BATF and FBI to forcibly detain Americans despite only 7 confirmed swine flu deaths in Mexico

The Department of Homeland Security has sent out an alert to health care providers outlining how BATF, FBI, and U.S. Marshals will be called upon to impose mandatory quarantines in the event of a widespread swine flu outbreak in the U.S.

According to the report, “DHS Assistant Secretary Bridger McGaw circulated the swine flu memo, which was obtained by CBSNews.com, on Monday night. It says: “The Department of Justice has established legal federal authorities pertaining to the implementation of a quarantine and enforcement. Under approval from HHS, the Surgeon General has the authority to issue quarantines.”

The memo states, “U.S. Customs and Coast Guard Officers assist in the enforcement of quarantine orders. Other DOJ law enforcement agencies including the U.S. Marshals, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives may also enforce quarantines. Military personnel are not authorized to engage in enforcement.”

However, a separate Defense Department planning document on dealing with pandemics states that the Pentagon will use the forces at its disposal to assist in “quarantining groups of people in order to minimize the spread of disease during an influenza pandemic” and aid in “efforts to restore and maintain order.”

As we reported yesterday, so-called “involuntary isolation” is already being enforced in certain areas of the United States. The state’s health director in North Carolina, Dr. Jeffrey Engel, said that authorities were already involuntarily isolating patients who may have the swine flu virus. He refused to divulge the location of where the victims were being quarantined.

News reports such as this one from MSNBC are prevaricating around the contention that quarantines are a normal event that Americans should be comfortable with. In reality, there has only been one case of “involuntary quarantine” in the U.S. in the last 45 years.

“In 2007, Andrew Speaker, an Atlanta lawyer, was quarantined inside a hospital in Denver on suspicion of having extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis. It turned out that the CDC was incorrect and Speaker had a milder form of the disease,” states the CBS report.

The MSNBC report also falsely claims that quarantines will solely be handled on a state/local level, when in reality, Bush’s executive order 13375 outlines a federal response, and the DHS memo lists numerous federal authorities that will have powers of quarantine.

In addition, the Bush administration’s National Strategy For Pandemic Influenza, released in November 2005, states that the federal government will impose “quarantines” and “limitations on gatherings”.

With Time Magazine busy preparing Americans to accept enforced mass vaccination programs and telling them to “trust” the government and “forgive” them when the vaccines cause death and injuries, the prospect of mandatory quarantines will likely be the precursor for any such nationwide vaccination program. The vaccine to supposedly combat swine flu is being manufactured by Baxter International, who were caught red-handed last month attempting to release bird flu vaccines which were contaminated with the deadly avian flu virus itself.

Swine flu has caused the death of one toddler in the U.S. and in fact only seven of the supposed 159 fatalities in Mexico have been confirmed as swine flu – meaning the other 152 could have been due to any number of infectious diseases that routinely kill Mexicans in the thousands on a yearly basis.

The comparative threat of swine flu does not correlate with the feverish reaction of authorities, who in the initial stages of the outbreak refused to take any measures to contain it, such as closing the border with Mexico, but after the virus had already begun to spread, they were quick to prepare draconian control measures while hyping the inevitability of a pandemic.

Meanwhile, the hysteria whipped up by the media has spread faster than the actual virus itself.

Source: Prison Planet

A furious President Barack Obama ordered an internal review of Monday’s low-flying photo op over the Statue of Liberty.

CBS 2 HD has discovered the feds will have plenty to question.

Federal officials knew that sending two fighter jets and Air Force One to buzz ground zero and Lady Liberty might set off nightmarish fears of a 9/11 replay, but they still ordered the photo-op kept secret from the public.

In a memo obtained by CBS 2 HD the Federal Aviation Administration’s James Johnston said the agency was aware of “the possibility of public concern regarding DOD (Department of Defense) aircraft flying at low altitudes” in an around New York City. But they demanded total secrecy from the NYPD, the Secret Service, the FBI and even the mayor’s office and threatened federal sanctions if the secret got out.

“To say that it should not be made public knowing that it might scare people it’s just confounding,” Sen. Charles Schumer said. “It’s what gives Washington and government a bad name. It’s sheer stupidity.”

