Posted on 07/04/2004 6:08:42 AM PDT by TrebleRebel
Distinct signature found in ’01 anthrax Discovery raises hope that source can be traced By Scott Shane Sun National Staff Originally published July 4, 2004 In a possible break for the FBI's investigation of the anthrax letters of 2001, scientists have discovered that the mailed anthrax was a mix of two slightly different samples, giving the bacteria a distinct signature that might make it easier to match with a source, according to two non-government experts who have been told of the finding. The discovery that bacteria taken from the letters all grew in the double pattern was made at least a year ago, and it is not known whether the FBI's hunt for a matching sample has succeeded.
(Excerpt) Read more at baltimoresun.com ...
The subject matter is difficult and complicated, hard to understand. Even harder for a "journalist" of contemporary quality to write coherently about.
Unless the perp turns out to be a conservative, the media would prefer Amerithrax to go away.
No offense intended toward Shane and Matsumoto, who have both written intelligently on the subject.
Or 3, they just don't know (not helped by some distracting wild goose chases.)
I think there's other possibilities for motives, eg the second wave theory, personal, etc.
It's always struck me as interesting the first targets selected. Major broadcast network anchormen, NYPost and J.Lo or AMI. Not CNN, NYTimes, etc. Might indicate the level of media attention the perp/s have.
That's why I've always said what was key is J.Lo. Even if a different letter with AMI as the first addressee was the weapon, why target a tabloid almost and also not name a major news figure?
Prompted by Khan's intelligence report I've done some looking. Here's a curiosity. On Feb. 28, 2003 4 congresscritters recieved suspicious mail.
This is only reported, as far as I can see, is in the Seattle Times and Minneapolis Star Tribune, and the wires.
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The Seattle Times
March 1, 2003, Saturday Fourth Edition
Gunfire kills 2 at U.S. consulate, Terrorism notebook
...
...
WASHINGTON At least four U.S. Senate and House of Representatives offices received envelopes yesterday postmarked from Seattle that contained suspicious white powder, U.S. Capitol police said.
The powder was tested and police determined it was not anthrax, said Kimberly Ballinger, Capitol Police spokeswoman.
All postage to the Capitol is taken to an outside location by the Postal Service and irradiated. Even if the white powder had contained Anthrax, it would have been harmless by the time the letters were opened, said Ballinger. The letters had a Seattle postmark, but no return address, Ballinger said. A congressional source said the addresses were typed.
"It happens every day here," she said. "We don't consider it an issue unless it (the tests) turn out positive."
The letters were addressed to Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas; the House majority leader; Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn.; Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga.
A ranking homeland-security official said the FBI would investigate the letters, but it was too early to tell what the four elected officials had in common that would make someone send them, and not others, the letters.
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Coleman's among Senate offices closed by anthrax scare
Rob Hotakainen; Staff Writer
WASHINGTON, D.C. _ Police quarantined the Capitol Hill offices of Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman and three other Republican lawmakers Friday after an anthrax scare.
"The Capitol Hill police came in with their gas masks and quarantined the office. . . . They shut the place down," said Tom Mason, Coleman's chief of staff, who described the incident as "a false alarm."
Brent Boydston, a staff assistant, said he was opening mail when he encountered "a big puff of white powder" in an envelope. The envelope contained a blank piece of paper and had a Seattle postmark.
Similar letters postmarked in Seattle were sent to the offices of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas, and freshmen Sens. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, said John Feehery, a spokesman for House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill. All the letters tested negative for anthrax, he said.
Mason said no employees were allowed to enter or leave the office, located in the basement of the Dirksen Senate Office Building, while police were present. The substance was sent to a laboratory for testing.
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Might happen all the time, but I thought it was interesting that the powder was describe as a "puff", compared to the oft "pouring out" like sugar hoaxes. Ie, it sounds floaty. Maybe talc does that.
Going through some old stuff, found this, maybe something similar had been posted. I remember the Naples Daily News story mentioning letter"s" addressed to J.Lo.
