ALERT Plague kills 40 al-Qaeda

I'd be more worried if this came from someplace other than the Sun, but take it for what it's worth....

>Question I have if this is true, is this uncommon in their area? (some areas do get it now and then)
>Is this their attempt of a bio-weapon and it got out of control?
>Will infected, non-symptomatic hop on airplanes and decide to die in the belly of the beast?


Deadliest weapon so far... the plague

ANTI-TERROR bosses last night hailed their latest ally in the war on terror — the BLACK DEATH.

By ALEX WEST
Sunday January 18, 2009
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2146286.ece

At least 40 al-Qaeda fanatics died horribly after being struck down with the disease that devastated Europe in the Middle Ages.

The killer bug, also known as the plague, swept through insurgents training at a forest camp in Algeria, North Africa. It came to light when security forces found a body by a roadside.

The victim was a terrorist in AQLIM (al-Qaeda in the Land of the Islamic Maghreb), the largest and most powerful al-Qaeda group outside the Middle East.

It trains Muslim fighters to kill British and US troops.

Now al-Qaeda chiefs fear the plague has been passed to other terror cells — or Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.

One security source said: “This is the deadliest weapon yet in the war against terror. Most of the terrorists do not have the basic medical supplies needed to treat the disease.

“It spreads quickly and kills within hours. This will be really worrying al-Qaeda.”

Black Death comes in various forms.

Bubonic Plague is spread by bites from infected rat fleas. Symptoms include boils in the groin, neck and armpits. In Pneumonic Plague, airborn bacteria spread like flu.

It can be in the body for more than a week — highly contagious but not revealing tell-tale symptoms.

The al-Qaeda epidemic began in the cave hideouts of AQLIM in Tizi Ouzou province, 150km east of the capital Algiers. The group, led by wanted terror boss Abdelmalek Droudkal, was forced to turn its shelters in the Yakouren forest into mass graves and flee.

The extremists supporting madman Osama bin Laden went to Bejaia and Jijel provinces — hoping the plague did not go with them.

A source said: “The emirs (leaders) fear surviving terrorists will surrender to escape a horrible death.”

AQLIM boss Droudkal claims to command around 1,000 insurgents. Training camps are also based in Morocco, Tunisia and Nigeria.

AQLIM bombed the UN headquarters in Algiers in 2007, killing 41. Attacks across Algeria last year killed at least 70 people.

In an interview last July, Droudkal boasted his cell was in constant contact with other al-Qaeda “brothers”.

a.west@the-sun.co.uk

Actually the Plaque really isn't all that uncommon as we would like to think that it is.

Were they developing a bio weapon and managed to get themselves infected?

May it spread, oh how I love it so. Never thought I would say that about the plague. poor muzzies.

georgia101 said:

Actually the Plaque really isn't all that uncommon as we would like to think that it is.

Click to expand...

The S.W. USA gets a couple cases most years. That and Hanta virus from mice & rats.

IIRC I believe there have been several outbreak in the past in Afganistan or one of the 'stan's

It is very treatable but AQ camps don't have the right stuff. good.

Actually, sanitation has never been their strong suit.

Is that poetic justice or what?

Mushroom

Hallelujah!!! Hopefully this will decimate there population. I will start praying for that, now!

The Lord work's in mysterious ways!

It is almost certainly natural.

Plague is a bad choice for a bio-weapon. In the modern world, it poses a minimal threat, both because it is best spread in unsanitary conditions and is easily treatable.

When you see a bunch of AlQ boys come down with a hemorrhagic fever or encephalitis, then it is time to worry.

Or maybe anthrax.

As noted a couple cases of plague each year appear in the US.

Heh, just had a thought. Might not be a bad thing if AQ thought that the CIA had done it. More sudden death out of the night skies. Them boys have got to be nervous because they are not going to rate very high on the new virgin market. Probably have to settle for used and out of date models.

