March 28, 2014 - SPACE-For people in the United States, an extraordinary series of lunar eclipses is about to begin.
The action starts on April 15th when the full Moon
passes through the amber shadow of Earth, producing a midnight eclipse
visible across North America. So begins a lunar eclipse tetrad—a
series of 4 consecutive total eclipses occurring at approximately six
month intervals. The total eclipse of April 15, 2014, will be followed
by another on Oct. 8, 2014, and another on April 4, 2015, and another on
Sept. 28 2015.
"The most unique thing about the 2014-2015 tetrad is that all of
them are visible for all or parts of the USA," says longtime NASA
eclipse expert Fred Espenak.
WATCH: NASA's ScienceCasts - A Tetrad of Lunar Eclipses.
On average, lunar eclipses occur about twice a year, but not all of them are total. There are three types:
A penumbral eclipse is when the Moon passes
through the pale outskirts of Earth’s shadow. It’s so subtle, sky
watchers often don’t notice an eclipse is underway.
A partial eclipse is more dramatic. The Moon dips into the core of Earth’s shadow, but not all the way, so only a fraction of Moon is darkened.
A total eclipse, when the entire Moon is
shadowed, is best of all. The face of the Moon turns sunset-red for up
to an hour or more as the eclipse slowly unfolds.
Usually, lunar eclipses come in no particular order. A partial can
be followed by a total, followed by a penumbral, and so on. Anything
goes. Occasionally, though, the sequence is more orderly. When four
consecutive lunar eclipses are all total, the series is called a tetrad.
Complete visibility map of the April 15th lunar eclipse.
"During the 21st century, there are 9 sets of tetrads, so I would describe tetrads as a frequent occurrence in the current pattern of lunar eclipses," says Espenak. "But this has not always been the case. During the three hundred year interval from 1600 to 1900, for instance, there were no tetrads at all."
The April 15th eclipse begins at 2 AM Eastern time when the edge of the Moon first enters the amber core of Earth’s shadow. Totality occurs during a 78 minute interval beginning around 3 o’clock in the morning on the east coast, midnight on the west coast. Weather permitting, the red Moon will be easy to see across the entirety of North America.
Why red?
A quick trip to the Moon provides the answer: Imagine yourself standing on a dusty lunar plain looking up at the sky. Overhead hangs Earth, nightside down, completely hiding the sun behind it. The eclipse is underway.
You might expect Earth seen in this way to be utterly dark, but it's not. The rim of the planet is on fire! As you scan your eye around Earth's circumference, you're seeing every sunrise and every sunset in the world, all of them, all at once. This incredible light beams into the heart of Earth's shadow, filling it with a coppery glow and transforming the Moon into a great red orb.
Mark your calendar for April 15th and let the tetrad begin.
March 28, 2014 - UKRAINE-Nearly 100,000 Russian forces have massed on Ukraine's border, a top
Ukrainian defense official told an American audience Thursday, giving a
number far higher than US military estimates.
Russian forces on patrol close to the Crimean city of Simferopol, on March 5, 2014 (AFP Photo/Alexey Kravtsov)
"Almost 100,000 soldiers are
stationed on the borders of Ukraine and in the direction ... of Kharkiv,
Donetsk, " Andriy Parubiy, chairman of Ukraine's national security
council, said via a webcast from Kiev.
"Russian troops are not in Crimea only, they are along all Ukrainian borders. They're in the south, they're in the east and in the north," Parubiy said.
After its intervention in the Crimean peninsula, Russia is plotting to foment separatist sentiment elsewhere and Kiev fears a possible incursion in the country's east, he told the Atlantic Council, a Washington think tank.
Parubiy said any day "we might see a huge attack on the territory of continental Ukraine and we are getting ready for it."
Although US defense officials have put the number of Russian troops closer to 20,000, a US lawmaker said Thursday that much stronger Russian forces had deployed towards Ukraine's border.
"Over the past week we've seen the buildup of up to 80,000 additional Russian troops," Representative Mike Turner said in a statement.
Turner said the force included large numbers of armored vehicles, battle tanks, artillery, helicopters and planes.
The Republican lawmaker accused the White House of witholding "critical" information about the full scope of Russian troop movements and demanded the adminstration reveal what it knows to help "vulnerable allies."
Pentagon officials previously
have said more than 20,000 Russian troops -- including airborne units
and armored vehicles -- have deployed along Ukraine's border, a force
big enough to seize control of the eastern region.
But a senior defense official expressed skepticism at Parubiy's estimate of Russian troop strength.
"That sounds too high," the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP.
Russia has assured Washington that the Russian forces were there to carry out a "spring" exercise but the Pentagon on Thursday acknowledged there was no indication of any drill underway.
"We've seen no specific indications that exercises are taking place," spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby told reporters.
He declined to discuss US intelligence assessments on the possibility of a Russian attack into eastern Ukraine but said the military presence only served to aggravate tensions.
Kirby said that "regardless of the intent it does nothing to de-escalate the tension in Ukraine.
"It does nothing to improve the stability in that part of the world."
Parubiy said the Ukrainian government supported moves by Western countries to impose punitive sanctions on Russia and appealed for a public display of military partnership to send a signal to Moscow over its actions.
"We are calling on our partners to hold a common military exercise" that would "show that the cooperation and partnership is still there," he said through an interpreter.
He urged "visible support, visible presence of our partners" at this moment of crisis.
The Russian troops that have deployed in Crimea were well-trained special forces, he said.
After Russia's takeover of Crimea, Moscow had launched a new strategy aimed at disrupting Ukraine's upcoming presidential elections in May, according to Parubiy.
Kiev authorities had "arrested" separatist leaders in the east and Moscow's attempts to provoke street demonstrations were faltering with fewer people turning out for the protests, he said.
US President Barack Obama and NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen have both denounced Moscow's incursion into Crimea but have called for a diplomatic solution to the crisis.
NATO has bolstered its presence in Eastern Europe since Russia's intervention, deploying radar surveillance aircraft to the area while Washington has sent F-16 fighter jets to Poland.
Obama has ruled out military action in Ukraine, which is not a member of the NATO alliance. - Yahoo.
March 28, 2014 - UNITED STATES-The United
States is on alert and has deployed military assets to defend the
Atlantic coastline from New York to Charleston from attack by a cruise
type missile or low flying aircraft.
Heightened security measures began with Israel’s increasing threats
against Iran but increased with the mysterious disappearance of
Malaysian Airlines flight 370.
