- Despite the best efforts of U.S. officials to cast the
nation of Pakistan as a staunch ally in the Orwellian 'War on Terrorism,'
the truth is that it is only a handful of illegitimate leaders of that
nation that have pledged their support to American military goals. The
vast majority of the Pakistani people support neither America's ill-defined
war nor their own unelected government. Some readers will no doubt recall
that the current Pakistani head of state, General Pervez Musharraf, took
power nearly two years ago in a decidedly undemocratic military coup that
toppled the elected government of that country, with the blessings of
the United States (undoubtedly as a preliminary chess-move aimed at facilitating
the long-planned assault on Afghanistan). In a move that was likely aimed
at garnering the support of the Pakistani people for the illegitimate
regime, Musharraf's administration, like those before it, had supported
the Taliban in Afghanistan prior to September 11. As the World Socialist
Web Site has noted, "Successive Pakistani governments and the military
have openly backed the Taliban, providing finance, arms and training for
its fighters." (1)
-
- Nevertheless, the Afghani people have not been prone
to accept the leadership of those thrust into power by undemocratic means.
This has become all the more true as Musharraf has openly allied himself
with the United States, even going so far as to proclaim that the non-existent
'evidence' put forth by the British government "provides sufficient
basis for indictment in a court of law." (2) That is quite a remarkable
interpretation of the 'proof' supplied by Tony Blair and company, given
that the drafters of the document themselves acknowledge in the very first
sentence that: "This document does not purport to provide a prosecutable
case against Osama bin Laden in a court of law." (3) In truth, it
doesn't even come close to presenting a prosecutable case, but that's
another story entirely.
-
- Musharraf's wholehearted acceptance of the Western-supplied
'evidence' can only serve to further fan the flames of discontent among
the Pakistani people. As the World Socialist Web Site noted, the General
"is facing an increasingly volatile domestic situation, with protests
against his support for Washington continuing to mount. On October 2, around
50,000 people took part in a protest organised by the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam
(JUI) party in Quetta." (1) The Sidney Morning Herald added that:
"In one of the largest demonstrations so far in support of the Taliban
and the accused terrorist Osama bin Laden, Muslim extremists served notice
to Pakistan not to back a United States military strike against Afghanistan.
Police armed with semi-automatic weapons confined foreigners to their
hotels in the city of Quetta, close to the Afghan border, as an estimated
40,000 protesters armed with sticks moved in a convoy of cars, trucks and
buses, and on foot, from the airport to the city centre." (4) The
WSWS report held that Quetta has been described as a "hot bed of
Taliban supporters," and that according to a reporter on the scene,
"Quetta is already on a war footing." (1) It also happens to
be "a destination for hundreds of thousands of Afghans fleeing drought
and war," (5) which could easily push the simmering tensions past
the boiling point and destabilize all or part of Pakistan, creating serious
problems for both the U.S. and the Pakistani ruling junta.
-
- It is interesting then to note that there is an unusual
twist to this situation that the American press, and most of the European
press, have almost completely ignored. As the News Telegraph reported:
"The largest outbreak in history of a highly contagious disease that
causes patients to bleed to death from every orifice was confirmed yesterday
on Pakistan's frontier with Afghanistan. At least 75 people have caught
the disease so far and eight have died. An isolation ward screened off
by barbed wire has been set up in the Pakistani city of Quetta ...
-
- "Evidence suggests the outbreak of Crimean-Congo
Haemorrhagic Fever emanates from within Afghanistan, raising fears of an
epidemic if millions of refugees flee across the frontier into Pakistan.
CCHF has similar effects to the ebola virus. Both viruses damage arteries,
veins and other blood vessels and lead to the eventual collapse of major
organs. As one doctor put it, a patient suffering from haemorrhagic fever
'literally melts in front of your eyes.'" (6)
-
- The location and the rather curious timing of this outbreak,
the largest in history, raise serious questions about its origin. As Dr.
Taj Mohammad of the Fatima Jinnah Chest and General Hospital in Quetta
told a reporter: "It's unheard of - very unusual. There's a real risk
of an epidemic among Afghan refugees." (5)
-
- A fact sheet distributed by the World Health Organization
notes that, "Although primarily a zoonosis, sporadic cases and outbreaks
of CCHF affecting humans do occur." (7) The report goes on to say
that, since the virus primarily affects animals, "The majority of
cases (of human infection) have occurred in those involved with the livestock
industry, such as agricultural workers, slaughterhouse workers and veterinarians."