The flyover — apparently ordered by the White House Office of Military Affairs so it would have souvenir photos of Air Force One with the Statue of Liberty in the background — had President Obama seeing red. He ordered a probe and apologized.

“It was a mistake. It will never happen again,” President Obama said.

The NYPD was so upset about the demand for secrecy that Police Commissioner Ray Kelly vowed never to follow such a directive again and he accused the feds of inciting fears of a 9/11 replay.

“Did it show an insensitivity to the psychic wounds New York City has after 9/11? Absolutely. No questions about it. It was quite insensitive,” Kelly said.

The cost of the frivolous flight was about $60,000 an hour and that was just for Air Force One. That doesn’t include the cost of the two F-16s that came along.

The mayoral aide who neglected to tell Mayor Michael Bloomberg about it was reprimanded.

Source: WCBSTV

The box held vials of swine flu virus, although a different strain than the H1N1 variety that has caused about 150 deaths in Mexico and infected people in the United States, Canada, Spain and Britain.

A technician was transporting the container on Monday night to the Swiss national flu centre in Geneva, where scientists are developing a flu test for humans, police said.

One woman was hurt when the box exploded in reaction to the dry ice used to keep the samples cold.

After consulting virus specialists, the police decided to stop the St. Gallen to Geneva train before it entered the station in Lausanne.

The virus specialists confirmed that the samples being transported posed no risks to humans, police said.

Source: Reuters

The swine flu epidemic crossed new borders Tuesday with the first cases confirmed in the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region, as world health officials said they suspect American patients may have transmitted the virus to others in the U.S.

Most people confirmed with the new swine flu were infected in Mexico, where the number of deaths blamed on the virus has surpassed 150.

But confirmation that people have been infecting others in locations outside Mexico would indicate that the disease was spreading beyond travelers returning from Mexico, World Health Organization spokesman Gregory Hartl told reporters on Tuesday in Geneva.

Hartl said the source of some infections in the United States, Canada and Britain was unclear.

Hartl said WHO was waiting for U.S. authorities to announce that a number of students at a New York high school have passed the virus on to one another after their return from a spring vacation in Mexico. “I think we might have one other instance in the U.S.,” he said.

Pressed by reporters to elaborate, he declined, saying it was up to U.S. authorities to provide further information.

Possible scenarios include students getting infected who did not travel to Mexico, or students who traveled there but became infected only after returning to the United States, or family members getting infected from returning students.

WHO calls this “community transmission” and says it’s a key test for gauging whether the spread of the virus has reached pandemic proportions. The swine flu has already spread to at least six countries besides Mexico, prompting WHO officials to raise its alert level on Monday.

“At this time, containment is not a feasible option,” said Keiji Fukuda, assistant director-general of the World Health Organization.

New Zealand reported Tuesday that 11 people who recently returned from Mexico contracted the virus. Tests conducted at a WHO laboratory in Australia had confirmed three cases of swine flu among 11 members of the group who were showing symptoms, New Zealand Health Minister Tony Ryall said.

Officials decided that was evidence enough to assume the whole group was infected, he said.

Israel’s Health Ministry confirmed Tuesday the region’s first swine flu case in the city of Netanya. The patient, 26, recently returned from Mexico and had contracted it. A hospital official said the patient had recovered, but will remain hospitalized until the health ministry approves his release.

Another suspected case has been tested at another Israeli hospital but results are not in, the ministry said.

Meanwhile, a second case was confirmed Tuesday in Spain, Health Minister Trinidad Jimenez said, a day after the country reported its first case. The 23-year-old student, one of 26 patients under observation, was not in serious condition, Jimenez said.

With the virus spreading, the U.S. prepared for the worst as President Barack Obama tried to reassure Americans. Obama said the outbreak is “not a cause for alarm,” even as the U.S. stepped up checks of people entering the country and warned U.S. citizens to avoid nonessential travel to Mexico.

“We anticipate that there will be confirmed cases in more states as we go through the coming days,” Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said on NBC’s “Today” show on Tuesday.

The Food and Drug Administration late Monday issued emergency guidance that allows certain antiviral drugs to be used in a broader range of the population in case mass dosing is needed to deal with a widespread swine flu outbreak.

