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THE SLEEPING GIANT: Israel faces gas/germ terrorism
 
Welcome to The Sleeping Giant - founded in 1998 as the first stop for Jews and Israelis world-wide who are concerned that Islamic terrorists wielding weapons of mass destruction could pose the greatest threat to Jewish civilian survival since the holocaust. If you are surprised by what you just read, tell us why: harans@internet-zahav.net.il |
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QUOTE-UNQUOTE "Germ terrorism... is the single most dangerous threat to our national security in the foreseeable future."
R. James Woolsey, Director of Central Intelligence 1993-95 "Eventually this is going to hurt us, there is no question in my mind." M. Blitzer, Ex FBI Directing section on Domestic Terrorism "Jihad has at last discovered how to win the holy war - lethal germs." Nasser Asad Al-Tamimi, Islamic Radical "If I have indeed acquired these weapons, then I thank God for enabling me to do so. And if I seek to acquire these weapons, I am carrying out a duty. It would be a sin for Muslims not to try to possess the weapons that would prevent the infidels from inflicting harm on Muslims." Osame Bin Laden, Terrorist suspected of bombing the World Trade Center and Embassies in Africa "The sleeping giant was awoken in Japan, now the rest of the world will have to learn the lesson." Mohammed X, Arabia Forums |
TERRORIST HISTORY TAKES A TURN >In 1995 a Nerve Gas attack on a subway in Tokyo rewrote the terrorist hand-book forever. The religious cult had manunfactured the fatal sarin gas in-house.
> Uprooted weapon scientists from Iraq, Russia and South Africa are hunting for new jobs and spreading germ secrets. > Radical states with reputations for supporting terror such as Iran and Libya have arsnels of germ and chemical weapons and have passed on knowhow and technology to terrorist groups. > Terrorists, including Osama Bin Laden are increasingly interested in pestilential germs. Some boast openly of being able to kill foes with deadly plagues. >Beleaguered Iraq is reported to be showing great interest in transfering its bio-chemical weapons expertise to terrorist groups |
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WHY ISRAELIS SHOULD BE ALERTED Israelis are paying a cost for a leadership decision to keep the lid on the debate on the threat of a bio-chemical terrorist attack in Israel. Is this cost too high?
1. At present the vast majority of security,emergency and medical personnel are un-briefed in dealing with a bio-chemical terrorist attack. This would have a devastating effect on casaulty rates in the aftermath of a bio-chemical incident. Security guards checking bags should be briefed to suspect bag items such as aerosol combined with gas mask. At present, they are totally unversed in the very existence of a threat. After the Sarin gas attack on a Japanese subway in 1995, 90 percent of the casualties were self-referred emergency service workers who (unbriefed) rushed straight to the scene of the crisis and joined its first victims. Emergency practise in the event of a non-conventional terror attacks would differ dramatically from regular procedure and as such, emergency workers urgently need training/briefing. 2. The vast high-tech research and development resources on which Israel is prized are not being mobilized to come up with technological solutions to counter terrorism. This is a huge area of research with many ramifications too which every unoccupied Israeli scientist or engineer could be adding his expertise. The first hand-held bio-sensor for detecting anthrax spores will be available in the US in only two years. 3. Average citizens are disempowered in the event of confronting a bio-chemical incident. They would be physically at far greater risk as a result of ignorance. Damage of previous terror attacks has been minimilized historically by the active intervention of civilian heros (it is a war on a civilian front). These would be hero's, unprepared would be inactivated when confronted with a bio-chemical attack. 4. This threat touches Israelis in the places they live, it touches their children and their parents. It is a fundamental right they should be informed of so immediate a threat to their security. |
THE SLEEPING GIANT ALARM The threat of bio-chemical terror has initiated a revolution in security thinking.
