Posted on 10/13/2006 3:46:10 PM PDT by Shermy
Nobody has been arrested for the anthrax mailings of 2001, but many people have paid for the crime.
Five died and at least 17 others got sick.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has been frustrated. Careers have crumbled. Taxpayers have gotten socked for billions of dollars to shore up bioterror defenses that some experts say still fall short.
Now, an analysis from the FBI itself, buried in a microbiology journal, is raising more questions about the investigation.
In the August issue of Applied and Environmental Microbiology, FBI scientist Douglas Beecher sought to set the record straight. Anthrax spores mailed to politicians and journalists in September and October 2001, Beecher wrote, were not prepared using advanced techniques and additives to make them more lethal, contrary to "a widely circulated misconception."
The notion the anthrax spores were "weaponized" had fueled conjecture that only a government insider could have carried out the operation.
Beecher's article suggested a much wider universe of potential suspects -- who showed they could kill without highly refined spores.
"A clever high school student" could make such a preparation, according to Ronald Atlas, former president of the American Society for Microbiology and co-director of the Center for Health Hazards Preparedness at the University of Louisville.
The Beecher paper has left Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., wondering if the killings, which further shook a nation already reeling from the Sept. 11 terror attacks, will ever be solved. He blames the FBI for "botching" the case.
Agents spun their wheels chasing a small circle of weapons experts, Holt said.
In the anthrax attacks, Steven Hatfill, a virologist who had worked for the government, landed in the cross-hairs. Labeled a "person of interest" by officials but never charged, the scientist claims the public probe has made him unemployable. He is suing the government and media outlets.
Kenneth Berry's career also unraveled after the FBI searched a Dover Township, N.J., summer home he was visiting in 2004. Berry was a doctor from upstate New York who started an organization for training emergency workers to deal with biochemical attacks. He never was charged, either.
Holt also chides authorities for taking nearly a year to discover anthrax traces in a mailbox near Princeton University. That mailbox, where letters laced with anthrax bacteria may have begun their journey in 2001, is on a route that feeds the Hamilton Township postal center where anthrax letters were processed.
In a letter to Holt, FBI Assistant Director Eleni Kalisch declined to give a closed-door briefing to the House Intelligence Committee. Kalisch claimed sensitive information was leaked from classified briefings more than three years ago, and described the anthrax case as a criminal matter not subject to the committee's oversight.
Some cases take time to crack, Kalisch wrote. Seventeen FBI agents and 10 postal inspectors remain on the "Amerithrax" beat. The FBI said the anthrax investigation has spanned six continents and generated more than 9,100 interviews, 67 searches and 6,000 subpoenas.
Early on, the FBI hoped that analysis of the spores would point to the lab that prepared them. But Beecher's article underscores difficulties of such microscopic sleuthing. Particle sizes, for instance, may not yield as many clues as some expected.
Over time, after being handled and exposed to different conditions, particles "may not resemble the initial product," Beecher wrote.
Yet the FBI is confident, and has forged scientific ties and advances to help prevent future biological attacks, said Joseph Persichini Jr., acting assistant director in charge of the Washington field office, on the FBI's Web site.
Richard Ebright, a Rutgers University microbiologist, still thinks the anthrax attacks were an inside job because they used a virulent form of the Ames strain of Bacillus anthracis, which only a few biodefense- or intelligence-related labs were thought to possess.
"Whoever did it is an insider," said Ayaad Assaad, a toxicologist with the Environmental Protection Agency, who formerly worked at an Army biodefense center at Fort Detrick, Md. "It started with anthrax. Now it's ricin, and God knows what's coming."
Ed Lake has tracked the case closely, self-publishing a book, "Analyzing the Anthrax Attacks, The First Three Years" and moderating a Web site. Lake is convinced the FBI knows the perpetrator but lacks evidence to prosecute. He believes the killer is a scientist from central New Jersey who wanted America to gird for an al-Qaida bioterror attack in the wake of Sept. 11.
"So he sent a warning to the media, saying this is next, there's a biological attack coming next, and be prepared: Take penicillin," said Lake, referring to hand-printed letters, bearing New Jersey postmarks, sent to NBC and the New York Post.
Leon Harris retired last year from the Hamilton Township postal center. He too suspects the bad guys are home-grown and will be caught.
