The following article was written by Litsa Kapsalis.
Do you have what it takes to save the human race from smallpox-armed terrorists? Find out at Model UN this Tuesday night at 6:30 PM in Room 382.
For thousands of years, many diseases were almost impossible to prevent and even more hopeless to cure. It is only in the past couple hundred years that humanity has been able to vaccinate, control, and eradicate such illnesses, resulting in a monumental increase in longevity and quality of life. One of the most deadly eradicated diseases is smallpox; since the 1980s, the only places where the smallpox virus is found are in the U.S. Center for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta and the State Research Institute for Viral Preparations in Moscow–until now.
It has long been suspected by some that both the United States and Russia have researched weaponized strains of smallpox, and these unverified charges were made more concerning when in 1992 a high-level official in the Soviet biological warfare program named Kanatjan Alibekov (aka Ken Alibek) defected to the United States with some stunning information. He told the CIA that during the Cold War, the Soviet Union had developed a highly lethal strain of the smallpox virus as a strategic weapon and had produced and stockpiled several tons of the virus in the form of a liquid suspension. Now, these worst fears are becoming realities. Two weeks ago, an MI6 Safe House in Gibraltar has been put under quarantine with 24 people, including 2 former Russian Spies, having contracted an exceptionally virulent form of smallpox. There are 24 people in the British MI6 safe house. These include 8 station personnel including 1 medical officer, 2 former Russian spies who were being housed there and 14 household staff (local domestic servants.)
Three days ago, a package was delivered to the household and it remained unopened for at least 24 hours, during which time there was at least 1 shift change of household staff. Upon opening the package, it exploded with a non-lethal charge dispersing a cloud of vapor. At this obvious attack, the station chief ordered the safe house closed off and quarantined the personnel there. The occupants began showing flu-like symptoms within a day and quickly developed the characteristic signs of smallpox infection. In the wake of the crisis, the United Nations Security Council must decide how to handle the situation and whether or not to destroy smallpox held by governments.
Meanwhile, the prime suspects for the attacks are the Sons of the Jackal, a group of young terrorists who are inspired by the famous terrorist, Carlos the Jackal. There is no known location for this group, they are most likely working in small cells in either Europe or the United States. It is a communist group focused on radical redistribution of wealth and the immediate granting of “homelands” to displaced refugee groups including Palestinians in Israel and the Rohingya in Malaysia. The next terrorist attack is at the German Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya. The security is very weak, so it is likely that there will soon be hundreds or even thousands of victims. You are a nation’s representative to the United Nations. You have the power to decide what direction world leaders will take on this issue. Will you use this power?
