Posted on 09/22/2007 6:16:47 PM PDT by ZacandPook
Our Own Worst Enemy: Asking the Right Questions About Security to Protect You, Your Family, and America
Randall Larsen: ... The press actually missed the real story, as I saw it, with “the person of interest”, insofar as that “Dr. H” had spent two years working in a bio-safe level 4 facility– working with some of the most dangerous pathogens in the world– with a bogus resume! *** [re Atta's roommate had cutaneous anthrax]
Five times a year, I brief top officers of the government and military, and only 1 or 2, if that, ever know! ...
And had one young field agent not faxed that memo about Atta’s roomate to my colleague Tom Inglesby, we wouldn’t have known either! But you add this to the Robb-Silverman Commission’s findings, that Al Qaeda was in the early stages of experimentation with these kind of bio-agents– and you can see how they could have made at least a small quantity. ... Later on, I brought this to the CIA… and while waiting to enter, I made sure the guard (holding the machine gun) saw it as I moved it from one pocket into another. ...
On September 20th, when the Secret Service searched my brief case prior to meeting with the VP, one compartment had an N-95 mask (similar to a surgical mask) and the test tube. The agent asked why I was carrying a mask. He asked the wrong question. He should have asked about the test tube. That story has become the metaphor for the entire book. Too many people are asking the wrong questions.
(Excerpt) Read more at themoderatevoice.com ...
Mitchell,
Your point seems sound.
By way of some context:
Larsen on Larry King -.
http://edition.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0110/10/lkl.00.html
“LARSEN: The reporter was talking to the anchorperson and said the Ames strain of this anthrax is resistant to vaccine, the anthrax vaccine. Well, first of all, that is wrong. The Ames vaccine — or the Ames strain was catalogued about 50 years ago in Ames, Iowa. That is the strain of anthrax we use to test our vaccine. So, obviously, it is not resistant to it. ...
Now, in the rush to get the story on the network news, we must not give up credibility and truth. We’ve got to get the facts right. And I think, if we give the right facts to the American people, we are going to be in a lot better shape. All the exercises we have done have proven it is important for our elected officials, our appointed officials and the media to provide good, solid information. We need to give the American people facts, not fear.”
Now this is ironic, because his factual point is mistaken. The origin of this “Ames strain” is a cow in Texas in 1981 or so.
But the key is that as new information becomes available, positions are adapted.
Your point does not mention or address that “extremely virulent” anthrax was then found in Fall 2003 in Kandahar, where the hijacker had just come from.
So whatever expert opinion Ingleby and O’Toole, the bioterror experts, rendered, was made much more likely (assuming we credit Suskind’s book on this point).
BVW, I have no scientific training and find BRAIN QUEST, Fourth Grade, hard, so take this for what it’s worth.
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. EdLake would have to upload the map as I don’t know how to add pictures to FreeRepublic. 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.
Yes, I think I read that they mixed two strains together in order to screen for resistance to both.
But it was not like this. This is a small mutation within the genotype. No one mixed two things together and then put them in the envelopes. This looks to me like a mutation, in my mind this was an orchestrated mutation, with something like colchine, a chemical that is known to cause mutations. I may not be spelling that right.
The two boys in my office had been given this to use on fruit flies. They were getting wings coming out of the heads etc. Most, if not almost all, mutations are fatal. This one is very strange.
This was about the same time frame that I saw the two students with the sores.
The short answer is explosives, chemical weapons, or bio weapons. I don’t know. OBL in the summer of 2001, as I recall was threatening to try to kill President Bush at the summit in Italy with a cropduster plane filled with explosives, so maybe that was it. (How, in light of that threat, Condi can say flying planes into buildings hadn’t been imagined is beyond me).
But I think more realistically, the documentary evidence shows they were exploring all those options.
UMinn biosecurity expert and a NYT co-author wrote in December 2000:
“Dozens of Websites offer information on new and used crop-dusting planes and equipment that can be fitted to almost any plane or even trucks. Most of the equipment can be found on those sites produce a highly controlled mist spray, with nozzles that can set the droplet size precisely....
“A quick call to the toll-free number for a state university’s agricultural service (listed, naturally on its Website) revealed that powder dispersal systems, while less popular than wet systems, are still available. One Website even provides a handy guide to the area one would expect to cover using various particle sizes, wet and dry — from thousand micron particles to half-micron particles capable of drifting almost four hundred miles.”
It was no small irony that by the time the paperback version came out in September 2001 just a few miles away Zacarias Moussaoui had in fact downloaded such materials onto his laptop.
