Police Unions and Their History in NYC

Officers Rally And Dinkins Is Their Target

http://www.nytimes.com/
By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.
Published: September 17, 1992

Thousands of off-duty police officers thronged around City Hall yesterday, swarming through police barricades to rally on the steps of the hall and blocking traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge for nearly an hour in the most unruly and angry police demonstration in recent memory.

The 300 uniformed officers who were supposed to control the crowd did little or nothing to stop the protesters from jumping barricades, tramping on automobiles, mobbing the steps of City Hall or taking over the bridge. In some cases, the on-duty officers encouraged the protesters.

While the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association had called the rally to protest Mayor David N. Dinkins's proposal to create an independent civilian agency that would look into police misconduct, the huge turnout -- estimated by the Police Department at 10,000 protesters -- and the harsh emotional pitch reflected widespread anger among rank-and-file officers toward the Mayor for his handling of riots against the police in Washington Heights last July, his refusal to give them semiautomatic weapons and his appointment of an outside panel to investigate corruption.

"He never supports us on anything," said Officer Tara Fanning of the Midtown South Precinct, echoing the view of many in the crowd. "A cop shoots someone with a gun who's a drug dealer, and he goes and visits the family." Dinkins Denounces Protest
Mayor Dinkins, who was not at City Hall during the demonstration, denounced the protest as "bordering on hooliganism" and said he held the P.B.A. president, Phil Caruso, responsible for what happened. He accused Mr. Caruso of inciting his members' passions and suggested the union leader was motivated in part by contract negotiations.

The Mayor also assailed Rudolph W. Giuliani, the probable Republican mayoral candidate, who spoke out against the Mayor at the union rally. Mr. Dinkins said Mr. Giuliani had egged on the protest irresponsibly for political reasons. "He's clearly, clearly an opportunist," Mr. Dinkins said. "He's seizing upon a fragile circumstance in our city for his own political gain."

Mr. Caruso conceded that the protesters who stormed the bridge had got out of hand. He said he did not sanction their actions, but he added that their anger was understandable and warned that the "administration better wake up to what's happening."

"The emotional level did get a little out of control, but sometimes if emotionalism is not evoked publicly, the responsible elements of the community do not listen," he said.

Mr. Giuliani called the Mayor's remarks "desperate and offensive." He denied he had harangued the crowd and said he did not condone demonstrators breaking the law. "The Mayor is dead wrong," he said. "What I attempted to do was to move them away from City Hall."

While about 6,000 officers participated in a peaceful rally on Murray Street, more than 4,000 swarmed over police barricades, blocked the entry to City Hall and later marched onto the Brooklyn Bridge, where they tied up traffic for nearly an hour. Neither the leadership of the P.B.A. nor senior officers of the department were able to control them.

In a telling moment, Chief David W. Scott, the highest ranking uniformed officer in the department, was booed down by the crowd when he implored the officers to move off the steps of City Hall. "I'm disappointed in the fact that police officers would violate the law," Chief Scott said later.

Mr. Caruso and his aides also failed to persuade the splinter group to join the main rally. "Fellas, come on this way," Mr. Caruso said through a bull horn, his words lost in the cacophony.

The protest began shortly after 10 A.M. as officers who had been bused in from all over the city by the union started to march around City Hall Park. From the onset, the demonstrators' rhetoric was vicious. Bristling with banners and signs, the column stretched around the entire park and spilled past the blue sawhorse barricades onto Broadway and Park Row. The officers alternated chants of "No justice! No police!" with slogans like "The Mayor's on Crack."

Many officers wore T-shirts saying "Dinkins Must Go!" Hundreds carried hand-painted signs with sayings like "Dear Mayor, have you hugged a drug dealer today," "Dinkins, We Know Your True Color -- Yellow Bellied."

At 10:50 A.M., a few demonstrators chanting "Take the hall! Take the hall!" flooded over the barriers and into the parking lot in front of City Hall, meeting no resistance from the police on guard. Cheering and screaming, thousands of others poured through from every side of the park and seethed up the hall steps. Some mounted automobiles and began a raucous demonstration, denting the cars.

While the rowdier demonstrators refused to leave the City Hall area, most of the group crowded onto Murray Street between Church Street and Broadway, where they listened to sharply worded speeches from Mr. Caruso, Mr. Giuliani and, finally, Michael O'Keefe, the officer who was cleared by a grand jury recently in the shooting death of a Dominican man in Washington Heights. Many officers flooded the bars along Murray Street and drank openly on the street during the speeches. Bridge Blocked

At 11:40 A.M., several thousand of the officers in front of City Hall marched onto the Brooklyn Bridge, again meeting no resistance, while others joined the rally on Murray Street. Ten minutes later, the bridge was blocked in both directions with more than 2,000 officers milling on both roadways. They blocked traffic until about 12:20, when the crowd began to dissipate.

During most of that time, there were no uniformed officers on the bridge, though four officers on scooters arrived shortly after noon. They did virtually nothing to control the crowd. At one point, a New York Times photographer who was taking pictures was surrounded by demonstrators, punched in the back and shoved. A police lieutenant told the photographer, Keith Meyers, that he should leave the bridge. "I can't protect you up here," the officer said. A New York Times reporter, Alan Finder, was also kicked in the stomach.

At 12:30 P.M., 40 minutes after the bridge was first blocked, a handful of senior police commanders arrived to talk to the remaining protesters, who had dwindled to about 200. By 12:40, the bridge was reopened.

Asked why the department did not take stronger action to control the protesters, Raymond W. Kelly, the Acting Police Commissioner, said the size and vehemence of the protest had caught police commanders by surprise. He promised a full investigation to determine if any protesters had broken the law and whether on-duty officers were too lenient.

Photos: The level of police anger at Mayor David N. Dinkins for his support of an independent civilian agency that would look into police misconduct brought thousands of off-duty officers to City Hall yesterday. Undeterred by on-duty officers who were supposed to control the crowd, demonstrators jumped barricades and blocked traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge. (Keith Meyers/The New York Times) (pg. B1); Rudolph W. Giuliani, left, spoke yesterday at a rally that drew thousands of police officers. The officers were protesting several policies of Mayor David N. Dinkins. (John Sotomayor/The New York Times); Mr. Dinkins denounced the appearance, calling Mr. Giuliani, the probable Republican mayoral candidate, "an opportunist." (Ruby Washington/The New York Times) (pg. B8)

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Police Unions Haven’t Only Battled Bill de Blasio’s City Hall

After two police officers were killed in cold blood Saturday, cops literally turned their backs on Mayor Bill de Blasio--but the relationship between City Hall and cop unions has rarely been good.

By Ross Barkan | 12/21/14 11:51pm



The president of the city’s most prominent police union saw a villain in City Hall. The mayor accused the union boss, seemingly bent on the Democratic mayor’s destruction, of irresponsible rhetoric motivated by the desire for a better contract.

The gulf between the two appeared to be unbridgeable. The year was 1992.

As Mayor Bill de Blasio confronts a pair of hostile police unions convinced that he is responsible for the deaths of two police officers Saturday, he is reliving a conflict familiar to past mayors rather than reaching the absolute nadir of relations between City Hall and police. To many New Yorkers, the sight of NYPD officers turning their backs on the mayor as he walked through Woodhull Medical Center in Brooklyn was chilling and unprecedented–but to anyone who has watched the showdowns between mayors and high-profile police union bosses, it was just another chapter in an ongoing saga.

“This is a recurring theme,” said Kenneth Sherrill, a longtime professor of political science at Hunter College. “Police respond with anger when mayors try to exercise authority over how they relate to the civilian population.”

Former Mayors David Dinkins, Rudolph Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg all endured that animus, despite their wildly divergent ideologies and approach to governing. Just about any time a mayor tried to pay police less than they thought they deserved or impose a new form of oversight or accountability, the vitriol flew–and no clash between mayors and police was quite as bitter as what the city witnessed 22 years ago, when Mr. de Blasio’s old boss, Mr. Dinkins, failed to tame an actual police riot.

“He never supports us on anything,” one police officer complained to the New York Times about Mr. Dinkins, the city’s first and only black mayor. “A cop shoots someone with a gun who’s a drug dealer, and he goes and visits the family.”

On September 16, 1992, thousands of police officers stormed City Hall and stopped traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge to protest Mr. Dinkins’ eventually successful attempt to create an all-civilian Civilian Complaint Review Board, as well as express their general frustration toward his administration. Just as police union leaders and their backers view Mr. de Blasio’s desire to address the grievances of minorities who feel unfairly targeted by police as a thinly-disguised pretext to undermine law enforcement, they blamed Mr. Dinkins for undercutting police in an environment plagued with far more crime and unrest.

“The 300 uniformed officers who were supposed to control the crowd did little or nothing to stop the protesters from jumping barricades, tramping on automobiles, mobbing the steps of City Hall or taking over the bridge,” the Times reported. “In some cases, the on-duty officers encouraged the protesters.”

Ken Sunshine, Mr. Dinkins’ first chief of staff, said parallels could be drawn between that protest and the rage cop leaders feel toward Mr. de Blasio now. But he insisted that New York in 2014–now far safer and less white than it was two decades ago–would change how the dynamic is experienced this time.

“It actually had effect back then, unfortunately,” Mr. Sunshine, a public relations executive and de Blasio ally, said. “Now, it’s pathetically old New York when they try that crap because they can’t get away with it again in the new New York.”

The man who would unseat Mr. Dinkins in 1993, Republican Rudolph Giuliani, was a ringleader of the 1992 police protest. At the time Mr. de Blasio was a young, unknown aide to Mr. Dinkins, one witness to the dawn of what became a two-decade drought for Democrats at City Hall.

And now Mr. Giuliani has emerged as a leading critic of Mr. de Blasio, blaming the mayor, like Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch and Sergeants Benevolent Association President Edward Mullins, for igniting the cop-hating atmosphere that led Ismaaiyl Brinsley, 28, to ambush and kill Officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn on December 20.

Mr. Giuliani, however, didn’t enjoy a much warmer relationship with one of Mr. Lynch’s predecessors, Lou Matarazzo. When the Republican refused to give the PBA the raises they sought, union leaders assailed Mr. Giuliani as a cheapskate–the Republican mayor was the brunt of a “zeros for heroes” campaign, and knew that when he ran for president a decade later, the PBA wouldn’t dare lend their endorsement.

“Giuliani has wrapped himself firmly in the cloak of 9/11 for his own political purposes,” Mr. Lynch stated in 2007. “But the real heroes of 9/11, those who helped to evacuate those towers and lived to tell the tale and all those who participated in the recovery and cleanup, know the truth. Rudy Giuliani has no real credentials as a terrorism fighter. His only credentials lie in managing the cleanup after a terror attack.”

