NY Times September 4, 2001-Project Jefferson-Weaponized Anthrax Covert Op

[Dig]

U.S. Germ Warfare Research Pushes Treaty Limits
http://online.sfsu.edu/~rone/GEessays/germtreatylimits.html
By THE NEW YORK TIMES SEP 04, 2001

This article was reported and written by Judith Miller, Stephen Engelberg and William J. Broad.


Over the past several years, the United States has embarked on a program of secret research on biological weapons that, some officials say, tests the limits of the global treaty banning such weapons.

The 1972 treaty forbids nations from developing or acquiring weapons that spread disease, but it allows work on vaccines and other protective measures. Government officials said the secret research, which mimicked the major steps a state or terrorist would take to create a biological arsenal, was aimed at better understanding the threat.

The projects, which have not been previously disclosed, were begun under President Clinton and have been embraced by the Bush administration, which intends to expand them.

Earlier this year, administration officials said, the Pentagon drew up plans to engineer genetically a potentially more potent variant of the bacterium that causes anthrax, a deadly disease ideal for germ warfare.

The experiment has been devised to assess whether the vaccine now being given to millions of American soldiers is effective against such a superbug, which was first created by Russian scientists. A Bush administration official said the National Security Council is expected to give the final go-ahead later this month.

Two other projects completed during the Clinton administration focused on the mechanics of making germ weapons.

In a program code-named Clear Vision, the Central Intelligence Agency built and tested a model of a Soviet-designed germ bomb that agency officials feared was being sold on the international market. The C.I.A. device lacked a fuse and other parts that would make it a working bomb, intelligence officials said.

At about the same time, Pentagon experts assembled a germ factory in the Nevada desert from commercially available materials. Pentagon officials said the project demonstrated the ease with which a terrorist or rogue nation could build a plant that could produce pounds of the deadly germs.

Both the mock bomb and the factory were tested with simulants — benign substances with characteristics similar to the germs used in weapons, officials said.

A senior Bush administration official said all the projects were "fully consistent" with the treaty banning biological weapons and were needed to protect Americans against a growing danger. "This administration will pursue defenses against the full spectrum of biological threats," the official said.

The treaty, another administration official said, allows the United States to conduct research on both microbes and germ munitions for "protective or defensive purposes."

Some Clinton administration officials worried, however, that the project violated the pact. And others expressed concern that the experiments, if disclosed, might be misunderstood as a clandestine effort to resume work on a class of weapons that President Nixon had relinquished in 1969.

Simultaneous experiments involving a model of a germ bomb, a factory to make biological agents and the developoment of more potent anthrax, these officials said, would draw vociferous protests from Washington if conducted by a country the United States viewed as suspect.

Administration officials said the need to keep such projects secret was a significant reason behind President Bush's recent rejection of a draft agreement to strengthen the germ-weapons treaty, which has been signed by 143 nations.

The draft would require those countries to disclose where they are conducting defensive research involving gene-splicing or germs likely to be used in weapons. The sites would then be subject to international inspections.

Many national security officials in both the Clinton and Bush administrations opposed the draft, arguing that it would give potential adversaries a road map to what the United States considers its most serious vulnerabilities.

Among the facilities likely to be open to inspection under the draft agreement would be the West Jefferson, Ohio, laboratory of the Battelle Memorial Institute, a military contractor that has been selected to create the genetically altered anthrax.

Several officials who served in senior posts in the Clinton administration acknowledged that the secretive efforts were so poorly coordinated that even the White House was unaware of their full scope.

The Pentagon's project to build a germ factory was not reported to the White House, they said. President Clinton, who developed an intense interest in germ weapons, was never briefed on the programs under way or contemplated, the officials said.

A former senior official in the Clinton White House conceded that in retrospect, someone should have been responsible for reviewing the projects to ensure that they were not only effective in defending the United States, but consistent with the nation's arms-control pledges.

The C.I.A.'s tests on the bomb model touched off a dispute among government experts after the tests were concluded in 2000, with some officials arguing that they violated the germ treaty's prohibition against developing weapons.

Intelligence officials said lawyers at the agency and the White House concluded that the work was defensive, and therefore allowed. But even officials who supported the effort acknowledged that it brought the United States closer to what was forbidden.

"It was pressing how far you go before you do something illegal or immoral," recalled one senior official who was briefed on the program.

Public disclosure of the research is likely to complicate the position of the United States, which has long been in the forefront of efforts to enforce the ban on germ weapons.

The Bush administration's willingness to abandon the 1972 Antiballistic Missile treaty has already drawn criticism around the world. And the administration's stance on the draft agreement for the germ treaty has put Washington at odds with many of its allies, including Japan and Britain.

The Original Treaty

During the cold war, both the United States and the Soviet Union produced vast quantities of germ weapons, enough to kill everyone on earth.

Eager to halt the spread of what many called the poor man's atom bomb, the United States unilaterally gave up germ arms and helped lead the global campaign to abolish them. By 1975, most of the world's nations had signed the convention.

In doing so, they agreed not to develop, produce, acquire or stockpile quantities or types of germs that had no "prophylactic, protective or other peaceful purposes." They also pledged not to develop or obtain weapons or other equipment "designed to use such agents or toxins for hostile purposes or in armed conflict."

There were at least two significant loopholes: The pact did not define "defensive" research or say what studies might be prohibited, if any. And it provided no means of catching cheaters.

In the following decades, several countries did cheat, some on a huge scale. The Soviet Union built entire cities devoted to developing germ weapons, employing tens of thousands of people and turning anthrax, smallpox and bubonic plague into weapons of war. In the late 1980's, Iraq began a crash program to produce its own germ arsenal.

Both countries insisted that their programs were for defensive purposes.

American intelligence officials had suspected that Baghdad and Moscow were clandestinely producing germ weapons. But the full picture of their efforts did not become clear until the 1990's, after several Iraqi and Soviet officials defected.

Fears about the spread of biological weapons were deepened by the rise of terrorism against Americans, the great strides in genetic engineering and the collapse of the Soviet Union, which left thousands of scientists skilled in biological warfare unemployed, penniless and vulnerable to recruitment.

The threat disclosed a quandary: While the United States spent billions of dollars a year to assess enemy military forces and to defend against bullets, tanks, bombs and jet fighters, it knew relatively little about the working of exotic arms it had relinquished long ago.

Designing a Delivery System

In the mid-1990's, the C.I.A. and other intelligence agencies stepped up their search for information about other nations' biological research programs, focusing on the former Soviet Union, Iran, Iraq and Libya, among others. Much of the initial emphasis was on the germs that enemies might use in an attack, officials said.

But in 1997, the agency embarked on Clear Vision, which focused on weapons systems that would deliver the germs.

Intelligence officials said the project was led by Gene Johnson, a senior C.I.A. scientist who had long worked with some of the world's deadliest viruses. Dr. Johnson was eager to understand the damage that Soviet miniature bombs — bomblets, in military parlance — might inflict.

The agency asked its spies to find or buy a Soviet bomblet, which releases germs in a fine mist. That search proved unsuccessful, and the agency approved a proposal to build a replica and study how well it could disperse its lethal cargo.

The agency's lawyers concluded that such a project was permitted by the treaty because the intent was defensive. Intelligence officials said the C.I.A. had reports that at least one nation was trying to buy the Soviet- made bomblets.

A model was constructed and the agency conducted two sets of tests at Battelle, the military contractor. The experiments measured dissemination characteristics and how the model performed under different atmospheric conditions, intelligence officials said. They emphasized that the device was a "portion" of a bomb that could not have been used as a weapon.

The experiments caused concern at the White House, which learned about the project after it was under way. Some aides to President Clinton worried that the benefits did not justify the risks. But a White House lawyer led a joint assessment by several departments that concluded that the program did not violate the treaty, and it went ahead.

The questions were debated anew after the project was completed, this time without consensus. A State Department official argued for a strict reading of the treaty: the ban on acquiring or developing "weapons" barred states from building even a partial model of a germ bomb, no matter what the rationale.

"A bomb is a bomb is a bomb," another official said at the time.

The C.I.A. continued to insist that it had the legal authority to conduct such tests and, intelligence officials said, the agency was prepared to reopen the fight over how to interpret the treaty. But even so, the agency ended the Clear Vision project in the last year of the Clinton administration, intelligence officials said.

Bill Harlow, the C.I.A. spokesman, acknowledged that the agency had conducted "laboratory or experimental" work to assess the intelligence it had gathered about biological warfare.

"Everything we have done in this respect was entirely appropriate, necessary, consistent with U.S. treaty obligations and was briefed to the National Security Council staff and appropriate Congressional oversight committees," Mr. Harlow said.

Breeding More Potent Anthrax

In the 1990's, government officials also grew increasingly worried about the possibility that scientists could use the widely available techniques of gene-splicing to create even more deadly weapons.

Those concerns deepened in 1995, when Russian scientists disclosed at a scientific conference in Britain that they had implanted genes from Bacillus cereus, an organism that causes food poisoning, into the anthrax microbe.

The scientists said later that the experiments were peaceful; the two microbes can be found side-by-side in nature and, the Russians said, they wanted to see what happened if they cross-bred.

A published account of the experiment, which appeared in a scientific journal in late 1997, alarmed the Pentagon, which had just decided to require that American soldiers be vaccinated against anthrax. According to the article, the new strain was resistant to Russia's anthrax vaccine, at least in hamsters.

American officials tried to obtain a sample from Russia through a scientific exchange program to see whether the Russians had really created such a hybrid. The Americans also wanted to test whether the microbe could defeat the American vaccine, which is different from that used by Russia.

Despite repeated promises, the bacteria were never provided.

Eventually the C.I.A. drew up plans to replicate the strain, but intelligence officials said the agency hesitated because there was no specific report that an adversary was attempting to turn the superbug into a weapon.

This year, officials said, the project was taken over by the Pentagon's intelligence arm, the Defense Intelligence Agency. Pentagon lawyers reviewed the proposal and said it complied with the treaty. Officials said the research would be part of Project Jefferson, yet another government effort to track the dangers posed by germ weapons.

A spokesman for Defense Intelligence, Lt. Cmdr. James Brooks, declined comment. Asked about the precautions at Battelle, which is to create the enhanced anthrax, Commander Brooks said security was "entirely suitable for all work already conducted and planned for Project Jefferson."

The Question of Secrecy

While several officials in both the Clinton and Bush administrations called this and other research long overdue, they expressed concern about the lack of a central system for vetting such proposals.

And a former American diplomat questioned the wisdom of keeping them secret.

James F. Leonard, head of the delegation that negotiated the germ treaty, said research on microbes or munitions could be justified, depending on the specifics.

But he said such experiments should be done openly, exposed to the scrutiny of scientists and the public. Public disclosure, he said, is important evidence that the United States is proceeding with a "clean heart."

"It's very important to be open," he said. "If we're not open, who's going to be open?"

Mr. Leonard said the fine distinctions drawn by government lawyers were frequently ignored when a secret program was exposed. Then, he said, others offer the harshest possible interpretations — a "vulgarization of what has been done."

But he concluded that the secret germ research, as described to him, was "foolish, but not illegal."

[Dig]

Everything you need to know about the Anthrax case...

In Lies We Trust: The CIA, Hollywood and Bioterrorism ...
151 min -
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8674401787208020885

backup link: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=159053218219104169

[Dig]

Patricia Doyle Update - Battelle, Alibek And Anthrax
http://www.rense.com/general24/ere.htm
5-8-2

Storms In Stormville, NY...
 
Many of you will remember that on Febuary 26, 2002 I did the Jeff Rense Program and announced my retirement from radio due to worsening Hepatitis C.
 
I am sure that most of you who are familiar with my research and my health problems thought that I would continue my investigation, at a slower pace, of course, but, that I would be taking it easy. This was not the case as I will explain in this article.
 
I was continuing to investigate the origin of the anthrax letter attacks as well as the deaths of the microbiologists. I had been attempting to document the theory that I put forth on the Feburary 26th Rense Program in which I theorized and alleged that Rumsfeld, Ken Alibek with cooperation of certain highly placed CIA agents were, indeed, behind the anthrax letter attacks.
 
I had been trying to ascertain who received the very highly classified 1999 William Patrick Anthrax Risk Assessment report. According to my sources, very few people actually received and read the report. The Patrick Risk Assessment, dated 1999, assessed the risk of sending anthrax through the mail.
 
William Patrick did not take into consideration the fact that the high speed sorting machines could puncture the anthrax ladden envelopes and therefore assessed the risk of anthrax dissemination as low to moderate.
 
I belive that the William Patrick Risk Assessment was considered when the anthrax plot was being conceived. It was very obvious that the conspirators did not intend to contaminate preminses or to kill people.
 
The anthrax letters were intended to bring attention to the need for bioterrorism preparedness, and more funding for bioterrorism projects, vaccines, as well as research. Furthermore, the letters were intended to prepare a public to be sufficiently scared and ready to accept public health laws that would virtually subvert the US Constitution. The anthrax letters were also used to open the purse strings of Congress.
 
Of course, ulterior motives were to aid financially distressed bio/pharmaceutical companies who had taken some hard hits as tech stocks plummited.
 
Ken Alibek's company, Hadron was one of those companies that benefited financially after the anthrax letter attacks.
 
Vaccine companies also profited, such as Oravax Company, now known as Acambis and which received Govt. contracts for Smallpox vaccine as well as other bioterrorism vaccines.
 
Battelle Medical Institue is also at the center of the Anthrax attacks and it is known that Ken Alibek and Hadron are associated with Battelle. Pharmaceutical Reasearch and Development hit pay dirt after the attacks.
 
A few weeks after I did the Feb. 26th Rense Show and was in the process of continuing my investigations, making FOIA requests, problems began. My computer was hit with an extremely sophisticated computer virus. I had 4 experts working on the computer and after 4 weeks they finally had to give up and I lost virtually all of my research and documentation.
 
Needles to say this was very upsetting. I had a plethora of very expensive antivirus software protection, but, the boot virus was unable to be overcome. One of the techs told me that the virus was an unidentified virus and he had never seen it before. He also said that it appeared to be one that the Government might have used.
 
We could not even figure out how the computer became infected. Years of my life's work is all gone. This was extremely disheartening, yet, was not the only event to take place.
 
I was speaking on the phone when all of a sudden the line went dead. The party to whom I was speaking called the phone company and was told that my line was out of service. I checked all three phone lines in my home and all were dead. About 15 minutes later, they came back, but have echos and clicks.
 
I live in a rural area and there is a private air strip ajacant to my property. There has been much recent SUV and light truck activity to and from the air strip as well as daily helicopter activity.
 
I have noted that one helicopter which flies over on a daily basis is a sleek black helicopter and has a large black rectanglular box under its midsection. It flies over at about 12 to 15 hundred feet. There have also been quite a few small aircraft in and out of the field which is not a normal occurrance. In the early stage of the events, a small plane flew over my home and circled around until I went outside to investigate. It then circled around and appeared to be in a nose dive into my home. It suddenly pulled back and did loops and other stunts. Quite amusing but very scarey.
 
At one point, my phone rang and as I answered and said hello, I heard two men speaking. They sounded like they had tapped into my phone lines at two different spots along the wire. I continued to say hello, but they ignored me and continued their conversation. One man said that, "it would be easy for the daughter to get hurt while the mother was upstairs asleep." I knew that this was not a simple crossed line but a direct threat upon my daughter.
 
I made arrangements for my daughter to stay with extended family whom I trust. A few days after I returned from my trip at which time I had placed my daughter where she would be safe, a county social service worker inquired about my daughter. He claimed that he received an anomous report and needed to speak with her. Thus far, I have not give her address and stand firm.
 
I believe that the events have been occurring because I have been getting very close to the truth in regard to the anthrax attacks and the microbiologist deaths. At this point, I believe that the harassment has occurred to divert my attention from the investigation. I also, believe that I am being monitored and my progress is being reported.
 
Did I think my semi retirement would involve sophisticated computer viruses, death threats, helicopter surveillance, phone taps? This is more intrigue then I care to experience.
 
The events have led me to believe that I am on the right track as far as my investigations are concerned.
 
The investigations will continue.
 
Thank you, Patricia Doyle
 
Battelle Exposed In Anthrax Biochemical Connspiracy
 
 
By Bob Fitrakis FreePress.org January 14, 2002
 
Mainstream news accounts have finally fingered Battelle Memorial Institute, the spooky Dr. Strangelove Institute in Columbus, as ground zero in our domestic military-industrial anthrax scare. With five people dead and eighteen ill, Battelle's role in directing the Defense Departmentís ìjoint vaccine acquisition programî is now coming under heavy scrutiny.
 
