Gene-specific weapons research by US, Israel and South Africa

First, I wasn't sure if this belonged here or in the Weapons forum. I decided on here since the weapon would seem to be the end-product of a pretty extensive military & government project. Also, I couldn't find any threads on ATS dealing with this, but if anyone knows of any, please let me know!

Israel and South Africa both apparently have confirmed research projects to develop gene-specific weapons (possibly continuing by Israel, discontinued by South Africa and exposed by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission). If reports are to be believed, in both cases the weapons general purpose would be to target members of a specific ethnicity. Israel and South Africa worked together to develop their respective nuclear programs, so I'm wondering if this too was a joint effort or more a case of parallel evolution. The US has also done some gene-specific weapons research, but not (it seems) as extensively as the prior two countries.

The purpose of this post is to a.) bring people's awareness to this fact and invite comments, and b.) to ask if anyone knows more about this and could post any links/info they may have?

Some websites/articles I found:

Israel

The intention is to use the ability of viruses and certain bacteria to alter the DNA inside their host's living cells. The scientists are trying to engineer deadly micro-organisms that attack only those bearing the distinctive genes.

The programme is based at the biological institute in Nes Tziyona, the main research facility for Israel's clandestine arsenal of chemical and biological weapons.

A scientist there said the task was hugely complicated because both Arabs and Jews are of semitic origin. But he added: "They have, however, succeeded in pinpointing a particular characteristic in the genetic profile of certain Arab communities, particularly the Iraqi people." The disease could be spread by spraying the organisms into the air or putting them in water supplies.

The research mirrors biological studies conducted by South African scientists during the apartheid era and revealed in testimony before the truth and reconciliation commission.

Dedi Zucker, a member of knesset, the Israeli parliament, denounced the research yesterday. "Morally, based on our history, and our tradition and our experience, such a weapon is monstrous and should be denied," he said.

Source: London Times, November 1998? Full article reprinted at:

www.jerusalem.indymedia.org...

Lots of info and links on all countries, but mainly Israel, here: quantumfuture.net...

South Africa

Project Coast ground to a halt in 1988, due to corruption by Basson and
others. According to interviews with Project Coast scientists, between 1982
and 1987, Project Coast was advancing as a sophisticated program.113 Project Coast had acquired anthrax, cholera, botulinum, and other biological agents, was planning to add a wing to RRL to produce massive amounts of anthrax, and was proceeding with genetic engineering research to produce germs that would harm blacks and not whites.

Source: USAF Institute for National Security Studies, www.usafa.af.mil...

United States

Past research on ethnic weapons has been rare. The last known attempt to create ethnic weapons was a widely condemned program conducted in the 1980s by the apartheid regime of South Africa, which tried to develop an agent to selectively sterilize black women.

The new US malodorant program began in 1998 and is the first known US work on population-specific weapons since "Project Agile" in 1966. In Agile, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) commissioned the Battelle Institute to assess the possibility of making malodorants to specifically target Vietnamese people. Agile was short-lived and did not reach a laboratory phase.

Source: Sunshine Project, www.sunshine-project.de...

-koji K.

[edit on 30-7-2004 by koji_K]

This is a topic about which there has been a great deal of speculation for decades. Weapons of this type represent a greater threat to some nations than others.

Countries with relative genetic diversity are least threatened, while those nations with large genetically-similar populations would be most threatened.

It is worth remembering that genetic identifiers are not confined by national boundaries and that, consequently, projects such as these are of questionable value in the context of strategic warfare.

However, weapons developed under a sufficently advanced program of this kind could conceivably be keyed to smaller genetic groups, or even individuals, providing for the possibility of the use of "designer bugs" as assassination tools.

The quote attributed to an unnamed Nes Tziyona scientist is suspect. The nature of a project of this kind is such that no rational government would ever admit to sponsoring it, but that does not mean such projects do not exist, nor that they have never existed.

It's not clear to me what the status of such programs might be, but this is certainly the kind of genie one would want to be very careful about releasing from its bottle.




[edit on 7/30/2004 by Majic]

I've read some stuffs about these researches. I've heard about a secret Israeli laboratory based on the site of "Nes Tsiona".

Read this article : Israel is develloping an "ethnic bomb"

Originally posted by Nans DESMICHELS
I've read some stuffs about these researches. I've heard about a secret Israeli laboratory based on the site of "Nes Tsiona".

Read this article : Israel is develloping an "ethnic bomb"

Hmmm... Interesting...

I never heard of those attempts to make an "ethnic bomb"...

I can try to find out whether there are any bases in the area of Nes Tsiona which might fit the description.

I have heard rumors that Russia has indeed created weapons like this. And have had them for quite awhile. They were like 20 years ahead of everyone eles in this field.

Some more links:

From the BBC: news.bbc.co.uk...

UNESCO: www.unesco.org...

Emerging Technologies
Genetic Engineering and Biological Weapons
Sunshine Project

Current wisdom holds that population specific biological weapons are practically and theoretically impossible. Practically, many consider it impossibly difficult to use genetic variability to kill or otherwise affect populations. Others, including geneticists, argue that no suitable ethnic specific genes exist in the first place. Both notions are wrong. New technologies are indeed available to translate specific genetic sequences into markers or triggers for biological activity. And a recent analysis of human genome data in public databases revealed that hundreds, possibly thousands, of target sequences for ethnic specific weapons do exist. It appears that ethnic specific biological weapons may indeed become possible in the near future.

www.sunshine-project.org...


-koji K.