You're not helping.
Posted on 07/01/2007 8:58:07 AM PDT by TrebleRebel
WASHINGTON — In the fall of 1992, Kanatjan Alibekov defected from Russia to the United States, bringing detailed, and chilling, descriptions of his role in making biological weapons for the former Soviet Union.
----------- Officials still value his seminal depictions of the Soviet program. But recent events have propelled questions about Alibek's reliability:
No biological weapon of mass destruction has been found in Iraq. His most sensational research findings, with U.S. colleagues, have not withstood peer review by scientific specialists. His promotion of nonprescription pills — sold in his name over the Internet and claiming to bolster the immune system — was ridiculed by some scientists. He resigned as executive director of a Virginia university's biodefense center 10 months ago while facing internal strife over his stewardship.
And, as Alibek raised fear of bioterrorism in the United States, he also has sought to profit from that fear.
By his count, Alibek has won about $28 million in federal grants or contracts for himself or entities that hired him.
The Los Angeles Times explored Alibek's public pronouncements, research and business activities as part of a series that will examine companies and government officials central to the U.S. war on terrorism -----------------------
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
And in the photo above I am demonstrating the hand signal that TrebleRebel uses to signal his readiness.
Hey, don’t concentrate too much on that photo....its not my best work. Bad lighting, and shutter speed was too fast. I’m used to taking photos in real studios, and not in parking garages.
That IP translates to c-68-33-22-36.hsd1.md.comcast.net which means it's someone in Maryland who uses Comcast.net.
It looks to me that he (or she) just wanted to trim down the article and get rid of stuff that is too vague and open to various interpretations. It's supposed to be an article, not a book. Is all that detail about "Congressional Oversight" really needed? Couldn't it be summarized into a sentence or two? And what's the purpose of all those "Comments from Government Officials"?
Which brings us back to Miss Badabing Badablonde.
I have no idea who Badabing Badablonde is, although I sometimes think she thinks I do know.
I have no idea who the "nefarious Michael M" is, either.
No, Ed, I don’t know you and you don’t know me. I’m just an admirer. I have no stake in this anthrax drama whatsoever, except that there are days when its the only compelling conversation on FR.
And.....if I’m not helping, its only because you and Zac are paying WAY too much attention to my posts, and not enough on your own research, theories, and debate. You’re too willing to let any little puff of air be part of your complex and confusing pool of facts.
Now, I could tell you that the last time I went to Wikipedia, it was to read about Maria Tallchief, the Dawes Rolls, and Trail of Tears. But of course, I can’t prove that to you. But hey, you’re welcome to add that to your anthrax research. I’ll help you out....ie, some random poster on FR was reading about Indian Territory, reservations, and migration across the US frontier.....anthrax spores on the plains....researching the life of a spore......oooooo, keep an eye on that one.
Ed wrote a comment a while back on his webpage about the implications of who was Attorney General for resolution of Amerithrax.
He was more right than he knew.
“Mukasey, widely viewed as one of the country’s top trial judges, presided over important trials including the 1995 New York City terror trial of Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman and eleven co-defendants, who were convicted and received lengthy jail terms. In an unusual statement, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, upon reviewing and upholding the judge’s work, noted that Mukasey had ‘presided with extraordinary skill and patience, assuring fairness to the prosecution and to each defendant and helpfulness to the jury. His was an outstanding achievement in the face of challenges far beyond those normally endured by a trial judge.’”
When questioning a Freeper from the Midwest, the Postal Inspectors were startled when she out of the blue mentioned a guy named Nosair. (He was the blind sheik’s bodyguard) (They knew all about him.) The three postal inspectors had flown and then driven a long way to talk with her.
Judge Mukasy is exactly who the Department of Justice would want when the Amerithrax indictment is unveiled — given that the conspirators were all motivated in part to retaliate for the detention of the blind sheik and other leaders who have been detained or rendered.
With Mukasey as Attorney General and Mueller as Director, the Department will have the confidence it needs — and the Administration has come to sorely lack.
On July 4, 1993, United States Postal employee Ahmed Abdel Sattar spoke to the press about Abdel Rahman’s arrest and said “we haven’t decided the time or place, but our Muslim community will demonstrate its outrage at the arrest of the Sheik.” In the indictment of the Staten Island Post Office employee who worshipped in Brooklyn, the United States government alleged: that following his arrest, Abdel Rahman, in a message to his followers recorded while he was in prison, urged: “Oh Muslims! Oh Muslims! ... It is a duty upon all the Muslims around the world to free the Sheikh, and to rescue him from his jail.” Referring to the United States, he implored, “Muslims everywhere, dismember their nation, tear them apart, ruin their economy, provoke their corporations, destroy their embassies, attack their interests, sink their ships, and shoot down their planes, kill them on land, at sea, and in the air. Kill them wherever you find them.” His list is a pretty concise summary of the terrorist actions taken over the next decade.
The tactic of lethal letters delivered by the US Post Office — although not mentioned in this list by Abdel-Rahman - - was not merely the modus operandi of the militant islamists inspired by Abdel-Rahman, it was their signature. The islamists sent letter bombs in late December 1996 from Alexandria, Egypt to newspaper offices in New York City and Washington, D.C. and people in symbolic positions. Musical Christmas cards apparently postmarked in Alexandria, Egypt on December 21, 1996 contained improvised explosive devices. The bombs were mailed on the Night of Decree. The letters were sent in connection with the earlier bombing of the World Trade Center and the imprisonment of the blind sheik, Sheik Abdel Rahman. The former leader of the Egyptian Al-Gamaa al-Islamiya (”Islamic Group”), Abdel-Rahman was also a spiritual leader of Al Qaeda.
