Ebola Bombs, the next bio-weapon?

Ok, so now an article has come out that has me thinking about this. An ebola bomb is actually a possibility based on this article's claims though the article seems to have missed one very large point....dating back to WW2.....the bat bomb.

If some worst-case scenarios are to be believed, then terrorist groups could use the recent outbreak of Ebola in Africa to their advantage. By using the Ebola virus as a biological weapon, the story goes, these groups could wreak havoc around the globe.

But the idea that Ebola could be used as a biological weapon should be viewed with heavy skepticism, according to bioterrorism experts. Although deadly, Ebola is notoriously unstable when removed from a human or animal host, making weaponization of the virus unlikely, two experts told Live Science.

Ebola Bomb

Bat bombs were an experimental World War II weapon developed by the United States. The bomb consisted of a bomb-shaped casing with numerous compartments, each containing a Mexican Free-tailed Bat with a small timed incendiary bomb attached. Dropped from a bomber at dawn, the casings would deploy a parachute in mid-flight and open to release the bats which would then roost in eaves and attics. The incendiaries would start fires in inaccessible places in the largely wood and paper construction of the Japanese cities that were the weapon's intended target.

Bat Bomb

Now bats are carriers for Ebola, so why would this not be an actual possibility? Personally it is odd to me that the media is even running a story about this. It seems very far fetched but I remembered reading about the bat bombs a while back and just connected the dots on my own for this one. While it seems extremely unlikely anyone could or would do this, I guess it is possible to do it.

a reply to: Vasa Croe

Predicted by Tom Clancy back in 1996.

Executive Orders is a political and military thriller novel by Tom Clancy. It was published in 1996, and is a canonical part of the Jack Ryan universe.

There are a lot of parallels in that book concerning today's headlines.

From wiki:

Following the conclusion of Debt of Honor, Jack Ryan is sworn in as President of the United States minutes after becoming Vice President. With nearly every executive, legislative, and judicial figure deceased, Ryan is left to represent the United States by himself. Ryan deals with various hardships and crises, from reconstituting the House and the Senate; to a challenge on his legitimacy by former vice president Ed Kealty; to a brewing war in the Middle East.

When the Iraqi president is assassinated by an Iranian agent, the Ayatollah Mahmoud Haji Daryaei takes advantage of the power vacuum by launching an unopposed invasion of Iraq. The Ayatollah unites the two countries, calling it the "United Islamic Republic", or "UIR". With Indian and Chinese assistance, the UIR makes a bid for superpower status by attacking Saudi Arabia. Following a series of Iranian-backed terrorist attacks, including the release of a Ebola strain, the UIR declares war on both Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Meanwhile, China "accidentally" shoots down a Taiwanese airliner.

As a result of the Ebola attack, Ryan declares martial law and enforces travel restrictions in an effort to contain the virus. However, the attack becomes only a limited success for the UIR, since the virus is so deadly that it cannot spread effectively. The tide soon turns against the UIR, with its forces being defeated against the combined firepower of the U.S., Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait. President Ryan sends Ding Chavez and John Clark into the UIR to assassinate Daryaei. After showing the destruction of Daryaei's residence during a televised press conference, Ryan threatens to launch a tactical nuclear strike on Tehran unless those responsible for the attacks are extradited to the U.S. to face charges.

Kealty's challenge to President Ryan's legitimacy fails in court. In the aftermath of the crisis, appreciation of the unelected president grows. Then in answering a question from a reporter in the White House press room, Ryan says he will seek election to the office of President of the United States.

a reply to: Vasa Croe
probably be a lot easier to infect a suicide bomber,send him on a worldwide vacation til he dies.

originally posted by: blkcwbyhat
a reply to: Vasa Croe
probably be a lot easier to infect a suicide bomber,send him on a worldwide vacation til he dies.

Probably easier, but also would be a lot more likely to be caught in the act. The bat bomb idea would allow the bats to spread the disease over a wide area, infecting many more carriers until a human consumed or came in contact with an infected carrier animal....would take some time.

Why would this idea even be proposed? I mean come on! What possible gain is there to introduce into the human psyche the idea of more bio terrorism. I may sound reactionary here and for that I apologise but what POSSIBLE gain is there from a thread like this?

originally posted by: Jonjonj
Why would this idea even be proposed? I mean come on! What possible gain is there to introduce into the human psyche the idea of more bio terrorism. I may sound reactionary here and for that I apologise but what POSSIBLE gain is there from a thread like this?

There is no gain from a thread like this....it was a story from the media based on a statement by Dr. Peter Walsh, a biological anthropologist at Cambridge University. I would say a person of his caliber and particular expertise deserves to be heard on this.

Here is his bio for Cambridge UK website: Peter Walsh

a reply to: TDawgRex

Yeah, I actually started a thread on that connection last week sometime. I had read the book a while back and the coincidences are pretty uncanny.

Link to other thread: www.abovetopsecret.com...

a reply to: Vasa Croe

Oops! Sorry I missed that one, but in my defense I was buying a new router as my previous one went belly up. Gonna have to look it over.

originally posted by: Vasa Croe

originally posted by: Jonjonj
Why would this idea even be proposed? I mean come on! What possible gain is there to introduce into the human psyche the idea of more bio terrorism. I may sound reactionary here and for that I apologise but what POSSIBLE gain is there from a thread like this?

There is no gain from a thread like this....it was a story from the media based on a statement by Dr. Peter Walsh, a biological anthropologist at Cambridge University. I would say a person of his caliber and particular expertise deserves to be heard on this.

Here is his bio for Cambridge UK website: Peter Walsh

But have you not simply propogated the idea? I don't know, I don't get the reason for this at all, sorry.

