Posted on 03/17/2005 11:47:50 AM PST by Gene Vidocq
The day after the latest anthrax scare, public officials focused on the role of a private Richmond laboratory and its powerful client, the U.S. Department of Defense, in a slow-moving response to what could have been a threat to hundreds of government workers.
The negative results of additional tests taken from a Pentagon mail facility and a Defense Department mailroom in Fairfax County have prompted questions about the source of the anthrax. The positive results came from a swab of a 2-foot square filter last Thursday that was tested by Commonwealth Biotechnologies Inc., based in Chesterfield's Gateway Center.
For reasons that remain unclear, the Defense Department didn't know about the possible contamination until Monday morning, almost four days after the sample was taken. Federal health, state and local officials didn't know until that afternoon, at about the same time an outdated sensor at another Defense Department mailroom sounded in Fairfax County and led to a lockdown of thousands of employees.
A second test of the Pentagon filter proved positive late Monday, but since then, no signs of anthrax have been uncovered at either site, said Glenn Flood, a spokesman for the Defense Department.
"We need some assurances that high-profile facilities such as the Pentagon have the best-available systems and procedures in place so they can quickly identify potential threats," Warner said.
Rep. James P. Moran, D-8th, whose district includes the Pentagon and the Fairfax facility at the Skyline Towers, said he has written Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, asking for details about the Pentagon response and why the Pentagon did not immediately notify the federal Department of Homeland Security.
"It seems that the Pentagon operates on a need-to-know basis, and they think they're the only ones who need to know," Moran said.
"Obviously, there's a lot of work that's going to go on to determine whether or not it's real or a contaminant," said Jim Pearson, director of Virginia's Division of Consolidated Laboratory Services.
"We know that there was anthrax in that sample. We just don't know where the anthrax was introduced - was it from the filter or was it something that got picked up after it was sampled?"
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There are, after all, only 366 different dates to pick from. Koinkydinks can and do happen!
This,I guess,is what passes for "evidence".
Has anyone here considered the possibility this week's alarums and excursions might have been a Pentagon drill,designed to determine whether the screening devices work,and how well the response plans function in "real time" ?
If this was "only a drill",it was an event that had a powerful effect on the Stock Exchanges. A lot of stocks took a rapid tumble,and the markets posted losses all day.We're talking big money here !
All those who think the Pentagon would be inclined to step up and admit: "It was only a drill,sir" are invited to send me details of your bank accounts,credit cards,and other means by which I can strip you of your assets.
Well said. We get some real dunces on this site, that's for sure. Furthermore, somewhere out there is a 20th hijacker who was supposed to go on one of the planes but for some reason or another never boarded. Who is he and where is he right now? The government believes it was Zacarias Moussaoui, but it could easily have been someone else, like El-Shukrijumah.
gesundheit.
Actually, that freeper ended up agreeing but had misunderstood my original post :-)
I hate it when that happens. LOL
Bump
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