Michael Bloomberg, a Republican-turned-independent, did not have much better luck with Mr. Lynch. Yet another contract dispute in 2004 between City Hall and the PBA brought union members to a noisy 1 a.m. protest outside Mr. Bloomberg’s Upper East Side townhouse. In 2011, Mr. Lynch called Mr. Bloomberg a “liar” over a disagreement about pension benefits.

Once more, Mr. Lynch is locked in heated negotiations with City Hall over a new contract. De Blasio aides have insisted much of Mr. Lynch’s wrath amounts to a bargaining ploy to get his union the best deal.

But critics of Mr. de Blasio, many of them in agreement with Mr. Lynch’s Saturday decree that “blood on the hands starts on the steps of City Hall, in the office of the mayor,” say the city is quite divided under Mr. de Blasio, an observation that polling and anecdotal evidence supports. A MoveOn.org petition calling for Mr. de Blasio’s resignation had about 55,000 signatures as of Sunday night. A top aide to State Senator Martin Golden, a Brooklyn Republican, tweeted that Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, a liberal de Blasio ally, should also resign.

Republican lawmakers and many white voters have been seething since Mr. de Blasio, in the wake of a Staten Island grand jury’s decision not to indict a white police officer in the death of Eric Garner, a black man, said he spoke with his biracial son about the dangers of interacting with police. Mr. de Blasio’s decision to allow anti-police brutality protesters to repeatedly block bridges and highways only further enraged the city’s conservatives, mostly dormant since Mr. de Blasio, a strong critic of stop-and-frisk, swept into power last year.

“Extreme anti-police sentiment and public unruliness have been permitted to fester for far too long,” said Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis, a Staten Island Republican.

But whether the public will unite behind Mr. Lynch remains to be seen. For all the talk of Mr. de Blasio presiding over a newly-divided New York, it’s been rare when the city, rented by race, class and religion, has been in harmony on the most fundamental political questions.

One moment may have come in February of 2002, months after the September 11 attacks. The first Quinnipiac University poll taken of Michael Bloomberg’s tenure found an almost equal number of blacks and whites backed the new mayor.

A month later, 70 percent of whites still approved of Mr. Bloomberg, up from 69 percent in February. But, inevitably perhaps, only 58 percent of blacks approved of Mr. Bloomberg, down from 65 that first month. By the fall of that year, barely a third of the city’s blacks were behind the billionaire.

Read more at http://observer.com/2014/12/for-police-unions-a-history-of-warring-with-city-hall/#ixzz3MoyaQNUl
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Earth Looks Like A Living Creature In This Amazing NASA Video

We've all seen images of extreme weather from space. But none of those could prepare us for this video released by NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio. Using real data, this simulation’s volume-rendered clouds depict seven days in 2005 when a category-4 typhoon developed off the coast of China.

According to the website, the goal of videos like this is to present a clearer picture of our planet and our place within it.

We’ve all heard of the concept of mother earth, or the “gaia hypothesis” and how the planet isn’t just made of dead matter, but is actually a conscious, living being. Here’s a little snippet from another article we published on our website:

“Contrary to the common belief that the Earth is simply a dense planet whose only function is a resource for its inhabitants, our planet is in fact a breathing, living organism. When we think of the Earth holistically, as one living entity of its own, instead of the sum of its parts, it takes on a new meaning. Our planet functions as a single organism that maintains conditions necessary for its survival.” 

Just look at that.. amazing.

Aksum and the Legend of the Queen of Sheba

Aksum

Pictures of Aksum Stelae field, Palace of Queen Sheba, bath of Queen Sheba, the monastic complex of Saint Mary of Zion, the Chapel of the Ark of the Covenant and Crowns of Emperors Ethiopia's historic journey is long and many ruins can be seen in the country. A good example of this is the former settlement of Yeha which is believed to have been built around 800 BC. Yeha, the country's pre-Aksumite foundation of Ethiopian civilisation, is situated between Aksum and Adwa in the province of Tigray. The towering ruins of Yeha's Temple are in such good condition today that they have become one of the tourist attractions of historical significance.

After Yeha had fallen, the town of Aksum was established in 500 BC, which became the ancient city of Ethiopian civilisation and a powerful kingdom. The Axumites were renowned for their fine architecture, crafts and skills, in particular as masons and metal workers, which they retain to this day. Greek traders knew Aksum as centre of an empire, which had trade links with India, Arabia, Rome, Egypt, Persia and Greece. Today, Aksum abounds in archaeological remains and great granite stone curved obelisks known as Stelae. The Stelae are royal tombs or memorials.

A large part of the history of Ethiopia is centred on the legend of the Queen of Sheba of Ethiopia and King Solomon of Israel. Many Ethiopians believe that the relationship between Sheba and Solomon resulted to a son who founded the Solomonic Dynasty in Aksum. According to Ethiopian traditional history the Queen of Sheba learned about the wisdom of King Solomon from a merchant called Tamrin, how he worshiped God and his skills building a great Temple in Jerusalem. The Queen of Sheba decided to visit and see for herself King Solomon's wisdom, how he worshiped God and his many skills. When the Queen of Sheba visited King Solomon in Jerusalem she gave him many gifts and she asked him many questions, which he was able to answer.

According to the legend of the Ethiopian history, while she was with him; King Solomon made Queen Sheba promise not to take anything from his house. King Solomon went to bed one night on one side of the chamber and Queen Sheba went to bed at the other side of the chamber. Before King Solomon slept, he placed a bowl of water near Queen Sheba's chamber. As she was thirsty, Queen Sheba woke up at the middle of the night and found the water, which she drank. At this point Solomon heard noises, woke up and found her drinking the water. He accused her of having broken her oath not to take anything from his house. Nevertheless the beauty of Queen Sheba attracted King Solomon and the relationship between King Solomon and Queen Sheba was consummated, resulting in the birth of a son named Ibn-al-Malik (known as Menelik), the founder of Ethiopian Solomonic Dynasty.

Whilst it cannot be proved that the Queen of Sheba had a son with King Solomon, but there is evidence of the Queen of Sheba's visit to King Solomon in Jerusalem, in the Old Testament of the Holy Bible, the First Book of Kings, chapter 10, verses 1 - 10 says:

The queen of Sheba heard of Solomon's fame and came to test him with hard questions. She arrived in Jerusalem with a very large retinue, camels laden with spices, gold in great quantity, and precious stones. When she came to Solomon, she told him everything she had in her mind, and Solomon answered all her questions; not one of them was too abstruse for the king to answer. When the queen of Sheba saw all the wisdom of Solomon, the house which he had built, the food on his table, the courtiers sitting round him, and his attendants standing behind in their livery, his cupbearers, and the whole-offerings which he used to offer in the house of the Lord, there was no more spirit left in her. Then she said to the king, 'The report which I heard in my own country about you and your wisdom was true, but I did not believe it until I came and saw for myself. Indeed I was not told half of it; your wisdom and your prosperity go far beyond the report which I had of them. Happy are your wives, happy these courtiers of yours who wait on every day and hear your wisdom! Blessed be the Lord your God who has delighted in you has set you on the throne of Israel; because he loves Israel for ever, he has made you their king to maintain law and justice.' Then she gave the king a hundred and twenty talents of gold, spices in great abundance, and precious stones. Never again came such a quantity of spices as the queen of Sheba gave to king Solomon.
When Menelik grew up (about 22 years old), he asked his mother who his father was and told him that it was King Solomon of Israel. Menelik told his mother that he wanted to go to visit his father in Jerusalem. He went to Jerusalem to visit his father and Solomon received him with great honour. Menelik stayed with his father in Jerusalem and learnt the Law of Moses for 3 years. Menelik looked very like his father, which confused the Israelites as they had difficulty in telling the difference between Solomon and Menelik. Because of this confusion they complained to King Solomon and asked him to send Menelik home. King Solomon said if they wanted him to send his son back home the high priests would have to send their oldest son and 1000 people from each tribe of Israel with Menelik. The high priests agreed to send their oldest son and 1000 people from each tribe with Menelik.

Menelik then returned to Aksum, amongst those accompanying him was Azariah the son of the high priest (Zadok) of the temple of Jerusalem. Before the journey Azariah had a dream that told him to take the Ark of the Covenant with him to Ethiopia. Azariah did what the dream told him to do and he stole the Ark from the Temple, putting in its place a copy. Azariah told Menelik what he had done and Menelik was angry with him but Azariah convinced Menelik to take the Ark with them. Zadok, the high priest of the Temple, discovered the Ark's disappearance and informed King Solomon. King Solomon and his army followed Menelik but could not catch him. Whilst this was taking place Solomon dreamt that his son should have the Ark and he returned to Jerusalem and ordered his high Priests to keep its disappearance a secret.

On his return to Ethiopia, Menelik founded the "Solomonic Dynasty" and the Aksumite kingdom adopted Judaism and the Law of Moses. The visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon as mentioned in the Holy Bible signifies to the Ethiopians their claim to be direct descendants of the "Solomonic Dynasty". This shows that Judaic culture was established and followed in Ethiopia since the reign of King Menelik. When the Aksumite kingdom accepted the arrival of Christianity, during the reign of King Ezana in the fourth century, the Felashas (Beta Israel or Ethiopian Jews) refused to accept Christianity and continued to practise Judaism, which they still do today.

The Ark of the Covenant is the most reserved holy relic of God's incarnate and became part of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Christian belief. The presence of the Ark of the Covenant in every Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and the belief in it, exert a profound influence on the imaginations and spiritual lives of many Ethiopians. According to the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, this priceless treasure (the Ark of the Covenant) still exists and rests in a small chapel in the monastic complex of Saint Mary of Zion church in Aksum. This makes Saint Mary of Zion the holiest sanctuary in Ethiopia. It does seems likely that the Ark was brought to Ethiopia when Menelik returned to Aksum from his visit to his father, King Solomon. Ever since the Ethiopian monarch claimed to be a direct descendant from the biblical King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, and ruled Ethiopia in an unbroken line until the revolution broke out in 1974 which ended the Ethiopian monarchy. For more information about the history and the whereabouts of the Ark of the Covenant, visit www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/ark.html and www.ethiopianorthodox.org/amharic/holybooks/arkofthecovenent.pdf.

The original church of Saint Mary of Zion was built in the fourth century during the reign of King Ezana who converted the Aksumite kingdom to Christianity. A replica of the Ark of the Covenant, known as the tabot (the tablet), is kept in the holy of holies (Maqdas) in every Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church to indicate that the church has been duly consecrated as no church is considered consecrated without a replica of the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark of the Covenant is now kept in a small chapel built in 1965 on the orders of Emperor Haile Selassie, which stands at the heart of Aksum's monastic complex of Saint Mary of Zion (Mariam Tsion) church. One holy monk is elected and charged with its care and preservation. The elected monk becomes the official guardian of the Ark and no one, except the elected Guardian (a monk) who looks after the Ark of the Covenant, is allowed to enter the chapel. Before the guardian dies, according to Aksumites tradition, he must nominate his successor.

