Bio weapons warning issued

While most of America is chasing after the NY Times' "dust in the wind" story on missing explosives -- losing traction by the minute as more pieces of the attempted October surprise ambush are discovered and put into place -- a much greater danger continues to grow.

The British Medical Association is out with a report that claims the "window of opportunity is shrinking fast" to stop the threat of bio-terror, The Scotsman reported today.

Professor Malcolm Dando, the head of Peace Studies at Bradford University, who has studied arms control for 20 years, wrote the report. He said: "What we are talking about here is the development of a technology which could clearly be misused by terrorists or deranged individuals. ..."

He said if nothing is done, bio-weapons technology could be harnessed by terrorists to target specific ethnic groups to release devastating diseases, such as the 1918 Spanish flu. Among the biological weapons with the potential to wreak havoc are genetically engineered anthrax and a synthetic version of the polio virus.

The British group advocates multilateral agreements among nations to slow the spread of biotechnology, but admits that you can figure it out by researching it on the internet. Although they do some finger pointing at the U.S. for shunning an international accord five years ago (Clinton Administration), it is hard to see how the American government's position, which bans cloning, is any worse than those nations that are encouraging cloning experiments. While cloning itself is not necessarily bio-terror related, any group or lab that can clone has the capability of engineering designer viruses.

Just something else to think about when you go to the polls next week.