The Department of Agriculture today issued an emergency announcement about the spread of "chronic wasting disease" (CWD) among cattle and deer in the American West: http://cryptome.org/doa092701.txt The disease can be fatal to humans. Is there any tie of CWD to cowpox? A biowar attacker might commandeer US beloved dogs and cats as trusted Stingers. Or merely infect a couple of hundred to terrify millions of owners who are dependent upon the therapy. A problem with with cadaver dogs like those in use at WTC are the diseases they spread, vermin they host. Especially those picked up during overseas disaster service that slip quietly into the US below the spectrum of quarantine radar. There is no clear picture of what the thousands of non-US victims of WTC may have been carrying. Pets can be used to carry encrypted or stegoed communications in wearable or implanted devices. Animals have been used to transmit secret messages for almost as long as humans. Pigeons and other birds are used heavily in less developed countries for that purpose, but hawks are used to take them out. Use of overseas human adoptees as carriers is a complicated challenge.