Sources at the highest levels of the US military and intelligence
community cite the possibility of a terror bombing, even using nuclear
weapons, most likely to be submarine launched. This is what is being
defended against.
However, the plot, we have been informed, was to include a seemingly
hijacked airliner which would be blamed on Iranians, as stated by Joel
Rosenberg while speaking with Greta van Susteren on Fox News, March
18th. Rosenberg claimed the Iranians hijacked the plane to attack
Israel.
The US, however, believes someone other than Iran is planning an attack, on the US, not Israel, and planning to blame Iran.
Yesterday, investigative journalist Chris Bollyn made a startling discovery:
“According to reports from plane-spotters, Israel has an identical Malaysia Airlines
Boeing 777-200 in storage in Tel Aviv since November 2013. The only visible difference between the missing plane and the one in Tel Aviv would be its serial number. What do the Israelis have planned with the twin Malaysia Airlines plane?
Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.
By using the twin aircraft they have in storage, the terror masterminds may have a sinister plan for the missing plane to seemingly reappear in a false-flag atrocity. Public awareness of the twin plane in Tel Aviv, therefore, could prevent the evil plot from going ahead.”
After Bollyn’s detailed and well supported story was published, a full scale public relations “counter-offensive” was launched by Tel Aviv.
However, US sources say this effort has backfired, indicating that if an Israeli role in the missing plane had never been considered before, it certainly is now. One highly placed source stated:
“In light of Israeli efforts to get Jonathan Pollard released including overt blackmail, the current ‘bottoming out’ of relations between Israel and the Obama administration have created a very dangerous situation. Israel may well do anything.” OBAMA WARNS DURING NUCLEAR SUMMIT
On March 25, 2014, President Obama addressed the Nuclear Security
Summit at The Hague, Netherlands. 53 heads of state were in attendance.
Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel did not attend. This is the 3rd Nuclear Security Summit that Israel has boycotted thus far.
During the closing press conference, Dutch Prime Minister Rutte had just finished congratulating Iran on its cooperation, lauding the United States for a diplomatic success. Rutte made the following announcement while standing next to President Obama:
“…progress is being made. Take Iran. I spoke with President Rouhani in Davos at the World Economic Forum in January. We have now interim accords. The fact that I was able -- the first Dutch leader in over 30, 40 years who spoke with an Iranian leader, President Rouhani -- was possible because of the interim accords, and it seems that it is holding. America provides leadership there.”
New York City police screening passenger bags at a subway stop (file photo)
Then President Obama spoke:
“I continue to be much more concerned when it comes to our security with the prospect of a nuclear weapon going off in Manhattan”
Normally such a warning would seem less ominous but these are not “normal times.”
SPECIAL MEASURES
These assets include AWAC (Airborne Warning and Control) aircraft,
AEGIS missile defense naval assets and JLENS aerostat mounted cruise
missile defense systems.
It isn’t unusual for AEGIS ships to be offshore. It has been a standard procedure to use AEGIS to defend both New York and Washington since the “procedural failures” of NORAD on 9/11. However, AEGIS assets that had previously been assigned to provide the actual capability of Israel’s vaunted “Iron Dome” missile defense system are no longer “on station.”
This move signals one or more of the following strategic policy “adjustments” on the part of the US:
• The threat of a preemptive attack against Israel by Iran is considered nonexistent.
• Withdrawal of “Iron Dome” assets gives the US needed leverage during renewed Palestinian talks
• The US recognizes the dangerous relationship between extremist factions in both Israel and the US capable of actions, including nuclear terrorism that would be to the extreme detriment of both nations
CONSPIRACY THEORY ON EMBASSY CLOSURES
In 2010, Israeli historian, Martin van Creveld, stated that Israel
was ready to use nuclear weapons against capitals around the world if
“the Jewish State” were threatened.
Creveld, an advocate of Israel’s withdrawal to 1967 borders and a respected educator and pragmatist wasn’t issuing a threat. He may well have been informing the world, in his own way, of a “capability.”
Four days ago, the Israeli Foreign Ministry shut down all embassies around the world on the basis of a pay dispute with a trade union.
While this may well be true, others “less trusting” cite the long-time rumor that Israel has stored nuclear weapons in all her embassies.
“SNM” stands for “Special Nuclear Material.” Nuclear weapons give off, not only high energy photons but SNM is now detectable by satellite based sensors even if stored inside a shielded container.
Sources indicate that “SNM” has been detected at Israeli embassies and consular facilities. There is, in fact, a “war plan” that includes simultaneous assaults on the worldwide embassy/consular facilities of a TBD (To Be Determined) nation in case of “special circumstances.”
Though no specific mention of Israel is made, the infamous “Samson Option,” Israel’s plan to “take down the world” if threatened and the cryptic statements of Creveld come to mind.
Thus, with the mysterious closure of Israeli facilities around the world, facilities conspiracy theorists and perhaps “others” believe may contain “doomsday” nuclear weapons, other factors build a realistic threat mosaic:
• Israel’s wild conspiracy claims of Iran’s role in the Flight 370 hijacking
• US raising DEFCON threat levels to those not seen since the Cuban Missile Crisis
• Israel’s increased threats of preemptive attacks on Iran
• Calls by GOP congressman Duncan Hunter and others for a nuclear attack on Iran by the US
• The removal of over 70% of US nuclear weapons command personnel for “misconduct”
SILENCE SHOULD HAVE BEEN “GOLDEN”
Assailed from every side, Israel has had the opportunity to exercise
both intelligent restraint and diplomatic capability in response to
unprecedented worldwide condemnation.
Yet the choice has been to exercise every imaginable option to, not
only increase scorn and isolation but to seem as hostile and
irresponsible as possible.
One can only wonder if such policies are
intended more to unify Jews behind suicidal Israeli blunders than
support a “Jewish state.” - Press TV.
9 Air Force Officers Fired In Nuclear Missile Cheating Scandal
U.S. Air Force photo/Scott M. Ash
The fallout from an Air Force cheating scandal continues to spread, and now a significant portion of the leadership at a Montana nuclear base is getting sacked.
Nine officers in leadership positions were recommended for removal and are being reassigned, with Air Force Col. Robert Stanley, who oversees the missile crew, resigning, Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James said Thursday.
The officials weren’t involved in the reported cheating, but James says “they failed to provide adequate oversight of their crew force.”
And though Lt. Gen. Stephen Wilson, commander of Air Force Global Strike Force, couldn’t give the specific number of leadership positions at the Montana base, he said the removals represent a “significant portion” of the chain of command.