Battelle, in partnership with Michigan-based Bioport, has a virtual monopoly on military anthrax vaccine production in the U.S.. British and U.S. news accounts describe Bioportís owner as a top secret British biowarfare consortium, Porton Down. Perhaps not ironically, the Chairman and CEO of the Porton Down company is Fuad El-Habri, a bin Laden family associate. Laura Rozenís interesting article for the website Salon is must reading on the subject.
 
Admiral William J. Crowe, Jr., a former Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, is one of the four-person Board of Directors of Bioport and holds a 13% interest in the company. Some investigators link the multinational investment firm and defense contractor, the Carlyle Management Group -- that was involved in managing the bin Laden family fortune prior to Sept. 11 to Bioport. Former CIA Director Frank Carlucci, -(Rumsfeld's College buddy and wrestling partner - Pat) - Bush the Elder's Chief of Staff James Baker III and the former President himself are all associated with the Carlyle Group.
 
As I reported in the Columbus Alive immediately after the anthrax scare began, Battelle is involved in developing a new and stronger strain of anthrax at its West Jefferson, Ohio labs. Don't be deceived by the fake farmland facades of the W. Jefferson complex. It's the center of a top secret defense project going under the name 'Project Jefferson,' according to the New York Times. The actual lab is BL-3 Anthrax Lab. The Times also confirmed that the CIA is also involved with its own top secret anthrax project called code name 'Clear Vision.'
 
As I noted in the Alive, the former No. 2 man in the Soviet biochemical warfare operation, Kanatjan Alibekov (now going by the alias Ken Alibek) is a classified consultant with both the CIA and Battelle. A 1998 New Yorker article pointed out the work between William C. Patrick III and Alibeck on the anthrax project.
 
Battelle emerged during WWII as a top secret facility because of its work on the Manhattan Project. Battelle was responsible for innovations in uranium ore that was actually milled in Columbus. Battelle and Bioport stood to get massively rich off an anthrax scare and, more than any other organization, Battelle controlled access to the Ames strain of anthrax used in the top secret military tests.
 
The Baltimore Sun reported that the Ames strain was also being produced at the Dugway Proving Ground in Utah, but more importantly, Battelle directs that program as well. The FBI investigation has led them in the direction of Patrick and Alibeck. But whether they have the will, or the authority, to investigate spook central headquarters in Columbus is another question. The New York Times on Nov. 9 already reported that the FBI made an error in the ìanthrax probeî by allowing the 'destruction of university' samples that 'may have caused clues to be lost.'
 
Alibek, who arrived in the U.S. in 1992, needs to be looked at very closely since news reports suggest that he had possible financial stakes in a biochemical scare. On Oct. 29, the Washington Post reported that Alibek ìhas hooked up with an Alexandria, VA company, and, supported by federal grants, opened a laboratory of 35 people. The article notes that he's 'learning to be a capitalist.'
 
"Hadron Advanced Biosystems Inc., Alibek's company, sports an unusual provenance for a biotechnical venture. No other company, doing any kind of work, can claim to be headed by a former No. 2 man in a vast program aimed at turning anthrax, plague, smallpox, tularemia and many other germs into weapons of war," noted the Post.
 
The Post explains that 'Alibek's venture is a subsidiary of Hadron Inc.... a publicly-traded 37-year-old government contractor specializing in defense and espionage work.' Rozen in Salon, pointed out that Porton Down made a 'fortune' during the Gulf War selling anthrax vaccine.
 
The FBI's investigation should focus on who stood to gain financially from the acknowledged domestic military-industrial anthrax terrorism.
 
The convergence of the Strangelovian Battelle with Bioport, the Porton Down and the role of prominent individuals like Alibek, Crowe, El-Habri and the Carlyle Group suggests that much of this is likely to be covered up. Ironically, this summer, President George W. Bush renounced long-standing calls by the Russians for mutual inspections of biochemical weapons sites like Battelle. Bush claimed that mutual inspection of U.S. biochemical technology sites by foreign scientists could risk revealing commercial trade secrets - secrets that would be worth 'a fortune' if a few people controlled the commercial rights to them during an anthrax scare.
 

[Dig]

Battelle exposed in anthrax biochemical conspiracy
www.freepress.org/columns/display/3/2002/31
January 14, 2002

Mainstream news accounts have finally fingered Battelle Memorial Institute, the spooky Dr. Strangelove Institute in Columbus, as ground zero in our domestic military-industrial anthrax scare. With five people dead and eighteen ill, Battelle’s role in directing the Defense Department’s “joint vaccine acquisition program” is now coming under heavy scrutiny.

Battelle, in partnership with Michigan-based Bioport, has a virtual monopoly on military anthrax vaccine production in the U.S.. British and U.S. news accounts describe Bioport’s owner as a top secret British biowarfare consortium, Porton Down. Perhaps not ironically, the Chairman and CEO of the Porton Down company is Fuad El-Habri, a bin Laden family associate. Laura Rozen’s interesting article for the website Salon is must reading on the subject.

Admiral William J. Crowe, Jr., a former Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, is one of the four-person Board of Directors of Bioport and holds a 13% interest in the company. Some investigators link the multinational investment firm and defense contractor, the Carlyle Management Group -- that was involved in managing the bin Laden family fortune prior to Sept. 11 to Bioport. Former CIA Director Frank Carlucci, Bush the Elder’s Chief of Staff James Baker III and the former President himself are all associated with the Carlyle Group.

As I reported in the Columbus Alive immediately after the anthrax scare began, Battelle is involved in developing a new and stronger strain of anthrax at its West Jefferson, Ohio labs. Don’t be deceived by the fake farmland facades of the W. Jefferson complex. It’s the center of a top secret defense project going under the name “Project Jefferson,” according to the New York Times. The actual lab is BL-3 Anthrax Lab. The Times also confirmed that the CIA is also involved with its own top secret anthrax project called code name “Clear Vision.”

As I noted in the Alive, the former No. 2 man in the Soviet biochemical warfare operation, Kanatjan Alibekov (now going by the alias Ken Alibeck) is a classified consultant with both the CIA and Battelle. A 1998 New Yorker article pointed out the work between William C. Patrick III and Alibeck on the anthrax project.

Battelle emerged during WWII as a top secret facility because of its work on the Manhattan Project. Battelle was responsible for innovations in uranium ore that was actually milled in Columbus. Battelle and Bioport stood to get massively rich off an anthrax scare and, more than any other organization, Battelle controlled access to the Ames strain of anthrax used in the top secret military tests.

The Baltimore Sun reported that the Ames strain was also being produced at the Dugway Proving Ground in Utah, but more importantly, Battelle directs that program as well. The FBI investigation has led them in the direction of Patrick and Alibeck. But whether they have the will, or the authority, to investigate spook central headquarters in Columbus is another question. The New York Times on Nov. 9 already reported that the FBI made an error in the “anthrax probe” by allowing the “destruction of university” samples that “may have caused clues to be lost.”

Alibeck, who arrived in the U.S. in 1992, needs to be looked at very closely since news reports suggest that he had possible financial stakes in a biochemical scare. On Oct. 29, the Washington Post reported that Alibeck “has hooked up with an Alexandria, VA company, and, supported by federal grants, opened a laboratory of 35 people. The article notes that he’s “learning to be a capitalist.”

“Hadron Advanced Biosystems Inc., Alibeck’s company, sports an unusual provenance for a biotechnical venture. No other company, doing any kind of work, can claim to be headed by a former No. 2 man in a vast program aimed at turning anthrax, plague, smallpox, tularemia and many other germs into weapons of war,” noted the Post.

The Post explains that “Alibeck’s venture is a subsidiary of Hadron Inc. . . . a publicly traded 37-year-old government contractor specializing in defense and espionage work.” Rozen in Salon, pointed out that Porton Down made a “fortune” during the Gulf War selling anthrax vaccine.

The FBI’s investigation should focus on who stood to gain financially from the acknowledged domestic military-industrial anthrax terrorism.

The convergence of the Strangelovian Battelle with Bioport, the Porton Down and the role of prominent individuals like Alibeck, Crowe, El-Habri and the Carlyle Group suggests that much of this is likely to be covered up. Ironically, this summer, President George W. Bush renounced long-standing calls by the Russians for mutual inspections of biochemical weapons sites like Battelle. Bush claimed that mutual inspection of U.S. biochemical technology sites by foreign scientists could risk revealing commercial trade secrets – secrets that would be worth “a fortune” if a few people controlled the commercial rights to them during an anthrax scare.

[Dig]

The Next Worst Thing

News: Is the federal government's expansion of biodefense research paving the way for the bioweapons of the future?

By Michael Scherer

http://motherjones.com/news/outfront/2004/03/02_400.html

March/April 2004 Issue



It has been called a modern-day Manhattan Project—a spending spree so vast and rapid that it might change the face of biological science. In the wake of 9/11, the U.S. government is funding a massive new biodefense research effort, redirecting up to $10 billion toward projects related to biological weapons such as anthrax. The Pentagon's budget for chemical and biological defense has doubled; high-security nuclear-weapons labs have begun conducting genetic research on dangerous pathogens; universities are receiving government funding to build high-tech labs equipped to handle deadly infectious organisms; and Fort Detrick, Maryland, once the home of America's secret bioweapons program, is about to break ground on two new high-tech biodefense centers.


Officials say the effort is designed to head off what a recent CIA report calls the "darker bioweapons future." Intelligence briefings are awash with speculation about other nations or terrorists developing genetically engineered pathogens "worse than any disease known to man." But a growing number of microbiologists, nonproliferation experts, and former government officials say there may be a dark side to the biodefense push: With poor oversight, government-funded scientists could actually be paving the way for the next generation of killer germs—and given the explosion of research, there is no way to keep track of what is being done. "We are playing games with fire," says Ken Alibek, a top scientist in the Soviet Union's bioweapons program until defecting to the United States. "It is kind of a Pandora's box. As soon as you open it, there is no way of putting it back in."


In a little-noticed report released in October, the National Academy of Sciences warned that the government has no mechanism to prevent the "misuse of the tools, technology, or knowledge base of this research enterprise for offensive military or terrorist purposes." The report called for dramatically stepped-up monitoring of federally supported biodefense projects; so far, Congress and the administration have failed to act on those recommendations. Federal anti-terror legislation has focused on limiting access to stockpiles of known bioterrorism agents such as anthrax. But in a world where scientists can create deadly diseases in a test tube, says Dr. Ernie Takafuji, acting assistant director of biodefense at the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases, that is not enough. "When you come down to it, the threat is not just the organisms," he explains. "The threat is the technologies." The greatest danger, scientists and intelligence officials agree, stems from researchers' increasing ability to alter the genetic codes of viruses and bacteria: The same information can be used either to treat disease or to make new germs— pathogens that could, for example, be designed to evade treatment or to genetically target specific populations.


Late last year, for example, Takafuji and other public-health officials were caught by surprise when an American virologist, Mark Buller, revealed that he was working on ways of creating a more deadly form of mousepox, a relative of smallpox, and was considering similar work on cowpox, which can infect humans. No one suggested that Buller, who has been working at St. Louis University to defeat known techniques for making pox viruses more lethal, sought to create a bioweapon. But the prospect of manufacturing a more deadly germ just to see how it could be killed worried many. "That is work that creates a new vulnerability for the United States and the world," says Richard H. Ebright, lab director at the Waksman Institute of Microbiology at Rutgers University. "It's like the National Institutes of Health was funding a research and development arm of Al Qaeda." Buller himself, while defending the benefits of his own work, acknowledges the concerns over the new rush to biodefense research. "When you have thrown a lot of money at it," he said, "people start to think very hard about what is possible, losing sight of what is practical."


In another project that has raised eyebrows among bioweapons experts, a U.S. Army medical scientist in Maryland has been seeking to bring back to life key parts of the 1918 Spanish flu, a lethal influenza virus that killed 40 million people worldwide. While such research could be immensely valuable in fighting another deadly flu outbreak, it might also be used to create such an outbreak, notes Ed Hammond, director of the Sunshine Project, a group critical of American biodefense spending. "If [the researcher] worked in a Chinese, Russian, or Iranian laboratory," he says, "his work might well be seen as the 'smoking gun' of a bio-warfare program."


Even more worrisome to many experts is the apparent growth in secretive, or "black box," biodefense research by the U.S. intelligence community. "There's all kinds of secret research going on right now," says Matthew Meselson, a Harvard biologist who has worked closely with the military. "The more you create secret research in biology," he warns, "the more you create risk." One program that has become public is Project Jefferson, a Pentagon effort to genetically engineer a vaccine-resistant version of anthrax. After the program's existence was revealed by the New York Times in 2001, the Pentagon announced that it intended to complete the project and that the results would be classified. "[The military's] natural instinct is to exploit the technology and keep everybody else away from it," says John D. Steinbruner, director of the Center for International and Security Studies at the University of Maryland. "In their hands, this technology is potentially extremely dangerous."


Programs like Project Jefferson have already raised concerns that U.S. scientists are treading dangerously close to the limits of the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention, which prohibits offensive research. Just months before September 11, the Bush administration walked away from negotiations to impose biological-weapons inspections, in part because American pharmaceutical companies did not want to open their labs to international inspectors. The abandonment of the talks left the world without any way to enforce the treaty's restrictions. Now, experts fear that the explosion of American research—including programs such as Project Jefferson that are widely viewed as potential violations of the treaty—might encourage other countries to disregard the convention.


Despite these fears, the administration is pushing to expand research programs even further. In a rare unclassified report on the Pentagon's biodefense plans, James B. Petro, a top official in the Defense Intelligence Agency, recently called for a new federal "threat assessment" facility for advanced bioweapons. Such a facility, he wrote, would investigate topics with "limited implications for the general bioscience community, but significant application for nefarious scientists."


To many observers, the statement indicated that the United States is moving toward a pre-emptive approach, attempting to beat terrorists to the punch by being the first to produce novel pathogens. "What they seem to be saying to me is that we are actually in a defensive/offensive arms race," says Malcolm Dando, a British bioweapons expert at Bradford University. "If the U.S. goes down these roads, it indicates routes that people can follow."

[Dig]

Your tax money at work...

www.cissm.umd.edu/papers/files/brazil_workshop06_monteleone.pdf

CONTROLLING DANGEROUS PATHOGENS PROJECT

[Dig]

Anthrax and the Agency THINKING THE UNTHINKABLE
http://www.whitecloud.com/anthrax.htm
 http://www.CounterPunch.com 
 
by WAYNE MADSEN
 
Now that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has officially put the anthrax investigation on a back burner, it is time for Americans to think the unthinkable: that the FBI has never been keen to identify the perpetrator because that perpetrator may, in fact, be the U.S. Government itself. Evidence is mounting that the source of the anthrax was a top secret U.S. Army laboratory in Maryland and that the perpetrators involve high-level officials in the U.S. military and intelligence infrastructure.
 
FBI Debunks Anthrax-Hijacker Link
 
Coming shortly after the hijacked airliner attacks on New York and Washington, the anthrax attacks on the U.S. Congress, major media outlets and the U.S. Postal System were, at first, blamed by the Bush Administration on Al Qaeda or Iraq. However, on March 23, the FBI officially announced that "exhaustive testing did not support that anthrax was present anywhere the hijackers had been." This statement came after a rather weak story based on conjecture appeared in The New York Times. The article reported that a Fort Lauderdale emergency room doctor treated Saudi hijacker Ahmed Alhanzawi in June 2001 for a cutaneous anthrax lesion on his leg. Although the doctor, Christos Tsonas, did not think the lesion was caused by anthrax at the time he cleansed and treated the wound, he later changed his mind after realizing Alhanzawi was one of the hijackers.
 
Although Tsonas' theory was rejected by the FBI, it was supported by Johns Hopkins University's Center for Biodefense Strategies. Johns Hopkins has its own peculiar link to anthrax. President Bush recently named as the Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Dr. Elias Zerhouni, an Algerian-born professor at Johns Hopkins University and notorious Pentagon yes-man on anthrax bio-defenses. As a member of the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine, Zerhouni and his colleagues, serving on a National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine special committee, gave a green light to the Pentagon's use of a questionable anthrax vaccine on military personnel. According to Dr. Meryl Nass, a member of the Federation of American Scientists who spent three years studying the world's largest recorded anthrax epidemic in Zimbabwe from 1979 to 1980, the report generated by Zerhouni and his colleagues "relies on ignoring many pieces of crucial information, and its recommendations give the Department of Defense everything it could have wanted. The report appears to be 'spun' to support a number of DOD initiatives, and it provides the needed justification for restarting mandatory anthrax vaccinations over the objections of many in Congress."
 
U.S. Link to Anthrax No Conspiracy Theory
 
Forget unfounded conspiracy theories. The evidence is overwhelming that the FBI has consistently shied away from pursuing the anthrax investigation, in much the same way it avoided pursuing leads in the USS Cole, East Africa U.S. embassies and Khobar Towers bombings.
 
