: NUCLEAR, BIOLOGICAL AND CHEMICAL WEAPONS

April 19, 2009: Islamic radicals continue to wage a biological warfare campaign on Moslems in several parts of the world. And they do it in the name of God. Over five billion dollars has been spent on the polio eradication campaign, which began in 1988, when there were 350,000 cases of polio worldwide. The disease had already been largely wiped out in the West, so the eradication campaign was largely to the benefit of poor countries mostly in countries like Pakistan, Afghanistan and throughout Africa. Since then, one of the three strains of polio, Type 2, has been wiped out (or at least no cases of it have been reported in this century.) The worst strain, Type 1, is almost gone, with fewer than 200 cases reported a year, versus nearly 1,700 three years ago. It is believed that Afghanistan contains one of the few active populations of Type 1 polio.

The few remaining cases of polio exist in Nigeria, India, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Islamic radicals in Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan urge Moslems to refuse the vaccination for their children, and sometimes attack the vaccination teams. The government in Afghanistan and Pakistan have agreed to provide safe passage for the vaccination teams. In Pakistan, the tribal leadership was able to guarantee the safety of the health workers, and progress is being made to mollify the few remaining Islamic clerics preaching against vaccinations. But in Afghanistan, it was difficult to get anyone willing to negotiate for the Taliban or al Qaeda.

India had a problem with its large population (over a billion people, most of them poor), and many malnourished children with weak immune systems. But even with that, the progress has been steady. Last year, there were 559 cases of polio in India, versus 874 the year before. But polio infections went up (to about a thousand cases) in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria. So while India is on track to eliminate the disease, Islamic radicals are succeeding in keeping polio alive and spreading in areas they control. While most Moslems understand what polio vaccination is all about, the few Islamic radicals can still use terrorism and force to interfere with the effort to destroy polio for good.