Attorney General Ashcroft, on October 1, 2001 explained:
“I think shortly after the September 11 events, we developed information about crop dusters and noted that there had been an interest expressed in the dispersal of chemical agents by some of the individuals who had relationships with the hijackers and were the hijackers, and we asked those who were associated with the agriculture, chemical industry, and crop dusting to begin to be more careful, to lock their airplanes, to be aware of anyone seeking to adjust the kind of way in which the nozzles would be, which would maybe require a different approach.”
President Bush, at a press conference on October 11, 2001 said:
“We received knowledge that perhaps an al-Qaeda operative was prepared to use a crop-duster to spray a biological weapon or a chemical weapon on American people, and so we responded. We contacted every crop dust location, airports from which crop-dusters leave. We notified crop-duster manufacturers to a potential threat. We knew full well that in order for a crop-duster to become a weapon of mass destruction would require a retrofitting, and so we talked to machine shops around where crop-dusters are located.”
Mohammed Atta and Zacarias Moussaoui reportedly made inquiries about cropdusters and a cropdusting manual was found among Moussaoui’s belongings. By an email dated July 31, 2001, after receiving $14,000 from Ramzi Binalshibh, Moussaoui inquired about a 6 month cropdusting course. Ahmad Ressam, an Al Qaeda terrorist caught in the United States, revealed that Bin Laden was personally interested in using low flying aircraft to disperse biological agents. In early June 3, 2003, a CIA report concluded that the reason for Atta’s and Zacarias Moussaoui’s inquiries into cropdusters was in fact for the contemplated use in dispersing biological agents such as anthrax. Moussaoui, however, has confessed only to a plot to fly a 747 into the White House if the United States government refused to free the blind sheikh. On August 13 and 15, 2001, Moussaoui was getting practice on a 747 simulator in Minneapolis and thus the evidence has always remained ambiguous.
In an interview with ABC News, Johnelle Bryant, a USDA employee, provided this very dramatic account of a meeting with Atta in connection with a loan he wanted for $650,000 to start a cropdusting business. Anthrax likely can be delivered using the nozzle setup that some USDA official says Atta imagined (as explained by Secretary Cohen some years ago). Secretary Cohen’s remarks were found in the Kabul home with papers relating to the aerial delivery of anthrax.
Some investigators on the team prosecuting Zacarias Moussaoui thought he wasn’t expected to take part in the 9/11 plan as such or fly into the White House as prosecutors would allege in January 2003, but was expected instead to use a cropduster. In an e-mail dated July 31, 2001, he inquired of a Minnesota school concerning a 6 month or year long cropdusting course. Although French intelligence suggests instead that there was a separate hijacking plot (of an international airline) to occur later, in light of the e-mail, use of a cropdusting plane may have been an alternative plan at least as of the end of July 2001. Khalid Mohammed reportedly has told his interrogators that Moussaoui was to be part of a second wave of attacks. He said that Moussaoui’s interest in cropdusters may have related to Yazid Sufaat’s work on anthrax. Hussein Attas drove Moussaoui there and was detained after 9/11. Another Oklahoma State University student, Ali Mukhram. worshipped at the mosque with Attas and Zacarias.
In a coded communication in the summer of 2001, KSM told Ramzi Binalhibh to send the “skirts” to “Sally”, apparently referring to sending funds to Zacarias Moussaoui. Moussaoui may have been considered as a substitute if one of the pilots, who had developed a strained relationship with Atta, dropped out. They were referred to as the “unhappy couple” and it was said that a divorce would be expensive. Was Moussaoui really slated for a “second wave” of similar attacks on California targets that merely involved the same modus operandi? In an email dated July 31, 2001, he was inquiring about a cropdusting course. Was this just a means of avoiding the need for “muscle hijackers?” (After the first “wave”, it likely would be more difficult for such muscle to get into the country.)
Relatedly, it’s unknown what role Atta’s roommate, pilot Ramzi Binalshibh, would have played if he had succeeded on one of his four attempts to get into the country. Ramzi Binalshibh was Atta’s former roommate in Germany and was captured in Karachi, Pakistan on September 11, 2002. The government deleted the two allegations regarding cropduster inquiries from the indictment of Moussaoui. Although the move was never explained, it was likely because in his defense he was relying on a July 31, 2001 e-mail seeking to sign up for a cropdusting course that would take 6 months to a year. Moussaoui was attempting to use the e-mail to argue that it demonstrated that he was not part of the 9/11 conspiracy. Alternatively, of course, allegations often are deleted where there is insufficient proof.