The letter bombs were sent in connection with the treatment of the Egyptian islamists imprisoned for the earlier attack on the WTC and a related plot. The purpose of the letter bombs — which resulted in minimal casualty — was to send a message. (There initially was an outstanding $2 million reward — under the rewards for justice program, the reward now is up to $5 million.) There was no claim of responsibility. There was no explanation. Once one had been received, the next ten, mailed on two separate dates, were easily collected. Sound familiar? Two bombs were also sent to Leavenworth, where a key WTC 1993 defendant was imprisoned, addressed to “Parole Officer.” (The position does not exist).
The FBI suspected the Vanguards of Conquest, a mysterious group led by Egyptian Islamic Jihad head Ayman Zawahiri. The group can be thought of as either the military wing of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad or perhaps just EIJ by another name. It is sometimes known as the New Jihad. Yassir Al-Sirri was the Egyptian Islamic Jihad/ Vanguards of Conquest publicist and worked out of his London-based home while on the public dole. He was in regular phone contact with the Post Office employee Sattar. Another group under suspicion for the mailings was the Egyptian Islamic Group.
The next month, on February 12, 1997, the Islamic Group, for its part, issued a statement: “The Islamic Group declares all American interests legitimate targets to its legitimate “jihad until the release of al prisoners, on top of whom is Abdel Rahman.”
Abdel-Rahman’s friend, Ayman Zawahiri, was head of Al Qaeda’s biochemical program and the blind sheik’s son. Mohammed was on Al Qaeda’s three- member WMD committee. Ayman named his biochem program Zabadi or “Curdled Milk.” The CIA has known of Zawahiri’s plans to use anthrax since July 1998, when the CIA seized a disc from Ayman Zawahiri’s right-hand, Ahmed Mabruk during his arrest outside a restaurant by the CIA in Baku, Azerbaijan.
In late 1998, the Egyptian government told the US that Al Qaeda was going to attack and that the man behind the planning was the brother of Sadat’s assassin, Mohammed Islambouli.
The “Presidential Daily Brief” on December 4, 1998 to President Clinton, titled “Bin Ladin Preparing to Hijack US Aircraft and Other Attacks,” states: “1. Reporting [COUNTRY THAT WAS SOURCE OF REPORTING REDACTED ] suggests Bin Ladin and his allies are preparing for attacks in the US, including an aircraft hijacking to obtain the release of Shaykh Umar ‘Abd al-Rahman, Ramzi Yousef, and Muhammad Sidiq ‘Awda “ ‘Awda was al-Hawali’s fellow radical Saudi sheik who was detained from 1994 through 1998. US Sheik Al-Timimi drafted letter for al-Hawali and had it hand-delivered to members of Congress on first anniversary of anthrax letters to Senators. Sheik Abdel-Rahman, Awda and al-Hawali were all expressly the subject of Bin Laden’s 1996 declaration of war against the US. The December 1998 PDB continued: “One source quoted a senior member of Gama’ at al-Islamiyya (IG) saying that, as of October, the IG had completed planning an operation in the US on behalf of bin Ladin, but that the operation was on hold. A senior Bin Ladin operative from Saudi Arabia was to visit IG counterparts in the US soon thereafter to discuss options — perhaps including an aircraft hijacking.”
The December 4, 1998 PDB stated: “IG leader Islambouli in late September was planning to hijack a US airliner during the “next couple of weeks” to free ‘Abd al-Rahman and the other prisoners, according to what may be a different source.”
That very day, on December 4, 1998, CIA’s George Tenet issued a directive to several CIA officials: “We are at war. I want no resources or people spared in this effort, either inside CIA or the Community.” In invisible ink, the memo continued: “Use FreeRepublic if you have to, I don’t care. But if the Wikipedia entry suggests you are CIA, be sure to delete it in a false flag operation.”
Islambouli had an Algerian passport. He left Peshawar, Pakistan for Afghanistan in Spring 1993 upon a crackdown on foreign fighters. When the blind sheik visited Peshawar, he had stayed at a large house outside of Peshawar with both Islambouli and Ayman. In more recent years, Islambouli reportedly spent some time living in Algeria. Biochem-guy and not-as-dead-as-we-thought Midhat Mursi had connections to Algerians. Perhaps there was a connection between Midhat Mursi and Islambouli.
In his introduction on an August 2006 tape, Al-Zawahiri said the Egyptian group was led by this same Mohammed al-Islambouli, the younger brother of Khaled al-Islambouli, the militant who assassinated Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat in 1981.
The Al Qaeda spymaster Al-Hakayma, who had written about the Amerithrax investigation, appeared on the tape. Al-Hakayma said former members had decided to revive the group and rejected the imprisoned leaders’ adherence to a truce. He vowed loyalty to Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman. This was a controversial announcement because the shura members of the group had all announced violence against innocents and dissolved their military wing. Gertz in his book has explained that Islambouli was in a cell with KSM in planning the attacks. Perhaps KSM is taking just a little too much credit in his confession at Gitmo this year.
It was notable that the person making the announcement, Al-Hakayma, was the Al Qaeda spymaster, an Egyptian Islamic Group member himself, who had summarized the Amerithrax investigation in a 2002 treatise on US intelligence apparatus. Al-Hakayma says in the interview that a group of hardliners from Al Jamaa Al Islamiya had joined Al Qaeda, “to help our great scholar, His Eminence the unshakeable Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, languishing in the dungeons of the American prisons, and to repel the attacking enemy which is occupying the countries of the Muslims.”
Who is more well-suited to overseeing the prosecution of the supporters of Abdel-Rahman than the judge who heard the trial of Abdel-Rahman in the first place?
