According to THIS, an Al Qida Bioterror attack against a Western city is “inevitable”.
Which will it be?
[ol]
[li]smallpox[/li][li]anthrax[/li][li]large-scale botulism[/li][li]or Ebola-style viruses[/li][/ol]
Not gonna happen. If it could be anything it would be the anthrax, but even that is definitely not going be 4 million people by any stretch of the imagination.
Now I’ll tell you why it’s not gonna happen.
Smallpox: There is no evidence that any viable smallpox even exists outside of an American laboratory
Anthrax: w/t easily treatable with modern antibiotics, and not easily spread. Weapons grade; no evidence outside of American laboratory.
Botulism: Anaerobic. Can’t be spread by aerosol. Not easily spread in food without detection
Ebola (Marburg): Impossible to handle outside of Biosafety Level 4 lab. Short incubation. Host would die before infecting very many people.
Despite widespread belief to the contrary, bioweapons are not easily developed and used.
WRONG
There are Russian stores, & perhaps Chinese.
Wrong again. Botulism toxins can be spread by aerosol.
Suicide attack strategy makes this feasible.
The experts are saying, in that article I linked to, & that you obviously didn’t read, that Al Qida has done the work to make it happen. That’s all you really need to do.
We have no evidence of this. We have been assured that they have them, and did not sell them, but we have not audited any facilities. The only thing we can be absolutely certain of is that which we own. I argue this only in that claims to these things is often just chest beating (think Saddam Hussein)
You didn’t say “toxins”. But as far as the toxin goes, extremely easily treated, with a ~8% percent fatality rate.
4 Million? You’ve got be kidding me? No freaking way. Especially not with Ebola .
Experts? Mr. Noble doesn’t quote experts, doens’t mention by name, doesn’t say where he gets his information, and is not an expert himself. There are no “experts” there. It also doesn’t mention any specifics about terrorist capability, just claims.
[QUOTE=Bosda Di’Chi of Tricor]
[ol]
[li]smallpox[/li][li]anthrax[/li][li]large-scale botulism[/li][li]or Ebola-style viruses[/ol][/li][/QUOTE]
5. Tahini farts in elevators.
I was under the impression that ebola/marburg wasn’t airborne, making it rather hard to spread.
Nothing. Totally overblown.
Bosda… I love yah… but I think… You just got served.
It really is just made up bullshit.
If we discovered a fifty foot high ape and we had the capacity to bring it to New York, it might go on a rampage. I’m not losing any sleep over this fantasy.
Some strains apparently are; I recall reading a case where infected monkeys spread the disease appearently via air. Fortunately they appear very rare, and haven’t managed to get into the human population. Still; Ebola simply kills to fast to make a good bioweapon.
That being said, bioweapons are hard to make, hard to deliver and really aren’t very good; that’s precisely why nukes are more commonly made by people who want WMDs.