Posted on 05/28/2011 10:49:31 PM PDT by smokingfrog
I think they want to distract from the conclusions in a recent article of Science magazine that indicated that Ivins could not have produced that type of anthrax; he had neither the knowledge nor the access to the necessary equipment and materials.
The flimsiness of the evidence against him was commented on at the time, but he’s a convenient culprit for the government: white, non-Muslim, middle-aged male. And now, a dead one, at that, so they can say whatever they want about him.
As for his personality, people who knew him and worked with him said there was nothing wrong with him, although certainly scientists are known to have a tendency to be a little on the remote side and not always the most gregarious and outgoing folks.
The only reason to resurrect this story now is to put political blame on Bush/Rumsfled when you can look to Clinton, Cohen and Caldera for this. That tag-team of leftists made this vaccine program what it is and did so out of political motivation to pay back former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Crowe, who in retirement made a fortune off this bad vaccine. There was NO need for the vaccine, it does not work for inhalation Anthrax and is dubious even for cutaneous Anthrax. Its own package insert document had to be re-written by order of a judge because the FDA and the DOD were using its text to continue the lie about it. Oh and gee they were forced to admit it was 175X more reactagenic than they wanted known.
I have refused to take this vaccine and will bever take it. It is the ONLY one I have ever said no to and I have the research to back up why. When you have Sec of the Army (former: Louis Caldera) issuing a letter of indemnification to the company making this crap listing all the very reason why people were against it as reasons for indemnifying the company (only the 2nd in our history) then you have at least the basis for a strong case against it.
I will never forgive Clinton and Co. or all the politicians who KNEW the evidence but did not lift a finger for us. I've over 23 years of service and am still going and I will never forgive what they did.
Interesting
the Veteran’s Day crash in NYC was never openly pinned to terrorism
Then that is the crash into Jamaica Bay, isn’t it?
I never heard the explanation for that, but speculation was that it was a shoe bomber who severed the bydraulic system of the aircraft.
This would mean, if true, the sons-of-bitching government has been sitting on this information all this time!
It would also mean that Richard Reid was not the one and only shoe bomber, which always seemed illogical
If the Bush govt sat on this, then wtf
Still, the whole Hatfill pond incident, with that weird glass box submerged was, as far as I know, never fully explained.
Actually, many of these tests are empirically based and the items have low face value e.g., (MMPI). In addition they have "lie keys" that detect efforts to cheat or fake.
Actually, the field of psychological testing is pretty hitech, fellow redneck.
Mmmm... Interesting.
IIRC, one of the key pieces of evidence against Ivins is that he purposely sent a phony culture sample for analysis instead of a real one from his flask of spores. Once the FBI found out about that he killed himself.
Much evidence suggests that Bruce Ivins prepared the anthrax, but he didn't do it at USAMRIID. It seems that he prepared powdered virulent anthrax at a facility like Southern Research Institute (SRI) in Frederick that presumably had considerably more appropriate equipment than was available at USAMRIID as well as a Biological Safety Level 3 facility. Patricia F. Fellows, Ivins's former close collaborator at USAMRIID who later moved to SRI, appears to have been the only one of his close associates who thought that he was the Mailer--perhaps because she knew that he had had access at SRI to the anthrax that showed up in the letters.
“I myself wonder how he could have gotten hired if he was this crazy...but his crazyness doesn’t seem to make sense here...it would take a bit of time to pull this stunt, which came too soon after 911, and of course there was the anthrax to the National Enquirer and maybe skin anthrax on one of the friends of some terrorists in Florida.”
The most dangerous crazies are the ones that are not obvious. The other thing that is often not realized is that when people leave microbiology labs, their cultures and samples are left behind. Its possible that Ivins didnt need to make the spores, that they were left behind by someone who retired long ago and found their way to his possession. Its unlikely with dangerous material like this but sloppy bookkeeping or lax administration is certainly possible.
PET brain scans might have promise in revealing what topics actually raise the most interest in the test subject. For everything else, the subject just needs to make up his mind about who he will “be” and follow through on it.
Ivins handled anthrax spores: which are usually fairly large and made from a bunch of anthrax stuck together. Think of a bunch of balls stuck together...They are heavy, so tend to be in the soil, not in the air. Even those catching anthrax from hides usually only get skin or stomach anthrax (you inhale them, but they are so heavy they stop at the tongue and you swallow them).
To “weaponize” anthrax, you have to do something to keep the individual spores from clumping...in this case, silicon was used, or maybe not (the FBI screwed up the analysis)....
There are ways to do this, but it requires some skills that a doc used to working with spores to make vaccines wouldn’t have.
(grinding, added correct silica).
Yes, Ivins lab was contaminated with anthrax, but that was ordinary anthrax, not the weaponized one.
And the strain was a common strain found in many labs...heck, my Oklahoma patients joked they probably had some in their barnyards.
The original suspect, Hatfield, had worked with anthrax vaccine in Rhodesia at a time when a lot of elephants and cattle were dying of it. The FBI had a scenerio that he ground and mixed it working underwater so he wouldn’t catch it, but they never could find evidence on this, so they decided Ivins did it,
Good story. worth a read.
“There are ways to do this, but it requires some skills that a doc used to working with spores to make vaccines wouldn’t have (grinding, added correct silica). Yes, Ivins lab was contaminated with anthrax, but that was ordinary anthrax, not the weaponized one.”
Just because you may not have done it before doesnt mean you are incapable of doing it. Scientists pick up new skills all the time. All of the information needed to weaponize anthrax is in the published literature. The equipment for ball milling a crude spore prep into a fine powder is readily available in labs and can be bought in a hardware store. Likewise silica powder is easy to obtain. The source of the anthrax spores was Ivin’s flask. When asked for a sample, he gave a false one.
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.