I found another report from Peter Walsh on gorillas and ebola. Odd thing is it talks of an ebola vaccine that halted the spread of ebola in lab monkeys....and this was from back in 2006. So, how is there not an ebola vaccine already done for humans? Don't we share enough DNA with primates to have the same vaccine work for us?

The current lack of a vaccination program is not due to a lack of vaccine options, as several different vaccines have now protected laboratory monkeys from Ebola and major vaccine labs are anxious to help. Rather, "Uncertainty about whether a large Ebola control effort was necessary or even possible has paralyzed large donors and major conservation organizations," said Peter Walsh, a co-author from Max Planck. "We are hoping that the starkness of our results will push some public or private donor to finally commit the two or three million dollars necessary to develop a safe and effective way of delivering Ebola vaccine to wild apes."

Walsh contends that Ebola vaccination is a cost effective method of ape conservation. "People in the conservation community are intimidated by the up-front costs of vaccination and would prefer to instead spend the money on anti-poaching. What they are not factoring in is the fact that one year of Ebola vaccination could save as many apes as decades of anti-poaching. We need to do both."

Source

The article is from 2006 and is quite telling on how quickly ebola spreads in the wild. It had a 93% kill rate among gorillas and a 77% kill rate with chimps.

originally posted by: Jonjonj

originally posted by: Vasa Croe

originally posted by: Jonjonj
Why would this idea even be proposed? I mean come on! What possible gain is there to introduce into the human psyche the idea of more bio terrorism. I may sound reactionary here and for that I apologise but what POSSIBLE gain is there from a thread like this?

There is no gain from a thread like this....it was a story from the media based on a statement by Dr. Peter Walsh, a biological anthropologist at Cambridge University. I would say a person of his caliber and particular expertise deserves to be heard on this.

Here is his bio for Cambridge UK website: Peter Walsh

But have you not simply propogated the idea? I don't know, I don't get the reason for this at all, sorry.

Sure....it's news. Would you rather your town just be hit with it one day without warning and die? Not saying that will happen, but I am a fan of knowledge. I would rather know something like this is being posed by very credible scientists than not know it and just live blissfully unaware.

a reply to: Vasa Croe

If my town WAS hit it I would wonder why...perhaps you think the propogation of everything is justified. I personally think that although everything is out there, some things only need a push to become more than they originally were. So then, although your news is not, in any way, revelatory, it is now, more than it was, common knowledge.

a reply to: Vasa Croe

No matter how many times I'm reminded of this I still get a kick out of it. Man kind never fails to amaze when it comes to new and imaginative ways of wiping our selves out.

www.rense.com...
Admittedly not the best source one could hope for but it wouldn't surprise me at all.


Good old cold war ingenuity. Ebola-Pox

"Russia has researched the genetic alteration of smallpox," Alibek told me. "In 1990 and 1991, we engineered a smallpox at Vector. It was found that several areas of the smallpox genome" -- the DNA -- "can be used for the introduction of some foreign genetic material. The first development was smallpox and VEE. VEE, or Venezuelan equine encephalitis, is a brain virus. It causes a severe headache and near-coma, but it is generally not lethal. Alibek said that the researchers spliced VEE into smallpox. The result was a recombinant chimera virus. In ancient Greek myth, the chimera was a monster made from parts of different animals. Recombination means the mixing of genes from different organisms. "It is called smallpox-VEE chimera," Alibek said. It could also be called Veepox. Under a microscope, Alibek said, the Veepox looks like smallpox, but it isn't.

More recently, Alibek claims, the Vector researchers may have created a recombinant Ebola-smallpox chimera. One could call it Ebolapox. Ebola virus uses the molecule RNA for its genetic code, whereas smallpox uses DNA. Alibek believes that the Russian researchers made a DNA copy of the disease-causing parts of Ebola, then grafted them into smallpox. Alibek said he thinks that the Ebolapox virus is stable -- that is, that it will replicate successfully in a test tube or in animals -- which means that, once created, Ebolapox will live forever in a laboratory, and will not uncreate itself. Thus a new form of life may have been brought into the world.

a reply to: watchitburn

That's messed up. I can't imagine how a researcher could justify doing this. Let's create something even worse than what it already out there just to see if we can.....

a reply to: Vasa Croe

Now bats are carriers for Ebola, so why would this not be an actual possibility?

Because most people outside of Africa don't eat bats.

originally posted by: kruphix
a reply to: Vasa Croe

Now bats are carriers for Ebola, so why would this not be an actual possibility?

Because most people outside of Africa don't eat bats.

Bats would simply be the carrier to other animals. Bats live around human populations, often even making it into the attics of homes. Say one dies and you go to clean up the body, or have an exterminator in to do it and they come in contact with the bat with bare skin or whatever....infection begins.

Contagious Ebola victims are gravely and obviously sick people. He wouldn't get on a plane though he could sit in an airport spitting on people. I think however given his health people would avoid him and alert the authorities. Ebola would not make a good bio weapon. a reply to: blkcwbyhat

I mentioned this in some other ISIS thread somewhere.....
Why cant the terrorists or Mossad simply drop dead bodies of Ebola victims from low flying aircraft.....who needs a bomb.

a reply to: AutumnWitch657

I agree on it not making a good bio-weapon in a sense. Unless the purpose was to release a bio-weapon that everyone thought naturally occurred. If a bio-weapon is released that can be traced back to a certain government and wipes out millions then there would be hell to pay. If one that did the same were released in a manner that looked natural then nobody would be the wiser.

The bats would have to be eaten or somehow come in contact with humans. How often do you see bats in a crowd of people? I've only seen a few bats outside of a zoo and they avoid people. Usually we see them swooping around lights on a summer evening eating moths. a reply to: Vasa Croe