It just occurred to me that I worked at the US Courthouse in New York (at Foley Square) in 1985 for a Second Circuit Court of Appeals judge. My judge was a Reagan appointee — and the nicest guy I’ve ever met. The US has come to be way too partisan in a destructive way. In this context, it is adherence to the rule of law that is important — along with confidence in the administration of justice.
My friend Sherwood writes today for the Centre for Research on Globalization (see google news):
“The last “terrorist” strike on U.S. soil was the anthrax attack on Congress in October, 2001 that killed five people -— and the anthrax used was traced back to U.S. military facilities, George W. Bush, commander-in-chief.”
Sherwood Ross is a Miami, FL-based publicist ...”
Sherwood is the publicist for an impeach Bush effort that included at or near the helm, Professor Boyle, an attorney for militant islamists Francis reports are under investigation by the FBI. (Francis reports that the FBI asked him to inform on his clients, which he understandably refused to do; he says they then put him on all 5 terror watch lists).
Sherwood, who is paying you to make the suggestion above about anthrax?
Francis?
The title is “Is the “Terrorist Threat” Another Bush-Cheney Fabrication?”
This is precisely why there needs to be an indictment and successful prosecution in Amerithrax. It would go far in defeating the ridiculous related theories (especially common in the Arab world) that the US government was behind 9/11, that a missile flew into the Pentagon, (not a plane) etc. Castro was the latest to make the argument. Sherwood does not disclose or address the infiltration that I allege occurred because his mission is the political agenda of impeachment, not true crime analysis.
The last thing the administration of Justice needs is a political agenda rather than the rule of law.
The Administration need to bring out a heavy hitter in the clean-up position.
The mighty Mukasey is up at bat.
b
The Dallas News today has a long story touching infiltration in the context of some old Muslim Brotherhood document.
Trial papers detail plan to seize U.S.: Muslim Brotherhood’s takeover plot emerges in Holy Land case.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-brotherhood_17met.ART0.State.Edition2.41fe33d.html
“A transcript of a Brotherhood orientation meeting recorded in the early 1980s includes discussions of the need for “securing the group” from infiltration by “Zionism, Masonry ... the CIA, FBI, etc. so that we find out if they are monitoring us” and “how can we get rid of them.”
Tehe. Those pesky Masons — always infiltrating the islamist groups plotting to take over America by sending a small car filled with Shriner clowns to get in under the radar.
I mistakenly used the word “militant” in describing Professor Boyle’s clients.
I have no idea who his clients are and whether they are militant.
He has done a lot of very worthwhile human rights work.
I only know, from his description, that the FBI in 2004 wanted him, he says, to inform on clients he described as Arab and Muslim.
While he has been associated with the Palestinian Liberation Organization since 1987, and sought the indictment of President Bush Sr. in 1991 relating to the starvation of Iraqi children, and had a recent representation relating to a massacre in Bosnia, I have no information that he represents any bad guys.
He should be commended for his human rights advocacy and I ask only that he not muddle up true crime analysis by a failure of due diligence — such as his failure to distinguish between ISU and USDA in Ames, or the suggestion that the ISU was an “Ames index” (such as was the phrase by the fellow who interviewed Hauer recently). (In contrast, the Keim lab maintains an “Ames index”).
Moreover, if anyone suggests that the ISU had the Ames strain, they should articulate their reasoning for thinking it did, given that the Ames strain came from a cow in Texas.
Any attorney who lacks the time to do a due diligence should not go out of his way to advocate on the issue — whether pro bono or not, and whether in advocating for militants or non-militants. Politics has no role in true crime analysis.
As for Sherwood, no publicist should advocate on behalf of a client without disclosing the identity of the client. It was bad enough that he was casting him self in countless articles as a freelance journalist who just happened to be quoting Francis as an expert, when actually they were working together as allies in an attempt to impeach Bush.
TrebleRebel is MI6.
Perhaps Debat is Mossad.
Ed and I are just bad-ass do-gooder bounty hunters.
Salon.com addressed these issues in 2002.
June 4, 2002 Tuesday
“COINTELPRO’s overdue return,” BYLINE: By David Horowitz
“The new FBI will be able to investigate Americans who pose a threat to national security — and that’s a good thing.”
“... Francis Boyle is a legal advisor to the terrorist PLO and the terrorist Palestine Authority. His agenda in the Middle East, laid out in the pro-Palestinian Internet magazine Counterpunch, is “dismantling the criminal apartheid regime” in Israel! In fact, Boyle is a supporter of the anti-Israel disinvestment movement and compares the liberation struggle against Israel to the liberation struggle against South Africa. The destruction of Israel doesn’t phase Boyle at all. But then Boyle sees the present Republic of South Africa, which has tragically become the rape, murder and AIDS capital of the world, as “a beacon of hope” for mankind.
While many people in the civil rights business are genuine liberals, others are people who sympathize with terrorists like the Panthers and the Weathermen, and now Hamas and al-Qaida. This should be a warning to all Americans who care about their country. It is not only that we have to take the threat to our homeland more seriously. We have to become more sophisticated about the threat we face.”
Comment:
I once was aghast by the excesses of COINTELPRO when I studied its history relating to the anti-war movement. (For example, creating petty rumors that so-and-so was sleeping with Badabing Badablonde etc.)
On the other hand, in disrupting KKK, it seemed highly successful. There came a time when it was estimated that 1 out of 3 KKK members was a federal informant and so leaders had to sell their mailing list and run for Senate or Governor in Louisiana.
I guess it depends on your point of view.
But let’s take a recent example in considering how excesses are to be judged in this national security context of the threat posed by Al Qaeda.
