- Is Bush is getting ready to play the Bioterror Card?
The GOP cannot steal an inevitable Democratic landslide in November 2008.
Will the Bush regime continue its illegitimate rule and empire by implementing
a full-blown police state, in the aftermath of an avian flu pandemic or
(Bush-engendered) bioterror attack?
-
- On Thursday, the Bush administration issued a directive
which 'establishes a National Strategy for Public Health and Medical Preparedness
(Strategy), which builds upon principles set forth in Biodefense for the
21st Century (April 2004) and will transform our national approach to protecting
the health of the American people against [with] all disasters.'
-
- HOMELAND SECURITY PRESIDENTIAL DIRECTIVE/HSPD-21 states that within one year of the directive's date, 'the
Secretaries of Health and Human Services and Defense, in coordination with
the Secretaries of Veterans Affairs and Homeland Security, shall establish
an academic Joint Program for Disaster Medicine and Public Health housed
at a National Center for Disaster Medicine and Public Health at the Uniformed
Services University of the Health Sciences... Department of Health and
Human Services and Department of Defense authorities will be used to carry
out respective civilian and military missions within this joint program.'
-
- From the 'people' who brought you the response to Hurricane
Katrina (blown levees): US
military begins planning for avian flu pandemic 10 May 2007 The US
military has begun to plan for a possible avian flu pandemic that could
kill as many as three million people in the United States in as little
as six weeks, a Pentagon planning document said. The Defense Department's
"Implementation Plan for Pandemic Influenza," which was posted
Wednesday on a Pentagon website, lays out guidelines and planning assumptions
for US military services and combatant commands. Possible scenarios include
US troops being called in to put down riots, guard pharmaceutical plants
and shipments, and help restrict the movement of people inside the country
and across its borders. "When directed by the president, DoD will
provide support to civil authorities in the event of a civil disturbance,"
the document said. "DoD will augment civilian law enforcement efforts
to restore and maintain order in accordance with existing statutes."
The military also may assist civil authorities in "isolating and/or
quarantining groups of people in order to minimize [foment] the spread
of disease during an influenza pandemic," it said. [Bye bye, Posse Comitatus!
And suddenly, the US is going to control its borders? Gag me with a chainsaw!
This newfound 'border control' ability is to keep people from *leaving*
the US. KBR's
$385M detention center contract will be expanded and renewed.]
-
- CDC wants to test 107 air passengers;
TB patient stayed in NYC 31 May 2007 Health officials around the world
were scrambling Wednesday to find about 80 air passengers who sat near
a man who spent three days in a New York City hospital with a form of tuberculosis
so dangerous he is under the first U.S. government-ordered quarantine since
1963. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Julie Gerberding
said Wednesday that the CDC is working closely with airlines to find passengers
who may have been exposed to the rare, dangerous strain. Health officials
in France said they have asked Air France-KLM for passenger lists, and
the Italian Health Ministry said it is tracing the man's movements. [Did
the US allow the TB-infected man to travel so that a media-engendered 'outcry'
for safety would 'force all international departures heading to the U.S.
to submit information about all the passengers aboard the plane prior to
take off?' See:
-
- DHS wants early passenger info 14 Jul 2006 The Department
of Homeland Security (DHS) has submitted a proposal that will force all
international departures heading to the U.S. to submit information about
all the passengers aboard the plane prior to take off. Through the new
plan, airlines could send the entire list of information on the flight
and the people onboard up to 60 minutes before departure or through a constant
relay system as passengers check in... The new proposals may also end the
practice of international airlines having to screen their passengers against
governmental "no fly" lists during check-in or boarding. Privacy
laws in the European Union (EU) have prevented similar legislation being
introduced before. In May, the highest court in the EU struck down a proposal
to allow airlines to provide the DHS with extensive passenger information,
such as fare payment details, phone numbers, and addresses. This directive
is currently being redrafted.]
-
- Report Says TSA Violated Privacy Law
--Passengers Weren't Told That Brokers Provided Data to Screening Program
in '04 22 Dec 2006 Secure Flight, the U.S. government's stalled program
to screen domestic air passengers against terrorism watch lists, violated
federal law during a crucial test phase, according to a report to be issued
today by the Homeland Security Department's privacy office... TSA Administrator
Kip Hawley said that he supports the use of Secure Flight and that his
agency is working closely with other government officials to ensure it
protects privacy. "We are working in a transparent way," Hawley
said, adding that the agency's "challenging" goal is to roll
out the program in 2008.
-
- Secret DHS Agreement to Share Passenger
Data in Violation of Agreements Is Confirmed (ACLU) 25 Apr 2006 The text
of a secret agreement that the Department of Homeland Security executed
with the Centers for Disease Control to share airline passenger data confirms...that
the U.S. government is distributing information that it explicitly promised
it would not share... In 2003, the United States and the European Union
reached an agreement under which the EU would share Passenger Name Record
(PNR) data with the U.S., despite the lack of privacy laws in the United
States adequate to ensure Europeans' privacy. In return, DHS agreed that
the passenger data would not be used for any purpose other than preventing
acts of terrorism or other serious crimes. It is now clear that DHS did
not abide by that agreement.]
