China Accused Of Weaponizing A Virus More Lethal Than Covid

WNU Editor: "They were doing synthetic biology on a cloning vector of the Nipah virus, which is 60% lethal. We just experienced a 1% lethal virus..."

US Says The Threat Of Biological Weapons Is Evolving

Roll Call: Biological weapons threat evolving, experts say  

Tech advances leading to ‘democratization’ of manufacturing capability 

The threat from biological weapons use by nations or terrorists is entering an era of potentially heightened risk, but the dimensions of the danger are not yet clear, a panel of experts said Friday. 

The event took place at Rand Corp., and involved two top House Intelligence Committee Republicans from Ohio and a panel of half a dozen experts.  

Read more .... 

WNU Editor: US Congressional fears on what biological weapons can do has been growing since the summer .... DNA, food supply, two U.S. lawmakers say (Axios).

China ‘Certainly Has Biological Warfare Programs’

WNU Editor: China's biological warfare programs is a topic that the main stream media has "more or less" ignored since the start of the pandemic. Here is one article from last month that outlines some of China's history when it comes to these weapons .... Biological Weapons the Focus of China’s Military Research in the Last 20 Years (Japan Forward).

Growing Concerns In The Pentagon And U.S. Intelligence That Adversaries May Use The Covid-19 Coronavirus As A Bioweapon Against U.S. targets.

Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and Army Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, speak to reporters at the Pentagon on March 2, 2020. (Lisa Ferdinando/DoD)

Politico: Officials probe the threat of a coronavirus bioweapon

Defense and intelligence officials are throwing more resources at the possibility that adversaries will deploy the virus against U.S. targets.

The Pentagon and the intelligence community are more forcefully investigating the possibility that adversaries could use the novel coronavirus as a bioweapon, according to defense and intelligence officials, in a shift that reflects the national security apparatus’ evolving understanding of the virus and its risks.

Officials emphasized that the change does not mean they believe the virus was purposefully created to be weaponized—the intelligence community is still investigating the virus’ potential origins, but there is currently no hard intelligence or scientific evidence to support the theory that it spread from a lab in China, people briefed on the matter said.

Meanwhile, the intelligence community has also begun gaming out the potential for bad actors to weaponize the virus, particularly against high-level targets, and the Defense Department has recently shifted its focus toward monitoring the possibility more closely, said three people familiar with the matter.

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WNU Editor: I am sure there are some who are wondering how to deploy this virus against specific U.S. targets. After-all, the virus has already proven its effectiveness by crippling the USS Theodore Roosevelt .... U.S. Navy Commander Of The 7th Fleet: USS Theodore Roosevelt Sailors Are 'Struggling' And 'Upset' After Their Captain Was Sacked (April 11, 2020), and the French aircraft carriers Charles De Gaul .... Almost 700 Sailors Aboard The French Aircraft Carrier Charles de Gaulle Are Infected With The Covid-19 Coronavirus (April 16, 2020).

Explosion And Fire Hits Russia's Largest Virus Lab Which Houses Plague, Smallpox, Ebola And Other Deadly Viruse

The State Research Centre of Virology and Biotechnology, known as Vector (pictured), released a statement yesterday saying a gas cylinder exploded on the fifth floor

Daily Mail: Gas explosion rips through Russian laboratory containing smallpox, Ebola and HIV viruses

* Explosion at the State Research Centre of Virology and Biotechnology in Siberia
* Laboratory is one of two places in the world that houses the smallpox disease
* Blast blew the windows out and one worker was left with third degree burns

A fire caused by a gas explosion has torn through a Russian laboratory that houses viruses including smallpox, Ebola and HIV.

The State Research Centre of Virology and Biotechnology, known as Vector, released a statement yesterday saying a gas cylinder exploded on the fifth floor.

Located in Koltsovo, in the Novosibirsk region of Siberia, the site was a nexus for biological warfare development during the Soviet era.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: I am sure no pathogens were released, but it raises concerns on how secure are these sites. 