The European Union health commissioner suggested that Europeans avoid nonessential travel both to Mexico and parts of the United States. Russia, Hong Kong and Taiwan said they would quarantine visitors showing symptoms of the virus.

Mexico, where the number of deaths believed caused by swine flu rose by 50 percent on Monday to 152, is suspected to be ground zero of the outbreak. But Mexican Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova late Monday said no one knows where the outbreak began, and implied it may have started in the U.S.

“I think it is very risky to say, or want to say, what the point of origin or dissemination of it is, given that there had already been cases reported in southern California and Texas,” Cordova told a press conference.

It’s still not clear when the first case occurred, making it impossible thus far to determine where the breakout started.

Dr. Nancy Cox of the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said she believes the earliest onset of swine flu in the U.S. was on March 28. Cordova said a sample taken from a 4-year-old boy in Mexico’s Veracruz state in early April tested positive for swine flu. However, it is not known when the boy, who later recovered, became infected.

WHO raised the alert level to Phase 4, meaning there is sustained human-to-human transmission of the virus causing outbreaks in at least one country. Monday was the first time it has ever been raised above Phase 3.

Putting an alert at Phases 4 or 5 signals that the virus is becoming increasingly adept at spreading among humans. Phase 6 is for a full-blown pandemic, characterized by outbreaks in at least two regions of the world.

Fifty cases — none fatal and most of them mild — were confirmed in the United States. Including the New Zealand, Israeli and new Spanish reports, there were 92 confirmed cases worldwide on Tuesday. That included six in Canada, one in Spain and two in Scotland.

Amid the alarm, there was a spot of good news. The number of new cases reported by Mexico’s largest government hospitals has been declining the past three days, Cordova said, from 141 on Saturday to 119 on Sunday and 110 Monday.

Symptoms include a fever of more than 100, coughing, joint aches, severe headache and, in some cases, vomiting and diarrhea. Many victims have been in their 30s and 40s — not the very old or young who typically succumb to the flu.

So far, no deaths from the new virus have been reported outside Mexico.

It could take four to six months before the first batch of vaccines are available, WHO said. Some antiflu drugs do work once someone is sick.

The best way to keep the disease from spreading, the CDC’s acting director, Richard Besser, said, is by taking everyday precautions such as frequent handwashing, covering up coughs and sneezes, and staying away from work or school if not feeling well.

Flu deaths are nothing new in the United States. The CDC estimates that about 36,000 people died of flu-related causes each year, on average, during the 1990s in the United States. But the new flu strain is a combination of pig, bird and human viruses that humans may have no natural immunity to.

World stock markets fell Tuesday as investors worried that any swine flu pandemic could derail a global economic recovery.

Source: AP

PADUCAH, Kentucky (Reuters) – A former U.S. soldier on trial in the gang rape of an Iraqi girl and the murder of her and her family in the war zone in 2006 was caught in a “perfect storm of insanity,” his lawyer told a jury on Monday.

But government prosecutors in the same courtroom said former Private 1st Class Steven Green, alleged ringleader of the slayings, was only interested in killing Iraqis “nonstop” and bragged during a barbecue celebration later that what he had done was “awesome.”

Green, 23, is being tried in federal court as a civilian since his arrest came after he was discharged from the U.S. Army later in 2006 for a “personality disorder.”

He is the last of five men charged in the rape of Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi, 14, and the slaying of her and her father, mother and 6-year-old sister. The incident unfolded after the soldiers drank whiskey, played cards, and plotted the attack in Mahmudiya, 20 miles south of Baghdad, prosecutors have said.

Three of the other soldiers pleaded guilty in the attack and the fourth was convicted, all in military courts-martial. They were given sentences of from five to 100 years, though they could be paroled much sooner. Prosecutors said they are seeking the death penalty for Green.

In opening statements at the trial, Patrick Bouldin, a public defender, said Green’s platoon had been decimated by deaths and injuries before the crime.

“You have to understand the background that leads up to this perfect storm of insanity,” Bouldin told the jury.

Bouldin said Green had sought help dealing with combat stress after the deaths of close colleagues and was unsure whether Iraqis he encountered were friend or foe.

