Posted on 07/20/2004 7:51:05 PM PDT by Shermy
July 20, 2004 — FBI agents returned to search the U.S. Army's biological weapons labs at Fort Detrick, Md., as part of a last-ditch effort by the bureau to make a case in the 2001 anthrax attacks, federal officials tell ABC News.
The FBI has set a self-imposed Oct. 1 deadline for its agents to build a case that will stand up in court, officials said.
After matching the anthrax used in the deadly attacks with anthrax at the Army facility, investigators now hope to further narrow the hunt among the hundreds of researchers who have worked at the Fort Detrick labs, sources tell ABC News.
The labs at Fort Detrick were once the workplace of former government weapons scientist Dr. Steven Hatfill, who has been called a "person of interest" in the case.
Hatfill has repeatedly and strongly denied any involvement.
According to federal officials, the FBI has essentially taken over the so-called "hot zone suites," where work with infectious substances is conducted.
A team of more than 20 agents have been at the base since last Friday, focused on labs in two buildings, officials told ABC News.
"[They're] trying to see if there are any spores in the environment, spores that might have been released while somebody was theoretically making anthrax," said Jerry Hauer, an expert on biological and chemical terrorism and director of public health preparedness at the Department of Health and Human Services.
Close to Making a Case?
Almost three years have lapsed since letters containing anthrax were sent to the U.S. Senate and several news organizations. As a result, five people died and 17 others were poisoned.
Scientists say anthrax spores could survive for as long as 50 years and that this week's search holds the possibility of producing new evidence.
No one has ever been charged in the case.
But a former federal official says Hatfill remains the focus of the investigation.
"I think they're very close to making a case but as they say, that last five yards is often the most difficult to get," said Hauer, who is an ABC News consultant.
Earlier this year, Hatfill sued the government for targeting him, but a federal judge put the case on hold until Oct. l, after officials said the case was at a critical juncture.
That date now serves as the deadline for the FBI to make a case against Hatfill or get off his back.
Ping.
Doesn't make a lot of sense.
Ping.
Doesn't make a lot of sense because we didn't have the milling capability used in the Anthrax attack. But, if you browse at Kay's Iraqi WMD report, they were into the refined milling big time. It stood out like a sore thumb.
You mean why would the Feds would decide the Anthrax case is over by October, on the basis of a court date in a civil law suit?
It does make sense.
Feds have decided to call the case unprosecutable despite their best efforts. Hatfill is the fall guy, as evidenced by the latest dog and pony show at Ft. Detrick. They've invested to much in Project Hatfill to say they were wrong and mislead. They will leak innuendo about Hatfill. Remember, back in 2002 they also floated the "it's him, we can't prove it" theory. Looks like it will be repeated.
BTW, the timing is perfect. The announcement will be lost amidst the noise of the presidential campaign.
Depends how much Senator Daschle and Leahy want to push it.
Or this story could be just chaff, trying to scare Hatfill into some small money settlement and agreement to shut up forever about it.
Yeah, "matching". What does that mean? Just "strain" If they had the real DNA proof linking to Detrick, they'd be screaming it from the montaintops.
According to federal officials, the FBI has essentially taken over the so-called "hot zone suites," where work with infectious substances is conducted.
Just part of the show, folks. Did the same thing two years ago, and maybe moer than once before.
"[They're] trying to see if there are any spores in the environment, spores that might have been released while somebody was theoretically making anthrax," said Jerry Hauer, an expert on biological and chemical terrorism and director of public health preparedness at the Department of Health and Human Services.
"Making anthrax." Weasel words. Dumbed down science in preparation for a "final conclusion" that's plausible for most of the public.
BTW, maybe they do know the germs came from that fort, at least some time in the past.
Much of the last two years has been devoted to developing (as none had ever really been done before), and then performing, incredibly detailed DNA tests on the Anthrax to narrow it to a specific lab of origin.
