Bio-terro, AQ, and Warm Fuzzies
It has been a long while since I have posted but I read something earlier this week that set off alarm bells. It should come as no surprise to most that Al Qaeda (AQ) still wants to hit the US very badly- especially with a WMD if possible. As such I find it startling that the UK press published a story about an AQ cell in Malaysia which has apparently been wiped out by weaponized bubonic plague or a chemical weapon. *IF* this story is true we, as a nation, should be extremely concerned.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/algeria/4294664/Al-Qaeda-cell-killed-by-Black-Death-was-developing-biological-weapons.html
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jan/19/al-qaeda-bungles-arms-experiment/
While many European new sources carried the above only a handful of US media did. FoxNews, the Washington Post, and some others at least gave it serious coverage for a day or two. I believe the NY Times buried it somewhere between the glowing endorsements of Obama that has radiated from its pages like radioactivity from Chernobyl.
If a chemical weapon is used against us the death toll will most likely be small and as long as a persistent chemical is not used relatively short lived. Also such an attack will be relatively confined to a very small area of the country. The problem for AQ using a chemical weapon is the same for a nuke- we will for sure know we were under attack. At which point I believe a truly pissed off America will scream for real blood this time of both AQ and our politicians. While the actual response would be unknown do not forget that America maintains a very public "response in kind" where we lump bio and chem attacks right up there with a nuke- thus we could use a nuclear weapon as a response,
Now- if biological weapons are used we have a whole other scenario. Just one that comes to mind is a dozen martyrs being infected with a high order disease and sent to the states with orders to spread it as quickly as possible. With a 4 day period on bubonic plague a person could be infected just before boarding a plane that 20 hours later lands in the US. That gives them 2-3 days to act as vectors before dieing. If they are smart they will drag themselves into tunnels or abandoned warehouses as they begin to die so that rats can feed off them, become infected, die with other rats feeding off those corpses becoming infected, etc. until the plague blooms from multiple vectors.
In a bio- weapon scenario the President would truly have no choice but to quarantine the nation, restrict all movements, etc. until the infection had burned out. Cities would be potential wastelands not just from the infection but from the barbarism that would take hold. We saw it in Katrina and LA so there is no reason to think Chicago, Miami, NYC, or Boston would be any different. A really well thought out bio- attack would truly cripple this nation and wreck our economy and AQ is very, very intelligent and well funded.
WHile we can assume that such an outbreak is of a bio-weapon we would first have to make sure that this is the case. Naturally occurring plague versus a lab grown one can be determined. But this will take weeks before a definitive answer can be found giving the attackers much needed time to disperse and cover their tracks. AQ is also very wily in that they typically do not claim credit for their work- they are content to let others do that to muddy the waters and sow confusion amongst their enemies. However, any WMD incident would have to come from either a state actor or AQ as the resources involved would have to be enormous so even if no claim is made their fingerprints would be all over it.
The only way to ensure something like the above does not happen is to run the Malaysia information to ground to include interrogating people that may have been involved if captured at some point. My personal opinion about our Presidents new strictures on interrogation, Gitmo, etc. is that he is dead wrong. If he thinks AQ and others of their ilk *coughirancough* will now "see the light" and engage in mutually beneficial dialogue with wamr fuzzies handed all around he is mistaken. However, my hope is that he can keep America safe from an attack- if he can I'll give him props for that as it would only be fair, if he does not I would expect the Democratic Party to virtually cease as a viable political platform as they sure could not blame Bush for another attack.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/algeria/4294664/Al-Qaeda-cell-killed-by-Black-Death-was-developing-biological-weapons.html
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jan/19/al-qaeda-bungles-arms-experiment/
While many European new sources carried the above only a handful of US media did. FoxNews, the Washington Post, and some others at least gave it serious coverage for a day or two. I believe the NY Times buried it somewhere between the glowing endorsements of Obama that has radiated from its pages like radioactivity from Chernobyl.
If a chemical weapon is used against us the death toll will most likely be small and as long as a persistent chemical is not used relatively short lived. Also such an attack will be relatively confined to a very small area of the country. The problem for AQ using a chemical weapon is the same for a nuke- we will for sure know we were under attack. At which point I believe a truly pissed off America will scream for real blood this time of both AQ and our politicians. While the actual response would be unknown do not forget that America maintains a very public "response in kind" where we lump bio and chem attacks right up there with a nuke- thus we could use a nuclear weapon as a response,
Now- if biological weapons are used we have a whole other scenario. Just one that comes to mind is a dozen martyrs being infected with a high order disease and sent to the states with orders to spread it as quickly as possible. With a 4 day period on bubonic plague a person could be infected just before boarding a plane that 20 hours later lands in the US. That gives them 2-3 days to act as vectors before dieing. If they are smart they will drag themselves into tunnels or abandoned warehouses as they begin to die so that rats can feed off them, become infected, die with other rats feeding off those corpses becoming infected, etc. until the plague blooms from multiple vectors.
In a bio- weapon scenario the President would truly have no choice but to quarantine the nation, restrict all movements, etc. until the infection had burned out. Cities would be potential wastelands not just from the infection but from the barbarism that would take hold. We saw it in Katrina and LA so there is no reason to think Chicago, Miami, NYC, or Boston would be any different. A really well thought out bio- attack would truly cripple this nation and wreck our economy and AQ is very, very intelligent and well funded.
WHile we can assume that such an outbreak is of a bio-weapon we would first have to make sure that this is the case. Naturally occurring plague versus a lab grown one can be determined. But this will take weeks before a definitive answer can be found giving the attackers much needed time to disperse and cover their tracks. AQ is also very wily in that they typically do not claim credit for their work- they are content to let others do that to muddy the waters and sow confusion amongst their enemies. However, any WMD incident would have to come from either a state actor or AQ as the resources involved would have to be enormous so even if no claim is made their fingerprints would be all over it.
The only way to ensure something like the above does not happen is to run the Malaysia information to ground to include interrogating people that may have been involved if captured at some point. My personal opinion about our Presidents new strictures on interrogation, Gitmo, etc. is that he is dead wrong. If he thinks AQ and others of their ilk *coughirancough* will now "see the light" and engage in mutually beneficial dialogue with wamr fuzzies handed all around he is mistaken. However, my hope is that he can keep America safe from an attack- if he can I'll give him props for that as it would only be fair, if he does not I would expect the Democratic Party to virtually cease as a viable political platform as they sure could not blame Bush for another attack.