Chicken Doctors Charge Rumsfeld With Profiting from Bird Flu Rumors
Could it be America's Defense Secretary is responsible for bringing the Pakistan poultry industry to its knees? According to this news article from Pakistan's Frontier Post, local poultry doctors and farmers allege that a company Rumsfeld owns is spreading the rumor to sell expensive medicines, and is using the proceeds to buy better weapons to kill Muslims! It's interesting to note that The Frontier Post serves the region thought to be harboring Osama bin Laden.
March 3, 2006
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Pakistan Officials Say that They Have
Detected H5 Bird Flu in Chickens on Two
Poultry Farms, But Local Chicken Doctors Say
It is Just a Rumor Whipped Up By a Drug
Company Owned By Donald Rumsfeld. (above).
Pakistan Poultry Merchants Demonstrate the Safety
of Their Chickens By Eating Them in Public. (below).
Pakistani Poultry Traders In Peshawar, Rally Against
the 'Unnecessary' Killing of Their Chickens.' The Sign
Says 'There is no Bird Flu in Pakistan,' Mar. 1. (above).
Could Defense Secretary Rumsfeld
Be Behind Such an Evil Plot?
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PESHAWAR: Rejecting talk of the presence of bird flu in the Northwest Frontier Province, the Poultry Doctors Associations and poultry farm owners on Thursday alleged that an American pharmaceutical company belonging to U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld had spread the rumor to sell its costly medicines.
"The government and media should play their role in creating awareness among the masses regarding this international conspiracy against this country's poultry industry," implored Dr. Saeed, president of the Poultry Doctors Association at the Peshawar Press Club.
He was flanked by the president of the Poultry Farm Association, Fazal-e-Malik. "The rumors of bird flu are being spread by an American company owned by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, to boost U.S. sales of costly medicines," the two said.
They said that the price per tablet of anti-bird flu virus was 1500 rupees [$25].
"They spread these rumors not only in Pakistan but across the world, to sale the medicines of this company. And the money generated through the sales of these medicines is used to make the latest weapons being used against Muslims," they claimed. A large number of poultry farm owners and doctors were present on the occasion. They ate chicken and offered meals to the media men, saying that no bird flu virus has been detected in the province.
They said that if the consumption of chicken ended, mutton and beef would also soon disappear in Pakistan, which would add to the difficulties of the people.
The business of poultry farms has been shattered by rumors of bird flu, with thousands of families that earn their bread and butter from this industry are now being reduced to starvation.
Fazal-e-Malik said that he belongs to a village where thousands of chickens have been culled, and claimed that there was no bird flu in the area. He said that eight workers of a poultry farm there were taken into protective custody and admitted to hospitals, but were healthy, and that no bird flu virus was detected in any of these people.
They appealed to the masses not believe the rumors, and to consume chicken and chicken eggs without fear.
