West
Nile Virus:
The Underreported
Allegations
Compiled
by: Ryan Mauro
tdcanalyst@optonline.net
As
West Nile Virus returns for another vicious season in the United States, the ignorance of politicians and
the general American population comes to light. When a few politicians
began to question the origin of the virus, it became the hit joke
of late-night TV. But how many comedians really research what
they are discreetly condemning? In fact, how many of the investigators
fighting the disease are researching the potentially controversial
origins of the disease? Needless to say, only the experts have
even heard of West Nile Virus ever being created into a biological
weapon by enemy countries, even though it had been done in the
past by several states.
Despite the over-whelming coverage
of the anthrax bio-terrorism incidents, little attention was given
by the major news outlets to the possibility of West Nile having a terrorism connection through a state sponsor.
Why? The explanation had “already been found”. Infected mosquitoes.
Do I really need to explain my frustration?
Let me begin with what we knew before
the most major West Nile outbreaks. First of all, in 1985, we, the Americans, more specifically the Center for Disease Control,
sold and delivered West Nile Virus to Saddam Hussein’s regime
in Iraq along with samples of other diseases
so the country could begin production of vaccinations, medicines,
and other safeguards to fight outbreaks. Ask yourself, what would
be the political consequences of accusing Saddam Hussein of anything
to do with West Nile Virus (even conducting research and development
of it as a biological agent), when we were the ones to send it to him? All
that would come from such allegations would be political controversy,
some panic, and some late-night jokes. With the missing weapons
of mass destruction, the international opposition to the war,
a political race based on the war, investigations into the accuracy
of our pre-war intelligence and allegations about pre-war American
assistance to Saddam Hussein, this could be the final blow to
the Bush Administration.
As a result, any allegations of this
kind will be suppressed or just plain rejected. As a result, the
apparently fanciful accusations about West Nile will never be fully investigated. It will continue to be blamed
on natural causes. How do I know this for a fact? Because the
CIA told me. In fact, the CIA told everyone
all the way back in 1998 this would happen.
According to Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin, a CIA report released in 1998
expressed alarm at the likelihood that state sponsors of terrorism
with biological weapons capabilities would deliver them directly
or via terrorists to the United States in the next few years. Strikingly,
the CIA report warned that is was likely a sophisticated attack
would go unnoticed, thought to have come from natural causes.
It then lists a dozen suspected countries to be investigated in
such an occurrence, of which Cuba and Iraq are high on the list.
Confirming what the CIA wrote in their
report, entomology expert, Dr. Jonathan Day of the University
of Florida said in 2002: “The sporadic appearance of West Nile
Virus is disturbing, especially its appearance in the Florida Keys. It really appears that West Nile has been seeded throughout the eastern
half of the United States. I guess the question is, by whom...the
Florida and East Coast situations relative
to human cases are remarkable. In some places, Atlanta, the Florida Keys, West Nile Virus appeared in humans
without any other indication that the virus was present. In some
cases, humans are acting as sentinels for the sentinel (animal
carriers). This is unlike any other mosquito-borne virus in North America.”
[i]
Senator Patrick Leahy, Democrat from Vermont, has also urged an investigation into
the possibility that West Nile is terrorist connected.
The only state sponsors of terrorism
with such biological capabilities were Cuba, Iran, Iraq and North Korea. With the exception of Cuba, these countries’ capabilities were
well-known. How sophisticated is Cuba? In 1998, Clinton’s Secretary of Defense, William Cohen
wrote to Strom Thurmond (Armed Service Committee Chairman) his
concerns about Cuba’s aggressive intelligence operations
against the United States, their capabilities to produce advance
biological weapons. Cuba’s capability to conduct biological warfare
comes directly from the training and technical assistance of North
Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, the Soviet Union, East Germany, China and
Iran.
[ii]
Using this knowledge, The New Yorker published an amazing article
in 1999 (again, two years before the most major outbreak of West Nile). Using the testimony of defectors
from Fidel Castro’s Cuba and Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, the article pointed the figure directly
at the two state sponsors. The article not only confirmed that
the original outbreak of West Nile was traced to the Middle East (and visited the US for the first time), but also that
a high-ranking Iraqi defector confirmed Saddam Hussein talking
about a similar attack. Richard Preston quoted the defector saying:
“In 1997, on almost the last occasion
we met, Saddam summoned me to his study. Seldom had I seen him
so elated. Unlocking the top right-hand drawer of his desk, he
produced a bulky, leather-bound dossier and read extracts from
it...The dossier holds details of his ultimate weapon, developed
in secret laboratories outside Iraq...Free of UN inspection, the
laboratories would develop the SV1417 strain of the West Nile
virus—capable of destroying 97 percent of all life in an urban
environment...He said SV1417 was to be ‘operationally tested’
on a Third World population centre...The target had been selected..”
[iii]
The article finished with arousing suspicion
that the outbreak on the east coast in 1999 was related to terrorist
activity. Afterall, it broke out “directly across the East River from UN headquarters” in New York City, and UN inspectors had already publicly
proclaimed that Iraq was working on producing West Nile
Virus.
[iv]
Even more strange, the virus was only in Washington DC and New York City (initially), Israel and Saudi Arabia. And who are Saddam’s greatest enemies?
