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Al-Qaeda Targets Lethal Disease Research Facility on NY Island
Aafia Siddiqui's interest in the Plum Island facility shows terrorists aspire to a frightening form of mass-casualty operation.
The island, located in the Long Island Sound, is 85 miles north of Manhattan. It was purchased as a government facility in the late 1800s and used as a defense fort during both world wars. After World War II, Plum Island became a bio-warfare lab — with its set-up and operation spearheaded by former Nazi scientist Eric Traub, who had been Hitler’s bio-weapons doctor before he was captured.
In 1954, the Department of Agriculture took over control of Plum Island, transforming the facility into “America’s first line of defense against foreign animal disease.” By 1999, outspoken scientists and government officials called for the facility to be closed down, saying the study of obscure zoonotic diseases did not warrant the $16.5 million that taxpayers were spending on it each year. Further, many felt the risks associated with a category-five hurricane hitting the laboratory outweighed the benefits of the research going on there. A hurricane in 1991 knocked power out on the island and threatened the release of deadly germs; there was another power outage in 2002. Along came the terrorist attacks of 9/11. Control ceded to the Department of Homeland Security and the government shifted its focus from closing the facility to expanding it.
In a recent op-ed piece for the Hartford Courant, Connecticut State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal outlined some of the dangers associated with the “monstrous risks” of the Plum Island facility — should it be compromised. Among them:
- The proximity of Plum Island to New York City, one of the nation’s most populous cities and a repeated target of terrorist attacks.
- The fact that 20 million people live within 50 miles of Long Island Sound.
- The proximity of Plum Island to a nuclear submarine base, a nuclear submarine construction facility, the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, and a major nuclear power plant.
- The special security risks of protecting and providing emergency response services to an island.
A final decision about whether or not to expand the current island facility or move it will be reached before the administration change on January 20, 2009. Until then, the debate as to where the facility should go continues.
One fact is not up for debate. Al-Qaeda’s desire for a mass-casualty attack on American soil isn’t going anywhere. That an al-Qaeda operative — a scientist with a biology degree from M.I.T. — was arrested overseas with a U.S. biological and agro-defense facility listed in her own handwriting as being on a “wish list” of attacks only underscores this fact.
No wonder the FBI considered Aafia Siddiqui one of the most wanted women in the world.
Note: Siddiqui failed to show up for her arraignment in federal court in Manhattan on September 4. Her attorney cited poor health as she recovers from a gunshot wound. During an interrogation in Afghanistan last July, Siddiqui commandeered a weapon and fired at U.S. Army officers, FBI agents, and her interpreters. One agent returned fire and Siddiqui was shot in the torso.
In August, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security listed five mainland locations (other than Plum Island) it is considering to house a new, Biosafety Level 4 laboratory: Flora, Mississippi, is at the top of the list. Other sites include Athens, Georgia; Manhattan, Kansas; San Antonio, Texas; and Butner, North Carolina.
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Annie Jacobsen writes about aviation and intelligence. She blogs at TheAviationNation.com and is working on a new book for Little Brown and Company.
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34 Comments
1. parisparamus:Um…I believe Plum Island is a New York possession. I hope the rest of your story was better researched!
(Ed. note – The inaccurate headline was a mistake of the editor, not the author – corrected)
Sep 14, 2008 - 1:41 am 2. michele:Regarding the title, Plum Island is actually considered to be part of New York, not Connecticut.
Sep 14, 2008 - 2:22 am 3. Al Qaeda Targets New York « Gathering of Eagles: NY:[...] Read the whole thing here. No Comments Leave a Commenttrackback addressYou must log in to post a comment. [...]
Sep 14, 2008 - 4:07 am 4. BlueMax372:Plum Island is located approximately 85 miles NORTHEAST of Manhattan.
Sep 14, 2008 - 4:41 am 5. kim:They don’t want to just close down this place. They want to move it to the MAINLAND! This is NOT a facility that should be moved to the mainland. Using one of their scenarios of a hurricaine (and as a livestock owner), I’d rather the facility be hit there on the island by a storm, rather than here on the mainland.
Could you imagine what would be happening if the facility was on the mainland and in the path of Ike? Makes you really wonder what these people are thinking. I think the shared brain that the government passes around is wearing out. If they won’t let an animal that mistakenly gets on to the property leave, WHY do they want to bring something that dangerous and potentially deadly to the mainland? It is like they are setting us up for disaster.
As far as the point of Siddiqui not making her court date due to a gunshot wound. My question is, why did they miss?
Sep 14, 2008 - 6:20 am 6. Lucy Dashwood:Thank God we accurately located Plum Island the the rest of the terrifying scenario is debunked!