More News On Today's Explosion And Fire At Russia's Vector Institute

Blast & fire hits major virus lab in Russia, where HIV, Ebola & anthrax strains are stored -- RT
Explosion Hits Russian Lab That Houses Smallpox, Ebola Viruses -- Moscow Times
Novosibirsk: 'No risk' after blast and fire at Russian lethal virus lab -- BBC
Explosion at Russian research lab that stores smallpox virus: officials -- FOX News
Blast sparks fire at Russian laboratory housing smallpox virus -- The Guardian
A gas explosion ripped through a Russian lab storing deadly viruses like smallpox, anthrax, and Ebola -- Insider
An explosion rocked a Russian research facility known for housing the smallpox virus -- Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
Russia Confirms Explosion At Ex Bioweapons Lab Storing Ebola, Smallpox And Plague -- Forbes
Uhh, Part of the Facility Where Russia Stores Smallpox and Ebola Exploded -- Gizmodo
Explosion Hits Russia's Largest Virus Lab Which Houses Plague, Smallpox, Ebola And Other Deadly Viruses -- Zero Hedge

U.S. Congress Orders The Pentagon To Reveal If They Weaponized Ticks As Biological Weapons And Released Them Into the Public

File photo: © Pexels.com / Pixabay.com

The Guardian: House orders Pentagon to review if it exposed Americans to weaponised ticks

A New Jersey lawmaker suggests the government turned insects into bioweapons to spread disease and possibly released them

The US House of Representatives has called for an investigation into whether the spread of Lyme disease had its roots in a Pentagon experiment in weaponising ticks.

The House approved an amendment proposed by a Republican congressman from New Jersey, Chris Smith, instructing the defence department’s inspector general to conduct a review of whether the US “experimented with ticks and other insects regarding use as a biological weapon between the years of 1950 and 1975”.

Read more ....

More News On Congress Wanting To Know If The Pentagon Weaponized Ticks As Biological Weapons

House orders Pentagon to say if it weaponized ticks and released them -- Roll Call
Pentagon Ordered to Tell Congress If It Weaponized Ticks And Released Them Into the Public -- Gizmodo
US military chiefs ordered to reveal if Pentagon used diseased insects as biological weapon -- The Independent
TICKING BOMBS Pentagon ordered to reveal to Congress if its scientists used diseased TICKS as biological weapons – and if any escaped the lab -- The SUN
A Lawmaker Wants to Know If the Pentagon Ever Exposed the American Public to Ticks Infected with Bioweapons -- The National Interest/Task & Purpose
Congress investigating possible secret ‘bioweaponization’ of insects by the Pentagon -- RT

Is The Pentagon Developing An Agricultural Bioweapon?

Research programme with potential for dual use: scientists fear that the Insect Ally programme by the US could encourage other states to increase their own research activities in the field of biological warfare (MPG/D.Duneka)

Wired: The US military is hacking insects with virus DNA, raising fears of dangerous new bio-weapons

Darpa, the research arm of the US military, is embarking on a radical new trial, but researchers warn that the technology could be turned into a biological weapon

Making crops taller, tastier, and more resistant to disease is a tedious process. For thousands of years, the only option farmers had was to pick two plants that showed particularly desirable characteristics and breed them together, hopefully creating offspring that shared those promising traits and avoided undesirable ones.

Modern gene-mutating techniques sped up this process. First, researchers worked out that by bombarding embryonic cells with radiation, they could force mutations in plant genomes, causing desirable traits to occur at random. They could then pull out these mutated cells and use them to generate entirely new plant lines.

Read more ....