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Palm Beach Post
August 26, 2002
FBI SET TO RENEW PROBE OF AMI SITE AGENTS HOPE TO FIND ANTHRAX ENVELOPES
By JOHN MURAWSKI Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
DATELINE: BOCA RATON
FBI investigators are returning to the sealed-off scene of the nation's first anthrax attack to search again for envelopes that may have been used to deliver deadly spores, The Palm Beach Post has learned.
The FBI wouldn't say Sunday why it is launching another search of the abandoned headquarters of tabloid publisher American Media Inc. One letter, addressed to pop singer Jennifer Lopez, was believed to have been tossed in the trash and incinerated shortly after it arrived. Investigators, however, believe at least two letters were mailed to the publishing house.
Federal authorities said they would provide details of a "renewed FBI evidence-gathering effort" at a news conference today in Boca Raton that will include the FBI and other federal, state and local officials.
The search is expected to begin this week as efforts in Washington gain momentum for the federal purchase of the former publishing house in a tree-lined Boca Raton office park. The three-story building at 5401 N.W. Broken Sound Blvd. has been a sealed crime scene since Oct. 7 when anthrax was detected - a discovery that touched off a national panic.
There was no sign of activity Sunday afternoon at the abandoned building in the Arvida Park of Commerce. Only a Boca Raton police officer kept watch in his car outside.
"The Justice Department approached AMI recently and advised that the FBI would be going back in there as part of its investigation," said AMI spokesman Gerald McKelvey.
McKelvey said he didn't know details about the search. But two sources familiar with the FBI's plans said agents are hoping against the odds to find evidence missed since October when investigators first scoured the building.
During the weeks after AMI's headquarters was shut down last year, federal investigators concluded that at least two envelopes containing anthrax powder had entered the building. That conclusion in part was based on the discovery that two different mail routes in the building were contaminated.
At the time, AMI employees recalled a love letter to Lopez that had arrived Sept. 19 in an envelope that contained powder and a small plastic Star of David. Dismissed as one of many oddball mailings from kooks, the letter and envelope were presumed to have been thrown out.
The Lopez letter is believed to have infected and killed Bob Stevens, 63, a photo editor at The Sun, one of AMI's publications. Mailroom worker Ernesto Blanco nearly died, too, but survived after a lengthy hospital stay. Stevens was the first person in 25 years in the United States to die from the extremely rare and lethal form of the disease.
The search might be the last opportunity for the FBI to turn up more evidence before the agency surrenders control of the crime scene. Florida's congressional delegation is pushing the government to take over the AMI building and purge it of anthrax or use it for scientific research.
...
...
Staff writers Thomas R. Collins and Mary McLachlin contributed to this story.
- john_murawski@pbpost.com
The Miami Herald
August 28, 2002,
Anthrax Mail May Still Be Inside American Media Offices in Boca Raton, Fla.
Federal investigators believe the anthrax-laden envelope sent last year to American Media Inc. headquarters that killed photo editor Bob Stevens could still be inside the building.
Agents wearing protective gear Tuesday entered the building, which has been under federal quarantine since October, after Stevens was exposed to deadly anthrax spores.
The current theory: investigators re-examining the trail of anthrax spores did not turn up any around or inside trash bins used to remove refuse from the building, a federal source familiar with the case said.
Since trails of spores were found at post offices and routes leading into AMI headquarters, some investigators theorize, spores also should have been found at points leading out of the building.
"It's establishing a trail," said a federal agent involved in the cleanup. "The working theory is the envelope never left the building because no spores were found in the bins used to remove trash from the building." Last year, AMI workers told the FBI that all trash is removed and incinerated.
But now, using new scientific methods to detect anthrax, investigators hope to create a better pattern that details potential anthrax hot spots inside the building. For example: Investigators would divide the AMI building into grids, and then receptacles that detect anthrax spores would be placed within these grids. Chemicals within the receptacles would color up differently based on the level of spores detected.