The duo announced in late January that 92 missilers—almost half—at the base were being investigated for alleged cheating on a monthly proficiency test, or for knowing about the cheating. James said Thursday that that number had grown to 100 missileers. So far nine have been cleared by investigators.
The alleged cheating also went on significantly longer than the two-month period officials originally reported, with the investigation suggesting that cheating could have started as early as November 2011 and could have continued until November 2013.
But officials remain confident after conducting an investigation across the country’s three nuclear missile bases that the cheating is only tied to the Montana base.
The Air Force’s investigation pointed to four crew members “at the center” of the cheating scandal in which test answers were reportedly shared via cellphone. Three of those four are also tied to an investigation into illegal drug use.
James and Wilson stressed that they remain confident in the nuclear-missile crew, but they are instituting a series of reforms in the wake of the far-reaching scandal including revamping testing procedures; looking at ways to redirect funding to improve readiness and quality of life for the nuclear missile crew; and reforming the crew force’s culture.
“If one person had spoken up this could have been very different, and so that’s why we’re really focusing on what integrity means,” James said. - Defense One.
Turkish Leaders ADMIT To Planning False Flag Terror To Justify A War With Syria
Ahmet Davutolu: “Prime Minister said that in current conjuncture, this attack (on Suleiman Shah Tomb) must be seen as an opportunity for us.”
Hakan Fidan: “I’ll send 4 men from Syria, if that’s what it takes. I’ll make up a cause of war by ordering a missile attack on Turkey; we can also prepare an attack on Suleiman Shah Tomb if necessary.”
Feridun Sinirliolu: “Our national security has become a common, cheap domestic policy outfit.”
Ya?ar Güler: “It’s a direct cause of war. I mean, what’re going to do is a direct cause of war.”
…
Feridun Sinirolu: There are some serious shifts in global and regional geopolitics. It now can spread to other places. You
said it yourself today, and others agreed… We’re headed to a different
game now. We should be able to see those. That ISIL and all that jazz,
all those organizations are extremely open to manipulation. Having a region made up of organizations of similar nature will constitute a vital security risk for us. And
when we first went into Northern Iraq, there was always the risk of PKK
blowing up the place. If we thoroughly consider the risks and
substantiate… As the general just said…
Yaar Güler: Sir, when you were inside a moment ago, we were discussing just that. Openly. I mean, armed forces are a “tool” necessary for you in every turn.
Ahmet Davutolu: Of course. I always tell the Prime Minister, in your absence, the same thing in academic jargon, you can’t stay in those lands without hard power. Without hard power, there can be no soft power.
A full translation can be found here
And just in case you had faith that this was all made up and Erdogan is right to ban it… he just admitted it was true! To summarize: a recording confirming a NATO-member country
planned a false-flag war with Syria (where have we seen that before?)
and all the Prime Minister has to say is the leak was “immoral.”
Erdogan is not amused:
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan described
the leaking on YouTube on Thursday of a recording of top security
officials discussing possible military operations in Syria as
“villainous”and the government blocked access to the video-sharing site.
… “They even leaked a national security meeting. This is
villainous, this is dishonesty…Who are you serving by doing audio
surveillance of such an important meeting?” Erdogan declared
before supporters at a rally ahead of March 30 local polls that will be a
key test of his support amid a corruption scandal.
In other words, the Turkish Prime Minister has admitted that the tape is authentic .. and is between top Turkish military and political leaders. Good Morning Turkey names names as to who was involved in the discussion:
Turkey’s foreign minister, intelligence chief and a top
army general …. Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, National Intelligence
Organization (MİT) Undersecretary Hakan Fidan, Foreign Ministry
Undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioğlu and Deputy Chief of General Staff
Gen. Yaşar Güler ….
Indeed, Turkey has been sheltering and training Syrian rebels for man years, and there have beenallegations for years that Turkey was instigating false flag attacks and blaming Syria. Nothing New … Governments from Around the World Admit They Carry Out False Flag Terror
Sadly, this is common, since governments from around the world admit they carry out false flag terror:
A major with the Nazi SS admitted at
the Nuremberg trials that – under orders from the chief of the Gestapo –
he and some other Nazi operatives faked attacks on their own people and
resources which they blamed on the Poles, to justify the invasion of
Poland. Nazi general Franz Halder also testified at the Nuremberg trials
that Nazi leader Hermann Goering admitted to setting fire to the German parliament building, and then falsely blaming the communists for the arson
Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev admitted in
writing that the Soviet Union’s Red Army shelled the Russian village of
Mainila in 1939, and declared that the fire originated from Finland as a
basis launching the Winter War four days later
Israel admits that
an Israeli terrorist cell operating in Egypt planted bombs in several
buildings, including U.S. diplomatic facilities, then left behind
“evidence” implicating the Arabs as the culprits (one of the bombs
detonated prematurely, allowing the Egyptians to identify the bombers,
and several of the Israelis later confessed) (and see this and this)
The CIA admits that
it hired Iranians in the 1950′s to pose as Communists and stage
bombings in Iran in order to turn the country against its
democratically-elected prime minister
As admitted by the U.S. government, recently declassified documents
show that in the 1960′s, the American Joint Chiefs of Staff signed off
on a plan to blow up AMERICAN airplanes (using an elaborate plan involving the switching of airplanes), and also to commit terrorist acts on American soil, and then to blame it on the Cubans in order to justify an invasion of Cuba. See the following ABC news report; the official documents; and watch this interview with the former Washington Investigative Producer for ABC’s World News Tonight with Peter Jennings.
2 years before, American Senator George Smathers had suggested that
the U.S. make “a false attack made on Guantanamo Bay which would give
us the excuse of actually fomenting a fight which would then give us the
excuse to go in and [overthrow Castro]“.
And Official State Department documents show that – only nine months
before the Joint Chiefs of Staff plan was proposed – the head of the
Joint Chiefs and other high-level officials discussed blowing
up a consulate in the Dominican Republic in order to justify an
invasion of that country. The 3 plans were not carried out, but they
were all discussed as serious proposals
A U.S. Congressional committee admitted that
– as part of its “Cointelpro” campaign – the FBI had used many
provocateurs in the 1950s through 1970s to carry out violent acts and
falsely blame them on political activists
The South African Truth and Reconciliation Council found that,
in 1989, the Civil Cooperation Bureau (a covert branch of the South
African Defense Force) approached an explosives expert and asked him “to
participate in an operation aimed at discrediting the ANC [the African
National Congress] by bombing the police vehicle of the investigating
officer into the murder incident”, thus framing the ANC for the bombing
An Algerian diplomat and several officers in the Algerian army admit that,
in the 1990s, the Algerian army frequently massacred Algerian civilians
and then blamed Islamic militants for the killings (and see this video; and Agence France-Presse, 9/27/2002, French Court Dismisses Algerian Defamation Suit Against Author)
Senior Russian Senior military and intelligence officers admit that
the KGB blew up Russian apartment buildings and falsely blamed it on
Chechens, in order to justify an invasion of Chechnya (and see this report and this discussion)
According to the Washington Post,
Indonesian police admit that the Indonesian military killed American
teachers in Papua in 2002 and blamed the murders on a Papuan separatist
group in order to get that group listed as a terrorist organization.