"I don't care if it takes 10 years," the Air Force veteran said. "They're going to find them."
Ernesto Blanco agreed. He survived inhalational anthrax that killed his friend Bob Stevens, a colleague at a tabloid in Florida, five years ago this month. Blanco, now 79, returned to his mailroom job at American Media Inc. in 2002.
"I am positive they will catch them," Blanco said. "I have faith in what they are doing."
TIMELINE
Key dates in the 5-year-old investigation of the anthrax attacks:
2001:
Sept. 18: Postal facility in Hamilton Township, N.J., processes anthrax-laced letters to NBC News in New York and the New York Post.
Oct. 5: Bob Stevens, photo editor at Florida tabloid the Sun dies from inhalational anthrax.
Oct. 9: Hamilton Township facility processes anthrax letters to then-Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle and Sen. Patrick Leahy. Both letters have return address of fictitious "Greendale School" in Franklin Park, N.J.
Oct. 16: U.S. Senate closes; employees are tested for exposure to anthrax microbes.
Oct. 17: The House shuts down.
Oct. 18: Hamilton Township facility is closed.
Oct. 21: Washington postal worker Thomas Morris Jr. dies from anthrax.
Oct. 22: Washington postal worker Joseph Curseen dies from anthrax.
Oct. 31: Kathy Nguyen, who worked in a New York City hospital supply room, dies from anthrax.
Nov. 21: Ottilie Lundgren, 94, of Oxford, Conn., dies from anthrax. Authorities suspect her mail was contaminated by other mail.
[snip - more at link]
How many more years do you guys think are going to go by before Lake stops pissing on all of us and telling us that it's raining? His strained leaps of credulity become tougher for me to swallow all the time.
That is totally untrue.
First of all, anthrax spores ONLY COME IN ONE SIZE. They are roughly 1 micron in diameter, and 1.5 microns in length. Milling down a spore to get it to the right size would be like milling down an ostrich egg to create a chicken egg. It's idiotic. It's impossible.
Second, the anthrax spores in the letters WERE NOT MILLED. Milling is done to break up clumps of spores which were dried together. Milling leaves traces. When you mill spores, you get chips of spores in the powder, and most of the spores would appear to have flat sides as a result of the milling. (If you have two or more spores stuck together, and you separate them by milling, the area where they were stuck together will be flat.) Everyone who looked at the spores said there was no sign of milling.
The nonsense about milling was just a misunderstanding by people who knew nothing about such things. It was probably the DUMBEST thing ever said about the anthrax, and it was said by MANY people who just didn't know what they were talking about.
Ed
What I've been saying for years was recently confirmed in a scientific report written by a top FBI scientist. If you want to read the report, you can do so by clicking HERE.
But I gather you view statements by the FBI as just part of the grand conspiracy to mislead the American public. Right?
Here's what FBI scientist Douglas Beecher wrote in that scientific, peer reviewed report:
Individuals familiar with the compositions of the powders in the letters have indicated that they were comprised simply of spores purified to different extents (6). However, a widely circulated misconception is that the spores were produced using additives and sophisticated engineering supposedly akin to military weapon production. This idea is usually the basis for implying that the powders were inordinately dangerous compared to spores alone (3, 6, 12; J. Kelly, Washington Times, 21 October 2003; G. Gugliotta and G. Matsumoto, The Washington Post, 28 October 2002). The persistent credence given to this impression fosters erroneous preconceptions, which may misguide research and preparedness efforts and generally detract from the magnitude of hazards posed by simple spore preparations.
Ed
There was an article about this posted just a week or so ago which claims otherwise and specifies the range within which these spores must be in order to be effective when inhaled. And it claims these were within that range.
Not to mention that the FBI refused to make this Douglas Beecher chap available to the press to answer questions, and more importantly, they have also refused on multiple occasions now to answer questions that members of Congress have (in classified briefings no less).
It almost gives one the impression that they've got something to hide.
True. AFIP identified the material as silica in a self-promoting newsletter they wrote. It was NOT a scientific report of any kind, nor was it peer-reviewed. It was just intended to show people are important AFIP is.