"The higher the concentration of spores detected would be where we would begin searching for an envelope or package," an investigator said. "This could also help us develop a pattern to determine how the anthrax moved through the building."
Last year, Stevens' co-workers told the FBI that he had opened an envelope for actress Jennifer Lopez that contained a Star of David and some powder -- which co-workers said turned out to be a busted detergent packet. AMI workers said they often received packages for Lopez, a popular actress and singer.
South Florida investigators never found that envelope and could not say for sure it was the envelope used to transmit the anthrax spores. AMI workers told agents they believed the Lopez envelope was incinerated, which is how the publishing house gets rid of its waste.
Agents have also examined the possibility that more than one letter was sent to AMI, but have not been able to support that theory because they don't have an envelope.
Investigators believe it could take one to two weeks to complete their current sweep, but possibly longer.
It's been nearly a year since the anthrax crisis first hit the AMI building, killing Stevens and nearly killing a mailroom employee Ernesto Blanco -- who barely survived the attack.
Since that outbreak in early October, mailings have hit the offices of two network news anchors, both the Senate and House office buildings, and post offices from New Jersey to Boca Raton.
Five people were killed by the anthrax attacks, and federal authorities have focused on the theory that a disgruntled former employee of a U.S. military lab took advantage of the timing of Sept. 11 to begin the anthrax mailings.
Scientists say the anthrax was sent in the form of a powder most likely manufactured by the U.S. military at one of two facilities -- Fort Detrick in Maryland or Dugway Proving Grounds in Utah. Federal investigators for months have narrowed their search for suspects to lists of current and former employees.
Among them is Dr. Steven Hatfill, who used to work at the Army's biological weapons defense laboratory at Fort Detrick. They have searched his apartment twice, and have publicly identified him as a "person of interest" among nearly two dozen others. Hatfill lost his security clearance last August.
Hatfill has been adamant about his innocence, and federal authorities have turned up no physical evidence linking him to the crimes.
Some anthrax experts say the FBI most recent incursion into the AMI building is a "prayer." "It's a bright idea, but I don't think they've thought it through all the way," said Martin Hugh-Jones, a Louisiana State professor and one of the nation's leading anthrax experts.
"They've waited 10 months to go back 30 years. The method they are using is notoriously inaccurate," he said.
Hugh-Jones said it would be far more fruitful to just conduct a thorough search for the envelope, just as they checked mail for weeks in several U.S. postal facilities.
The building has been locked down since its evacuation in October, but federal investigators and workers for the EPA were all over it during the initial investigation, finding spores on Stevens' computer keyboard, the mailroom, cabinets -- a total of 84 locations within the building.
"It's been 10 months, God knows how many people have been traipsing through there," Hugh-Jones said. "The more time that goes by, the less likely they are to find anything."
By Manny Garcia and David Kidwell
"...Last year, Stevens' co-workers told the FBI that he had opened an envelope for actress Jennifer Lopez that contained a Star of David and some powder -- which co-workers said turned out to be a busted detergent packet. AMI workers said they often received packages for Lopez, a popular actress and singer. ...
Several J.Lo. letters. But note above, story says broken soap package for the Sept. 19 package. Or are they repeating the FBI's explanation to them???
____________________________________________
Palm Beach Post
January 26, 2002
Germ-fighting office out to defend country against anthrax
By SANJAY BHATT, The Palm Beach Post
They're the Green Berets of the germ world. They gather intelligence on invading armies of lethal microbes and then try to force them to retreat. They must be ready to leave their families for far-flung places at a moment's notice.
They're officers of the Epidemic Intelligence Service.
The core mission of these 130 men and women: Isolate the cause of an outbreak, prevent its spread and deal with people who could have been exposed.
The EIS has cracked some famous medical mysteries, such as what caused 34 Legionnaires to die after a 1976 convention and why gay men were dying young in the early 1980s.
