Thoughts on the military and military activities of a diverse nature. Free-ranging and eclectic.

Friday, June 09, 2006

Alibekov.


This is coolbert:

Here is an interesting interview with Dr. Ken Alibek.

Dr. Ken was once known as Dr. Kanatjan Alibekov. A Colonel in the Soviet Army responsible [directed] for biological warfare [BW] development. Has lived for some time in the U.S. and has been intereviewd many times on TV and radio. If anyone knows about BW it is this man.

Keep in mind that this intereview was done in 1999, two years before 9/11. What Dr. Ken says now is even more pertinent and germane.

Extracts from the interview, with my comments in BOLD!

"We were also told that there was reliable intelligence that the United States was continuing to develop biological weapons"

After 1969 there was NO programs to develop an offensive capability with biological weapons in the U.S. All stockpiles were destroyed. Research into defensive mechanisms could continue, however, did - - and do to this day.

"The Soviet Union had the most efficient, sophisticated,and powerful offensive BW program in the world. It developed a completely new class of weapons based on genetically modified agents."

Genetically modified weaponry.

"Did the Soviet Union ever develop mycotoxins, the
so-called “yellow rain” weapons?" [asked here by the interviewer.]

"No, I have been asked this question many times, and I don’t believe [the allegations]."

More on "yellow rain" later.

"It was quite a well-developed concept. Some supplies of smallpox, plague, and anthrax were already manu-factured, stored, and stockpiled."

Stockpiled. Smallpox was only supposed to exist in a depository for safekeeping. Stockpiling was a gross violation of the treaty regarding the eradication of smallpox and the keeping of the germs period!!!

"Because the American offensive BW program endedin 1969, you had a different concept and different deliv-ery systems. The Soviet Union was able to develop a completely new approach to delivery of biological weap-ons. We developed small melon-shaped bomblets, which were packed into warheads and aerial bombs."

Cluster bombs for delivery.

"Was the testing done with experimental animals?" [interviewer here.]

"With monkeys."

I wonder if condemned convicts were used for experiments???

"The MOD contin-ued developing its own weapons in addition to these other functions. They worked on some of the same agents and weapons and sometimes on different ones. For ex-ample, we didn’t develop Lassa fever biological weapon, but the MOD did."

There were other programs afoot in the Soviet Union besides the ones supervised by Dr. Ken. MOD=Ministry of Defense.

"Even now, we don’t know the real number of dead people. According to some sources the number was 68, another group of people says 260, someone claims thousands. In 1983, one of my scientists who had been working at the Sverdlovsk facility in 1979 told me that the real numberof dead people was 105."

This was the accidental release of anthrax. See how the numbers of dead vary from source to source.

"It is certain that Gorbachev was briefed when he came to power [in 1985]."

Gorby fever. Gorby knew about this violation of the treaty and DID NOTHING!! Even perpetuated the whole scam.

"Ten days af-ter receiving the order to redirect production, I would
have to ship the first lot of bombs and warheads filled with anthrax."

The stuff can be made and put in warheads quickly. The apparatus for doing so was in place.

"I’ve heard about this institute’s existence. This facil-ity was under
the Ministry of Agriculture and was re-sponsible for doing some work in the area of anti-crop biological weapons development."

[this is the Institute of Genetics in Tashkent.]

Again, other institutes and research facilities were doing work on bio-weapons.

"I was told that the Soviet Union had employed a glanders biological weapon
against the mujahaddin in remote locations in Afghani-stan in 1982."

This was reported in the media. Used also in Laos?

"Biopreparat had about 30,000 scientists, engineers, and technicians working on biological weapons. The 15th Directorate of the Ministry of Defense had about 15,000. The Ministry of Agriculture had about 10,000 people working on development and production of anti-crop and anti-livestock weapons. Several institutes of the Soviet Academy of Sciences employed hundreds of BW scientists. Others worked for the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Industry, and other institutions. If you addup the total, there were about 60,000 to 70,000 people working in this area."

Many agencies with a lot of folks working independently on bio-weapons.

"In many cases I don’t think it is necessary to smuggle out agents. You can find these microorganisms in a lot of other places."

These agents exist in nature all over the place. If you are resourceful, you can find.

"In 1995, the Russian government entered into nego-tiations with Iraq to
sell some 5,000-liter fermentors . . . The person in charge of this
negotiation from the Rus-sian government was a former colonel and deputy
chief of Biopreparat named Matveyev, who had been respon-sible for many
Soviet BW facilities . . . In contrast, the 5,000-liter fermentor was
developed by one of my institutes for a new pro-duction facility in Siberia—fortunately never built—for manufacturing plague biological weapons."

This is the type of intelligence that would have scared the Bush administration into going to war in Iraq. Remember, this would have been info from the horses mouth when received from Dr. Ken.

"Do you believe that all of Russia’s biological weap-ons were destroyed in the 1980s?"

[interviewer above]

"Let me say this. I’ve got no idea what was happening in Russia from 1994 to the present. But I believe all stocks of these weapons were destroyed."