On September 19, 2001, an FBI agent asked a federal judge in Colorado for permission to search an e-mail account named “greenlab@usa.net” that Sufaat had given Moussaoui to use.
Perhaps the cropdusters related to a chemical or nerve agent. Based on the interrogation of Ramzi Binalshibh, it now appears that the 9/11 planners lost confidence in Moussaoui’s discretion, and intended to use him only as a fallback. Whatever the reason for any inquiries, perhaps they ran out of pilots (due to Zacarias Moussaoui’s arrest and Ramzi Binalshibh’s inability to get into the country). The prosecution team in the Moussaoui case at one point, in January 2003, argued there was to be a fifth plane targeting the White House. Bin Laden wanted the White House to be targeted. Atta thought it would be too difficult. Or perhaps cropdusters will be used in the future. The FBI is currently looking for a diminutive Saudi Arabian, Adnan Shukrijumah, who, at least according to some reports, was trained as a pilot and was last known to have been in Miami in late 2001. The Saudi Arabian from Florida is said to be at the level of Atta. Jdey, also hotly sought by the FBI, was one of two other pilots who for unknown reasons were not still candidates for the first wave.
A Somali college student who knew Moussaoui, Mohammed Warsame from Canada, was detained. In recent years, before being detained, he lived in Minneapolis. Initially, he was arrested as a material witness. Like Moussaoui, Warsame attended Khalden Camp at the Darunta complex the same time as Ahmed Ressam. He reportedly roomed with Moussaoui at one point. U.S. Attorney Tom Heffelfinger in Minneapolis declined to comment on the case and said he would seek to prosecute any federal law enforcement officials who provided information to the media. Warsame’s wife said that FBI agents had entered their apartment, given him $100 and had money for her too. The agents wanted her husband’s cooperation, told him to tell his wife not to worry and said they would bring him back in two days. Warsame was indicted in the end. A superseding indictment in June 2005 alleges that Mohammed Warsame provided false statements to the FBI when he claimed that since 1995 he had traveled only to Saudi Arabia and Somalia. The indictment alleges that from 2000 through 2001, Warsame traveled to Pakistan and Afghanistan to attend military training camps and participate in combat. Relatedly, the indictment alleges he also made false statements about his frequent contact with associates he met while attending Afghanistan military training camps. Those associates, according to the indictment, have since relocated to Canada, Pakistan and elsewhere throughout the world.
As part of “Operation Tripwire,” the FBI has asked crop-dusting companies to make sure they alert the bureau if they detect suspicious activity. The FBI has reached out to various industries and institutions, such as prisons and crop-dusting companies, to alert the FBI of suspicious activity. “We are not looking at just the obviously dangerous activity but looking at terrorist fund raising, terrorist recruiting efforts, training efforts, maybe logistical support efforts, and .. signatures,” FBI official Larry Mefford said. Might Al Qaeda plan on coming in under the FBI’s radar — under the tripwire — by using ultralights? KSM had Ohio truckdriver Faris researching ultralights at an internet cafe. There was a suggestion that leaders would use them for escape.
Variations of the threat that should be encompassed within the FBI’s “Operation Tripwire” include ultra lights, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (”UAV”) of all types including small planes and helicopters, balloons, and gliders.
What the FBI was being told by other detainees and learning from arrests in the US did nothing to assuage the concern that an attack was being planned to disperse anthrax aerially.
For example, Moazzam Begg, a man from Great Britain arrested in Islamabad in February 2002, allegedly confessed to being involved in a plot to use weaponized anthrax using a remote controlled drone over the London parliament. A Pakistani court had ordered his release. Before the order was executed, however, he had already been transferred to Afghanistan. He was then flown to Guantanamo Bay in February 2003. The 35-year-old father of four from Birmingham had gone to Afghanistan via Iran in the summer of 2001 and then in November or December went to Pakistan. In Afghanistan, he had been outside of Kabul. He told his father that he hoped to open two small schools to promote literacy — one for girls taught by his wife and one for boys he would teach. MI5 and MI6 had known of him. Three years ago in Birmingham there was a raid on his bookshop but no arrests. The Maktabah al Ansar bookshop in Birmingham, England sold al-Hindi’s autobiographical account of fighting in Kashmir.
