Putin’s “back is against the wall and now he’s talking about new false flags he’s setting up including, asserting that we in America have biological as well as chemical weapons in Europe, simply not true,” Biden said at a Business Roundtable event, as quoted by Reuters.

“They are also suggesting that Ukraine has biological and chemical weapons in Ukraine. That’s a clear sign he’s considering using both of those,” he added.

Russia recently claimed that Ukraine is running chemical and biological labs with US support.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki later rejected the claims from Russia as “false” and “preposterous,” and warned they could serve as a pretext for the Russians to deploy chemical weapons in their assault on Ukraine.

“It’s the kind of disinformation operation we’ve seen repeatedly from the Russians over the years in Ukraine and in other countries, which have been debunked, and an example of the types of false pretexts we have been warning the Russians would invent,” Psaki said.

“Also, Russia has a track record of accusing the West of the very violations that Russia itself is perpetrating. In December, Russia falsely accused the US of deploying contractors with chemical weapons in Ukraine,” she continued.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also insisted that no chemical weapons or other weapons of mass destruction were developed in his country.

“No chemical or any other weapons of mass destruction were developed on my land. The whole world knows that. You know that. And if Russia do something like that against us, it will get the most severe sanctions response,” he said.

Source: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/324397

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The Group of Seven leaders ended their summit on Sunday by demanding that Russia take action and investigate the use of chemical weapons within its territory and hold accountable those behind ransomware attacks and other cybercrimes.

Why it matters: The allied language come as all eyes turn to President Biden’s Wednesday meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Geneva.

The state of play: The leaders called on Russia to “end its systematic crackdown on independent civil society and media.”

• They also reiterated their support for Ukraine and pressed Russia to deescalate tensions between the two nations by withdrawing troops from Ukraine’s eastern border and the Crimean peninsula.

The big picture: Secretary of State Antony Blinken made the rounds on the Sunday talk shows and tried to temper expectations about the upcoming meeting between Biden and Putin, saying that it would not be a “flip-the-light switch moment” for U.S.-Russia relations.

• Biden himself told reporters on Sunday that he agreed with Putin’s recent comments that U.S.-Russia relations are at their lowest point in years, per Reuters.
• A recent ABC News/Ipsos poll found that 49% of Americans trust Biden to negotiate on their behalf with Putin.

But, but, but: Lawmakers from both parties want Biden to take a tough stance with Putin on the issue of ransomware gangs, and convey the message that if Russia doesn’t crack down on cyber criminals within its borders, the United States will, according to Politico.

• Putin has expressed willingness to hand over cybercriminals to the United States if the United States returns the favor, per Reuters.
• Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has also expressed reservations about the upcoming Biden’s decisions vis-a-vis Russia.

Of note: The issues of chemical weapons and cyberattacks are in the spotlight at this year’s G7 summit in light of the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny with a chemical nerve agent and the ransomware attack on America’s Colonial Pipeline, reports Reuters.

• The Colonial Pipeline attack was carried out by Darkside, a Russia-based cybercrime group.
  

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  Source: https://www.axios.com/g7-leaders-russia-biden-65b0c496-7745-4489-a47c-1f062ffd150a.html

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The question arises in light of new sanctions introduced against Russia on Tuesday, in response to its August 2020 chemical weapons attack on opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Those sanctioned include three German companies, now added to the U.S. government’s so-called “Entity List.” Those on the “Entity List” face increased restrictions or even bans from U.S. exports. The newly proscribed German companies, Chimconnect, Pharmcontract, and RIOL-Chemie, were cited for their support of Russia’s chemical weapons program.

Yes, you read that right, chemical weapons. This is much more than a standard fare Kremlin money laundering racket.

Putin’s covert chemical weapons program is supervised by the Russian GRU intelligence service. As I understand it, the sanctioned German companies are primarily involved in providing precursor materials and technical support to GRU supervised weapons manufacturing facilities in Russia.

Chancellor Angela Merkel should be taking this more seriously. After all, the GRU and its domestic FSB sister intelligence service have carried out at least two nerve agent attacks on innocent people in the last three years; one against Navalny and one against a former British intelligence agent and his daughter. Both attacks involved the use of highly concentrated Novichok nerve agent variants. The British incident led to the death of a completely innocent woman. The Kremlin now finds it amusing to tease that woman’s family publicly.

This context makes it utterly absurd that Germany has not closed down the three Russian chemical weapons facilitators. It’s not as if these companies are operating in the shadows. Established in a nice north-to-south line across Germany, they publicly advertise their offices and operations.

