Of course all speculation, but: > Not if the species was unknown to science. What would they reference? Perhaps a novel bacterium they found in a known diseas

Of course all speculation, but: > Not if the species was unknown to science. What would they reference? Perhaps a novel bacterium they found in a known disease carrying parasite in their back yard. Doesn't seem remotely outlandish. If I was looking for a stealth bioweapon, I would try that avenue as well. And there is precedent for significant discoveries being kept under wraps for extended periods before being independently discovered and released to the public. See public key cryptography, which was discovered secretly at GCHQ and only became public 6 years later with Diffie-Hellman. > Well, where is this weaponized strain? It’s not as though variability in the impact of a bacterial disease is a sign of bio-weaponization. I suppose in the wild in the northeast, and presumed to be a natural variant? > Is there really any argument that this plot (which was not executed) suggests anything about their general bio weapon approach? The reality is, Lyme isn’t a good bioweapon… it’s slow, weak and easily treated with cheap and common antibiotics. Moving goalposts. Different weapons have different characteristics which make them useful for different things. The fact that a biological agent would not be good for "bioweapon use-case A" is not an argument that it isn't a bioweapon. The anecdote is proof positive that the US has planned to use biological agents with similar attributes to this hypothetical biological agent as a weapon. The whole argument here amounts to saying "The army would never use knives as weapons, they are so ineffective. You have to be close range, and you can't kill that many people effectively with them!" And when I point out that they do, in fact, use knives as weapons, you just reiterate the same line? > (which was not executed) (stated reason: because the would-be assassin had already given Castro a dive suit, and another would arouse suspicion)