“They couldn’t tell the village people and the farmers from the insurgents and the terrorists,” he said.

IRAQIS HORRIFIED BY CRIME

Green, from Midland, Texas, faces 17 charges including sexual assault, murder, and obstruction of justice.

Outlining the gruesome details of the crime, federal prosecutor Brian Skaret said: “Who could have done these things? It wasn’t done by insurgents or terrorists. It was the work of this man, Steven Green.”

He said Green took his turn raping the girl after he shot to death the girl’s mother, father and sister. He said Green was predisposed to the crime.

“Steven Green wanted to kill Iraqi civilians,” Skaret said. “He wanted to kill them all the time, nonstop.”

After the crime, Skaret said, the men celebrated with a barbecue, and Green was said to have commented “that was awesome.” He also told an Army investigator the day after, “I did that. I killed them,” Skaret said.

The family was chosen because the soldiers viewed them as an easy target, prosecutors have said.

Iraqis were horrified by the crime, one of a series of incidents involving U.S. soldiers that strained relations with the Iraqi government. But the onset of Green’s trial three years later is not resonating with most Iraqis, observers there say.

The incident was portrayed in the 2007 movie “Redacted” by director Brian De Palma, who complained the film was censored by the studio. Its graphic images shocked many viewers.

Source: Reuters

The government plans to spend £2bn for ISPs to intercept details of their customers’ emails, VoIP calls, instant messaging and social networking.

Under the proposals, mobile and fixed line operators will be required to process and link the data together to build complete profiles of every UK internet user’s online activity. Police and the intelligence services would then access the profiles, which will be stored for 12 months, on a case-by-case basis.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said today she had “ruled out” the idea of a central government-run store of communications data on privacy grounds. Instead, the consultation on the Interception Modernisation Programme (IMP) proposes a “middle way” requiring ISPs to retain much more data than they currently do.

Most of the proposed 10-year budget for the system would be spent on deep packet inpection equipment that would allow ISPs to tap into third party communciations data carried by their networks. Authorities are worried that the growth of internet-based communications services such as Skype diminishes their ability to monitor who contacts whom, when, where and how.

“This option would resolve the problem that some communications data which may be important to public authorities will not otherwise be retained in this country,” the IMP consultation document says.

“However it would not address the problem of fragmentation: as data is increasingly held by a wider range of communications service providers, it might take longer than it does at present to piece together data from different companies relating to one person or communications device.”

In response to such fragmentation, the government plans to order ISPs to “not only to collect and store data but to organise it, matching third party data to their own data where it had features in common”.

The plan is likely to be seen as onerous by ISPs. According to one senior industry source, many in the industry hope the next government will abandon it. “I don’t know anyone in the communications sector that will be sorry if IMP gets cancelled the day after the election,” the source said.

“I agree that what we’re asking the industry to do is something that will put a burden on them,” Smith said at today’s IMP briefing for journalists. She said providers will be refunded the cost of collecting and processing the data by the government.

By tapping ISPs to collect and process communications data from across the whole internet, officials will avoid opposition to the plans from websites and other third party services. Facebook recently voiced opposition to government monitoring of its users, but when the data is intercepted in transit, it will have no choice. Intelligence and security agencies already have close relationships with ISPs.

Source: The Register

In February 1976, an outbreak of swine flu struck Fort Dix Army base in New Jersey, killing a 19-year-old private and infecting hundreds of soldiers. Concerned that the U.S. was on the verge of a devastating epidemic, President Gerald Ford ordered a nationwide vaccination program at a cost of $135 million (some $500 million in today’s money). Within weeks, reports surfaced of people developing Guillain-Barré syndrome, a paralyzing nerve disease that can be caused by the vaccine. By April, more than 30 people had died of the condition. Facing protests, federal officials abruptly canceled the program on Dec. 16. The epidemic failed to materialize.

Medical historians and epidemiologists say there are many differences between the relatively benign 1976 outbreak and the current strain of swine flu that is spreading across the globe. But they also say the decisions made in the wake of the ‘76 outbreak — and the public’s response to them — provide a cautionary tale for public health officials, who may soon have to consider whether to institute draconian measures to combat the disease. (See pictures of the swine flu outbreak in Mexico.)