I suspect the tests actually did narrow it to Ft. Detrick and hence that's why the closing off of labs now.
And while the target may not necessarily be Hatfill, I think the desire for an air-tight case may be that the suspect or suspects are non-ethnic, non-Muslim Americans; take an average jury, and if the defendant is either middle-eastern or muslim or foreign, and I think they win a circumstantial case easily; but to get a conviction, with an average jury, of a guy who isn't, and I think it will have to be a massive, airtight case.
There's vast amounts of nonsense out there regarding the technical aspects of the anthrax attacks, much of it by people who really don't know what they're talking about, and the number of people who do is really very, very tiny.
There's nothing about any of the anthrax that the United States or someone at a lab here "doesn't have the capability" for.
Maybe. But earlier articles, even recent ones, mentioned testing germs from here and overseas.
This story is too simple. If the tests actually narrowed it down to only Detrick, I believe they would trumpet the finding loudly. Would help insinuate Hatfill to the more knowledgeable followers of the - inculding the outspoken scientist critics.
Oh, he's the target, I would guess. They might file some lame case against him to save face - and gain leverage on Hatfill's $$$ claims.
They would have to build an air tight case because it is implausible on several counts unless there is solid factual evidence they have not leaked as to motive, opportunity, and capability.
Jerry Hauer is either a.) a government shill or b.) very gullible.
Like I've been saying all along, it's almost like the FBI has one or more people in charge of this investigation who are doing anything they can to maintain a coverup.
They've even managed to "get to" the 9/11 Commission which didn't examine the anthrax attack at all!
As Scott Shane points out, the Feds don't even need to plant evidence to indict Hatfill. They're bound to find a few spores that match - since this LAB WAS USED TO STUDY THE FRIGGIN' STUFF AFTER THE FACT!!
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/health/bal-te.anthrax21jul21,1,7905877.story
Closing of lab marks renewed intensity in anthrax probe
'01 case evidence may be goal of Fort Detrick work
By Scott Shane
Sun National Staff
July 21, 2004
FBI anthrax investigators have closed some high-security laboratory suites at the Army's biodefense research center at Fort Detrick, apparently searching for scientific evidence as the third anniversary of the unsolved case approaches.
The temporary shutdown of much-needed lab space at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases marks a notable return of investigators to the Frederick facility where numerous employees were questioned by the FBI in the early months of the investigation. In recent months, FBI agents have seized medical records and computer hard drives from the institute, causing friction with Fort Detrick officials, according to a source in contact with the Army institute's scientists.
Neither the FBI nor the Army would describe the work being done since the labs were closed Friday. But a law enforcement official and a scientist said it has not produced a major breakthrough in the case.
Debra Weierman, a spokeswoman for the FBI's Washington field office, said agents would be at the labs "for a few more days."
Investigators have shut off access to bacteriology labs in the main USAMRIID building and an adjoining building where anthrax research is done or has been done, according to the source. Only caretakers responsible for feeding research animals are being permitted to enter, the source said.
Outside scientists said the agents might be hunting for stray spores of anthrax that match the genetic and chemical signature of the anthrax mailed in September and October 2001. The FBI has said in court papers that it has engaged 19 labs to study the spores in order to trace them back to a particular facility.
Investigators have found that the mailed anthrax consists of a combination of two different samples that form slightly different patterns when the bacteria are grown in the lab, The Sun reported this month. Scientists can use this peculiarity in combination with the genetic fingerprint of the anthrax, isotopes in the water used to grow it and the properties of chemical additives to try to match the powder to its source.
Henry L. Niman, a Pittsburgh molecular biologist who has followed the anthrax case closely, noted that spores of anthrax can survive for centuries in soil, and that spores might linger in a laboratory for years after research was performed there.
"My guess is they'd be vacuuming in all the corners, hoping to find spores that match," Niman said. "If they can show it came from a certain lab, then they can see who had access to that lab."
