Posted on 12/21/2001 12:23:57 PM PST by t-shirt
Anthrax investigators focusing on strain from military
facility
December 21, 2001 BY DAVID KIDWELL dkidwell@herald.com
? Federal anthrax researchers are attempting to match the strain that killed a Boca Raton man and four others to a weaponized strain secretly manufactured at a U.S. military facility in the Utah desert, according to sources familiar with the probe.
Agents are examining lab workers and researchers who had access to the weaponized, powdered anthrax grown at the U.S. Army's Dugway Proving Grounds and later supplied to Battelle Memorial Institute, a military research company based in Columbus, Ohio.
Among those interviewed include a fired researcher at Battelle who, according to FBI records, made remarks about an anthrax project in the basement of his Milwaukee home.
``This is complete nonsense,'' Michael P. Failey told The Herald Thursday. ``I have never been a researcher of anthrax. I've never had access to anthrax. I didn't even know it was a bacteria until I saw it on TV. All I did was mention the word, that's it.
``And I've got the FBI in here searching my house and taking my computer.''
FBI sources said Thursday that Failey is not a prime suspect in the anthrax mailings but has not been ruled out.
``We have developed no information that he ever had access to anthrax while he was at Battelle, and there was no anthrax in his home,'' said one FBI official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
``He is one among many we have interviewed as possible suspects,'' said another FBI official.
NO CLEAR EVIDENCE
The FBI sources also said there is no conclusive evidence the anthrax used in the deadly mailings was stolen from the U.S. military. It is clear, however, that a strong theory has emerged that the refined powder used in the anthrax attacks bears striking similarities to U.S. military grade anthrax manufactured only at Dugway.
``The anthrax at Dugway is the only known sample they intend to check right now. The investigation is clearly focused on the Dugway anthrax,'' said Dr. Ronald Atlas, dean of the University of Louisville Biology Department, and incoming president of the American Society of Microbiology.
``The word in the scientific community is that they are very close to something.''
Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge said Thursday the FBI has ``winnowed'' the field of its investigation.
For use in their comparisons, government scientists are using the strain of anthrax taken from the body of Robert Stevens, a tabloid photo editor from Lantana who was the first to die from the deadly mailings.
``Since it was the first one they had, it is the only one on which they completed the [DNA] sequencing,'' Atlas said. ``They only did enough on the others to make sure it was identical.''
If medical researchers are able to conclusively match the Boca anthrax to that stored at its source, investigators could be able to home in on specific suspects. Researchers have already identified the mailed anthrax as the Ames strain, a virulent strain often used in research to develop vaccines. For decades, the strain was stored and distributed by the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Md.
It went to several universities, government contractors, and military institutions in England and Canada. It also went to Dugway Proving Grounds, which developed small amounts of powdered anthrax to find ways to combat it.
As a strain moves from facility to facility, its genetic makeup can change slightly in ways that allow experts to identify it, Atlas said.
FBI records show Failey's name first emerged during the terrorism probe even before Stevens died Oct. 5.
Milwaukee police were called by Failey's mother after he became involved in a dispute with a neighbor, according to an FBI search warrant affidavit. Failey was allegedly drunk, the affidavit said, and told the police about his work.
``Failey informed the officers that he was currently involved in a project in the basement . . . that involved the development of `simunitions' that will facilitate the dissemination of anthrax,'' wrote FBI agent Parker Shipley.
`TRUMPED UP' Failey, who has a doctorate degree in nuclear and environmental chemistry from the University of Maryland, said Thursday the affidavit was ``trumped up'' and that his mention of anthrax was innocent.
``I'm really angry at the agent,'' he said. ``That's not what I meant and he knows it. I don't even remember how the word anthrax came up, but it wasn't like that.''
The FBI searched Failey's home Sept. 26 and found no incriminating evidence. On Oct. 16, they returned and seized his computer, he said.
``I've never had anthrax. This whole thing is stupid. I'm just trying to live my life in peace,'' Failey said.