(7) There is no indication that the inordinately high number of Afghani
victims were employed in such professions. How then did they contract this
feared disease? Experts have opined that the most likely culprit is "a
species of tick, Hyalomma marginatum, common in the [afflicted] areas."
(6) The WHO fact sheet notes that a "number of tick genera are capable
of becoming infected with CCHF virus ... " (7)
-
- Is this outbreak then a natural occurrence? Not necessarily.
A brief review of the use of insects as carriers of biological warfare
agents is in order here. According to Robert Harris and Jeremy Paxman's
A Higher Form of Killing, that history began during World War II, when
the Japanese "cultivated the plague-infected flea as a biological
weapon. Pingfan [a biowarfare lab] was said to be capable of producing
500 million fleas a year." (8) Following the war, that technology
was warmly embraced by America's biowarfare engineers, who had their Japanese
counterparts flown over to the States to share the tricks of the trade.
Fort Detrick, the longtime home of American biological warfare research,
soon became the world's premier site for developing such weapons of war
as the 'flea bomb':
-
- "Among the potential agents studied at Camp Detrick
were anthrax, glanders, brucellosis, tularemia, meliodosis, plague, typhus,
psittacosis, yellow fever, encephalitis and various forms of rickettsial
disease; fowl pest and rinder-pest were among the animal viruses studied;
various rice, potato and cereal blights were also investigated."
(8)
-
- Evidence clearly suggests that such weapons were utilized
by the United States in the war waged against North Korea. American pilots
captured during the war confessed to dropping flea bombs on the people
of North Korea, and Chinese officials published photographs of what they
claimed to be "American biological bombs." (8) The U.S., of course,
dismissed these reports as ludicrous, claiming that the pilots had been
'brainwashed' into offering the confessions. The Chinese though assembled
an international committee of scientists - from the United Kingdom, Italy,
France, Sweden, Brazil and the Soviet Union - which in October of 1952
released a 700-page report that concluded that "the peoples of Korea
and China did actually serve as targets for bacteriological weapons."
(8) The detailed report listed the techniques that had been deployed in
that war, "which ranged from fountain pens filled with infectious
ink, to anthrax-laden feathers, and fleas, lice and mosquitoes carrying
plague and yellow fever." (8) The U.S., needless to say, continued
to deny and/or ignore the evidence indicating the use of biowarfare agents,
and continued to research and develop these blatantly illegal and indiscriminate
killers:
-
- "In 1956 the army began investigating the feasibility
of breeding fifty million fleas a week, presumably to spread plague. By
the end of the fifties the Fort Detrick laboratories were said to contain
mosquitos infected with yellow fever, malaria and dengue (an acute viral
disease also known as Breakbone Fever for which there is no cure); fleas
infected with plague; ticks contaminated with tularemia; and flies infected
with cholera, anthrax and dysentery." (8)
-
- It would appear then that the United States has a long
history of researching and developing infected insects as biological warfare
agents, and hasn't been shy about deploying such weapons specifically
to inflict massive civilian casualties. Just one week before the September
11 attacks, the New York Times reported that U.S. biological weapons research
was still very much alive-and-well, though cloaked as always as 'defensive'
research:
-
- "Over the past several years, the United States
has embarked on a program of secret research on biological weapons that,
some officials say, tests the limits of the global treaty banning such
weapons ... The projects, which have not been previously disclosed, were
begun under President Clinton and have been embraced by the Bush administration,
which intends to expand them." (9)
-
- In light of this history, is it really merely a fluke
of nature that this outbreak has occurred at this particular time and in
this particular place? And is it also just a bizarre coincidence that,
as The Scotsman has reported, "A spokesman for the United Nations
High Commission for Refugees said many children are facing a new threat
from a potentially fatal strain of malaria which has appeared in southern
Afghanistan in recent months"? (10) And what are we to make of the
fact that the U.S. media, busily promoting fear among the people with
constant warnings of an imminent biowarfare attack upon America, have
had nothing to say about this impending catastrophe in Afghanistan? And
what, for that matter, are we to make of the fact that the World Health
Organization quickly moved to downplay and discredit the trickle of reports
that surfaced in the European press?
