1 HZS C2BRNE DIARY – June 2021 www.cbrne-terrorism-newsletter.com 2 HZS C2BRNE DIARY – June 2021 HZS C2BRNE DIARY– 2021© June 2021 Website: www.cbrne-terrorism-newsletter.com Editor-in-Chief BrigGEN (ret.) Ioannis Galatas MD, MSc, MC (Army) PhD cand Consultant in Allergy & Clinical Immunology Medical/Hospital CBRNE Planner & Instructor Senior Asymmetric Threats Analyst Manager, CBRN Knowledge Center @ International CBRNE Institute (BE) Senior CBRN Consultant @ HotZone Solutions Group (NL) Athens, Greece Contact e-mail: [email protected] Editorial Team ⚫ Bellanca Giada, MD, MSc (Italy) ⚫ Hopmeier Michael, BSc/MSc MechEngin (USA) ⚫ Kiourktsoglou George, BSc, Dipl, MSc, MBA, PhD (UK) ⚫ Photiou Steve, MD, MSc EmDisaster (Italy) ⚫ Tarlow Peter, PhD Sociol (USA) A publication of HotZone Solutions Group Prinsessegracht 6, 2514 AN, The Hague, The Netherlands T: +31 70 262 97 04, F: +31 (0) 87 784 68 26 E-mail: [email protected] DISCLAIMER: The HZS C2BRNE DIARY® (former CBRNE-Terrorism Newsletter), is a free online publication for fellow civilian/military CBRNE First Responders worldwide. The Diary is a collection of papers/articles related to the stated thematology. Relevant sources/authors are included and all info provided herein is from open Internet sources. Opinions and comments from the Editor, the Editorial Team, or the authors publishing in the Diary do not necessarily represent those of the HotZone Solutions Group (NL) or the International CBRNE Institute (BE). www.cbrne-terrorism-newsletter.com 3 HZS C2BRNE DIARY – June 2021 www.cbrne-terrorism-newsletter.com 4 HZS C2BRNE DIARY – June 2021 Editorial Brig Gen (ret.) Ioannis Galatas, MD, MSc, MC (Army) Editor-in-Chief HZS C2BRNE Diary Dear Colleagues, Many ugly things happened in June, a month we supposed to be relaxed and anxious for the vacations to come … Oops! That was a line from 2019 – sorry! Namibia genocide (1904-1905) by Germans: Recently recognized but the 1.1 billion euros that will be given to Namibia in the next 30 years will again go to the Germans. Yes, you read that right: 70% of the arable land of this African country belongs to former German settlers, who remained after the end of German colonialism in 1915. How many are these Germans in Namibia? 0.75% of the population, but own almost all of the land. Nazi atrocities in Greece during WWII: Estimated compensations to be around 289 billion euro – but again German government is not only refusing to pay but not even to invest in the country. Germans do have it in their DNA – they do not easily forget when defeated … Denmark: Denmark’s parliament has passed a law enabling the Nordic country to deport asylum seekers to countries outside Europe; something that was heavily criticized by other humanitarian nations, UNHCR, and ruling Rights groups and NGOs. Greece: Equally criticized for using sound guns in its Evros’ borders with Turkey to halt the human immigrants’ tsunami supported by Turkey. Same humanitarian EU member-states and NGOs stated that it was too much of a response forgetting (?) what happened last time that a total illegal immigrants invasion was avoided. Forgetting also their closed borders and immigration policies. A crescendo of civilized hypocricy! USA-Turkey relations: Repetition of the example of how a country can play a nuclear mighty power who thinks that Turkey is still a reliable ally forgetting that survival of this specific nation is based on bazaar (F35) and deception (S400). It would be very interesting to see what will happen in a few years when Turkey will possess nuclear weapons as well. Pandemic 1: We are now experiencing the rise of the Delta (Δ) variant and the scientific community is very anxious about the effectiveness of existing vaccines. The vaccination pace is not very promising in developed countries and this means that in non- developed countries vaccination is problematic (to say it politely). In Europe (EU) we are still waiting for the EMA to find the time to translate the Russian documents regarding the Sputnik V vaccine perhaps because this vaccine has two serious mishaps: it is cheap and does not have serious adverse effects on health status. Profit versus Public Health as always. The same with the final of Euro2020 to be moved from Webley Stadium to Hungary because there the stadium will be full of spectators without any protection measures and that is translated to a lot of money! (update 22/6: back to Webley with 60,000 spectators – it is not the right time to lose money). Pandemic 2: Although there is no proven association between deep vein thrombosis (blood clots can sometimes form in your legs during air travel because you are immobile for long periods, often sitting in cramped spaces with little legroom) and thrombosis caused by available vaccines, I think that it is wise to postpone traveling by airplane (especially long flights) during the 2-3 weeks post-vaccination period – just to