Sep 14, 2008 - 6:37 am 7. cedarford:A little bit of Terrahists! Terrahists! Dang-nabbit they’re coming to kill us all, hysteria.
Plum Island is a research facility that is focused on animal disease research of the sort that could cost us billions in an epidemic, and research into diseases that might mutate then jump and affect people. Nothing is geared towards biowar. They don’t deal with weaponized contagions, they don’t deal in pathogens that have a present human vector path. If anything, we should be putting MORE funds into research.
Further, many felt the risks associated with a category-five hurricane hitting the laboratory outweighed the benefits of the research going on there.
Alarmist drivel. No Cat 5 hurricane ever hit New England. The best was a strong category 3. And Loong Island Sound is a natural shelter, with the landmass of Long Island protecting leeward islands from hurrican center storm surge, and much of the winds. The buildings that house animal germs are designed to withstand hurricanes.
When you hear Attorney General Blumenthal, think Chuck Schumer or Elliot Spitzer. Three peas in a pod. An insanely ambituous, elitist, arrogant, and power-thirsty type in love with the camera spotlight. Given to serial lies and exaggerations they think would advance their career. “monstrous risks” of the Plum Island facility ! Strains of animal germs separated by miles of ocean from all the “deadly nuke places” Blumenthal mentioned, NYC, etc.
Blumenthal regularly tries to excite the CT cretins who re-elect him with the latest “deadly menace” only HE has discovered and only HE can protect the people and the environment from dying in awful catastrophe from. A LNG terminal. A cross-sound power cable. Deadly natural gas pipelines. A landfill he finds with traces of PCBs from the 50s that is sure to cause mass death but for his legal majesty…
Let’s imagine that of the 10,000 targets various extreme Muslim groups have concluded are important in the USA – from popular movies and other info sources they decide to attack Plum Island and get “exciting ways to kill goats and chickens”, germs of which a few may cross to humans, but not create an epidemic without a animal reservoir herd quite near them…
Well, no defense is perfect. So maybe they could get in. But its like the Japs attacking Kiska and Attu Island in WWII. They got in, then were promptly bottled up with now escape possible until they were eliminated at our leisure.
If a Jihadi Team took over, and it would have to be a large one that had good weapons and somehow escaped detection until the attack – they would see Naval, Coast Guard, State and local police from two states, and AF fighter jets converging on them within the hour. And they would not be permitted to leave w/o surrendering. They couldn’t breed or spread their seized pig cholera vials – given the ocean barrier and to Blumenthals probable regret – lack of any substantial animal herds within 50 miles of Plum Island.
Then you would just have an initial turf battle between Marines, 3 Navy SEAL Teams nearby, and state cops/Guard on who gets the privilege of whacking the Islamoids. Then they would go down like the Japs in the Aleuts or who were trapped on islands in the Pacific did.
If you want a successful assault, you must have a credible exit strategy. Even if it is just blowing yourself up. There is no logic to an Islamoid attack on Plum island that would do any more than kill a couple handfuls of Americans, damage facilities, and shut up all the “terrorist rights” advocates in the Democratic Party’s Left.
PS – Having lived in CT some years ago, many were surprised his soulmate Spitzer went down before Blumenthal did on trial lawyer kickbacks and campaign fund diversions…
Sep 14, 2008 - 9:01 am 8. Z.Z. Bachman:The company I work for has instrumentation on the island. The security there is of the order of Aberdeen Proving Grounds and Ft. Dietrick home of Army Chemical Weapons research station. It is extremely fortified with shoot to kill orders to the marines on station there securing “firezones” around the perimeters of each building.
The fact that they still have their eye on Anthrax and other virulent strains shows their suicidal tendencies to enhance their radical islamo-facist ideology. Killing Muslim and non-Muslim alike indescrimiantly.
While we are busy worrying about their rights, they are making efforts to work their way into the infrastructure which may take years since they are recruiting teens, sending them to the best universities, and teaching them how to blend into western culture. Forget the first WTC bombing? A chemist working for a major chemical corporation with sympathies to the blind Sheik.
Democrats are looking for ways to HANDICAP the FBI instead of assisting them. Reducing their power instead of enhancing it. If you are not breaking the law, what are you worried about? I could give a rats ass if the FBI has the power to listen in as long as they too are NOT BREAKING THE LAW. But don’t PASS LAWS that make it more difficult for them to stop the bad guys!! Its as simple than that from my persepctive!
___________________________________________________________
Sep 14, 2008 - 9:17 am 9. glc:ZZ Bachman / ZardozZ News & Satire Portal ( http://zardozz.com/zz/ )
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My God . . .
