Beware of the milk terrorists! Legitimate concern or over-reacting?

[E-Dog Night]

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/US/06/06/milk.terror/

Feds: Science paper a terrorist's road map

Health agency seeks to halt scholarly publication

Tuesday, June 7, 2005 Posted: 1333 GMT (2133 HKT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The federal government has asked the National Academy of Sciences not to publish a research paper that feds describe as a "road map for terrorists" on how to contaminate the nation's milk supply.

Milk trucks could be likely targets for terrorists, according to a paper on biological terrorism.

The research paper on biological terrorism, by Stanford University professor Lawrence M. Wein and graduate student Yifan Liu, provides details on how terrorists might attack the milk supply and offers suggestions on how to safeguard it.

The paper appeared briefly May 30 on a password-protected area of the National Academy of Science's Web site.

Journalists use that area of the Web site to get advance copies of articles slated for publication in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

People who downloaded the Wein-Liu paper called the Food and Drug Administration for comment, and the FDA notified the Department of Health and Human Services, which asked the academy to stop the article's publication.

The paper "is a road map for terrorists and publication is not in the interests of the United States," HHS Assistant Secretary Stewart Simonson wrote in a letter to the science academy chief Dr. Bruce Alberts.

The paper gives "very detailed information on vulnerability nodes" in the milk supply chain and "includes ... very precise information on the dosage of botulinum toxin needed to contaminate the milk supply to kill or injure large numbers of people," Simonson wrote.

"It seems clear on its face that publication of this manuscript could have very serious public health and national security consequences."

Simonson wrote that acting FDA Commissioner Dr. Lester Crawford was joining him in the request to halt publication.

Officials of HHS and the academy said they are to meet Tuesday to discuss the article.

"The academy has been dealing with the issue of scientific openness versus national security since 9/11," said academy spokesman Bill Kearney.

"The academy [members] are strong advocates of scientific openness while ensuring that nothing is done to aid terrorists."

Kearney said the NAS routinely vets papers for security concerns before publishing them and had vetted the Wein-Liu paper.

After HHS raised concerns, the NAS decided to "take a step back and make sure that we weren't putting out anything that we're uncomfortable with," he said.

NAS is a private, nonprofit society of scientists and engineers chartered by Congress to advise the government on science and technology.

HHS spokesman Marc Wolfson said Wein showed a draft of his paper last fall to HHS staffers, who expressed concern about the level of detail in the paper.

"He, at that time, indicated that he was going to work it over a bit and he'd be back to us, back to HHS, if and when he submitted it for publication. That was the last we ... heard from him," Wolfson said.

Wein told CNN he would withhold comment until after the HHS and NAS meeting.

A week ago, The New York Times published an op-ed article by Wein outlining a possible attack scenario.

Under the most likely scenario, he wrote, a terrorist would buy toxin from an overseas black market laboratory, fill a one gallon jug with a sludgy substance containing a few grams of botulin, and pour it into an unlocked milk tank, or into a milk truck at a truck stop.

He wrote that the FDA guidelines for locking milk tanks should be made mandatory, and said the dairy industry should improve pasteurization to eliminate toxins.

Wolfson said he cannot recall another instance in which HHS has asked a scientific publication to withhold an article on national security grounds.

[Larry]

Why do I suspect that the net result of this paper will be

• Suppress the paper.
  
• About 10,000 newspaper articles in the thread of "Milk supply vulnerable", "Experts say Coke could be compromised, too", "Another expert says water isn't safe enough", "How are we protecting our air?"
  
• The Congress will schedule meeting to look at the solutions that were also mentioned in the paper. Next year.
  
• Three years from now, we will find out that the outrageously expensive devices that a bunch of lobbyists sold to the government don't work, and we're going to have to spend more money on new ones, to replace the old ones.
  
• Four years from now, the (Jeb) Bush administration will still be suppressing papers on the subject, while pointing to a study that says that the vulnerability is actually due to Clinton's milk cuts.
  

[nickfox45]

seriously, milk is the greatest thing ever. if we ever couldnt have milk, i dont know what id do with myself. this is scary stuff!:readnews:

[E-Dog Night]

Originally posted by Larry

the (Jeb) Bush administration

[Larry]

The Department of Dairy Security today upgraded the Dairy Alert level to "Egg Nog", sparking a run on grocery stores throughout the DC area.

Fairfax County closed schools.

[TC4]

It will be laughed at, but in the same vain, if it ever did happen, the same people laughing will be the ones ****ing about no one doing anything to stop it

[TD_washingtonredskins]

They can have milk...just leave the liquor alone!

[E-Dog Night]

Originally posted by TD_washingtonredskins

They can have milk...just leave the liquor alone!

Might as well. Liquor poisons people without additives!

[Cskin]

How much do you want to bet this report finds it's way onto the internet via some incompetent staffer that accidently uploads to some website. :doh:

The mere fact that this story has hit the internet is enough for the islamofacists "sleeping" in this country to go... Hummm...... :doh:

[Larry]

BTW, I'll point out.

The scenario presented here, inserting botulus toxin into milk, is nothing more than a product-tampering case. In the scenario they mention, all that happens is that the people who drink milk from that truck could be poisioned.

All the visions of all the milk in the US being destroyed just aren't there. (Or at least, not using the method they mention here).

[yank]

Originally posted by Larry

BTW, I'll point out.

The scenario presented here, inserting botulus toxin into milk, is nothing more than a product-tampering case. In the scenario they mention, all that happens is that the people who drink milk from that truck could be poisioned.

All the visions of all the milk in the US being destroyed just aren't there. (Or at least, not using the method they mention here).

It would save me on my wife's BOTOX injection bills since she could just drink milk instead.

[NoCalMike]

With all the sh!t they shoot up Cows with these days, it is a good idea to try and cut out beef and dairy or try to keep it to a minimum, even without milk terrorists looming.