On April 4, ABC News investigative reporter Brian Ross broadcast on ABC World News Tonight that after six months the FBI still had hardly any clues and no suspects in its anthrax investigation. A Soviet defector, the former First Deputy Director of Biopreparat from 1988 to 1992 and anthrax expert, Ken Alibek (formerly Kanatjan Alibekov), now a U.S. government consultant, made the astounding claim that the person who is behind the anthrax attacks may, in fact, been advising the U.S. government. After having passed a lie detector test, Alibek was cleared of any suspicion.
 
Interestingly, Alibek is President of Hadron Advanced Biosystems. On October 2, 2001, just two days before the first anthrax case was reported in Boca Raton, Florida and a week and a half before the first anthrax was sent through the mail to NBC News in New York, Advanced Biosystems received an $800,000 grant from NIH to focus on very specific defenses against anthrax. Hadron has long been linked with the CIA. The links include charges by many former government officials, including the late former Attorney General Elliot Richardson, that the company's former President, Earl Brian, illegally procured a database system called PROMIS (Prosecutors' Management Information System) from Inslaw, Inc. and used his connections to the CIA and Israeli intelligence to illegally distribute the software to various foreign governments.
 
Ross reported that U.S. military and intelligence agencies have refused to provide the FBI with a full listing of the secret facilities and employees working on anthrax projects. Because of this stonewalling, crucial evidence has been withheld. Professor Jeanne Guilleman of MIT's Biological Weapons Studies Center told ABC: "We're talking here about laboratories where, in fact, the material that we know was in the Daschle letter and in the Leahy letter could have been produced. And I think that's what the FBI is still trying to find out."
 
But the FBI does not seem to want to pursue these important leads.
 
CIA Testing Anthrax and the U.S. Mail
 
The first major media outlet to accuse the FBI of foot dragging was the BBC. On March 14, the BBC's Newsnight program highlighted an interview with Dr. Barbara Rosenberg of the Federation of American Scientists. After claiming the CIA was involved, through government contractors, in secret testing of sending anthrax through the mail, Rosenberg, someone with close ties to the biological warfare community, has been attacked by the White House, FBI and, not surprisingly, the CIA.
 
The BBC also interviewed Dr. Timothy Read of the Institute of Genomic Research and a leading expert on the genetic characteristics of anthrax. Read said of the two strains, "They're definitely related to each other ... closely related to each other." However, Read would not go so far as to suggest the Florida strain, known as the Ames strain, and that developed at the U.S. Army's top secret Fort Detrick biological warfare laboratory -- officially known as the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases -- were one and the same.
 
William Capers Patrick III was part of the original Fort Detrick anthrax development program, which "officially" ended in 1972 when President Nixon signed, along with the Soviet Union and United Kingdom, the Biological Weapons Convention. Nixon had actually ordered the Pentagon to stop producing biological weapons in 1969. It now seems likely that the U.S. military and intelligence community failed to follow Nixon's orders and, in fact, have consistently violated a lawful treaty signed by the United States.
 
Cuba certainly accused the United States of using biological war weapons against it during the 1970s. In his book, Biological Warfare in the 21st Century, Malcolm Dando refers to the U.S. bio-attacks against the Caribbean island nation. The American covert campaign targeted the tobacco crop using blue mold, the sugar cane crop using cane smut, livestock using African swine fever and the Cuban population using a hemorrhagic strain of dengue fever.
 
Last December, The New York Times claimed Patrick authored a secret paper on the effects of sending anthrax through the mail, a report he denies. However, Patrick told the BBC that he was surprised that as an expert of anthrax (he was a member of the UN biological warfare inspection team in the 1990s), the FBI did not interview him right after the first anthrax attacks.
 
The BBC reported that Battelle Memorial Institute (a favorite Pentagon and CIA contractor and for whom Alibek served as biological warfare program manager in 1998) conducted a secret biological warfare test in the Nevada desert using genetically-modified anthrax early last September, right before the terrorist attacks. The BBC reported that Patrick's paper on sending anthrax through the mail was also part of the classified contractor work on the deadly bacterial agent.
 
But would the U.S. Government knowingly subject its citizenry to a dangerous test of biological weapons? The evidence from past tests suggests it has already done so. According to Dando, in the 1950s, the military released uninfected female mosquitoes in a residential area of Savannah, Georgia. It then checked on how many entered houses and how many people were bitten. In 1956, 600,000 mosquitoes were released from an airplane on a bombing range. Within one day, the mosquitoes had traveled as far as two miles and had bitten a number of people. In 1957, at the Dugway Proving Grounds in Utah, the Q-Fever toxin was discharged by an airborne F-100A plane. If a more potent dose had been used, the Army concluded 99 percent of the humans in the area would have been infected. In the 1960s, conscientious objecting Seventh Day Adventists, serving in non-combat positions in the Army, were exposed to airborne tularemia. In addition to Dando's revelations, a retired high-ranking U.S. Army civilian official reported that the Army used aerosol forms of influenza to infect the subway systems of New York, Chicago and Philadelphia in the early 1960s.
 
>From Fort Detrick With Love
 
The Hartford Courant reported last January that 27 sets of biological toxin specimens were reported missing from Fort Detrick after an inventory was conducted in 1992. The paper reported that among the specimens missing was the Ames strain on anthrax. A former Detrick laboratory technician named Eric Oldenberg told The Courant that while at Detrick, he only handled the Ames strain, the same strain sent to the Senate and the media. The Hartford Courant also revealed that other specimens missing included Ebola, hanta virus, simian AIDS and two labeled "unknown," a cover term for classified research on secret biological agents.
 
Steven Block of Stanford University, an expert on biological warfare, told The Dallas Morning News that: "The American process for preparing anthrax is secret in its details, but experts know that it produces an extremely pure powder. One gram (a mere 28th of an ounce) contains a trillion spores . . . A trillion spores per gram is basically solid spore . . . It appears from all reports so far that this was a powder made with the so-called optimal U.S. recipe . . . That means they either had to have information from the United States or maybe they were the United States." (author's emphasis).
 
Block also told the Dallas paper: "The FBI, after all these months, has still not arrested anybody . . . It's possible, as has been suggested, that they may be standing back because the person that's involved with it may have secret information that the United States government would not like to have divulged."
 
And what the government would not want divulged is the fact that the United States has been in flagrant violation of the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention. Article 1 of the convention specifically states: "Each State Party to this Convention undertakes never in any circumstance to develop, produce, stockpile or otherwise acquire or retain: 1. Microbial or other biological agents, or toxins whatever their origin or method of production, of types and in quantities that have no justification for prophylactic, protective or other peaceful purposes. 2. Weapons, equipment or means of delivery designed to use such agents or toxins for hostile purposes or in armed conflict."
 
The Death of Dr. Wiley: Murder They Wrote
 
The one person who was in a position to know about the origin of the anthrax sent through the U.S. Postal Service met with a very suspicious demise just a month after the attacks first began.
 
The reported "suicide" and then "accidental death" of noted Harvard biophysics scientist and anthrax, Ebola, AIDS, herpes and influenza expert, Dr. Don C. Wiley, on the Interstate 55 Hernando De Soto Bridge that links Memphis to West Memphis, Arkansas, was probably a well-planned murder, according to local law enforcement officials in Tennessee and Arkansas.
 
On November 15, Wiley's abandoned 2001 Mitsubishi Galant rental car was strangely found in the wrong lane, west in the eastbound lane of the bridge. The keys were still in the ignition, the gas tank was full, the hub cap of the right front wheel was missing and there were yellow scrape marks on the driver's side of the vehicle, indicating a possible sideswipe.
 
Wiley had last been seen four hours earlier, around midnight, before his car was found around 4:00 AM on the bridge. He was last seen in the lobby of Memphis' Peabody Hotel, leaving a banquet of the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, on whose advisory board he served. Police quickly "concluded" that Wiley committed suicide by jumping off the bridge into the Mississippi River. It appears the early police conclusion, decided without a full investigation, was engineered by the FBI. On December 20, Wiley's body was recovered in the river in Vidalia, Louisiana, 320 miles south of Memphis. After Wiley's friends and family discounted claims of suicide, the Memphis coroner concluded on January 14, 2002 that Wiley had "accidentially" fallen over the side of the bridge after a minor car accident.
 
Not so, say seasoned local law enforcement officials who originally assigned homicide detectives to the case. Memphis police claim there was only 15 minutes between the last time police had checked the bridge and the time they discovered Wiley's abandoned vehicle. They suspected Wiley was murdered. However, the local FBI office in Memphis stuck by its story that Wiley's death was not the result of "foul play." A Memphis police detective said "the newspaper account of Wiley's accident did not clear anything up for me," adding, "everything attributed to the 'accident' could also be attributed to something else."
 
However, according to U.S. intelligence sources, Wiley may have been the victim of an intelligence agency hit. That jibes with local police comments that the FBI and "other" U.S. agencies stepped in to prevent the local Memphis police from taking a closer look into the case. Employees of St. Jude's Childrens' Hospital in Memphis, on whose board Wiley served, were suddenly deluged with unsubstantiated rumors that Wiley was a heavy drinker and despondent.
 
It is a classic intelligence agency ploy to spread disinformation about "suicide" victims after their murders. The favorite rumors spread include those about purported alcoholism, depression, homosexuality, auto-erotic asphyxia, drug addiction and an obsession with pornography, especially child pornography.
 
According to the local police, it would have been easy to determine if Wiley was a heavy drinker and that would have shown up in his autopsy. The police also reckon that if Wiley left the Peabody under the influence, four hours later he should have been sober enough not to have fallen over the side of the bridge. Also, the bridge railing is high enough that even the 6' 3" Wiley could not have accidentally fallen over it without assistance. Add that to the fact that no one in the history of the bridge had fallen over the side.
 
Police also feel that even at 4:00 AM, there should have been someone else on the bridge who would have called the police about a person who was driving down the interstate the wrong way. Due to the fact that access is restricted to the bridge, one would have to have driven a long way on the wrong lane. Some police are of the opinion Wiley was stuck with a needle and that one reason he was dumped into the fast-moving Mississippi is that with the length of his time in the water (one month), the needle mark evidence would have largely disappeared.
 
And in yet another strange twist, on March 14, a bomb and two smaller explosive devices were found at the Shelby County Regional Forensic Center, which houses the morgue and Medical Examiner's Office that conducted Wiley's autopsy. Dr. O.C, Smith, the medical examiner, told Memphis' Commercial Appeal: "We have done several high-profile cases from Dr. Wiley to Katherine Smith (a Department of Motor Vehicles employee mysteriously found burned to death in her car after being charged in a federal probe with conspiracy to obtain fraudulent drivers' licenses for men of Middle East origin) but there has been no indication that we offended anyone . . . we just don't know if we were the attended target or not."
 
Knowledgeable U.S. and foreign intelligence sources have revealed that Wiley may have been silenced as a result of his discovery of U.S. government work on biological warfare agents long after the U.S., along with the Soviet Union and Britain, signed the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention.

[Dig]

A South African Connection
 
The death of Wiley may be also linked to revelations recently uncovered in South Africa. His expertise on genetic fingerprints for various strains may have led him to particular countries and their bio-warfare projects.
 
The South African media has been abuzz with details of that nation's former biological warfare program and its links to the CIA. The South African bio-chemical war program was code-named Project Coast and was centered at the Roodeplat Research Laboratories north of Pretoria. The lab maintained links to the US biowarfare facility at Fort and Britain's Porton Down Laboratory. The head of the South African program, Dr. Wouter Basson, was reportedly offered a job with the CIA in the United States after the fall of the apartheid regime. According to former South African National Intelligence Agency Deputy Director Michael Kennedy, when Basson refused the offer, the CIA allegedly threatened to kill him. Nevertheless, the U.S. pressured the new President, Nelson Mandela, to turn over the records and fruits of Basson's work. Much of this work was reportedly transported to Fort Detrick.
 
Basson also claimed to have been involved in a project called Operation Banana, which, using El Paso, Texas as a base with the CIA's blessing, was designed to transport cocaine to South Africa from Peru. The cocaine, hidden in bananas, was to be used in developing a new incapacitating drug.
 
One of the South African's secret projects involved sending anthrax through the mail. Among the techniques that fell into the hands of the Americans was a method by which anthrax spores were, with deadly effect, incorporated on to the gummed flaps of envelopes.
 
Other South African bio-chemical weapons allegedly transferred to the CIA included, in addition to anthrax, cholera, smallpox, salmonella, botulinum, tularemia, thallium, E.coli, racin, organophosphates, necrotising fasciitis, hepatitis A, HIV, paratyphoid, Sarin VX nerve gas, Ebola, Marburg, Rift Valley hemorrhagic fever viruses, Dengue fever, West Nile virus, highly potent CR tear gas, hallucinogens Ecstasy, Mandrax, BZ, and cocaine, anti-coagulant drugs, the deadly lethal injection drugs Scoline and Tubarine, and cyanide.
 
Many of Dr. Wiley's family and friends doubt he would have committed suicide. The fact that he was certainly in a position to know about the origination of various viruses and bacteria -- which could have led to the U.S. Government -- would have made him a prime target for a government seeking to cover up its illegal work in biological warfare.
 
Wiley's Anthrax Research
 
And Wiley had a significant connection to anthrax research. Wiley was not only a professor at Harvard but also conducted research at the Chevy Chase, Maryland Howard Hughes Medical Center, which does work for the National Institutes of Health. On October 1, 2001, just three days before the first reported anthrax case in Florida, the Hughes Center announced that a joint Harvard-Hughes team had identified a mouse gene that made mice resistant to anthrax bacteria. Although the media failed to play it up later, that research involved using Wiley's expertise on the immune system. The new gene, identified as Kif1C, located in chromosome 11 of a mouse, enhanced the defense systems of special immune cells, called macrophages, against the destructive effects of anthrax bacteria.
 
Wiley's was not the only suspicious death of a scientist with knowledge of biological defenses. Just three day before Wiley's death, Dr. Benito Que, a Miami Medical School cellular biologist specializing in infectious diseases, died in a violent attack. The Miami Herald reported Que died after "four men armed with a baseball bat attacked him at his car." A week after Wiley died, Dr. Vladimir Pasechnik, a former scientist for Biopreparat, the Soviet Union's biological weapons production factory, was found dead from an alleged stroke in Wiltshire, not far from Britain's Porton Down biological warfare center. Pasechnik had defected from the Soviet Union in 1989 and was an expert on the Soviet Union's anthrax, smallpox, plague and tularemia programs. While at Biopreparat, Pasechnik worked for Alibek, who defected three years later. When he died, Pasechnik was assisting the British Government's efforts in providing bio-defenses against anthrax.
 
Anthrax and Operation Northwoods
 
For those who disbelieve the possibility that the U.S. Government is the number one suspect in the anthrax attacks, they are directed to James Bamford's book on the National Security Agency, Body of Secrets. The book reveals that in 1962, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Lyman Lemnitzer was planning, along with other members of the Joint Chiefs, a virtual coup d'etat against the administration of President Kennedy using acts of terrorism carried out by the military but to be blamed on the Castro Government in Cuba. The secret plan, code-named Operation Northwoods, entailed having U.S. military personnel shoot innocent people on the streets of American cities, sink boats carrying Cuban refugees to Florida and conduct terrorist bombings in Washington, DC, Miami and other cities. Innocent people were to be framed for committing bombings and hijacking planes. If John Glenn's liftoff from Cape Canaveral in February 1962 were to end in an explosion, Castro would be blamed. Plans were made to shoot down civilian aircraft en route from the United States to Jamaica, Guatemala, Panama or Venezuela and then blame Cuba. The U.S. military also planned to attack Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, both British colonies, and make it appear that the Cubans had done it in order to bring Britain into a war with Cuba.
 
So far, the Bush Administration has refused to support a full and independent Congressional investigation into the events of September 11 and the later events involving anthrax. It seems it and the three-letter agencies the Administration is so fond of praising, and funding, know more about the source of the anthrax attacks than they are admitting. If the saying, "where there's smoke, there's fire," has any basis of truth, the United States is in the midst of a raging inferno. Who will answer the fire alarm?
 