-
- Canadian authorities locate 16 of 28 passengers sought from TB
exposure flight 30 May 2007 Public health officials
in the United States and Canada revealed Wednesday they have narrowed down
to roughly 70 to 80 the number of people on two recent transatlantic flights
who were seated in close proximity to a man infected with a rare and potentially
deadly form of tuberculosis. Canadian health authorities are trying to
find anyone who sat in Row 12 - plus the two rows ahead and behind - of
Czech Airline flight 0104 to Montreal from Prague on May 24. The man, who
is infected with extensively drug resistant tuberculosis or XDR-TB, was
seated in 12 C.
-
- TB patient's
father-in-law works at CDC lab --Infected man
ID'd, taken to Denver hospital; others on 2 flights sought 31 May 2007
The father-in-law of the tuberculosis patient under the first federal quarantine
since 1963 works as a microbiologist at a Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention laboratory that studies TB and other bacterial infections. Bob
Cooksey said he gave his 31-year-old son-in-law, attorney Andrew Speaker,
"fatherly advice" [!] when he learned he contracted the disease.
-
- Authorities
seeking those on flight 29 May 2007 A man with
a rare and exceptionally dangerous form of tuberculosis has been placed
in quarantine by the U.S. government [!] after possibly exposing passengers
and crew on two trans-Atlantic flights earlier this month, health officials
said Tuesday. The infected man flew from Atlanta to Paris on May 12 aboard
Air France Flight 385. He returned to North America on May 24 aboard Czech
Air Flight 104 from Prague to Montreal. The man then drove into the United
States. He cooperated with authorities after learning he had an unusually
dangerous form of TB. He voluntarily went to a hospital and is not facing
prosecution, officials said.
-
- U.S.
Government Issues a Quarantine Order --CDC Order
is First Since 1963 29 May 2007 A man with a rare and exceptionally dangerous
form of tuberculosis has been placed in quarantine by the U.S. government
after possibly exposing passengers and crew on two trans-Atlantic flights
earlier this month, health officials said Tuesday. This marks the first
time since 1963 that the government issued a quarantine order. The last
such order was to quarantine a patient with smallpox, according to the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
-
- Report: National Guard May Be Needed
to Enforce Quarantine in Flu Pandemic 09 May 2007 Military and civilian
health facilities will be overwhelmed if a nationwide flu pandemic hits
the United States, and the National Guard may have to be called out to
provide medical help and even enforce a quarantine, the Defense Department
warned in a report released Wednesday. ...The 86-page report report is
dated August 2006 and titled "The Department of Defense Implementation
Plan for Pandemic Influenza." According to the report, in the event
of a pandemic or a [Bush-engendred] bioterror attack, the Defense Department
may be called by the president to assist civilian authorities in minimizing
the spread of disease by placing restrictions on interstate transportation.
-
- Scientists Recreate 1918 Flu and See
Parallels to Bird Flu --In 2005, U.S. Army scientists reconstructed Spanish
flu virus by extracting genetic fragments from the bodies of victims exhumed
from the Alaskan permafrost. 18 Jan 2007 Scientists infected monkeys with
a virus that caused the 1918-19 influenza pandemic and said in the Jan.
18 issue of the journal Nature that it caused an illness like that suffered
by patients with the bird flu now spreading in Asia.
-
- Killer
flu recreated in the lab 07 Oct 2004 UK Scientists
have shown that tiny changes to modern flu viruses could render them as
deadly as the 1918 strain which killed millions. A US team added two genes
from a sample of the 1918 virus to a modern strain known to have no effect
on mice. Animals exposed to this composite were dying within days of symptoms
similar to those found in human victims of the 1918 pandemic.
-
- KBR awarded $385M Homeland Security contract
for U.S. detention centers 24 Jan 2006 KBR, the engineering and construction
subsidiary of Halliburton Co., said Tuesday it has been awarded a contingency
contract from the Department of Homeland Security to supports its Immigration
and Customs Enforcement facilities in the event of an emergency. The maximum
total value of the contract is $385 million and consists of a 1-year base
period with four 1-year options. The contract, which is effective immediately,
provides for establishing temporary detention and processing capabilities
to expand existing ICE Detention and Removal Operations Program facilities
in the event of an emergency influx of immigrants into the U.S., or to
support the rapid development of new programs, KBR said. The contract may
also provide migrant detention support to other government organizations
in the event of an immigration emergency, as well as the development of
a plan to react to a national emergency, such as a natural disaster, the
company said.
-
- KBR Awarded U.S. Department of Homeland
Security Contingency Support for Emergency Support Services 24 Jan 2006
(halliburton.com) "The contract, which is effective immediately, provides
for establishing temporary detention and processing capabilities to augment
existing ICE Detention and Removal Operations (DRO) Program facilities...
to support the rapid development of new programs."
|