A 'Dark Winter' of Ebola Terrorism?

Coming to America?

From Marc Thiessen, at the Washington Post:

The world is experiencing virulent outbreaks of Ebola and Islamist radicalism.

What if the two threats converge into one?

In June 2001 — a few months before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks — a group of leading Democratic national security experts gathered at Andrews Air Force Base to carry out a national security exercise called Dark Winter. Hosted by the Johns Hopkins Center for Civilian Biodefense and the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Dark Winter simulated a biological attack on the United States in which terrorists release smallpox virus in three shopping malls in Oklahoma City, Philadelphia and Atlanta....

So what about Ebola?

Unlike smallpox, which is hard to come by, the Ebola infection is raging right now in parts of Africa where Islamist extremists could have easy access. As physician Scott Gottlieb of the American Enterprise Institute points out, with Ebola, “Mother Nature has created the perfect bioweapon in many respects, as long as the attacker has suicidal aspirations.” Ebola has up to a 21-day incubation period — more than enough time for terrorists to infect themselves and then come here with the virus. In a nightmare scenario, suicide bombers infected with Ebola could blow themselves up in a crowded place — say, shopping malls in Oklahoma City, Philadelphia and Atlanta — spreading infected tissue and bodily fluids.

Think it can’t happen? If an Ebola-infected Liberian, Thomas Eric Duncan, was able to fly to Dallas, what is to stop an Ebola-infected terrorist from doing the same? And if our health-care system was unable to handle a single Ebola patient, imagine what would happen if 50, 100 or more Ebola patients started showing up at U.S. hospitals. Already we have seen schools closed in Dallas and Cleveland and a ship denied entry in Mexico and Belize. It would not require a attack on the level of Dark Winter to cause mass disruptions to our way of life and our economy.

Personally, I'm just not that worried about it.

That said, we'd no doubt be screwed if one of these terrorist war-game nightmares played out with Barack Obola in office. The White House remains multiple steps behind the curve. Americans would dying in mass numbers and all President Contagion would do is appoint some corrupt-o-czar to provide a political fix, public health be damned.