[Wayne Madsen is an investigative journalist based in Washington, DC. He can be reached at: WMadsen777@aol.com  ]
 
[Copyright © 2002 CounterPunch.com]
Publisher: http://www.CounterPunch.com  Monday, April 8, 2002 -- SPECIAL INVESTIGATIVE REPORT

[Dig]

Analysis of the Anthrax Attacks

Barbara Hatch Rosenberg, Federation of American Scientists


I. Commentary 5 February 2002: Is the FBI Dragging Its Feet?

II. Letter Chronology, Updated 31 January 2002

III. Notes on the Letters, 31 January 2002

IV. Analysis of the Attacks, 17-31 January 2002

V. Appendix: Laboratories That Have Worked with the Ames Strain of Anthrax

VI. Ancillary Materials


I. COMMENTARY: Is the FBI Dragging Its Feet?

5 February 2002

For more than three months now the FBI has known that the perpetrator of the anthrax attacks is American. This conclusion must have been based on the perpetrator’s evident connection to the US biodefense program. In addition to this signpost, the perpetrator has left multiple, blatant clues, seemingly on purpose: second letters, addressed similarly to the anthrax letters and containing powder, sent to most (and possibly all) the anthrax recipients; similar letters sent to several other media organizations; even a letter, addressed to the Military Police at the Quantico Marine Base, accusing a former USAMRIID scientist (with whom the anonymous writer says he once worked) of having bioterrorist intentions. Almost all the letters were mailed before there were any reports of anthrax letters or of hoax letters sent to media (see “Analysis of the Anthrax Attacks” below for a chronology and discussion of the available data). The postal addresses and dates of these letters map out an itinerary of the perpetrator(s) and indicate certain connections, which taken together must single out the perpetrator from the other likely suspects.


This evidence permits a more refined estimate of the perpetrator’s motives. He must be angry at some biodefense agency or component, and he is driven to demonstrate, in a spectacular way, his capabilities and the government’s inability to respond. He is cocksure that he can get away with it. Does he know something that he believes to be sufficiently damaging to the United States to make him untouchable by the FBI?


The perpetrator is surely too smart to believe that either the FBI’s ludicrous recent actions or the White House protestations of ignorance mean that the authorities are not on to him. Blanketing Central New Jersey with fliers showing handwriting that was obviously disguised can’t possibly evoke useful information, nor can letters to 32,000 American microbiologists, 31,800 of whom live in a different world from the perpetrator. This is no way to instill public confidence in the competence of the FBI. The press is increasingly questioning the situation, and other scientists have independently raised similar issues (see, for example, “In Search of the Anthrax Attacker” http://www.redflagsweekly.com/nassanthrax3.html). Most importantly, the apparent lack of action is sending a dangerous message to potential bioterrorists.



II. LETTER CHRONOLOGY

Updated 31 Jan. 02

Four letters with anthrax have been found, and a fifth (to AMI) was apparently discarded after opening. In addition, at least three of the five anthrax recipients also received “hoax” letters containing an innocuous powder; and several different media offices received similar hoax letters. Some of the hoax letters were mailed BEFORE the first anthrax case (in Florida) was reported, and all but one hoax letter were mailed BEFORE there were any reports of anthrax letters or hoax letters. Therefore the hoax letters targeting media are not simply a copycat phenomenon. The envelopes on most or all of the hoax letters were addressed in block capitals similar to the addresses on the anthrax envielopes, even though they were mailed before the anthrax envelopes became known. A photograph of one hoax letter (to St. Petersburg Times) has been published, and descriptions or comparisons of others have been reported. If analysis confirms that the hoax letters were sent by the anthrax perpetrator, their postmarks will indicate his itinerary (or the assistance of an accomplice)—see chronology below.

At least three hoax letters, known to have been mailed from St. Petersburg, are similar in many ways to each other and to the anthrax letters: addresses written in similar block capitals, tone of letters, unconvincing misspellings. Were the enclosed letters also xeroxed? no fingerprints? stamps not licked? Are the other hoax letters similar?

Furthermore, an anonymous letter accusing a former USAMRIID scientist of plotting terrorism was sent to police BEFORE any anthrax letters or disease were reported. The letter contains evidence that the anonymous writer had probably worked at USAMRIID. This letter may also come from the anthrax perpetrator.



18 Sept. 01 Trenton----------Mailed anthrax letters to NBC and NY Post (and probably to National Enquirer).


20 Sept. St. Petersburg—Mailed hoax letter to NBC and possibly to NY Post** [& Natl. Enq.?]


19-25 Sept NBC received & opened anthrax letter (brown granular sandy); not recognized as dangerous.


25 Sept. NBC received & opened hoax letter. late Sept. place?------------Mailed letter to Quantico Marine Base accusing Dr. Asaad, former USAMRIID scientist, as terrorist.

4 Oct. First report of anthrax case (in Florida).

5 Oct. Death of first anthrax victim, Fla.

5 Oct. St. Petersburg—Mailed hoax letters to J. Miller at NY Times and H. Troxler at St. Petersburg Times.

~5-9 Oct. place?------------Mailed hoax letters to CBS (DC), Fox News and possibly to NY Post**

9 Oct. Troxler (St. P Times)opened hoax letter.

9 Oct. Trenton----------Mailed anthrax letters to Daschle and Leahy.

12 Oct. Miller at NYT opened hoax letter.

12-13 Oct. First reports of any letters to media.

13 Oct. NBC anthrax case and both suspicious letters first reported. (FBI had previously overlooked events at NBC.)


13 Oct. CBS News (D.C.) received envelope with powder visible on outside.

8-13 Oct. Fox News received hoax letter.

15 Oct. Daschle’s Hart office opened anthrax letter.

19 Oct. NY Post anthrax case diagnosed and letter with anthrax found unopened in mailroom. Employee remembers opening a similarly-addressed (hoax) letter**, earlier.

late Nov. UK----------------Mailed hoax letter to Dascle office in Capitol.

3 Jan. 02 Daschle’s Capitol office opened hoax letter (delay in receipt due to irradiation of Capitol mail).


III. NOTES ON THE LETTERS

31 Jan 02

1. Florida anthrax letter: postal traces show that a letter containing anthrax must have been sent to the National Enquirer at its previous address, then forwarded to the AMI office.
This indicates that the perpetrator was not familiar with AMI and the Natl. Enquirer.

2. Florida hoax letter?: Possibly a hoax letter was discarded without notice, as the anthrax letter was. In addition, on approximately 4 Sept. AMI received a fan letter containing powder and a star of David, addressed to actress Jennifer Lopez c/o The Sun (one of the AMI tabloids). Because the anthrax letter was evidently addressed to the National Enquirer, not The Sun, the Sun letter is probably irrelevant.

3. Hoax letter to NY Post: was received and thrown out sometime before 19 Oct. It was addressed to the Editor in block capitals, similar to the anthrax letter received by the NY Post. The NYPost hoax letter could have been mailed on 5 Oct. from St. Petersburg, along with the hoax letters to the NY Times and St. Petersburg Times, or it could have been mailed earlier (eg, on 20 Sept., when the hoax letter was mailed to NBC). The anthrax letters to NBC and the NY Post had been mailed at the same time (18 Sept) and it is possible that the perpetrator mailed hoax letters on 20 Sept to all of those previously sent anthrax.

4. Hoax letter to NBC: letter contained talcum and was mailed from St. P on 20 Sept., two days after the anthrax letter was mailed to NBC from Trenton. Both letters contained threats to Israel.

5. Hoax letters to Judith Miller at the NY Times and Howard Troxler at the St. Petersburg Times: these were mailed on 5 Oct. from St. Petersburg and were similar in appearance and content to the NBC hoax letter mailed from St. P on 20 Sept. but not yet reported. The NY Times and St. P Times letters were in stamped, plain envelopes with no return address. A photo of the St. P. envelope was published in the St. P Times, showing great similarity to the printing on the anthrax letters (which had not yet been reported—in two cases—or mailed—in the other two cases). The NY Times letter contained talcum and threatened the Sears Tower in Chicago and President Bush. The St P Times letter contained what looked like sugar or salt and said “Howard Toxler...1st case of disease now blow away this dust so you can see how the real thing flys. Oklahoma-Ryder Truck! Skyway bridge-18 wheels.”

6. Hoax letters to CBS News in Washington, DC and to Fox News: were received on or shortly before 13 Oct. No further information has been reported. They could have been mailed from St. Petersburg on 5 Oct., along with the NY Times and St. P Times letters; or from a place between St. Petersburg and Trenton between 5-9 Oct. Oct. On 12 Oct. an FBI official said they were investigating multiple mailed envelopes from St. Petersburg. The St. Petersburg Police Chief would not comment on whether that included other letters in addition to those sent NBC, NY Times and St. P Times.

7. Hoax letter to Senator Daschle: was received and opened by Sen. Daschle’s office in the Capitol on 3 Jan. 02, after a delay for irradiation. The letter was mailed from the UK. The envelope contained a powder and a threatening letter unlike those that were mailed with anthrax, according to the FBI. This letter was mailed much later than the others, sometime in late Nov., a month after the other hoax letters and the anthrax letters had been reported. Whether the letter was addressed in block printing, like the anthrax letters, has not been revealed.

8. Anonymous letter of accusation: contained a long, typed letter with good command of English language, displaying considerable knowledge of Dr. Assaad, his work at USAMRIID and his personal life and accusing Assaad of planning terrorism. The letter was shown by the FBI to Assaad and his lawyer. The FBI subsequently exhonorated Assaad. The letter, sent to the Marine base at Quantico, VA., asserts that the accuser formerly worked with Assaad. It was sent before any cases of anthrax were discovered.


IV. ANALYSIS OF THE SOURCE OF THE ANTHRAX ATTACKS

17-31 January 2002

1. The Present Situation

--The FBI has surely known for several months that the anthrax attack was an inside job. A government estimate for the number of scientists involved in the US anthrax program over the last five years is 200 people. According to a former defense scientist the number of defense scientists with hands-on anthrax experience and the necessary access is smaller, under 50. The FBI has received short lists of specific suspects with credible motives from a number of knowledgeable inside sources, and has found or been given clues (beyond those presented below) that could lead to incriminating evidence. By now the FBI must have a good idea of who the perpetrator is. There may be two factors accounting for the lack of public acknowledgement and the paucity of information being released: a fear that embarrassing details might become public, and a need for secrecy in order to acquire sufficient hard evidence to convict the perpetrator.

2. Anthrax Strain

--All letter samples contain the same strain of anthrax, corresponding to the AMES strain in the Northern Arizona University database (which has been used for identification). The Ames strain possessed by N. Arizona University is referred to herein as the “reference strain.” That strain was obtained by LSU from Porton Down (UK) in 1997 (the sample was marked “10-32” meaning no. 10 of 32 samples sent); Porton had gotten it from Fort Detrick. Fort Detrick got it from Texas A&M (but mistakenly attributed it to the USDA laboratory in Ames, Iowa) in 1981. Earlier anthrax isolates from Ames, Iowa have caused some confusion but they are no longer relevant to the situation, thanks to recent genetic analyses (see below).

--Contrary to early speculation, there are no more than about 20 laboratories known to have the Ames strain. The names of 15 of these have been found in the open literature (see Appendix). Of these, probably only about four in the US might possibly have the capability for weaponizing anthrax. Those four include both US military laboratories and a government contractor.

--Genetic analysis performed at Northern Arizona University on Ames strain samples from Fort Detrick (USAMRIID), Dugway Proving Ground, the UK defense establishment at Porton, Louisiana State University and Northern Arizona University has shown that all of these laboratories possess identical anthrax stocks that match the letter anthrax perfectly (in the limited analyses that have been done). All these stocks were originally derived from Fort Detrick’s 1980 Ames strain. USAMRIID acknowledges that it also provided Ames to the Canadian defense establishment at Suffield, the University of New Mexico, and Battelle Memorial Institute (a large contracting organization with laboratories and personnel in many locations including military laboratories).

Excluding the three academic institutions, two of which are intimately involved in the investigation, and the two foreign defense laboratories, places the focus on USAMRIID, Dugway and Battelle as the source of the Ames strain for the letters.

--The complete sequence has been determined for the genomes of both the anthrax used in the Florida attack and the Ames reference strain to which it corresponds. This work was done under government contract by the Institute for Genetic Research, a private non-profit organization. The results have not been made public but they are in government hands and there has been no retraction of the oft-repeated official statement that the letter anthrax matches the Ames reference strain.

--Analysis of trace contaminants in the letter anthrax has probably been carried out but not reported. The results could indicate whether the anthrax was grown in liquid medium (and what kind of medium), or on petri dishes; the latter would likely rule out large-scale preparation. It has been estimated that the perpetrator used a total of about 10g in the letters.

3. Anthrax Weaponization

--“Weaponization” is used here to mean preparation of the form of anthrax found in the Daschle letter: fine particles, very narrow size range, treated to eliminate static charge so it won’t clump and will float in the air. The weaponization process used was extraordinarily effective. The particles have a narrow size range (1.5-3 microns diameter), typical of the optimal US process.

--The extraordinary concentration (one trillion spor es per gram) and purity of the letter anthrax is believed to be characteristic of material made by the optimal US process.

--The optimal US weaponization process is secret—Bill Patrick, its inventor, holds five secret patents on the process and says it involves a combination of chemicals . There is no evidence that any other country possesses the formula.

--Under the microscope, the letter anthrax appears to be unmilled. Milled anthrax spores are identifiable because they contain debris. The optimal US process does not use milling.

--The Daschle sample contains a special form of silica used in the US process. It does not contain bentonite (used by the Iraqis).

--A “coating” on the spores in the letter sample, indicative of the secret US process, has been observed.

--The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Washington, DC has studied the sample using an energy dispersive X-ray specroscope, which can detect the presence of extremely tiny quantities of chemicals; traces of several chemicals have been found (but not reported, presumably for security reasons).

--All the letters probably contained the same material. The clumping of the anthrax in the two letters mailed on Sept 18 (to NBC and the NY Post) probably resulted from the letters getting wet in the course of mail processing or delivery, according to Army scientists. This conclusion is strengthened by the similarity of the Florida anthrax (the first to be observed, probably also mailed on Sept 18) to that in the Daschle letter, mailed Oct 9.

--The letter anthrax was made after 1980 (when the Ames strain used was obtained) using a process similar to the secret, optimal US process. If the anthrax was weaponized by the perpetrator himself, there may be some differences from anthrax weaponized by the government, depending on the availability of materials to the perpetrator and the conditions of preparation.


4. Other Clues

--Scientists formerly at USAMRIID say that it would have been easy for a scientist working with anthrax to remove a sample of the Ames strain from the lab. Only a miniscule amount would be needed, and security has been lax.

--On the other hand, experts believe that it would be extremely difficult to steal 10g of weaponized anthrax from a government lab. Thus, the perpetrator very likely grew and weaponized the letter anthrax himself.

--There was only one week between Sept 11 and Sept 18, when the first two letters (and probably another letter, never found, to AMI) were postmarked. This suggests that the anthrax was already in hand, and the attack largely planned, before Sept 11.

--A classified report dated February, 1999 discusses responses to an anthrax attack through the mail. The report, precipitated by a series of false anthrax mailings, was written by William Patrick, inventor of the US weaponization process, under a CIA contract to SAIC. The report describes what the US military could do and what a terrorist might be able to achieve. According to the NY Times (12 Dec. 01) the report predicted about 2.5g of anthrax per envelope (the Daschle letter contained 2g) and assumed a poorer quality of anthrax than that found in the Daschle letter. If the perpetrator had access to the materials and information necessary for the attack, he must have had security clearance or other means for accessing classified information, and may therefore have seen the report and used it as a model for the attack.

--An anonymous letter was sent to police, apparently in September, accusing an Egyptian-born American scientist who had been laid off by USAMRIID of being a terrorist. The FBI questioned and released the accused scientist as innocent. Details of the letter have not been released. Could this letter have been sent by the perpetrator (who would likely have known about the USAMRIID lay-offs) to cover his traces?

--The perpetrator did not aim to kill but to create public fear. The letters warned of anthrax or the need to take antibiotics, making it possible for those who handled the letters to protect themselves; and it is unlikely that the perpetrator would have anticipated that the rough treatment of mail in letter sorters, etc, would force anthrax spores through the pores of the envelopes (which were taped to keep the anthrax inside) and infect postal workers and others.

--The perpetrator was probably ready before Sept. 11 and simply took advantage of the likelihood that Sept. 11 would throw suspicion on Muslim terrorists. Was the perpetrator trying to push the US toward some retaliatory military action?

--The perpetrator must have realized in advance that the anthrax attack would result in the strengthening of US defense and response capabilities. This is not likely to have been a goal of anti-American terrorists, who would also be unlikely to warn the victims in advance. Perhaps the perpetrator stood to gain in some way from increased funding and recognition for biodefense programs. Financial beneficiaries would include the BioPort Corp., the source of the US anthrax vaccine, and other potential vaccine contractors.

--Expert analysts for the FBI believe that the letters were written by a Westerner, not a Middle Easterner or Muslim, although the text was clearly intended to imply the latter.

--The choice of a variety of media as targets seems to have been cleverly designed to ensure a broad spectrum of publicity about the attacks. The choice of Senators Daschle and Leahy suggests that the perpetrator may lean to the political right and may have some specific grudge against those Senators.

