Distinct signature found in ’01 anthrax

Baltimore Sun ^ | 4/7/04 | Scott Shane

[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.

[Khan Noonian Singh]

I may have been trifling unfair to JLo. I still do not see anybody squandering strategic capital on a pop singer. If they had unlimited supplies, sure.

<< In furtherance, how about the Gloria Irish connection? >>

I don't know, I always thought that that might have been fortuitously coincidental, a six-degrees-of-separation phenomenon. Ponder the degrees of separation: Mr Stevens - Michael(?) Irish - Gloria Irish - some 09-11 highjackers. If any 2 people in the world are really linked by a 6-link chain, probably any 2 people in Boca are linked by a 3-link chain. Also, any of the 19 highjackers would have served for the final step, increasing the likelihood that this is pure luck.

[Khan Noonian Singh]

"Planted evidence not in the mailer's own handwriting would be advantageous, no?"

<< But you assume it's not the mailer's own handwriting - why? And why would a "framer" write the sets of letters with different determination? Could a framer fake the consistencies between the two sets? >>

I think I was not clear. I do think the letters were in the mailer's or close accomplice's handwriting.

The point was that the geographical proximity adds a feeling of hard evidence that is not present in the letters, since the letters were written by the mailer in order to convey an impression. The geographical proximity gives the feeling of real evidence, evidence that the mailer would not have thought would come out.

That is why the geographical proximity convinced many of a link who were understandably unconvinced by the mailer's own written 9-11-01 claim.

As you know, I think this 'evidence' was orchestrated by the mailer on purpose. The above explains why the stratagem worked so effectively.

[muawiyah]

Think of it this way ~ NO ONE PERSON was targeted. Rather, the targets were major facilities through which the anthrax attack mail pieces would travel ~ among them were the terminal handling operations at Palm Beach airport (SEE: http://www.pbia.org/ ), Ronald Reagan Washington National airport, and Dulles airport.

Then there is the USPS Brentwood facility, the main post office for the United States federal government!

One obscure facility you have to think about is the building where mail to the US Congress and the Executive is checked for various chemical signatures. The attacker had to have planned for some of the anthrax attack letters to go through that operation. If that building were disabled through anthrax contamination then there would be no easy way to interdict letter or parcel mail bombs being sent to high government officials and members of Congress.

Regarding Palm Beach airport, a considerable percentage of America's wealthy and powerful pass through there every day. Their stuff comes in through the terminal handling operations. Even Teddy Kennedy used to travel through this one in between snorts!

I'm just guessing that the fellows who masterminded this one had prior experience in their own country with a contaminated air terminal or postal operating center.

Google has some good references to airport decontamination ~ several involve Red Chinese controlled Hong Kong.

[Rockpile]

That is an interesting take on things. I must say that this has been a huckleberry of a thread.

What is so hard about reaching conclusions about any of the "mysteries" lies in not having access to the info that the authorities have.

BTW, do you have any idea what the deceased postal workers jobs exactly were? And what kind of machines they were operating, if any?

[muawiyah]

Everything concerning the dead postal workers has been public for a long time. One of them was cleaning what turned out to be a contaminated machine with a high pressure air hose. I think the other guy was in the same area.

They didn't just inhale a couple or three ~ they got spores by the tens of thousands!

[apokatastasis]

This article from October 2001 remains the most informative reporting we have about Gloria and Michael Irish. And these two articles (1 2) are interesting, in that they do try to link the anthrax to the hijackers, and date from the period of mid-August to mid-September 2002, which includes CNN's report on Hatfill's novel (August 14), Hatfill's two press conferences (August 11 and August 26), Al Jazeera's broadcast of a June interview with Ramzi Binalshibh and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (September 12), the raid in Karachi which led to Binalshibh's capture but from which KSM supposedly escaped (September 12), and finally George Bush's speech to the UN about Iraq (September 12).

[thinden]

thanx for the ping.

hadn't tought about this strange death in a couple years.

imo, the okie 1 and the crew at the oklahoma were really pickin some scabs on the miller death.

[Askel5]

Just bumping this refreshingly "old-style" thread and delighted to see your name ... trust all is well with you and yours.

[thinden]

hey. thanx for the ping.

hard to find any of them hillbillies around anywhere these days. maybe I'm being shunned?....or maybe they just don't trust anyone that ain't kin?

things are fine around here.

everybody's takin a nap, but me.

[Mitchell]

There was a ineffective anthrax attack at end of February of 2003.

I wonder how many unreported anthrax letters there were.

It seems there was an anthrax letter in 2001 or 2002 that went unreported. The only reference that I'm aware of is an oblique one in a scientific article. (Based on the dates, this does not appear to be the same as the ostensible Feb., 2003, attack that you've referred to.)

Look at the following statement from the paper "Molecular Subtyping of Bacillus anthracis and the 2001 Bioterrorism-Associated Anthrax Outbreak, United States," by Alex R. Hoffmaster, et al., of the CDC, at http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol8no10/02-0394.htm :

"State A reported isolating B. anthracis (2002017388) from an envelope. This state was not in the vicinity of the 2001 outbreak. By MLVA, the isolate was shown to have been cured of pXO1 and had the same genotype as the Pasteur strain, used in laboratories as a control strain for various tests (Table 2)."

Has anybody seen anything else about this letter?

Being of the Pasteur strain instead of Ames, and with at least one plasmid cured, it would seem likely that it is unrelated to the major incidents. But, until I read of this letter, I had thought that, although there are many hoax anthrax letters every year, none had contained actual anthrax with the exception of the FL/NY/DC attacks.

Given that this one seems to have snuck under the radar, and given the unreported-at-the-time B. cereus fatalities, and possibly given the claimed Feb., 2003, attack, one has to ask how many other anthrax letters there have been?

[apokatastasis]

Something I must report... Back at post #177 I said: "One thing [a certain scenario] suggests is that similarly subtle forms of blackmail - demonstrations of the capacity for bioterrorism - may have accompanied previous attacks, in ways that would only be noticed by investigators who knew what to look for." Since then I've learned about the theory that Ron Miller, an Oklahoma businessman, died of inhalational anthrax. Since this idea emanates from the universe of "Arkancide" conspiracy theories - and it's extreme even in that context - I would normally be inclined to discount it. But if you follow that first link, and look at the final paragraphs, you'll find that four months before Miller's sudden death in October 1997, a "technical investigator" involved in the OKC bombing case died in a similar way. Perhaps these two men got too close to the "third terrorist" and his friends?

[Mitchell]

I thought the forum had said that the State was Chili and that some of that information had proved to be wrong as there was a contaminant from the testing lab, and we didn't want to embarrass Chileans. The State A I can't seem to remember, but there seemed to be a logical explanation.

You're confusing "State A" with "Country B" that was also mentioned in the Hoffmaster, et al., paper on the CDC website.

Country B is Chile, I think; the particulars all match what we've read about the Chilean anthrax claim.

State A, on the other hand, would seem to refer to one of the 50 states in the U.S., some state "not in the vicinity of the 2001 outbreak." The particulars mentioned for the State A letter do not match any letter I've read about.

There was the letter to the Microsoft office in Reno, Nevada, mailed from Malaysia, but this was reported to be a false positive.

I don't think the "State A" letter matches anything we've read about in the news (unless one of the supposed "false positives" was actually the real thing).