Black Plague And Al-Qaeda

[elsid13]

Black Death 'kills al-Qaeda operatives in Algeria'
The Black Death has reportedly killed at least 40 al-Qaeda operatives in North Africa.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/algeria/4287469/Black-Death-kills-al-Qaeda-operatives-in-Algeria.html
Last Updated: 3:33PM GMT 19 Jan 2009

The disease, which struck Europe in the Middle Ages killing more than 25 million people, has swept through a training camp for insurgents in Algeria.

The arrival of the plague was discovered when security forces found the body of a dead terrorist by a roadside, the Sun reports.

The victim belonged to the large al-Qaeda network AQLIM (al-Qaeda in the Land of the Islamic Maghreb).

A security source told the paper: "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 It spreads quickly and kills within hours. This will be really worrying al-Qaeda."

Black Death comes in various forms and was one of the deadliest pandemics in human history when it struck in the 1340s killing 75 million people across North Africa, Asia and Europe.

Bubonic Plague is spread by bites from infected rat fleas. Symptoms include painful boils in the groin, neck and armpits. In Pneumonic Plague, airborn bacteria spread like flu. Without medication it can be deadly.

The new epidemic began in the cave hideouts of AQLIM in Tizi Ouzou province, 150km east of the capital Algiers, the Sun reports.

The group, led by wanted terror figure Abdelmalek Droudkal, was forced to turn its shelters in the Yakouren forest into mass graves and flee.

The group now fears the highly-infectious disease could have spread to other al-Qaeda training camps or Taliban fighters in Afghanistan, the paper said.

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

AQLIM bombed the UN headquarters in Algiers in 2007, killing 41

[elsid13]

Originally published 07:43 p.m., January 19, 2009, updated 05:45 a.m., January 20, 2009
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jan/19/al-qaeda-bungles-arms-experiment/

Al Qaeda bungles arms experiment


Eli Lake (http://www.washingtontimes.com/staff/eli-lake/) (Contact (http://www.washingtontimes.com/staff/eli-lake/contact))


An al Qaeda affiliate in Algeria closed a base earlier this month after an experiment with unconventional weapons went awry, a senior U.S. intelligence official said Monday.

The official, who spoke on the condition he not be named because of the sensitive nature of the issue, said he could not confirm press reports that the accident killed at least 40 al Qaeda operatives, but he said the mishap led the militant group to shut down a base in the mountains of Tizi Ouzou province in eastern Algeria.

He said authorities in the first week of January intercepted an urgent communication between the leadership of al Qaeda in the Land of the Maghreb (AQIM) and al Qaeda's leadership in the tribal region of Pakistan on the border with Afghanistan. The communication suggested that an area sealed to prevent leakage of a biological or chemical substance had been breached, according to the official.

"We don't know if this is biological or chemical," the official said.
The story was first reported by the British tabloid the Sun, which said the al Qaeda operatives died after being infected with a strain of bubonic plague, the disease that killed a third of Europe's population in the 14th century. But the intelligence official dismissed that claim.

AQIM, according to U.S. intelligence estimates, maintains about a dozen bases in Algeria, where the group has waged a terrorist campaign against government forces and civilians. In 2006, the group claimed responsibility for an attack on foreign contractors. In 2007, the group said it bombed U.N. headquarters in Algiers, an attack that killed 41 people.

Al Qaeda is believed by U.S. and Western experts to have been pursuing biological weapons since at least the late 1990s. A 2005 report on unconventional weapons drafted by a commission led by former Sen. Charles Robb, Virginia Democrat, and federal appeals court Judge Laurence Silberman concluded that al Qaeda's biological weapons program "was extensive, well organized and operated two years before the Sept. 11" terror attacks in the U.S.

Another report from the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation, released in December, warned that "terrorists are more likely to be able to obtain and use a biological weapon than a nuclear weapon."