The well-respected former Indonesian president also admits that the government probably had a role in the Bali bombings
As reported by BBC, the New York Times, and Associated Press,
Macedonian officials admit that the government murdered 7 innocent
immigrants in cold blood and pretended that they were Al Qaeda soldiers
attempting to assassinate Macedonian police, in order to join the “war
on terror”.
Former Department of Justice lawyer John Yoo suggested in
2005 that the US should go on the offensive against al-Qaeda, having
“our intelligence agencies create a false terrorist organization. It
could have its own websites, recruitment centers, training camps, and
fundraising operations. It could launch fake terrorist operations and
claim credit for real terrorist strikes, helping to sow confusion within
al-Qaeda’s ranks, causing operatives to doubt others’ identities and to
question the validity of communications.”
U.S. intelligence officers are reporting that some of the
insurgents in Iraq are using recent-model Beretta 92 pistols, but the
pistols seem to have had their serial numbers erased. The numbers do not
appear to have been physically removed; the pistols seem to have come
off a production line without any serial numbers. Analysts suggest the
lack of serial numbers indicates that the weapons were intended for
intelligence operations or terrorist cells with substantial government
backing. Analysts speculate that these guns are probably from either
Mossad or the CIA. Analysts speculate that agent provocateurs may be
using the untraceable weapons even as U.S. authorities use insurgent
attacks against civilians as evidence of the illegitimacy of the
resistance.
Undercover Israeli soldiers admitted in
2005 to throwing stones at other Israeli soldiers so they could blame
it on Palestinians, as an excuse to crack down on peaceful protests by
the Palestinians
Quebec police admitted that, in 2007, thugs carrying rocks to a peaceful protest were actually undercover Quebec police officers (and see this)
At the G20 protests in London in 2009, a British member of parliament saw plain clothes police officers attempting to incite the crowd to violence
A Colombian army colonel has admitted that his unit murdered 57 civilians, then dressed them in uniforms and claimed they were rebels killed in combat
U.S. soldiers have admitted that
if they kill innocent Iraqis and Afghanis, they then “drop” automatic
weapons near their body so they can pretend they were militants
The highly-respected writer for the Telegraph Ambrose
Evans-Pritchard says that the head of Saudi intelligence – Prince Bandar
– recently admitted that the Saudi government controls “Chechen” terrorists
So Common … There’s a Name for It
This tactic is so common that it was given a name for hundreds of years ago. “False flag terrorism” is defined as a government attacking its own
people, then blaming others in order to justify going to war against the
people it blames. Or as Wikipedia defines it:
False flag operations are covert operations conducted by
governments, corporations, or other organizations, which are designed to
appear as if they are being carried out by other entities. The name is
derived from the military concept of flying false colors; that is,
flying the flag of a country other than one’s own. False flag operations
are not limited to war and counter-insurgency operations, and have been
used in peace-time; for example, during Italy’s strategy of tension.
The term comes from the old days of wooden ships, when one ship would
hang the flag of its enemy before attacking another ship in its own
navy. Because the enemy’s flag, instead of the flag of the real country
of the attacking ship, was hung, it was called a “false flag” attack.
Indeed, this concept is so well-accepted that rules of engagement for naval, air and land warfare all prohibit false flag attacks.
Leaders Throughout History Have Acknowledged False Flags
Leaders throughout history have acknowledged the danger of false flags:
“This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector.”
- Plato
“If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.”
- U.S. President James Madison
“A history of false flag attacks used to manipulate the minds of the
people! “In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties,
nations, and epochs it is the rule.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche
“Terrorism is the best political weapon for nothing drives people harder than a fear of sudden death”.
- Adolph Hitler
“Why of course the people don’t want war … But after all it is the
leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it is always a
simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a
fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship …
Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of
the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are
being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and
exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”
- Hermann Goering, Nazi leader.
“The easiest way to gain control of a population is to carry out acts
of terror. [The public] will clamor for such laws if their personal
security is threatened”.
- Josef Stalin
People Are Waking Up to False Flags
People are slowly waking up to this whole con job by governments who want to justify war.
More people are talking about the phrase “false flag” than ever before. - Info Wars.
NATO’s Plans For False Flag Attack On Turkey Revealed
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ban of YouTube occurred
after a leaked conversation between Head of Turkish Intelligence Hakan
Fidan and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu that he wanted
removed from the video-sharing website.It released the full transcript
of a leaked conversation between the head of Turkish intelligence Hakan
Fidan and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu. The Times reported:
The leaked call details Erdogan’s thoughts that an attack on Syria “must be seen as an opportunity for us [Turkey]“.
In the conversation, intelligence chief Fidan says that
he will send four men from Syria to attack Turkey to “make up a cause of
war”.
Deputy Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Yaşar Güler replies that
Fidan’s projected actions are “a direct cause of war…what you’re going
to do is a direct cause of war”.
Turkey’s foreign ministry said the leaked recording of
top officials discussing the Syria operation was “partially manipulated”
and is a “wretched attack” on national security.
In the leaked video, Fidan is discussing with Davutoğlu,
Güler and other officials a possible operation within Syria to secure
the tomb of Suleyman Shah, grandfather of the founder of the Ottoman
empire.
The Western media has purposefully obsessed myopically over Turkey’s
ban of Twitter and Facebook and leaks regarding “corruption,” in an
attempt to sidestep conversations revealing Turkey, a NATO member for
decades, planning a false flag attack that would lead to an
intentionally provoked war with neighboring Syria.
This comes as Turkey provides air support, logistics, and artillery cover for members of the US State Department designated terrorist group Al Nursa who have been leading an ongoing offensive from Turkish territory into Syria’s northwestern province of Latakia.
Since the operation began days ago, Turkey has fired on and shot down
a Syrian warplane that was targeting Al Nusra militants in Syrian
territory. While Turkey claims the warplane violated Turkish airspace, the plane crashed in Syrian territory, and the pilot ejected and was recovered on Syrian soil.
