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CIA Entering the Fight of the Global Spread of WMDs
The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency said it will create a center to fight the spread of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.

Weapons analysts will work alongside undercover operatives who are part of the CIAs National Clandestine Service, the agency said in a press release today. The center will be headed by an undercover officer.
(additional info from anonymous professional source) "The number one artificial biological threat has become a gene-synthesised virus. Although it is a good idea to try to monitor orders for viruses engineered by commercial services, this is unlikely to prevent an attack. The machines necessary to produce such viruses have already been sold to many countries. Such nations can produce highly lethal, highly infectious viruses at will, as well as sophisticated delivery systems.

"For its part, the failure of the CDC to implement basic procedures like high-throughput PCR for diagnostics and seroprevalence studies for CFR information is an indicator of incompetence. They had the equipment, they just didnt know how to use it. The CDC is 10-20 years behind in their knowledge of modern biological methods, because they are for the most part public health officials who typically have little or no recent laboratory experience. Likewise, they shun becoming bio-conflict oriented."
Building a weaponized virus or bacterium is not trivial but it is straightforward. A competent PhD in cell and molecular biology, with standard protocols, equipment and commercially-available reagents, materials, and kits, can build such viruses and bacteria. There are thousands of academic, government and pharmaceutical company laboratories around the world that can do this. Much of the work can be done quietly, on the side, by a motivated individual or small group using said laboratories of their employers, without their employers and supervisors being aware.

The DNA and RNA sequences for lethal virulence factors that could be inserted into a virus or bacterium are known and listed on government (e.g., NIH) websites. They can be cloned using kits. Plasmids and packaging vectors to receive the cloned DNA are widely available, and model viruses and bacteria are commercially available or can be obtained by an innocent letter to a colleague halfway around the world.

This isn't hard, particularly for a modern PhD.

Posted by: Anonymoose 2010-08-20
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=303795