Until new portable sensor technology is available (in about 2001), security forces have very little control - beyond intelligence sources - of the transfer of lethal materials. Only small quantities are required for great effect. These can be contained in plastic or glass and thus pass freely through metal-detectors or x-ray devices. Their proximity in appearance to pharmaceuticals, perfumeries, cosmetics is such that a primitive labelling would not give unbriefed security personnel cause for suspicion. Many of these agents can be designed in aerosol form and can be silently distributed through unguarded air-condition systems. ANTHRAX AND BIOLOGICAL AGENTS In its crude form anthrax can be manufactured in-house using widely-available biological skills and materials. An extremely infectious disease found in livestock, inhalation causes flu-like symptoms followed for a number of days followed by a brief respite while the disease lies dormant, then the onset of respiratory failure, shock and death. Vaccinations are presently being upgraded in the US to include the full range of anthrax types. American special units and general emergency personnel are to recieve vaccinations in addition to soldiers. Certain antibiotics together with antidote are to some degree effective in treating although how far is still highly uncertain (tests for strains have been done only on animals). Effectivity for the very old and very young (the vulnerable heart of the civilian frontier) is extremely doubtful. Moreover, treatment should begin immediately- creating problems in the event of an undeclared attack (90 percent fatality). Like many other biological killers anthrax spores can be contained in plastic aerosol form. Most of Israel's enemies have anthrax stockpiles. Terrorist groups in the Middle East and their supporters have shown a keen interest in the virus that has claimed the spotlight of the American media. Other Biological agents cultivated for terrorist use include: Botulism, plague, Ricin and Aflatoxin. Where Americans have reason to fear a large scale (mass casualty) attack - a single crop sprayer over a major city could kill 3 million, Israel has more reason to fear small scale attacks in areas densely-populated by Jews. CHEMICAL AGENTS In the Spring of 1997 the US Senate ratified a global chemical weapons ban treaty signed by more than 80 countries. Terrorists attacking Israeli targets could well favor VX over other non-conventional agents, both because of its availability and because an attack is less likely to back-fire on Arab population centers and will not effect a site over the long-term (it will be possible to return to Jaffa). For a single terrorist to disperse VX effectively by hand he would have to have a degree of personal protection. A gasmask, coupled with an aerosol or suspicious bottle, therefore should be a combination that would prompt any security door guard to suspicion (at present low levels of alertness, the terrorist would pass freely into the building). VX: Like all nerve agents, VX is a colorless liquid. Since 1971 its composition has been widely known. VX agents are among the most toxic substances known; mere droplets can kill. Soman: Together with Sarin and Lewisite made up much of the former Soviet Union's chemical arsenel, the recently impoverished architects of which have been courted to the service of terrorist groups. Tabun: Invented by a German chemist Gerhard Schrader. In the mid-30s Schrader worked for IG Garben, a company that later used slave labor from the Birkenau concentration camp. One of Farben's inventions, ironically was Zyklon-B, used by the Nazis to gas victims in those same camps. Tabun and Zykon-B were developed as pesticides. Mustard Agents: First used in WWl they cause sever eye and lung damage. Saddam Hussein used them together with cyanide against Iranian and Kurdish civilians in the Iran-Iraq War. They are easy to make and earned their name from a smell said to be like rotten mustard or onions. Sarin: Since the Aum Shinrikyo cult used Sarin (made in-house, badly) on a Tokyo subway in 1995, it has gained popularity as a terrorist option. Sarin is a member of the organophosphate chemical family, as are many modern pesticides. OSAME BIN LADEN, For Example Suspected of being behind the bombing of the World Trade Center and two 1998 attacks on US embassies in Africa, Bin Laden is known to be perfecting nnon-conventional weapons for terrorist use. The US bombed targets in Sudan and Afghanistan believed to be controlled by him. In Sudan, the attack was on a pharmaceutical facility believed by the US to be manufacturing VX (a soil sample taken from outside contained a chemical used exclusively for VX production). A second factory in a residential neighborhood of Khartoum (possibly the finishing and packaging facility) was not targetted by the US for fear of the effect of releasing VX on civilians. Leading Iraqi weapons engineers are reported to have played a key role in building the facility under the guise of the UN Medicin and Food for Oil program (No medicines ever reached Iraq from that facility). It is worth noting that an ex-stasi training center in East Germanywas found to be the host of a technology/knowhow exchange between Iraqi scientists and Palestinian terrorists. On discovery, the operation was reportedly moved to Iraq. On New-years eve, the US embassy in Tel Aviv was evacuated following a credible threat (this was one of the days defense analysts speculated that Bin Laden might retaliate for the US "aggression" in Sudan and Afghanistan). Embassy closure rather than the tightening of (conventional) security is one of the signs of fears of the non-conventional terrorist threat, against which there is still no working counter-technology. THE STATE OF ISRAEL What state is Israel in? Israeli leaders have agreed that no advantage would be served by the general public being aware of the threat of non-conventional terror. This is not because they fear passing on ideas to terrorists. Bio-chemical terrorism is already the latest spoken fashion in the Middle-East Terroristic world. It is because they fear the kind of panic that would put pressure on the government to allocate resources and to give solutions where often there are none. At the top of the page, we listed the damaging effect this policy will have on the long-term security of all citizens of the state of Israel. The public would rightly first go through a phase of panic and then they would begin absorbing the A-Zs of biochemical terrorism, versing themselves in details because in the event of a bio-chemical assault, knowledge could mean survival. Imagine yourself for a moment as a mother sitting with a child on a bus in central Tel Aviv. A masked man appears and starts spraying what appears to be hair-spray over the passengers. Unversed, you would wait to see what would happen, what this lunatic is doing, perhaps clutching your child. You would probably be a fatality. Versed in the threat of biochemical terrorism, you would within seconds do what ever you could to get your child off that bus (even throwing him from a moving vehicle. This is the sacrifice Israel could make for our leaders' great silence and peace of mind. The sacrifice of a human life. The sacrifice of many human lives. If you are Israeli and are having a hard time believing this, do a search on your home-page for bio-chemical terror and read first-hand the thousands of sources on bio-chemical and even nuclear terror. That is the aim of this page, to encourage you to check it out. Your doing so could have an impact on your survival. If you are Israeli and belong to security, emergency or medical personnel we strongly urge you to look up American EmergencyNet sites for on-line briefing and training on bio-chemical terrorism. When you are satisfied,please send E-mail to harans@internet-zahav.net.il to sign our emergency petition to members of knesset. |
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