The incident has been used by Turkey to lay the rhetorical groundwork
to further escalate tensions between Ankara and Damascus, most likely in
an attempt to serve as an impetus for war instead of NATO’s riskier
false flag operation.
Turkey’s belligerent posture in the north of Syria is matched by a
joint US-Saudi offensive in the south, near the Syrian-Jordanian border
city of Daraa. Called the “Southern Front,” the offensive appears to
already have been neutralized by Syrian security forces.
Regarding the creation of the “Southern Front,” the US
corporate-funded policy think tank, the Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace, even stated in its post, “Does the “Southern Front” Exist?,” that:
Rather than an initiative from the rebels themselves, word is that it was foreign officials that
called on rebel commanders to sign a statement declaring their
opposition to extremism, saying it was a precondition for getting more
guns and money. Since beggars can’t be choosers, the commanders then
collectively shrugged their shoulders and signed—but not so much to
declare a new alliance as to help U.S. officials tick all the right
boxes in their reports back home, hoping that this would unlock another
crate of guns.
March 28, 2014 - ENGLAND- The first documented evidence that TB can spread from cats to humans has been reported by public health officials, confirming long-held concerns about the disease's capacity to jump from one of Britain's favourite pets.
Two
people developed active TB after close contact with cats in 2013
following an outbreak involving
nine animals in west Berkshire and
Hampshire. Photograph: Petr Bonek/Alamy
Public Health England (PHE) said on Thursday that the risk of the disease being transmitted from cats to people was very low. However, putting down cats confirmed to have TB was the most sensible course of action because people having close contact with them faced a potentially significant risk of infection, it said.
Two people were found to have developed active TB after close contact with cats last year following an outbreak involving nine animals in west Berkshire and Hampshire. They are said to be responding to treatment. Two other people were found to have latent TB, meaning they had been exposed to the disease at some point but it was not active.
The risk of the spread of TB from cats to humans had previously been regarded by UK advisers as negligible despite the potential for transmission being recognised after years of serious outbreaks in cattle, which have led to controversial badger culls.
The outbreak of the disease in cats, caused by a strain known as Mycobacterium bovis (M bovis), came to light via a veterinary practice, and led to screening being offered to 39 people, 24 of whom accepted. Six of the nine cats were put down, three were treated.
The head of gastrointestinal, emerging and zoonotic diseases at PHE, Dilys Morgan, said: "It's important to remember that this was a very unusual cluster of TB in domestic cats. M bovis is still uncommon in cats – it mainly affects livestock animals. These are the first documented cases of cat-to-human transmission, and so although PHE has assessed the risk of people catching this infection from infected cats as being very low, we are recommending that household and close contacts of cats with confirmed M bovis infection should be assessed and receive public health advice."
Molecular analysis at the government's Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency (AVHLA) showed that M bovis isolated from the infected cats and the people with active TB were indistinguishable, indicating transmission of the bacterium from an infected cat. In the cases of latent TB, it has not been possible to confirm the source of their exposure or whether they were caused by M bovis.
The findings on the animal health side were due to be published in The Veterinary Record on Thursday.
Transmission of M bovis from infected animals to humans can occur by inhaling or ingesting bacteria shed by the animal or through contamination of unprotected cuts in the skin while handling infected animals or their carcasses.
The head of the bovine TB genotyping group at AHVLA, Noel Smith, said: "Testing of nearby herds revealed a small number of infected cattle with the same strain of M bovis as the cats. However, direct contact of the cats with these cattle was unlikely considering their roaming ranges. The most likely source of infection is infected wildlife, but cat-to-cat transmission cannot be ruled out."
Cattle herds with confirmed cases of bovine TB in the area have all been placed under movement restrictions to prevent the spread of disease. Experts are said to be on the lookout for further cases of disease caused by M bovis in humans, cats or any other pet and livestock animal species.
In the 1930s, TB caused by M bovis killed 2,500 people a year and infected 50,000, but now the route is diagnosed in fewer than 40 Britons a year, mostly in over-65s through reactivation of latent infection dating from before the introduction of hygiene controls, including routine milk pasteurisation. This accounts for less than 1% of all diagnosed TB cases in the country, and those who work closely with livestock and/or drink unpasteurised milk are most at risk.
Fewer than 30 cats in Britain were identified as having TB between 2006 and 2012, although research from Edinburgh University last year suggested far more cats developed the disease than had previously been thought. The government's cross-UK Human Animal Infections and Risk Surveillance group (Hairs) also considers present figures to be underestimated. Incidents usually happen where TB is endemic in cattle and wildlife.
The Berkshire/Hampshire outbreak, involving seven confirmed and two suspected cases between December 2012 and March 2013, has taken time to report because of the detailed investigations necessary. The nine cats belonged to nine separate homes, six of them within 250 metres of each other. Seven cases matched a distinct M bovis strain, detected in cattle in the area in 2008. All the cats had severe systemic infection. Some had non-healing or discharging wounds, or a recent history of bites.
The Hairs report on the incidents said: "There is currently no evidence to suggest that transmission of M bovis from cat to human is anything other than a rare event." - Guardian.
March 28, 2014 - GLOBAL ECONOMY- The banker suicide saga has just reached a new level as a top level
JP Morgan attorney has been exterminated in a hit & run
incident involving a minivan.
A Dublin cyclist was struck and killed along a Miami County Road on Sunday.
JPM attorney Joseph Giampapa was killed over the weekend when he was struck by a minivan in a hit and run incident. Giampapa was reportedly hit and thrown 150 ft and was pronounced dead at the scene. No charges have been filed.
It gets better: Giampapa was JP Morgan’s top commercial bankruptcy lawyer (SVP).
Somehow we suspect the incident was not inflicted by a soccer mom. - Silver Doctors.
Dublin Cyclist Killed During Biking Trip In Miami County
The crash occurred on Troy-Sidney Road near Loy Road, just southeast of Piqua.
A 56-year-old Dublin man was killed Saturday morning when he was struck by a car in Miami County.
Joseph Giampapa was riding alone on Troy-Sidney Road when he was struck by a car at about 11:08 a.m. Saturday morning.
The driver of the car called 911 and Miami County Sheriff deputies
responded to the scene. Giampapa was found lying in the driveway of a
home located in the 6500 block of Troy-Sidney Road in Springcreek
Township.
He was pronounced dead at the scene by medic personnel.