British authorities in January 2003 arrested seven men they accused of producing a poison from castor beans known as ricin. British officials said one of the suspects had visited an al Qaeda training camp. In the investigation into the case, British authorities found an undated al Qaeda manual on assassinations with a recipe for making the poison.

The late leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab Zarqawi, was suspected of developing ricin in northern Iraq. Then-Secretary of State Colin L. Powell referred to the poison in his presentation to the U.N. Security Council in February 2003 that sought to lay the groundwork for the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

Roger Cressey, a former senior counterterrorism official at the National Security Council under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, told The Washington Times that al Qaeda has had an interest in acquiring a poisons capability since the late 1990s.

"This is something that al Qaeda still aspires to do, and the infrastructure to develop it does not have to be that sophisticated," he said.

Mr. Cressey added that he also is concerned about al Qaeda in the Land of the Maghreb, which refers to the North African countries of Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia.

"Al Qaeda in the Maghreb is probably the most operationally capable affiliate in the organization right now," he said.

[Spider]

Tis is good news ......... I just wish it infected every damn one of them

[elsid13]

Tis is good news ......... I just wish it infected every damn one of them

The scary news that it could have been a **** up. They might have been attempting to figure out how to create and delivery it to Western Countries.

They some crazy ****ers, that really need to be wiped out.

[Spider]

The scary news that it could have been a **** up. They might have been attempting to figure out how to create and delivery it to Western Countries.

They some crazy ****ers, that really need to be wiped out.

you got that **** right ......... I would have supported Bush if he had laced happy meals with this **** and gave it to them .........

[barryr]

Well, anyone who didn't see these guys as a serious problem and not just some nuisance now had better take them seriously. They are playing with plagues and are not going to screw it up every time.

[orinjkrush]

bio war is about as bad as tradin nukes.

the russkies added chem and bio agents to their nukes, thinking if the heat and shock didn't get us, the boogers (what was left of 'em) would.

[Bob]

If true, what the hell is this group thinking? It would wipe out many in the western world, but most in developing (including Arab countries) if that fire really started....

[elsid13]

If true, what the hell is this group thinking? It would wipe out many in the western world, but most in developing (including Arab countries) if that fire really started....

They aren't thinking. They believe God will protect them. Personal I believe God put smart people on earth to protect ourselves and not waste his/her time.....

[SonOfLe-loLang]

They aren't thinking. They believe God will protect them. Personal I believe God put smart people on earth to protect ourselves and not waste his/her time.....

Or God doesn't exist and its the blind leading the blind!

[snowspot66]

Or God doesn't exist and its the blind leading the blind!

Let's not go down this road again.

[lazarus4444]

Black Plague is treatable with today's medicine. Only thing is, these ****er 'ers are stuck in the past so they are dying of it. They can release it all they want, it won't do near as much damage as they think (except to themselves).

[baja]

Tis is good news ......... I just wish it infected every damn one of them


No it isn't! It's really bad news.

[Bronco Bob]

bio war is about as bad as tradin nukes.

the russkies added chem and bio agents to their nukes, thinking if the heat and shock didn't get us, the boogers (what was left of 'em) would.

Wouldn't the heat from the fireball have destroyed them?

Sounds more like an urban legend than anything they actually did.

[snowspot66]

Maybe he meant they would have launched separate warheads with those. That would actually make a lot of sense. Everything would have been ****ed. Who cares if you start a plague at that point? It's not like it would be coming back to you.

[BABronco]

Funny that everyone assumes they were the ones developing the stuff. Ask yourself who benefits the most.

[Dudeskey]

Black Plague as a bio weapon? I'd venture a guess that its probably simpler than that. This could be a sanitary issue.... Could be that living conditions @ these training camps are very disgusting...

[kappys]

Maybe he meant they would have launched separate warheads with those. That would actually make a lot of sense. Everything would have been ****ed. Who cares if you start a plague at that point? It's not like it would be coming back to you.

Must be the case since a nuclear blast would indeed destroy any chemical or bio weapons released at the same time. Most modern ICBM's have multiple independently targetted warheads which could be used as you suggest.