In the not-so-distant future, a new kind of weapon could appear that
would change the balance of political power in the world. This main
principle behind this weapon: seek and destroy according to genetics.
by Vasili Sychev
October 17, 2004
American scientists have declared that in ten years they will
succeed in creating a radically new type of biological weapon. This
weapon would be capable of infecting people according to a
genetically predetermined marker such as skin color or eye shape.
Infection could have a delayed effect or only begin once a certain
type of medicine was taken. A recent closed seminar held by the CIA
was devoted to the topic. The event took place as part of the
Project for the New American Century.
A slow sickness
Scientists have been exploring the possibilities of selective
biological weapons for some time now. This is roughly how these
weapons would work. Genetic information is implanted into
bacteria's "programming," reflecting the gene structure or gene
combination of a certain targeted group of people. Once the
programmed bacteria enter someone's system, they "recognize" their
target and kill the person. If the genetic structure of the infected
person does not correspond, the microbe dies without harming him.
Even specialists will have a hard time differentiating bacterial
ethnic cleansing from a regular epidemic, if only because the
countries leading the development of these weapons could
purposefully misinform the public. There will be few direct clues...
Another difficulty is that this weapon could have a delayed effect.
It could be turned on by a trigger mechanism, meaning it could
target not only specific people but also people under very specific
conditions. This means that illness could be delayed not just by
days but for an indefinite period of time. Yet the moment the
infected person, say, comes down with strep throat and takes
antibiotics, the bacteria begin to multiply, leading to a severe
illness that eludes diagnosis.
"It is already possible today to create antibiotic resistant
cultures," Alexander Prozorov, a professor in the microorganism
genetics lab at the Russian Academy of Science Institute for General
Genetics, told Expert. The most striking examples of this type of
culture are streptomycin-dependent bacteria that only grow in the
presence of the antibiotic streptomycin. This will make it hard for
doctors to do much, as traditional pharmaceuticals won't help. On
the contrary, treatment will only make the patient sicker.
Political germs
Yet the most terrifying new possibility is the hypothetical
biological weapon that could infect people according to genetic
markers. Not only would it allow for genocide; it would be created
specifically for that purpose. A recent report by the British
Medical Association stated that "the rapid progress in genetics
could become the basis for ethnic cleansing on an unheard of scale
in the near future."
Three years ago, ideologues like US Deputy Defense Secretary Paul
Wolfowitz and PNAC Director William Crystal were already discussing
genetic weapons. They recommended that the Pentagon consider the
possibility for using this type of weapon not only to successfully
wage war, but also to reconfigure world politics. According to a
PNAC report, genetic weapons could completely change the politics of
the entire planet: "cutting-edge biological warfare targeting a
certain genotype could turn the reign of terrorism into a
politically useful tool."
According to information from PNAC, Israel has also recently begun
to work actively on mutagenic weapons. Israel geneticists confirm
that Arabs carry a unique gene that no one else in the world has.
This gene forms the basis for the Israeli research, believe American
experts.
Things look far more frightening, in fact. Genetic weapons could do
more than destroy an ethnic group. They could kill according to a
person's "usefulness" or "talents." American journalist and
bestselling author Thom Hartmann has argued that it would even be
possible to kill those with the gene for attention deficit disorder.
This means that if you are easily distracted and have a hard time
concentrating (there could be other selection criteria as well), you
could end up marked for destruction.
We will survive
Fortunately, it is not as easy to create a selective biological
weapon as some scientists are claiming. Though it may be possible to
create bacteria that multiple only when a person takes a specific
medication, the creation of an effective genetic weapon that would
not harm the developers themselves seems unrealistic in the
foreseeable future.
"It is hard to imagine how a microbe would determine the presence or
absence of a certain gene or its structure. Even a researcher armed
with the last word in scientific technology has a hard time doing
this. It would impossible for bacteria to accomplish such a task,"
believes Prozorov.
And so on. Even if bacteria could learn how to identify specific
genes, how would this information be transformed into infection?
That bacteria multiply in the presence of certain antibiotics is
clear, but how would information about eye and hair color turn into
certain doom for the world's blue-eyed blonds? For this kind of
weapon to become a reality, its creators would have to stuff the
bacteria with a powerful "computer" to identify genes and at the
same time arm them with the means to begin an infection.
There is one more reason why this kind of biological weapon is
unlikely to be as effective as the ideologues would wish. As Nazi
doctor Josef Mengele put it, "Scratch a Frenchman and find an
African." Humanity has existed for many millennia. In the context of
all our past tribal and intertribal connections, it is not far from
the truth to say that we are all brothers. "Over the many years of
human existence, ethnics groups have intermingled to such an extent
that the genetic structures determining ethnic identity have blurred
and become difficult to recognize," notes Prozorov.
