06.03.09
Al Qaeda Bonehead, Bioterror Dunce
Al Qaeda men continue to show ignorance on even simple things while trying to scare us into believing they’re ready to launch bioterror strikes. The wishful thinking doesn’t fool people in the know. But it does give some news agencies material to keep their boogeyman stories fresh.
“U.S. counterterrorism officials have authenticated a video by an al Qaeda recruiter [named ‘Abdullah al-Nafisi’] threatening to smuggle a biological weapon into the United States via tunnels under the Mexico border, the latest sign of the terrorist group’s determination to stage another mass-casualty attack on the U.S. homeland,” reported the Washington Times today. (Caveat emptor: This is another website that tries to put your browser in a high bandwidth full nelson.)
The story continued to explain that al Qaeda is apparently interested in alliances with ‘white militia groups’ — which only shows the pitiful nature of the intelligence. The second thought that occurs: Why are anonymous US intelligence officials gossiping about this with a newspaper?
“The officials, who spoke only on the condition they not be named because of the sensitive nature of their work, stressed that there is no credible information that al Qaeda has acquired the capabilities to carry out a mass biological attack although its members have clearly sought the expertise,” continued the piece.
“Four pounds of anthrax — in a suitcase this big — carried by a fighter through tunnels from Mexico into the U.S. are guaranteed to kill 330,000 Americans within a single hour if it is properly spread in population centers there,” the al Qaeda recruiter is said to have said.
Three hundred thirty thousand in one hour, eh? DD guesses they’ve managed a revolution in weaponry and bypassed the normal disease process.
“Symptoms of [anthrax disease] vary depending on how the disease was contracted, but symptoms usually occur within 7 days,” states the CDC. Guess we’ll have to change that.
Bootnote: The al Qaeda man’s claim re anthrax does show that the US government’s hyping of the threat of bioterrorism has had effect: Al Qaeda takes its ‘statistics’ and wishful beliefs almost directly from our official utterances.
“Milton Leitenberg, a biological arms expert who has been regularly critical of the fear agenda, addressed two [Richard Danzig]-penned position papers in 1997 and 1999,” DD wrote for el Reg a number of months ago. “In these, a kilogram of anthrax was said to able to kill hundreds of thousands.”
“[100 kilograms] of weaponized anthrax dropped on D.C. under good weather conditions, is likely to cause about the same number of casualties as a one megaton bomb dropped on the city” — a quote from Tara O’Toole, the recent Obama nominee for head scientist at the Dept. of Homeland Security, delivered in congressional testimony in 2007.
These statements, and many others like them emitted by government officials or experts wishing to shape government policy, have indeed shaped and inspired al Qaeda perceptions about bioterrorism.