(The Economic Collapse Blog)—I am going to share some information with you in this article that nobody is talking about, but I believe that it is exceedingly important. Iran has been weaponizing some of the most deadly pathogens known to humanity, and that includes smallpox. The United States has known about Iran’s biological weapons program for more than 30 years. So have the Russians. If the Iranians were to suddenly release an extremely contagious disease in the United States and Israel, millions could potentially die. This is a threat that we should be taking very seriously, but we aren’t.
Many of you may be thinking that if the Iranians actually had biological weapons they would have used them by now.
But that is not how the escalation ladder works.
The Iranians believe that they have done enough to win a strategic victory in this war. The Iranians are suffocating the flow of oil, natural gas and fertilizer out of the Middle East, and they are convinced that this will force the Trump administration to back down and give in to their demands.
If they were to start using chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, that would invite catastrophic retaliation and they fully understand this.
So for now they are showing restraint, but that could easily change in the months ahead as both sides continue to escalate matters.
23 years ago, the Washington Post published a stunning report on Iran’s biological weapons program. The following is a screenshot from that report…
That was a major bombshell.
The opposition group that made these allegations had a lot of credibility at the time because they also successfully exposed Iran’s secret Natanz nuclear facility…
The opposition group’s claims, if true, would suggest that Iran’s pursuit of biological weapons is more aggressive than previously believed.
The Mujaheddin-e Khalq, also known as the People’s Mujaheddin, is listed by the State Department as a terrorist group, though weapons experts and intelligence officials say many of the group’s past claims about Iranian weapons programs have been largely reliable. The group first exposed a massive nuclear facility built near the town of Natanz to make enriched uranium, which can be used for commercial nuclear power plants or to make nuclear weapons.
By this time, it was well known that Iran had a biological weapons program.
But what we didn’t know is that they were working to weaponize “anthrax, aflatoxin, typhus, smallpox, plague and cholera”…
While Iran in the past has relied on foreign suppliers for advanced equipment such as industrial fermenters for growing pathogens, the country now can produce nearly all the critical parts, the officials said. Jafarzadeh said Iran’s biological, chemical and nuclear programs have all progressed rapidly under the leadership of Khatami, a man regarded in the West as a moderate and reformer.
Among the pathogens being weaponized under the plan are anthrax, aflatoxin, typhus, smallpox, plague and cholera, Jafarzadeh said.
I am particularly concerned about what Iran could do with weaponized smallpox.
Smallpox was officially eradicated more than four decades ago, and so the vast majority of the global population has absolutely no immunity.
If the Iranians have been able to successfully create a weaponized form of Variola major, the implications are staggering.
Someday if Iran were to release such a bioweapon in the United States and Israel, vast numbers of people would likely die…
Smallpox can manifest itself in two clinical forms: Variola major and Variola minor. Variola major in its common manifestation is more widely known as a consequence of the extensive rashes and pustules covering large parts of the body and the ugly lesions that mark the survivors for the remainder of their life. In 30 percent of cases the infection is fatal. However, there are two rare types of smallpox infection, namely malignant (or flat) and hemorrhagic smallpox, that are extremely severe and almost always fatal (mortality rates are 95–100 percent and 94 percent, respectively, in unvaccinated victims). In cases of malignant smallpox no pustules are formed, but the lesions remain soft and flat instead. Hemorrhagic smallpox is characterized by hemorrhage into the mucous membranes and the skin.
Of course smallpox is not the only threat.
For decades, Iran has been monkeying around with all sorts of very dangerous diseases…
Infections of the smallpox virus were last recorded in Iran in 1972. The reference strain, IRN72_tbrz, is held at the CDC in the US. It is not known whether additional virus isolates were obtained from Iranian patients and kept in Iran. What is known is that in recent years, the analogous virus – the one that causes monkeypox – has been reviewed at Tarbiat Modares University in Tehran, an institution known for its relationship with the IRGC. In parallel, further viruses that constitute the causative agents of notorious hemorrhagic fevers like Ebola, Marburg, Rift Valley, Crimean-Congo, Chikungunia and dengue, were meticulously investigated at both Tarbiat Modares University and Islamic Azad University. The latter maintains close ties to the IRGC, particularly in terms of military research collaboration. It is not known whether the Ebola and Marburg viruses, which are exotic to Iran, have been obtained by it, but this is likely.