--The perpetrator successfully covered every personal trace when he prepared and mailed the letters, which suggests that he had forensic training or experience.

--Even if the perpetrator did not make the anthrax himself, just filling the letters with it was a dangerous operation. The perpetrator therefore must have received the anthrax vaccine recently (it requires a yearly booster shot). The vaccine is in short supply and is not generally accessible, and vaccination records are undoubtedly available. The perpetrator also appears to have special expertise in evading contamination while handling weaponized anthrax.

5. Government Statements, Actions and Chronology

--On 13 Jan. 02 Homeland Security Director Thomas Ridge said “the primary direction of the investigation is turned inward” toward domestic terrorists.

--On 2 Dec. 01 a law enforcement official close to the federal investigation called the concept of a government insider, or someone in contact with an insider, “the most likely hypothesis…it’s definitely reasonable.” Another American official was quoted in the same article saying that, in addition to military laboratories, “there are other government and contractor facilities that do classified work with access to dangerous strains, but it’s highly likely that the material in the anthrax letters came from a person or persons who really had great expertise. We haven’t seen any other artifacts that point us elsewhere.”

--Secret or questionable biodefense projects tend to be given to the CIA, DOE or other agencies and contractors instead of to DOD, in order to maintain deniability (for example, only DOD programs have been reported by the US in the annual information exchange about biodefense activities, under the Biological Weapons Convention). Many contractor scientists work in government labs. A CIA spokesman says that CIA scientists work with other government agencies and contractors on the biodefense program.

--Chronology: Analytical data on the anthrax in the letters became available to investigators in late October, 2001. The FBI then began questioning former government scientists. On 31 Oct. it was reported that the US rejected a UN resolution offered by France to condemn the anthrax attack, on the grounds that it could have been domestic terrorism. On 9 Nov. the FBI released a profile of the perpetrator as a lone, male domestic terrorist, obviously one with a scientific background and laboratory experience who could handle hazardous materials. In early Dec. the FBI said it was investigating government and contractor labs possessing the Ames strain, and individuals who had access to them. On 16 Dec. the FBI said it was focusing on a contractor that worked with the CIA. At about the same time the FBI said it was interested in non-military individuals who had received the anthrax vaccine.

--John Bolton, Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, said on 19 Nov. that “We don’t know…at the moment, in a way that we could make public, where the anthrax attacks came from.” Senate Majority Leader Thomas Daschle, recipient of one of the anthrax letters and in frequent contact with investigators, said on 8 Dec. that the perpetrator was probably someone with a military background. Ari Fleischer, the White House spokesman, said on 17 Dec. that it is increasingly “looking like it was a domestic source.”

--After a series of uncontrolled statements to the media, relevant experts have been asked to keep quiet and, in some cases, appear to have been asked to “correct” former statements.

6. Possible Portrait of the Anthrax Perpetrator

--Insider in US biodefense, doctoral degree in a relevant branch of biology

--Middle-aged American

--Experienced and skilled in working with hazardous pathogens, including anthrax, and avoiding contamination

--Works for a CIA contractor in Washington, DC area

--Has up-to-date vaccination with anthrax vaccine

--Has clearance for access to classified information

--Worked in USAMRIID laboratory in the past, in some capacity, and has access now

--Knows Bill Patrick and has probably learned a thing or two about weaponization from him, informally

--Has had training or experience in covering evidence

--May have had an UNSCOM connection

--Has had a dispute with a government agency

--Has a private location where the materials for the attack were accumulated and prepared

--Worked on the letters alone or with peripheral encouragement and assistance

--Fits FBI profile

--Has the necessary expertise, access and a past history indicating appropriate capabilities and temperament

--Has been questioned by FBI

7. Comments

--A recent report by the Congressional General Accounting Office, as well as many recent statements by military and non-governmental experts in the BW field, holds that terrorists are unlikely to be able to mount a major biological attack without substantial assistance from a government sponsor. The recent anthrax attack was a minor one but nonetheless we now see that it was made possible by a sophisticated government program. It is reassuring to know that it was probably not perpetrated by a lone terrorist without state support.

--It is not reassuring, however, to discover that secret US programs may have been the source of that support, and that security is so dangerously lax in military or defense contractor laboratories. US government insistence on pursuing and maintaining the secrecy of elaborate biological threat assessment activities is undermining the prohibitions of the Biological Weapons Convention and encouraging biological weapons proliferation in other countries, which in turn may support bioterrorist attacks on the American public. Future deterrence, and the peace of mind of the American people, require that the perpetrator must be publicly identified and brought to justice without delay.

V. APPENDIX

LABORATORIES THAT HAVE WORKED WITH THE AMES STRAIN OF ANTHRAX

(Information obtained from open sources)

+1. #USAMRIID (Ft. Detrick, MD)

+2. #*Dugway Proving Ground (Utah)

3. #Naval Research Medical Center/Armed Forces Institute of Pathology and other associated military labs (MD)

+4. #*Battelle Memorial Institute (Ohio; plus laboratories in many other locations)

5. Duke University Medical School, Clinical Microbiology Lab. (NC)

6. VA Medical Center, Durham (NC)

7. USDA laboratory and Iowa State College of Veterinary Medicine, Ames (Iowa)

+8. *LSU College of Veterinary Medicine

+9. *Northern Arizona University (Arizona)

10. Illinois Institute of Technology Research Institute (IL)

+11. *University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, Albuquerque (NM)

+12. *Chemical and Biological Defense Establishment, Porton Down (UK)

13. *CAMR, Porton (UK)

+14. *Defense Research Establishment, Suffield (CA)

15. BioPort Corp. (MI)

In addition, CDC, NIH, and Los Alamos and a few others may have the Ames strain; the Institute for Genomic Research (MD) says they have Ames DNA but not the bacteria.

_________________________________

[Dig]

*Obtained through a FOIA request by the Washington Post (article Nov 30, 01)

# indicates laboratories in the US that are estimated to be more likely than the others to have weaponization capabilities.

+Indicates recipients of the Ames strain acknowledged by USAMRIID.


V. ANCILARY MATERIALS FROM OTHER SOURCES

Particularly relevant quotations are bold-faced.

1. FBI Letter to Members of the American Society for Microbiology

29 Jan 02

FROM: Van Harp, Assistant Director, Washington Field Office
Federal Bureau of Investigation

On September 18, 2001, two copies of an identical letter were mailed in
separate envelopes from Trenton, NJ, one to "Editor, New York Post" and
the other to "Tom Brokaw, NBC TV." Each letter contained a significant
quantity of the bacterium Bacillus anthracis.

On October 9, 2001, two additional copies of a slightly different
letter were mailed from Trenton, NJ, the first to "Senator (Tom)
Daschle" and the second to "Senator (Patrick) Leahy." Each of these
letters again contained Bacillus anthracis but of a better quality than
the letters mailed to New York.

As a result of these mailings and the resulting bacterial infections,
there are five innocent persons who are dead, including a ninety-four
year old Connecticut Woman. Additional cases of cutaneous anthrax have
infected numerous individuals including a seven month old baby in New
York City.

I would like to appeal to the talented men and women of the American
Society for Microbiology to assist the FBI in identifying the person
who mailed these letters. It is very likely that one or more of you
know this individual. A review of the information-to-date in this
matter leads investigators to believe that a single person is most
likely responsible for these mailings. This person is experienced
working in a laboratory. Based on his or her selection of the Ames
strain of Bacillus anthracis one would expect that this individual has
or had legitimate access to select biological agents at some time. This
person has the technical knowledge and/or expertise to produce a highly
refined and deadly product. This person has exhibited a clear, rational
thought process and appears to be very organized in the production and
mailing of these letters. The perpetrator might be described as
"stand-offish" and likely prefers to work in isolation as opposed to a
group/team setting. It is possible this person used off-hours in a
laboratory or may have even established an improvised or concealed
facility comprised of sufficient equipment to produce the anthrax.

It is important to ensure that all relevant information, no matter how
insignificant it may seem, is brought to the attention of the
investigators in this case. If you believe that you have information
that might assist in the identification of this individual, please
contact the FBI via telephone at 1-800-CRIME TV (1-800-274-6388) or via
email at the following website: Amerithrax@FBI.gov

There is also a $2.5 million reward for information leading to the
arrest and conviction of the person(s) responsible in this case.

[Note: The ASM cover letter, explaining the FBI request for the mailing, contains the following statement: “The action was criminal and not ideological.”

