DDP Newsletter, May 2014 Vol. XXXII, No. 3
In The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells, an alien superpower, possessing an energy shield that made the invaders invulnerable to Earthmen’s weapons, seemed to be on the verge of success. But suddenly the enemy collapsed, defeated by earth’s humble microorganisms, to which the aliens had no immunity.
Introducing a biological agent to a nonimmune population of human beings could be just as devastating. This could happen inadvertently, as when Europeans brought smallpox into the New World, largely wiping out some native populations. Or it could be a deliberate act of war. In 1346, the Mongols, afflicted with bubonic plague during their siege of Caffa in Crimea, reportedly used trebuchets to hurl their dead into the city. The Genoese defenders then took the Black Death with them when they fled to Italy. (Actually, plague-carrying rats and fleas likely entered the city without the need for the trebuchets.)
Smallpox, anthrax, and many other biological agents have been weaponized, and even produced in massive quantities. Genetically engineered terrors are not just the stuff of science fiction (Civil Defense Perspectives, November 2002). High-tech delivery methods, such as warheads on ballistic missiles, are possible, but not necessary. One scenario is to infect a suicidal jihadist with smallpox and fly him to New York during the incubation period.
In wartime, more troops have likely been killed by disease than enemy weapons. Crowding, poor hygiene, and poor nutrition favor the rapid spread of disease. Just bringing together large numbers of soldiers from areas with different microorganisms is likely to cause outbreaks. It is possible that massive U.S. troop movements in World War I, heedless of the mounting influenza death toll, were partly responsible for the great 1918 pandemic, according to The Great Influenza: the Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History, by John M. Barry (see http://tinyurl.com/p9smpzj for a review). In any event, more American soldiers and sailors were killed by influenza and pneumonia than by enemy fire in World War I (http://tinyurl.com/mcqq5pu).
U.S. civilians currently enjoy good sanitation, and such a low rate of infectious diseases that public health departments are seeking new missions. Yet the population is in many ways more vulnerable than in the past. There is hardly any immunity to smallpox, as vaccination was discontinued long ago. The population with natural immunity to measles is aging and dying. Vaccine-induced immunity is less robust, and is no longer boosted by periodic exposure to disease. While vaccinated children would be mostly protected, a widespread measles epidemic could be devastating to infants and older adults. While indigenous vector-borne diseases are now rare in the U.S., the vectors are still here, and environmentalism has greatly weakened our vector control methods.
At the 2002 DDP meeting, Lowell Wood discussed “The Really Big Threats,” the ones capable of causing mega-deaths (http://www.ddponline.org/wood02.pdf), with trillions of dollars of economic impact and staggering blows to American civilization—“like al Qaeda repeatedly threatens to deliver.” These include: 1) Wholesale physical destruction; 2) Infectious, high-lethality disease; and 3) Critical infrastructure destruction.
Wood compared transnational terrorism as an “engineered pathogen,” and noted its “religiously-disguised child abuse.” One key action is to “kick out/keep out the pathogenic Bad Actors.” He adds, “No non-citizen has a right to be here.”
While some of Wood’s language was figurative, it looks prophetic in June 2014, as we face a crush of illegal aliens, including many unaccompanied children.
In January, FedBizzOpps.gov posted an ad seeking “escort services for unaccompanied alien children” (UAC), ages from infancy to 17, to transport them to Office of Refugee Resettlement Shelters throughout the U.S. Some 65,000 UAC were expected, of whom 25% would use local ground transport, 25% U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) charter, and 50% commercial airlines (http://tinyurl.com/phzzvod).
Some of the charter flights between Brownsville, Texas, and Tucson, Arizona, are shown here: http://tinyurl.com/ldrok54. Note that the flight path traverses Mexican air space, as commercial flights rarely if ever do.
The number shows a significant increase from the 5,000 minors generally detained annually by ICE, suggesting advance knowledge of the coming human catastrophe and a lack of any effort to stop it. Last year, ICE union boss Chris Crane testified to the House Judiciary Committee that “ICE has essentially prohibited its agents” from enforcing immigration law. The message is “if you do get caught, lie to us” (Investors Business Daily 6/25/14, http://tinyurl.com/plpuyyb). Only a small portion of the illegal entrants are actually apprehended, perhaps only 3%.
The points of origin of the immigrants have changed. Most are no longer from Mexico. Hondurans, Salvadorans, and Guatemalans now make up 75% of illegals apprehended in south Texas (ibid.). There is a widespread belief in Latin America that illegal entrants, especially children, will be allowed to stay—some based on misinformation spread by human smuggling networks, and some on phone calls home by those who were detained but released by authorities (WSJ 6/20/14, http://tinyurl.com/nxyumcq).
According to Zack Taylor, chairman of the National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers (NAFBPO), West African illegal immigrants, coming into the U.S. through Mexico, have been apprehended in the Rio Grande Valley sector in the last few years. Some Spanish-speaking groups were later found to be from the Middle East. They probably learned Spanish to infiltrate society in the Americas.
Ebola hemorrhagic fever broke out in West Africa in March, and currently is said to be out of control. It causes fever, headache, and internal and external bleeding. It is transmitted person to person through body fluids, and has up to a 90% mortality rate (Washington Post 6/29/14, http://tinyurl.com/mq7yznh).
Mosquito-transmitted dengue fever, also known as breakbone fever, is prevalent in Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and northern South America (see map at http://www.healthmap.org/dengue/en/). There is a fatal hemorrhagic form. There is no vaccine and no drug therapy for this viral disease.
Chikungunya, a mosquito-borne virus from Africa and Asia, surfaced in the Caribbean in December 2013. As of June 3, more than 100,000 confirmed and suspected cases have been reported from 17 countries in the Caribbean and South America. CDC predicts the disease will continue to spread in the Americas. Chikungunya and dengue are carried by the same mosquitoes and can be difficult to distinguish clinically.
At the time of this writing in late June, the CDC has not issued any advisories to physicians, and the epidemiology division of the Pima County (Arizona) Health Dept is not yet involved, although the Tucson Unified School District has suggested housing alien children in abandoned schools. The Border Patrol union has issued advice to agents to protect themselves and their families, but agents are forbidden to speak to the press.
As Wood said: “Citizen-group oversight and citizenry participation is essential—otherwise it’s bureaucratic as usual…. If you don’t see it happening, and people you trust don’t tell you it’s happening, be assured that it really isn’t happening. There’s no practical limit to the time and money that can be expended by large bureaucracies without any worthwhile results being obtained.”