Terrorism: April 16, 2001

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then to get top dollar for their weapons. 

The British government Biological Warfare lab at Porton Down is reported by local newspapers to have discovered that a sample of foot and mouth virus was stolen (or at least it could not be accounted for) two months before the foot and mouth outbreak in Britain. The likely suspects would be radical animal rights activists hoping to destroy the meat industry in Britain by setting the virus loose in Britain. Such bloody minded tactics are not unknown among the radical fringe of the animal rights groups. Questions are being raised in Parliament about this. It should be noted that foot and mouth is endemic in many parts of the world. You don't have to break into a government lab to get a sample, although that approach spares you the trouble, expense and risk of getting it abroad and smuggling it into the United Kingdom. The Porton Down lab is a high security affair, where samples of smallpox, anthrax and Ebola are also stored. Porton Down is a defensive lab, working on ways to deal with someone using biological warfare against Great Britain. Such a biowar attack against agriculture is actually feared. Islamic terrorists, for example, would see an foot and mouth virus attack on American hog raising industry as doubly beneficial, as pork is forbidden to

 

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