating the possibility of human-to-human transmission. CDC / dapd

WHO Delays Hugely Significant Decision On Whether To Publish Details Of Lethal Man-Made Flu That Could Kill Half The People It Infects -- Daily Mail

* H5N1 bird flu virus kills half of humans that contract it
* Research into more contagious forms of virus
* Editor says 'we have to publish in complete form'
* Insists publication is essential to create vaccine

The World Health Organisation has delayed its decision as to whether controversial research into a dangerous new man-made mutant form of the bird flu virus should be made public.

Scientists, health officials and science journal editors have this week been locked in talks on whether the study should be released amid fears it could be exploited by bioterrorists.

The controversial research shows how to make a mutant strain of the H5N1 virus, which kills roughly half of those who contract it, more contagious.

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More News On The Decision To Delay The Publication Of H5N1 Research By A Few More Months

Despite Safety Worries, Work on Deadly Flu to Be Released -- New York Times
WHO on bird flu research: Publish in full... someday -- L.A. Times
Bird flu study to be published in full, but after delay -- CBC
WHO meeting calls for mutant-flu research to be published ‘in full.’ -- Nature
Journal's concern over bird flu research -- BBC
Avian Flu Experts Agree ‘Pauses’ on Publication, Research Should Continue -- Wall Street Journal
Experts delay call on releasing controversial H5N1 work -- BBC
Bird flu research to be published in full -- New Scientist
Bird Flu Paper Publication Delayed -- The Scientist
Mutant Bird Flu Studies Should Be Revealed in Full, Experts Say -- Live Science
Scientists weigh terror threat against public health in publishing dilemma -- Globe And Mail
Larger discussion needed on viruses that can help and harm, expert says -- Margaret Munro, Postmedia News

Pandora's Box Has Already Been Opened For Bio-Terrorists

Details Of Secret Experiments On Deadly Man-Made Bird Flu That Kills Over Half Of The People It Infects WILL Get Out, Says Bioterrorism Watchdog -- Daily Mail

* 'The infrastructure to stop a pandemic is not there,' says Professor Paul Keim

Details of secret experiments by scientists who have created the most deadly form of bird flu in the lab will inevitably be leaked - potentially into the hands of terrorists - an expert has warned.

A furore erupted in December over the decision by the U.S National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) to censor details of the virus being made public, which can be transmitted by coughs and sneezes.

But now the head of that board claims they will enter the public domain anyway.

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More News On The Fears Of Bird-Flu Research

No way of stopping leak of deadly new flu, says terror chief -- The Independent
Experts warn that there's no way to stop deadly new flu -- Aol.com
Fear of Terrorists Keeps Man-made Avian Flu Under Wraps -- Voice of America
Recommendation to censor bird flu research driven by fears of terrorism -- Washington Post
Can Scientific Censorship Stop Bioterrorism? -- Ronald Bailey, Reason
Hope or Fear: The Opposing Ideas of H5N1 Bird Flu Researchers -- Hans Villarica, The Atlantic

Where Science And The Search For Understanding Can Produce Mankind's Worst Nightmare

This transmission electron micrograph taken at a magnification of 150,000x, reveals the ultrastructural details of an avian influenza A (H5N1) virion, pictured by the United States government's Centre for Disease Control.

Studies Of Deadly H5N1 Bird Flu Mutations Test Scientific Ethics -- L.A. Times

Dutch scientists have created a version of the deadly H5N1 bird flu that's easily transmitted. In an unprecedented move, a U.S. board asks that some details of the research not be published.

In a top-security lab in the Netherlands, scientists guard specimens of a super-killer influenza that slays half of those it infects and spreads easily from victim to victim.

It is a beast long feared by influenza experts, but it didn't come from nature. The scientists made it themselves.

Their noxious creation could help prevent catastrophe in the battle against the deadly H5N1 bird flu that has ravaged duck and chicken flocks across Asia and elsewhere since the mid-1990s but has mostly left our species alone — for one crucial reason. Though H5N1 kills with brutality when it takes hold in a human, it infects extremely rarely and doesn't go on to easily spread between people.

Public health officials have long fretted that the virus may one day find a way to do so.

