Could Amateur 'Biohackers' Create Biological Weapons

The Independent: Security services concerned amateur 'biohackers' could create biological weapons, academic says

The tools to edit the genes of lifeforms are now cheap and freely available on the internet.

The security services are concerned that ‘biohackers’ — groups of ordinary people who use genome editing techniques to alter lifeforms — could develop biological weapons or other potentially dangerous substances, an Oxford University academic has said.

Amateur scientists around the world have started using gene editing techniques after the tools became cheap and readily available.

And while most of these groups are harmless, Professor John Parrington told the British Science Festival in Swansea there were fears among other scientists and the security services that the technology could be used to create a new form of deadly virus.

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WNU Editor: My brother who works as a researcher in the bio-tech field tells me otherwise. You still need money to set up a lab (even a cheap and amateurish one), and you still need the knowledge and experience to know what you are doing.

Is The U.S. Rready For A Biological Attack?

Red Cross volunteers, acting as potentially anthrax-exposed Pentagon employees, remove their "contaminated" clothing before being "decontaminated" during Gallant Fox 06 May 17 in a Pentagon parking lot. The exercise tested the response of Pentagon police and local and federal agencies to a biological attack at the Pentagon. Photo by Sgt. Sara Wood, USA

Could US Handle Biologic Attack? -- Kristina Wong, The Hill

The slow-footed federal response to Ebola shows that the United States would be overwhelmed by a biological attack, experts warn.

Ever since 9/11, security analysts have said it’s only a matter of time before terrorists acquire the means to attack the country with a bioweapon.
While experts say Ebola would not make the most effective biological weapon, the problems seen in the response to the virus — from confusion over treatment protocols to a shortage of specialized medical facilities and trained workers — would be magnified if a biological agent were unleashed in the United States.

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My Comment: When one looks at the U.S. response to one Ebola infection in Dallas ....  I would have to say no .... we are definitely not ready to respond to a biological attack.

Why Bird Flu Research Is Dangerous

Image: The H5N1 virus could mutate to a deadlier form and spread to humans

Bird Flu 'Could Mutate To Cause Deadly Human Pandemic' -- BBC

The H5N1 bird flu virus could change into a form able to spread rapidly between humans, scientists have warned.

Researchers have identified five genetic changes that could allow the virus to start a deadly pandemic.

Writing in the journal Science, they say it would be theoretically possible for these changes to occur in nature.

A US agency has tried unsuccessfully to ban publication of parts of the research fearing it could be used by terrorists to create a bioweapon.

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My Comment: This info should make any potential bio-terrorist happy .... they now have the blue print to cause a pandemic.

How Science Is Countering Biological And Chemical Threats

Bio-terror A versatile material that neutralizes a range of biological and chemical agents could save time and lives in the event of a terrorist attack or accident.

New Versatile Polymer Counters Both Chemical and Biological Threats -- Popular Science

Because terrorists rarely announce the technical details of their nefarious intentions beforehand, the threat posed by weapons of mass destruction is not only great, it's multifaceted. So a team from the McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine has synthesized a polyurethane fiber mesh that is as variable as the terrorist threat. By mimicking biological tissues like the skin that respond to shifting environments, the a multifunctional polymer can decontaminate a range of both biological agents and chemical toxins.

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My Comment: Let's hope the day never comes when this technology must be used.

Keeping Genes Out Of Terrorists' Hands

Photo: Low standards could mean that hazardous genes get through screening more easily. W. Philpott/Reuters

From Nature:

Gene-synthesis industry at odds over how to screen DNA orders.

A standards war is brewing in the gene-synthesis industry. At stake is the way that the industry screens orders for hazardous toxins and genes, such as pieces of deadly viruses and bacteria. Two competing groups of companies are now proposing different sets of screening standards, and the results could be crucial for global biosecurity.

"If you have a company that persists with a lower standard, you can drag the industry down to a lower level," says lawyer Stephen Maurer of the University of California, Berkeley, who is studying how the industry is developing responsible practices. "Now we have a standards war that is a race to the bottom."

