- One of the most interesting findings of the Human Genome
Project was just how closely related all humans are and just what a myth
the concept of race really is. The differences between individual humans
are, in fact, much greater than the differences between groups of humans.
Many of those early findings were contained in a 1000 page tome published
by Princeton University Press entitled The History and Geography of Human
Genes. Stanford researchers, for example, came to the conclusion that the
DNA of Europeans was composed approximately of 65% Asian types and 35%
African types, making the so-called white race a hybrid of two older types
of human DNA.
Ominously, the Human Genome Project is currently being conducted under
the auspices of the Energy Department, which also oversees America's nuclear
weapons arsenal. While the similarity of the DNA of all humans seems to
argue against the feasibility of "gene weapons," British and
other scientists were not so sure. In October of 1997, Dr. Wayne Nathanson,
chief of the Science and Ethics Department of the Medical Society of the
United Kingdom, warned the annual meeting of the Society that "gene
therapy" might possibly be turned into "gene weapons" that
could potentially be used to target certain gene groups possessed by certain
groups of peoples.
Nathanson warned that such weapons could be delivered to humans not only
in the anticipated forms such as gas and aerosol but also might be introduced
into water supplies. Backing off of any suggestion that such weapons might
be capable of eliminating the majority of the world's population all at
once, he suggested that the weapons might be used not only to induce death
but to cause sterility and deformed births in the targeted groups. The
result, just as certain as genocide but a slower, more insidious and therefore
potentially undetectable attack. Current estimates of the cost of developing
a "gene weapon" were placed at around $50 million, still quite
a stretch for isolated bands of neo-Nazis but well within the capabilities
of covert government programs.
The former Soviet Union, for example, was said to have developed a gene
weapon utilizing the transplantation of the microbes that caused "liegu
fever" into germs of ordinary wine yeast, which would have allowed
the yeast to spread what the Soviets predicted would have been a "genocidal"
plague of liegu fever. On another occasion the Soviets attempted to combine
the genes of cobra venom with the influenza virus, which would have made
for a deadly combination indeed. It was unclear, however, if the Soviets
(whose potential enemies ran the gamut from Germans and Latvians to Chinese
and Pakistanis) had intended to target any particular group. What was clear
was the potency of the weapon. It was estimated that a mere 20 grams of
liegu fever virus could potentially kill up to 5 billion people.
According to a story reported by the Sunday London Times (11-15-98), though
curiously underreported by US media except for brief mention in Wired and
the Village Voice, the government of Israel may have already successfully
developed genetically specific "ethnic bullet" bioweapons which
target Arabs. The report, which originated with the London based Foreign
Report and quotes an "unconfirmed report" which originated in
South Africa, states that the research was originally a joint Israeli and
South African effort, and that the South African weapons would have targeted
Blacks.
It may be recalled that South Africa recently became the first nation in
the world to abandon its nuclear weapons arsenal, the origins of which
were also the result of a joint venture with Israel. When an Israeli government
spokesman was asked to confirm the existence of the ethnic bullet, he was
evasive but did not deny its existence. "We have," he told Foreign
Reports, a "basket full of strategic surprises which we will not hesitate
to use if we feel that the State of Israel is under serious threat."
Israel is probably not alone in this sort of bioweapons development. Michael
Risconscuito, the principal informant for investigative reporter Danny
Casalaro (Casalaro died mysteriously a decade ago while researching the
Justice Department's purported theft of an intelligence software called
PROMIS), alleged to Pacifica Radio that he had also been part of a secret
intelligence effort to develop genetically specific bioweapons that could
potentially reduce the earth's population by a full two-thirds. After Casalaro's
death, Risconscuito went public and was strangely then almost immediately
arrested on drug charges. He remains in prison.
Scientist have called for a "definitely enforceable order to ban gene
weapons, an important first step to the control of this perhaps most ultimate
weapon. Certainly an international consensus on this issue is far preferable
than continuing to ignore the issue until it is too late. Unlike genetically
specific bioweapons, the absolute feasibility of such a ban is suspect.
Indeed, if the experts are correct and genetically specific bioweapons
can be developed for a mere $50 million, it puts them well within the reach
of well-funded terrorists such as Osama bin Laden who already has expressed
a desire to eliminate at least two groups, Israelis and Americans.
The reported existence of the Israeli ethnic bullet will almost predictably
trigger a gene weapons arms race in the Middle East. Worse still the research
and development of such weapons can be carried out in amazingly small facilities
that are next to impossible to monitor. Perhaps most ominously, the "science"
of genetically specific bioweapons is still in its infancy and no one knows
if breakthroughs might reduce the cost of their production to the point
that small and extremely malevolent groups such as the neo-Nazis may attempt
to bring about a new Final Solution.
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