2. Salon Article, 8 Feb. 02

By Laura Rozen
Feb. 8, 2002 | WASHINGTON -- When Arthur O. Anderson, chief of clinical
pathology at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious
Diseases (USAMRIID), saw the anthrax sent to Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., last
October, he was amazed.
"There was nothing there except spores," he told Salon. "Normally, if you
take a crude preparation of anthrax spores, you see parts of degenerated
bacteria. But this stuff was highly refined."
Another former Army lab scientist characterized the sample as "very, very
good."
Anderson isn't drawing conclusions about where the anthrax came
from -- perhaps in part because the subject is deeply sensitive at the U.S.
Army's own biodefense lab, which could find itself at the center of the
investigation. But conversations with dozens of scientists and experienced
biodefense hands reveal a growing belief that last fall's anthrax letter
culprit is most likely an experienced bioweapons scientist. And while Franz
and others note that there are Iraqi and Russian scientists with the skills
to pull off the complex anthrax-mail attack, many experts now believe the
culprit worked at a U.S. bioweapons facility.
Only a few dozen individuals in the U.S. possess the expertise to produce
the sophisticated anthrax specimen sent to Daschle, Vermont Sen. Patrick
Leahy and at least three media outlets last fall. There may be as many as
200 Russian scientists capable of such work, and perhaps 10 Iraqis. But
certain clues have convinced many -- though not all -- bioweapons experts
who've followed the FBI investigation closely that the anthrax in the
letters most likely came from a U.S. lab. That's chiefly because Ames
strain anthrax, the type used in the letters, has been distributed by
USAMRIID to about 20 U.S labs since 1981. Of those, only four facilities
are believed to have the ability to produce the highly lethal, dry powder
form of the Ames strain anthrax the lethal letters contained.
But despite signs that this should narrow the list of anthrax suspects to a
few dozen people, the FBI appears to be casting a wider net in its
investigation, which seems to have made fairly limited progress since the
first victim, American Media Inc. photo editor Bob Stevens, died of anthrax
inhalation four months ago.
Just two weeks ago, for instance, the FBI blanketed New Jersey, where at
least four of the anthrax letters were mailed from, with fliers asking
anyone who might have any knowledge of the culprit to contact the Bureau.
This week, a University of Illinois law professor said that his university
was one of dozens that recently received FBI subpoenas demanding that they
turn over all documents relating to anthrax. And last week, the American
Society for Microbiology in Washington announced that, at the request of
the FBI, it had e-mailed its 40,000 members asking for possible clues.
A spokesman for the group said that while they happily complied, they found
the FBI request a bit perplexing. "As we understand, it's not just
microbiology needed to create [the anthrax that was in the letters]," said
the microbiology society's spokesman, who asked not to be named. "You need
the microbiology skills to grow it, but to process it, you need a totally
different set of skills," such as advanced chemical engineering training,
he said.
The wide net cast by the FBI also baffles many scientists and other weapons
nonproliferation experts familiar with the anthrax investigation, who think
federal authorities could make more progress identifying the anthrax
attacker by focusing on a much narrower group.
"If you want to see the intersection of the two talents -- the
microbiologic ability to obtain and safely grow lots of anthrax, and the
industrial ability to turn it into a dry powder -- then that would suggest
to me that the person did indeed have some experience with the biological
warfare program," says C.J. Peters, who, as a doctor specializing in
hemorrhagic fevers such as Ebola, worked at USAMRIID from 1977 to 1990, and
later at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He now heads a new
center for biodefense at the University of Texas at Galveston.
"Frankly, I find it puzzling," says Elisa D. Harris, who served as director
of nonproliferation issues at the National Security Council from 1993 until
2001, and is currently a resident scholar at the University of Maryland.
"Given what's been reported about the nature and quality of the anthrax
material in the Daschle and Leahy letters, that the material itself almost
certainly originated in the U.S. biological weapons program, they ought to
be able to narrow the investigation to a fairly limited number of
facilities. That number is certainly less than 20. So I find it puzzling
that the FBI has approached all 40,000 members of the American Society of
Microbiologists. I don't understand why they seem to be casting the net so
widely."
The FBI says it is pursuing all avenues.
"We are continuing to investigate the source of the anthrax, and who might
be responsible for sending it," an FBI spokesman told Salon. "That
investigation is very thorough and very exhaustive and we have not ruled
anything out. We have pursued thousands of leads."
Perhaps responding to a growing chorus of criticism, on Thursday unnamed
FBI sources were quoted telling the Wall Street Journal that they are in
fact zeroing in on U.S. weapons labs in their anthrax investigation. But
the article also revealed a startling fact: The FBI has not yet subpoenaed
employee records of the labs where Ames strain anthrax is worked with.
Barbara Hatch Rosenberg, a biological arms control expert at the State
University of New York at Purchase and chair of a bioweapons working group
at the independent Federation of American Scientists, believes the FBI has
intentionally dragged its heels on the weapons-lab angle, most likely for
political reasons.
"For more than three months now the FBI has known that the perpetrator of
the anthrax attacks is American," Rosenberg wrote to Salon on Tuesday.
"This conclusion must have been based on the perpetrator's evident
connection to the U.S. biodefense program."
Rosenberg has become convinced that the FBI knows who sent out the anthrax
letters, but isn't arresting him, because he has been involved in secret
biological weapons research that the U.S. does not want revealed.
"This guy knows too much, and knows things the U.S. isn't very anxious to
publicize," Rosenberg said in an interview. "Therefore, they don't want to
get too close."
Other experts aren't ready to make that leap. Some suggest that the FBI may
just be moving slowly and carefully to gather incriminating evidence that
can stand up in court. Some blame simple incompetence.
"Barbara says the FBI's been told to look for things, and they haven't,"
says Milton Leitenberg, a biological arms control expert at the University
of Maryland. "I don't know. I think they [the FBI] are doing a half-assed
job of it myself. But maybe other people would have done as bad a job, who
knows."
But Jonathan A. King, a professor of microbiology at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, says he, too, is suspicious of the government's
handling of the investigation.
"The first place one would have looked for the anthrax perpetrator is at
the U.S. facilities where people have grants from the government to do
biological defense research," King said in an interview. "But for months,
there was no statement from any federal authorities naming these
laboratories as under suspicion. It's extraordinary."
Although Rosenberg goes further than most experts in criticizing the FBI's
anthrax investigation, her analysis of the case has become must reading for
scientists and congressional staffers concerned about biodefense issues.
(An FBI spokesman contacted by phone Thursday says the agency, too, is
reading her work, but won't comment on it.) A microbiologist by training,
Rosenberg worked as a cancer researcher at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer
Center, and as a professor of biochemistry at Cornell Medical College. A
decade ago, she founded the Federation of American Scientists' biological
and chemical weapons program, which she now heads.
In her analysis of the details known about the anthrax attacks to date, she
has built a persuasive and disturbing case that the anthrax culprit is a
deep insider to the U.S. government's biological weapons program.
Her conclusion is based on a collection of facts that point to a smaller
and smaller number of individuals who could have met all the criteria for
producing, handling and sending out the anthrax letters. The perpetrator
seemed to have advanced expertise and experience in biological weapons like
anthrax, for instance, and access to the technology to produce and refine
it. He or she (but most think it's a he) probably would have had to have
access to the anthrax vaccine, which is not widely available, in order not
to succumb to the disease himself -- which means records of anthrax
vaccinations, which require a yearly booster shot, would be available to
further help identify the person.
In addition, the perpetrator used a highly sophisticated, lethal powder
form of the Ames strain of anthrax. Although the strain itself came into
the possession of USAMRIID in 1981, and was distributed from there for
research purposes to about 20 labs, only about four facilities in the U.S.
are believed to have the capability for "weaponizing" dry anthrax -- which
basically means refining or cultivating a pure sample whose spores are so
tiny and uniform they can easily be inhaled into the lungs.
Even the FBI seems to acknowledge the anthrax suspect has technical
expertise in biology. In the letter sent to the 40,000 members of the
American Society for Microbiology, Van Harp, assistant director of the
FBI's Washington field office, told recipients: "It is very likely that one
or more of you know this individual. A review of the information to date in
this matter leads investigators to believe that a single person is most
likely responsible for these mailings. This person is experienced working
in a laboratory. Based on his or her selection of the Ames strain of
Bacillus anthracis, one would expect that this individual has or had
legitimate access to select biological agents at some time.
"This person has the technical knowledge and/or expertise to produce a
highly refined and deadly product," the letter continued. "This person has
exhibited a clear, rational thought process and appears to be very
organized in the production and mailing of these letters. The perpetrator
might be described as 'stand-offish' and likely prefers to work in
isolation as opposed to a group/team setting. It is possible this person
used off-hours in a laboratory or may have even established an improvised
or concealed facility comprised of sufficient equipment to produce the
anthrax."
Rosenberg says the perpetrator has dangled plenty of clues in front of
investigators. One of those clues, she says, is a letter sent to the
military police at the Quantico, Va., Marine base (and forwarded to the
FBI) in late September -- well before the public was aware that anthrax was
being sent in the mail -- that tried to frame a former U.S. biowarfare
researcher as a bioterrorist. That anonymous letter stated that the writer
had worked with the man, Dr. Ayaad Assaad, and had details about him that
only an insider would know (although some details in the letter turned out
to be incorrect.) The FBI has cleared Assaad of any possible connection to
the case, but Assaad himself has criticized the agency for not zeroing in
on his accuser as a likely culprit, since that person seemed to have
foreknowledge about the anthrax attacks.
"The perpetrator has left multiple, blatant clues, seemingly on purpose,"
Rosenberg writes. "Second letters, addressed similarly to the anthrax
letters and containing [talc] powder ... The postal addresses and dates of
these letters map out an itinerary of the perpetrator(s) ... which single
out the perpetrator from the other likely suspects."
Rosenberg also says three senior U.S. biodefense officials have given the
same name of a likely suspect to the FBI. She would not reveal that
person's name, but said he is a former USAMRIID scientist, who she
understands is working for a defense or CIA contractor in the Washington
metropolitan area. Rosenberg says that the FBI has questioned the
individual, along with many other former biodefense scientists.
Interestingly, William C. Patrick III, the founder of the U.S. military's
biological weapons program, and the man who taught the folks at the Army's
Dugway Proving Grounds in Utah how to make dry anthrax (using a harmless
anthrax substitute, though), is no longer willing to talk to the press.
Contacted by Salon Thursday, Patrick said that he has been misquoted in the
media, and doesn't wish to comment on the investigation anymore. Rosenberg
believes that the anthrax perpetrator may know Patrick, because the attack
resembles a classified study that Patrick wrote for a CIA contractor a
couple of years ago, which tried to predict how an anthrax attack through
the mail would work.
Based on all the evidence, Rosenberg sums up her conclusions this way: The
perpetrator, she believes, is "angry at some biodefense agency or
component, and he is driven to demonstrate, in a spectacular way, his
capabilities and the government's inability to respond. He is cocksure that
he can get away with it. Does he know something that he believes to be
sufficiently damaging to the United States to make him untouchable by the
FBI?"
But C.J. Peters, the former USAMRIID and CDC doctor, says the FBI's dragnet
to date is just standard operating procedure, and he doubts that it's been
a ploy to hide secret weapons research.
"The FBI throws the net as wide as they possibly can," Peters said. "They
put hundreds of people on this case and turn the crank and look for little
clues and putting A and B together. I could imagine that maybe, just maybe,
there might be someone in the Defense Department who says, I don't want
this to be traced back to Dugway [the Army proving grounds in Utah]. I
could imagine a person thinking that. But I couldn't imagine that the FBI
would care if it were traced back to Dugway. The FBI guy's thinking, 'Hey,
man, I got them. I am going to be famous now. We are going to be heroes, we
found it.' I don't believe it's a grand government-wide conspiracy."
That said, Peters does have concerns about the FBI's ability to use the
scientific information the physical anthrax provides.
"I'm not sure the FBI understands how to use the biological information,"
Peters added. "They think they are going to solve this the way they solve
all other crimes. But it also seems possible to me they may be overlooking
some helpful hints from the biology of the anthrax itself. I wonder if they
are making full use of everything that's known about the biology."
And while few other scientists admit to sharing Rosenberg's dark
conclusions about why the FBI has been slow to solve the anthrax case, some
believe that casting the net widely served multiple political purposes for
the Bush administration.
"From the moment one saw that it was highly concentrated Ames strain
anthrax, the first lead candidate should have been a U.S. laboratory with a
military contract," says MIT's Jonathan King. "Instead, we heard no such
public admission. Immediately they were talking about Iraq and al-Qaida,
when the largest such facilities are in the U.S. That leads me to think two
things: the U.S. government is covering up the fact that the most likely
source of the anthrax was not al-Qaida, was not foreign terrorists, but was
a home-grown individual. And secondly, it was turned into part of the
anti-terrorist propaganda."
Indeed, while in the early days of the anthrax letter scare, U.S. political
leaders said they were actively looking to see if there was a connection
between the anthrax and Iraq and al-Qaida, those views are now in the
minority. On Dec. 17, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said that it is
"increasingly looking like it was a domestic source." On Jan. 13, Homeland
Defense Director Thomas Ridge told media, "the primary direction of the
investigation is turned inward." Two weeks ago, at a New Jersey press
conference, an FBI official said the investigation was focusing on a U.S.
government scientist.
It would be easier to dismiss Rosenberg's fears of a high-level U.S.
coverup as cloak-and-dagger paranoia if it weren't for the fact that U.S.
bioweapons programs are so secretive and mysterious. There is growing
evidence that the programs, which are governed by international law and are
supposed to be under congressional oversight, are more widespread and
ambitious than officials have admitted.
Many experts are still angry that the U.S. walked out of the Biological
Weapons Convention conference this past July in Geneva, after the Bush
administration rejected language that would have subjected signatory
nations, including the U.S., to inspections to make sure they're not
engaging in any prohibited offensive bioweapons development.
"They [U.S. government officials] don't want the treaty to be tighter, and
they don't want people coming here and investigating our facilities and
stockpiles," says Meryl Nass, an MIT-trained physician who has long
advocated for stricter arms control. "So it turns out that the U.S. did
have this dry weaponized anthrax after all, and that was a big secret. But
no one has really discussed the implications of this. They completely
avoided the issue. But the rest of the biodefense establishment around the
world knew exactly what it meant. They knew the U.S. had basically
transgressed the weapons convention."
And even if the FBI isn't intentionally trying to protect bioweapons
secrets from being revealed, some experts worry that the proliferation of
bioweapons programs -- some of them still secret -- could be hampering the
FBI's anthrax investigation.
"I think a number of us were surprised by some of the revelations" of
secret bioweapons programs, says Elisa D. Harris, the former Clinton
administration NSC official. Harris thinks it's possible the FBI itself is
not aware of all of the biodefense work being contracted out by the U.S.
government, because it is such a highly secretive and compartmentalized
program.
Harris says she was shocked to read in the New York Times last September
about biodefense research programs that she herself had not known about,
although she had served for eight years in the White House as the point
person for weapons of mass destruction nonproliferation issues.
On Sept. 4, 2001 -- just a week before the Sept. 11 attacks, the Times
reported that from 1997-2000, the CIA conducted a program called Clear
Vision, to build a model of a Soviet germ bomblet. The program was carried
out at the West Jefferson, Ohio, labs of Battelle Memorial Institute, a
defense and CIA contractor. In addition, the Times story reported, the
Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon's intelligence arm, hired
Battelle last year to create a type of genetically enhanced version of
anthrax, a "superbug," to see if the anthrax vaccine currently in use by
the Pentagon was effective against it. A second Pentagon program, called
Bacchus, involved building a germ factory in the Nevada desert from
scratch, but reportedly did not use real germs, but simulants that mimic
their dispersal.
"I was only aware of one of those three programs," Harris says. "I was
never told by the Defense Department about the other two. I was also not
aware that since the early 1990s, the U.S. Army has apparently been
producing small quantities of dry, very potent Ames strain anthrax."
hamper the bureau's investigation. But whatever is stalling the
investigation -- the forensic complexity of the case, bureaucratic
resistance to FBI scrutiny, or a darker scenario of the sort Rosenberg
describes -- Harris and others say it's now clear the U.S. biodefense
program lacks proper oversight. And some experts even think it could take a
congressional investigation to get to the bottom of what has stalled the
anthrax investigation -- especially to answer questions about why the FBI
didn't beat a quicker path to U.S. bioweapons labs.
"If it turns out that the anthrax that killed 5 people and injured a dozen
and resulted in tens of thousands of people having to take antibiotics, if
that anthrax came from the U.S. biodefense program, that just underscores
the importance of the Congress looking into this program and getting a
really comprehensive picture about what has been taking place.
"There has been no real serious oversight of the U.S. biological defense
program for a very long time," Harris added. "And I think this is a good
moment, given the impact of the anthrax attacks, for Congress to take
responsibility."
This story has been corrected since it was first published.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
About the writerLaura Rozen writes about U.S. foreign policy and the
Balkans crisis for Salon News. Sound OffSend us a Letter to the Editor
Related storiesFort Detrick's anthrax mysteryWho tried to frame Dr. Ayaad
Assaad, a former biowarfare researcher at the Army lab? Was it the same
person responsible for last fall's anthrax mail terrorism?By Laura
Rozen01/26/02 The anthrax vaccine scandalWhy did the Pentagon allow BioPort
Corp. to remain the sole U.S. supplier of a crucial weapon against
bioterror, despite years of failure to deliver the vaccine?
By Laura Rozen10/15/01
.... posted jkeel, 2/26/02

(Top) 
FBI Investigating Vaccine-Makers' Motives in Anthrax Mailings

> Sandpoint, ID - More than two months after Harvard-trained public health professional Dr. Leonard Horowitz urged the FBI to investigate drug companies for anthrax related mischief, including frightening the public for profit, the Washington Post has reported the bureau is pursuing the possibility that financial gain was the primary motive behind the deadly anthrax mailings.

Dr. Horowitz, director of a government watch-dog group that published Death in the Air: Globalism, Terrorism and Toxic Warfare months before the September 11 attacks, petitioned the FBI on October 1 to investigate pharmaceutical companies the Washington Post has reported are finally being investigated.

 Washington Post writers Susan Schmidt and Joby Warrick reported (on December 21) that the FBI was probing at least two military- industrial contractors that stocked the specific mailed anthrax powder. The first is the Army's Dugway Proving Grounds (DPG), and the second is the intimately related Battelle Memorial Institute (BMI).

BMI is a reputed "nonprofit" CIA and military contractor involved in vaccine acquisitions and development. It also administers and supplies the aerosolized bioweapons "Life Sciences" facilities at DPG. It is believed to be the sole source of the mailed anthrax according to a report sent to 1,500 FBI personnel, 8,700 news producers, and more than 400,000 Americans beginning December 11, 2001, by Dr. Horowitz.

The doctor's FBI communiqués, along with other related articles, are archived at http://www.tetrahedron.org .>

Much incriminating evidence points to the Ohio-based anthrax vaccine developer, BMI, and collaborators at a Michigan laboratory named Bioport. According to evidence pieced together by Dr. Horowitz, BMI developed the specific Ames strain of powdered anthrax for a top-secret CIA bioweapons program an anonymous Pentagon official called "Project Jefferson." A subsequent article by William Broad in the New York Times (December 13, 2001) referred to the project as "Clear Vision."

Dr. Horowitz first reported on December 11 that BMI, in West Jefferson, Ohio, also directs a consortium of smallpox and anthrax vaccine makers, including Bioport, for the U.S. military's "Joint Vaccine Acquisition Program" (JVAP)-a multi- billion dollar enterprise.

Bioport, widely reported to be the sole supplier of anthrax vaccine in the U.S., is less known for its evolution from England's Porton Down through for-profit subsidiaries. Porton Down is the chief biological weapons research and development organization for the U.K. According to the Washington Post article, the FBI has failed, to date, to investigate Porton Down, allegedly due to evidence suggesting a domestic origin of the anthrax powder.

"I wouldn't underestimate the involvement of multinational military-industrialists in this largely transparent conspiracy," Dr. Horowitz said. "Contrary to the Washington Post report, the field of suspects has been effectively narrowed to principally two-Battelle and Bioport. Dugway's bioweapons program, reported to have placed Battelle under contract, is really administered and supplied by Battelle. BMI is also contracted by the CIA, and the U.S. and U.K. militaries.  Bioport is primarily directed by the U.K.'s military bioweapons consortium from Porton Down, and is linked to BMI through the JVAC as well as in the co-development of America's anthrax vaccine." Administrative ties between BMI and Porton Down developers are suspected.

The Washington Post reported that the FBI only learned of a BMI- administered CIA "defensive" biowarfare contract involving the Ames-strain of anthrax in recent weeks. "The CIA program was [allegedly] designed to develop defenses to a vaccine-resistant strain of anthrax reportedly created by the former Soviet Union," officials defended. According to the article, CIA spokespersons expressed certainty that "the anthrax used in the mailings did not come from their work."

Plausible denial-ability has been "a proven ploy for CIA defense propagandists for a half century," Dr. Horowitz rebutted. "Though partly accurate, the powdered anthrax did not 'come from their work,' nor are they 'missing' any. Their contractor-BMI-is another story. Their defense is deceptive for at least two other reasons: 1) the Soviets' most potent anthrax was only half as concentrated as this new CIA/Battelle creation; and 2) it's an American-Ames, Iowa-strain, not a Soviet strain. Obviously, you don't develop a new hyper- weaponized strain of American anthrax powder for military "defense" purposes, or even for preventive vaccinations, against an old Soviet threat, and then commission the top U.S. anthrax expert [William C. Patrick, III] to report on the germ's capability and lethality from mailed delivery, unless that's how you foresee it being used."

 Indeed, Dr. Horowitz's analysis appears accurate. Vaccines are developed to help guard against pre-existing threats. This unprecedented anthrax development was illegally prepared, apparently for offensive military applications, sabotage, terrorism, and/or other secret spread to kill potentially large populations. Dr. William C. Patrick's mailed anthrax report, commissioned just months ago, implicates chiefly Battelle, the CIA, and Bioport in a conspiracy to commit military-industrial sabotage, terrorism, and serial homicide if not economic genocide. Dr. Horowitz's full report on this hypothesis, accompanied by a detailed "flow chart," is available for downloading from http://www.tetrahedron.org/articles/anthrax/anthrax_espionage.html .

 Referring to the unprecedented silica-based, electro-statically charged, dry powdered form of anthrax sent through the mail to members of the media and Senators Daschle and Leahy, Dr. Horowitz concluded, "It was the only form of anthrax that could be effectively spread, as it was, through the U.S. mail with such far reaching effects."
....BernieW, 12/30

[Dig]

US Army Made Weapons-Grade Anthrax
"An Army biological and chemical warfare facility in Utah has been quietly developing a virulent, weapons-grade formulation of anthrax spores since at least 1992, and samples of the bacteria were shipped back and forth between that facility and Fort Detrick, Md., on several occasions in the past several years,  according to government officials and shipping records...The Utah Spores, grown and processed at the 800,000-acre Dugway Proving Ground about 80 miles from Salt Lake City, belong to the Ames strain -- the same strain used in the deadly letters sent to media outlets and two senators in September and October. No other nation is known to have made weapons-grade Ames. And although it is legal to make small quantities of such agents under the provisions of an international treaty the United States has signed, experts said yesterday they were surprised by the revelation that a U.S. lab was producing such lethal material." http://msnbc.com/news/671913.asp

(Top) 

 
Take the Case of Cipro... 
A BuzzFlash Editorial Commentary
October 28, 2001
http://www.buzzflash.com
 
Take the issue of Cipro, the preferred Antibiotic that fights Anthrax. Bayer owns the patent. Should a major Anthrax attack be launched over our cities, millions upon millions of dosages would be needed. Instead of temporarily revoking Bayer's patent, which would upset the pharmaceutical companies, who donate large amounts of money to the Republicans, Tommy Thompson was finally forced to negotiate a discounted rate for Cipro purchased by the government. This is a totally inadequate "solution" for several reasons:
 
--Bayer, even with increased production, will not be able to produce a large enough supply to deal with a massive airborne anthrax attack in the foreseeable future. By allowing other companies to produce generic versions of Cipro, we would have had more of it produced in a shorter period of time, thus increasing our nation's stockpile at a faster rate.
--Bayer lowered its price to the government, but not to the public market. This, of course, means that Bayer will be able to reap huge profits at the expense of the average American. In fact, some experts say that Bayer will probably even make a small profit over the discounted rate to the government.
--Other drug companies were willing to provide generic Cipro, or Cipro-like antibiotics free, in exchange for approval to produce the drugs. Thompson did not take advantage of any of these offers. Beyond the fact that they would have saved the American taxpayer money, the offers, if accepted, would have increased our stockpile to more widely cover the devastating impact of mutliple airborne attacks. 
 