In addition to books, Begg sold items such prayer beads and clothing. Begg may have come to be of interest to MI5 after Yemen jailed a friend of his in 1999 for plotting terrorism with the son of Abu Hamza, the extremist cleric based at the Finsbury Park mosque. Then authorities raided again in the summer of 2001. In the last raid, a computer, five floppy disks and two CD-roms were taken. Neither raid resulted in any charges. Begg was arrested in 1994 for alleged benefit fraud, but the charges were dropped. Night vision goggles and a flak jacket were found at the time.
The authorities say that his name appeared on documents of the Taliban and on a photocopy of a payment transfer at an Afghanistan camp. The money transfer directed the London branch of Pakistan’s Habib Bank AG Zurich to credit the account of an individual identified as Moazzam Begg in Karachi for an unspecified sum of money. It was found in Abu Khabab’s chemical bunker. His family says it must be a case of mistaken identity.
The British MP’s had joined together to insist that Begg and other British citizens be returned from Guantanamo, where he had been after his first year at Bagram. He reportedly confessed to a plot to use a drone dispersing anthrax to kill those same MPs. He and others apparently were given the choice of choosing between a 20 year sentence in a plea or risk receiving a death penalty in a military tribunal. His lawyer says the confession is not admissible as it was coerced. MI5 officers interviewed him at Camp X-Ray five times. Gareth Peirce, who has acted for Moazzam Begg, said: “Anything that any human being says or admits under threat of brutality is regarded internationally and nationally as worthless. It makes the process an abuse. Moazzam Begg had a year in Bagram airbase and then six months in Guantanamo Bay. If this treatment happened for an hour in a British police station, no evidence gathered would be admissible,” she said.
The interest in ultralights is not new and dates back to the hang glider purchased in 1995 or so when one was purchased and shipped to Afghanistan by a US doctor named Zaki. The doctor was a friend of Bin Laden’s chief of security in Sudan, former US Army sergeant Ali Mohammed. Dr. Ali Zaki (along with his brother, a NYC/NJ pharmacist) travelled with Ayman but claimed not to know the real identity of his fellow alum from Cairo Medical school. Zawahiri would speak at the room established at the Cairo University Medical School for the Egyptian Islamic Group, which had not yet been banned. The group during this time was extremely influential with the student body. Dr. Zaki is a gynecologist and prominent civic leader in San Jose, CA. He disputes the date of Zawahiri’s visit, claiming it was years earlier, when the jihadists were our friends. A used car salesman from Silicon Valley was going to train on the hang glider and train others. The plan was to break imprisoned islamist leaders out of an Egyptian prison, according to the US doctor. Other official intelligence reporting, in contrast, suggests the plan was to assassinate Mubarak at one of his palaces.
What word, beginning with a vowel apparently, might be redacted in this alleged message to an Albany, NY imam shortly before 9/11: “how close the individual could get to an (redacted) aircraft.” When a friend of the respected Dr. Dhafir, the leader of an Albany mosque who had arrived in the states in 1999, was convicted l in 2006 of supporting terrorism, the jury never heard about his 14 phone calls to a Syrian number the FBI linked to Osama bin Laden. An FBI informant claimed that only weeks after the 9/11 attacks, a messenger from al-Qaeda approached him delivering a message: Bin Laden was looking for information about flight schools and “how close the individual could get to an (redacted) aircraft.” The messenger gave the informant two fax numbers in Damascus, Syria, one of which Aref contacted 14 times between November 1999 and October 2001. Prosecutors argued that a senior IMK leader, Mullah Krekar, formed Ansar-al-Islam in 2001. Subsequently, when Aref was convicted, the 30 guilty counts included lying to FBI agents about knowing Krekar. In targeting Aref, the government also had evidence showing that his name, address and telephone number were found in a notebook when U.S. forces raided a suspected Ansar-al-Islam facilities in Iraq in the spring and early summer. An Iraqi Kurd, Aref’s grandfather had been a well-known imam.
In 2002, a man named Singh tried to purchase over the internet a wireless video module and a control module for use in an unmanned aerial vehicle (”UAV”). He chose an airborne video system with a camera and transmitter able to transmit video images from a UAV back to a receiver from as far as 15 miles away. The video camera could be used in military reconnaissance and in helping aim artillery and other weaponry across enemy lines. Singh placed his order from England, but the company was unable to confirm Singh’s overseas credit card. Two young men from Northern Virginia, among the group later known as the “Virginia Paintball Defendants,” assisted him in completing the purchases. In the summer of 2002, Singh visited Virginia, staying first with one of them and then with another.
