US develops lethal new viruses

[stickdog]

http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994318

US develops lethal new viruses

19:00 29 October 03

Exclusive from New Scientist Print Edition. Subscribe and get 4 free issues.

A scientist funded by the US government has deliberately created an extremely deadly form of mousepox, a relative of the smallpox virus, through genetic engineering. The new virus kills all mice even if they have been given antiviral drugs as well as a vaccine that would normally protect them.

The work has not stopped there. The cowpox virus, which infects a range of animals including humans, has been genetically altered in a similar way.

(snip)

Despite the concerns, work on lethal new pox viruses seems likely to continue in the US. When members of the audience in Geneva questioned the need for such experiments, an American voice in the back boomed out: "Nine-eleven". There were murmurs of agreement.


Wow. So who said ""Nine-eleven"?

Was it Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Powell or Rice?

[Barrett808]

1. This will be the end of us

Almost certainly. Didn't I read that one point of the PNAC agenda was development of ethno-specific viruses?

[stickdog]

6. From the original September, 2000 (a year before 9/11) PNAC document

attributed to Paul Wolfowitz and Lewis Libby (Cheney's Chief of Staff):

http://www.newamericancentury.org/RebuildingAmericasDefenses.pdf

New methods of attack - electronic, 'non-lethal', biological - will be more widely available combat likely will take place in new dimensions, in space, cyberspace, and perhaps the world of microbes advanced forms of biological warfare that can 'target' specific genotypes may transform biological warfare from the realm of terror to a politically useful tool.

[maggrwaggr]

11. " from the realm of terror to a politically useful tool"

Good lord these people are total madmen.

They're admitting that what they want to do is "beyond terrorism".

Why isn't anyone else scared to death of them?

Regime change, anyone?

[HereSince1628]

2. Imagine the impact on the environment...

I know that most people think of rodents as pests, but consider the amount of energy that lil' mouse bodies move into the food chain. A release of this thing would be tough on terrestrial ecosystems.

They are not charismatic but they are tremendously important in the scheme of things...

On edit: Why MUST the US develop GM modified viruses? I don't think this can be argued on the need to develop vaccines.

[absyntheNsugar]

3. I don't think mice are the targets of this....

I think its more like us....

[Aidoneus]

4. but, but..

"free people don't develop weapons of mass destruction"..

[tom_paine]

9. That is true: Imperial Amerika is no longer free

It just hasn't felt the fallout from the mighty explosion, so to speak.

[0007]

5. That should give third world counties incentives

to work on WMD or anything else that comes to the mind.

[tom_paine]

10. Hell yes, what else are they to do?

Faced by a cadre of madmen in charge of the greatest militray arsenal the world has ever seen, held in check by...NOTHING but the wretched remnants of some musty old documents that have lost most of their meaning, except as tranquilizers for the enslaved sheep, "You are free. You are free. You are free."

Deterrance and MAD might be the only things the Busheviks understand.

Probably not, though. Because THEY'LL be safe in their bunkers like You Know Who in DubyaDubyaTwo...

[Whoa_Nelly]

7. Can you say...

Terrorist Nation?

:scared:

United States of Terror :argh:
How much more will the PNAC/BFEE do before ousted from power? When the pressure's on, they do more to screw things up as fast as they can. We may never see real recovery in our lifetime.

:kick:

[Parche]

8. virus

Are they working on a Bushpox virus yet???

[kalian]

12. WTF?!

Seriously... :wtf: !!!
Are we insane?! So, other countries are not allowed to create any
new forms of NBC weapons yet the use is talking about "mini-nukes"
and now this?! What the hell is wrong with the US?

Un-friggin-believable...

[Tinoire]

23. Kalian

Honest, gentle question here...

Are you surprised? Did you really believe we haven't been developing these weapons uninterrupted for decades? Did you really believe that crap that we were so pure and good that we weren't investing billions into this R&D?

And lastly, you're rather new here... Is DU shocking your eyes open with the real news? I am really curious because I am very concerned about just how little the average person is aware of. I'd like to know how big the gap is.

Also, were you a news junkie before?

Thanks

[zonmoy]

26. insane

Hey at least they may be on an good idea. lets create a weapon to exterminate the human species. it would be good riddance to bad rubbish.

[Virginian]

13. "We have met the enemy and it is us." - Pogo

This is not the first time this quote has been used, but I find it intensely appropriate here.
This sounds like we are developing the Bio Weapons that will fall into the wrong hands and kill us all.