Most importantly, it is worth repeating that Tommy Thompson's action to protect the patent rights of pharmaceutical companies, even when millions of American lives may be at stake, is inexcusable. Read this excerpt from the New York Times article cited above:
 
"With the Bayer deal, the nation will have 120 million Cipro pills in government stockpiles by the end of the year. Mr. Thompson said this is enough for 12 million Americans, but this is true only if each person takes the medicine for only five days. If doses were ever needed for 60 days, or 120 tablets a person, then the stockpile would be adequate for only a million people."
 
If a terrorist were to release a bucket of "weapons grade" anthrax from the top of a building in a major American city, given the right wind conditions, millions of people might potentially need to take Cipro (which is considered the most all-around effective antibiotic against Anthrax). Other Tommy Thompson, no doubt at the behest of the White House, has struck a "deal" that puts Americans at grave risk.
 
Again from the New York Times article:
 
"The Bayer deal on Wednesday included the donation of two million tablets beginning next week. But that offer has been quickly upstaged. Johnson & Johnson (news/quote) announced late on Wednesday that it would provide up to 100 million tablets of its Levaquin free if the F.D.A. approved its use for anthrax. Bristol-Myers Squibb (news/quote) said today that it would provide free Tequin to anyone exposed to anthrax if the F.D.A. approved it for anthrax.
 
Dr. Sandro K. Cinti, a specialist in infectious diseases at the University of Michigan and a member of Michigan's bioterrorism task force, said that Tequin and Levaquin were chemically very similar to Cipro and were considerably newer than Cipro. "They would be at least as effective and possibly more effective," than Cipro, he said."
 
It would be easy for the White House to take an action to protect the American public instead of taking one to protect the patent rights of a pharmaceutical company.
 
A BuzzFlash Editorial Commentary, 10/27

 (Top)
The high price of Cipro

THE HIGH PRICE OF CIPRO Today, a 60-day supply of Cipro, the anthrax-fighting antibiotic made by Bayer, would cost you just under $700. A 60-day supply of generic ciprofloxacin would cost you only about $20 overseas, according to Rep. Marion Berry (D-AR), the only pharmacist in Congress. But you can’t buy generic Cipro in the U.S. until 2003, when Bayer’s exclusive patent expires, and the Bush Administration has made clear in recent days that it has no intention of invoking its power to override the company’s monopoly. In India, a 500 mg tablet of ciprofloxacin sells for about five rupees, or ten cents. Here, Bayer’s wholesale price is $4.67 a pill. As a bulk purchaser, the U.S. government pays Bayer a “best price” of $1.83. In Canada, the same pill costs $1.25.

Shocked at the differences? You shouldn’t be. In 2000, the ten biggest pharmaceutical companies made $27 billion in profits, once again making the industry the most profitable in the country. Americans pay anywhere from 30 to 50 percent more for prescription drugs than do their counterparts in Europe, Canada and Mexico.
 
Most countries have laws preventing price gouging by drug makers. Meanwhile here in America not only are the pharmaceutical companies allowed to charge as much as the market will bear no matter what crisis the nation may be facing, federal law also protects them from competition from cheaper products sold overseas. We can import as much beef, beer, wine and cheese as we like, but under current law the FDA will not allow Americans to import anything more than a 90-day supply of medications for personal use only.
 
On July 12, 2001, the House of Representatives debated and voted on an amendment to the agriculture appropriations bill sponsored by Rep. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Berry that would have allowed American wholesalers and pharmacies to import FDA-approved American-made drugs that are sold overseas. Given the price differential, such a change could save American consumers $30 billion a year or more. Their amendment was supported by a coalition of consumer and health groups, with a few unions signing on as well. After a hurried one-hour of debate, it was defeated 269 to 157. Members who voted to protect the pharmaceutical industry from competition received, on average, over three times as much in campaign contributions from that lobby in 1999-2000, than did members who voted the other way--$9,000 to $2,800. The industry doubled its giving between 1996 and 2000 to more than $26 million, with two-thirds going to Republicans.
 
Now that there’s an emergency demand for Cipro, Bayer is fighting the efforts of other companies who want to supply generic versions of it. While it has stepped up its own production of the drug, it will take Bayer 20 months, working 24 hours a day, to meet the U.S. government’s target of a 60-day supply for 12 million people. Five generics makers that have preliminary approval to make Cipro once Bayer’s patent expires say they could jointly reach that total in three months.
 
In Canada, the government has decided to override Bayer’s Cipro patent, citing a national emergency. But so far, Bayer doesn’t have to worry about the Bush Administration taking a similar step. As the New York Times reported, “Two of the president's cabinet members are former drug company executives. Mitch Daniels, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, was a top executive at Eli Lilly, while Donald H. Rumsfeld, the secretary of defense, ran Searle, now Pharmacia, from 1977 to 1985.” More recently Rumsfeld also served on the board of Amylin Pharmaceuticals. President George W. Bush is the industry’s second favorite politician, receiving $472,333 from pharmaceuticals for his presidential campaign. 

***************************
 
OUCH! is a regular e-mail bulletin on how private money in politics hurts average citizens, published by Public Campaign, a non-partisan, non-profit organization devoted to comprehensive campaign finance reform. Every day, we pay more as consumers and taxpayers for special interest subsidies and boondoggles because of our system of privately financed elections. It's time for a change.
 
Help spread the word! Send copies of this message to your friends and join the growing movement for real campaign finance reform. If you would like to add yourself to the OUCH! listserv, send an e-mail reading ‘subscribe’ to ouch-request@ouch.org or go to OUCH!

(posted by kristinilouisi, 10/25)

 (Top) 

reasons for Anthrax panic & cure (english)
by Len Horowitz 3:51pm Mon Oct 15 '01

from indymedia
This guy thinks the news media are in collusion with the pharmaceutical industry in creating this anthrax scare in order, for one thing, to promote Cipro antibiotics.

This guy Len Horowitz thinks the news media are in collusion with the pharmaceutical industry in creating this anthrax scare in order, for one thing, to promote Cipro antibiotics. He said (on the radio) that a 2-month supply of "penicillin G" works just as well and costs $20 compared to $700 for Cipro. Other antibiotics work just as well or better also, in fact Cipro has not been tested as a treatment for anthrax at all.

-----------------
this letter to an FBI agent in Idaho is from his website at http://tetrahedron.org/articles/anthrax/letter_to_fbi.html

Mr. Kevin Dunton
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
250 Northwest Blvd.
Ste 200
Coeur D'Alene, Idaho 83814 October 1, 2001
fax: 208-665-2525


Dear Mr. Dunton:

I am reaching out to you as a patriotic American, a loving human being seeking world peace, and a Harvard graduate independent investigator with expertise in the fields of behavioral science, biological warfare, and biochemical terrorism. I relay this information in the hope that it will prompt you, and other FBI officials, to critically examine what I believe is legitimate intelligence bearing on global efforts to fight terrorism. May what I share herein lead to important discoveries regarding the recent terrorist attacks on America, prevent future attacks, and deter escalating global warfare.

I understand that the FBI is currently investigating terrorist group financing, and the likelihood that individuals and organizations with advanced knowledge concerning the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on America "shorted" certain stocks and commodities for profit, akin to "inside trading." You are likely familiar with the concept of "wagging the dog" to advance political policies and gain profit. I also know that you are familiar with neo-Nazi organizations operating in the United States, particularly in the northern Idaho area, and their possible involvements in acts of domestic, and international, terrorism. Given this introduction, what follows is evidence strongly suggesting the urgent need to investigate three organizations for leads concerning the funding of global terrorists. The primary suspect is the Bayer Corporation.

Last week, based on a report by ABC News, and previous unprecedented actions by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that were likely influenced by industry lobbyists, ABC was caught "wagging the dog" for Bayer engaged in price gouging panicked American's seeking protection against anthrax. Besides this being of relevance to the FBI's ongoing terrorism investigation as I explain below, this should be investigated as a conspiracy to commit fraud against the U.S. Government and the hundreds of thousands of Americans induced to buy the antibiotic Cipro through such manipulative methods.

According to ABC News (Thursday, Sept. 27), sales of Bayer's antibiotic Cipro have skyrocketed 1,000 percent from fears of anthrax retaliations in "America's New War." Anchorman Peter Jennings reported anxious consumers spending an outrageous $700 per person for a mere two-month supply. Two month supplies of other antibiotics regarded safe and effective against anthrax, and traditionally recommended by experts, are available for as little as $20 at farm feed stores.

Black's Law Dictionary includes within its definition of fraud, "a concealment of a material fact to induce another to act to his or her injury." Peter Jennings heralded ABC's special story the preceding evening by saying, "Preparing for a possible anthrax attack. We're going through these fears, one by one, day by day. Good night." In this context, ABC's special segment on anthrax and Cipro sales may be seen as a form of "white collar bioterrorism." Through this savvy and fraudulent form of drug promotion, consumers are being disadvantaged, over-charged, and placed at risk of injury from the potentially dangerous side effects of an antibiotic that offers no significant advantage over less costly alternatives for anthrax.

The Bayer Corporation maintains several serious skeletons in its corporate closet. In my thirteenth book, Death in the Air: Globalism, Terrorism and Toxic Warfare (Tetrahedron Publishing Group; 1-888-508-4787), released in June, 2001, I examine a small number of multinational corporations, including Bayer, that have historically sponsored fear, espionage, and even terrorist campaigns for profit and global domination. Besides being found guilty of transmitting the AIDS-virus, HIV, through contaminated blood products to thousands of trusting consumers during the early 1980s, Bayer was blacklisted by the U.S.Government during, and shortly after, World War II. The OSS and CIA learned that Bayer maintained intimate ties to the German chemical/pharmaceutical cartel known as I.G. Farben. This consortium produced the earliest pesticides, drugs, and war gasses, including Zyclone B used in concentration camp gas chambers. According to the first CIA director Allen W. Dulles, as reported by CBS News war correspondent Paul Manning, the Farben cartel provided the chief economic and industrial engines behind the rise of the Third Reich and Hitler.

The Bayer Company evaded U.S. Government controls during and following the holocaust in which millions of mostly Jewish people were used as experimental subjects in medical atrocities overseen by I.G. Farben's president Hermann Schmitz, who also directed the German-multinational Bayer A.G.

Of urgent pertinence to the FBI's current investigation into terrorism's money trail, a recent investigation into terrorist group funding, issued by The Oklahoma Bombing Investigation Committee (OBIC) directed by Representative Charles Key, found "Neo-Nazi figures have actually been implicated in Middle Eastern special weapons procurement and terrorist activity." For example, the group reported, "since the 1960s, an old Swiss Nazi named Francois Genaud has reportedly masterminded several airplane hijackings for the PLO." The now defunct "Odessa" organization, the post-war successor to Hitler's S.S., according to OBIC, "had numerous documented meetings with representatives of various Arab organizations; and, during the early 1980s, a Neo-Nazi named Odfried Hepp attacked several U.S. military installations in Germany with bombs. Hepp was later found to have been financed by Al Fatah." Hepp, OBIC reported, did his Ph.D. on "Neo-Nazi/PLO bombings of U.S. housing, cars and military facilities in Germany." Given these facts alone, an FBI investigation into this matter is critical.

I am also contacting congressional leaders at this time urging an immediate U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) investigation into the FDA's "advisory committee" that sponsored the unprecedented sole endorsement of Bayer's Cipro for anthrax. Nowhere in the Physician's Desk Reference (2000) is it claimed that Cipro is especially indicated for anthrax. In fact, Bacillus anthracis is not even mentioned. What is mentioned is that, "although effective in clinical trials, ciprofloxacin is not a drug of first choice in the treatment of presumed or confirmed pneumonia secondary to Streptococcus pneumoniae." This organism, like anthrax, is an aerobic gram-positive microbe. (Likewise, Bacillus anthracis causes pneumonia in the form of commonly terminal hemorrhagic bronchopneumonia.) Furthermore the PDR states: "WARNINGS-THE SAFETY AND EFFECTIVENESS OF CIPROFLOXACIN IN PEDIATRIC PATIENTS AND ADOLESCENTS (LESS THAN 18 YEARS OF AGE), PREGNANT WOMEN, AND LACTATING WOMEN HAVE NOT BEEN ESTABLISHED." Alternatively, numerous bioweapons experts have consistently recommended far less costly and time-tested antibiotics to fight anthrax, including the natural and synthetic penicillins, erythromycin, cephalosporins, and the tetracyclines.

This knowledge is consistent with the published works of pharmacist and attorney, Dr. Lawrence J. Joyce, also an expert in biological warfare with training at the U.S. Army's Dugway Proving Grounds. Dr. Joyce advised that in the event of a required emergency response to anthrax, "the choice of therapy should simply depend on the availability of each antibiotic." He also advised consumers, in advance of an emergency, to spend as little as $20 to purchase such antibiotics at their nearest farm feed and veterinary stores. A complete list of alternative antibiotics and instructions for the general public for anthrax preparedness is currently listed on my affiliated website at http://www.tetrahedron.org.

Any advantages Bayer's product could conceivable offer over these other trusted antibiotics, could not be worth Cipro's extraordinary $700 cost. The U.S. government, in stockpiling this drug following the advisory committee's report, and consumers nationwide obviously frightened into a drug-demanding frenzy, have been royally bilked by this historically untrustworthy multinational company.

Given our current urgent concerns regarding terrorism, drug industry officials whose economic motives clearly conflict with U.S. national security interests, and the health and safety of all Americans, should be investigated forthwith. Given the Bayer Company's infamy and possible financial links to contemporary neo-Nazi and terrorist organizations, ABC, Bayer, and the FDA's "advisory committee" should be investigated by the FBI along with other leads regarding the September 11, 2001 attacks. For all we know, inside traders in these organizations may be funding contemporary terrorist groups in support of industrial espionage operations and global conflict.

This would be textbook Machiavellian theory in practice. That is, create the political problems, fear, and associated financial opportunities, and create the solutions-costly and risky products and services for profit, regardless of the lives lost.

Please provide me with a written response to this urgent request and shared intelligence as soon as possible.

Yours in the Spirit of health and world peace,

Leonard G. Horowitz, D.M.D., M.A., M.P.H.
President, Tetrahedron Publishing Group

Cc: Members of the U.S. Congress,
Allied peace organizations and the news media.

tetrahedron.org/articles/anthrax/letter_...


Info:     email info@whitecloud.com

[Dig]

Alex Constantine
PROJECT ANTHRAX V
Sun Feb 20, 2005 01:43
http://www.apfn.net/MESSAGEBOARD/02-19-05/discussion.cgi.87.html

 
PROJECT ANTHRAX V
By Alex Constantine

"You simply don't develop a new hyper-weaponized strain of anthrax
powder for military defense, and then commission the top U.S. anthrax
expert to report on this new weapon's capability and lethality from
mailed delivery, unless that's how you foresee it being used." - Ingri Cassel, director, National Vaccination Liberation Association


The "conservative" corporatists in the 911 loop derive a childlike thrill
from their weaponized anthrax stockpiles.

A "new and highly lethal strain" was produced in advance of 911, a
nameless Pentagon general told the New York Times in September 2001. He
mentioned something called Operation Jefferson.1

What was "Operation Jefferson?" Before the anthrax mailings, William
Patrick went to work at the Battelle Memorial Institute (BMI). Patrick
holds five classified patents in the manufacture of weapons-grade
anthrax. BMI - a contractual partner of BioPort - hired him to conduct a
risk-assessment study involving the dissemination of anthrax powder
through the mail system.2 BMI is located in West Jefferson, Ohio. The
work was done at the BL-3 Anthrax Lab.3

Battelle had exclusive control of the Ames strain, a fact the press has
not made clear. It's true that Dugway Proving Ground had an anthrax
program of its own, as reported, but Battelle directed that program as
well.