-
- In a report carried by the BBC, WHO officials claimed
that: "Reports warning of an outbreak of a deadly viral disease similar
to Ebola on the frontier between Afghanistan and Pakistan are 'incorrect
and misleading.'" (11) This report was filled with deliberate distortions
of fact that were directly contradicted by experts on the scene, as well
as by the WHO's own Fact Sheet on the virus. The BBC's Andrew Webb, for
instance, claimed that "So far, there has been no official diagnosis."
(11) The News Telegraph, however, reported that: "A number of blood
samples were sent to Pakistan's national virology testing centre in Islamabad.
They were then sent to South Africa's National Institute of Virology in
Johannesburg for confirmation." (6) The disease was, in fact, confirmed.
-
- The disinformational BBC report also claimed that: "WHO
says the reports caught the attention of the international media because
there are many journalists in the area looking for stories." (11)
This flies in the face of the rather obvious fact that the Western media
in general, and the American press in particular, haven't bothered to
report on anything occurring in the region, especially in regards to the
plight of the refugees.
-
- The report goes on to state that: "WHO says there
have been only 35 reported cases of the virus in the Afghanistan-Pakistan
border region this year and only four people are currently being treated."
(11) In truth though, "Dr. Taj Mohammad of the Fatima Jinnah Chest
and General Hospital in Quetta said his facility had received a total of
almost 70 cases this year," (5) all of which are documented in the
hospital's case files. Ian Simpson of the WHO is quoted as saying that
"Nothing suggests it will get worse," (11) when in fact many
observers have noted that there are clear indications that the situation
will almost certainly get worse. David Horrocks, the Afghanistan project
manager for Christian Aid, was merely stating the obvious when he said:
"The condition of the refugees makes the risk of disease and epidemics
rife. They are suffering severe malnutrition and dehydration which has
reduced their immune system, and they are a very concentrated group."
(10)
-
- Stratfor has noted that: "Pakistan has a serious
biohazard problem on its hands given the ease of transmission factored
in with the limited sanitation facilities in refugee camps. Unfortunately
the situation may grow much worse." (12) And the BBC itself had reported
that "The horrendous sanitary conditions provide an ideal breeding
ground for the virus." (5)
-
- Simpson also attempts in the second BBC report to downplay
the considerable health risk posed by CCHF, claiming that comparisons to
the Ebola virus are unwarranted: "It doesn't spread as quickly, and
there is a significantly higher recovery rate." (11) The WHO's own
Fact Sheet though acknowledges that "CCHF is a severe disease in humans,
with a high mortality." (7) The report in The Scotsman described
the rapid onset of the disease: "Within three days of infection,
victims develop a rash and, after five, they start to bleed from orifices."
(10) Stratfor added that "About half of those who contract the virus
die within two weeks." (12) The WHO handout concurred that death usually
occurs "in the second week of illness." (7)
-
- As for the ease with which the disease can spread, the
WHO's Fact Sheet notes that "When patients with CCHF are admitted
to the hospital, there is a risk of nosocomial [hospital-acquired] spread
of infection. In the past, serious outbreaks have occurred in this way
and it is imperative that adequate infection control measures be observed
to prevent this disastrous outcome." (7)
-
- If there is a serious risk of the disease being rapidly
spread in a sterile, controlled hospital environment, it should be fairly
obvious that that risk is greatly multiplied in the crowded, unsanitary
conditions in which the refugees now find themselves. The BBC report ends
rather remarkably by stressing that the "WHO says that rumours of
CCHF being spread as biological warfare are nonsense," (11) though
the plea of innocence is made to a charge that hadn't even been made, or
at least not reported. The closest anyone had come was when Stratfor mentioned
a "concern that the United States might be accused of engaging in
biological weapons attacks." (12) Why then issue a preemptive denial
through the WHO?