“I think 1976 provides an example of how not to handle a flu outbreak, but what’s interesting is that it made a good deal of sense at the time,” says Hugh Pennington, an emeritus professor of virology at Britain’s University of Aberdeen. Pennington points out that conventional wisdom in 1976 held that the 1918 flu pandemic — which started among soldiers and eventually killed as many as 40 million — was the result of swine flu (scientists now know it was in fact a strain of bird flu). Despite modern advances in microbiology, today’s health officials still make decisions in a “cloud of uncertainty,” Pennington says. “At the moment, our understanding of the current outbreak is similarly limited. For example, we don’t yet understand why people are dying in Mexico but not elsewhere.” (See pictures of bird flu.)

In a quickly evolving situation, deciding what public health orders to make becomes as much an art as a science, and can often stir debate. On Monday, for example, health officials in Europe advised citizens to cancel all nonessential trips to Mexico and the U.S. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that advisory was too severe. Such decisions, difficult enough to make on purely medical grounds, become even more complicated when they involve politics. In 1976, President Ford’s vaccine program came during an election cycle, and some historians believe he was swayed as much by a desire to display strong leadership as by the advice of health experts. (Read “Swine Flu: 5 Things You Need to Know About the Outbreak.”)

Howard Markel, director of the Center for the History of Medicine at the University of Michigan and a historical consultant to the CDC on flu pandemics, says the most vexing decision facing health officials is when to institute mass vaccination programs. Vaccines carry risks of complications, leading to agonizing ethical dilemmas. In 1976, Ford offered indemnity to the vaccine manufacturers. But according to reports, President George W. Bush decided in 2002 not to administer a nationwide smallpox vaccination program — despite Vice President Dick Cheney’s belief that doing so was a prudent counterterrorism step — because it could have resulted in dozens of deaths (the smallpox vaccine kills between 1 and 2 people per million people inoculated).

Markel says the political climate in the U.S. is much less combustible today than in the post-Watergate era, when Ford faced a skeptical public. Even so, he says, citizens still need to trust that the government is working for the greater good. He says, “The good news is that our surveillance, methodology and public health professionals have never been better. But we are human and mistakes may be made — as happened with the 1976 swine flu affair — and we may jump the gun in the hope of preserving life. The current outbreak is a situation in flux. The American public has to be forgiving and patient and do [their] part too.”

Source: Time

Iraq wants American troops to withdraw from urban areas and only return with government approval, a defense ministry spokesman said Monday, casting doubt about whether the U.S. can maintain troops in certain trouble spots even as they withdraw elsewhere.

Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Mohammed al-Askari said that the ministry’s position is still that U.S. troops must leave by the agreed deadline despite some calls for them to remain in northern city of Mosul and Diyala province.

U.S. and Iraqi commanders will make recommendations to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who will decide whether to grant exceptions to a security pact requiring U.S. troops to leave Iraq’s major cities by June 30.

“The general position of the Iraq Defense Ministry is to keep the timings in the withdrawal pact that American troops withdraw from Iraqi cities and not enter the cities unless they get Iraqi approval,” al-Askari said.

Under a U.S.-Iraqi security pact that took effect Jan. 1, American troops will leave the country entirely by the end of 2011. President Barack Obama has announced plans to withdraw combat troops by Aug. 31, 2010, leaving a contingency force of 30,000 to 50,000 troops in advisory and training capacities.

Violence in Iraq remains at some of the lowest levels since the months following the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. But a series of high-profile suicide bombings in recent weeks, have killed hundreds and wounded hundreds more.

The attacks have also brought into question the ability of Iraq’s security forces as they take over from U.S. troops.

Gen. Raymond Odierno, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, has not specifically said whether U.S. troops would leave by the deadline, but said that any exception would have to be made by al-Maliki.

But American commanders have said if there are exceptions, the northern city of Mosul would be a priority. The city is considered one of the last bases of Sunni insurgents.

The main U.S. operation in Mosul is effectively on the outskirts of the city. It is unclear, though, if like Baghdad’s Camp Victory — U.S. military headquarters — it will be considered outside the city limits.

