Google “Anthrax”. I just did and nothing significant popped up. First you see the Wikipedia entry of course. Then you see the Heavy Metal Band result. Then the Google News results. Click on the Google News result to see all Google News results for “Anthrax”. Only two notable stories show up. The first being about MIT chemists using Anthrax to delivery cancer drugs. Sounds interesting. The next is about the drug developer Emergent BioSolutions Inc. that says they have new version of its anthrax vaccine. At risk that continuing this with that last reference being used by conspiracy theorists, I want to point out something that seemeingly has not made the news that is very disturbing to me.

This morning I read an article from Pajwok News, titled Anthrax Hits Dozens of Badakhshan Residents. It caught my eye so later today I did a search for it to read about it and see if an Anthrax outbreak would catch any news. It did not make any notable news. A few local Afghan & regional small time sites picked it up and you can read it without a subscription at The Frontier Post. While trying to find it in mainstream news I did stumble across another report.

According to AllAfrica, earlier this month in Kenya, 100 people from across the county were treated for Anthrax sickness from reportedly eating bad meat that had been contaminated with Anthrax. More recently, a few days ago it was reported in Zimbabe that “over 1,000 cattle have died in less than a month” and that “the figure of those that have died could be much higher as reports from the affected districts are still coming in on a daily basis”. This outbreak led the Zimbabwe government to declare a a national emergency. I will not even go into a small outbreak in Bangladesh last month.

I would normally assume that this is natural from poor livestock health treatment in developing countries. What catches my eye is that Kenya and Afghanistan (particularly in the North East where Badakhshan is) are both known Al Qaeda affiliated areas. Probably just a coincidence, but if someone could also tie in the fact that ISIS had a laptop with documents annotating a notable intent to use bio-chemical weapons then would that be sketchier? What if we also recognized the fact that bangladesh is not a terrorism hotspot until, well, now. ISIS has reportedly been attmepting to push into Asia particularly into India & Bangladesh. Probably crazy talk.

Now, what about the ISIS’s documentation of intent to use Ebola & Anthrax as weapons. Ebola could be completely separate from Anthrax in Africa – Anthrax in the east, Ebola in the west. Totally not connected unless you actually thought about the two as both being efforts (one more successful than the other) of ISIS attacks. Many would like to separate ISIS from Al Qaeda but what you need ot understand is that thes eorganizations are not exactly card carrying organizations and members can be very fluid. Particularly if one (AQ) is dwindling in power & prestige it is easy to see the same folks move to be more involved with ISIS so do not discount group affiliations. This includes the likes of Boko Haram who have affiliation both in theory and practice with AQ elements.

TL/DR: In the span of 60 days documentation of a biological warfare was found on an ISIS computer including intent to use Ebola & Anthrax. Then an Ebola outbreak happened in West Africa and mutliple smaller outbreaks of Anthrax occurred across East Africa, Afghanistan & in Bangladesh.

If anyone has feedback on this I would love to hear it. Preferably if you can tell me that Anthrax outbreaks are common and Ebola outbreaks are just coincidental.