I was recently discussing these subjects with an ardent IANA supporter and he mentioned COINTELPRO. He gave the example of Aref in Albany. That involved an undercover operation involving money laundering to buy a (fictitious) stinger missile to assassinate a Pakistani official who supposedly would be visiting NYC. Well, it turns out that the government now has revealed that a CI says that the same imam received a message from Bin Laden shortly after 9/11 asking about flight schools and asking how close he could get to an [redacted] aircraft. His diary from 1999 shows that he was planning with Krekar, who founded Ansar Al-Islam, to develop a center for Krekar in the US. Correspondence with the head of the Syracuse charity said his assistance was expected. Then the Syracuse guy, in an email, was planning a “wedding” for a non-existent daughter with someone in London. Although there was no enhancement sought for terrorism, the sentencing memo quoted a document showing he funded the group renamed Ansar each year.
If there was an innocent explanation for the email using “wedding” as code, his defense counsel should have explained it, because the local newspaper article was very dramatic. I’ll look again but the article was nowhere to be found in electronic archives to the best of my knowledge the last I looked; a different IANA supporter suggests he needed to talk in code because otherwise Saddam would have seized the charity donations. Wedding is Al Qaeda codespeak for event, and those out there using code for innocent reasons, might best try to avoid using the code used by Al Qaeda operatives.
It seems that judging undercover operations, it helps to keep an open mind as to what information the government has and has been moved to act on. For that, we may need to be more patient than TrebleRebel. Another strong supporter of the IANA fellow here in Syracuse is my friend and neighbor, and lives a few houses from me. The Washington Post says she corresponds with the good doctor from prison, where his communications are strictly controlled. When I first met her about some local flooding, the first thing she said — just about the first sentence — is that she’ll never change her mind about the fellow. No matter what. (She is friendly, sincere very well-intentioned — in short, flat-out wonderful.) So we talk about other things like how great the weather has been and neighborhood issues. Still other supporters are equally enchanting.
In the Syracuse case, as I recall, it was an accountant who was an undercover fed.
But like the new Albany imam (see today’s “Made in America” article in the Albany Times) said in an article today: A mind is like a parachute — it only works if it is open.
(And, yes, that may require reading or making inquiry which few people have time or the inclination to do).
Even Ken Alibek told me he didn’t know — and apparently he didn’t choose to know — any of the stuff about Al-Timimi’s charity. All the GMU biodefense students knew nothing — heck, Ali was a few years ahead of them. They were too busy doing biothreat analysis relating to case studies from the 1950s or going off to new jobs in the biothreat analysis field.
Well, perhaps if someone had taken the time to know, Ali wouldn’t have been given a high security clearance and access to the DARPA-funded Center for Biodefense.
Perhaps GMU might earmark some of the $25 million it snared in pork barrel money for taking necessary precautions related to using deadly pathogens so near our nation’s Capitol. (Which, btw, seems really stupid.)
I'm not sure that whatever attention I paid to your posts had anything to do with anthrax.
Every weekend, TrebleRebel has been posting images addressed to you, images which look like wimpering messages from a love-sick teenager you once met in Paris. I couldn't tell if he was using this thread to write some fanciful form of love poetry or if he was pleading with you to help him in some way. So, I think everyone was waiting to see how you would respond.
But, I'm glad you find the conversation "compelling." I do, too -- at least some parts of it. When everyone has a totally different point of view, you can never tell when something new could pop up.
From now on I won't let myself be distracted by images from the lovelorn or the responses.
Actually, he sends me those images because he knows I have an interest in phallic architecture.
BTW Ed, did you look real close at any of those pictures? were they real people with real body parts, or were they fake and need their reputations sanitized?
Hi Badablondie. I should have told you that Ed get’s over excited looking at images of what he knows he could never have. I think that’s why he took up exposing fake nude celebrities in the first place.
D’ailleurs, quand allons-nous à Paris ? Je connais une barre gentille appelée le Violon Dingue.
“Q: Could someone expert in making dried milk make the product used in the Daschle and Leahy letters?
A: Let me answer it this way — yes, it would be the same technique to make a powderized anthrax.” — Ken Alibek, March 31, 2003 Washington Post chat
“It is also important to note that the people who participated in that exercise used all open source information, they used the U.S Patent Office and they used out of print microbiology textbooks. It is a scary incredible thing, and it is not just theoretical, it has already been capitalized both in laboratory modelling and in actual experience. I refer you back to the intelligence community’s information on the American anthrax attack in 2001, which we won’t discuss here.” -Dr. Michael V. Callahan, Director, Biodefense & Mass Casualty Care, CIMIT/Massachusetts General
Given the wholesale changes Ed has just made to Wikipedia, I’ll substitute this in its place on the method of weaponization. Please leave it up for 5 minutes so I can show my brother-in-law who has promised me a $1 for every minute it remains up.
Made in America: The Cell Culture
Barbara Hatch Rosenberg, who runs the Federation of American Scientists’ chemical and biological arms control program, announced in December 2001. “I’m certain it’s someone connected with a government program, or who works in a laboratory connected with a government program,” she said. “The grapevine has it that the results of an experiment on genetic variation at certain locations suggest that this material was made in a very small batch, and that suggests that the material was not made in some old weapons program on a large scale,” she said, citing sources inside and outside the government. “All the available information is consistent with a U.S. government lab as the source, either of the anthrax itself or of the recipe for the U.S. weaponization process,” wrote Rosenberg on a webpage.
