Reply #165: Another branch--Pls add research, analysis if you can:

[snot]

I hope this isn't too far off the topic of the original thread, but I think it may be related. Pls look at the DU posts quoted below (edited for brevity)--the first of which comes from this thread, pointing out that Dr. David Kelly was a microbiologist whose specialty was bio-warfare.

(B.t.w., I've been puzzled lately by persistent, conflicting "expert" assessments of the danger posed by avian flu. One set of experts scoffs that there's no immediate threat, it might take decades or more for a disease communicable among humans to evolve, you're more likely to be hit by a meteor than die of avian flu. The other set makes it sound like a deadly new plague is imminent. Reminds me of the persistent, conflicting reports re- violence in N.O.)

Here are the posts:

From http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5049555#5052232 :
72. I don't really mean to muddy the waters, but this needs some thought
The other thing striking about Dr. David Kelly . . . is that he was a microbiologist whose specialty was bio-warfare. He had worked in the past with people who were developing genetically targeted bio weapons. Does the phrase "Microbiologist Murders" ring a bell with anyone? That means there is a chance he was part of whatever campaign has been waged against such people, claiming the lives of many, perhaps dozens of men with profiles like Kelly's. I still favour the notion that he was killed over the WMD plot, but the other angle deserves some examination.
Here is some information on Kelly's bio-war background: http://www.worldnewsstand.net/MediumRare/32.htm

From http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5049914#5050218 :
15. This comes from his October 4 press conference
BUSH: . . . . I am concerned about avian flu. I'm concerned about what an avian flu outbreak could mean for the United States and the world. . . .
I have thought through the scenarios of what an avian flu outbreak could mean. I tried to get a better handle on what the decision-making process would be by reading Mr. Barry's book on the influenza outbreak in 1918. I would recommend it.
. . . . If we had an outbreak somewhere in the United States, do we not then quarantine that part of the country? And how do you, then, enforce a quarantine?
It's one thing to shut down airplanes. It's another thing to prevent people from coming in to get exposed to the avian flu.
. . . . And who best to be able to effect a quarantine?
One option is the use of a military that's able to plan and move. So that's why I put it on the table. . . .
I noticed the other day, evidently, some governors didn't like it. I understand that. I was the commander in chief of the National Guard and proudly so. And, frankly, I didn't want the president telling me how to be the commander in chief of the Texas Guard.
But Congress needs to take a look at circumstances that may need to vest the capacity of the president to move beyond that debate. And one such catastrophe or one such challenge could be an avian flu outbreak.

From http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5049914#5050131 :11. Troop movements aided greatly in 1918-1919...
In incubating & spreading the Influenza throughout the world.

From http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5049914#5050766 :
41. "relative youth and fitness"
Actually, one of the odd things about the 1918 pandemic was that a lot of the victims were healthy adults in their 20's and 30's and not just the servicemen, either. Apparently, those who had the best immune systems died because their immune systems overreacted to the virus and their bodies sort of won the battle but lost the war. If the current avian flu resembles the 1918 flu in that respect, the last people you want to send out to provide aid or policing are the military because they're going to drop like flies.