What faction do the Somali that left America belong to??
They went to Africa to fight. Their families live here, reports were out of the PNW.

http://wwwwbipicomlink.blogspot.com/

Al-Shabaab in Somalia is Al-Qaeda.
Al-Shabaab's website http://kataaib.net
Dotster web hosting; DOTSTER INC
8100 NE Parkway Dr #300Vancouver, WA 98662, USA
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Phone 1-360-449-5985 or 1-360-449-5900

Reuters..January 16, 2009 11:01 AM.....MOGADISHU. Hardline Somali Islamist insurgents said on Friday they executed a politician accused of being a "spy" for Ethiopian troops and militia opposed to them.

The AU, which has 3,500 soldiers in Somalia, took particular issue with some local media reports citing witnesses that al Shabaab group had taken over bases in Mogadishu. Addis Ababa pulled its troops from the city this week, two years after going in to oust a sharia courts movement that it saw as a threat to regional stability and linked to al Qaeda.

Bill Warner
private investigator
WBI Inc Private Dectective Agency
Sarasota Fl
e-mail wbi@comcast.net

From dust to dust, from rats to rats.

Does this mean they've been cheated out of the 72 Helen Thomas look-a-likes?

I wonder what really happened..

I pray none of our troops catch it. Yes it can be treated but there can be a whole lot of nothing between where a soldier is and where he/she needs to be to get treated. May God please keep them all safe from harm and this plague.

dissimulo said:

It is almost certainly natural.

Plague is a bad choice for a bio-weapon. In the modern world, it poses a minimal threat, both because it is best spread in unsanitary conditions and is easily treatable.

When you see a bunch of AlQ boys come down with a hemorrhagic fever or encephalitis, then it is time to worry.

Click to expand...

Smallpox would be a better choice. Most people under 35 haven't been immunized and those over 35 it is likely long ineffective if they were vaccinated at all.

No stockpile of cure or immunization if an outbreak.

All it would take is one person infected walking through a busy airport to infect large portions of the US and it would be transported before they even knew where the source was. No weapons to have to get through airport security...just a stroll through the airport, train stations and downtown NY or LA before they dropped dead.

Garryowen said:

Actually, sanitation has never been their strong suit.

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maybe it was a case of the left hand not letting the right hand know what it was doing?! ;-)

Rats. Fleas. Cool weather. Primitive hygiene.

Lessons derived: prep vermicide, antibiotics, take care with hygiene.

JRM said:

Does this mean they've been cheated out of the 72 Helen Thomas look-a-likes?

Click to expand...

1:30 AM 1-19-09: Update

Hmmmm, well now,,, this is certainly interesting.

In just the past hour, after going to bed and watching late coverage on today's news, I saw FOX Cable News suddenly start running a banner with quotes from the story published by 'The Sun' ... yet there is nothing coming up at Fox when doing a search for an actual article about this on their website - so far.

Still doing some looking ... it was seeing that news that got me up and online to do some checking around. I feel very concerned after hearing a report last night, also on Fox News, that gave details about how the Pentagon is stationing special teams trained for any "Biological & Chemical Warfare" around Washington for the Inauguration events.

ETA: It is coming up on Google News now ... and most recent is the same article being reported by the UK TELEGRAPH here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...ath-kills-al-Qaeda-operatives-in-Algeria.html

Also 2 other sites, one from India and another from Australia,,,

http://www.inquisitr.com/15686/40-al-qaeda-terrorists-killedby-the-black-death/

bethshaya said:

Smallpox would be a better choice. Most people under 35 haven't been immunized and those over 35 it is likely long ineffective if they were vaccinated at all.

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Sure, but terrorists would have a much easier time getting their hands on something that is extant in the wild. I have often wondered why terrorists don't book a plane ticket as soon as a Marburg or Ebola outbreak is announced in some African back-water. All they would have to do is find a sick person, collect a few vials of blood, and they would have the capability to bring the world to a halt. Given the nature of the disease, they wouldn't get a slate-wiper, but if they infected just ten people and then put them on separate planes with round-the-world tickets, global trade would be shut down in a matter of days. And, when the dust finally settled, they could do it again.

The fact that smallpox has not popped up in the years since the fall of the Soviet Union indicates that, if any did get pocketed out of their labs, it is not in the hands of people inclined to loose it.

The timing of this report of the 40 deaths coming out just as the big party of millions in DC begins really concerns me.... for several reasons.