More News On Concerns That The Pentagon Developing An Agricultural Bioweapon

The Pentagon is studying an insect army to defend crops. Critics fear a bioweapon. -- Washington Post
Viruses Spread by Insects to Crops Sound Scary. The Military Calls It Food Security. -- The New York Times
Scientists: US military program could be seen as bioweapon -- FOX News/AP
U.S. military project could be seen as a bioweapon, scientists warn -- NBC
US plan to genetically alter crops via insects feared to be biological war plan -- The Guardian
US military plan to spread viruses using insects could create ‘new class of biological weapon’, scientists warn -- The Independent
DARPA is Making Insects That Can Deliver Bioweapons, Scientists Claim -- Newsweek
The Pentagon is studying an insect army to defend crops. Critics fear a bioweapon -- Stuff
Scathing Report Accuses the Pentagon of Developing an Agricultural Bioweapon -- Gizmodo
Questions Raised About DARPA-Funded Crop Program -- The Scientist

North Korean Solider Who Defected To South Korea This Year Was Found To Have Been Vaccinated Against Anthrax

Danger: The unidentified soldier, who may be the man who defected in November, would have been either exposed to or vaccinated against anthrax before he defected to South Korea

IBTimes: Defected North Korean Solider Had Anthrax Antibodies: Report

One of the four North Korean soldiers who defected to South Korea this year was found to have antibodies to anthrax, a bacteria that can be used as a biological weapon, according to South Korean television station Channel A Tuesday.

“Anthrax antibodies have been found in the North Korean soldier who defected this year,” said a South Korean intelligence official, who spoke to the station anonymously.

Having anthrax antibodies indicates that the soldier was either immunized against the bacteria or possibly exposed to it. The official did not indicate which of the four soldiers had the antibodies in his system.

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Update #1: Report: North Korea soldier found to have anthrax antibodies (UPI)
Update #2: North Korean soldier who defected to the South is found to have ANTHRAX antibodies in his bloodstream after a report warned Kim is testing warheads loaded with the deadly disease (Daily Mail)

WNU Editor: Talk about raising red flags on North Korea's WMD program.

South Korean Intelligence: North Korea Testing Anthrax-Tipped ICBMs

Bloomberg: North Korea Begins Tests to Load Anthrax Onto ICBMs, Report Says

North Korea has begun tests to load anthrax onto intercontinental ballistic missiles, Japan’s Asahi newspaper reported Tuesday, citing an unidentified person connected to South Korea’s intelligence services.

The report said the testing involves ensuring the anthrax survives the immense temperatures generated during re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere. North Korea has a stockpile of between 2,500 tons to 5,000 tons of chemical weapons, and is capable of producing biological agents such as anthrax and smallpox, South Korea has previously said.

The Asahi report comes a day after the White House published its National Security Strategy, a document that said Pyongyang is "pursuing chemical and biological weapons which could also be delivered by missile."

Read more ....

Update: North Korea Reportedly Testing Anthrax-Tipped ICBMs (Zero Hedge)

WNU Editor: Just an observation .... this blog has been covering North Korea since the beginning, but I have noticed in the past year that the avalanche of intelligence information being made public on North Korea has been overwhelming.

U.S. Government Lifts It's Three-Year Research Funding Ban On Making Deadly Viruses Even More Deadlier

Daily Mail: US government lifts three-year research funding ban aimed at making viruses more lethal and says studies could even extend to cover Ebola

* The NIH said that it is lifting a three-year moratorium on deadly virus research
* The government halted funding for research aimed at making more lethal and transmittable viruses like influenza, MERS and SARS in 2014
* To get funding, researches will need to face a new government panel
* The panel will determine whether the research benefits outweigh any risks

Government officials have lifted the moratorium on funding for research that involves altering certain viruses to make them more lethal and transmittable.

In a press briefing, the head of the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Francis S. Collins, said Tuesday that the research can now go ahead — provided a scientific panel determines that the benefits of that research outweighs any risks involved.

The suspension was originally put into place in October 2014, impacting research that involved making the influenza virus, as well as viruses that cause Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), more dangerous and communicable.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: Why do I believe that this is not going to end well.

