Israel developing ethnic weapon

The Sunday Times reports that Israeli military sources revealed that Israel is developing an ethnic biological weapon that targets Arabs, in particular Iraqis. William Cohen, US defence secretary has confirmed the existence of such research, and an Israeli parlementarian has dennouced it. The British Medical Association and the UK biological defence establishment Porton Down have confirmed such weapons are feasible but very difficult to make. During Apartheid, South Africa had a similar program targeting black people. Wired has a summary if you do not want to register.

update Topic changed to News because Einstein would not have condoned the development of such weapons. update (for Dec 2) Salon gives the US military view (not possible), and Scientific view (theoretically possible, practically would encounter many difficulties). update (Dec 21) Omri Schwarz believes he knows where this article came from. This is his explanation. I hope he is right.

1. A year and a half ago, the British Medical Association commissioned a report on the feasibility of genetically selective weapons. The only BMA official to talk of this is Dr. Vivienne Nathanson. In the press, she didn't even mention the Middle East. In fact, her concern involved Scottish clans. (Would the McAllisters do this to the McGregors?) The report is due in January (hopefully) and Dr. Nathanson promised to email me a copy.

2. Two years ago a science fiction story was published in the Hebrew press. Then Jane's wrote a report claiming Israel was making an ethnic bullet and the parallels behind the story and the sci-fi short were too strong to ignore. The Jerusalem Post then reported that Jane's reported on the "ethnic bullet", then the London Times reported that the Jerusalem Post reported that Jane's reported, and then news media all over began reporting this story, each time citing one of the first three as the source. The Jerusalem Post's story is too full of biology bogons to be believed, and since it is a reprint of Jane's story, translation from Hebrew to English cannot be the cause (the Jerusalem Post is an English paper and I can't find a copy of Jane's anywhere, nor can I afford an online copy.) Apart from a mention of Dr. Nathanson, not one paper even tried to gain verification of this story other than from the first three, even though of the three only Jane's was an original story.