. . . one more reason why we don’t want an inexperienced president who needs do-overs for every decision. (Look at Barack’s record folks, he needs do-overs all the time–in fact, the press gives him do-overs. I don’t think terrorists are going to give him a do-over. Millions will die.)
Sep 14, 2008 - 9:44 am 10. Chuck Pelto:TO: Lucy Dashwood
RE: Don’t Count On It
You obviously haven’t read Tom Clancy’s Executive Orders. You don’t need to take Plum Island or Fort Detrick to make this scenario come to pass.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
Sep 14, 2008 - 10:02 am 11. goy:P.S. Word has it the leadership of Iran have….
- … many were surprised his soulmate Spitzer went down before Blumenthal did …
“many”?? Sounds like a fantasy. “did”?? Blumenthal never went down. He never went anywhere. He’s still AG. He’s no better nor worse than any of the other career politicians working in our utterly broken political system. Sounds like he had something to do with why you were forced to leave CT. I’m guessing that was good for CT.
Sep 14, 2008 - 11:33 am 12. Al-Qaeda Targets Lethal Disease Research Facility on NY Island - NaiTazi.com:[...] Source: PAJAMAS Media [...]
Sep 14, 2008 - 11:34 am 13. Sam:Rendition the bitch and squeeze her like a lemon.
Sep 14, 2008 - 11:58 am 14. Karen:I think I’ll re-read Nelson DeMille’s book Plum Island. I never knew the island existed or about the facility on it until I read that book many years ago. I am sure Iran, Iraq, Russians, China, etc. already know about the existence of Plum Island.
Sep 14, 2008 - 12:06 pm 15. cedarford:goy-boy – Nice try at word-twisting. Something of a tribal specialty isn’t it? To take one phrase and twist it to one interpretation and attack it as that interpretation, which you know is not the orginal meaning of the statement.
… many were surprised his soulmate Spitzer went down before Blumenthal did …
The statement is commonly made of people at risk – and surprise when one at lesser risk goes down before surviving “higher risk” folks.
Such as: “I’m surprised that Tim Russert died before Keith Richards or anyone like him did”.
Another specialty of people like Goy is projecting motive – “If you criticize Blumenthal. then you must have a personal motive”.
And Goy, we all admire the “universality” offense at criticism tactic – where criticism of 3 elitist Harvard Law AGs (Spitzer, Blumenthal, Schumer) becomes criticism of all AGs or your kind exploits that offensive debate tactic to accuse one of them smearing all lawyers, even to the Jews, Christians, atheists who happen to be lawyers.
That’s the beauty of the universality smear. Goy and his pals can expand it to go beyond specific criticism to a general charge of motive against class, race, gender, sex orientation, religion.
Pity for “Goy” his tactics don’t work as well as they used to..
Sep 14, 2008 - 1:39 pm 16. Sandra M:Thanks for a great article, Ms. Jacobsen. Terrific as always.
Sep 14, 2008 - 2:18 pm 17. Monty:The most recent outbreak of foot and mouth disease here in the UK was traced back to a government research establishment in the south-east of England.
Keep your animal research off the mainland. You really don’t want an outbreak in the US. The carnage of culling is bad enough, but the accompanying restrictions on livestock movement have a crippling effect on the dairy, beef, and lamb trade. Culling causes loss of valuable bloodlines. And farmers children even have to be sent off-farm so they can go to school without compromising bio-security.
It’s awful.
And it is even worse if you consider animal pathogens with the potential to mutate and infect humans.
Keep it offshore, keep the public out, and apply strict screening to the staff who are allowed access to the island.
Sep 14, 2008 - 2:32 pm 18. Steynian 246 « Free Mark Steyn!:[...] BIO-TERROR HORROR PLANNED: Al-Qaeda Targets Lethal Disease Research Facility on NY Island …. [...]
Sep 14, 2008 - 3:14 pm 19. JohnW:This is silly paranoia.
Sep 14, 2008 - 4:28 pm 20. Franjo V:I have fished around this Island for years.
You can’t just sneak up on it. Security is pretty intense.
I doubt you could get on the island without a book full of credentials.
The currents and surrounding waters are TREACHEROUS.
Big thumbs down to Pajamas for posting this crap.
See:
http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/myfox/MyFox/pages/sidebar_video.jsp?contentId=7406463&version=1&locale=EN-US
Sep 14, 2008 - 5:11 pm 21. DavidN:The funny thing about the article is that the author says that a category 5 hurricane is feared (highly unlikely, given how far north this is…it’s pretty much New England…the wind blows, but not *that* hard) and then later the author says, without blinking, that the government is thinking of moving the facility to a location in Florida or Texas! Both of those places definitely do get Category 4 and might get a Category 5 hurricane, someday.