Scientists have determined that anthrax spores mailed to Capitol Hill last fall were made less than two years ago before being mailed. Moreover, contrary to what has often been implied or assumed, the technique to weaponize the anthrax used in the Fall 2001 was not the one used by the US Army in weaponizing anthrax in the 1950s. William Patrick’s process for weaponizing anthrax involved freeze drying and chemical processing whereas it was the process contemplated by Al Qaeda that involved spraydrying. “We made little freeze-dried pellets of anthrax,” Donald Schattenberg explained, “then we ground them down with a high-speed colloid mill.” The finding cast doubt on the hypothesis that the spores could have been stolen from a lab a long time ago.
Commenting on the fine powder sent Senator Daschle and Leahy, “Only nations, probably, have figured out how to do this,” Professor Matthew Meselson at Harvard said at the time. But, he adds, this means “how to do it is in the minds of people,” including former employees of weapons programs in the Soviet Union and the US. Dr. Spertzel, the U.N. Special Commission chief biological inspector from 1994 to 1998 told the Washington Post: “In my opinion, there are maybe four or five people in the whole country who might be able to make this stuff, and I’m one of them. And even with a good lab and staff to help run it, it might take me a year to come up with a product as good.” At a break from a briefing before a Congressional subcommittee in December 2001, Dr. Richard Spertzel and Dr. Dr. Ken Alibek discussed access to the Ames strain and the method of weaponization. They might just as well have been demonstrating how to palm a basketball — with Dr. Alibek agreeing with Dr. Spertzel on the likely general method but saying it is easier than Dr. Spertzel may think. According to an article in the New England Journal of Medicine, “Scanning electron microscopy of the spores used in the Senate office attack showed that they range from individual particles to aggregates of 100 [microns] or more. Spores were uniform in size and appearance and the aggregates had a propensity to pulverize (i.e., disperse into smaller particles when disturbed).”
At least everyone can agree that the product, fortunately, was not resistant to antibiotics. “That’s the best news you’ve had as president,” Condi Rice told the President. Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani noted at the time, “The baby has responded to treatment, and we are very hopeful he is going to make a full and complete recovery.” As Tom Brokaw said in closing a broadcast, “In Cipro we trust.”
A scientist from the FBI Laboratory, Dr. Doug Beecher, in a July 2006 issue of “Applied and Environmental Microbiology” provided me a copy of his article that reports that:
“a widely circulated misconception is that the spores were produced using additives and sophisticated engineering supposedly akin to military weapon production. The issue is usually the basis for implying that the powders were inordinately dangerous compared to spores alone. 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.”
Harvard University Matthew Meselson reviewed the language before publication. “The statement should have had a reference,” editor-in-chief of the microbiology journal told a trade periodical. “An unsupported sentence being cited as fact is uncomfortable to me. Any statement in a scientific article should be supported by a reference or by documentation.” Footnoted or not, the two sentences provide the best and authoritative insight on the question of the method of processing since the mailings. The two sentences essentially said what Dr. Alibek had been saying: “’[J]ust because you have a sophisticated product doesn’t mean the technique has to be sophisticated.’ “ Silica in the culture medium would not be a sophisticated “additive” but would serve to concentrate the agent.
The FBI scientists have been able to distinguish between water isotopes ratios in the anthrax. Brian Williams reports that investigators have told NBC that the water used to make the spores came from the Northeastern United States. researchers have been able to establish that anthrax grown in water in the Northeastern United States is distinguishable from anthrax grown in water from the Southeast and Pacific Northwest. In one published anthrax study, researchers grew Bacillus subtilis, a harmless bacteria that resembles Bacillus anthracis, using local water from five different U.S. cities. The scientists were able to distinguish those grown in various cities. The method can be used to narrow the number of possible origins of the water based on the number of oxygen and hydrogen isotopes. Similarly, a press release announced in September 2003 that University of Maryland researchers have developed a technique to help the FBI track the origins of deadly anthrax spores by identifying the medium used to grow it. The FBI asked Maryland professor Catherine Fenselau to turn her mass spectrometry lab to the forensic task of sleuthing how bacillus spores, such as anthrax, are prepared.
Interviewer Kestenbaum said: “Ehleringer is now creating a map showing how the isotope ratios of water vary anthrax was grown, it may rule some places out.” As defined by the Census Bureau, the Northeast region of the United States covers nine states: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont. A scientist explained the research in an NPR interview in 2004.
I infer from the NBC report that from the isotope ratios, authorities believe either that the anthrax was grown in one of the yellow (or perhaps light green) areas, but not one of the dark green, blue or red areas. [Perhaps Ed could upload the map as I don’t know how to upload pictures] The yellow swath includes much of the Northeastern United States — places like Syracuse, NY but also places like Ann Arbor and Minneapolis. If that is the isotope ratio range, Islamabad and Baghdad can be excluded. Pretty much all foreign locations apparently can be excluded (except for parts of Canada), along with places with comparable oxygen isotope ratios such as Central New Jersey, Maryland and Ohio. Locales with such excludable ratios include Pakistan (Lahore), Iraq (Baghdad), and Singapore. Outside of the United States, pretty much only the adjacent parts of Canada above Northeastern US (e.g., parts of Ontario and Quebec) match the yellow swath that the scientists found distinguishing. The authors of one of the key articles noted that they couldn’t distinguish between North Carolina and Ohio — the dark green. Similarly, they can’t distinguish between Central New Jersey and North Carolina (again, the dark green). The key studies in the peer reviewed literature indicate that they were funded by the Central Intelligence Agency.