Aksum remained the capital where the coronations of emperors and empress were held until the reign of Emperor Haile Selassie. It has become Ethiopia's most important centre of Orthodox Tewahedo Christian faith with many archaeological remains of interest and historical significance. These include the palace of Queen of Sheba, tombs of King Ezana and King Gebre Meskel, the magnificent Stelae (obelisks), the bath of Queen of Sheba, the monastic complex of Saint Mary of Zion, the chapel which houses the Ark of the Covenant and the city's antiquities museum. Aksum is now one of the most visited historical city in Ethiopia.

References

• Roderick Grierson and Stuart Munro-Hay, The Ark of the Covenant, 2000, published by Phoenix, London, UK, ISBN 0753810107
• Dr Bernard Leeman, The Ark of the Covenant, Evidence Supporting The Ethiopian Traditions, August 2010, www.queen-of-sheba-university.org,http://www.ethiopianorthodox.org/amharic/holybooks/arkofthecovenent.pdf
• Stuart Munro-Hay, Ethiopia, The Unknown Land a Cultural and Historical Guide, 2002, published by I.B. Tauris and Co. Ltd., London and New York, ISBN 1 86064 7448
• Jenny Hammond, Fire From The Ashes, A Chronicle of the Revolution in Tigray, Ethiopia, 1975-1991, 1999, published by The Read Sea Press, Inc., ISBN 1 56902 0868
• Philip Briggs, Ethiopia, The Bradt Travel Guide, Third Edition, 2002, published by Bradt Travel Guides Ltd, England, UK, ISBN 1 84162 0351
• Holy Bible, The Old Testimony, The First Book of Kings Chapter 10 verses 1-10.
• Graham Hancock, The Sign and the Seal : The Quest for the Lost Ark of the Covenant. Touchstone Books, 1993.
• The Jewish Virtual Library, The Lost Ark of the Covenant.http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/ark.html
• The Jewish Virtual Library, Judaism. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaism.html
• The Jewish Virtual Library, The History of Ethiopian Jews.http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/ejhist.html
• The Jewish Virtual Library, Law of Return 5710-1950.http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Immigration/Text_of_Law_of_Return.html
• The Jewish Virtual Library, The History of Ethiopian Jews, The Falash Mura. January 21, 2010.http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/falashmura.html
• The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church (2003). The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church Faith and Order. http://www.ethiopianorthodox.org/english/indexenglish.html
• Binyam Kebede (2002). http://www.ethiopiafirst.com (4ladies.jpg, Afar-lady.jpg, Afar-girl.jpg, lady-artful-lips.jpg, Man-face-art.jpg, Man-face-art2.jpg, Somal-lady.jpg, Debra-Damo.jpg, Buitiful-girls.jpg, lady-face-art.jpg, man-hair-style.jpg, yeha.jpg, harar.jpg,). Many thanks to Binyam Kebede for his permission to copy and use these pictures from his website.
• Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, Office of Population and Housing Census Commission Central Statistical Authority, November 1998, Addis Ababa
• Edward Ullendorff, Ethiopia and The Bible, The Schweich Lectures, The British Academy, Published by The Oxford University Press, first published 1968, Reprinted 1989, 1992, 1997, Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, United Kingdom, ISBN 0-19-726076-4
• Mr. Solomon Kibriye (2003). Imperial Ethiopia Homepage, http://www.angelfire.com/ny/ethiocrown. Many thanks to Mr. Solomon Kibriye for the contribution and comments he has made to this website.

The Queen of Sheba (Hebrew: מַלְכַּת־שְׁבָא‎; Ge'ez: ንግሥተ ሣብአ, nigiśta Śabʿa, Arabic: ملكة سبأ‎) is a queen who appears in the Bible, described as visiting King Solomon to test his wisdom (1 Kings 10:1–13; 2 Chronicles 9:1–12). Although some scholars despair of recovering the historical Solomon, the narrative about the queen is not to be dismissed as an anachronistic fantasy. 

Subsequent traditions have named her Nicaula (Josephus), Bilkis  (Islamic), or Maqueda (Ethiopic). The tale of her visit to Solomon has undergone extensive Jewish, Arabian and Ethiopian elaborations, and has become the subject of one of the most widespread and fertile cycles of legends in the Orient. 

The Queen of Sheba has been an important role model and base for different narratives, works of arts, scientific studies and musical compositions over centuries till the present. The legend has lead to different variants of the Chosen people narrative.

Léopold Sédar Senghor Senghors "Elégie pour la Reine de Saba," published in his Elégies majeures in 1976 uses the Queen of Sheba in a love poem and for a political message. Senghor already had put Africa's cultural achievements on the same level as Europe's, seeing them as being part of the same cultural continuum. In the 1970s, he used the Queen of Sheba fable to widen his view of Negritude and Eurafrique by including 'Arab-Berber Africa'.

The Bible
The Queen of Sheba (מלכת שבא, mlkt šbʾ in Biblical Hebrew, βασίλισσα Σαβὰ in the Codex Vaticanus Septuagint) came to Jerusalem "with a very great retinue, with camels bearing spices, and very much gold, and precious stones" (I Kings 10:2). "Never again came such an abundance of spices" (10:10; II Chron. 9:1–9) as those which she gave to Solomon. She came "to prove him with hard questions", all of which Solomon answered to her satisfaction. They exchanged gifts, after which she returned to her land.

The use of the term ḥiddot, "riddles" (I Kings 10:1), an Aramaic loan whose shape points to a sound shift no earlier than the sixth century B.C., indicates a late origin for the text. Since there is no mention of the fall of Babylon in 539 B.C.E., Martin Noth has held that the Book of Kings received a definitive redaction around 550 B.C.E. The story in the Book of Chronicles (4th century B.C.E.) is linked strongly to the source in Kings, with many details omitted.

Virtually all modern scholars agree that Sheba was the South Arabian kingdom of Saba, centered around the oasis of Marib, in present-day Yemen. Sheba was quite known in the classical world, and its country was called Arabia Felix. Around the middle of the first millennium B.C., there were Sabaeans also in the Horn of Africa, in the area that later became the realm of Aksum (Eritrea).There are five places in the Bible where the writer distinguishes Sheba (שׁבא), i. e. the Yemenite Sabaeans, from Seba (סבא), i. e. the African Sabaeans. This spelling differentiation, however, may be purely factitious.

The alphabetic inscriptions from South Arabia furnish no evidence for women rulers, but Assyrian inscriptions repeatedly mention Arab queens in the north. Queens are well attested in Arabia, though according to Kitchen, not after 690 B.C.E. Furthermore, Sabaean tribes knew the title of mqtwyt (high official). Maqueda, the personal name of the queen in Ethiopian legend, might be interpreted as a popular rendering of the title of mqtwyt.

The queen's visit could have been a trade mission. Early South Arabian trade with Mesopotamia involving wood and spices transported by camels is attested in the early ninth century B.C. and may have begun as early as the tenth.

The ancient Sabaic Awwām Temple, known in folklore as Maḥram (the Sanctuary of) Bilqīs, was recently excavated by archaeologists, but no trace of Queen of Sheba has been discovered so far in the many inscriptions found there.

Aggadah
According to Josephus (Ant. 8:165–73), the queen of Sheba was the queen of Egypt and Ethiopia, and brought to Palestine the first specimens of the balsam, which grew in the Holy Land in the historian's time.

The Talmud (Bava Batra 15b) insists that it was not a woman but a kingdom of Sheba (based on varying interpretations of Hebrew mlkt) that came to Jerusalem, obviously intended to discredit existing stories about the relations between Solomon and the Queen.

The most elaborate account of the queen's visit to Salomon is given in the 8th century (?) Targum Sheni to Esther. A hoopoe informed Solomon that the kingdom of Sheba was the only kingdom on earth not subject to him and that its queen was a sun worshiper. He thereupon sent it to Kitor in the land of Sheba with a letter attached to its wing commanding its queen to come to him as a subject. She thereupon sent him all the ships of the sea loaded with precious gifts and 6,000 youths of equal size, all born at the same hour and clothed in purple garments. They carried a letter declaring that she could arrive in Jerusalem within three years although the journey normally took seven years. When the queen arrived and came to Solomon's palace, thinking that the glass floor was a pool of water, she lifted the hem of her dress, uncovering her legs. Solomon informed her of her mistake and reprimanded her for her hairy legs. She asked him three (Targ. Sheni to Esther 1:3) or, according to the Midrash (Prov. ii. 6; Yalḳ. ii., § 1085, Midrash ha-Hefez), other riddles to test his wisdom.

The 11th century (?) Alphabet of Ben Sira avers that Nebuchadnezzar was the fruit of the union between Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.

In the Kabbalah, the Queen of Sheba was considered one of the queens of the demons and is sometimes identified with Lilith, first in the Targum of Job (1:15), and later in the Zohar and the subsequent literature. A Jewish and Arab myth maintains that the Queen was actually a jinn, half human and half demon.


In Ashkenazi folklore, the figure merged with the popular image of Helen of Troy or the Frau Venus of German mythology. Ashkenazi incantations commonly depict the Queen of Sheba as a seductive dancer. Until recent generations she was popularly pictured as a snatcher of children and a demonic witch.

The Qur'an
In the Quran, the queen is simply the "queen of the south" (XXVII, 27 ff.). The story essentially follows the Bible and other Jewish sources. Solomon commanded the Queen of Sheba to come to him as a subject, whereupon she appeared before him (XXVII, 30–31, 45). Before the queen had arrived, Solomon had stolen her throne with the help of a jinn. She recognized the throne, which had been disguised, and finally accepted the faith of Solomon. Imagination runs riot in this story, in which spirits, animals, and other creatures appear as the servants of the Jewish king (XXVII, 34). Much is omitted that is quite necessary for the understanding of the story.

Muslim commentators (Tabari, Zamakhshari, Baydawi) supplement the story at various points. The Queen's name is given as Bilkis, probably derived from Greek παλλακίς or the Hebraised pilegesh, "concubine". The demons at Solomon's Court, afraid that the King may marry Bilkis, spread the rumour that the Queen has hairy legs and the foot of an ass. Hence Solomon's ruse of constructing a glass floor which the Queen mistakes for water thus causing her to lift her skirts. Solomon then commands his demons to prepare a special depilatory to remove the disfiguring hair. According to some he then married the Queen, while other traditions assert that he gave her in marriage to a tubba of Hamdan.

Although the Quran and its commentators have preserved the earliest literary reflection of the complete Bilkis legend, there is little doubt among scholars that the narrative is derived from a Jewish Midrash.


Bible stories of the Queen of Sheba and the ships of Ophir served as a basis for legends about the Israelites traveling in the Queen of Sheba's entourage when she returned to her country to bring up her child by Solomon. There is a Muslim tradition that the first Jews arrived in Yemen at the time of King Solomon, following the politico-economic alliance between him and the Queen of Sheba. However, that tradition is suspected to be an apologetic fabrication of Jews in Yemen later transferred to Islam, just like many other traditions.