More News On The U.S. Government Lifting It's Three-Year Research Funding Ban To Make Deadly Viruses Even More Deadlier

US lifts research moratorium on enhancing germs' danger -- Washington Post
NIH Lifts Ban On Research That Could Make Deadly Viruses Even Worse -- NPR
NIH lifts limits on making deadly new viruses in the lab -- NBC
Risky mutant virus research can once again receive government funding -- The Verge
US Government Lifts 3-Year Research Ban on Engineering Lethal Viruses -- Inverse
Why the government is creating lethal viruses -- Wayne Drash, CNN

Growing Fears That North Korea Has A Biological Warfare Program

KCNA/via Reuters

Chicago Tribune/Washington Post: Microbes by the ton: Officials see weapons threat as North Korea gains biotech expertise

Five months before North Korea's first nuclear test in 2006, U.S. intelligence officials sent a report to Congress warning that secret work also was underway on a biological weapon. The communist regime, which had long ago acquired the pathogens that cause smallpox and anthrax, had assembled teams of scientists but seemed to be lacking in certain technical skills, the report said.

"Pyongyang's resources presently include a rudimentary biotechnology infrastructure," the report by the director of national intelligence explained.

Read more ....

More News On Growing Fears That North Korea Has A Biological Warfare Program

North Korea could be preparing for biological weapons program -- The Hill
North Korea pushing for biological weapons factories, analysts say -- FOX News
North Korea May Also Be Developing Submarine Missiles and Biological Weapons -- NYMag
North Korean threat intensifies as it grows its bioweapons program -- Axios

Report: North Korea Is Mass Producing Biological Weapons

A Welsh technology company has been helping to uncover the secrets of North Korea’s biological weapons capability. https://t.co/trW57elcO5

— Iain Glover (@iainglover) October 10, 2017

Inquisitr: World War 3: North Korea Is Mass Producing Biological Weapons To Unleash Anthrax, Smallpox, Plague Against The U.S.

North Korea’s Kim Jong-un is believed to be secretly “mass producing biological weapons” in preparation for war against the U.S. North Korean biological warfare experts are reportedly working to weaponize some of the deadliest pathogens known to mankind. The North Korean regime reportedly plans to wage war if attacked by infecting enemy troops and civilian populations with deadly diseases that can be spread through means such as spraying, missiles, drones, and aircraft.

The pathogens reportedly being produced by the regime’s biological weapons experts include anthrax, smallpox, plague and cholera.

Read more ....

Update: North Korea may be mass producing biological weapons: report (Korea Herald).

WNU Editor: One can only imagine the nightmare scenarios that could come out from such an arsenal.

Report: Deadly Chemical And Biological Agents Improperly Handled And Tracked By The U.S. Army

U.S. Army

Army Times: Report: Army improperly tracked sarin, other chemical agents

Officials at an Army chemical and biological storage and testing facility did not follow protocols while tracking inventories of sarin, a dangerous nerve agent, according to a recent inspector general report.

The U.S. Army Dugway Proving Ground also at times failed to provide disqualifying information about employees such as drug use and an incident involving alcohol, the report found.

Dugway Proving Ground was the same Utah location cited in 2015 for protocol failures that allowed live anthrax spores to be shipped to 194 laboratories in 50 states and nine foreign countries.

Some of the packages were shipped by commercial carriers such as FedEx.

Read more ....

Update: Sarin Unaccounted For At U.S. Army's Dugway Proving Ground (Zero Hedge).

WNU Editor: This is nto the first time that the U.S. Army has been sloppy handling these materials .... Army reprimands general over anthrax debacle (Army Times).

Did The CIA And U.S. Army Test Mosquitoes And Fleas As Biological Weapons On A Florida Community In The 1950s?

What Happened In The 1950s At Avon Park Air Force Range? -- Highlands Today

AVON PARK - A military attack with about 230,000 mosquitoes infected with yellow fever would be difficult to detect and would be impossible for a nation to react quickly with a mass-immunization program, the U.S. Army Chemical Corps believed in the 1950s.

The corps put its theory to a test in two locations - Savannah, Ga. and the Avon Park Air Force Range.

With tests called Operation Big Buzz, Operation Big Itch and Operation Drop Kick, the corps explored the feasibility of using fleas and mosquitoes as weapons.