Seth Borenstein of the Knight Ridder Washington bureau contributed to this report.
(Needless to say, the reference here is to the anthrax mail return addresses. Again, this is just another data point. There are many other Greendales in the country.)
Aha! I knew it! The Wiccans did it!
Hmmmm, another case of a "302 form" adulterated by an FBI agent?
LOL!
But: The biggest clue in the anthrax case is one that hasn't been followed up at all, to my knowledge, except for the spurious Wiccan thing -- the threatening letters (15 of them, as I recall), mailed before 9/11, from Indianapolis, to Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, and maybe others in the media. These letters were said to be very similar to the later anthrax-laced letters (or maybe it's the envelopes that are similar; we have very few details on this).
I believe Hannity said the printing on the envelopes was identical.
When he saw the pictures of the anthrax letters,
he says there was stunned,
there was no doubt in his mind they were from the same person.
He also said the letters Fox received contained an unpleasant substance,
but it was not anthrax.
(He also said he was very reluctant to talk about the business.
I am quoting from memory here,
this is the gist of what Hannity said,
not an exact quote.)
I listen to Hannity frequently.
He has fallen strangely silent about these letters,
never a mention of it.
Has he been warned not to talk about it?
This "unpleasant substance" is new to me -- thanks for the information. I assume he said this on his radio or TV show? I don't think the two articles I saw mentioned this. Did he give any other information that wasn't in the published articles?
I figure that the letters must have been striking, well beyond the ordinary crank letters that celebrities frequently receive. If not, Hannity wouldn't have remembered them so well as to have been immediately struck by the similarity when he saw the photos of the actual anthrax letters.
As for why he hasn't mentioned them further, maybe he's been told it would impede the investigation (although it probably wouldn't -- and the FBI has released pictures of the real anthrax letters, so I don't know whey they'd be more secretive with these). Maybe Hannity just wants to steer clear of terrorists and other murderers; this would certainly be sensible in terms of his own safety and that of his family. But why isn't the FBI bringing this out, and why isn't some enterprising reporter looking into it?
When journalists are directly involved, as in this case, you'd think that there would be so much scuttlebutt among reporters that nothing could be kept secret for long.
I got the impression he would have said nothing at all
had there not been some news reports
which mentioned that Fox/Hannity had received these letters.
I believe he suggested that the unpleasant substance
was excrement.
She may have known nothing about what they were doing. She simply may have mailed the letters for them---not knowing anything about the Anthrax being in them.
Do you have a reference? I thought the claim was that Kathy Nguyen (from NY) might have known them, not Ottilie Lundgren (from CT). The claim was based on a tipster's saying that he overheard these people talking about having letters mailed by a Vietnamese woman who worked in a small hospital. I also read that the tipster (Janco) failed a lie detector test.
Well, that would certainly explain why the letters were memorable.
The connection to Kathy Nguyen is quite possible. I thought you meant Ottilie Lundgren (who was the much older woman from Connecticut).
I remember reading the articles you mentioned. I don't think Janco mentioned Nguyen by name, though his recital of what he said he overheard the Pakistanis say sounded like it referred to Nguyen. There was also a follow-up which said that Janco had failed a lie detector test (or maybe it just made the weaker statement that he "hadn't passed" the lie detector test, I'm not sure).
In any case, Janco's statement is an interesting lead, but it would seem to require some independent confirmation at this point.
You know you don't come down with a bigol' fullgrown deathsbed type infection instantly with this stuff. It takes time to grow. In any case, everyone involved in the conduct of the investigation is fully aware that postal letter and flat trays made of corrugated propylene sheeting are designed to work as aerosols. They can pick up spores. They can deposit spores.
The rest of this guy's thesis, while interesting, doesn't have anything to do with how and when the anthrax was spread. Still, to this very day, not a single mail receptacle of any kind except the letter drop in Boca Raton's main post office has been demonstrated to have been contaminated with anthrax spores.
