Avian flu as a means to a hidden goal
Bush's use of dire situations such as September 11th and the avian flu to promote his own agenda is giving some people cause to take a closer look. Several different scenarios have been foreseen in which Avian flu could be used to achieve a secret goal. The website PrisonPlanet by Alex Jones, a producer of documentary films and radio shows (known for his interviews with Charlie Sheen regarding September 11th), points to Exercise Hawthorn, a drill in England involving an outbreak of Avian flu that suddenly turns real. This phenomenon in which drills suddenly become real was seen on September 11th, 2001 and again last year during the attacks in London. The exercises can be arranged right out in the open because once discovered, they remain just an exercise. And when afterwards the exercise suddenly goes live, the blame is placed on the enemy. It is still unknown what the exact circumstances are behind Exercise Hawthorn going live, but given the attacks in the U.S. and London, PrisonPlanet considers it suspicious.

Another example of the use of avian flu as a way to achieve a hidden goal was illustrated in mid-March by Professor Jorge Hirsch of the University of California. He anticipates that the U.S. and Israel will want to attack Iran, and in the absence of a direct provocation, they will build on their existing 'fearmongering' by accusing Iran of producing the avian flu virus. Hirsch points to a Canadian military intelligence report that says that avian flu could be used as a biological weapon. Because the U.S. has not yet publicly pointed this out, Hirsch believes that this argument will eventually be made in the form of a media blitz, in which he would not be surprised to hear claims that sound like this line from a press release that he made up: 'Iranian ecologists are currently at work in the Iranian wetlands to deploy the mutated virus among wild ducks, swans, and geese, in preparation for the launching of the birds along their migratory paths toward the Western world in early April.' Hirsch: 'Does that sound like a good enough casus belli to you? It does to me.'

Yesterday the Associated Press reported: '[..] the H5N1 virus also could arrive in the U.S. through a smuggled chicken or duck, an infected traveler, black-market trade in exotic birds or even an act of bioterrorism, but it says the most likely carrier will be a migrating wild bird.'

Medical correspondent: Fearmongering
Dr. Marten Japenga is the medical correspondent for Radio Noordholland, 'the most listened-to informative radio station [...] in the province [of North Holland]'. On March 15th Japenga advised his listeners: 'Don't panic'. At the same time avian flu is continuing to make world headlines on a daily basis, and The Netherlands is stocking up on 16 million vaccinations, enough for most of it's citizens. In an interview [MP3, 3 Mb, in Dutch] with DeepJournal, Japenga followed up on statements he made on the radio by saying that in the most extreme scenario up to two thousand victims could succumb to the avian flu in The Netherlands, where over one thousand people already die annually from the ordinary flu. He calls the great attention to the avian flu 'fearmongering' and points to the huge financial interests that surround the production of the well-known flu drug Tamiflu: 'And then you make a drug of sorts that offers a risk reduction, a drug that is not a remedy, but reduces the chance that you would contract the fatal variant in a worst case scenario. The likelihood that you would get really sick would be to some extent - it's unclear to what extent - reduced.' He is skeptical about the purchasing policy of the Dutch Minister of Health and suspects that his skeptical attitude is shared by 'an awful lot of pharmacists and doctors'. The whole situation reminds him of the Cold War, 'and I would speculate that there are specific individuals who would surely be able to take advantage of this'.

Japenga: 'This also suits our impression of this era. In the past there were epidemics that really did cost millions of lives, and that was back when health care wasn't the best. Now health care is a modern religion. [...] These days people believe that anything can be cured, that everything should be kept under control, and that any threat should be nipped in the bud. I think that that's an illusion. [... This has to do with] a reliance on medical answers. A virologist plays into this as well. He implies that he has this invisible danger within his sights and that he can keep people well-informed, and I think this leaves a lot of room for criticism.'

Virologist Osterhaus: take pandemic into account
The virologist most often cited in The Netherlands is Ab Osterhaus, head of the Department of Virology at the Erasmus Medical Center. Osterhaus is an advisor to the government, which has now reserved the production capacity necessary for sixteen million flu vaccinations at the factory of Solvay Pharmaceuticals. Osterhaus in an interview [MP3, 5 Mb] with DeepJournal: 'There is no reason for panic.' According to Osterhaus, in the case of a pandemic The Netherlands should be prepared for thousands, if not tens of thousands, of victims. Stocking up on doses of antiviral medication is another form of preparation, just as you could prepare for an earthquake, given that they do occur from time to time. He sees nothing in the opinion of Dr. Stafan Lanka of Germany, who says in an interview: 'Neither in people, nor in blood or other bodily fluids, nor in animals, nor in plants have structures ever been observed or proven to be the avian flu virus or the influenza virus, or anything that could be considered to be a pathogen.' Japenga: 'I'm no expert, I've never seen it [the avian flu virus] either'. The Associated Press reported yesterday: 'Government officials say there’s no known case of virus being passed from a wild bird to a person and no one knows whether wild bird-to-person transmission is possible.' In another article with the headline Top scientist tries to calm bird flu fears, the press agency quotes: '“It is entirely conceivable that this virus is inherently programmed that it will never be able to go efficiently from human to human,” Fauci said.'