Stocks that he would have known about in his time from his agency. What about others?

"I held [attended] an intelligence briefing in the Kremlin and in-vited
high-ranking intelligence officers from the KGB and the GRU
[the main intelligence directorate of the Soviet Army] to provide
a description of the US offen-sive BW program, including what types
of facilities they had, what kind of weapons they had developed,
who was in charge, and so forth. They couldn’t give me an imme-diate
answer. Two weeks later we met again and they told me they didn’t have
any information
that could be considered reliable regarding the US
offensive program. That was the second wake-up call."

From both the KGB and the GRU, he got nothing. Well, there was nothing to find!!

"Before we came to the United States, the Soviet Union’s intelligence
services had organized a special briefing. They showed us satellite pictures
of Pine Bluff and gave us information on each building. We were told that
the Arkansas facility was very active in manufac-turing biological weapons.
When I asked for evidence,they pointed to a location resembling a set of
large con-tainers that changed color several times during the day.
In the morning they were blue, in the daytime red, andby the end of the
day, yellow. The intelligence analyst sconcluded that Pine Bluff had
such a huge and intensive production activity that they were changing
containers three or four times a day."

Based solely upon satellite photos. This is the sort of stuff that got the U.S. in trouble in Iraq.

"What did you actually find when you got there?" [interviewer here]

"When we arrived at Pine Bluff, one of our inspectors decided to
investigate the colored containers. In reality, it was an array of
solar collectors. When the panels moved during the day, they changed
colors."

"What evidence do you have that offensive BW work is continuing in Russia today?

[interviewer above]

"I’ve discussed this issue with a lot of US scientists. I tell them,
“Guys, read what’s published.” Some scien-tific publications coming
out of Russia have a clear con-nection to offensive work, including
efforts to develop so-called “chimeric” strains of
viruses that could have completely novel effects. For example, Russian
scien-tists published an article that said they were capable of inserting
some genes of Ebola virus into vaccinia virus, which is a close cousin of
the smallpox virus. One of the most prominent virologists in the
United States claimed that what I was saying was sheer fantasy and
technically impossible. But after I prepared a classified report
for the US government describing what kind of biological weapons could
be developed using the smallpox virus, this particular scientist
stopped making his criticisms."

Can't be done. Can't be done. Can't be done. IT IS BEING DONE!!!

Main Entry: chi·me·ra - - noun - - an imaginary monster compounded of incongruous parts

NOT an imaginary monster. REAL, REAL, REAL!!

"Perhaps with global warming the permafrost will melt and the bodies could come to the surface?" [interviewer here]

"Theoretically it’s possible, but I don’t believe that you would find any corpse containing live virus after 100 years. It’s true that if the smallpox virus is frozen under constant temperature, it can survive indefinitely. But in the Arctic, the temperature fluctuates so there are cycles of freezing and thawing. For this reason, the viral DNA would be very unlikely to survive for such a long pe-riod."

The thought is that smallpox, no longer found in humans, may become prevalent again when bodies of persons who have died from smallpox and are buried in the permafrost of northern latitudes may heave to the surface with global warming and expose someone to the disease. Never thought about it that way!!

"So these weapons can be considered highly effective for certain types of
low-intensity or high-intensity conflict. Especially, in my opinion, for
a country that is losing its conventional mili-tary potential and becoming
weaker practically every single day."

Russia, as I have said, in the future, will not have a source of young men in sufficient numbers to defend it. It will find itself beset from all sides without a military capable of acting and winning. Declining population is a sign of a decaying society. Normal means of defense will not work. Bio-weapons are a possible way to go, as terrible as that may be.

"What can be done to protect the US population against biological attack?"

[interviewer above.]

"The problem is that dozens of natural disease agents could be used
as biological weapons, and if we add ge-netically engineered agents, hundreds. Many different means of delivery could also
be employed. President Clinton has approved a program to develop several
new vaccines for defensive purposes. But if there are 100 different
possible agents, how would we determine what kind of weapon would be
used by a terrorist? For this reason, the attempt to develop and
stockpile new vac-cines won’t provide a significant advantage
in biodefense."

If the diseases can be genetically modified, as has been done, according to Dr. Ken, then the current vaccines will not work, or only marginally so.

"It might seem that the situation is hopeless, but in fact it’s not.
What we need to do in the area of medical biodefense is to develop
substances that boost the hu-man body’s immune system
and provide broad-spec-trum protection against all possible BW agents.
It might take three to five years, but if we start developing this type
of non-specific biological defense, I believe it will eventually be
possible to say that, for this country at least, biological weapons
are no longer a threat."

A problem with stimulating the immune system. If you stimulate it too much, the body begins to destroy itself. The cure might become worse than the disease itself!!

coolbert.

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1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

For decades, the teaching was that communist leaders were rational and pragmatic, and such that something like ~weaponized~ smallpox was inconceivable.
In this connection, it would be better if prominent people would not gush over China's economic growth, as if it were something good for us. It might not be.
They could be, and probably are, working on some completely ruthless germ warfare weaponry.

4:01 AM

 

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