In December 2003, it was announced that a suburban Chicago woman had been pled guilty to lying about her involvement with an attempt to export remote-controlled aircraft to Pakistan. The shipment of radios, modems and auto pilot systems to a company in Pakistan apparently was confiscated. The relative whom she was doing a favor fled the country. It is not clear when the shipment occurred. Such a plane reportedly cost $12,000 and could carry a 220 lb. payload.
In late May 2004, Great Britain’s Tony Blair got hit by purple powder thrown from the balcony from area where guests sit. The bioshield covered only where members of the public sit. Blair now may be skittish about pigeons flying overhead, particularly given MI5 once considered the feasibility of dropping small anthrax bombs using pigeons during WW II. It was not until August 2004 that we learned about casing of helicopters in the Spring of 2001 by Jafar the Pilot — who had been sent by anthrax plotters KSM and Hambali.
Condoleezza Rice says no one ever imagined (at least she didn’t imagine)that Al Qaeda would fly planes — first into the World Trade Center and then into Pentagon. Let’s hope it is within her imagination that Al Qaeda may be planning to disperse weaponized anthrax aerially — for example, by a remote controlled airplane, a cropduster, or even a hang glider. Or, yes, maybe even by carrier pigeons. Condoleezza should go around with the television theme song “Stop that Pigeon Now!” in her head.
pvw
The source on the threat to try to kill the President while at the summit in Italy came from Egyptian intelligence, which apparently had infiltrated AQ. Or at least had come across the info.
This isn't true. First of all, Bob Stevens, who you're referring to, wasn't the first person to be infected from one of the 2001 anthrax letters; his case was just the first to be reported in the media. Johanna Huden was the index case; the onset date for her was 10/22/2001. Bob Stevens' onset date wasn't until 9/30/2001. Stevens was probably the eighth person to contract anthrax in the attack. (Some of the dates are somewhat uncertain, so it's possible he was earlier than eighth, but he certainly wasn't the first.) Of course, we don't know who was the first to receive a letter, but given the onset dates, it seems very unlikely that he was the first to receive a letter. My source is the UCLA Dept. of Epidemiology anthrax outbreak page: http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/Bioter/detect/antdetect_list.html
Secondly, it wasn't his wife who was the real estate agent who rented an apartment to some of the 9/11 hijackers; it was the wife of the editor of the Sun. I'm not sure if this was the wife of Stevens' direct supervisor, but it might have been.
Third, it's not true that all of the other targets were liberal Democrats in Washington, DC. There were also the letters to journalists in New York City.
2. All the envelopes containing anthrax were mailed from Newark, New Jersey...
They were mailed from New Jersey, but not from Newark. They were postmarked in Trenton and (at least some, maybe all) apparently mailed from Princeton.
3. The German government, in its attempts to forge closer ties to Iraq, gave Iraq’s Department of Agriculture a kilo of the Ames type agricultural anthrax.
This may be, but the anthrax strain in the mailings was very recently derived from a strain at USAMRIID at Fort Detrick.
4. Prague. Everybody has heard the story about Mohammed Atta meeting with the head of Iraqi Intelligence and being handed a package.
I think we can regard the supposed meeting between Atta and al-Ani in Prague as being debunked. If there were any truth to it, the Bush administration would have trumpeted it. It would have been exactly what they needed to save themselves and their policies.
Yes, this is the one reason that no one has yet been arrested. You have to find the smoking gun that fired that bullet.
Since all the material mailed was the same stuff, they have to find that source and heads will roll.
So far, they have looked in every nook and cranny in USAMRIID and NOT found it. They looked everywhere Hatfill ever was and have NOT found it. Otherwise he would be toast in some cell.
We have the technology to know exactly what it was right down to the inverted basepairs on the plasmid. It is so unique that it will be thrown out of court if it is not that exact thing.
I say what makes this one different is that it was a wet lesion. Dripped a lot, a running sore. All the literature written prior to 9-11 said that anthrax was a dry lesion. This is a different cat! The inversion must code for an extra water somewhere. All the rest of the description fits.
“I say they did. I was there. I know what I saw. And there are three Postal Inspection Agents who are keenly aware that I exist and are working on this.”
Battle Axe. when did they visit? A year and a half ago? Am I right you’ve had no further contact or further confirmation they are “working on it”?
You can’t determine the genetic strain by a drip recalled a decade later.
You never saw a theft.
You have no indication the fellow is islamist.
You have never bothered to contact him.
