LIBBY & MILLER'S GERM WARFARE (The Smallpox Scare)

[No Exit]

Jeremy Scahill

11.16.2005

Libby and Miller's Germ Warfare

Lewis "Scooter" Libby was a busy man in 2002-2003, pushing the lie that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and targeting those who dared to challenge the Administration. Still, with all the leaking and smearing they were doing, Libby and his "former" boss Dick Cheney found the time to conduct a parallel propaganda war in which they attempted to use the US public as guinea pigs.

And once again, Judy Miller served as a crucial PR agent for the cause. In mid-2002, as they struggled desperately to sell the war, these key players in "Plamegate" were engaged in full-out offensive aimed at convincing Americans that the country faced an imminent threat of a smallpox attack. To underscore this "threat," Libby began fanatically pressing to have the entire US population preemptively vaccinated against smallpox (which was declared eradicated in 1980). The proposal was immediately met with opposition from public health experts, including those at the Department of Health and Human Services. They warned Libby that the vaccine could injure, even kill people and that a universal vaccination could in and of itself spark a public health crisis in the US. "The risks of vaccinating the whole country with the existing vaccine were greater than what we saw as the threat," says Jerry Hauer, the HHS official at the time that would have been in charge of implementing the vaccinations. "We felt it was the wrong thing from a public health perspective to do." As the administration did with so many independent experts who said Iraq posed no WMD threat, Libby attempted to sideline those who questioned him.

What Hauer and his colleagues at HHS may not have known is that smallpox was a career-long obsession of Libby's--so much so that his nickname in the administration was "Germ Boy." His 1996 novel, The Apprentice, is about a smallpox outbreak and it was one of Libby's main areas of concern when he worked under Dick Cheney and Paul Wolfowitz at the Pentagon during the Gulf War. In Judy Miller's 2001 book (written with 2 colleagues) "Germs: Biological Weapons and America's Secret War," Libby is described during his time at the Pentagon as "a trim, boyish lawyer" irritated by intelligence reports about Iraqi WMDs containing the words "probably" and "possibly." Miller writes that Libby "told colleagues that intelligence analysts had an unfortunate habit: If they did not see a report on something, they assumed it did not exist." More than a decade later, Libby was facing renewed frustration with another group of experts challenging his obsession. Hauer says that when he and other public health officials presented their opposition to Libby's "hysterical" universal smallpox vaccination scheme, the pressure from Cheney's office increased. In particular, Hauer says that one of Cheney's top Homeland Security advisers, Carol Kuntz (who worked as Libby's assistant at the Pentagon during the Gulf War), became "downright offensive" toward Hauer, saying "It was very clear that I was not giving her the answers she wanted or telling her what she wanted to hear."

(snip)

As the battle over Libby's vaccination plan raged on, the Administration amplified the propaganda and received assistance from a reliable ally. In December 2002, Judy Miller penned a story called "Threats and Responses: Germ Weapons; C.I.A. Hunts Iraq Tie to Soviet Smallpox." The source of the story? "The information came to the American government from an informant whose identity has not been disclosed," wrote Miller, reporting: "The possibility that Iraq possesses this strain is one of several factors that has complicated Mr. Bush's decision...about how many Americans should be vaccinated against smallpox."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeremy-scahill/libby-and-millers-germ-w_b_10779.html

How well I remember the smallpox scare. Of course, that was back when I still anxiously read every "report" of "stolen cropdusters" which might be prepared to spray anthrax all over me and mine. Turns out the only thing they were spreading was greed-driven BULLSHIT.

[Supersedeas]

1. ah, the small circle of friends was very busy

[Skidmore]

2. These are a sick and scary bunch a people.

You almost get the feeling that they are jonesing for something hugely terrible resulting is massive deaths and misery to happen to the nation, and if nothing happens, they are quite willing to help it along.

[mtnester]

3. Yeah, the smallpox vaccination program for healthcare workers and 1st

responders went over like a lead balloon. Especially after a couple of the first vaccinated DIED. Oh, and you should have SEEN the pages of disclosures about who can and cannot have the vaccine, how everyone you come in contact with, specifically those in your HOME could be affected...

I am telling those of you who have the puckered scar from back in the day like myself (full dose vaccinations)...had our parents seen what I saw in the way of documentation for 1/2 dose, they would have NEVER let us take the vaccine. Never. Never.

On edit - I guess my point was no matter how this scare tactic was intended, once professionals in the business got a gander at the stuff I spoke about, they simply refused to take the vaccine, preferring to take their chances if there was an outbreak.