Many online watchdog groups and other online posts make unsubstantiated claims that the U.S. military released mosquitoes infected with yellow fever over Savannah and Avon Park. After each test Army agents posed as public health officials to test the victims for effects, according to these accounts.

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My Comment: This is a report on tests that were done in the 1950s. I can only imagine what has been done since then.

How 'Bunny Wabbits' Can Become Weapons Of Mass Destruction

How Do You Weaponize A Rabbit? -- Jason Bittel, The Week

A bacteria found in rabbits could be turned into a potent bioweapon by terrorists. In fact, it's been done before.

There are four major infectious agents that officials fear terrorists will turn into potent bioweapons. The first three you know — smallpox, anthrax, and the plague. The fourth? An itty bitty bacterium that wikes to wive in bunny wabbits.

Don't let its host of choice fool you — tularemia is a serious disease. Humans can contract the nastiness through the bites of ticks and flies or handling the corpses of infected bunnies. Failure to cook said bunnies thoroughly will also make you sick. And that's not all. Back in 2000, 15 residents of Martha's Vineyard came down with "rabbit fever" in a single season — an outbreak thought to have started when someone ran over an infected rabbit with a lawnmower.

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My Comment: When I first read the title .... I could not help but guffaw and have a good laugh. But .... here is the surprise .... there is a lot of truth in this story.

Will Syria Also Use It's Bioweapons?

As Syria Deteriorates, Neighbors Fear Bioweapons Threat -- Washington Post

Last month’s alleged chemical attack near Damascus has re­focused attention on Syria’s 30-year-old biological weapons research and raised concerns about whether the government there could activate an effort to make a weapon.

Syria’s bioweapons program, which U.S. officials believe has been largely dormant since the 1980s, is likely to possess the key ingredients for a weapon, including a collection of lethal bacteria and viruses as well as the modern equipment needed to covert them into deadly powders and aerosols, according to U.S. and Middle Eastern officials and weapons experts.

This latent capability has begun to worry some of Syria’s neighbors, especially after allegations that the regime of President Bashar al-
Assad used internationally banned chemical weapons against civilians in an Aug. 21 attack.

Read more ....

My Comment: This is one of those known unknowns .... fortunately no one who has defected from the Syrian government recently has talked about such weapons, making me feel a bit assured that the program is either dormant or incapable of being weaponized.

Update: Alleged chemical weapons sites can’t be bombed safely: experts -- Japan Times/AP

Can Certain Types Of Chilli Be Used As A Biological Weapon?

Dr Anuj Baruah, who cultivates the bhut jolokia chilli, holds a vial containing oily red capcaisin at his lab in Kherti, Assam.

Chilli Used By Indian Army In Weaponry Is Hot Property For Poor Farmers -- The Guardian

Military's demand for bhut jolokia, once the world's hottest chilli, is offering thousands of Assam farmers a way out of poverty.

"Look at this," said Dr Anuj Baruah, holding up a vial containing a few drops of rusty red liquid. "With this I could make you senseless." His nose started twitching; his eyes watered. "Oh dear. I think I may have got some on my fingers," he said, looking remarkably unconcerned that his skin had touched something the Indian government has developed into a biological weapon.

"I know what happens. Your brain starts to not work properly, you become restless … " He scurried off, returning a few minutes later after washing a particularly pungent strain of bhut jolokia chilli concentrate off his hands on his farm-cum-chilli research lab in the north-east Indian state of Assam.

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My Comment: Hmmmm .... I am intrigued .... I love hot and spicy food .... and I love chilli.

Chemical and Biological Weapons: Possession and Programs Past and Present

Chemical and Biological Weapons: Possession and Programs Past and Present -- James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies

This chart summarizes data available from open sources. Precise assessment of a state's capabilities is difficult because most weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programs were, and/or are, secret and cannot be independently assessed. States have been placed in the following categories:

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My Comment: The James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies has compiled an excellent chart on each country's chemical and biological weapons program .... both past and present. Check it out.