Another possibility where exceptions might be considered is in the Diyala province, where American troops in Baqouba are still battling insurgents.

But al-Askari said there was adequate security in Mosul, adding there were two Iraqi army divisions.

“If we need the support of American troops, we will recall them with Iraqi governmental approval,” he said.

Source: AP

Amid surging worries about a global pandemic, the United States launched border screening for swine flu exposure Monday and a top federal health official said people should brace for more severe cases, “and possibly deaths.”

Richard Besser, acting head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, revealed that American authorities were undertaking “passive screening” at its borders and reiterated the Obama administration’s call for people to remain calm. Besser said that U.S. officials at border checkpoints were “asking people about fever and illness, looking for people who are ill.”

Besser discussed the problem on morning news shows as President Barack Obama prepared to address it later Monday morning in remarks to a meeting of the nation’s top scientists.

The U.S. declared a national health emergency Sunday in the midst of uncertainty about whether a mounting sick count really meant ongoing infections — or just that health officials had missed something simmering for weeks or months. But the declaration did allow Washington to ship roughly 12 million doses of flu-fighting medications from a federal stockpile to states in case they eventually need them.

Besser traveled the morning news-show circuit Monday, telling interviewers the U.S. government was being “extremely aggressive” and saying he wouldn’t personally recommend traveling to parts of Mexico where the new virus has taken hold. But he noted that the issue of a travel ban was under discussion and that nothing had been decided.

Besser said he was not reassured by the fact that so far in the U.S., no one has died from the disease.

“From what we understand in Mexico, I think people need to be ready for the idea that we could see more severe cases in this country and possibly deaths,” he said. “That’s something people have to be ready for and we’re looking for that. So far, thankfully, we haven’t seen that. But we’re very concerned and that’s why we’re taking very aggressive measures.”

A private school in South Carolina closed after some students returned from Mexico with flu-like symptoms.

Officials of Newberry Academy said in a statement that seniors were in Mexico earlier this month and some had flu like symptoms when they returned. Calls to the school went unanswered Monday.

State Department of Health and Environmental Control spokesman Jim Beasley said test results on the students could come back as early as Monday afternoon. The agency has stepped up efforts to investigate all flu cases in South Carolina. There have been no confirmed swine flu cases in the state.

In Mexico, the outbreak’s epicenter, soldiers handed out 6 million face masks to help stop the spread of the novel virus that is suspected in up to 103 deaths. Most other countries are reporting only mild cases so far, with most of the sick already recovering. Cases have been confirmed in Canada — six — and the U.S. — 20.

Spain reported its first confirmed swine flu case on Monday and said another 17 people were suspected of having the disease. The European Union health commissioner advised Europeans to avoid nonessential travel to Mexico and the United States. Also, three New Zealanders recently returned from Mexico are suspected of having it.

Elsewhere, the European Union advised against nonessential travel to Mexico and the United States. China, Russia and Taiwan considered quarantines, and several other Asian countries undertook to question travelers arriving at airports.

Complicating response strategies across the globe was what World Health Organization spokesman Peter Cordingley described as major difficulty that experts were having in assessing precisely the nature of the threat.

“These are the early days. It’s quite clear that there is a potential for this virus to become a pandemic and threaten globally,” Cordingley said. He said it was spreading rapidly in Mexico and the southern United States.

Cordingley said “honestly don’t know” the extent of the problem. He added: “We don’t know enough yet about how this virus operates. More work needs to be done.”

Multiple airlines, including American, United, Continental, US Airways, Mexicana and Air Canada, said they were waiving usual penalties for changing reservations for anyone traveling to, from, or through Mexico, but have not canceled flights.

Meantime, the World Bank said it would send Mexico $25 million in loans for immediate aid and $180 million in long-term assistance to address the outbreak, plus advice on how other nations have dealt with similar crises. Mexico officials say the flu strain may have sickened 1,614 people since April 13 but laboratory testing to confirm that and how many truly died from it — at least 22 so far out of the 103 suspected deaths — is taking time.

Worldwide, attention focused sharply on travelers.