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My Comment: This is a topic that I am ignorant of. But my brother .... who has a Doctorate in Chemistry and who has worked in the pharmaceutical industry exploring these topics for he past 20 years tells me to be afraid .... be very afraid.

Hmmmm .... OK .... I am afraid.

Top Army Biowar Lab Suspends Research After Toxin-Tracking Scare (Updated)

From The Danger Room:

When the Pentagon needs to handle the deadliest biowarfare threats, it turns to the labs of the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) in Maryland. It's the only place in the American military complex equipped to handle the worst of the worst diseases -- those that have no cure and can are transmissible by air. Which makes it extremely unnerving, that the place had to suspend biodefense research on Friday, "after discovering apparent problems with the system of accounting for high-risk microbes and biomaterials."

That's the scoop from the new ScienceInsider blog, which notes that "the lab has been under intense scrutiny since August, when the Federal Bureau of Investigation named former USAMRIID researcher Bruce Ivins as the perpetrator of the 2001 anthrax letter attacks."

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My Comment: The first warnings came last year that nuclear weapons were not being handled properly. News is now filtering about missing nerve gas stockpiles .... maybe. Now .... questions on the handling of biological agents are circulating.

It appears that there is a culture of sloppiness and a lack of accountability on the handling of WMDs. But what is very troubling .... is that the U.S. has one of the best track records in the handling of this stuff. If they have the best .... who has the worse?

Al-Qaeda Cell Killed By Black Death 'Was Developing Biological Weapons'

Hideout: Terrorists in Ouzou, Algeria, above, have been forced to flee the plague.
Photo from The Daily Mail

Form The Telegraph:

An al-Qaeda cell killed by the Black Death may have been developing biological weapons when it was infected, it has been reported.

The group of 40 terrorists were reported to have been killed by the plague at a training camp in Algeria earlier this month.

It was initially believed that they could have caught the disease through fleas on rats attracted by poor living conditions in their forest hideout.

But there are now claims the cell was developing the disease as a weapon to use against western cities.

Experts said that the group was developing chemical and biological weapons.

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More News On Al Qaeda's Development Of
Biologiacl/Chemical Weapons

Plague allegedly killed Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb terrorists -- Counter Terrorism Blog
Report: Al Qaeda Group Bungled Test of Unconventional Weapon -- FOX News
40 al-Qaeda terrorists dead after exposure to the plague: report -- National Post
Black Death kills 40 al-Qaeda fighters in Algeria -- Al Arabiya
When al Qaeda Germ Warfare Goes Terribly Right -- Jawa Report
Al Qaeda hit by Black Death fear as medieval plague kills 40 terrorists at training camp -- Daily Mail
The Plague of Al-Qaeda is Plagued -- American Thinker
Al-Qaida's Threat Is Still With Us -- Investors Business Daily

Terrorists Could Use 'Insect-Based' Biological Weapon

Professor Lockwood said it would be easier to develop insect-based weapon than developing a nuclear or chemical weapon Photo: PA

From The Telegraph:

Terrorists would find it "relatively easy" to launch a devastating attack using swarms of insects to spread a deadly disease, an academic has warned.

Jeffrey Lockwood, professor of entomology at Wyoming University and author of Six-legged Soldiers: Using Insects as Weapons of War, said such Rift Valley Fever or other diseases could be transported into a country by a terrorist with a suitcase.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I think a small terrorist cell could very easily develop an insect-based weapon."

He said it would "probably be much easier" than developing a nuclear or chemical weapon, arguing: "The raw material is in the back yard."

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My Comment: If has been known for a long time that the use of simple biological weapons can produce devastating economic and social costs. But because they are simple .... and the source can never be determined .... the PR value will be useless for a terrorist.

The only use will be for those who have a long term strategic view to the conflict .... but with the exception of Bin Laden and a few others .... the Jihadist movement is certainly void of these personalities.