Chimconnect is located in the city of Konstanz, right next to the Swiss border. Its shoddy website evinces the GRU’s disdain for website development as an important element of deniable cover for covert programs. These GRU agents share a building with a language training company, a restaurant, and a weather forecasting service.

Pharmcontract is based openly in the central German business center of Frankfurt.

RIOL-Chemie is located in the village of Lilienthal, right next to the northern city of Bremen. German government records show that RIOL-Chemie’s chief executives are Dr. Igor Rozhenko and Sergiy Venger. One “Sergiy Venger” based in Bremen is also listed on the German “best companies” website as “advising third parties on logistics and customs clearance.” This would seem a useful skill for those attempting to smuggle chemical weapons or their predicate materials across national borders. The Dun and Bradstreet corporate analysis firm reports that in 2018, RIOL-Chemie’s had 12 employees and $2.5 million USD sales. GRU business is good.

I return to the central question: What on Earth is Merkel’s government doing in allowing these companies to operate so freely?

It’s not as if Germany has qualms about countering identified threats. The German federal government has even singled out the right-wing AfD party as an extremist organization, meaning the BfV domestic intelligence service can conduct coordinated surveillance of the AfD’s membership, records, and activity. AfD has 89 elected members in the Bundestag parliament!

So is it too much to shut down the GRU, a hyper aggressive organization with no qualms about murdering innocent people, hell-bent upon defeating NATO interests? Merkel’s sheltering of such interests is astonishing.

In response to the new sanctions, the Kremlin is already threatening to escalate. Putin will only be deterred by the practice of intelligent strength. What Merkel is allowing is the antithesis of such strength. In fact, it is an incarnation of extraordinary moral and strategic weakness. Perhaps it’s time for the Western media to reconsider their narrative of Merkel, savior of the Western universe narrative?

It’s certainly time for Biden to sanction-to-death the Nord Stream II energy pipeline.

Source: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/why-is-germany-tolerating-russian-chemical-weapons-facilities-on-its-soil

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A propaganda video released by pro-Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) propaganda mouthpieces had threatened to use the “silent destructive weapon” on Western countries, according to Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) which had made a transcript of the recording.

It states that a carefully engineered lone-wolf biological attack would come in response to US-led bombings of Islamist-held cities of Mosul, Iraq and Raqqa, Syria. The video also accused the “crusader alliance” of turning Muslim countries into a testing ground of “phosphorus bombs and toxin gas.”

“We will make you fear the air you breathe,” reads the run-up to the video cited by MEMRI. It shows the San Francisco skyline and a hooded figure in the foreground holding a device spraying green gas.

Despite crushing defeats in Iraq and Syria, Islamic State’s propaganda outlets urged lone-wolf attackers to unleash biological warfare on the West, including dissemination of viruses from feces and droppings of rats.

A propaganda video released by pro-Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) propaganda mouthpieces had threatened to use the “silent destructive weapon” on Western countries, according to Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) which had made a transcript of the recording.

It states that a carefully engineered lone-wolf biological attack would come in response to US-led bombings of Islamist-held cities of Mosul, Iraq and Raqqa, Syria. The video also accused the “crusader alliance” of turning Muslim countries into a testing ground of “phosphorus bombs and toxin gas.”

“We will make you fear the air you breathe,” reads the run-up to the video cited by MEMRI. It shows the San Francisco skyline and a hooded figure in the foreground holding a device spraying green gas.

Michael Snyder@Revelation1217

ISIS calls for BIOLOGICAL ATTACKS in the West, posters depict San Francisco –

Though biological warfare agents are typically hard-to-obtain as their production requires advanced technologies, the propaganda video offered a more affordable option for aspiring Jihadists. It advised to extract the most harmful viruses and infection bacteria and then release them “to renew the fatal nightmare in the land of the devil worshipers.

”Hantavirus which could cause potentially fatal diseases in humans is sometimes derived from the feces and droppings of rats, whilst the cholera virus “is extracted from the patient’s waste.” Typhoid bacteria is found in human and animal wastes in general and is frequent in the dirty areas, the IS mouthpiece said.

Pro-ISIS group urges lone-wolf attacks on children in West as revenge.

The deadly substances could then be sprinkled on exposed fruit and public foods or be scattered in the air in crowded places.

Despite the Western-led coalition declared victory over Islamic State in Iraq in 2017, the extremists are still afloat, the country’s government warned earlier this year. IS militants did not go away and they now continue menacing Iraqis with hit-and-run attacks and assassinations, Hisham al-Hashimi, the government security adviser, told RT.