That's where we have three of the hijackers living and working for a period of time. That's where those same three can be demonstrated to have had a business relationship with the wife of the first guy killed with anthrax.
It's long overdue for folks to come up with better stuff than I came up with nearly 3 months ago! Else, just cave in and accept that I have been right - that the anthrax attack was an AlQeada event done concurrently by some of the guys who hijacked the airplanes.
So many false results come from lie-detector tests that I don't put much stock in the fact -- if it is a fact -- that Janco did not pass one.
It may be too much to ask for, since the conversation would probably have seemed inconsequential to Janco when he first heard it, but it would be nice to have some corroboration that he mentioned this conversation to somebody else before Kathy Nguyen was in the news.
So many false results come from lie-detector tests that I don't put much stock in the fact -- if it is a fact -- that Janco did not pass one.
I agree. Lie detector tests are of very doubtful validity, one way or the other. In fact, his willingness voluntarily to take a lie detector test suggests that he is telling the truth (assuming that he is a rational, normal person).
Here's the text of the article, which was posted to Usenet on 12/16/2001 (I've put the new information in boldface):
On Nov. 25, INS officers and local police descended on a gas station in Torrington CT and arrested Indian national Ayazuddin Sheerazi, 32, who was watching the station for his uncle, as well as watching his two cousins, 11 and 7. He was led away in handcuffs under the 'Patriot' act as being suspected of involvement with the anthrax mailings. His two cousins were left alone at the station and are still having trouble coping and are prone to bursting into tears at school. Under the terms of the 'Patriot' act, the government can hold a foreign national indefinitely under suspicion of terrorism without charges. Sheerazi was never charged with a crime. He was at first charged with overstaying his multiple entry visa, but an extension to that had been filed on July 10, and the judge terminated that charge. Nevertheless he was held for 18 days. For the first 24 hours he was shunted through the Torrington and Hartford jails then the Hartford INS building without being fed, told why he was being detained, or allowed to call his relatives to tell them of his whereabouts. On the second night, he ended up at the Hartford Correctional Center. He was then ferried to the INS building lockup every day, then back to the Hartford jail every night. As he was observing Ramadan, he was prohibited from eating meat, but vegetarian foods were not provided, so he lived mainly on white bread for the 18 days. 'But the hardest part for me was not knowing for 18 days. I kept asking the immigration officials Why am I here? What have I done? They wouldn't tell me, and then finally the Pakistanis (other prisoners) seemed to know that we were all being held because of the anthrax cases'. Isolated and uncertain as to how long he would be imprisoned, Sheerazi was particularly humiliated by the use of leg chains every day when transported to the INS building. 'I cried in my cell at night. I prayed for my release. We are from a family that is respected in India. But to be led away in chains is associated with a great deal of shame'. The 'evidence' that led to this arrest was provided by Robert Janco Jr., 35, of Torrington, who told an FBI agent on Nov. 2 that he had overheard two 'Arabs' in a bar on Sept. 8 talking about going to New York to bring letters to 'Kathy', a Vietnamese woman. (Vietnamese Kathy Nguyen died mysteriously of anthrax in New York on Oct. 31). He told a differnt agent on Nov. 19 that he had specifically heard the men planning to mail letters containing anthrax. Janco failed a lie detector test and is being charged with two counts of making false statements. Meanwhile, Sheerazi and one of the Pakistanis have been released, although he was still required to post $2,000 bail, despite all charges being terminated. Sheerazi, who had been overseeing the US end of his family's rug export business in Bombay, had loved living and working in America. 'In all the respectable families in Bombay, boys grow up dreaming about coming to America and doing business in the most successful business country on earth. Now I was living that dream. Everyone here treated me so well'. That has changed now, however. 'I'm leaving and returning to India as soon as Ramadan is over next week. I loved being in this country and working hard to build my family's business back in India. But now I am having too much trouble understanding what happened to me here.'
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