be on the safe side! Pandemic 3: There are two articles in this issue trying to explain why healthcare professionals are not very enthusiastic regarding Covid 19 vaccination. People forget that www.cbrne-terrorism-newsletter.com 5 HZS C2BRNE DIARY – June 2021 doctors and nurses are just people like you and me with fears and hesitations but also with a brain of their own and the majority are not anti-vaxxers as many (usually, politicians) accuse them. Also, read what parents discover when they asked for testing the pathogen flora of their children's face masks. Scary! Belgium: From September, parents in Belgium will have the privilege to choose the sex category of their children going to school: boys, girls, and neuter! No! Not a word about “Parent 1” and “Parent 2” – yet! Could this be a side effect of the virus or vaccination? USA: Terrorist organizations would have about a two-year timeline to regenerate from the potential security void left after coalition withdrawal from Afghanistan, military leaders told lawmakers. Another lost war and counting … The only good news in June is the fact that the US FDA approved brincidofovir for smallpox – perhaps because they finally understand that the unexpected always happens! First Responders be prepared. You are still the shield of this planet being under attack – UFOs (or unidentified aerial phenomena, [UAPs] – the ufology community’s preferred term) included! The Editor-in-Chief NOTE: Editor’s Corner contains articles that got the attention of the Editor covering many aspects of our daily disturbed life. www.cbrne-terrorism-newsletter.com 6 HZS C2BRNE DIARY – June 2021 Life is a bitch! The U.S. team tied for first place with China at the 60th International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) New book offers rare look at North Korea through the lens of a foreign resident By Thomas Maresca Source: https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2021/05/24/nkorea-North-Korea-photo-book-scenes-everyday-life/6881621409777/ May 24 – Images of North Korea that make it to the outside world tend to feature military parades, goose-stepping soldiers, missile tests and perfectly synchronized mass spectacles. But Scottish musical director and composer Lindsey Miller experienced an intimate side of the secretive state rarely seen by foreigners during her two years there, a perspective she shares in the new book North Korea: Like Nowhere Else. Miller's husband, a diplomat, was posted to the British Embassy in Pyongyang from 2017 to 2019, and as a resident she was able to move around much of North Korea without a minder, taking photographs and interacting with locals. www.cbrne-terrorism-newsletter.com 7 HZS C2BRNE DIARY – June 2021 The travelogue includes almost 200 images alongside accounts of memorable moments, from sharing beers with a train conductor over an episode of The Wire to being awakened at dawn by the sound of a ballistic missile launch. Miller said she began taking photographs as a means of recording her experiences and making sense of a place that quickly defied her preconceived notions. "I'd only ever really associated North Korean people with that propaganda lens of parades, missiles, self-criticism sessions," she told UPI over a Zoom interview from her home in London. "I felt like I had to go back to the drawing board and start all over again and build up my view on the place from what I was seeing and what I was experiencing." Miller, who lived in a diplomatic compound in eastern Pyongyang, was free to walk, drive and bicycle around the city on her own, as well as visit locations such as the port city of Nampo and Mount Myohyang. (Other parts of the country, including the resort town of Wonsan and the border city of Kaesong, required an official guide.) She initially was struck by the strangeness of the place, from the desolate airport runway that greeted her arrival to ubiquitous bright red and yellow propaganda posters. But soon Miller's attention turned to observations of North Koreans simply going about their lives. "The eyes of the people around me, their everyday lives, was where I wanted to become lost and absorbed," she writes. "After a few months, I realized that my photographs weren't just highlighting life and people as I saw them; they were also showing how much Pyongyang and other areas were changing: hairstyles, fashion, buildings, and agriculture may have felt like they were stuck in time, but that didn't mean they didn't alter in very small ways." At the same time, Miller describes living in a state of almost constant uncertainty, never quite sure whether her interactions were authentic and not knowing what the people she became closest to were truly thinking. "During those two years, trying to understand what was real and what wasn't became the question with which I wrestled most," she writes in the book, which will be released in the United States on June 29.