Sep 14, 2008 - 8:13 pm 22. Typical White Person:Someone told me about plasmids…something that is genetically altered that contains more than one disease…eg: treat the smallpox, then the hemorragic fever starts. Very scary stuff. Plasmids do exist.
Whether terrorists would get them from Plum Island I don’t know. What is scarier is that many of these diseases have already been weaponized.
google plasmids and terrorism.
Sep 14, 2008 - 9:08 pm 23. Typical White Person:http://www.i-sis.org.uk/biopesticide&bioweapons.php
Developments in biotechnology makes it possible to greatly amplify the impact of traditional biowarfare agents and made the means to create bio-terror weapons available to a significant part of the population through training in genetic engineering.
Sep 14, 2008 - 9:11 pm 24. Ecobot Alert! Montauk Sea Creature and Al-Qaeda Plan To Attack Plum Island (A link?) « Zipline Conservative:[...] http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/al-qaeda-operative-targets-lethal-disease-research-island-in-connecticu… (Twilight Zone music please) [...]
Sep 14, 2008 - 9:24 pm 25. dan:a couple observations.
the author simply notes that plum island was among the targets the authorities impute to the pakistani. the actual operation is not described, nor is the maturity of any plan. the mention of plum island facility can only be significant in the light of the absence of such information as indication that al qaeda – or some other network – seeks bio or chem attacks. perhaps the targeting was not for the purpose of attack, but for infiltration. presumably al qaeda and its enablers would have all the same criticisms as the skeptics on this thread. according to my amateur knowledge, gathering of such facts is how the intelligence process works.
observation 2: with open anti-semitism like that, it can’t be long before cedarford is banned from pajamasmedia. Hurray!
Sep 15, 2008 - 6:32 am 26. Rick:Am I the only one to notice that this woman failed to show up in court because she was supposedly ill? Does that mean that she isn’t being held in a jail somewhere??
Sep 15, 2008 - 5:25 pm 27. Mordrach:Dan, Cedarford was responding to a commenter who calls him/herself “Goy.”
Also, Rick, the woman was shot after trying to kill U.S. military officers, FBI, and interpreters (i.e., everyone in the room). I’m assuming she’s probably in a hospital room under constant survelliance, or something along those lines.
Sep 16, 2008 - 11:24 am 28. Female al Qaeda operative’s wish list included animal disease research facility on NY island | Infidels Are Cool:[...] 12 [...]
Sep 16, 2008 - 5:04 pm 29. Letsroll:cedarford:
Sep 18, 2008 - 9:22 am 30. Talnik:excellent response!
cedarford: Keith Richards has been dead since 1980. Just look at him. He was shot by John Lennon, who was then shot to cover it up.
Sep 19, 2008 - 6:36 am 31. deguello:“Lethal Disease Facility”? Is Jacobsen sure she is not talking about the Long Island Expressway”?
Sep 19, 2008 - 2:19 pm 32. Aafia Siddiqui’s ‘Wish List’ Includes Island Bio Facility » The Aviation Nation:[...] in the week, I wrote a piece for Pajamas Media about Siddiqui's recent capture in Afghanistan and subsequent deportation to New York where she [...]
Sep 20, 2008 - 4:02 pm 33. Sheilanagig:It is difficult not to laugh at this black propaganda and scare mongering. I would laugh but I am so appalled that so many Americans believe this happy horseshite.
Americans are the most ignorant people in the modern world I think. Everyone knows it but Americans.
I think yall deserve the govt you get and the collapse of the dollar. It would be a good thing for the future of the world if we could keep you from breeding.
Shame on you Annie for even writing this trashy article.
Sep 22, 2008 - 7:50 am 34. Al_Batross:“Keep it offshore, keep the public out, and apply strict screening to the staff who are allowed access to the island.” Monty.
I agree completely, and the USA would do well to learn from the UK’s foot and mouth failures.
Sep 28, 2008 - 2:17 amRegarding Siddiqui, arguing about what AQ could really do at Plum perhaps misses the most important point, which is that her interest in Plum is an indication of the direction of her thinking.
Broad-spectrum Jihad considers all kinds of targets and activity. Siddiqui might prefer to kill us directly, but attacking our livestock might also appeal to her, because of the huge economic damage that could achieve. There has been speculation that the UK’s foot and mouth outbreak was caused by terrorist action, and although nothing has been proven we should
certainly err on the side of caution.