-
- The first confirmed case in the current outbreak was
in June of this year, which would seem initially to rule out the possibility
of a biological warfare operation, since officially - as we all know -
this military action wasn't planned until after September 11. However,
there is little doubt that this war was planned long before the events
took place that provided the pretext for launching it. The BBC has reported
that: "Niaz Naik, a former Pakistani Foreign Secretary, was told by
senior American officials in mid-July that military action against Afghanistan
would go ahead by the middle of October." (13) Similarly, Indiareacts.com,
a self-described public affairs portal, reported on June 26 that "India
and Iran will 'facilitate' US and Russian plans for 'limited military
action' against the Taliban if the contemplated tough new economic sanctions
don't bend Afghanistan's fundamentalist regime ...
-
- "Indian officials say that India and Iran will
only play the role of 'facilitator' while the US and Russia will combat
the Taliban from the front with the help of two Central Asian countries,
Tajikistan and Uzbekistan ... Military action will be the last option though
it now seems scarcely avoidable with the UN banned from Taliban-controlled
areas." (14)
-
- Assuming then that planning for the current military
campaign was already well advanced by June of this year, there is little
question that covert operations would have been ongoing at that time.
Interestingly enough, Stratfor off-handedly mentioned that there was another
outbreak of the disease at about that same time in another part of the
world where U.S. covert operations run rampant: "Earlier this summer
more than 30 cases surfaced in Kosovo." (12)
-
- As for the situation along the Afghanistan-Pakistan
border, it is not difficult to see how this scenario could play out. Pakistan
has been provided with a convenient excuse to strictly enforce an indefinite
closing of its border with Afghanistan. The Afghans fleeing the destruction
of their homeland will be trapped between falling bombs and a closed border.
Forced to set up makeshift refugee camps on the Afghan side of the border,
an enormous mass of humanity will be ravaged by starvation and disease.
The potential loss of human life could be unimaginable. The weakest and
most vulnerable of the refugees - which is to say, the children - will
make up the majority of the victims.
-
- Their blood will be on the hands of all the politicians,
pundits and media flacks who cheerlead the illegal war being waged against
the people of Afghanistan. Their legacy will be a new generation of 'terrorists'
with a fully-earned hatred of American foreign policy. ___
-
- REFERENCES
-
- 1. Vilani Peiris "A Combustible Political Situation
in Pakistan," World Socialist Web Site, October 5, 2001
-
- 2. Rone Tempest and Marjorie Miller "Pakistan Calls
Evidence Against Bin Laden 'Sufficient,'" Los Angeles Times, October
5, 2001
-
- 3. Responsibility For the Terrorist Atrocities in the
United States, 11 September 2001 (document released by the UK government)
-
- 4. Christopher Kremmer "Pakistan City Shut Down
in Anti-US Protest," Sidney Morning Herald, October 3, 2001
-
- 5. "Ebola Style Virus Hits Pakistan." BBC
News, October 4, 2001
-
- 6. Tim Butcher "Ebola-Style Virus Sweeps Afghan
Border," News Telegraph, October 4, 2001
-
- 7. World Health Organization "Fact Sheet No. 208:
Crimean-Congo Haemorrhagic Fever," December, 1998
-
- 8. Robert Harris and Jeremy Paxman A Higher Form of
Killing, Hill and Wang, 1982
-
- 9. Judith Miller, Stephen Engelberg and William J. Broad
"In Secretly Fighting Germ Warfare, U.S. Tests Limits of a 1972 Treaty,"
New York Times, September 4, 2001
-
- 10. Paul Gallagher and Michelle Nichols "Deadly
Disease Killing the Afghan Refugees," The Scotsman, October 5, 2001
-
- 11. "WHO Dismisses Afghan Virus 'Scare,'"
BBC News, October 5, 2001
-
- 12. "Virus Striking Afghan Refugees," Stratfor
(Strategic Forecasting), October 4, 2001
-
- 13. George Arney "US 'Planned Attack on the Taleban,'"
BBC News, September 18, 2001
-
- 14. "India in Anti-Taliban Military Plan,"
IndiaReacts.com, June 26, 2001 (McGowan is the author of Derailing Democracy:
The America the Media Doesn't Want You to See and Understanding the F-Word:
American Fascism and the Politics of Illusion) (http;//www.amazon.com)
-
- Visit Dave at his site: Center for an Informed America
http://www.davesweb.cnchost.com/
-
- http://educate-yourself.org/cnbiowarmadeinamericamcgowan6oct01.html
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