Breaking news from St. Louis....

Fox News is reporting some breaking new out of St. Louis. Several people in two area emergency rooms have reported breathing a strange substance that has turned them blue and induced difficulty in breathing. The emergency rooms have been shut down and have gone into emergency mode. I can't find anything about this on the internet yet, not even Fox News has posted it at this time. I find this situation interesting since it is in the city in which my grad school is located and in one of my classes we are discussing emergency room disaster plans and responses to chemical/biological agents. So another interesting situation to watch....

post script

The anthrax 'scare' turned out to be a non-event. A threatening letter and some questionable crumbs were conflated into the idea that there was a danger of anthrax. The workers in New Hampshire, having heard about the first incident, saw a letter postmarked from the same city and immediately assumed they were being targeted also.

Talk about timing!

I was sitting at my desk printing off the syllabus for one of my classes in Biosecurity and looking at FEMA's website a little bit earlier when Fox News had a News Alert. What is known at this point is that a couple of John McCain's campaign workers were opening mail at an office in Denver when they came across an envelope that contained "white powder" and a threatening letter. Not long after that another campaign office in Manchester, New Hampshire reported the same thing.

So I'm sitting there with my jaw hanging open looking at some of the assignments on the syllabus while listening to the news. This is for my Public Health and Disasters class: For the final we are to write a paper in which we assume a scenario about a bioterrorism attack in an office building and describe the roles and responsibilities of various levels of Public Health authorities. I'm watching what could be the real thing playing out in real time. It seems likely that the white powder will turn out to be something innocuous and not anthrax as is feared but of course emergency personnel have to assume the worst. So I'm watching this whole thing unfold with an interest as to how officials go about investigating the area, taking care of those who came into contact with the powder, and how the building is cleared.

Is it just me or.....

is there an increase in reports about terrorism? Of course, since 9/11 terrorism has had a prominent place in the news, but lately it seems the news outlets are reporting on terrorism even more. Perhaps it's the upcoming presidential election and thoughts of who will be tougher on terrorism? Perhaps there is much more 'chatter' being detected? Or, perhaps I'm just paying more attention to the news.

At any rate, I'll be posting more on this blog. Next week I'll begin working on a Master's in Biosecurity and that means lots and lots of reading and writing! I love school. Really, I do. I'll use this blog to work out my thoughts and record ideas concerning bioterrorism.

See ya soon.

Obama on Osama

Did I hear this right? Obama thinks al Qaeda's ideology is the result of being poor and ....well you read it:

"The 9-11 attacks were carried out because of a lack of "empathy" for others' suffering on the part of al-Qaida, whose terrorist ideology "grows out of a climate of poverty and ignorance, helplessness and despair," Sen. Barack Obama explained in largely unreported comments eight days after the mega-terror attacks that rocked the nation. "

Al-Qaeda's terrorist ideology grew out of the philosophy of several educated, hopeful, driven and certianly not poor men. Obama needs to read a little more history about the islamic salafist and jihadist movements. The most commonly agreed upon "father" of modern islamic militancy is a very educated man named Sayyid Qutb. He was an Egyptian, at one time the Minister of Education, and spent time in the United States gathering research on educational systems. He was executed in the 60s for writing 'subversive' materials against the Egyptian government. Look up and perhaps read "Signposts", Qutb's small dissertation, if you will. There are heavy communist influences, along with the philosophies of men like Ibn al Wahhab, a Muslim who lead a fierce, fierce movement against his fellow muslims, calling for a return to the original teachings and practices of Mohammad. The recurring theme of these men, and others, was that Islam had strayed away from the true practices and intentions of Muhammad. Modernity is seen as the enemy. You'd hurt your eyes searching for themes on poverty, ignorance, helplessness, or despair. Other than the fact that the west was fast becoming a modern power and seemingly leaving the Arab culture in its own dust, there's no whining about being poor or helpless.

Al-Qaeda grew from bin Laden's acceptance of the philosophies of these Muslim 'greats'. The terrorists of 9/11, remember, were not poor, not uneducated, certainly not helpless, nor full of despair. If you believe Barack Obama then you may feel sympathetic toward the poor, miserable creatures who are so downtrodden! Give me a break!

Barack: go back to school. We do not have 57 states and Al Qaeda is apparently not what you think it is.