North Korea trying to weaponize bird flu

[Guest guest]

North Korea trying to weaponize bird flu

Bio-warfare experts call it potentially 'greatest threat al-Qaida

could unleash'

 

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Posted: May 8, 2006

1:00 a.m. Eastern

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=50093

 

 

 

 

 

 

LONDON – The pariah state of North Korea is trying to weaponize the

bird flu virus, making it the ideal threat for al-Qaida, the British

intelligence agency MI6 has learned.

 

The Bush administration has given briefings classified " Top

Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information " to members of Congress

and the Senate on the threat.

 

In aerosol form it would be undetectable at all border crossings and

virologists at Porton Down – Britain's research center responsible

for developing antidotes against biological attacks – fear that a

genetically engineered version of the virus would be far more lethal

than any current threat from the virus.

 

World ranking experts have said that it would be " the greatest

threat al-Qaida could unleash. "

 

 

In an exclusive interview, Dr. Ken Allibek, the former director of

the Soviet Union's biowarfare program, Biopreperat, who is now a

senior adviser to the Bush administration on bio-defense, said: " The

threat of a weaponized bird flu virus cannot be over emphasised. It

would be the most terrible weapon in the hands of a terrorist. The

advantage for al-Qaida is that an aerosolized weapon would be

impossible to detect from one spread naturally by birds. But a lab-

produced virus would be far more lethal. "

 

Professor Peter Openshaw, a leading virologist at Imperial College,

London, called it: " more terrifying than engineered smallpox. That

would be relatively easy to contain because there is a vaccine. But

with improvements in laboratory technology, it's becoming much

easier to engineer these viruses. It's becoming a terrible concern. "

 

A CIA document presented by Goss showed that the World Health

Organization has warned the virus would affect one-fifth of the

world's population " with 30 million requiring hospitalisation and at

least 2 million people could die. "

 

The decision to keep the briefing secret has led to fierce criticism

from public health officials in the United States.

 

Dr. Irwin Redlener, a director of the National Center for Disaster

Preparedness in Washington, said: " This is Cold War secrecy being

applied to a public health issue. The truth is that the United

States is seriously unprepared to cope with an avian flu outbreak –

the more so if it is terrorist inspired. "

 

Professor Hugh Pennington, a leading microbiologist at Aberdeen

University, Scotland, said: " A clever molecular biologist could also

try to mix the virus with other viruses so that it could spread

person to person, which would be the greatest threat. "

 

Scientists in America have recently recreated the Spanish flu virus

that killed 50 million people in 1918. The full genetic sequence was

published in specialist magazines earlier this year and is available

via the Internet.

 

Openshaw said: " The sequence of the 1918 strain has just been

published and there are obvious security concerns. There are many

labs around the world that would be capable of recreating the same

virus. "

 

North Korea's biological warfare program is now the largest in the

world. Among its 300,000 scientists, technicians and laboratory

assistants are some 800 scientists who worked on the Russian bio-

warfare program, Biopreperat. Some of them had been trying to

exploit the 1918 Spanish flu virus as a potential weapon.

 

When Biopreperat collapsed with the end of the Soviet Union, a

number of its staff were recruited by North Korea. In return for

huge salaries they were given a comfortable lifestyle and unlimited

research facilities to continue their work.

 

A high-ranking defector from North Korea's Academy of Sciences has

told intelligence officers that the research to weaponize the virus

is now a priority. The project is under the control of the country's

top geneticist and head of its biological warfare program.

 

Dr. Yi Yong Su, 54, is known to have a close relationship with Kim

Jong II, the country's supreme leader. A CIA profile describes her

as conducting terminal experiments with anthrax on prisoners.

 

She has assigned eight research centers to work on various aspects

of successfully weaponizing the bird flu virus.

 

One center is concerned with researching cereal rust spores, a

disease which attacks crops. The spores are dusted on to the

feathers of homing pigeons. When they return to their coops, they

are checked to see how long the spores remain on their feathers.

 

But the sophisticated research on bird flu is being conducted at

Institute 398 at Singam-Ri, south of the capital Pyongyang.

 

U.S. satellite images show the area is ring-fenced by three

battalions of soldiers. Only visible above ground are a cluster of

concrete-block buildings and fuel storage tanks.

 

The defector has said the laboratories, including two dealing with

the latest molecular biological technology, are hidden far below

ground.

 

Editor's note: The following story is adapted from Joseph Farah's G2

Bulletin, the premium, online intelligence newsletter published by

the founder of WND. Annual subscriptions are available now for the

discounted price of $99 a year, which includes a free copy of

Farah's latest book, " Taking America Back. " Monthly subscriptions

are also available to credit card users for just $9.95.

By Gordon Thomas

 

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Gordon Thomas is an Irish journalist specializing in international

intelligence matters and a regular contributor to Joseph Farah's G2

Bulletin.