How effective would gas, say mustard gas or lewisite, delivered by bombardment or dispersed from canisters be against an heavily entrenched enemy, who was using fortifications and caves (Not unlike the Japanese at Iwo Jima)

 Will get the job done without the nasty side effects.

 

Check Six

 

Rocky

 how about hitting them with Homokaasu????  

 

that will give them a real nasty dilema if they wish to stay true to the Islamic faith....     :-)

 

 

Paul

True, however they may not have the resources available to deal with another attack, for example a gas mask alone wont save you from vesicant agents. Plus chemical weapons have a massive demoralising effect against an unprepared enemy,

 

First, what bug do you have in mind? 

 Probably have to be something that spreads without an intermediate vector like fleas or mosquitoes.  Direct contact is not reliable enough and can be blocked by isolation, so I bet you are assuming it is passed by inhalation.  Sounds like smallpoxs or one of the genetically modified flu virus that the soviets developed.

This is an Very Bad Idea.

 

Bio weapon spread cannot be controled.  And that "isolated" mountain area is not very isolated, just nearly impossible to sneak into and poke around without being spotted. 

 

So expect it to spread, first to the rest of Pakistan, then India.  Thats nearly 1/3 of the world's population that you need to be ready to treat. If you are not ready, then it will become a global pandemic, and even if you are expect to lose 1% of the infected that you treat

 

The only way to head this off would be a massive global vacination campaign, starting BEFORE you deploy your weapon (vacines take time to work).  Think you can keep it secret?  If you cannot, then your chance of achieving any significant effect rapidly is reduced to zero.

 

Don't take this to harshly, but you obviously have never research bio warfare.

Now I have a non-speller telling me what I know and don't know?  How much detail do you want, in a public forum?  This IS a hypothetical. 

Let's say for the sake of argument that we catch a group of AQ in the Tora Bora area, infect them secretly, then let them think they escaped.  Simple enough?    Gas 'em, needle 'em, put it in their chow, give 'em fleas.  Actually I like that, give 'em fleas.  Okay, bubonic or better yet pneumonic plague, spread by vermin.  They are put in a holding cell and exposed - lousy bedding.  Many ways to skin the cat, or to infect it.

Smallpox could also work depending on vaccination standards, but would be suspicious.  There are other options...Bubonic would be a natural in this region of course.  Hantavirus maybe.  Hepatitis.  A nice superflu would make sense, but as I think you suggest, might be TOO easily spread.  Something with precedents so it doesn't look too fishy.

It's true I was considering an engineered toxin as I'm not sure anything would have a long enough incubation period.

 

 

 

swhitebull  - lots more on how these were engineered, and designed to withstand gas -  maybe not a MOAB or 2 though 

To deal with cave systems all you need do is patrol the top and block off any ventilation shafts, while setting a fire at the entrance... people have to breath.
 

To deal with cave systems all you need do is patrol the top and block off any ventilation shafts, while setting a fire at the entrance... people have to breath.
 

I'm trying to find the article that i read several years ago, but millions of dollars (dinars) were poured into these cave complexes, including self-contained breathing refuges. Keep in mind, bin laden comes from an engineering family big time, had the resources and the knowledge to design in anticipation of what the soviets were going and were doing, up to and including gas.

Im not defending OBL, but with the right resources and the time, it becomes a virtual Maginot Line fortress. If youve ever seen a schematic of a typical peice of the fortress, they included protection against the use of gas. I cant see OBL omitting those kind of defenses, given his resources.

 

 

btw - here's the link that didnt work. It's one of the Osprey books:

 

Afghanistan Cave Complexes 1979-2004: "Mountain Strongholds of the Mujahideen, Taliban & Al Qaeda" (Paperback)
by Mir Bahmanyar (Author), Ian Palmer (Author) "One of the major problems the Soviet Union faced during its invasion into Afghanistan was the difficulty in expelling Mujahideen from the cave and tunnel..." (more)

 

link

 

 

Tall Boy or Grand Slam any one? What about hitting their water supply? Poisoning your enemies water has been one of the oldest forms of chemical warfare.