Now EIS, which is part of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is on one of the biggest missions in its 50-year history: Defending the homeland against anthrax attacks.
....
Today, the program enrolls about 70 officers annually for two-year tours of duty and is more diverse: Medical doctors, dentists, veterinarians, nurses, physician's assistants and those with doctorates in epidemiology, biostatistics or behavioral sciences.
...
When Stevens, the Lantana man, was diagnosed with inhalational anthrax, bioterrorism was not readily apparent but, in private, investigators said they strongly suspected it. Once they found at least two co-workers of Stevens had been exposed to anthrax spores, the first bioterrorist anthrax attack in the nation was evident. It has spread to three other states and the nation's capital, infected 22 Americans and left five dead. Working with the FBI, another EIS officer, Dr. Carolyn Greene, 34, interviewed many AMI employees to establish the now prevailing theory that Stevens was exposed before Sept. 20, about a week before he showed anthrax symptoms.
CDC officials say two "very suspicious" letters reportedly arrived at AMI on Sept. 19 CDC's top anthrax expert noted it was the second day of Rosh Hashanah and Sept. 25. [sic, and confusing]
The writer of the suspected Sept. 19 letter asked pop star Jennifer Lopez to marry him. The letter, which was folded into three sections, contained a pink-tinged powder and a tiny gold Star of David, employees recalled in a National Enquirer story.
Greene said there were actually several "J. Lo" letters but declined to elaborate.
.....
Photos of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in captivity were first released on March 1, 2003. The 48-hour deadline for war was announced on March 17, 2003. On March 23, 2003, a few days after the war had begun, we got Barton Gellman's story about KSM being "involved in anthrax production". What does it all mean?
Well, let's first take a detour. July 17 was Revolution Day in Baathist Iraq. Saddam made long, long speeches on that day and sometimes launched new initiatives. Here is Saddam speaking on July 17, 2002: "Temmuz (July Revolution) returns to say to all evil tyrants and oppressors of the world: You will never defeat me this time. Never! Even if you come together from all over the world, and invite all the devils as well, to stand by you."
July 17, 2003, brought us the death of David Kelly, biowarfare expert and former weapons inspector in Iraq, who seems to have known that he would be in danger if the war went ahead. We are coming up on July 17, 2004, the first July 17 on which Saddam has been in captivity. And what do we suddenly hear from Tom Ridge? Al Qaeda planning large-scale attack in the United States.
I would submit that the danger has been Iraq all along, everyone at the highest levels knew this all along, but that they had and have no intention of ever admitting this - it is as simple and as sordid as that. Even now, they are setting up a cover story just in case the remnants of the old Baathist regime manage to engineer something next week. If it happens, it will be Osama bin Laden, disrupting the democratic process.
Here is another example. The African embassy bombings took place on August 7, 1998. What was the next day? It was "Victory Day" in Iraq, the tenth anniversary of the 1988 "victory" over Iran, and an occasion on which it was good to demonstrate that Iraq was also prevailing in the on-going "Mother of All Battles".
How did Clinton respond? He bombed Al Qaeda sites in Sudan and Afghanistan. He let a few months lapse. Then he had an Iraqi Liberation Act passed, talked up the WMD issue, and finally launched a bombing campaign which apparently concealed yet another attempt to overthrow Saddam. Does that course of events remind anyone of what happened after September 11?
So I don't know the basis of this "failed anthrax attack" story. Maybe they secretly had KSM in captivity since the original Karachi raid on September 11, 2002, and brought him out only after Iraq gave the signal for an anthrax attack. (If so, it would be the reverse of how Iraq bested the CIA in 1996, when they captured some communication gear supplied to Allawi's organization, the INA, but didn't reveal this for several months.) Or maybe this is just another cover story. Certainly Gellman's article could function as a failsafe: if there had been an anthrax attack in the West during the war in Iraq, they could point to it and say, see, we told you Al Qaeda had an anthrax program.
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