A possible complication if a match is found at USAMRIID is that its laboratories were used extensively after the anthrax mailings to study the envelopes and their contents. So if matching spores are found, it might be difficult to prove whether they were there before the mailings or spilled during a subsequent examination of the evidence.
Sounding an alarm?
The anthrax letters, which investigators believe were put in a mailbox in Princeton, N.J., were postmarked Sept. 18 and Oct. 9, 2001. They were addressed to two Democratic U.S. senators, Tom Daschle of South Dakota and Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, and to media organizations.
The anthrax killed five people, including two Washington, D.C., postal workers, and sickened at least 17 others, leading to the shutdown of numerous government buildings.
Because the accompanying notes included militant Islamist rhetoric and were mailed in the weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, investigators at first pursued the possibility that al-Qaida might be responsible.
But the notes also warned that the letters contained anthrax and urged recipients to take antibiotics, which investigators believe points to an American more intent on sounding an alarm about bioterrorism than killing large numbers of people.
Since late 2001, the investigation has appeared to focus chiefly on American biodefense laboratories, including USAMRIID, which first identified the Ames strain of anthrax used in the letters and was its main distributor.
Hatfill suit on hold
A biowarfare expert who worked at USAMRIID from 1997 to 1999, Dr. Steven J. Hatfill, was followed for months in 2002 and 2003 by FBI surveillance teams. FBI investigators went to great lengths in their scrutiny of Hatfill, repeatedly searching his former apartment near Fort Detrick, bringing in bloodhounds in an attempt to trace a scent from the letters to him, and draining a pond near Frederick in search of discarded anthrax-making equipment. But since late last year, agents have rarely been seen tailing Hatfill, his acquaintances say.
Last August, Hatfill sued the FBI and Justice Department, alleging that they had wrongly targeted him as the anthrax mailer. The lawsuit has been put on hold until at least October, after the FBI told the judge that it might interfere with the investigation.
This month, Hatfill filed a second lawsuit against the New York Times and one of its columnists, Nicholas D. Kristof, claiming Kristof's columns implied he was the perpetrator.
What makes this so hilarious and absurd is that it's been a known fact for a long time that Hatfill has an ironclad alibi for the entire time period of at least one of the two mailings.
Shane's great.
Perhaps, but considering that Marilyn Thompson thinks that Trent Lott is from Alabama and that the Tuskegee Experiments were done in Georgia, I don't really put much stock in anything she has to say.
No, I most certainly don't. If it was a one-man operation, then there's maybe half a dozen people in America who could have realistically pulled it off, and Steve Hatfill is most definitely not one of them.
What I want to know is how in the world the government could possibly claim they they could ever make a serious case against Hatfill, if they can't prove he mailed the letters, can't prove he was ever in Princeton, and can't prove that anthrax spores existed anywhere in his house, car, or person. Anthrax wasn't even the guy's area of expertise; he was trained as a virologist for God's sake.
It seems to me that all they really have is that he once worked at USAAMRIID and that some dogs barked at him one time. This isn't a "case", it's a joke.
"Documents from the inquiry show that one unauthorized person who was observed entering the lab building at night was Langford's predecessor, Lt. Col. Philip Zack, who at the time no longer worked at Fort Detrick. A surveillance camera recorded Zack being let in at 8:40 p.m. on Jan. 23, 1992, apparently by Dr. Marian Rippy, a lab pathologist and close friend of Zack's, according to a report filed by a security guard."
-- Anthrax Missing From Army Lab, January 20, 2002, By JACK DOLAN And DAVE ALTIMARI, Hartford Courant Staff Writers
Ashcroft's DOJ is now hinting that the 'domestic terrorism' story on the anthrax will be publicly retired shortly before the presidential election. I wouldn't take that threat too seriously; we've been here before, in the run-up to Bush's speech to the U.N., and still the administration pulled its punch at the last minute. It wouldn't surprise me at all if the same thing happens again, and a new line is floated come October. Who'll remember or call them on it? I mean, it's all bullshit, right? We understand that. Anyway, who would want to open that can of worms? No one, right?