This narrows it down quite a bit... The FBI was drawn straight to
William Patrick III - Stephen Hatfill's "mentor" at Ft. Detrick - and
Ken Alibeck, a BMI consultant with a background in CBW research for the
Soviets.4

One independent Internet news site reports that the FBI investigated
"the possibility that financial gain was the motive behind the anthrax
mailings." Two federal laboratories were searched, BMI and Dugway, but
"a contradictory announcement was relayed the same day (December 21,
2001) by Ohio Senator Mike DeWine. Based on an ABC News report
concerning a BMI employee who had been under FBI investigation for an
anthrax threat, FBI Director Robert Mueller had, according to The
Dispatch, assured Senator DeWine that the bureau was not investigating,
nor intending to investigate, anyone with, or formerly with, BMI."5

Case closed. The FBI's stalling perplexed reporters assigned to the
story. George Monbiot wrote in the Guardian in May 2002: "Last week, I
phoned the FBI. Why, I asked, when the evidence was so abundant, did the
trail appear to have gone cold? `The investigation is continuing,' the
spokesman replied. `Has it gone cold because it has led you to a
government office?' I asked. He put down the phone." Had the FBI
spokesman remained on the line, there were any number of related
outrages he might have explained: "The army's development of weaponized
anthrax [the processed Ames strain], for example, directly contravenes
both the biological weapons convention and domestic law. So does its
plan to test live microbes in `aerosol chambers' at the Edgewood
Chemical Biological Center, also in Maryland. So does its development of
a genetically modified fungus for attacking coca crops in Colombia, and
GM bacteria for destroying materials belonging to enemy forces. These,
as the research group Project Sunshine has discovered, appear to be just
a tiny sample of the illegal offensive biological research programmes
which the US government has secretly funded..."6

Some of the government's anthrax has been weaponized, kills effectively
but is otherwise useless. It is also illegal. Ingri Cassel, director of
the National Vaccination Liberation Association, points out that
vaccines "are developed to help guard against pre-existing threats."
Ames was processed illegally, "apparently for offensive military uses,
sabotage, and even terrorism. You simply don't develop a new
hyper-weaponized strain of anthrax powder for military defense ... and
then commission the top U.S. anthrax expert [William C. Patrick, III] to
report on this new weapon's capability and lethality from mailed
delivery, unless that's how you foresee it being used."7

Once the anthrax was weaponized - milled and capable of airborne
transmission - BMI ran a classified test in the Nevada desert. This was
in early September 2001. It was reported that Patrick's study on mailing
anthrax was instrumental to the test.

Was Stephen Hatfill recruited for the next phase of "testing?" This
appears to be the case and explains the FBI's capricious explanations to
the press: "Operation Jefferson" is a federally-sanctioned covert
operation that would have never come to light had it not been for the
doggedness of independent journalists and the scientific community.

Wayne Madsen points to past bio-warfare studies: "In 1957, at the Dugway
Proving Grounds in Utah, the Q-Fever toxin was discharged by an airborne
F-100A plane. If a more potent dose had been used, the Army concluded 99
per cent of the humans in the area would have been infected. In the
1960s, conscientious objecting Seventh Day Adventists, serving in
non-combat positions in the Army, were exposed to airborne
tularemia..."8

The West Nile outbreak and the anthrax mailings began with the 1998
BioVax meeting held in the Truman Room of the White House, attended by
SAIC's Jerry Hauer and William Patrick. Another participant at the
meeting was William Cohen, who, as a Republican Senator, signed off on
the heavily-spun Cheney-Hamilton Iran-contra report. In 2004, he was
elected to the American International Group's (AIG) Board of Directors.

AIG is part owner of Kroll Associates, the infamous private security
firm. Kroll - run by former CIA, FBI, British secret service, Scotland
Yard and British Special Air Service agents - was once known as the CIA
of Wall Street because the firm did everything from corporate espionage
to the training of foreign armies. A Kroll partner provides
counter-terrorism instruction in Saudi Arabia.

Cohen is also a member of the Center for Strategic and International
Studies, the Cold War propaganda mill and ultracon academic base of Ray
Cline, John Hamre, Admiral Crowe, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Kenneth Langone,
Henry Kissinger and others central to 911 and subsequent profiteering
through privatization.

Another attendee "of interest" at the 1998 Truman Room conference was
Thomas Monath, former chief of the virology division at the SAIC-USAMIID
facility at Ft. Detrick, and VP/chief scientific officer at BioVax,
since renamed Acimbis.

Monath was a friend of Stephen Hatfill's. He was introduced to Rudolph
Giuliani by Jerry Hauer, SAIC scientist and president of Rockefeller
University - the fruits of this relationship were the aerial spraying of
malathion, resmethrin or sumithrin in the New York City area.9
Nevertheless, the mosquito-borne disease has spread across the country.

The anthrax scourge also recurs from time to time. An increasingly
feasible theory for the origin of Gulf War Syndrome is military
experimentation with anthrax vaccines. Were the following incidents
further "tests" of anthrax delivery systems by the "counter-terrorists"
at SAIC-Ft. Detrick? ...

A) Exposure at a children's hospital blamed on an "accidental" shipment
of live spores from the Southern Research Institute in Frederick,
Maryland. BioPort director David Franz comes from SRI (a leading
producer of depleted uranium):

http://www.nvo.com/shildtfinancial/sv003data/view.nhtml?profile=
sv003data&UI D=12056

Researchers Exposed To Anthrax Health Highlights June 7 to June 13, 2004

A possible shipping mistake in late May resulted in at least half a
dozen researchers at Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute
being exposed to live anthrax.

Some of the researchers, working on an anthrax vaccine, handled the live
anthrax bacterium and others were present at the time. So far, none have
shown any signs of illness. Seven of the workers are taking the
antibiotic Cipro as a precautionary measure, the Oakland Tribune
reported.

State health officials said there is no risk to other staff or residents
living in the area.

The researchers believed they were handling a dead sample of the anthrax
bacterium. However, according to hospital officials, the researchers
were mistakenly sent live anthrax by the supplier, Southern Research
Institute of Frederick, Md.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is investigating the
incident.


B) Anthrax-Contaminated Heroin

Anthrax clue to heroin deaths Times of London May 18 2000 By Helen
Rumbelow, medical reporter

ANTHRAX, a virulent disease used as a biological weapon, could be
responsible for a spate of deaths among heroin addicts in Scotland, it
was disclosed yesterday.

Ten heroin users in Glasgow and one in Aberdeen have died of a
mysterious illness in the past three weeks, which led scientists, who
had heard of a similar death in Oslo, to send the victims' blood samples
to Porton Down, the biological defence laboratory.

Two of the five tested so far have shown low levels of antibodies to
anthrax, suggesting that the addicts were exposed to the disease through
a contaminated heroin supply.

Although the results are not conclusive, experts are carrying out tests
on the others who died and on nine more heroin addicts who have come
down with the illness. One survivor still has the black scab that is
typical of localised anthrax infection.

David Goldberg, deputy director of the Scottish Centre for Infection and
Environmental Health in Glasgow, said that tests were also being made
for anthrax spores on heroin batches seized by police in the city.
Meanwhile users were being advised to smoke the drug rather than inject
it, and especially not to inject into the muscle.

He believes that the weak results in the anthrax test may be because all
the victims were treated with antibiotics before their samples were
taken.

--------------------------
NOTES

1.) Nick Papadimitriou, "Anthrax Attacks Linked to CIA and Drug
Industry?" Institute of Science in Society (UK), February 14, 2002.
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/isisnews/i-sisnews13-12.php

2) Ibid.

3) Bob Fitrakis, "Battelle Exposed In Anthrax Biochemical Conspiracy,"
FreePress.org, January 14, 2002.

4) Ibid.

5) Anon., "FBI Implicated in Anthrax Mailings Cover-up."
http://www.worldnewsstand.net/news/anthrax.htm

6) George Monbiot, "Riddle of the spores: Why has the FBI investigation
into the anthrax attacks stalled?" Guardian, May 21, 2002.

7) Ingri Cassel, "Public Health Expert Says Solving The Anthrax Mailing
Mystery May Be Easy: FBI Doesn't Seem Interested," NVLA press release,
Nov. 12, 2001. http://www.tetrahedron.org/news/NR011112.html

Wayne Madsen, "Thinking The Unthinkable," CounterPunch.org, April 8,
2002.

9) See,
http://www.democraticunderground.com/cgi-bin/duforum/duboard.cgi?az=
printer_ format&om=5074&forum=DCForumID43

**************************

[chris jones]

S. You did it again.

The true enemy lies within our borders, those who use these minions to further their plans may be of foreign orgin, but the goal is global.

I had been under the assumption that I had seen it all, I renig on that statement. These individuals go beyond the depths of evil, there is no word for the depths of insanity they have groveled to.

May their conscience awaken, become a physical entity and suck their brains out.

[jimd3100]

The headline reads....

"New Details Show Anthrax Suspect Away On Key Day"

"But the information was not included in documents released Wednesday by the Justice Department to support FBI suspicions that Ivins, acting on his own, pulled off the worst bioterrorism attack in U.S. history."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/07/AR200808...

And I am about to show you why this evidence was not included....because it's actually evidence that he didn't mail the letter but once again the press is being used to manipulate you.

"Sunday, Sept. 16, signing out at 9:52 p.m. after two hours and 15 minutes. The next morning, the sources said, he showed up as usual  but stayed only briefly before taking leave hours. Authorities assume that he drove to Princeton immediately after that, dropping the letters in a mailbox on a well-traveled street across from the university campus. Ivins would have had to have left quickly to return for an appointment in the early evening, about 4 or 5 p.m."

This is actual proof that it is impossible that he could have mailed the letter this way. They just admitted that he had an appointment at around 4 or 5 pm, and that he made that appointment. Which means if he had done what was just described to you the letter would have been deposited before 5 pm on the 17th and then would have been postmarked Sept 17th. It wasn't. It was postmarked Sept 18th. Meaning that the letter was not deposited into the collection box at this time.

There is zero evidence he mailed the letter. No toll records no gas receipts no images on video cams nothing. Just proof he made an appointment and is extremely unlikely he could have been at the collection box at the time required.

As you can see from the FBI Documents presenting their case on page 9 are the times they believe he could have made his anthrax, before mailing it. You have to believe that Dr Ivins is so gifted that he was able to make this powerful anthrax all by himself in 6 hours and 45 minutes. A look at the documents on page 9/33 show him after hours in his lab for 2 hours 15 minutes for 3 days in a row. This is the only time he could have made this anthrax.
http://www.usdoj.gov/amerithrax/docs/07-524-m-01.pdf

You must believe he made this anthrax by himself in 6 hours and 45 minutes. Do you believe it? You are no expert. You "trust" the FBI. Well, here's some more reasons why you shouldn't. I'm not an expert either, but Barbara Hatch Rosenberg, Federation of American Scientists is, and here is her Analysis as an expert........"There was only one week between Sept 11 and Sept 18, when the first two letters (and probably another letter, never found, to AMI) were postmarked. This suggests that the anthrax was already in hand, and the attack largely planned, before Sept 11."http://911review.org/Wget/www.fas.org/bwc/news/anthraxreport.htm

Why does she say that? Because another expert says this....

"In my opinion, there are maybe four or five people in the whole country who might be able to make this stuff, and I'm one of them," said Richard O. Spertzel, chief biological inspector for the U.N. Special Commission from 1994 to 1998. "And even with a good lab and staff to help run it, it might take me a year to come up with a product as good."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A28334-2002Oct27?language=printer

Dr Ivins you are supposed to believe, then went to work on the batch of anthrax that was sent on Oct 9 2001 and it took him around 15 hours to make that according to the times mentioned on page 10/33 of the FBI documents.
http://www.usdoj.gov/amerithrax/docs/07-524-m-01.pdf

Not possible according to the experts. No evidence that he made weaponized anthrax and no evidence he mailed the letters. The evidence actually goes against it.

It is pointed out that recent DNA testing proved the anthrax originally came from his samples. Well, it has been known almost from the start that the anthrax was the Ames strain and kept at Ft Detrick. This is not new. But it was also sent out to several other labs. And hundreds of people had access to it. Here is some more expert testimony, that the FBI had the good luck to not have to face in court since their "suspect" is dead.

"Bioweapons experts said they were unimpressed by the government's description of the DNA link between the anthrax in the letters and spores in a flask in Ivins's lab." "There is not enough scientific information to make an evaluation of the science the FBI used in this investigation," said Tara O'Toole, who heads the Center for Biosecurity at the University of Pittsburgh." "But the officials also acknowledged that 15 other labs had the same strain, known as RMR-1029. How, O'Toole asked, were investigators able to rule out other labs, as well as other workers with access to the bacteria?"http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/07/AR2008080703443_2.html?nav=rss_nation&sid=ST2008080703559&s_pos==

Then we have handwriting analysis which can't link Ivins with the letters....

...."Another missing link was the bureau's inability to match Ivins's handwriting with the primitive block print of the letters used in the anthrax mailings. In dealing with at least one earlier "person of interest" in the case, the FBI's handwriting experts in Quantico worked with outside consultants to try to match handwriting samples taken in property searches.

But authorities, who acknowledged seizing 68 handwritten letters to members of Congress and the news media from Ivins's property, said they could not make a specific identification"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/07/AR2008080703443_2.html?nav=rss_nation&sid=ST2008080703559&s_pos=

Then we have the fact that Ivins passed polygraph tests......

......"WND has learned that the FBI was so frustrated with the exam results that last October authorities asked a judge for permission to search Ivins' home and vehicles specifically for evidence of any materials, such as books, that would have helped him "defeat a polygraph."
http://wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=71721

Weaponized anthrax has never been made where Ivins worked. There is no evidence he or anyone else ever made weaponized anthrax there. So where could it come from. I think a logical place would be where weaponized anthrax has been made before. From the same strain.

"Dugway, which is assisting the FBI in its investigation, is the US army's main testing station and has been able to produce the powdered form of anthrax since 1992."

"The FBI said that no individual associated with Dugway was being investigated. The anthrax sent by mail is a type known as the Ames strain, but its characteristics are such that it could have come from many potential sources, including Dugway."
http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/12-14-2001-8632.asp

And when Dugway makes this weaponized anthrax which BTW was a secret until the anthrax attacks....how much does it make when they make a batch?

"For nearly a decade, U.S. Army scientists at Dugway Proving Ground in Utah have made small quantities of weapons-grade anthrax that is virtually identical to the powdery spores used in the mail attacks that have killed five people, government sources say."

"Dugway's production of weapons-grade anthrax, which has never before been publicly revealed, is apparently the first by the U.S. government since President Richard M. Nixon ordered the U.S. offensive biowarfare program closed in 1969."

"Dugway's Life Sciences Division makes the deadly spores in far, far smaller quantities, rarely accumulating more than 10 grams at a time, according to one Army official."http://www.ph.ucla.edu/EPI/bioter/anthraxmatchesarmyspores.html

How much anthrax was mailed during the attacks?

"It has been estimated that the perpetrator used a total of about 10 grams in the letters."
http://911review.org/Wget/www.fas.org/bwc/news/anthraxreport.htm

Probably murdered. He died a slow death. Took too much Tylenol and died of Acetaminophen poisoning.

"About 1:15 a.m. Sunday, Emergency Communications received a medical emergency call from Ivins’ Military Road home, said Lt. Shawn Martyak of the Frederick Police Department. Officials found Ivins unresponsive on the floor in a room in his home.

At the time when officers were called to the home, there was nothing to indicate it was a suicide, he said."
http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/news/display.htm?storyID=78270

On July 24, he was released from the facility, operated by Sheppard Pratt Health System.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-anthrax1-2008aug01,0,2864223.story?page=2

On the morning of July 27, Ivins was found unconscious at his home. He was taken to Frederick Memorial Hospital and died on July 29, 2008 from an overdose of acetominophen with codeine.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Edwards_Ivins#Death

You may remain symptom free for up to 24 hours after taking a toxic overdose of acetaminophen.

After this initial period, the following symptoms are common:

Nausea
Vomiting
Not feeling well
Not able to eat or poor appetite
Abdominal pain"http://www.emedicinehealth.com/acetaminophen_tylenol_poisoning/page3_em.htm

"The toxic effects of acetaminophen are often seen 2-4 days after ingestion and blood levels may not be extremely high at time of death."
http://72.14.205.104/search?q=cache:FEzKM4z7pq0J:path.upmc.edu/cases/case407/dx.html+acetaminophen+suicide&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=14&gl=us

[jimd3100]

What they did to this man is so disgusting it's beyond words. I could write up a great big post detailing how outrageous this whole case is. But frankly, what's the point? Other than a few brain dead sheeple, does anybody actually believe he's guilty? All the evidence the FBI said it had on him is actually evidence that he did not do it! This would have never gone to court! What could be the most outrageous aspect of this and what seems to have convinced the few sheeple that he did it, is the "mad scientist" smear.

When he was forced by the FEDS into a mental hospital for 2 weeks(they can't keep you longer unless the staff is convinced you're a loon) On the day he got out the FEDS had his "therapist" write a restraining order...you know, as proof he's a "mad scientist". This "therapist" who came out of nowhere and has gone back into the void she came from after writing in her own hand how he's always been a loon since his college days..... (gee....I guess that explains his top secret clearance he's had for 30 years and why he's allowed to work on anthrax). It doesn't explain how she knows he will be charged with murder even before a grand jury gets to make that decision, but since the FBI was sitting next to her as she wrote it, I'd take that as a hint of who she is working for.  Of course this is all made up shit backed up by nothing.....well, nothing except the fact that this "therapist" can't even spell the word therapist. Yea, that's right.......folks let this be a warning to you...if your therapist can't even spell the word.....they are a fraud and you need to run away.....fast.
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2008/0801081anthrax2.html