And am feeling exactly what Rex Jackson said ---> quote: "I wonder what really happened..."

I recall reading about weaponized Plague while studying the testimony of Soviet Bio-Scientist, Ken Alibek a number of years ago ...... in fact, I might have even posted some of that information back when we were hearing news reports about possible BCW threats right before Y2K and during that time ABC did a Nightline series that showed how easy it would be to infect a city by throwing some vials of powdered agents down in rail lines of subways. Anyone remember that series?

Okay ... found this scary tidbit from NOVA of PBS --- it was a BIOTERROR series that was broadcast on November 13, 2001. Here's the section talking of how the Soviet Union had weaponized Plague.
The main page is here for those wanting to check out other sections http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/bioterror/
and here's the Transcript from when it was aired on "60 MINUTES" in 2002:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/2815bioterror60.html
(and there's also a teaching website for school curriculums that's linked)

QUOTE SNIPS:

SOURCE:

Interviews with Biowarriors
Bill Patrick
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/bioterror/biow_patrick.html

[INTRO SNIP: Dr. William C. Patrick III spent over three decades at Fort Detrick, Maryland, the U.S. Army's base for biological weapons research. From 1951 to 1969, he developed germ agents for warfare. When the U.S. officially ended its offensive program in 1969, Patrick's work turned to germ defenses.
Here, he reflects back on these years with New York Times reporter Bill Broad and NOVA producer Kirk Wolfinger. And he demonstrates for NOVA's cameras how a biological agent such as anthrax might be used. ]

SNIP FROM INTERVIEW:

Broad: What about plague, you know, the Black Death of the 14th century? To a lot of people, that leaps to mind as the ultimate biological nightmare.

Patrick: Well, we looked at plague. We studied plague very hard and we could never at that point in time keep the organism virulent. So we did not solve the riddle.

Broad: But haven't we learned subsequently that the Russians actually went wild down that road?

Patrick: Yes. When I interviewed Dr. Alibek, [Ken Alibek, former deputy chief of the Soviet's BW arsenal] I was surprised to learn that they had successfully weaponized plague. And he did a very nice piece of research to maintain its virulence all the way through the production phases.

---------------------
"Had we been successful with plague, I do not think we would have weaponized it."
---------------------

Now, let me say a little bit more about plague. Had we been successful with plague, I do not think we would have weaponized it. We learned how to produce smallpox also, but I don't think the United States government, and Fort Detrick in particular, would have authorized the weaponization of organisms that are contagious. We felt that we had enough problems controlling an aerosol—given wind and other meteorological conditions—without introducing a contagious agent that knows no restrictions.

Broad: And that's the case with plague. It is a wildfire, and it spreads by itself.

Patrick: It's a wildfire. And it can very easily come back and bite the very people that you are trying to defend.

NOVA: The Soviets didn't seem to have that problem with it?

--------------------
"They concentrated primarily on lethal agents. We concentrated primarily on incapacitating agents."
---------------------

Patrick: No, [in war scenarios] they targeted plague and smallpox against our major cities. And they felt that the thousands of miles of oceans between the United States and them would protect them, but I doubt that. I doubt that.

Broad: Does that bespeak a whole different philosophy?