Back in 2002, the target of the hint campaign was Saddam Hussein, who was quietly being entreated to take an exile deal. Presumably, the audience this time is John Kerry and the savvier members of his party. The message is: we can change the psychology of this thing in an instant, with a single coup de main. In this, as in other, ways, Kerry and his minions are being warned not to go overboard in exploiting the necessary secrecy over the casis belli for our war with Iraq. Bush has defined the boundaries of the rhetorical sandpit all sides can play in, and he's signaling that, whatever constraints he's under, he's still the boss. Bush controls the horizontal, Bush controls the vertical; he can change the focus from a soft blur, to crystal clarity — all in an instant. Democrats beware.
For those who don't know, TGS was at the center of a hot and long running FR debate over the connections between the anthrax attacks and 9/11. His theory (never really proved or disproved) was that Hussein was behind both 9/11 and the anthrax attacks, that the Administration knows this, that the intention of the anthrax attacks was to warn the Bush Administration that if we went after Hussein for 9/11 he'd retaliate with anthrax, and that Hatfill is a spook who's in on this and part of a government cover story.
Oops, sorry for not bleeping out the profanity in the quote in the previous post...
BTW, do you know if the old bioterrorism ping list is still being used? I haven't seen anything on it in a long time, even though I still follow the issue closely (less now that I know longer work in public health). I expect we'll need a BT list again in the future, sadly.
Honestly, I'm not quite sure what you're getting at.
Sounds more like the whole anthrax story will be retired with innuendo about "domestic" perps. Some FBI floated this similar statement back in late 2002, maybe a Wash Post article.
I think the FBI also think there was more than one person. Which is why nobody cares much whether there is an alibi for the mailing dates.
You think the "FBI" thought this before they figured out Hatfill couldn't have been in New Jersey.
Anyway, here's the latest anthrax story, I remember you talked about "Cereus" before:
Anthrax a major killer in chimpanzee colony
"... A postmortem found widespread bruising of the internal organs and rod-shaped bacteria identified by DNA testing to be Bacillus cereus and Bacillus anthracis, closely-related strains of the anthrax bacterium...."
It's a long story, and you're right it doesn't make sense outside of the context of the theory the blog is devoted to (and which while I find curious I don't necessarily endorse). The angle the writer is pushing is that if you "read between the lines", what DOJ is saying is that October 1 is the drop dead date for formalizing the "domestic terrorist" scenario by bringing a case to court (presumably against Hatfill). And that thus it is also the date by which, if the "domestic terrorist" scenario doesn't come together, DOJ could then put forward a new scenario - such as floating evidence of a connection between the anthrax attacks, foreign terrorists, and even a state sponsor.
It's a long story, and you're right it doesn't make sense outside of the context of the theory the blog is devoted to (and which while I find curious I don't necessarily endorse). The angle the writer is pushing is that if you "read between the lines", what DOJ is saying is that October 1 is the drop dead date for formalizing the "domestic terrorist" scenario by bringing a case to court (presumably against Hatfill). And that thus it is also the date by which, if the "domestic terrorist" scenario doesn't come together, DOJ could then put forward a new scenario - such as floating evidence of a connection between the anthrax attacks, foreign terrorists, and even a state sponsor.
I'm not quite sure where this is coming from either. But wouldn't it be perfect timing for someone to start putting out hints that maybe it was Iran? I doubt they'll formally retire the domestic terrorism story though unless and until they have specific evidence regarding a foreign power that they're willing to go public with.
No doubt about that. It looks as though this whole entire thing got started when the Senate began listening to rumors and gossip from "expert" Barbara Hatch Rosenberg. My guess is that the Senate then leaned hard on the FBI and the Justice Dept. and said "get going on this guy". From there, the rumor mill seemed to take on a life of its own. Rumors and gossip are a lousy way to build a criminal case against someone though.
