Ebola: A Global Pandemic?

Drinking my coffee. Rubbing my eyes. Blowing my nose. All the stuff I do in the morning.

And then, there's this.

From CBS News:

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (CBS Charlotte/AP) — A Liberian health official says the Ebola outbreak is now above the control of its government. 

“Our government has declared this now as a humanitarian crisis that is above the control of the national government,” Tolbert Nyenswah, Liberia’s assistant minister of health, told CBS News. 

More than 700 people have died in four western African nations during the largest Ebola outbreak ever, with over 320 known cases in Liberia alone. One American died while contracting the virus in Liberia. Two other American medical missionary workers also contracted Ebola. 

“This virus, if it is not taken care of, will be a global pandemic,” Nyenswah told CBS News, calling for more international aid to help treat the sick and stop the spreading of the disease. 

The Peace Corps has now temporarily evacuated 340 volunteers from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone after two members were exposed to the virus. CBS News reports those two volunteers have been isolated. 

This comes as two North Carolina-based missionary groups have ordered the evacuation of their non-essential personnel from Liberia after a doctor and a missionary contracted Ebola.

At least we know the situation is in good hands over there in Africa ... uh, no, wait a minute:

West Africans Blame Ebola Outbreak on Witchcraft – Kenyans Flee Border With Uganda

Ok, yeah.

And ...

US Doctor Infected With Ebola Is Refused Flight to Europe for Treatment

WHITE HOUSE: Africa summit in US will go on...

HUNT FOR 30,000 EBOLA 'VICTIMS'...

MAN NEARLY REACHED USA...

FEAR IN CHARLOTTE...

Could go global...

'Speeding up not slowing down'...

If Ebola Hits America, Even Healthy Will be Quarantined...

Doctor tells of his hell on ward...

CDC issues airline advisory...

Travelers could face flight restriction...

Fight against disease hampered by belief in witchcraft...

Sierra Leone deploys security forces...

Rep: Close Border to Virus Countries... 

Peace Corps volunteers exposed...

Hospitals Training Staff To Be on Lookout...

Doctor Quarantined in Canada...

Woman treated in Hong Kong...Schools closed in Liberia... 

The Dangerous Network of 'Relay Stations' Across North America

NEW YORK TIMES: When Osama bin Laden issued his videotaped message to the American people last month, a young jihad enthusiast went online to help spread the word.

“America needs to listen to Shaykh Usaamah very carefully and take his message with great seriousness,” he wrote on his blog. “America is known to be a people of arrogance.”

Unlike Mr. bin Laden, the blogger was not operating from a remote location. It turns out he is a 21-year-old American named Samir Khan who produces his blog from his parents’ home in North Carolina, where he serves as a kind of Western relay station for the multimedia productions of violent Islamic groups.

In recent days, he has featured “glad tidings” from a North African militant leader whose group killed 31 Algerian troops. He posted a scholarly treatise arguing for violent jihad, translated into English. He listed hundreds of links to secret sites from which his readers could obtain the latest blood-drenched insurgent videos from Iraq.

His neatly organized site also includes a file called “United States of Losers,” which showcased a recent news broadcast about a firefight in Afghanistan with this added commentary from Mr. Khan: “You can even see an American soldier hiding during the ambush like a baby!! AllahuAkbar! AllahuAkbar!”

Mr. Khan, who was born in Saudi Arabia and grew up in Queens, is an unlikely foot soldier in what Al Qaeda calls the “Islamic jihadi media.” He has grown up in middle-class America and wrestles with his worried parents about his religious fervor. Yet he is stubborn. “I will do my best to speak the truth, and even if it annoys the disbelievers, the truth must be preached,” Mr. Khan said in an interview.

While there is nothing to suggest that Mr. Khan is operating in concert with militant leaders, or breaking any laws, he is part of a growing constellation of apparently independent media operators who are broadcasting the message of Al Qaeda and other groups, a message that is increasingly devised, translated and aimed for a Western audience. An Internet Jihad Sells Extremism to Viewers in the U.S. (more)

Mark Alexander