Ethiopian
The fullest and most significant version of the legend appears in the 14th century (?) Kebra Nagast (Glory of the Kings), the Ethiopian national saga. Here Menelik I is the child of Solomon and Maqueda (the Ethiopic name for the queen) from whom the Ethiopian dynasty claims descent to the present day. While the Abyssinian story offers much greater detail, it omits any mention of the Queen's hairy legs or any other element that might reflect on her unfavourably. The narrative is that King Solomon invited the Queen of Sheba to a banquet, serving spicy food to induce her thirst, and inviting her to stay in his palace overnight. The Queen asked him to swear that he would not take her by force. He accepted upon the condition that she, in turn, would not take anything from his house by force. The Queen assured him that she would not, slightly offended by the implication that she, a rich and powerful monarch, would engage in stealing. However, as she woke up in the middle of the night, she was very thirsty. Just as she reached for a jar of water placed close to her bed, King Solomon appeared, warning her that she was breaking her oath, water being the most valuable of all material possessions. Thus, while quenching her thirst, she set the king free from his promise and they spent the night together.

According to some sources, Queen Maqueda was part of the dynasty originally founded by Za Besi Angabo in 1370 B.C.E., with her grandfather and father being the last male rulers of the royal line. The family's intended choice to rule Aksum was Maqueda's brother, Prince Nourad, but his early death led to her succession to the throne. She apparently ruled the Ethiopian kingdom for more than 50 years.

In the Ethiopian Book of Aksum, Maqueda is described as establishing a new capital city at Azeba.

Edward Ullendorff holds that Maqueda is a corruption of "Candace", the Ethiopian queen mentioned in the New Testament Acts.[citation needed] In Ethiopian tradition Candace was often known as Maqueda, the name in the Ethiopic version of the Alexander romance, behind which, it is thought, there lies a reference to 'Iskinder' (Alexander the Great) of Macedonia (Ethiopic Meqédon), whom the legend embroiders as having met with Queen Candace (Kandake) of Nubia (c. 332 BC), and being dissuaded by her from invading her realm.

Historians believe that the Solomonic dynasty actually began in 1270 with the emperor Yekuno Amlak, who, with the support of the Ethiopian Church, overthrew the Zagwe Dynasty, which had ruled Ethiopia since sometime during the 10th century. The link to King Solomon provided a strong foundation for Ethiopian national unity. Despite the fact that the dynasty officially ended in 1769 with Emperor Iyaos, Ethiopian rulers continued to trace their connection to it, right up to the last 20th-century emperor, Haile Selassie.

Jewish
Ethiopian Jews (Beta Israel) refer to the Ethiopian legends of Menelik's return to Ethiopia. Though all the available traditions correspond to recent interpretations, they reflect ancient convictions. Beta Israel are not regarded necessarily as descendants of king Solomon, but as contemporaries of Solomon and Menelik, originating from the kingdom of Israel. Another interpretation suggests that the Beta Israel are not necessarily descendants of King Solomon, but contemporaries of Solomon and Menelik, originating from the Kingdom of Israel.

Other
The Luhya people of Kenya call the Queen of Sheba Nakuti.


The Yoruba Ijebu clan of Ijebu-Ode, Nigeria, claim that she was a noblewoman of theirs known as Oloye Bilikisu Sungbo, which is similar to the name mentioned in the Quran, Balqis. They also assert that a medieval system of walls and ditches, built sometime around the 10th century, was dedicated to her. After excavations in 1999 the archaeologist Patrick Darling was quoted as saying, "I don't want to overplay the Sheba theory, but it cannot be discounted... The local people believe it and that's what is important... The most cogent argument against it at the moment is the dating."

MAKEDA "THE QUEEN OF SHEBA" (960 B.C.)

In 960 B.C., the nation that is now called Ethiopia, came back upon the center of the stage of history.
Ethiopia was then represented by a queen, who in some books is referred to as "Makeda" or "Belkis." She is better known to the world as the Queen of Sheba. In his book, "World's Great Men of Color," J.A. Rogers, gives this description: "Out of the mists of three thousand years, emerges this beautiful story of a Black Queen, who attracted by the fame of a Judean monarch, made a long journey to see him."

The Queen of Sheba is said to have undertaken a long and difficult journey to Jerusalem, in order to learn of the wisdom of the great King Solomon. Makeda and King Solomon were equally impressed with each other. Out of their relationship was born a son, Menelik I.

This Queen is said to have reigned over Sheba and Arabia as well as Ethiopia. The queen of Sheba's capital was Debra Makeda, which the Queen built for herself.

In Ethiopia's church of Axum, there is a copy of what is said to be one of the Tables of Law that Solomon gave to Menelik I.


The story of the Queen of Sheba is deeply cherished in Ethiopia, as part of the national heritage. This African Queen is mentioned in two holy books, the Bible and the Koran.

African Kingdoms No One Talks About But Should

11 African Kingdoms No One Talks About But Should

Kingdom of Aksum or Axum of Ethiopia
The Kingdom of Aksum or Axum, also known as the Aksumite Empire, was a trading nation in the area of Eritrea and northern Ethiopia , which existed from approximately 100–940 AD. It grew from the proto-Aksumite Iron Age period c. 4th century BC to achieve prominence by the 1st century AD, and was a major player in the commerce between the Roman Empire and Ancient India. The Aksumite rulers facilitated trade by minting their own currency, the state established its hegemony over the declining Kingdom of Kush and regularly entered the politics of the kingdoms on the Arabian peninsula, eventually extending its rule over the region with the conquest of the Himyarite Kingdom.

The Axumites erected a number of large stelae, which served a religious purpose in pre-Christian times. One of these granite columns is the largest such structure in the world, standing at 90 feet. Under Ezana (fl. 320–360) Aksum adopted Christianity. In the 7th century, early Muslims from Mecca also sought refuge from Quraysh persecution by travelling to the kingdom, a journey known in Islamic history as the First Hijra.

Its ancient capital, also called Aksum, was in northern Ethiopia. The Kingdom used the name "Ethiopia" as early as the 4th century. It is also the alleged resting place of the Ark of the Covenant and the purported home of the Queen of Sheba

Aksum is mentioned in the 1st-century AD Periplus of the Erythraean Sea as an important market place for ivory, which was exported throughout the ancient world. It states that the ruler of Aksum in the 1st century AD was Zoskales, who, besides ruling the kingdom, likewise controlled two harbours on the Red Sea: Adulis (near Massawa) and Assab located in Eritrea. He is also said to have been familiar with Greek literature.

According to the medieval Liber Axumae (Book of Aksum), Aksum's first capital, Mazaber, was built by Itiyopis, son of Cush.

Largely on the basis of Conti Rossini's theories and prolific work on Ethiopian history, Aksum was previously thought to have been founded by Sabaeans, who spoke a language from the Semitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic family. They were believed to have crossed the Red Sea from Southern Arabia (modern Yemen) in antiquity. However, evidence suggests that Semiticized Agaw peoples, who originally spoke other Afro-Asiatic languages from the family's Cushitic branch, and other Ethiopian groups had already established an independent civilisation in the territory before the arrival of the Sabaeans.

Scholars like Stuart Munro-Hay thus point to the existence of an older D'mt or Da'amot kingdom, which flourished in the area between the 10th and 5th centuries BC, prior to the proposed Sabaean migration of the 4th or 5th century BC. They also cite evidence indicating that the Sabaean settlers resided in the region for little more than a few decades. Furthermore, Ge'ez, the ancient Semitic language of Eritrea and Ethiopia, is now known not to have derived from Sabaean, and there is evidence of an Ethiopian Semitic-speaking presence in Eritrea and Ethiopia at least as early as 2000 BC.

Sabaean influence is now thought to have been minor, limited to a few localities, and disappearing after a few decades or a century, perhaps representing a trading or military colony in some sort of symbiosis or military alliance with the civilization of D'mt or some proto-Aksumite state.However, Kitchen et al. (2009) assert that the Ethiosemitic languages were brought to the Ethiopian and Eritrean plateau from the Arabian peninsula around 2850 years ago, an introduction which Ehret (1988) suggests was associated with the establishment of some of the first local complex societies.

Over 95% of Aksum remains unexplored beneath the modern city and its surrounding area.
The Empire of Aksum
The Empire of Aksum at its height at times extended across most of present-day Eritrea, northern Ethiopia, Western Yemen, southern Saudi Arabia and Sudan. The capital city of the empire was Aksum, now in northern Ethiopia. Today a smaller community, the city of Aksum was once a bustling metropolis, cultural and economic center. Two hills and two streams lie on the east and west expanses of the city; perhaps providing the initial impetus for settling this area. Along the hills and plain outside the city, the Aksumites had cemeteries with elaborate grave stones called stelae, or obelisks. Other important cities included Yeha, Hawulti-Melazo, Matara, Adulis, and Qohaito, the last three of which are now in Eritrea.

In the 3rd century, Aksum began intervening in South Arabian affairs, controlling at times the western Tihama region among other areas. It dominated states on the Arabian Peninsula across the Red Sea, making them pay Aksum a regular tribute. By the reign of Endubis in the late 3rd century it had begun minting its own currency and was named by Mani as one of the four great powers of his time along with Persia, Rome, and China. It converted to Christianity in 325 or 328 under King Ezana and was the first state ever to use the image of the cross on its coins. By 350, they conquered the Kingdom of Kush. At its height, Aksum controlled northern Ethiopia, Eritrea, northern Sudan, southern Egypt, Djibouti, Western Yemen, and southern Saudi Arabia, totaling 1.25 million square kilometers.


Around 520, the King Kaleb sent an expedition to Yemen against the Jewish Himyarite King Dhu Nuwas, who was persecuting the Christian/Aksumite community in his kingdom. Dhu Nuwas was deposed and killed and Kaleb appointed a Christian Himyarite, Sumuafa Ashawa, as his viceroy. However, around 525 this viceroy was deposed by the Aksumite general Abreha with support of Ethiopians who had settled in Yemen, and withheld tribute to Kaleb. When Kaleb sent another expedition against Abreha this force defected, killing their commander, and joining Abreha. Another expedition sent against them was defeated, leaving Yemen under Abreha's rule, where he continued to promote the Christian faith until his death, not long after which Yemen was conquered by the Persians. According to Munro-Hay these wars may have been Aksum's swan-song as a great power, with an overall weakening of Aksumite authority and over-expenditure in money and manpower. According to Ethiopian traditions, Kaleb eventually abdicated and retired to a monastery. It is also possible that Ethiopia was affected by the Plague of Justinian around this time.
Aksum remained a strong, though weakened, empire and trading power until the rise of Islam in the 7th century. However, unlike the relations between the Islamic powers and Christian Europe, Aksum (see Sahama), which provided shelter to Muhammad's early followers around 615, was on good terms with its Islamic neighbors.[citation needed] Nevertheless, as early as 640, Umar ibn al-Khattāb sent a naval expedition against Adulis under Alkama bin Mujazziz, but it was eventually defeated. Aksumite naval power also declined throughout the period, though in 702 Aksumite pirates were able to invade the Hejaz and occupy Jeddah. In retaliation, however, Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik was able to take the Dahlak Archipelago from Aksum, which became Muslim from that point on, though later recovered in the 9th century and vassal to the Emperor of Ethiopia.