Deputies say Giampapa was taking part in a 200 mile bike ride with a bicycle club named Ohio Randonneurs.
Their route started in Springfield and went through Troy, then reversed course.Deputies believe Giampapa was on his return trip when the crash occurred.
"Joe was an extremely accomplished cyclist a responsible cyclist and
that's what makes this tragedy so mind numbing," said Jeff Stephens, a
friend of Giampapa. "That road that Joe was on was flat. No trees. It
was just wide open visibility." Giampapa's family released the following statement:
"The
family and friends of Joseph Giampapa want to thank the community for
their outpouring of love and concern. We are grieving horribly over this
avoidable loss.
We hope that from this senseless
tragedy, there will be an increased awareness of and respect for
cyclists who share the road with motorists.
The Ohio
Bike Federation has been trying to pass a 'three-foot biking law'
through the legislature. We urge the community to support this important
measure.
Please keep our dear Joe - and all other cyclists who have lost their lives -in your thoughts."
No charges have been filed at this time. The crash remains under investigation. - NBC4i.
March 28, 2014 - RUSSIA- Russia has enough mechanisms to protect the market and citizens from
genetically modified food, without violating its obligations to the WTO,
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday.
EPA/LASZLO CZIKA
"We must build our work so as it will not be contrary to our obligations within the WTO, but even with the circumstance taken into consideration, we nevertheless have lawful methods and instruments to protect the domestic market and citizens," the president noted during the meeting with members of the council of the parliament's upper house.
The market and citizens must be protected from poor-quality products and food, consequences of consumption of which are not fully studied yet, he notes.
"We can, must and will do it," Putin said, noting that the issue was discussed by the Security Council recently.
"We must act carefully, not to the detriment of our obligations within the WTO, but it can be done," the president repeated, noting scientific and laboratory research should be used. "We will do it together with the public, specialists and deputies," he said.
Putin with regret noted there was no control over GMO use. "We cannot 100% say what a volume enters our market," he said.
During the meeting, one of the senators noted the turnover of GMO seeds amounted to about $50 billion. The main holder of the right was the United States, he said. The senator asked the president to control it and noted that a draft law was submitted to ban import of such food into the country. - ITAR-TASS.
March 28, 2014 - JAPAN- The operator of Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, TEPCO,
suspended the cleanup at the facility after one of the workers died
while digging a ditch Friday.
This handout picture taken by Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) on March
28, 2014 shows a pit under a storage house
where a worker was burried in
earth and rubble while digging a hole at the site at TEPCO's Fukushima
dai-ichi nuclear
plant in Okuma in Fukushima prefecture. (AFP Photo)
A man in his fifties was buried under gravel as he was digging
near the nuclear plant’s storage area, Tokyo Electric Power Co.
said.
The worker was dug out and rushed to hospital, but failed to
regain consciousness and was pronounced dead three hours after
the incident.
“In the three years since the disaster, we had not had any worker
deaths caused by work [inside the plant]. The fact that such a serious
accident has occurred is deeply regrettable,” said Masayuki Ono, a
spokesperson for TEPCO in Tokyo, Reuters reported.
All cleanup operations at the plant have been suspended for an
immediate safety inspection, Kyodo News reports.
Like most of the laborers at the disaster-hit nuclear plant, the
worker was hired by TEPCO through a subcontractor.
This handout picture taken by Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) on March
28, 2014 shows a pit under a storage house
where a worker was burried in
earth and rubble while digging a hole at the site at TEPCO's Fukushima
dai-ichi nuclear
plant in Okuma in Fukushima prefecture. (AFP Photo)
The Fukushima operator didn’t announce the man’s name or his
direct employer, only saying that he reported up to Toso Fudosan
Kanri Company, a first-tier contractor under TEPCO.
Friday’s fatality was the fifth death among the workers involved
in the cleanup operation at the Fukushima plant. According to
TEPCO, three people have died from heart attacks and one died
from leukemia.
The company said that none of the deaths were related to
radiation exposure as the workers are thoroughly monitored and
removed from duty after reaching an annual radiation limit.
Earlier Friday, TEPCO said that work to remove fuel rods from one
of the destroyed reactor buildings had been also halted.
The delay was caused by a worker mishandling a giant crane on
Wednesday as he damaged the mechanism by moving it without
disengaging the handbrake.
TEPCO has been widely criticized for its handling of the cleanup,
which has been plagued by a series of leaks of contaminated
radioactive water from hastily built tanks.
About 436,000 cubic meters of contaminated radioactive water is
stored at the site in about 1,200 tanks, with the operator
struggling to decontaminate it due to frequent failures of
equipment.
In mid-January, TEPCO warned that nuclear radiation at the
boundaries of the damaged power plant had jumped to eight times
the government safety guideline.
An investigation by Reuters last year revealed widespread labor
abuses at Fukushima, with workers speaking of lack of scrutiny
over working conditions inside the plant and their payments being
skimmed.
An earthquake and tsunami hit the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, which
is situated just 220 kilometers away from capital Tokyo, on March
11, 2011.
Three reactors at the facility went into meltdown and exploded
causing the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in
1986.
The contamination of water, food and air in the area forces over
160,000 residents to flee from nearby towns and villages. - RT.
March 28, 2014 - CANADA - The province is ill-prepared for a catastrophic earthquake, according to Auditor General Russ Jones.
In an audit released by Jones on Tuesday,
the Auditor General found that Emergency Management B.C. – the
organization tasked with preparing government’s response to disasters –
and the provincial government have not made preparing for an earthquake a
priority.
The EMBC is staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a
week, and responds to approximately 6,000 incidents a year related to
dangerous good spills, search and rescue, major floods, fires,
landslides and avalanches.
The majority of staff time is spent on
immediate emergencies and the lack of critical long-term resources (such
as a logistics planner) and its limited funding constrain its ability
to plan for a large-scale earthquake, the audit says.
EMBC’s current operating budget for emergency activities sits around $6.2 million, about the same as in 2006 despite the fact B.C.’s population has increased by 10 per cent and its property value has doubled since then.
No significant progress been made to prepare for a catastrophic earthquake since the AG’s office first identified gaps in 1997, Jones said.
“Successive government have decided to allocate scarce public resources to meet more immediate pressing demands, rather than to adequately prepare the province for a catastrophic earthquake that may or may not occur,” said Jones in a statement. “EMBC staff is busy with daily emergencies such as floods and fires so catastrophic earthquake planning is done as a side-of-desk activity.”
The report makes nine recommendations, including one that says the government should develop long-term goals and set level of preparedness targets for EMBC to achieve in the next five, 10 and 15 years.