Patrick: Well, if you look at their program, and I've talked to Dr. Alibek at length about this, they concentrated primarily on lethal agents. We concentrated primarily on incapacitating agents.

~~~~~~

END QUOTE

gisgaia

I was just watching www.foxnews.com and saw the same banner being run.

Confirmation on this seems to be difficult at best to pin down.

It has unbelievable potential though and should not be taken lightly.

JMO

Bulldawg

How odd.

My concern is that some type of preparations went bad and spread through their camp.

Immediatly I thought of the inaguration and how many people could be quickly infected.


On another odd note, my local grocery store is offering "Free Antibiotics" "Till March, must have shoppers club card, see Pharmacy for details"

Odd, and strange timing.

jehu said:

How odd.

My concern is that some type of preparations went bad and spread through their camp.

Immediatly I thought of the inaguration and how many people could be quickly infected.


On another odd note, my local grocery store is offering "Free Antibiotics" "Till March, must have shoppers club card, see Pharmacy for details"

Odd, and strange timing.

Click to expand...

Try to get Doxycycline 100 mg, take by mouth twice a day for 7 days OR
Cipro 500 mg twice a day for 7 days

Those are the empiric treatment for plague exposure. If you are infected (not just exposed) then it's the same drugs, but by IV and for 10 days. that's spendy.

From George Ure's site

I couldn't help but notice that the Sun is reporting today on a new twist to the WOT: "Deadliest weapon so far...the plague". The story then goes on to say, in part, that "At least 40 al-Qaeda fanatics died horribly after being struck down with the disease..."



But something about the story a bit further down into it caught my eye: “It spreads quickly and kills within hours. This will be really worrying al-Qaeda.”



Hmmm...that sounds a little too 'hot' in epidemiological terms, unless it's some kind of lab-bred hybrid between one of the hemorrhagic fevers and plague, but even then 'hours'?



A quick check of my standard medical reference on such matters, Benenson's classic Control of Communicable Diseases In Man , records this about the 'black death'

"Incubation period - From 2 to 6 days in bubonic plague, 2 to 4 days in pneumonic plague; may be shorter, rarely longer.

And then here's the part which got me to wondering about the Sun article:

"Period of communicability - Bubonic plague is not directly transmitted from person to person except through terminal plague pneumonia. Fleas may remain infected for days or weeks or months under suitable conditions of temperature and humidity, or may clear themselves of infection.

So if it's plague it isn't the one that swept Europe in the Middle Ages; something new or something else. Worth a ponder. Say, is that a tickle in the back of my throat? I did see the county chairman of one of the brands of the corpgov party this weekend...OMG.....

www.urbansurvival.com/week.htm

The said on the FOX ticker that people die within hours? Is that right timing for this type of plague? Seemed fast to me.

ETA, bobpick we are on the same wave length. I already had posted the above before I saw your post....hmmmm.

Since plague doesn't kill within hours (of infection) and any reporter would have jumped at the chance to scare our pants off by telling us that this is a special, more dangerous plague, the most likely scenario is that he just didn't do his research and now incorrect information is being repeated.

Old Gray Mare said:

I pray none of our troops catch it. Yes it can be treated but there can be a whole lot of nothing between where a soldier is and where he/she needs to be to get treated. May God please keep them all safe from harm and this plague.

Click to expand...

This is not something to worry about our troops over. Everyone in the US military who deploys to the Middle East or Africa has to endure that miserable series of shots for the plague. Seven shots as I recall.

Got mine for a visit to Turkey in the early 1980s.

WW

Big Question that the story does not cover! Is it bubonic or pulmonic-Plague?!
Pulmonic-Plague spreads by being in the same room or just down wind of someone infected and spreads very fast.

Publius said:

Big Question that the story does not cover! Is it bubonic or pulmonic-Plague?!
Pulmonic-Plague spreads by being in the same room or just down wind of someone infected and spreads very fast.

Click to expand...

Bubonic plague. Big ol nasty black "boils" or bubae.

bethshaya said:

Smallpox would be a better choice. Most people under 35 haven't been immunized and those over 35 it is likely long ineffective if they were vaccinated at all.

No stockpile of cure or immunization if an outbreak.

.

Click to expand...

There is stock for immunization now, but it must be given within a few days of exposure.

As far as I can tell, there is no routine military vaccination for plague now.

In addition, the current plague vaccine probably provides little protection against pneumonic plague, even though it is caused by the same bacteria.

Live with rats.
Act like rats.
Die like rats!!

If there is any truth to the first post,

cases should be popping up all over the place. You can get infected and carry it silently for a week - it could be anywhere. Let's keep an eye for similar stories.

Everyone in the US military who deploys to the Middle East or Africa has to endure that miserable series of shots for the plague. Seven shots as I recall.

Click to expand...

when i was giving plague shots, it was only a series of two..60 days apart..

It kills within hours?

really?

Anyone have info on the incubation period on this type of plague?

Are there any other sources for this story? thanks T



eta...thanks bobpick just read your post....hmmmm.