You never bothered to contact the ISU professors and instead just assumed the ISU inventory had Ames — making the same error that Boyle makes by confusing the ISU with the USDA lab.
So it was stupid to destroy the inventory rather than just courier it over to USDA for safekeeping — and thus their security argument does not make sense as USDA was a secure facility.
But you are engaged in speculation without taking the basic steps relevant to inquiry.
More importantly, an argument that the feds allowed relevant evidence to be destroyed will only undermine a prosecution. For all you know, the guy you think located is a Free Mason.
Always start with a bad guy and motive before looking too hard for access. Otherwise, you end up with a Zack theory.
Correcting a typo, the onset date for Johanna Huden was 9/22/2001, not 10/22/2001. She really was the first case.
Horsecookies!
They did not provide anyone with the records of exactly what was in there, BECAUSE IT WAS SO LAX THEY DON’T EVEN KNOW!
There should have been logs of who had keys, who had access, who was in and what day and their signature. etc etc. No such records exists.
When ISU destroyed it they:
l. put the 100 vials ...and folks 100 vials will fit into a child’s size shoe box... in an autoclave and ran it for 13 hours. It only takes 56 minutes to run the one we had.
2. Then into an incinerator where it was totally turned into sand, the glass vials included.
What did they do with the records? Why are they so quiet?
ba
We do know that it came from Texas in 1981. Now where else did it go?
And the perp could be a fundamental extremist who believes that 72 virgins await him, and be practicing jihad he will give his whole family a trip to Heaven as well. This is highly motivating to them.
So we know the original pathogen came from USA and the water came from USA.
Supposedly, not my field, there are mineral signatures on everything grown in media from that water.
Supposedly, not my field, there are mineral signatures on everything grown in media from that water.
Interview November 18, 2005.
No contact to me from them since.
I keep faxing them stuff, but they do not respond.
I saw the aftermath of the theft, the trail left my contact with the package.
You are correct on all the other points, but I am a logical scientist.
There is the connection of one professor who worked half time at the vet school and half time at the USDA facility.
The USDA facility may have been secure, but it was not the USDA facility that destroyed their collection, it was just the vet school that destroyed the historical collection. A historical collection is just that, a sample of every kind that had come through. One would think that the prof who worked part time in both facilities would bring over a sample for the collection, and they were very proud of their vast collection.
I learned that they had anthrax and were experimenting with it on a tour of the campus conducted by a woman who was an art prof.
They aren’t quiet. They all have given extensive quotes to the media, and all are responsive to private inquiry.
At a White House press conferene on December 17, 2001, Ari Fleischer said: “There is nothing that has been final that has been concluded. But the evidence is increasingly looking like it was a domestic source. But, again, this remains something that is not final, nor totally conclusive yet. ...I can just report to you the information that I’ve heard. I can’t give you the scientific reasons behind it. But you can assume that they’re based on investigative and scientific means.” He emphasized: “There’s a big difference between the source of it and who sent it, because the two do not have to be tied.”
Okay, that’s fine. Still, if someone was figuring out how to hide a nuke development site that effort would have some overlap to figuring out how to use radionuclides and isomers to dope the water and other feedstock used to make biologicals. It’s sort of like art forgery. Matching the old pigments.
Or someone could have used bottled water from the NE. That’s smarter.
Domestic......the word that lead a lot astray.
The natural origin of this particular pathogen is Texas. It was taken from an American heifer, a Beefmaster, an American breed by an American vet and sent to College Station for diagnosis. From there it went to Iowa State, and from there to USAMRIID and on and on.
The strain did not come from any other country than ours. But as Ari Fliescher said, who sent it was another question.
...VDB: Exactly. And in a way, it’s like the hunt for Bin Laden: since there’s no good news, there’s just complete radio silence from the White House. I’m wondering if you’re satisfied with the progress of that [anthrax] investigation —
Leahy: [Face a thundercloud now and voice emphatic and loud enough to turn heads at nearby tables] No! [Then again] No!
VDB: — and do they keep you apprized in any way of the progress of it?
Leahy: [More quietly] I’ve had discussions.
VDB: Yeah.
Leahy: I’m a little sensitive on this one, because two people died touching an envelope I was supposed to open.
VDB: Sure.
Leahy: I feel badly for them, and for their families. And we spent three years, Marcelle and I couldn’t go anywhere without heavily armed people around us. Finally, I said, This guy’s not going to try anything, and our family wants our privacy back. [Meditatively] I wish they had turned this investigation over to some good sheriff or police chief somewhere. I think it’s been very badly handled.
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