How the government chooses its "experts" that it does (and doesn't) listen to is a tangential, related issue that would really be worth investigating. It appears as though its based mostly on politics, like everything else in the world seems to be nowadays.
This is all supposition, but I agree that it would be a hoot if rumors/leaks about anthrax started to emerge over the next couple of months. Could be a real wildcard in the election. I agree that the domestic terrorism story won't be retired unless, as you say, the powers that be are willing to go PUBLIC with an alternative. A very big UNLESS, for now at least...
I've had Iran in mind for a long time as a possibility - especially after Iraq was invaded and absolutely nothing happened. Look for someone that the US has been rather careful not to directly confront.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5479438/site/newsweek/
More Evidence of an Iran-Al Qaeda Connection
A top terror operative made a Tehran visit while planning the 9/11 attacks, NEWSWEEK has learned
WEB EXCLUSIVE
By Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball
Newsweek
Updated: 2:59 p.m. ET July 21, 2004
July 21 - Just eight months before the September 11 terror attacks, top conspirator Ramzi bin al-Shibh received a four-week visa to Iran and then flew to Tehran—an apparent stop-off point on his way to meet with Al Qaeda chiefs in Afghanistan, according to law-enforcement documents obtained by NEWSWEEK.
German government documents showing the previously undisclosed trip by bin al-Shibh, a captured Al Qaeda operative who played a crucial coordinating role in the 9/11 plot, is the latest evidence that the World Trade Center conspirators frequently used Iran as a safe transit point in their travels to and from Afghanistan.
The final report of the 9-11 Commission, which is due out tomorrow, contains significant new information about a possible “Iran connection” to the plot, including a U.S. intelligence analysis indicating that Iranian border inspectors were instructed not to stamp the passports of Al Qaeda members entering and exiting their country. Although the information has been known to the U.S. intelligence community for some time, President Bush told reporters this week that the U.S. government was “digging into the facts to determine if there was” a possible Iranian connection to the September 11 attacks.
DOJ-FBI / AFP
Ramzi bin al-Shibh
I guess I was thinking more of something for after the election (which I'm presuming will be Pres. Bush's re-election, placing him in a much stronger position domestically). I don't think more vague WMD stories would help him politically right now. But, after the election demonstrates, to the great surprise of the media, that he has maintained solid public support, I think things will be different.
It's all just a wild guess anyway.
A week ago would you, could you have guessed an ex-Natonal Security Director would repetitively steal documents by stashing them in his socks?
Really, don't guys of that rank have blackmailed insiders or shapeshifting aliens to pull off thefts like that?
Well, that's what I expect from watching movies.
Hey, I've got a better idea: how about building a case against the person(s) who actually did it?
I have a theory about that (about the timing of the Waco raid). Here's the sequence of events:
Just to amplify a few points... (1) Laurie Mylroie argues that the second terror plot was actually a sting - the FBI was running the conspiracy through informant Emad Salem. If you read Peter Lance's Thousand Years for Revenge, you'll find that the defendants at one point attempted a defense of entrapment for this reason. (2) Abdul Basit Karim, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's nephew, is generally believed to be WTC bomber Ramzi Yousef's real identity; it's certainly the identity he used when making his getaway from the USA. Mylroie thinks it's just another false identity, but I disagree with her on that point. (3) Terry Nichols was in the Philippines while Yousef was there, so he may have heard the other side's perspective on this sequence of events in person. He and McVeigh seem to have turned themselves into American auxiliaries in Yousef's "Islamic Army" (an early name for al-Qaeda). (4) Naturally I wonder if the assassination plot in Kuwait even happened. A few people have raised questions about the quality of the evidence, but that always happens and proves nothing.
"The FBI has set a self-imposed Oct. 1 deadline for its agents to build a case that will stand up in court, officials said."
The FBI have already used 1,070 days - they have 25 days left. Will they do it?
What if they don't? Does that mean we still don't get to see the evidence?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.