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Subject: Is NYC being used for bio-warfare experiments? 9/22/99 NY Times
Date: Wed, 22 Sep 1999 20:25:50 -0500 (CDT)
Why does the Federal government want to expand an existing
bio-warfare research lab right off the coast of NYC, the most
populated area in the U.S.? Have 8 million New Yorkers been
chosen as the lab rats in an ongoing bio-medical research
project? Is Mayor Giulianis bizarre mass daily spraying of toxic
pesticides on NYC part of an experiment or a response to a virus
that already escaped from the lab? Is the mosquito epidemic
merely an excuse to get people used to being sprayed with
chemicals from the air? Is the timing of todays NY Times and
yesterdays Daily News articles on this lab setting us up for some
bad news about what is really behind the encephalitis scare?
Please note: birds are a major part of the experimenting that goes
on at the lab right now. Birds are also exactly where mosquitoes
get the encephalitis virus. While a mosquito may not easily fly
from Plum Island to Queens a bird can do it without any
problem. Do the people of NY deserve answers before any more
spraying is undertaken? The NYC Dept. of Health, the Dept. of
Environmental Protection and the Mayors Emergency
Management Services team are unable to explain their total lack
of air sampling on the distribution of Malathion and the other
two poison gasses being used. They claim they are using three
ounces of Malathion per acre yet the planes make repeated
passes over the same area meaning they have no idea how much
of the chemical is being dropped per City block. Last Saturday
my home in Park Slope was sprayed nine times by the same
helicopter. Is Mayor Giuliani bravely trying to protect public
health or is he the Mengele for the New World Order?
-Robert Lederman
NY Times 9/22/99
U.S. Would Use Long Island Lab to Study Food Terrorism
Related Article
At Bleak Asian Site, Killer Germs Survive (June 2, 1999)
By JUDITH MILLER
PLUM ISLAND, N.Y. -- Alarmed at what the Clinton
Administration views as the growing threat of biological
terrorism to America's food supply, the Agriculture Department
is seeking money to turn the Plum Island Animal Disease Center,
one mile off Long Island, into a top security laboratory where
some of the most dangerous diseases known to man or beast can
be studied.
The Agriculture Department already operates here at Plum Island,
just across Gardiners Bay from the wealthy Hamptons, a
laboratory where such dreaded foreign animal diseases as
foot-and-mouth and African swine fever are examined. But the
department is seeking $75 million this year and $140 million
over the next two years to upgrade the center to handle even more
dangerous animal diseases that can affect humans.
While there are four civilian and military laboratories in America
equipped to study such diseases -- technically known as
Biosafety Level Four facilities -- their work is focused on germs
that primarily affect humans, not domestic animals or plants.
Officials say the proposed expansion and upgrading of Plum
Island is part of a new effort by the Clinton Administration to
deter terrorists who might spread germs to destroy American
crops or livestock for political purposes or financial gain, a threat
they now see as equal to that of terrorist attacks aimed at people.
"Given the contribution of crop and animal exports to the
nation's prosperity, we must do far more to protect our plant and
animal resources," said Senator Richard G. Lugar, the Indiana
Republican and co-author of legislation in 1991 and 1996 that
provided money to bolster defenses against unconventional
terrorism and stop the proliferation of such weapons.
"This is not about food per se; Americans would not go hungry if
we were attacked," said Floyd P. Horn, the administrator of the
Agricultural Research Service, who helped persuade the
Administration to include his agency in January in its
counter-terrorism plans and programs. "But such an attack, or
even a credible threat, would severely disrupt America's
economic and social infrastructure for weeks, if not months or
years."
Plum Island, which was once operated by the United States Army
Chemical Corps, was designated as an animal-disease research
center and transferred to the Agriculture Department in the early
1950's. It is already what scientists call an agricultural "Biosafety
Level Three" center, which means that its containment areas,
which hold germs dangerous to animals, have filtered air, sealed
doors and negative air pressure that prevents germs from leaking
out of the labs. Liquid waste is decontaminated.
All who enter the labs wear white lab coats and slippers. After
leaving the containment areas, they are required to shower,
shampoo their hair, scrub their nails and rinse their mouths, since
lethal germs can live