To be fair, West Nile broke out also in Algeria (1994); Romania (1996-1997); Czech Republic (1997); Zaire (1998) and Russia (1999). But no one can ignore the
strange occurrence that suddenly in 1999 during major verbal battles
with the UN, fellow Arabs and Israel, the virus shows up in even
more lethal form in the three top enemies of Iraq. And this wasn’t
random; US Surgeon General David Satcher has confirmed that the
strain of West Nile in Israel was the exact same one that was found
in New York.
[v]
Cuba was determined to attack the United States. According to a report given by a
Cuban defector whom claims to have talked to Raul Castro (Fidel’s
brother), said, “...we are aware the
U.S. is waging biological warfare against us and what the Americans
do not know is that Cuba is going to pay them back the same way."
This conversation reportedly occurred in the late 1980s, but according
to Medical Sentinel in an article by Ernesto F. Betancourt, the name cannot be given
due to security reasons.
[vi]
And then came the most deadly outbreak
of West
Nile--Little
a month after 9/11, and occurring simultaneously with the anthrax
attacks. And just months after Castro had visited Iraq, Iran and
Libya (in Iran, Castro said together with Iran they could ‘bring
down’ the United States, a theme similar to the visits in Iraq
and Libya). Instead of being contained in New York and Washington DC, it spread to the Midwest and Florida. The spread was unprecedented and
virtually impossible to control (although not reaching the 97%
fatality rate Saddam had hoped to reach according to defector
testimony prior to the 1999 outbreak). If that is not enough testimony
for you, then swallow the fact that Ken Alibek, the former deputy
chief of research for the Soviet Union’s biological weapons program,
says it is impossible for West Nile’s outbreak to be natural,
and is convinced it is a biological terrorist attack by a state
sponsor. He then confirmed that the Soviet Union had researched using the virus as
a biological weapon, and that much of the Soviet technology, expertise
and weapons had gone to rogue states including Iraq, Cuba, Iran, and others. Alibek also has testified
that he believes Cuba has a much more advanced WMD program
than we think, particularly in the area of biological weapons.
But how does Cuba plan to deliver its weapons? According
to defectors including Dr. Luis Roberto Hernandez, Castro experimented
using migratory birds to carry biological agents resistant to
insecticides. Hernandez has testified that his scientific team
was ordered to capture birds that migrate to the US, study their paths, and study how
to release deliberately infected birds along those paths so they
would be bit by mosquitoes and then infect humans. This was also
confirmed by Carlos Watzkov, another Cuban defector who worked
as an ornithologist until 1994, who has also stated that since
1991, experimentation with biological weapons focused on spreading
diseases through birds to attack enemies, specifically the United States. Watzkov says he personally knows
of such experimentation with encephalitis, a disease very similar
to West Nile. With all this evidence, should we
be surprised that some of the infected birds have been traced
back to Cuba?
[vii]
The targets are even more unusual.
Like I said, Saudi Arabia, Israel and the USA in 1999. But in 2001, strangely, Saudi Arabia was not attacked. I encourage you
to investigate Iraqi-Saudi relations during the time period of
1999 and 2001—it will reveal much. The level of West Nile in Saudi Arabia appears to be proportionate to the
level of relations with Iraq. Meanwhile, Israel and the US remained victims of West Nile.
The place of the infections is also
suspicious. As stated, in 1999, it broke out in Washington DC and New York City, and was right next to the UN headquarters.
The 2001 and 2002 breakouts included those cities and many more,
but at least some elements of the spread appear to be controlled.
A dead bird infected with West
Nile
was found on the White House lawn, and in September 2001, 60 infected
birds were found around a US Navy base in Florida, and led to the death of 1 employee.
Ken Alibek, Soviet defector as described
earlier, has explained that the Soviet Union also sent West Nile Virus samples
to Iraq to use in its biological weapons program
in the late 1980s, while Cuba received the St. Louis encephalitis
virus, which is very similar to West Nile. In 1995, two Cubans defectors involved in Castro’s “Biological
Front” confirmed that the objective of the program was not to
prepare for a war just in case, bur rather to use the agents covertly
against the US mainland.
But is a Cuban-Iraqi connection so
far fetched? They both have the same enemy, are state sponsors
of terrorism, support each other politically, and according to
Ken Alibek, Iraq learned all its practices in hiding WMD programs
from Fidel Castro. Perhaps the best way to explain the alliance
is by quoting John Hughes: “[Cuba] has provided
dual-use biotechnology (technology that can be used for both constructive
medical, or destructive military, use) to rogue states. Does this
mean Iraq? Cuba has had friendly relations
with Iraq for years and consistently
supported it at the UN against the US. Rumors of financial
scandal in 1999 at Cuba's Center for Genetic
Engineering and Biotechnology suggested some kind of funding support
from Iraq. As recently as July,
Castro confidant Rodrigo Alvarez Cambra – an orthopedic surgeon
who reportedly performed back surgery on Mr. Hussein, and who
is president of the Cuban-Arab Friendship Society – was dispatched
to Baghdad to meet with Hussein
and proclaim Cuba's ongoing support.”
[viii]
Do I need to explain my frustration?