Decline
Eventually, the Islamic Empire took control of the Red Sea and most of the Nile, forcing Aksum into economic isolation. Northwest of Aksum in modern day Sudan, the Christian states of Makuria and Alodia lasted till the 13th century before becoming Islamic. Aksum, isolated, nonetheless still remained Christian.

After a second golden age in the early 6th century, the empire began to decline, eventually ceasing its production of coins in the early 7th century. Around this same time, the Aksumite population was forced to go farther inland to the highlands for protection, abandoning Aksum as the capital. Arab writers of the time continued to describe Ethiopia (no longer referred to as Aksum) as an extensive and powerful state, though they had lost control of most of the coast and their tributaries. While land was lost in the north, it was gained in the south, and though Ethiopia was no longer an economic power it still attracted Arab merchants. The capital was moved to a new location, currently unknown, though it may have been called Ku'bar or Jarmi.

Local history holds that around 960 a Jewish Queen named Yodit (Judith) or "Gudit" defeated the empire and burned its churches and literature, but while there is evidence of churches being burned and an invasion around this time, her existence has been questioned by some modern authors. Another possibility is that the Aksumite power was ended by a southern pagan queen named Bani al-Hamwiyah, possibly of the tribe al-Damutah or Damoti (Sidama). It is clear from contemporary sources that a female usurper did indeed rule the country at this time, and that her reign ended some time before 1003. After a short Dark Age, the Aksumite Empire was succeeded by the Agaw Zagwe dynasty in the 11th or 12th century (most likely around 1137), although limited in size and scope. However, Yekuno Amlak, who killed the last Zagwe king and founded the modern Solomonic dynasty around 1270 traced his ancestry and his right to rule from the last emperor of Aksum, Dil Na'od. It should be mentioned that the end of the Aksumite Empire didn't mean the end of Aksumite culture and traditions; for example the architecture of the Zagwe dynasty at Lalibela and Yemrehana Krestos Church shows heavy Askumite influence.


Other reasons for the decline are more scientific in nature. Climate change and trade isolation are probably also large reasons for the decline of the culture. The local subsistence base was substantially augmented by a climatic shift during the first century A.D. that reinforced the spring rains, extended the rainy season from 3 1/2 to 6 or 7 months, vastly improved the surface and subsurface water supply, doubled the length of the growing season, and created an environment comparable to that of modern central Ethiopia-where two crops can be grown per annum without the aid of irrigation. This appears to explain how one of the marginal agricultural environments of Ethiopia was able to support the demographic base that made this farflung commercial empire possible. It may also explain why no Axumite rural settlement expansion into the moister, more fertile, and naturally productive lands of Begemder or Lasta can be verified during the heyday of Axumite power. As international profits from the exchange network declined, Axum lost its ability to control its own raw material sources and that network collapsed. The already persistent environmental pressure of a large population to maintain a high level of regional food production had to be intensified. The result was a wave of soil erosion that began on a local scale ca. A.D. 650 and attained catastrophic proportions after 700. Presumably complex socio-economic inputs compounded the problem. These are traditionally reflected in declining maintenance, deterioration and partial abandonment of marginal crop land, shifts to destructive pastoral exploitation, and eventual, wholesale and irreversible land degradation. This syndrome was possibly accelerated by an apparent decline in rainfall reliability beginning 730-760, with the presumed result that an abbreviated modern growing season was reestablished during the ninth century.

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Bornu Empire (1380–1893)  
The Bornu Empire was a state of what is now northeastern Nigeria. It was a continuation of the great Kanem Empire founded centuries earlier by the Sayfawa Dynasty. In time, it would become even larger than Kanem, incorporating areas that are today parts of Chad, Niger and Cameroon.


Sao Civilization (sixth century B.C. to late 16th century A.D.)
The Sao civilization flourished in Middle Africa from around the sixth century B.C. to as late as the 16th century A.D. The Sao lived by the Chari River south of Lake Chad in territory that later became part of Cameroon and Chad. Sao artifacts show that they were skilled workers in bronze, copper and iron.


The Kanem Empire (circa 700–1376)

At its height, the Kanem Empire encompassed an area covering not only much of Chad but also parts of southern Libya (Fezzan) and eastern Niger, northeastern Nigeria and northern Cameroon. The empire reportedly was able to field 40,000 cavalry. By the late 11th century, the Islamic Sayfawa (Saifawa) dynasty was founded by Humai (Hummay) ibn Salamna. The Sayfawa Dynasty ruled for 771 years, making it one of the longest-lasting dynasties in human history.


Shilluk Kingdom 

The Shilluk Kingdom was centered in South Sudan from the 15th century along a strip of land on the western bank of White Nile. After 1650, the Shilluk population (despite its diversity) appeared to gain a sense of national unity, accompanied by a strengthening of royal authority. The monarch, known as the Reth, and a more-centralized government established a monopoly of economic resources and trade.


Baguirmi Kingdom 
The kingdom of Baguirmi existed as an independent state during the 16th and 17th centuries southeast of Lake Chad in what is now the country of Chad. Baguirmi emerged to the southeast of the Kanem-Bornu Empire. The kingdom’s first ruler was Mbang Birni Besse. During periods of strength, the sultanate became imperialistic. It established control over small feudal kingdoms on its peripheries and entered into alliances with nearby nomadic people.


Wadai Empire (1635–1912) 
The Wadai Empire or Sultanate was a kingdom located to the east of Lake Chad in present-day Chad and in the Central African Republic. The sultanate expanded its power as it profited considerably from its strategic position astride the trans-Saharan trade routes. The militaristic Wadai fought French domination until being overcome on June 6, 1909. Resistance continued until 1912.


Luba Empire  (1585–1889) 
The kingdom of Luba or Luba Empire was a Central African state founded by King Kongolo Maniema around 1585 in the marshy grasslands of the Upemba Depression in what is now southern Democratic Republic of Congo. Maniema’s nephew and immediate successor, Kalala Ilunga, expanded the empire over the upper left bank territories of the Lualaba River. At its peak, the state had about a million people paying tribute to its king.


Lunda Empire (circa 1665-1887) 
The kingdom of Lunda was a pre-colonial African confederation of states in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo, northeastern Angola and northwestern Zambia. With a base of 175,000 inhabitants, the Lunda Kingdom controlled about 150,000 square kilometers by 1680, but the state doubled in size at its height in the 19th century.


Ajuran Empire (13th century – late 17th century )
The Ajuran Sultanate was a Somali Muslim empire that ruled over large parts of the Horn of Africa in the Middle Ages. The empire left an extensive architectural legacy, being one of the major medieval Somali powers engaged in castle- and fortress-building. Many of the ruined fortifications dotting the landscapes of southern Somalia today are attributed to the Ajuran Sultanate’s engineers.


Kingdom of Mapungubwe (1075–1220) 
The kingdom of Mapungubwe was a pre-colonial state in southern Africa located at the confluence of the Shashe and Limpopo rivers south of Great Zimbabwe. The kingdom, which built stone walls to mark important areas, was the first stage in a development that would culminate in the creation of the kingdom of Zimbabwe in the 13th century and with gold-trading links to Rhapta and Kilwa Kisiwani on the African east coast. The kingdom of Mapungubwe lasted about 70 years. At its height, its population was about 5,000 people.

Sources: Atlanta BlackStar ( http://atlantablackstar.com/2014/10/24/10-african-kingdoms-no-one-talks-about-but-should/5/ ) & Wikipedia

Perpetrators, collaborators, bystanders, victims: we can be clear about three of these categories. The bystander, however, is the fulcrum. If there are enough notable exceptions, then protest reaches a critical mass. We don’t usually think of history as being shaped by silence, but, as English philosopher Edmund Burke said, ‘The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.’

As we look around seeing unarmed men being shot much too often by police officers, we must ask a few questions: Why are there so many poorly trained cowards with badges? Why does it seem to be mostly unarmed Blacks/African-Americans that are being shot? Why is it that most situations are met with lethal (deadly) force? Just because someone does not obey a cop, the response is not to kill them whether it is by electrocution, choke-holds, night sticks, or shooting. Maybe the cowards have control issues.
In any event the bystander police officers need to end this culture of cowardice, hate, racism, and fear by standing up to the bad apples, weeding them out, and going to court against them. If there is no Blue Wall of Silence then they cannot seek refuge and hide behind it. Only cowards hide and only cowards standby do nothing and let evil have its way.

As we witness the media instill mass panic and fear with their so called coverage of the so-called group of cowards known as Isis we must realize that Isis is not a true representation of Islam nor of the majority of Muslims world wide. They are conducting themselves in a totally UN-Islamic manner. The Muslim bystanders must not only condemn them verbally, they need to attack them and try them according to the Qur'aan and true Islamic law. They are going against the Glorious Qur'aan and should be treated as non Muslims by all.

Biological Weapons: The History

Biological Weapons

An offensive biological program was begun in 1942 under the direction of a civilian agency, the War Reserve Service (WRS). The Army Chemical Warfare Service was given responsibility and oversight for the effort. The mounting threat of the German buzz bombs that were raining on England from launching sites on the Continent during 1943 spurred the urgency of BW (biological warfare) defense because it was thought that these high-explosive rockets might easily be converted into efficient weapons for massive BW attacks.
From the moment of its birth in the highest levels of government, the fledgling biological warfare effort was kept to an inner circle of knowledgeable persons. George W. Merck was a key member of the panel advising President Franklin D. Roosevelt and in May 1942 was charged with putting such an effort together. Merck, who owned the pharmaceutical firm that still bears his name, was named director of the new War Research Service (WRS). The program included a research and development facility at Camp Detrick, Maryland, testing sites in Mississippi and Utah, and a production facility in Terre Haute, Indiana. Experiments were conducted using pathogens including B. anthracis and Brucella suis. However, the production facility lacked adequate engineering safety measures; tests of the fermentation and storage processes using nonpathogenic Bacillus subtilis var. gobigii as a B. anthracis simulant disclosed contamination of the plant and environs. These findings precluded the production of biological weapons during World War II.
After the war, the production facility was sold and converted to commercial pharmaceutical production. Research and development activities were continued. Japanese scientists in American custody who had participated in the Unit 731 program were granted amnesty on the condition that they would disclose information obtained during their program.