[E_Zapata]

14. Finally...........we find the WMDs!!!!!!!!!!!!

I knew the Reich could find 'em!

[loudnclear]

15. Wonder who we are going to give this to or sell it to?

the only reason to develop lethal viruses is to kill people.

[Endangered Specie]

16. Seems a little hypocritical

What would we have done if we found something like this in Iraq?, bombed the hell out of it? probably, but we can make anything we want.

[Peace_2_Everyone]

17. Could Wal-Mart’s receiving area

be the front line for a bio attack?


They get millions of boxes a day from China, Indonesia, ect. If we have developed such horrible strings it is foolish to think other countries have not. The bio agent could be suspended in the box and/or tape glue and released as the boxes are opened or crushed for recycling. The countries’ governments will launch the assault not the merchants.

Thanks for the bad news
Rev 18:10/11
Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.
And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more:

[Minstrel Boy]

18. Hello, which Vonnegut novel have I awoken in today?

They don't usually end happily, do they?

[Nottingham]

19. The Medical Profession and Genetic Engineers must be proud

the ability to kill millions

:bounce: Its like developing the BOMB

[camero]

28. They don't have a conscience

They sure have come a long way from Einstein, who when the nuke was tested said, "My God, what have we done?"

[teryang]

20. The really sick thing is that production of these viruses

....isn't even regulated. If you want to give humans a new dosage of allegra, then the protocols must be examined and reviewed by different institutional boards of professionals to determine whether it is safe enough for human exposure. But if a couple of academics want to experiment with recombinant dna viruses, there is no oversight or regulation of their activities or methods even though a mishap might result in the destruction of a species or start a plague.

[Sufi Marmot]

22. Not true...

NIH-funded research (which comprises a significant wad of academic biological research) is subject to certain guidelines. Read all about them in excruciating detail here. When NIH grants are reviewed for approval, potentially problematic experiments are supposed to be scrutinzed carefully. I'm not sure how well this works out in practice, though. And I doubt that the military labs or private companies fall under this jurisdiction, although the NIH guidelines are broadly applied to anyone at any institution that gets NIH money whatsoever, as far as I can tell:

Section I-C-1-a-(1). Research that is conducted at or sponsored by an institution that receives any support for recombinant DNA research from NIH, including research performed directly by NIH. An individual who receives support for research involving recombinant DNA must be associated with or sponsored by an institution that assumes the responsibilities assigned in the NIH Guidelines.

So you can argue that the guidelines are too lax or have not kept up with emerging technology, but they do exist for most academics...

-SM

[teryang]

25. Thank you for the clarification-

I appreciate the information. I'm sorry I don't have the link to the site from which I learned of this problem. I posted it hoping that someone would tell me it wasn't true.

<And I doubt that the military labs or private companies fall under this jurisdiction...>

I think that is the problem. Funding as a basis for applicability.

[Voltaire99]

21. Doesn't the Pentagon have enough WMDs already?

Madmen with nukes don't need killer viruses, too.

[Paschall]

24. Uh

<snip> But this research revealed that the modified pox viruses are not contagious, he says. That is good news in the sense that these viruses could not cause ecological havoc by wiping out mouse or rabbit populations around the world if they escaped from a lab.

However, this discovery also means some bioterrorists might be more tempted to use the same trick to modify a pox virus that infects humans. Such a disease, like anthrax, would infect only those directly exposed to it. It would not spread around the world and rebound on the attackers. But there is no guarantee that other pox viruses modified in a similar way would also be non-contagious. </snip>

This article has been poorly edited. What audience? Where were these findings presented? How costly and complicated were these genetic modifications? How long did it take these researchers to achieve these results? To what extent might these technologies be available to "bioterrorists"? Anthrax, for example, --as we've learned-- is relatively difficult to "weaponize." We might be able to better judge this situation if we knew the answers to these questions.

[dArKeR]

27. Bio-engineered superbug stirs debate - MSGOP

A research team backed by a federal grant has created a genetically engineered mousepox virus designed to evade vaccines, underscoring biotechnology’s deadly potential and stirring debate over whether such research plays into the hands of terrorists.

http://msnbc.com/news/987433.asp?0cv=CB10

[seventhson]

29. War Crime. Crime Against Humanity. Life in Prison without Parole.

That goes for Bush too.

I've had it.
They plan to just kill all of us it seems.

I am beginning to doubt the 2004 election can even happen.

They are in too deep.

and so are we