Deadliest weapon so far in the WOT

[Tigermike 4,305]

Don't think these guys really live in the 12th century or so?

At least 40 al-Qaeda fanatics died horribly after being struck down with the disease that devastated Europe in the Middle Ages.

[...]

The killer bug, also known as the plague, swept through insurgents training at a forest camp in Algeria, North Africa. It came to light when security forces found a body by a roadside.

The victim was a terrorist in AQLIM (al-Qaeda in the Land of the Islamic Maghreb), the largest and most powerful al-Qaeda group outside the Middle East.

It trains Muslim fighters to kill British and US troops.

Now al-Qaeda chiefs fear the plague has been passed to other terror cells - or Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.

You have to live in some pretty funky conditions for this sort of disease to flourish. Of course once it gets going it takes on a momentum of its own. It would indeed be an ironic and particularly satisfying way to see AQ and the Taliban "die out". Of course, my guess they will blame Bush and a secret bio war. Seems like the "wrath of Allah" instead.

Deadliest weapon so far... the plague

By ALEX WEST

Published: 19 Jan 2009

ANTI-TERROR bosses last night hailed their latest ally in the war on terror — the BLACK DEATH.

At least 40 al-Qaeda fanatics died horribly after being struck down with the disease that devastated Europe in the Middle Ages.

The killer bug, also known as the plague, swept through insurgents training at a forest camp in Algeria, North Africa. It came to light when security forces found a body by a roadside.

The victim was a terrorist in AQLIM (al-Qaeda in the Land of the Islamic Maghreb), the largest and most powerful al-Qaeda group outside the Middle East.

It trains Muslim fighters to kill British and US troops.

Now al-Qaeda chiefs fear the plague has been passed to other terror cells — or Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.

One security source said: “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 quickly and kills within hours. This will be really worrying al-Qaeda.”

Black Death comes in various forms.

Bubonic Plague is spread by bites from infected rat fleas. Symptoms include boils in the groin, neck and armpits. In Pneumonic Plague, airborn bacteria spread like flu.

It can be in the body for more than a week — highly contagious but not revealing tell-tale symptoms.

Deadly ... the plague bacteria causes horrific symptoms

The al-Qaeda epidemic began in the cave hideouts of AQLIM in Tizi Ouzou province, 150km east of the capital Algiers. The group, led by wanted terror boss Abdelmalek Droudkal, was forced to turn its shelters in the Yakouren forest into mass graves and flee.

The extremists supporting madman Osama bin Laden went to Bejaia and Jijel provinces — hoping the plague did not go with them.

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

AQLIM boss Droudkal claims to command around 1,000 insurgents. Training camps are also based in Morocco, Tunisia and Nigeria.

AQLIM bombed the UN headquarters in Algiers in 2007, killing 41. Attacks across Algeria last year killed at least 70 people.

In an interview last July, Droudkal boasted his cell was in constant contact with other al-Qaeda “brothers”.(If they are, then it is possible they are spreading this around amongst themselves.)

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2146286.ece

[autigeremt 7,551]

Let's just hope they keep it to themselves.

[Tigermike 4,305]

UPDATE

Al Qaeda bungles arms experiment

Biological or chemical weapons

Eli Lake

Originally published 07:43 p.m., January 19, 2009, updated 05:45 a.m., January 20, 2009

Pakistanis view damage of a blast that occurred in a village. An anonymous source 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.

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.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/j...rms-experiment/

No one will be surprised to hear that AQ has been playing with either biological or chemical weapons, or both. They have tried for at least ten years to develop some kind of WMD that would allow AQ cells to terrorize large populations with a minimum of personnel. Chemical weapons would probably work better, as they would be somewhat easier to contain and control, especially in the rough environments in which AQ works. Most of their efforts take place in areas where clean rooms and laboratory controls can’t exist.

If these reports about Tizi Ouzou are correct, AQ has managed to kill more of their own people in one shot than they have of infidels in quite some time. If they’ve contaminated one of the safe locations, so much the better.

[GoAU 1,712]

But yet we're going to close one of the best intelligence gather tolls in the WOT - Gitmo. It's no coincidence that we haven't been attacked since 9/11, I sure hope Obama can keep the streak going....

[quietfan 233]

But yet we're going to close one of the best intelligence gather tolls in the WOT - Gitmo. It's no coincidence that we haven't been attacked since 9/11, I sure hope Obama can keep the streak going....

Okay, without re-igniting the the whole torture/not torture debate or whether information obtained from "strenuous interrogation techniques" is even reliable, is Gitmo really a source for any up-to-date information these days? Most of the prisoners there have been there for so many years, and out of the Al Qaeda loop for so long, that I don't see how they could have any new useful information.

Have any new Al Qaeda prisoners with useful information been sent there in a while or subjected to "vigorous" interrogation? I admit I don't know (Does anyone? Is info on new captives even publicized?). But my impression is that Gitmo is more bogged down in legal proceedings for long-term detainees than in active interrogation of new detainees these days.

As for recent attacks in the US: Of course Al Qaeda and their ilk would still love to attack the US homeland and we can't lower our guard. But I think their efforts have been more focused on attacking easier US targets in Iraq and Afghanistan these days, along with other operations in "the Land of the Maghreb", Africa, and the Middle East. I think that has been a greater influence on where they've operated of late than any info that came out of Gitmo in recent years.

[3328 0]

Remember these are the really bad guys, I'm sure as hell don't want them here, just to appease our limp wristed 'friends' overfrickinseas. I say build a basement there, and move'em downstairs, and the fresh one's get the topside digs! Surf's up, or down.....!

Idiots

Line 'em up........

[GoAU 1,712]

I can agree to your statements about whether any long term detainees still have useful intel - but the fact that Gitmo has been useful in getting intel can't be denied. We should continue to use tools that still work.

As for the "long term" detainees, I really can't think of any reasonable resolution to their situations - where exactly would we release these clowns so they wouldn't start right over again. I hate to say it, but execution seems to be the best option. Maybe if it'll help the ACLU and other libs sleep we can transport them via boat or plane to Miami Intl to ship them home, and then arrange for a horrible accident?