The program was expanded during the Korean War (1950-53). A new production facility incorporating adequate biosafety measures was constructed at Pine Bluff, Arkansas. Technical advances allowed large-scale fermentation, concentration, storage, and weaponization of microorganisms; production was begun in 1954. In addition, a program to develop countermeasures including vaccines, antisera, and theraputic agents to protect troops from possible biological attack was begun in 1953.

Volunteer studies were performed in a 1-million liter sphere at Fort Detrick known as the "eight-ball" to test weapons systems disseminating Francisella tularensis, Coxiella burnetti, and other pathogens. Animal experiments were conducted at Fort Detrick and at remote desert and Pacific sites.

Cities were unwittingly used as laboratories to test aerosolization and dispersal methods; Aspergillus fumigatus, B. subtilis var. globigii, and Serratia marcescens were used as simulants and released during experiments in New York City, San Francisco, and other sites. Concerns regarding potential public health hazards of simulant studies were raised after an outbreak of nosocomial S. marcescens (formerly Chromobacterium prodigiosum) urinary tract infections at Stanford University Hospital between September 1950 and February 1951, following covert experiments using S. marcescens as a simulant in San Francisco. A report from the Centers for Disease Control completed in 1977 found no association between reported morbidity and mortality from pneumonia and influenza and local simulant experiments.

A series of field tests took place under the auspices of the Biological Laboratories from 1943 to the mid-1960s:

In one such test, travelers at Washington National Airport were subjected to a harmless bacterium. Traps were placed throughout the facility to capture the bacterium as it flowed in the air. Laboratory personnel, dressed as travelers carrying brief cases, walked the corridors and without detection sprayed the bacterium into the atmosphere.
In the New York Subway, a light bulb filled with the same harmless bacterium was dropped on the tracks. The organism spread throughout the system within 20 minutes. Traps and monitoring devices showed the amount of organism—if it were one of the predictable, dangerous organisms, could have killed thousands of persons. No one was injured or became ill as a result of the test.
In San Francisco, a U.S. Navy ship, equipped with spray devices operated by Fort Detrick personnel, sprayed serratia marcescens, a non-pathogenic microorganism that is easily detected, while the ship plied the San Francisco Bay. It spread more than 30 miles to monitoring stations.
A jet aircraft equipped with spray devices, flew a course near Victoria, Texas, and the harmless particles were monitored in the Florida Keys.
There were 456 cases of occupational infections acquired at Fort Detrick during the offensive biological program, at a rate of less than 10 infections per million hours worked. The rate of occupational infection was well within the contemporary standards of the National Safety Council, and below the rates reported from other laboratories. There were three fatalities due to occupationally acquired infections; two cases of anthrax in 1951 and 1958, and a case of viral encephalitis in 1964. The mortality rate was lower than those of other contemporary surveys of laboratory-acquired infections. There were 48 occupational infections and no fatalities reported from production and testing sites. The safety program included the development and use of new vaccines as well as engineering safety measures.

Before 1969, when President Richard Nixon closed the American offensive biological warfare program, offensive agents were developed at the United States Army's biological-warfare laboratories at Fort Detrick, Maryland. These products, powdered spores and viruses, were loaded into bombs and other delivery systems stored at Pine Bluff, Arkansas. The 1969 budget for Chemical/Biological Warfare research was reported to be $300 million with $5 million for herbicides designed to kill food crops or strip trees of foliage to deprive enemy forces of ground cover.

In 1977 the long-awaited volume, US Army Activities in the US Biological Warfare Program, was submitted to The Congress. It outlined in detail the entire BW research effort involving Camp and Fort Detrick, Dugway Proving Ground, Utah, Edgewood Arsenal, Md., Pine Bluff Arsenal, Ark., Rocky Mountain Arsenal, Colo. and numerous smaller testing sites around the Nation. The volumes noted the variety of weapons systems, but refrained from providing specifics because such information may still be used by the Nation's potential adversaries.
By the late 1960s, the United States had developed a biological arsenal which included numerous bacterial pathogens, toxins, and fungal plant pathogens that could be directed against crops to induce crop failure and famine.US Army Activities in the US Biological Warfare Program, Volume II reported, "Anticrop research at Fort Detrick concerned BW agents as well as CW (Chemical Warfare) agents, i.e. chemical herbicides and defoliants . . . Extensive field testing was done to assess the effectiveness of agents on crops. Many candidate anticrop BW agents were screened, resulting in five standardized BW anticrop agents. The 1977 report said the BW program included, " ... testing, production and stockpiling of anticrop agents. Between 1951 and 1969, 31 anticrop dissemination trials were conducted at 23 different locations. From 1951 until 1957, wheat stem rust spores and rye stem rust spores were produced and transshipped to Edgewood Arsenal ... where they were classified, dried and placed in storage. Between 1962 and 1969, wheat stem rust spores were produced, transshipped to Rocky Mountain Arsenal, Denver, Colorado, classified, dried and stored. The entire anticrop stockpile was destroyed as part of the biological warfare demilitarization program completed February 1973.

The Soviet Union, China, and North Korea accused the United States of using biological warfare against North Korea and China during the Korean War. However, there was no confirmation of these allegations, and no epidemiologic support to the North Korean claim of having experienced epidemics. The United States denied allegations and requested impartial investigations. The International Red Cross suggested the formation of a special commission to investigate, and the World Health Organization offered to intervene. However, neither China nor North Korea responded to the International Red Cross, and the World Health Organization’s offer was rebuffed as a disguised attempt of espionage. Although unsubstantiated, the accusations attracted wide attention and resulted in a loss of international good will toward the United States.

Numerous unsubstantiated allegations were made during the Cold War era. These included a Soviet accusation that the United States had tested biological weapons against Canadian Eskimos, resulting in a plague epidemic, an allegation of United States plans to initiate a cholera epidemic in southeastern China, another Soviet accusation of a United States and Columbian biological attack on Columbian and Bolivian peasants.
In July 1969 Great Britain submitted a proposal to the Committe on Disarmament of the United Nations prohibiting the development, production, and stockpiling of biological weapons, and providing for inspections in response to alleged violations. During the following September, the Warsaw Pact nations unexpectedly submitted a biological disarmament proposal similar to the British proposal, but without provisions for inspections. Subsequently, the 1972 Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction was developed. The treaty was ratified in April, 1972, and went into effect in March of 1975.
In anticipation of the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention, President Nixon terminated the United States offensive biological weapons program by executive order. The United States adopted a policy to never use biological weapons, including toxins, under any circumstances whatsoever. National Security Decisions 35 and 44, issued during November 1969 (microorganisms) and February 1970 (toxins), mandated the cessation of offensive biological research and production, and the destruction of the biological arsenal. Research efforts were directed exclusively to the development of defensive measures such as diagnostic tests, vaccines, and therapies for potential biological weapons threats. Stocks of pathogens and the entire biological arsenal were destroyed between May 1971 and February 1973 under the auspices of the US Department of Agriculture, the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, and the Departments of Natural Resources of Arkansas, Colorado, and Maryland. Small quantities of some pathogens were retained at Fort Detrick to test the efficacy of investigational preventive measures and therapies.
Factors influencing the decision to terminate the offensive biological program included pragmatic as well as moral and ethical considerations. Given the available conventional, chemical, and nuclear weapons, biological weapons were not considered essential for national security. The potential effects of biological weapons on military and civilian populations were still conjectural, and for obvious ethical and public health reasons, could not be empirically studied. Biological weapons were considered untried, unpredictable, and potentially hazardous for the users as well for those under attack. Field commanders and troops were unfamiliar with their use. In addition, the United States and allied countries had a strategic interest in outlawing biological weapons programs in order to prevent the proliferation of relatively low-cost weapons of mass destruction. By outlawing biological weapons, the arms race for weapons of mass destruction would be prohibitively expensive, given the expense of nuclear programs.
After the termination of the offensive biological program, the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) was established in order to continue the development of medical defenses for US military members against potential biological attack. USAMRIID conducts research to develop strategies, products, information, and training programs for medical defense against potential biological weapons. Endemic or epidemic infectious diseases due to highly virulent pathogens requiring high-level containment for laboratory safety are also studied. USAMRIID is an open research institution; no research is classified. The in-house programs are complemented by contract programs with universities and other research institutions.

Sources and Resources: Adapted from Biological Warfare: A Historical Perspective LTC George W. Christopher, USAF, MC; LTC Theodore J. Cieslak, MC, USA, MAJ Julie A. Pavlin, MC, USA, and LTC (P) Edward M. Eitzen Jr., MC, USA. -- Operational Medicine Division, United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, Fort Detrick, Maryland

According to Wikipedia:

The United States biological weapons officially began in spring 1943 on orders from U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt. Research continued following World War II as the U.S. built up a large stockpile of biological agents and weapons. Over the course of its 27 year history, the program weaponized and stockpiled the following seven bio-agents (and pursued basic research on many more):

• Bacillus anthracis (anthrax)

• Francisella tularensis (tularemia)

• Brucella spp (brucellosis)

• Coxiella burnetii (Q-fever)

• Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus (VEE)

• Botulinum toxin (botulism)

• Staphylococcal enterotoxin B

Throughout its history, the U.S. bioweapons program was secret. It became controversial when it was later revealed that laboratory and field testing (some of the latter using simulants on non-consenting individuals) had been common. The official policy of the United States was first to deter the use of bio-weapons against U.S. forces and secondarily to retaliate if deterrence failed. There exists no evidence that the U.S. ever used biological agents against an enemy in the field (see below for alleged uses).

In 1969, President Richard Nixon ended all offensive (i.e., non-defensive) aspects of the U.S. bio-weapons program. In 1975 the U.S. ratified both the 1925 Geneva Protocol and the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention (BWC)—international treaties outlawing biological warfare. Recent U.S. biodefense programs, however, have raised concerns that the U.S. may be pursuing research that is outlawed by the BWC.

Budget history

From the onset of the U.S. biological weapons program in 1943 through the end of World War II the United States spent $400 million on biological weapons, mostly on research and development. The budget for fiscal year 1966 was $38 million. When Nixon ended the U.S. bio-weapons program it represented the first review of the U.S. biological warfare program since 1954. Despite the lack of review, the biological warfare program had increased in cost and size since 1961; when Nixon ended the program the budget was $300 million annually.

Sources: Guillemin, Jeanne. Biological Weapons, pp. 122-27.

Cirincione, Joseph, et al. Deadly Arsenals, p. 212.

Guillemin, Biological Weapons, pp. 71-73.

Smart, Jeffery K. Medical Aspects of Chemical and Biological Warfare: Chapter 19 - The U.S. Biological Warfare and Biological Defense Programs, (PDF: p. 430 [p. 6 in PDF]), Borden Institute, Textbooks of Military Medicine, PDF via Air University. Retrieved September 2, 2010.