Iraqi troops are struggling to weed out the Jihadists who are hiding in remote mountainous areas, but to little avail so far. “The special forces don’t have enough resources to hunt the militants down,” al-Hashimi said.

Russian security officials, for their part, have also cautioned not to underestimate the threat of IS. Alexander Bortnikov, the FSB director, told Moscow Security Conference in April that Islamic State and Al-Qaeda can merge into one terrorist network which could be able to set up cells around the world and even produce chemical weapons.

He said the grim statistics tells that half of the more than 1,600 terrorist attacks around the world annually are linked to Islamic State. The attacks have resulted in more than 150,000 casualties since the rise of the terrorist group in 2014, and more than 33,000 people were killed or injured in just the past year.

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Source: https://www.rt.com/news/435204-isis-biological-attacks-west/

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Chlorine gas “was likely used as a chemical weapon” in an attack in the northern Syrian town of Saraqeb in February, the global chemical weapons watchdog said on Wednesday.

But the Organization for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) did not, in line with its mandate, say who was responsible for using the banned gas on February 4.

Read more: Syrian civilians treated for ‘suffocation’ after Saraqeb airstrikes

How the OPCW made its conclusion:

In a statement, the watchdog said:

–Investigators had “determined that chlorine was released from cylinders” in the Ali Talil neighborhood of Saraqeb in the northern province of Idlib. The organization found two cylinders and an analysis found both had previously contained chlorine.

–The organization also found an “unusual presence of chlorine in the local environment.”

–Investigators also talked to local witnesses and patients at hospitals who had shown symptoms of exposure to chlorine.

Read more: Proof of poison gas: Circumstantial evidence is key

Condemnation

OPCW Director-General Ahmet Uzumcu said: “I strongly condemn the use of toxic chemicals as weapons by anyone, for any reason, and in any circumstances. Such acts contradict the unequivocal prohibition against chemical weapons enshrined in the Chemical Weapons Convention.”

Attack: The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor, reported government airstrikes on rebel-held Saraqeb on February 4, adding 11 people had to be treated for breathing difficulties after the attack. Aid organizations later said they had treated people for symptoms of chlorine gas poisoning.

Douma probe ongoing: Another OPCW investigative team is currently assessing evidence from the Syrian town of Douma to determine whether an April 7 attack that left 40 dead used chlorine and sarin gas.

Read more: France: ‘All indications’ Syrian regime is using chorine gas

Source: http://www.dw.com/en/syria-chemical-weapons-watchdog-confirms-chlorine-gas-attack-in-saraqeb/a-43802628

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“Disease X” is not a newly identified killer pathogen. It’s a so called “known unknown” — that could be created by biological mutation, such as previous deadly epidemics such as Spanish Flu or HIV. Or it might be spawned by a terror attack, or simply an accident.

“Disease X represents the knowledge that a serious international epidemic could be caused by a pathogen currently unknown,” the organization said.

By including this mystery killer on its “List of Blueprint priority diseases,” along with eight better-known diseases such as MERS and Marburg Virus, WHO was aiming to acknowledge that infectious diseases are unpredictable.

The idea behind including Disease X is not to scare people, but to spur public health officials into making sure that they are prepared for all threats, not just the predictable ones, the organization said.

“The intensity of animal and human contact is becoming much greater as the world develops,” WHO adviser Marion Koopmans told The Telegraph. “This makes it more likely new diseases will emerge, but also modern travel and trade make it much more likely they will spread.”

Most times an epidemic spreads, it doesn’t announce itself first – such as Zika’s rampage through South America and the Caribbean in 2015-2016.

This was the third time WHO convened the committee of experts in viruses, bacteria and infectious disease to consider potential epidemics and pandemics. It was the first time that Disease X made the list.

One possible source of such an epidemic could be the deliberate release of Disease X as a weapon, either by a rogue state like North Korea or Syria, which is known to use chemical weapons, or by terrorist organizations like ISIS or al-Qaeda.

New scientific abilities like gene editing, especially when combined with today’s supercomputers, make developing biological weapons easier than when the US and USSR experimented with them during the Cold War.

An unknown nerve agent, for instance, was reportedly used in an assassination attempt last week on a Russian man who spied for the British and his daughter. North Korea is suspected of using a different nerve agent to assassinate Kim Jong-un’s half-brother last year.

Man-made viruses and bacteria would be harder for the human body to fend off because there is no natural immunity.

With Post Wire Services

Source: https://nypost.com/2018/03/10/disease-x-could-be-the-worlds-worst-nightmare/

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