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Monday, June 10, 2002"There are concerns that Russia's smallpox may have been leaked to terrorists, and whether something similar happened with monkeypox is uncertain. Another former U.N. weapons inspector, who requested anonymity, told UPI "There's no confirmation that (monkeypox) leaked out, but the potential exists." Alibek said he had no idea whether monkeypox had ever been leaked out of the Soviet program. But he noted that from the 1970s until the 1990s, "it was not a problem to get any of the orthopox viruses (smallpox, camelpox and monkeypox)," and many countries had access to them if they wanted them. (emphasis mine) Iraq is one of the rogue states that may have obtained access to monkeypox. "We've never ever gotten to the bottom of their involvement with camelpox, whether they were really trying to weaponize it or it was a facade for working with smallpox or monkeypox," said the former U.N. inspector, who was a member of the team that went into Iraq. There is a lot of suspicion that Iraq had access to smallpox, but "there's no such indirect evidence for monkeypox,"the inspector said. Asked if monkeypox was less of a concern than smallpox, the inspector replied, "I wouldn't say it's of less concern ... The fact that we haven't come across evidence from the United Nations doesn't mean it's not there." Whether it's smallpox (much more fatal and more contagious) or monkeypox (less fatal, less contagious), the Iraqis appear to have been up to something. posted by Sydney on 6/10/2002 06:45:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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