In 2007, a notable interface formed between Iran and Indonesia with regard to the highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza virus, which emerged indigenously in Indonesia. While the global average mortality rate for H5N1 was about 60% (in humans), the rate in Indonesia was as high as 85% during 2005-07. A confrontation with WHO arose when Indonesia refused to share local virus samples with the organization. Iran took advantage and established a joint project with Indonesia to produce an H5N1 vaccine in Iran. The Iranian regime took possession of Indonesia’s extremely virulent strains in the process.
I realize that this may come as a shock to many of you, because you aren’t hearing a peep about this from the mainstream media.
But the truth is that U.S. officials have known about Iran’s biological weapons program since at least 1993…
US President George Bush, in his last arms control compliance report to Congress, states that Iran probably has produced a small amount of biological weapons. CIA Director James Woolsey states that Iran’s BW ability “could be operational now.”
That was 33 years ago.
And it turns out that the Russians have also known about Iran’s biological weapons program since at least 1993 as well…
The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service reports that “it is possible to speak confidently of a military-applied biological program” in Iran. It states that military-applied biological research has been conducted for about three years and that there is an “initial program of research, development, and purchases in the sphere of biological weapons.” The report continues by stating that “it cannot be ruled out that small stocks of biological agents have already been created. Western countries have recorded attempts by Iranian representatives to purchase unofficially equipment and biological material suitable for the production of biological weapons, mycotoxins particularly.”
Do you think that the Russians were making that up?
Of course not.
More than a decade later, John Bolton publicly stated that Iran should “declare its biological weapons program and make arrangements for its dismantlement”…
The U.S. Intelligence Community stated in its recent 721 Report that, “Tehran probably maintains an offensive BW program. Iran continued to seek dual-use biotechnical materials, equipment, and expertise. While such materials had legitimate uses, Iran’s biological warfare (BW) program also could have benefited from them. It is likely that Iran has capabilities to produce small quantities of BW agents, but has a limited ability to weaponize them.” Because BW programs are easily concealed, I cannot say that the United States can prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Iran has an offensive BW program. The intelligence I have seen suggests that this is the case, and, as a policy matter therefore, I believe we have to act on that assumption. The risks to international peace and security from such programs are too great to wait for irrefutable proof of illicit activity: responsible members of the international community should act to head off such threats and demand transparency and accountability from suspected violators while these threats are still emerging. It would be folly indeed to wait for the threat fully to mature before trying to stop it.
Iran is a party to the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) and the 1925 Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare. Like the CWC, the central obligation of the BWC is simple: no possession, no development no production and, together with the 1925 Protocol, no use of biological weapons. The overwhelming majority of States Parties abide by these obligations. We believe Iran is not abiding by its BWC obligations, however, and we have made this abundantly clear to the parties of this treaty. It is time for Iran to declare its biological weapons program and make arrangements for its dismantlement.
That was in 2004.
In more recent years, annual reports to Congress have made it clear that the Iranians have not abandoned their biological weapons program…
Starting in 2018, however, US administrations have certified to Congress in annual reports required by law that Iran is not in compliance with its chemical weapons treaty obligations. And since 2019, a companion report has consistently expressed “serious concerns” that Iran has “not abandoned its intention to conduct research and development of biological agents and toxins for offensive purposes.”
Is anyone out there still not convinced?
Okay, let’s bring it up to the present day.
Unclassified assessments from both the U.S. State Department and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence ominously warn about Iran’s biological weapons program…
The U.S. State Department’s most recent compliance report concludes that Iran “maintains flexibility to use, upon leadership demand, legitimate research underway … to produce lethal biological weapons agents.” The Office of the Director of National Intelligence similarly assesses that Iran “very likely aims to continue R&D of chemical and biological agents for offensive purposes.” These are unclassified assessments, sitting in government reports that too few people have read.
There are dozens of more examples stretching all the way back to the early 1990s that I could share with you.
Iran has a biological weapons program.
We have known about it for more than 30 years.
If both sides continue to escalate the war in the Middle East, it is just a matter of time before unconventional weapons are used.
Can you imagine the panic that we would witness if something got released in the United States and people started developing “white blisters” all over their bodies?
It really would be a nightmare scenario, and we are totally unprepared.
Biological weapons are a far more serious threat than most people realize.
Let us hope that the Iranians do not decide to pull the trigger, because that would unleash a cataclysmic series of events that would be absolutely uncontrollable.
Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.
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