In reality, AFIP had no capability for determining the material was silica. They only had the capability for detecting what kinds of ATOMS were in the anthrax that didn't belong in natural anthrax. They detected ATOMS of silicon and oxygen in the anthrax. Silicon atoms do not appear in natural anthrax. Silicon atoms do not appear all by themselves in nature. They are always combined with something else, usually oxygen atoms.
A combination of silicon and oxygen atoms could indicate silicone, some form of manufactured glass or some other combination. But silica is the most common combination of silicon and oxygen atoms. And silica is something that is commonly used to "weaponize" anthrax. So, the natural ASSUMPTION was that there was silica in the anthrax. But it was JUST AN ASSUMPTION. There were no visible silica particles in the anthrax.
It took at least a month to figure out how there could be silicon and oxygen in the anthrax if no one could see any silica particles. The official word has not been released by the FBI, but the best evidence is that the silicon and oxygen were some form of lab contamination from the culprit's lab. Scientists located two old scientific reports which indicated that spores can pick up silicon due to lab contamination. The assumption was that the silicon was somehow absorbed from glass lab equipment. The whole new science of Microbial Forensics was developed to analyze such contamination to see if it can point to a specific lab or a specific process.
It's truly ridiculous to accept what is written in a self-serving newsletter over what was written by a top FBI scientist in a peer-reviewed scientific report printed in the top scientific magazine on microbiology.
Ed
You are misunderstanding. Yes, particles do have to be within a certain range (1 to 5 microns) to be deadly when inhaled. But ALL ANTHRAX SPORES ARE IN THAT RANGE. It's when lots of spores are CLUMPED together into BIG CLUMPS that are larger than 5 microns that they are caught by hairs in the nose and do not get inhaled, or they are coughed out.
You should not mistake what is said about "particles" or "clumps" as pertaining to spores. INDIVIDUAL spores come in only one size. This is a BASIC SCIENTIFIC FACT, and no report regardless of where you read it will change that.
Ed
Only to those who ignore facts in order to promote some kind of conspiracy theory.
Ed
Your story breaks down. Yes, no letter was found. After that, what was found in various post offices is of less importance (in regard to the Florida attack) because the anthrax could have been delivered via non-postal means such as on tainted cash.
"The letter was addressed to an obsolete address for The National Enquirer in Lantana, Florida. It was then forwarded from Lantana to the AMI offices in Boca Raton. It was opened by Stephanie Dailey, whose job was to open letters for The National Enquirer. She's the only person besides Stevens and Blanco who tested positive for anthrax exposure." - edlake
Nope. No letter was found, so you can't pretend to state it's address. Also, an "obsolete address" would have required a Florida letter to be mailed even before September 8.
You've essentially missed every important detail of this entire case.
Interestingly this development, the "no addititve" assertion, does no hurt but helps the FBI case against, or from, Dr. Hatfill.
The small flurry of articles on the anniversary gave the impression the set of perps was greatly enlarged and went beyond people of Hatfill's expertise. To the degree they admitted the Ames strain is in labs across the world this certainly spread the possibility of perps.
But regarding sophitication the media spin was wrong. In reality, IIRC, the weaponization (or whatever you call it) process tended to preclude Hatfill as a suspect, not include. His degree and experience lent itself to vaccine research and such, but the expertise of someone like a chemical engineer, and access to appropriate equipment, was required to produce the "weaponized" product.
AFIP published accurate analysis, not "false assumptions" as you need to pretend in order for your cock-eyed scenario to still have a prayer. See the link in post #71 above.
Wow!
What a whopper! You sir, are the biggest liar I've seen on Free Republic in at least two weeks.
What you have to ask yourself is why? Is Ed Lake lying because of his ego, or because of his ideology, or because he's hoping for financial (or social) gain?
But that he's lying is clear; outlined in black and white with direct quotes above.
See post #80
"See post #80"
Not my point. IOW, Hey, let's get beyond weaponization or not and to real important stuff - which result is best to defend one's self from a Hatfill lawsuit.
There are careers and reputations to protect!!
The anthrax was prepared elsewhere.
Good point ~ and, given the material letter and flat trays are made out of, you end up having a second opportunity to "aerosolize" almost anything ~ as you remove weight (mail) from a tray, the tubes in the container rebound to their original form and suck in air and whatever spores are around. When you add weight (mail) to the tray, the air and whatever else is in the tubules is expelled.
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