The Ministry of Justice responded saying it will “be taking immediate action on all nine” of the AG’s recommendations.
“It’s a tough report,” admitted Minister Suzanne Anton to media in Victoria. “What the Auditor General is missing, and what I’m going to be working on, is what’s the big picture, what is the overall structure. We do need to put that bigger picture in place.”
Her first attempt at addressing the AG’s concerns didn’t go smoothly.
Anton announced a consultation and public education campaign on earthquake preparedness on March 11 in advance of the audit’s release.
But the plan was immediately mired in controversy over the appointment of former B.C. Solicitor General John Les as co-chair.
His $140,000 contract, and questions over qualifications, was seen as a patronage appointment, leading to Premier Christy Clark quickly putting an end to his involvement.
NDP public safety critic Kathy Corrigan called Jones’ findings “damning” and criticized the government’s response.
“The only emergency that the B.C. Liberals were prepared for was a political one,” she said. - Metro News.
March 28, 2014 - INDIA - A recently acquired C-130J transport aircraft of the Indian Air Force crashed 72 miles west of Gwalior airbase on Friday morning, killing at least five personnel on board.
File Photo. The Indian Air
Force's new C-130 J aircraft, one of six bought from the US two years
ago, has crashed near Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh.
The IAF has no official word yet on how many personnel were aboard the aircraft.
The crash of the four-engine US made aircraft has baffled experienced pilots, given its safety records and extreme agility. One senior air force pilot said the accident was "bizarre", and speculated that either the crew was incapacitated or a fire broke out aboard the plane.
Rescue operations are underway at the crash site, air force sources said. "The aircraft was airborne from Agra at 10am for a routine flying training mission. A court of inquiry has been ordered to investigate into the cause of the accident," the IAF said in a statement.
The crash took place in Karauli district in Rajasthan, some 72 miles from Gwalior, where it was due to land.
The IAF started inducting C-130J in February 2011 and has half a dozen of them in service. It is also set to induct another six of them.
The C-130J is among the most agile aircraft in service today, and has an impressive safety record. The transport aircraft is meant for an array of operations including movement of Special Forces, and difficult landings.
It was highly effective in rescue operations in Uttarakhand after the flash floods, and has proven its capability to carry out landings on remote airstrips close to China border. Both these have exhibited the flexibility and capability of the American aircraft, manufactured by Lockheed Martin.
Starting its history sometime in the 1950s with the US military, C-130 is among the world's most recognizable military aircraft that has participated in numerous military campaigns and in service with several militaries.
Though several C-130s have crashed during Vietnam war, the aircraft is reputed for its reliability. Last time South Asia saw a C-130 crash was when a C-130 aircraft of the Pakistan air force carrying Pakistani dictator General Zia-ul-Haq and the US ambassador Arnold Lewis Raphel were killed when it crashed on August 17, 1988. - Times of India.
March 28, 2014 - CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES - Five California harbors – including three here in the Southland – are
preparing for future tsunamis under a new state project that arms them
with maps that identify potential problem areas.
KNX 1070′s Jan Stevens reports officials will use the maps to take
into account tsunamis of different strengths and sources, allowing
harbor managers to draw up emergency plans to get vessels to safety.
Officials with the California Geological Survey along with the state Office of Emergency Services announced Friday the list of participating harbors, including Los Angeles/Long Beach, Ventura, San Diego, Santa Cruz and Crescent City.
Future plans could also expand the mapping to over 100 marinas and harbors statewide, the Associated Press reported.
A map of “tsunami zones” along the California coast also shows a potential tsunami threat could extend as far inland as portions of Costa Mesa, Rancho Los Alamitos, and the Los Angeles River in Long Beach.
(Photo credit: JOE KLAMAR/AFP/GettyImages)
Kevin Miller with the California Office of Emergency Services said individuals can also take steps to prepare for a tsunami event.
“People can walk from the coast out of the zone to safety, triggering that muscle memory when an event occurs,” Miller said. “Having done it in the past, people can feel better that they know what to do and they don’t have to think about it as much, having done it before.”
The announcement comes days ahead of Tsunami Preparedness Week, which spans from March 23-29 and coincides with the 50th anniversary of the 1964 Alaska earthquake, in which 12 people were killed after a magnitude-9.2 quake in Alaska triggered tsunami waves.
The passing of this internet governance legislation by Brazil could be an historic moment for the future of the web
.
March 28, 2014 - BRAZIL - On Tuesday night, a sweeping majority of Brazil’s lower chamber of congress voted in favour of a so-called “Internet constitution,”
which will enshrine net-neutrality and is intended to protect its
citizens’ online privacy.
The Marco Civil da Internet still needs to be
cleared by the Senate before becoming law, but the result nevertheless
marks a rare and significant boon for pro-privacy activists the world
over, who are still reeling from Edward Snowden’s infamous NSA
revelations.
The Bill includes provisions to ensure freedom of expression on the internet, with users’ communications only allowed to be disclosed at the behest of a court order. Telecoms companies would no longer to be able to charge different prices for certain types of content and limits would also be set on what sorts of data could be gathered on users.
The government was forced to drop a controversial provision of the Bill which would have ensured that data gathered about Brazilian citizens would remain on servers within Brazil, under pressure from large companies such as Google and Yahoo who claimed the costs would be prohibitive. Instead, data stored about Brazilians would be subject to Brazilian law, regardless of what country it was stored in. Of course, how exactly this could be enforced by the Brazilian government remains to be seen.
Since Snowden’s NSA leaks, Brazil has been one of the staunchest critics of the US’s pernicious spying programmes, especially after it emerged Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff’s personal calls and emails had been monitored. Rousseff told the UN General Assembly last September that the spying was an “unacceptable” violation of human rights, adding: “Meddling in such a manner in the lives and affairs of other countries is a breach of international law and as such it is an affront to the principles that should otherwise govern relations among countries.”
Rousseff, along with German chancellor, Angela Merkel was instrumental in the draft UN resolution brought to the General Assembly at the end of last year, which sought to put an end to the intrusive electronic espionage epitomised by the NSA scandal, and enshrine the right to privacy online.
The Marco Civil da Internet was supported by a petition on global civic activism site, Avaaz, which had garnered over 340,000 signatures at the time of writing. It is hoped the Bill may be brought into law ahead of a global conference on Internet governance being hosted in Brazil next month.
José Nantala, a Brazilian internet law specialist told Reuters: ”The law is balanced because it protects internet access and privacy at the same time. But it doesn’t resolve the problem of jurisdiction in international cases.”