U.S. Army Biological Warfare Labs Building 101 Building 257 Building 470 Deseret Test Center Dugway Proving Ground Fort Detrick Fort Douglas Fort Terry Granite Peak Installation Horn Island Testing Station One-Million-Liter Test Sphere Pine Bluff Arsenal Vigo Ordnance Plant

The Deseret Test Center was a U.S. Army operated command in charge of testing chemical and biological weapons during the 1960s. Deseret was headquartered at Fort Douglas, Utah.

 In May 1962 the U.S. Army established the Deseret Test Center at Fort Douglas, Utah, a disused army base. The command at Deseret was established as a result of Project 112 and Project SHAD. The project required a joint task force to undertake chemical and biological testing. In response, the Joint Chiefs of Staff established Deseret Test Center under the auspices of the U.S. Army.

On May 28, 1962 a U.S. Army Chemical Corps directive outlined Deseret's mission:

(to) prepare and conduct extra continental tests to assess chemical and biological weapons and defense systems, both by providing support data for research and development and by establishing a basis for the operational and logistic concepts needed for the employment of these systems.

The center occupied Building 103 and 105 at Fort Douglas, where administrative and planning decisions were made. Despite being based at Douglas, no tests were actually performed on the base. The headquarters at Fort Douglas was staffed by 200 individuals. Deseret was designed to assist not only the Army but the Navy and the Air Force as well; thus, it was funded jointly by all branches of the U.S. military and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Deseret also received administrative support from Dugway Proving Ground, about 80 miles away. The U.S. Army closed Deseret Test Center in 1973.

References:

* Regis, Edward. The Biology of Doom: The History of America's Secret Germ Warfare Project, (Google Books), Macmillan, 2000, p. 198, (ISBN 080505765X).

* Harris, Sheldon H. Factories of Death: Japanese Biological Warfare, 1932-45, and the American Cover-up, (Google Books), Routledge, 1994, p. 232-33, (ISBN 0415091055).

* "Fact Sheet - Yellow Leaf", Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Health Affairs), Deployment Health Support Directorate, accessed November 15, 2008.

* Guillemin, Jeanne. Biological Weapons: From the Invention of State-Sponsored Programs to Contemporary Bioterrorism, (Google Books), Columbia University Press, 2005, pp. 109-10, (ISBN 0231129424).

* "DOD RELEASES DESERET TEST CENTER/PROJECT 112/PROJECT SHAD FACT SHEETS", U.S. Department of Defense, October 9, 2002, accessed November 15, 2008.

*  Judson, Karen. Chemical and Biological Warfare, (Google Books), Marshall Cavendish, 2003, pp. 83-86, (ISBN 0761415858).

*"Secrecy Over Cold War WMD Tests", CBS News, January 16, 2004, accessed November 15, 2008.

*Shanker, Thom. "U.S. Tested a Nerve Gas in Hawaii", The New York Times, November 1, 2002, accessed November 15, 2008.

Plum Island Animal Disease Center

Plum Island Animal Disease Center of New York (PIADCNY) is a United States federal research facility dedicated to the study of animal diseases. It is part of the 

DHS Directorate for Science and Technology.

Since 1954, the center has had the goal of protecting America's livestock from animal diseases. During the Cold War a secret biological weapons program targeting livestock was conducted at the site. This program has been the subject of controversy.

Location and description[edit]

The center is located on Plum Island near the northeast coast of Long Island in New York state. During the Spanish-American War, the island was purchased by the government for the construction of Fort Terry, which was later deactivated after World War II and then reactivated in 1952 for the Army Chemical Corps. The center comprises 70 buildings (many of them dilapidated) on 840 acres (3.4 km2).

Plum Island has its own fire department, power plant, water treatment plant and security. Any wild mammal seen on the island is killed to prevent the possible outbreak of hoof and mouth disease. However, as Plum Island was named an important bird area by the New York Audubon Society, it has successfully attracted different birds. Plum Island had placed osprey nests and bluebird boxes throughout the island and will now add kestrel houses.

History

In response to disease outbreaks in Mexico and Canada in 1954, the Army gave the island to the Agriculture Department to establish a research center dedicated to the study of foot-and-mouth disease in cattle.

The island was opened to news media for the first time in 1992. In 1995, the Department of Agriculture was issued a $111,000 fine for storing hazardous chemicals on the island.

Local Long Island activists prevented the center from expanding to include diseases that affect humans in 2000, which would require a Biosafety Level 4 designation; in 2002, Congress again considered the plan.

The Wall Street Journal reported in January 2002 that many scientists and government officials wanted the lab to close, believing that the threat of foot-and-mouth disease was so remote that the center did not merit its $16.5 million annual budget. In 2002, the Plum Island Animal Disease Center was transferred from the United States Department of Agriculture to the United States Department of Homeland Security.

In 2003, a whistle-blower who voiced concerns about safety at the facility was fired by the contractor he worked for. He had discussed his concerns with aides to Senator Hillary Clinton.A National Labor Relations Board judge found that the contractor, North Fork Services, had discriminated against the whistle-blower.

Diseases studied and outbreaks

As a diagnostic facility, PIADC scientists study more than 40 foreign animal diseases and several domestic diseases, including hog cholera and African swine fever. PIADC runs about 30,000 diagnostic tests each year. PIADC operates Biosafety Level 3 Agriculture (BSL-3Ag), BSL-3 and BSL-2 laboratory facilities. The facility's research program includes developing diagnostic tools and biologicals(vaccines) for foot-and-mouth disease and other diseases of livestock.

Plum Island's freezers also contain samples of polio and diseases that can be transferred from animals to humans. In 1991, the center's freezers were threatened following a power outage caused by a hurricane.

Because federal law stipulates that live foot-and-mouth disease virus cannot be studied on the mainland, PIADC is unique in that it is currently the only laboratory in the U.S. equipped with research facilities that permit the study of foot-and-mouth disease.

Foot-and-mouth disease is extremely contagious among cloven-hooved animals, and people who have come in contact with it can carry it to animals. Accidental outbreaks of the virus have caused catastrophic livestock and economic losses in many countries throughout the world. Plum Island has experienced outbreaks of its own, including one in 1978 in which the disease was released to animals outside the center, and two incidents in 2004 in which foot-and-mouth disease was released within the center. Foot-and-mouth disease was eradicated from the U.S. in 1929 (with the exception of the stocks within the Plum Island center) but is currently endemic to many parts of the world.

In response to the two 2004 incidents, New York Senator Hillary Clinton and Congressman Tim Bishop wrote a letter to the Department of Homeland Security regarding their concerns about the center's safety: "We urge you to immediately investigate these alarming breaches at the highest levels, and to keep us apprised of all developments."

Lab 257, a book by Michael C. Carroll, has alleged a connection between Plum Island Animal Disease Center and the outbreaks of three infectious diseases: West Nile virus in 1999, Lyme disease in 1975, and Dutch duck plague in 1967.

Historic buildings

 Building 257

Building 257, located at Fort Terry, was completed around 1911. The original purpose of the building was to store weapons, such as mines, and the structure was designated as the Combined Torpedo Storehouse and Cable Tanks building. Fort Terry went through a period of activations and deactivations through World War II until the U.S. Army Chemical Corps took over the facility in 1952 for use in anti-animal biological warfare (BW) research. The conversion of Fort Terry to a BW facility required the remodeling of Building 257 and other structures. As work neared completion on the lab and other facilities in the spring of 1954, the mission of Fort Terry changed. Construction was completed on the facilities on May 26, 1954, but Fort Terry was officially transferred to the USDA on July 1, 1954. At the time, scientists from the Bureau of Animal Industry were already working in Building 257.

Building 101

The structure is a 164,000-square-foot (15,200 m2) T-shaped white building. It is situated on Plum Island's northwest plateau on a 10-acre (40,000 m2) site where it is buttressed by a steep cliff which leads into the ocean. To the east of the building's site is the old Plum Island Lighthouse.

Construction on Plum Island's new laboratory Building 101 began around July 1, 1954, around the same time that the Army's anti-animal bio-warfare (BW) facilities at Fort Terry were transferred to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Following the transfer the facilities on Plum Island became known as the Plum Island Animal Disease Center. The USDA's $7.7. million Building 101 laboratory facility was dedicated on September 26, 1956. Prior to the building's opening the area around it was sprayed with chemicals to deter insect or animal life from approaching the facility. Upon its opening a variety of tests using pathogens and vectors were conducted on animals in the building. Research on biological weapons at PIADC did not cease until the entire program was canceled in 1969 by Richard Nixon.

A modernization program in 1977 aimed to update both Building 101 and another laboratory, Building 257, but the program was canceled in 1979 because of construction contract irregularities. PIADC facilities were essentially unchanged until a new modernization began in 1990. Two-thirds of the laboratory facilities inside Building 101 were renovated and operations from Building 257 were consolidated into Building 101. Building 257 was closed, and a major expansion, known as Building 100, was completed on Building 101 in 1995.

Replacement facility

A modernization program in 1977 aimed to update both Building 101 and Building 257, but the program was canceled in 1979 because of construction contract irregularities. Plum Island facilities were essentially unchanged until a new modernization began in 1990. Two-thirds of the laboratory facilities inside Building 101 were renovated and operations from Building 257 were consolidated into Building 101. Building 257 was closed, and a major expansion, known as Building 100, was completed on Building 101 in 1995. According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Building 257 currently poses no health hazard.

On September 11, 2005, DHS announced that the Plum Island Animal Disease Research Center will be replaced by a new federal facility. The location of the new high-security animal disease lab, to be called the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF), has been recommended to be built in Manhattan, Kansas. However, this plan has been called into question by a 2009 Government Accountability Office study, which states that claims by DHS that the work on foot and mouth disease performed on Plum Island can be performed "as safely on the mainland" is "not supported" by evidence. In 2012, DHS completed a risk assessment of the Kansas site that called the proposed facility "safe and secure". However, a 2012 review of the risk assessment by the National Research Council called it "seriously flawed".

Activities

PIADC's mission can be grouped into three main categories: diagnosis, research, and education.[citation needed]

Since 1971, PIADC has been educating veterinarians in foreign animal diseases. The center hosts several Foreign Animal Disease Diagnostic schools each year to train federal and state veterinarians and laboratory diagnostic staff, military veterinarians and veterinary school faculty.

At PIADC, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) work together; DHS' Targeted Advanced Development unit partners with USDA, academia and industry scientists to deliver vaccines and antivirals to the USDA for licensure and inclusion in the USDA National Veterinary Vaccine Stockpile.[citation needed]

USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) performs basic and applied research to better formulate countermeasures against foreign animal diseases, including strategies for prevention, control and recovery. ARS focuses on developing faster-acting vaccines and antivirals to be used during outbreaks to limit or stop transmission. Antivirals prevent infection while vaccine immunity develops. The principal diseases studied are foot-and-mouth disease, classical swine fever, and vesicular stomatitis virus.

USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services (APHIS) operates the Foreign Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory, an internationally recognized[citation needed] facility performing diagnostic testing of samples collected from U.S. livestock. APHIS also tests animals and animal products being imported into the U.S. APHIS maintains the North American Foot-and-Mouth Disease Vaccine Bank at PIADC and hosts the Foreign Animal Disease Diagnosticians training program, offering several classes per year to train veterinarians to recognize foreign animal diseases.

Research on biological weapons at PIADC did not cease until the entire program was canceled in 1969 by Richard Nixon.

Bio-weapons research

The original anti-animal BW mission was "to establish and pursue a program of research and development of certain anti-animal (BW) agents". By August 1954 animals occupied holding areas at Plum Island and research was ongoing within Building 257. The USDA facility, known as the Plum Island Animal Disease Center, continued work on biological warfare research until the U.S. program was ended by Richard Nixon in 1969. The bio-weapons research at Building 257 and Fort Terry was shrouded in aura of mystery and secrecy. The existence of biological warfare experiments on Plum Island during the Cold War era was denied for decades by the U.S. government. In 1993 Newsday unearthed documents proving otherwise and in 1994, Russian scientists inspected the Plum Island research facility to verify that these experiments had indeed ended.

In popular culture

Plum Island and PIADC are the subject of a murder-mystery novel, Plum Island, by Nelson DeMille. DeMille has said, "How could anthrax not be studied there? Every animal has it." While addressing popular culture fears of a germ warfare lab at Plum Island, overall, the facility is presented as doing the job described by the Federal Government - research into animal diseases that would either decimate our national livestock or jump to humans and decimate us. The novel portrays the investigation into the murder of two Plum Island scientists. The motive, initially thought to be germs for terrorists or germs for a biotech company, is really the search for the lost treasure of Captain Kidd, who sailed the waters around Long Island prior to his capture. Kidd's treasure has never been found.

Plum Island is also referenced in the 1991 psychological thriller Silence of the Lambs, when the character of Hannibal Lecter is offered a transfer to a different psychiatric institution, as well as the promise of annual week long supervised furlough to Plum Island, in exchange for his assistance in helping the FBI locate the whereabouts of the missing daughter of a prominent US Senator. It is later revealed in the film that the offer is bogus in the first place, used only as a ruse to elicit Lecter's cooperation.

The testing facility at Plum Island is the subject of a novel, The Poison Plum, by author Les Roberts.

Controversy

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The number of building "257" is a metonym for the entire site in 2004 when Michael Carroll, an attorney, published Lab 257: The Disturbing Story of the Government's Secret Plum Island Germ Laboratory. Many of the assertions and accusations made in the book are counter to the government's position and have been criticized and challenged. The review in Army Chemical Review concluded "Lab 257 would be cautiously valuable to someone writing a history of Plum Island, but is otherwise an example of fringe literature with a portrayal of almost every form of novelist style. " The book advances the idea that Lyme disease originated at Plum Island and conjectures several means by which animal diseases could have left the island. David Weld, the executive director of the American Lyme Disease Foundation, generically opined that "I personally just don't think that has any merit" yet refused to be specific or comment on the number of birds that come into contact with the island and fly back and forth between the mainland, possibly carrying infected ticks.

On July 12, 2008, a creature dubbed the Montauk Monster washed ashore at Ditch Plains Beach near the business district of Montauk, New York. The creature, a quadruped of indeterminate size, was dead when discovered, and was assumed by some to have come from Plum Island due to the currents and proximity to the mainland. Palaeozoologist Darren Naish studied the photograph and concluded from visible dentition and the front paws that the creature may have been a raccoon. This was also the opinion of Larry Penny, the East Hampton Natural Resources Director, though others claim that this is unlikely and interpret the fleshless part of the upper jaw, visible in the photo with empty tooth sockets, as a beak, implying that the creature was a kind of hybrid monster, an extremely implausible and unlikely circumstance.

When Pakistani neuroscientist Aafia Siddiqui, a suspected al-Qaeda member, was arrested in Afghanistan in July 2008, she had in her handbag handwritten notes referring to a "mass casualty attack" that listed various U.S. locations, including the Plum Island Animal Disease Center. In February 2010, she was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon and attempting to kill U.S. soldiers and FBI agents who were seeking to interrogate her.

References[edit]

* "Bioterrorism Fears Revive Waning Interest In Agricultural Disease Lab on Plum Island". The Wall Street Journal. 2002-01-08. Retrieved 2008-05-17.

*Miller, Judith (1999-09-22). "Long Island Lab May Do Studies Of Bioterrorism". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-05-18.

* "About Plum Island Animal Disease Center". Department of Homeland Security. 2008-12-28. Retrieved 2008-08-04.

* Rather, John (2004-08-22). "Plum Island Reports Disease Outbreak". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-05-17.

* U.S. General Accounting Office. HIGH-CONTAINMENT BIOSAFETY LABORATORIES: DHS Lacks Evidence to Conclude That Foot-and-Mouth Disease Research Can Be Done Safely on the U.S. Mainland. GAO-08-821T. 22 May 2008. Page 1.

* Healy, Patrick (February 22, 2004). "Plum I. Was Ready For Its Close-Up". The New York Times. Retrieved May 22, 2010.

* "1669-2003: A Partial History of Plum Island", United States Animal Health Association Newsletter, Vol. 30, No. 4, October 2003, pp. 5, 26, accessed January 10, 2009.

* Cella, Alexandra. "An Overview of Plum Island: History, Research and Effects on Long Island", Long Island Historical Journal, Fall 2003/Spring 2004, Vol. 16, Nos. 1 and 2, pp. 176-181 (194-199 in PDF), accessed January 10, 2009.

* Carroll, Michael C. Lab 257: The Disturbing Story of the Government's Secret Plum Island Germ Laboratory, (Google Books), HarperCollins, 2004, pp. 45-48 and p. 60, (ISBN 0060011416).

* Dunn, Adam. "The mysterious lab off New York's shore", CNN.com, April 2, 2004, accessed January 10, 2009.

* "DHS: DHS Issues Record of Decision on Proposed National Bio- and Agro-Defense Facility". Dhs.gov. Retrieved 2011-08-10.

* "Study spurs request to not phase out Plum Island". Newsday.com. 2009-07-31. Retrieved 2011-08-10.

Jump up ^ DHS Issues Updated Site-Specific Risk Assessment For Proposed National Bio And Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF)

* Officials press feds for NBAF

* Wheelis, Mark, et al. Deadly Cultures: Biological Weapons Since 1945, (Google Books), Harvard University Press, 2006 p. 225-228, (ISBN 0674016998).

* Lambert, Bruce. "Closely Guarded Secrets: Some Islands You Can't Get to Visit", The New York Times, May 17, 1998, accessed January 10, 2009.

* "The Poison Plum". Les Roberts. Retrieved 2008-05-17.

* Bleyer, Bill. "Plum Island Animal Disease Center", from Newsday, via The Baltimore Sun, April 26, 2004, accessed January 10, 2009.

* Kirby, Reid. "Book Reviews", Army Chemical Review, January–June 2005, accessed January 10, 2009.

* "What was the Montauk monster? : Tetrapod Zoology". Scienceblogs.com. 2008-08-04. Retrieved 2009-07-14.

* "The Hound of Bonacville - The Independent - July 23, 2008". Indyeastend.com. 2008-07-23. Retrieved 2009-06-08.

* "Indictment in U.S. v. Siddiqui". September 3, 2008. Retrieved February 11, 2010.

* Sealed Complaint in U.S. v. Siddiqui. July 31, 2008. Retrieved February 11, 2010.

* America's Most Wanted 'The Most Dangerous Woman in the World', Der Spiegel, November 27, 2008

* Mayer, Alex, “She is the most significant capture in five years”, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 13, 2008, accessed February 11, 2010[dead link]

* "Officials: Female Terror Suspect's Capture Yields Documents, Computer Files", ABC, August 13, 2008, accessed February 12, 2010

Below is what you will find on the official Homeland Security website ~ 

http://www.dhs.gov/st-piadc

Science and Technology Directorate Plum Island Animal Disease Center

PIADC has protected America’s livestock from foreign animal diseases for almost 60 years

Plum Island Animal Disease Center (PIADC) is the only laboratory in the nation that can work on high-consequence foreign animal diseases. The laboratory helps protect U.S. livestock from the accidental or intentional introduction of foreign animal diseases that can seriously threaten livestock industries, food safety, economy and way of life.

Plum Island Animal Disease Center Begins

After the eradication of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) from the United States in 1929, there were no facilities in the country with the authority or the ability to work with this highly contagious virus. An outbreak of FMD in Mexico in December 1946 created the sense of emergency that prompted Congress to authorize the Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Animal Industry, to construct a facility on an offshore location to study the disease. It took another outbreak of FMD, this time in Canada in 1952, for Congress to appropriate the necessary funds for the new laboratory.

On July 1, 1954, just as the construction of the new laboratory Building 101 was taking place, the Army officially transferred the property of Plum Island to the U.S Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Research Service (ARS).

In 1984, the diagnostic and training missions at PIADC were transferred from ARS to the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS). The new unit, the Foreign Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory, became one of several laboratories of the National Veterinary Services Laboratories, which are headquartered in Ames, Iowa.

In 2002, PIADC operations were transferred to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). DHS also established scientific programs to work in partnership with the USDA in developing new vaccines and diagnostic tests to respond and control outbreaks of foreign animal diseases.

USDA and DHS Working in Collaboration at PIADC

The USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Foreign Animal Disease Research Unit conducts basic and applied research to prevent, control and recover from foreign animal diseases, such as foot-and-mouth disease, classical swine fever and African swine fever. Research is conducted to better understand the pathogenesis, host pathogen interaction and immunology of these diseases in livestock. The goal is to develop rapid laboratory diagnostic tests and faster-acting, safe vaccines and biotherapeutics.

The USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) Foreign Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory provides confirmatory laboratory diagnostic testing and technologies for surveillance, detection, response and recovery from high-threat foreign animal diseases for the nation. The agency also conducts foreign animal disease training for state and federal veterinarians who are the first responders for potential foreign animal disease outbreaks in the U.S. and maintains the North American Vaccine Bank.

The DHS Science & Technology Directorate is responsible for operational management of PIADC. DHS also conducts scientific programs through the Targeted Advanced Development Branch in partnership with ARS and industry for the advanced development of vaccines and other biological countermeasures required for an effective response to an outbreak of a foreign animal disease in the U.S. DHS also works with APHIS in the development of new laboratory diagnostic tests required for the identification and response to foreign animal disease outbreaks.

More Information

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Contact

By mail:

Plum Island Animal Disease Center

U.S. Department of Homeland Security

P.O. Box 848

Greenport, N.Y. 11944