Ehleringer and his colleagues published a March 2007 article titled “Stable isotope ratios of tap water in the contiguous United States” in “Water Resources Research.” The study was funded by the “federal government.” The raw data survey results have been embargoed by the federal government.” ( I believe the agency would usually be identified). In other water isotope ratio studies the funding agency was identified as the Central Intelligence Agency or whatever agency it was. (It varied). Perhaps this March 2007 study was funded by the Department of Justice/Federal Bureau of Investigation and was done specifically for the purpose of laying the scientific groundwork of a prosecution in Amerithrax. While Helen W. Kreuzer-Martin, the Maryland scientist in a study published in April 2007 titled “Stable Isotope Ratios and the Forensic Analysis of Microorganisms,” was looking at the nutrients in the culture, the Utah scientist in this study is looking at the tap water. The DOJ/FBI likely hopes to put all the data together with the more familiar reasons to suspect someone (means, motive, modus operandi and opportunity), and put on a case that to a moral certainty proves it was committed by the perp(s). Absent the scientific evidence, there is a lack of a “smoking gun.” Here, based on this new science, there apparently is thought to be a smoking petri dish
By looking at the oxygen, hydrogen and deuterium geospatial distribution, you can more precisely identify the here the water came from. For example, the deuterium map might be relied upon to eliminate an ambiguity left by the range indicated by the oxygen and hydrogen maps.
The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology detected silica. The Daily News (New York) reported on October 30, 2001
[USAMRIID Major General John] Parker did disclose that the anthrax in question contained silica, a common substance found in sand and quartz.
“I don’t know what the significance of it is,” Parker said.
One expert said the presence of silica is significant, but he declined to say why, citing national security concerns.
“I don’t think I want to give people - terrorists - any information to help them, said Dr. Charles Bailey, a scientist at Advanced Biosystems Inc. and former commander of the Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases.
Former Russian bioweaponeer Ken Alibek and Harvard biologist Matthew Meselson have opined that there was no special silica coating observable in the Scanning Electron Microscope (”SEM”). images they saw. The presence of any silica, Drs. Meselson and Alibek say, may have come from the environment because of the special tendency of anthrax spore coats to attract silicon. (The lead FBI scientist Dwight Adams relied on the study provided the FBI by Meselson in briefing the Congress in November 2002.) Indeed, the silica may have been in the culture medium and then removed as described by patents filed by researchers at Dr. Alibek’s Center for Biodefense at GMU. Dr. Alibek reports that, like Dr. William Patrick, he was also given a polygraph.
In a March 31, 2003 public exchange sponsored by the Washington Post, in response to my written question submitted in advance, Kenneth Alibek, former head of Russia’s biological program, to include its anthrax production program, said: “This anthrax wasn’t sophisticated, didn’t have coatings, had electric charge and many other things.” In other responses, he further explained: “There was no special need to add silica to this anthrax. Presence or absence of silica says nothing about whether it was state sponsored.”
US bioweaponeer William Patrick gave it a 7 out of 10 -— calling it professionally done but not weapons grade. In an interview with CBS, William Patrick explained that he had been given a polygraph in June 2002 about the anthrax letters. He reports that “The FBI that they wanted me to become a part of their inner circle of—of experts, and that in order to become a part of that inner circle of technical experts, that I’d have to pass a polygraph test.” In fact, he has not been quoted since, as he often was in 2001. Thus, this was a good indication of what scientific information the FBI credits or at least that they credit his expertise.
On April 11, 2003, Scott Shane reported that reverse engineering “carried out at the Army’s biodefense center at Dugway Proving Ground in Utah, raises the disquieting possibility that al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups could create lethal bioweapons without scientific or financial help from a state.” Quoting one outside bioterrorism expert. “It shows you can have a fairly sophisticated product with fairly rudimentary methods.” At last report, the reverse engineering reportedly was not able to recreate the identical product.
Lisa Bronson, deputy undersecretary of defense for technology security policy and proliferation, has said that commercially available equipment used to make powdered milk could be used to make powderized anthrax. A spray dryer is used in chemical and food processing to manufacture dried egg, powdered milk, animal feed, cake mixes, citrus juices, coffee, corn syrup, cream, creamers, dried eggs, potatoes, shortening, starch derivatives, tea, tomatoes, yeast, and — last but not least — yogurt. Washington State University also has an informative discussion on the web. Making dried milk is not rocket science and doesn’t require a PhD. But, if experience is any guide, Al Qaeda has PhD’s and even rocket scientists who are sympathetic to its cause (indeed, even the father of Pakistan’s atomic bomb
To find the missing spraydryer, perhaps the FBI merely needs to find and trace the steps of Al Qaeda’s expert yogurt or dried milk or animal feedstuffs or rice hull processor. Dr. Alibek has told me that he now thinks that it was made using a fluidized bed dryer rather than a spraydryer.
A key fact is that of the exosporium, which is a loose-fitting protein envelope surrounding about 7-10 spore coats that overlay the cortex, had traces of silica. The exosporium is the spore’s outermost layer. The silica was not dispersed inside of the B. anthracis spore coats and cortex under the exosporium. Ari Fleischer discusses the silica in the anthrax in his book Taking Heat. He reports that he had argued at length with ABC News over its story that the additive was bentonite (which arguably was characteristic of the Iraq program) — and explains that from the start he had told ABC that it was silica, not bentonite, that had been detected. The suggestion that AFIP experts did not know the difference between silica and silcon is not well founded, and the scientist who performed the EDX specifically told the journalist that oxygen was also detected in ratios consistent with silicon dioxide.