It is still unclear whether other countries will follow Brazil’s example, but they are certainly making steps in the right direction in terms of protecting their citizens’ rights online. - Planet Ivy.
March 28, 2014 - BRAZIL -Brazilians just set an international precedence for getting rid of
GMO crops through a shocking and historic legal decision made by the
Federal Court of Appeals of the 4th Circuit – TRF4.
The
court unanimously ruled to annul a decision, previously passed by the
Technical Committee on National Security (CTNBio), that would have
allowed Bayer’s transgenic, GMO corn, called Liberty Link, to infiltrate
the agricultural landscape of the country.
This decision will create legal groundwork for
other countries to get rid of biotech monopolies and force more
thorough risk assessments concerning human health and environmental
degradation before releasing GMO crops commercially.
Bayer is a
multinational company with interests in spreading their products, like
Liberty Link corn, into numerous agricultural markets. This legal action
in Brazil halts that effort in an enormous way. The Federal Court’s
decision was made on the grounds that insufficient studies were
conducted to assess risk of Bayer’s GMO crop.
The
ruling was based on a Civil Action brought forward by Terra de
Direitos, translated as Land Rights, and the National Association of
Small Farmers and AS-PTA, who collectively challenged the safety and
legality of commercially releasing Liberty Link corn. The case was begun
in 2007, and finally resolved with this GMO-shattering decision.
Finally, somewhere in the world where judges aren’t paid lackeys of
Monsanto, Bayer, Syngenta, Dow, and their biotech boys-club – Federal
Judge Candido Silva Alfredo Junior read his ruling for over an hour,
stressing the importance for studies on the negative impacts of GMOs in
all biomes. Leal Junior also pointed out that few studies had been
conducted in other countries, and the law, at least in Brazil, requires
that the decision of CTNBio be supported by major studies of the effect
on multiple biospheres by GMO crops and the pesticide and herbicides
used with them.
Additionally, the judge ordered CTNBio to be
transparent, sharing studies conducted with the public via a dossier
processed by the Commission, and allowing numerous experts to
participate in the decisions on trade liberalization, especially
concerning GMOs.
Judge
Leal Junior’s lead was followed in full by Federal judges Marga Inge
Barth Tessler, Vivian Josete Pantaleon Caminha, and Carlos Eduardo
Flores Thompson Lenz. Lenz had previously voted to allow the release of
transgenic crops, but changed his position, in support of Judge Leal
Junior’s heroic stance calling for more unbiased science that truly
assesses the dangers of GMO.
This decision will make it illegal to
market genetically modified corn in North and Northeast regions of
Brazil since technical studies on their effect on both humans and the
ecosystem have not been carried out. This decision could possibly force
all of Brazil to review other GMO crops and ban them accordingly.
A lawyer familiar with the case, for Terra de Direitos said:
“After
ten years of commercial release of GM crops in Brazil, the debate over
the issue has intensified in more complex ways, exposing the weakness of
pesticides and GMO-based agriculture. The court decision today is an
important element that will add to the people’s struggle for a model of
agriculture based on agroecology, which guarantees rights for farmers
and healthy food without pesticides for the population.”
March 28, 2014 - WEST AFRICA -The outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus said to have already claimed
63 lives in rural Guinea has now spread to the West African nation’s
capital, Conakry, with the Health Ministry ringing the alarm and
officials calling it a “threat to regional security.”
What was originally being reported as a mysterious illness infecting
people in the country of Guinea,
has now been confirmed to be an
outbreak of the Ebola virus.
A total of four capital dwellers have fallen victim to the hemorrhagic fever – one of the deadliest viruses known to man. They are currently in quarantine, Reuters reports, citing local Health Minister Remy Lamah.
The origin of the outbreak in Conakry appears to be an old man who visited a place about 150km away from the previously-identified outbreaks. After his funeral, four of his brothers started showing similar symptoms, and were immediately quarantined.
Medical sources also confirmed two staff members at the Kipe University Hospital in Conakry are exhibiting signs of the hemorrhagic fever. This is where the initial victims were treated upon discovery of suspicious symptoms.
Diagram of how the Ebola virus infects the human body.
After the virus claimed 63 lives in the rural Forest region of Guinea, the spread to Conakry, with its population of 2 million – and an international airport – is seen as a serious escalation by officials. And the problem is beginning to affect the western region of Africa as well, with at least six Guinean arrivals dead in Sierra Leone and Liberia from symptoms closely resembling Ebola.
It is a very infectious disease whose symptoms involve diarrhea, vomiting and bleeding among other things, and it kills between 25 and 90 percent of those who fall victim to it, depending on the virus’s strain.
And the disease hadn’t been endemic to Guinea; it is more commonly witnessed in Congo, Uganda and Sudan – which is in the north-east. The first fatal outbreak in West Africa dates back to early February, when it took poorly equipped health authorities almost six weeks to identify the symptoms and scramble to contain them. But by then it was too late. The virus’s incubation period is three weeks.
The UN has now been brought in to help deal with the situation, as have a number of NGOs. This weekend saw Doctors without Borders (MSF) bring in 33 tons of aid to help treatment and containment efforts.
Local airline Gambia Bird has announced breaks and delays in services to Conakry to be in place by Sunday.
A motorcyclist rides past garbage strewn on the street in Conakry March 27, 2014. (Reuters / Saliou Samb)
Sanitary controls in neighboring countries are being activated, and border crossings have been closed to the north, with Mauritania, who only left two border posts open with Senegal.
The search for any vaccine or drug has thus far been hampered by the disease’s rarity. But health experts warn against obvious dangers, such as eating fruit bats. The animal is a local delicacy, but is a widely-known potential carrier of the disease. Bush meat is another cause for concern. Both types of meat have now been banned – as are public funerals, where proximity to the body is often the cause for the infection of groups of people.
The virus is incredibly contagious. It can spread through contact with contaminated corpses – as in the case of the last outbreak involving the four men – as well as direct contact with blood, feces and sweat. It’s not hard to picture a nightmare scenario in a country prone to hot weather.
But the spread itself can come much more unexpectedly as well. All it takes is one infected plane passenger, and the prospects are truly harrowing: the local Health Ministry in Canada's Saskatchewan province put a man and his entire family in quarantine after he exhibited disturbing symptoms upon arrival from Africa by plane.
The virus first appeared in 1976 in the DRC (formerly Zaire), and has since killed 1,500 people. Its name takes from a river in northern Congo. - RT.