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Previous Post: A Bioterror Weapon That Can Easily Kill Billions

My Comment: From what I have been reading, this genetically engineered virus is incredibly lethal (60%). And while the desire is to now limit it`s findings, the sad fact is that we are now faced with a situation in which "Pandora`s Box" has been opened, and there are now too many people who are aware of its findings.

EXCLUSIVE: Al Qaeda Eyes Bio Attack From Mexico

MEMRI TV PRODUCTIONS This still from a video shows a Kuwaiti dissident, Abdullah al-Nafisi, telling a room full of supporters in Bahrain that al Qaeda is deciding how it wants to send terrorists and weapons into the U.S. through Mexico.

From The Washington Times:

U.S. counterterrorism officials have authenticated a video by an al Qaeda recruiter threatening to smuggle a biological weapon into the United States via tunnels under the Mexico border, the latest sign of the terrorist group's determination to stage another mass-casualty attack on the U.S. homeland.

The video aired earlier this year as a recruitment tool makes clear that al Qaeda is looking to exploit weaknesses in U.S. border security and also is willing to ally itself with white militia groups or other anti-government entities interested in carrying out an attack inside the United States, according to counterterrorism officials interviewed by The Washington Times.

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My Comment: A disturbing piece of news. One will have to wonder if this is all talk and propaganda in a recruiting video, or the recruiter knows about something that is being planned and implemented.

I doubt very much if Al Qaeda has the tools and means to develop an effective bio weapon .... but just "sprinkling" a little anthrax in the middle of New York City or Washington DC .... and having just a few casualties .... this would have an enormous impact via the media and publicity .... which is probably the primary goal for Al Qaeda in the first place.

Update On al Qaeda’s Biological Weapon Mishap In Algeria

Plague Allegedly Killed Al Qaeda In The Islamic Maghreb Terrorists -- Counter Terrorism Blog

On Monday, the Sun ran a story reporting that 40 terrorists from AQIM had died of plague in a terrorist training camp in Tizi Ouzou. Yesterday, Eli Lake from the Washington Times confirmed through one of his source in the U.S. intelligence community that an incident had taken place at a training camp that had to be shut down as a result. The deaths were not confirmed though.

A few observations at this point that give credence to this story, which has not received the coverage it deserves:
1- There has been a total black out from the Algerian media that has not even mentioned one line about this story.

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More News On Al Qaeda And the Plague

Rebels Ravaged By Rumors -- Strategy Page
Al-Qaeda and The Plague -- Human Events
Update On al Qaeda’s Biological Weapon Mishap In Algeria -- Strata-Sphere
Plagues upon the land? -- Foreign Policy Blog
Who's watching Al Qaeda in the Maghreb? -- Examiner.com
Is plague still a killer? -- BBC

Bio-terror Threat Real, Bush Advisor, Ex-CIA WMD Terrorist Hunter Say

From Homeland Security Today:

'Nearly every time we kicked down a door ... we found laptops with WMD materials'

Speaking at a Washington Institute Special Policy Forum Wednesday, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Ken Wainstein stressed that the gravest terrorism threat right now is from “terrorist organizations [acquiring] weapons of mass destruction and [using] them against us, our homeland, or our allies.”

This reality, he said, was made clear when "we went into Afghanistan and learned that Al Qaeda had been developing a program to cultivate and weaponize anthrax that could be used to kill by the hundreds or thousands … And it has been made even clearer with events in the years since …”

“Biological weapons are the most likely” terrorist WMD threat right now,” agreed Charles "Sam" Faddis, a 20-year veteran CIA officer who was a Counterterrorist Center department chief overseeing “worldwide operations against the terrorist WMD target” when he retired from the clandestine services last May.

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My Comment: My brother is in the bio-tech field. His specialty is converting R&D pharmaceuticals into drugs that can be manufactured profitable.

I asked him once on how hard would it be to manufacture dangerous biological agents. His answer ..... a $1 million dollar lab and a few months.

I am sure that Al Qaeda knows this .... and they and their minions are looking at this closely. Will they manufacture this themselves .... I say why should they when they have access to many products and weapons from Pakistan's ISI Agency. Biological agents being one of them.

If the U.S. experiences a WMD attack .... it will be one of these biological agents. A chemical or a dirty bomb explosion could happen .... but for lethalness .... nothing beats using biological agents.