Holy Warrior Trojan Horses. Sheldon Cohen

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СКАЧАТЬ instructing voice, “I know. What kind of a man? I will tell you. Your son needs simple and profound messages that will change the way he thinks. The Imam will give him this just as he gave it to me. What kind of a man was Mohammad? What kind of a man was Churchill in 1940? What kind of a man was Roosevelt in 1933? What kind of a man was Jesus…and Moses. These are people that gave great messages, and they offered answers to the questions that their people wanted to have answered. Churchill warned his people to expect “blood, toil, tears and sweat,” and overnight his citizens accepted that. Roosevelt told his people that “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” and it gave the people strength. Even a man like Lenin offered the Russians peace, land and bread, and they followed him with that hope. These are simple messages. These are eloquent messages. These messages are straightforward, forceful messages. These are messages that can turn lives around. The Imam has these messages, and he has the stature to have his words accepted, to change the way a person thinks. Who needed such messages more than I did? Who needs those messages more than my son?”

      Hari stopped speaking. His eyes shone, and his face looked toward the heavens. This was enough to tell his wife that interrupting him would be reckless for he had passed into an almost trance-like state and a disruption at this time would disturb his train of thought. That happened only once before, and she would never forget the change in her husband; the anger that was like a raging bull. She waited.

      Still looking upward, he continued, “The Imam is intelligent but doesn’t flaunt it. He is humble, and you sense it. He has climbed the highest mountain in Pakistan. He has a vision like the great men I mentioned who have changed history. He is relaxed. He is confident in everything he says and does. He is short, but walks tall. He knows how to laugh. He is firm and purposeful. He exudes strength. He leads the people where they want to go. He will give our boy a sense of glory about himself, the kind of confidence he lacks and needs to compete in this world.”

      He paused. His eyes turned to Lois and he softly said, “Does that answer your question my dear wife?”

      The look on her husband’s face told Lois that the issue was a settled one, and further discussion would not be welcome. Deep inside her she was overcome with a feeling of foreboding, but she had to say one thing more, “But you never answered my question about the Imam and the way he thinks now.

      “It has been answered,” he whispered.

      CHAPTER 6

      RUSSIA, Anatoly Shenko:

      Novosibirsk, Siberia is a prominent city lying along the Ob River in Western Siberia. The winters are cold and snowy, and the summers are hot and dry. There is plenty of sun even during the winter months, and the temperature differences between summer and winter are extreme, one of the highest on the European and Asian continents. The city boasts of its opera and ballet companies, theaters, art galleries, and numerous Russian Olympians, most notably Alexander Karelin, the nine time Greco-Roman wrestling world champion (including three Olympic gold medals). It is also the home of some of Russia’s finest universities and scientific research centers.

      The scientific complex known as Gradient is located forty kilometers southeast of Novosobirsk, the site of the Siberian branch of the Russian Academy of Science. Gradient has eighty labs and administrative buildings. In the basement of building 42 are well-guarded, isolated virology-research laboratories devoted to the development of virus weapons of mass destruction. In the adjacent building 43, and connected by secret tunnel, is another basement facility devoted to the development of bacteriological weapons of mass destruction: anthrax and bubonic plague.

      Efforts to aerosolize these biological weapons and make them transportable without mitigating their lethal potential finally met success after many years of intense ground-breaking work.

      Not long after the Soviet Union collapsed, Iran began recruiting Gradient’s premier scientists and administrative officers with the idea of developing state-of-the-art biological warfare capabilities. However, the United States has a stake in Gradient’s invulnerability, so together with the Russians they worked to make the Russian facility, and their own, impervious to the possibility of theft. The best American-made cameras and motion sensors, plus a triple layer of visible and invisible fences now surround both facilities in Russia and the United States. The facilities are as invulnerable as human beings can make them.

      Gradient is equipped with a negative pressure ventilation system so there is no chance of viral or bacterial contamination reaching the outside. The entrances and exits are hermetically sealed. Wastewater, decontamination suits and instruments receive treatment at temperatures sure to destroy any viral or bacterial pathogens. The power supply has a double foolproof back up system.

      Sixty-one year old Anatoly Shenko had started working in Novosibirsk ever since he obtained his Ph.D. in microbiology from Rostov University at the age of twenty-five. After twelve years of research in Novosibirsk’s main virology facility, he went to Gradient where he worked on top-secret biological warfare: anthrax and small pox. He became one of the leading experts in his field and obtained the highest level of security clearance.

      Anthrax is one of the diseases of antiquity. Some consider it to have been the cause of the fifth and sixth plague of Exodus. It is the first disease proven to result from infectious bacteria.

      Louis Pasteur developed the first antibacterial vaccine in history against anthrax. The illness comes from Bacillus anthracis whose two protein toxins can cause severe symptoms, or lead to death. Three forms of the disease exist: cutaneous anthrax causes a severe localized infection of the skin; gastrointestinal anthrax develops from the ingestion of contaminated meat; inhalation anthrax can cause disease on inhalation of the bacteria. This latter form has the greatest potential for biological terrorism.

      Bacillus anthracis is a spore-forming organism. They become inactive and non-infectious (a spore) when deprived of nutrients, or subjected to adverse environmental conditions. They have hibernated, so to speak, or developed a state of suspended animation. In this form, they can survive in the soil for decades. If inhaled by man, the spores will then find themselves surrounded by the proper environment and necessary nutrients. Then within sixty days, the spores will come to life. Unless treated early this illness is fatal.

      Anatoly Shenko developed the procedure for reducing the anthrax bacillus to its smallest spore form, thus realizing the potential for a very effective and easy to disseminate aerosolized agent.

      The other biological weapon that Shenko worked with was smallpox. In ancient times, this scourge could decimate a town, at times killing fifty percent of a population as well as scarring many for life.

      An effective vaccination technique throughout the world has eliminated smallpox as a threat. Therefore, for over thirty years, no one has received vaccination. The smallpox virus that has been stored in four laboratories around the world is available in case it should ever be necessary to make vaccine. This could be the source for bio-terrorism if the samples are not well controlled, and one of these storage laboratories was Gradient where Anatoly Shenko did his pioneering work in biological warfare. Smallpox virus is the ideal biological warfare agent as it disseminates in the air when aerosolized.

      Anatoly Shenko was quiet and reserved. He was devoted to his work. His sedentary existence working in his administrative office and his laboratory bench resulted in his gaining weight over the years. He was a short man, now almost as wide as he was tall. He had male pattern baldness, with hair present only above his ears and the back of his head. In all the years he had worked in this risky environment, he was one of the few who managed not to get infected with the organism they were working with. He attributed this to never taking for granted the strict safety measures that he, as chairman of the safety committee, had developed.

      Anatoly was married, had four СКАЧАТЬ