“It was acquired in Mexico, brought home and spread,” Nova Scotia’s chief public health officer, Dr. Robert Strang, said of Canada’s first confirmed cases.

A New York City school where eight cases were confirmed will be closed Monday and Tuesday, and 14 schools in Texas, including a high school where two cases were confirmed, will be closed for at least the next week. Some schools in California and Ohio also were closing after students were found or suspected to have the flu.

In additions to preparations for quarantines in Russia, Taiwan and China, Singapore, Thailand, Japan, Indonesia, South Korea and the Philippines were checking for signs of fever among passengers arriving at airports from North America. In Malaysia, health workers in face masks took the temperatures of passengers as they arrived from a flight from Los Angeles.

Travelers with flu-like symptoms would be given detailed health checks.

Vesser said that while the U.S. hasn’t advised against travel to Mexico, it has urged people to take precautions, such as frequent hand-washing while there.

Source: AP

Or are relatively limited number of deaths an indication that the panic is worse than the actual threat?

There are some factors that suggest the swine flu killing people in Mexico may be a biological weapon, but obviously no such conclusion can be drawn at this time. The World Health Organization and the U.S. government have been quick to deny such claims.

The swine flu virus is described as a completely new strain, an intercontinental mixture of human, avian and swine viruses. Tellingly, there have been no reported A-H1N1 infections of pigs.

According to a source known to former NSA official Wayne Madsen, “A top scientist for the United Nations, who has examined the outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in Africa, as well as HIV/AIDS victims, concluded that H1N1 possesses certain transmission “vectors” that suggest that the new flu strain has been genetically-manufactured as a military biological warfare weapon.

Madsen claims that his source, and another in Indonesia, “Are convinced that the current outbreak of a new strain of swine flu in Mexico and some parts of the United States is the result of the introduction of a human-engineered pathogen that could result in a widespread global pandemic, with potentially catastrophic consequences for domestic and international travel and commerce.”

However, it’s important to stress that it is far too early to make this assumption. We have to bear in mind that the number of victims has been comparatively low when one considers the fact that hundreds of thousands in Mexico contract infectious diseases every year related to poverty like tuberculosis and malaria.

Fort Detrick, the U.S. Army Medical Command installation that was the source of the 2001 anthrax attacks, is again attracting suspicion in light of the swine flu panic after it was revealed that criminal investigators are probing whether virus samples recently went missing from its biolabs.

“Chad Jones, spokesman for Fort Meade, said CID is investigating the possibility of missing virus samples from the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases,” reports The Frederick News.

In February, USAMRIID halted their work when virus samples were discovered that were not listed in its inventory. Criminal investigators from the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division unit at Fort Meade are now probing whether virus samples are missing from the Army’s top biolab, which also studies pathogens including ebola, anthrax and plague.

Obviously, in light of the current swine flu scare, and the new strain’s possible synthetic origin, the fact that virus samples may have gone missing from the same Army research lab from which the 2001 anthrax strain was released is extremely disturbing.

A 2008 FBI and DOJ investigation concluded that Bruce Edwards Irvins, a microbiologist, vaccinologist, and senior biodefense researcher at the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) in Fort Detrick, Maryland, was responsible for mailing anthrax to members of Congress and the media in September and October 2001.

The fact that Irvins apparently committed suicide shortly before the announcement led many to suspect that he was a patsy in a wider plot. Despite the suspicious circumstances, no autopsy was carried out on Irvins’ body. His attorney was certain that Irvins, who had cooperated with the 6-year investigation, was innocent of the five anthrax deaths.

The Department of Justice initially considered Dr. Steven Jay Hatfill to be a strong suspect in the anthrax attacks, but he later sued the government and won $5.8 million in damages. A New York Times piece on Irvins’ suicide asked the hypothetical question: “What if Dr. Hatfill had committed suicide in 2002, as friends feared he might? Would the investigators have released their evidence and announced that the perpetrator was dead?”

Fears that a mass pandemic was being readied as a biological attack have rumbled on in the conspiracy community ever since 9/11. Investigators point to the highly unusual number of deaths of top microbiologists to suggest that people with knowledge of the program are being eliminated.

Thanks Prison Planet