Posted on 07/29/2006 11:16:47 PM PDT by hipaatwo
The government is building a highly classified facility to research biological weapons, but its closed-door approach has raised concerns.
On the grounds of a military base an hour's drive from the capital, the Bush administration is building a massive biodefense laboratory unlike any seen since biological weapons were banned 34 years ago.
The heart of the lab is a cluster of sealed chambers built to contain the world's deadliest bacteria and viruses. There, scientists will spend their days simulating the unthinkable: bioterrorism attacks in the form of lethal anthrax spores rendered as wispy powders that can drift for miles on a summer breeze, or common viruses turned into deadly superbugs that ordinary drugs and vaccines cannot stop.
The work at this new lab, at Fort Detrick, Md., could someday save thousands of lives -- or, some fear, create new risks and place the United States in violation of international treaties. In either case, much of what transpires at the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center (NBACC) may never be publicly known, because the Bush administration intends to operate the facility largely in secret.
In an unusual arrangement, the building itself will be classified as highly restricted space, from the reception desk to the lab benches to the cages where animals are kept. Few federal facilities, including nuclear labs, operate with such stealth. It is this opacity that some arms-control experts say has become a defining characteristic of U.S. biodefense policy as carried out by the Department of Homeland Security, NBACC's creator.
Since the department's founding in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, its officials have dramatically expanded the government's ability to conduct realistic tests of the pathogens and tactics that might be used in a bioterrorism attack.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
"Gee, anthrax ... anthrax - wasn't there something about anthrax one time?
I've always harbored a notion that this came from Iraq, and we knew it but couldn't actually prove it - hence WMD"
I have posted this before, but your post reminded me of it.
This topic brings back a freeper post durring the anthrax incident after 9-11.I can't remember the freeper's name, but I won't forget this "theory" on the topic.
His(or her)post came up with this possible answer:
What if the anthrax letters were actually a not-so-subtle threat by Saddam after 9-11??
The reasons for the "mini" anthrax attack, was to threaten the Bush administration if we were going to invade Iraq, because of the tie-ins with Al-Queda and Saddam's BIG role in training them and letting them use Iraq as a "terrorist basic training site" to attack the US.
Saddam was playing the Oil-For-Food (OFF) thing, and had no way to retaliate against the US in any open attack that could be traced back to him.
Therefore, the Anthrax was the way to go. The US was still smarting from 9-11, had the "Gorelick Wall" still in place,Homeland Security was in BARELY underway, and we didn't have ANY idea if a large scale attack was already set to go here with nothing but a "GO" signal to set it off.
If you were the Bush administration at that time, how would you respond to a threat like that?? The airlines were all going broke because of so many people afraid to fly after the 9-11 attacks. Can you imagine a country wide coordinated anthrax attack, with the USPS as the main vehicle, and major ventalation systems in some of the larger buildings, and then in say the major public transportation systems ALL AT THE SAME TIME??
The Bush administration could have been "blackmailed" very easily by Saddam and Al-Queda, by saying they would do a full blown attack if Bush tried to pin the first attack on him. The attack would have been very hard to prove and connect it on Saddam and Al-Queda in the UN arena, due to the state of our intellegence apparatus at that time, and all the UN member countries involved in it, who could have also been "blackmailed" by Saddam and Al-Queda by threatening to expose them in the scandal if they didn't keep obstructing the US from gathering international support for the US and coalition almost certain retaliatory invasion because of the 9-11 and anthrax attacks.
The Bush adminisration could also NOT GO PUBLIC with this information. It would have devestated the US economy, not to mention the mass panic and fear. No US mail delivery for an extended period of time,due to the leaking of information like that is almost unimagionable. The incubation period alone is such an effective weapon, that by the time we realized that a wide spread attack had taken place,.....well let's just say it would be a major "problem".
And what if this "theory" really was true???
I would have to consider a major anthrax attack on the US in the WMD catagory. Why haven't we found out who did it yet?? IIRC, the "type" of anthrax used was only available to approximately four different locations in the world, with one of the four being in Iraq.
Can you imagine being President Bush, knowing what he knew, but not being able to go public with it?? Knowing for the VERY SURVIVAL OF THE US, HE HAD TO RETALIATE, or the "mudlums" would know they were on their way to our total destruction because we DID NOT RESPOND.
And worse yet, having to take all the crap he's taking since then, because the WMD reason given for our invasion of Iraq, didn't find ANY "Weapon's of Mass Destruction" in Iraq, according to the MSM, and the Dems, and all the Bush haters.
And one more thing before I close...can you imagine if some of the major Dem politial anti-Bush bunch DO know about the situation Bush is in because of his not being able to expose it as yet, and are using it AGAINST HIM by painting Bush as a liar with this NO-WMD's in Iraq, so Bush is a liar mantra??.....
Sorry for the "rant", but IMHO, I considered that freeper's post kinda interesting.....
The goings on at Ft. Detrick have been the subject of sometimes-fearful speculation, for quite some time. Even before 9/11. Remember Rense.com? Next thing you know, WaPo is going to be waxing paranoid about Plum Island.
Out of here for the nite,I'm beat. Have a good one, see ya later today.
I agree, but this is on a different level
Andromeda Strain - Captain Tripps
Gnite, Thanks for posting this
It's been know for 10-20 years that Fort Detrick has had such facilities and handles very dangerous biological agents.
The BBC ran articles on the base in 2002 & the military even has a site about some of the things they do their http://www.usamriid.army.mil/
Ft Detrick hasn't exactly been a secret facility. It has been written up in any number of books and articles on germ warfare, and in articles on "hot zone" subjects like ebola. But it probably doesn't need to be advertised to those who might not know what it does.
Let me add: Among terrorist and their accomplices in the Media.
True, but this operation was, so I agree with the last sentence of your post. They (The Washington Post) had no business printing these kinds of details
IMHO, they're on the verge of recycling a few, old Clinton-era conspiracy theories, to feed leftwing hysteria (as if they're not completely unhinged already). Biodefense efforts are not new, and the expansion of those efforts is a necessity. Somewhat spooky and unfortunate, but still a necessity. If this were a Democrat administration, you wouldn't be reading this in the Washington Post. No breathless urgency about "secrecy," no handwringing over treaties potentially being broken.
The biggest problem in this country are the drama-seeking idiots who cannot go by without turning everything on this earth into one big article with an exclamation mark at the end. It's getting really beyond irritating. I can't wait until they begin to die off.
We don't have the will to enforce laws against treason, national security or illegal immigration. Our focus is obesity, abolishing prayer, the Pledge, and the 10 Commandments. We condone national security leaks. It's the new American way.
That does not include me or you, that only includes the Liberal Media in the country who will never root for our victory unless a Rat resides in the Oval Office
I'm on exactly the same page as you. I believe its the real reason we went into Iraq. Couldn't prove it, but also couldn't take the chance that Hussein did give the stuff to terrorists and would do it again.
Not even then, Mike. Not even then. They would repeat what they did after 9/11 -- howl that we "didn't connect the dots." They'll all point fingers every which way except in the right direction.
Nuclear, Biological, & Chemical Warfare- Survival Skills, Pt. II
What can one say. As long as no price is ever paid for the revealing and publication of national security secrets, I would expect it to continue. Our government refuses, apparently, to do anything about it. We are only selectively a "nation of laws", which means we aren't a nation of laws at all.
There isn't a program the US has that the press won't talk about. And if we're hit with a terrorist attack again, I want us to place part of the blame directly at the feet of the media.
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