There has apparently been an outbreak of hemorrhagic fever in the
Russian
town of Oblivskaya, near Rostov. A newspaper in Riga has reported on
the
epidemic, which has infected 136 persons, leaving six dead. Supposedly
local
police officers stopped a car that was transporting jars said to be
filled
with “pesticide.” This was a sick joke on the police officers. The
“pests,” in this case, were innocent human victims. The pesticide
appears to
have been a deadly virus. The Russian police officers were offered
samples
of the pesticide.
The first victim of the epidemic was a young woman who sprayed the
“pesticide” on the garden of a leading police official. A little girl
exposed to the liquid also fell sick and died. In both instances death
came
quickly, within 24 hours. High fever and internal bleeding are among
the
symptoms. Microbes of this kind, which include the deadly Ebola and
Marburg
viruses, can sometimes liquefy internal organs. This results in a
“bleed
out.” If the illness reaches this stage, the patient goes into shock
and
dies. In the Oblivskaya outbreak, local medical authorities confirmed
the
cause as Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever. There was a previous outbreak
in
Russia around 1968. The disease is usually spread by ticks.
Local Russian medical authorities are saying the situation in
Oblivskaya
is under control. All things considered, it is doubtful whether the
disease
was started by pranksters with jars filled with “pesticide” as alleged
in the
Riga newspaper. Stories of this kind often appear in “former” Soviet
countries whenever an unusual event occurs. What is not fanciful,
however,
is the Russian Defense Ministry’s attempts to harness hemorrhagic fever
as a
weapon of war.
Between 1988 and 1992 Dr. Ken Alibek labored as first deputy chief of
Biopreparat, Soviet Russia’s state pharmaceutical agency. Though it
appeared
innocent enough on the surface, Biopreparat wasn’t about medicine as
much as
it was about a new kind of warfare. Biopreparat’s secret mission was to
develop and manufacture weapons made from viruses, toxins, and
bacteria. The
Viruses Alibek’s group worked on included those that cause hemorrhagic
fever.
In fact, one of Alibek’s researchers accidentally infected himself, and
was
quickly isolated. But there was nothing they could do for him. The
doomed
scientist kept a diary, held himself together as long as possible,
recorded
the effects of the disease day by day, and died in agony.
Why do such viruses — like Ebola and Marburg — interest Russian
military science? According to C. J. Roberts of the CDC in Atlanta:
“We
have nothing to use against these viruses.”
The problem with anthrax and small pox — from a military standpoint
—
is that inoculations exist. Bubonic plague is a more complicated
weapon,
requiring special conditions to work effectively. But imagine the
creation
of a new superplague, derived from one of the viruses that cause
hemorrhagic
fever. Wouldn’t this be the most potent biological weapon of them all?
In 1992, when Dr. Alibek defected to the West, he revealed that
Russia’s
biological warfare stockpiles included hundreds of tons of anthrax,
dozens of
tons of Bubonic plague, and dozens of tons of small pox. A single ton
of dry
biological material of this kind can infect and kill a hundred thousand
people. But according to more recent defectors, Russia now has
something
more effective. In March 1994 the London Sunday Times reported that
Russia
had developed a superplague. And this new virus has no known antidote.
By
weight it is said to be more effective than anthrax, bubonic plague, or
small
pox. The Times reported that 440 pounds of dry biological material
composed
of the superplague virus could kill half a million people.
The Russian biological warfare project of the 1980s was described by
Dr.
Alibek as a “clandestine empire of research, testing, and
manufacturing … spread out over 40 sites in Russia and Kazakhstan.”
This
project was shut down by President Boris Yeltsin in 1992. But the
closing
down of Biopreparat was a ruse. The project started up under a new
cover,
and its monstrous work continued as before. We know of this because of
two
Russian defectors who fled to Great Britain.
The question which should be uppermost in all our minds is: Why
would
the Russian Defense Ministry insist on developing such a horrible
weapon?
What purpose could such a weapon possibly serve? President Nixon
ordered the
destruction of America’s stockpile of lethal biological material in
November
1969. Today America is not threatening Russia with such weapons. Why,
then,
does Russia continuously strive for a biological warfare capacity that
could
effectively ravage the whole of the United States?
The context of this lethal preparation, by the way, is a nuclear arms
reduction process that proposes a future U.S. nuclear arsenal of only
3,500
weapons. Russia and America put away their nuclear weapons, but Russia
secretly builds up its biological stockpile. This is a dirty game and
it’s
time the American people demanded action from the president and
Congress.
Given the deceptive methods used to fool us about Russia’s
preparations
for mass murder, we should consider all treaties with Russia null and
void —
especially the ABM Treaty. And we should move rapidly to build a
ballistic
missile defense to protect the American people.