One potential lead that was reported in the press concerned a $100,000 piece of equipment bought by someone from Pakistan paying cash who had it delivered to 215 Main St. in Ft. Lee, NJ, one mile from where pilot Nawaf al-Hazmi lived. Nawaf attended a critical meeting with Yazid Sufaat, the biochemist working on anthrax, in January 2000. The United States alleged in its indictment of Zacarias Moussaoui that on or about April 1, 2001, Nawaf al-Hazmi was in Oklahoma (at the same time Zacarias Moussaoui was in Norman, Oklahoma). Nawaf then lived in Falls Church, VA and attended mosque and met with the imam that spoke alongside fellow Falls Church imam Ali Al-Timimi at a conference with other Salafists in Toronto and London in July and August 2001. The individual from Karachi who had ordered the processor pled guilty to a check kiting scheme that raised the funds used to purchase the processor. The purchaser, Syed Athar Abbas from California and then New Jersey, used the name Arthur Abbas in making the purchase. The front company was Computers Dot Com, a computer peripherals wholesaling firm, owned by Abbas. A Syed Athar Abbas (with records showing a different age and a different social security number) had a computer peripherals wholesaling firm named Mixun Solutions, also based in Karachi. Mixun Solutions went defunct after the New Jersey Syed Athar Abbas was arrested. According to the database PACER, he had initially been denied bail because he turned in two expired passports but failed to turn in the third. The New Jersey Syed Athar Abbas was given back his passport after serving a 15 month sentence.
The Homeland Security Subcommittee on Prevention of Nuclear and Biological Attack, held a hearing in July 2005 on “Engineering Bio-Terror Agents: Lessons from the Offensive U.S. and Russian Biological Weapons Programs.” The hearing evaluated Al Qaeda’s ability to develop and use catastrophic biological weapons — such as weaponized anthrax — as part of the Subcommittee’s broader review of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) bio-threat assessment activities. The hearing also examined the known biological warfare capabilities developed by the U.S. and Russian offensive programs, and the potential of those capabilities being utilized in future terrorist attacks. Witnesses at the hearing included: Dr. Kenneth Alibek, Executive Director, Center for Biodefense, George Mason University; Dr. Roger Brent, Director and President, Molecular Sciences Institute; and Dr. Michael V. Callahan, Director, Biodefense & Mass Casualty Care, CIMIT/Massachusetts General Hospital.
As Dr. Michael V. Callahan, Director, Biodefense & Mass Casualty Care, CIMIT/Massachusetts General, explained:
“It is also important to note that the people who participated in that exercise used all open source information, they used the U.S Patent Office and they used out of print microbiology textbooks. It is a scary incredible thing, and it is not just theoretical, it has already been capitalized both in laboratory modelling and in actual experience. I refer you back to the intelligence community’s information on the American anthrax attack in 2001, which we won’t discuss here.”
Kathryn Crockett, Ken Alibek’s assistant, brilliantly addressed these issues in her 2006 thesis, “A historical analysis of Bacillus anthracis as a biological weapon and its application to the development of nonproliferation and defense strategies.” She expresses her special thanks to Dr. Ken Alibek and Dr. Bill Patrick. Dr. Patrick consulted with the FBI and so the FBI credits his expertise. Dr. Alibek’s access to know-how is beyond reasonable dispute. Katie successfully defended the thesis before an esteemed panel that included USAMRIID head and Ames strain researcher Charles Bailey. She says that scientists who analyzed the powder through viewing micrographs or actual contact are divided over the quality of the powder. She cites Gary Matsumoto’s “Science” article in summarizing the debate. She says the FBI has vaccillated on silica.
“Regarding the specific issue of weaponization, according to several scientists at USAMRIID who examined the material, the powder created a significant cloud when agitated meaning that the adhesion of the particles had been reduced. Reducing the adhesion of the particles meant that the powder would fly better.” She explains that “The most common way to reduce electrostatic charge is to add a substance to the mixture, usually a silica based substance.”
On the issue of encapsulation, she reports that “many experts who examined the powder stated the spores were encapsulated. Encapsulation involves coating bacteria with a polymer which is usually done to protect fragile bacteria from harsh conditions such as extreme heat and pressure that occurs at the time of detonation (if in a bomb), as well as from moisture and ultraviolet light. The process was not originally developed for biological weapons purposes but rather to improve the delivery of various drugs to target organs or systems before they were destroyed by enzymes in the circulatory system” (citing Alibek and Crockett, 2005). “The US and Soviet Union, however, “ she explains, “used this technique in their biological weapons programs for pathogens that were not stable in aerosol form... Since spores have hardy shells that provide the same protection as encapsulation would, there is no need to cover them with a polymer. “ She explains that one “possible explanation is that the spore was in fact encapsulated but not for protective purpose. Encapsulation also reduces the need for milling when producing a dry formulation.” By reducing the need for milling, she means permits greater concentration of the biological agent. If the perpetrator was knowledgeable of the use of encapsulation for this purpose, then he or she may have employed it because sophisticated equipment was not at his disposal.”
My consulting military scientist who has made anthrax simulants described the GMU patents as relating to an encapsulation technique which serves to increase the viability of a wide range of pathogens.
Richard L. Lambert, the FBI inspector in charge of the “Amerithrax” investigation, told the court in a filing that a civil suit by Dr. Steve Hatfill could jeopardize the probe and expose national secrets related to U.S. bioweapons defense measures. “In the hands of those hostile to the U.S., this valuable intelligence could aid state sponsors of terrorism or terrorist organizations in their efforts to genetically engineer or alter their anthrax bioweapons to ‘spoof’ or escape detection.” Lambert said that disclosure also could make public sensitive intelligence collection sources and methods.
In “connecting the dots” one would want to consider whether any supporter of the militants had access to the know-how of this encapsulation technique. I’ve posed the question whether Ali Al-Timimi (another GMU grad student at the department), had access to such know-how. A supporter of the Taliban who was working with Bin Laden’s spiritual mentor, Al-Timimi was a Salafist imam sentenced to life plus 70 years for sedition and exhorting some young men to go abroad and defend their faith. We might also consider whether any supporter of the militants has expertise in such polymerization or encapsulation relating to drug delivery, such as biochemist Magdy al-Nashar. He studied in North Carolina in 2000. His webpage at Leeds explained he was expert in functional polymers used in the delivery of drugs.
Ali Al-Timimi was a graduate microbiology student at George Mason University, where famed Russian bioweaponeer and former USAMRIID head Charles Bailey on March 14, 2001 filed a patent involving the use of hydrophobic silica in permitting greater concentration of biological agents. Here is a Floor Plan for the First Floor of Discovery Hall at George Mason University. The First Floor that intermingled the Center for Biodefense/Hadron and the GMU/ATCC computational sciences people.
A BBC interviewer explained:
“The private contractor companies linked to the military and jokingly referred to as “beltway bandits” because they’re sprinkled around the Washington beltway ring-road, is where individuals with the right mix of skills might be working. Some of these contractors are now known to have been involved in classified bio-defence projects. One of these secret projects, carried out in the Nevada desert, was part of a series of three In the first few days of September last year - immediately prior to the attacks of the 11th, the New York Times carried a major investigation which at any other time would have been a story of huge significance...It revealed three secret bio-defence projects at a time when the American people believed none was taking place. One - run by a contractor - Battelle - was to create genetically altered anthrax.”
GMU microbiology grad Al-Timimi, who was working with and had been taught by Bin Laden’s sheik, did mathematical support work for the Navy, a Beltway contractor. What did his work involve?
When pressed by the interviewer, “Does it nag at you in the back of your mind that possibly you do know him?” Dr. Bill Patrick said: “Possibly, possibly, I could have talked to these people. But it would have been within the context of their having a need to know.” He explained: “ Most of my discussions about the biological problem has been in secure conferences and meetings, and involve people with need to know, with security clearance and what have you. I don’t talk about ‘how to’, I don’t get into ‘how to’ with many people, no people other than the fact that those who really have a need to know.”
Al-Timimi had a high security clearance for some of his work for the government. Why? When?
Proliferation of know-how serves to proliferate opportunities for access to that know-how.
Amerithrax Trivia question: What escaped Al Qaeda operative, who tunneled a 150 feet tunnel into the girl’s lavatory at the nearby mosque in the capital city of Yemen, worked at a Buffalo plant that made 35 million pounds of whey powder a year? (Elbaneh)
Amerithrax Trivia question #2: Are Yemeni officials entitled to $5 million reward if the operative turns himself in — a second time no less? Or should Elbaneh be able to get it and then give it to his favorite charity or political organization. (Perhaps as a compromise the US could build them a new jail).
Amerithrax Trivia question #3: What former supervisor in John O’Neill’s FBI-NYC Radical Fundamentalism Unit moved to Buffalo and ended up briefing Mueller on the details of powderized whey making? (after starting with an anonymous email saying that two AQ recruiters were in town and the boys had attended an AQ camp for training) (G-Man Ed Needham gave the briefing and got a glass eagle in his kitchen as his reward. But does Mueller know about the powderized whey making at Sorrento?)
The recruiters were in touch, for example, with Attash, OBL’s bodyguard, who attended the January 2000 meeting at anthrax lab tech Sufaat’s KL condo.
For summer beach reading, see JIHAD NEXT DOOR, a very readable new book by an NPR correspondent.
Whey or milk plasma is the liquid remaining after milk has been curdled and strained.
ph.answers.yahoo.com/question/ index?qid=20070715003230AAMwgq5
In 1999, Ayman embarked on an anthrax weaponization project codenamed Curdled Milk (Whey).
Damn, I’m good.
Book ‘em, Ed. (Needham, not Lake)
Here is a column last week (special to the Washington Post) by the author of Jihad Next Door on Elbaneh and the prosecution. Now someone should ask Dina what the whey processing was like at Sorrento.
Enemy Within? Not Quite
Monday, September 10, 2007
By Dina Temple-Raston
Special to The Washington Post
http://www.cantonrep.com/index.php?ID=375326&Category=14&subCategoryID=
“Officials both inside and outside the FBI told me that if they were handling the Lackawanna case today, they would do it differently: They would have allowed the situation to play itself out, and they would have waited longer to see what kind of intelligence they might have gleaned from the group. But the political environment in 2002 required a heavier hand, and decisions about suspected terrorists still had a tang of vengeance.”
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Comment: Ah, yes, the usual coded reference I see everywhere. “Tang” as in powder. ;)
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“American justice has started walking back from such extremes. Consider some of the recent so-called homegrown terrorism cases. The Muslim men accused of planning an attack on Fort Dix, N.J., were arrested after a 15-month investigation during which the FBI had been watching the six New Jersey residents around the clock. The decision to arrest them came only when they were about to purchase weapons from an undercover FBI agent. The FBI allowed the plot to unspool in hopes of discovering an overseas connection or al-Qaida link.
One episode at that guesthouse in Afghanistan offers a glimpse of what is at stake. At one point, Sahim Alwan, the spooked young American, took one of his Lackawanna friends aside, according to legal documents. “This stuff isn’t right,” he whispered. “Do you want to stay?”
His friend Jaber Elbaneh looked surprised. “I want to be a martyr,” he replied bluntly. “I want to die.” Alwan returned to Lackawanna weeks later. Elbaneh is still at large in Yemen — and on the FBI’s list of most wanted terrorists.”
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