Posted on 10/29/2007 2:22:32 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
Ali al-Timimi will be serving life for sedition. Specifically he was recruiting for al-Qaeda from the US. Scary enough, but read the whole article. It appears al-Qaeda had infiltrated US biodefense and has supporters/agents with access to the Ames strain of anthrax and the know how to make dried concentrated forms of the spores.
Via Bloggernews.net:A colleague of famed Russian bioweaponeer Ken Alibek and former USAMRIID head Charles Bailey, a prolific Ames strain researcher, has been convicted of sedition and sentenced to life in prison. He worked in a program co-sponsored by the American Type Culture Collection and had access to ATCC facilities, as well as facilities of the George Mason University Center for Biodefense. The Center for Biodefense was funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The Center was run by Dr. Alibek and Dr. Bailey. The bionformatics grad student once had a high security clearance for mathematical support work for the Navy. In the 1990s, Ayman Zawahiri had Ali Mohammed infiltrate the CIA and US Army, and dupe the FBI. He did it all over again with Ali Al-Timimi. If we do not learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it.So the reports that the Antrax attacks were an inside job may not entirely false. The fact no one wants to admit is that al-Qaeda had managed to get inside.
I just happened across this this morning. The article is long but a couple of points that struck me were that al-Timimi had access to the area and there were complaints of lax security in the area where virulent strains were kept for patent reference purposes. Please read the entire thing carefully.
There is no mention of the very basic fact that a criminal profile is simply a tool that investigators can use if they have nothing else to work with. It's really just an educated guess based upon knowledge of who committed such crimes in the past (e.g., a married person killed at home is most often killed by the spouse) and upon behavioral psychology that can be implied from details of the crime (e.g., mail fraud isn't typically committed by illiterate short order cooks). If you have nothing else to work with, you need to start somewhere. So, you start by checking out the people who fit the profile.
It's also important to understand that if the investigators find a "person of interest" or "suspect," they do NOT change the profile, even if the profile doesn't match the "person of interest" or "suspect" in any way whatsoever. In the anthrax investigation, even if the FBI knows exactly who sent the letters, they cannot change the profile to match that person. A profile is only of value when you have nothing else to work with. When you have something else to work with, the profile no longer has any value until or unless that "something else" turns out to be totally wrong or worthless.
And the FBI cannot withdraw a profile even if they know who did it but cannot yet make an arrest, because (1) if they cannot yet make an arrest, the investigation is not yet completed, and (2) they would have to explain why they withdrew the profile.
But Ed, you came up with your profile well after you had your suspect in mind.
You read in the paper that he drank.
You had your supplier have a drinking problem.
Didn’t the fact that you suspected the guy before you came up with the profile render your profile just a theory arranged to fit the facts you thought you knew?
You deleted the drinking element after I poked fun that you were identifying the guy you had read about.
You never explained why you dropped the element.
“where they both were in the microbiology department, and was vaguely aware that he was an islamic hardliner.”
How can someone be “vaguely” aware of something as specific as a “hardliner?”
Ali Al-Timimi did not talk about politics or religion at work even with those faculty members with whom he consulted.
He did not consult with Ken.
In his public sermons on-line, Ali speaks in measured and moderate tones.
One needs to be familiar with names like Qutb and Ibn-Tamiyah — both of whom he quoted upon his indictment — before one realizes the nature of his Salafist views.
Otherwise, it would lead to highly unfortunate discrimination based on things like hairstyle.
Having said that, anyone involved in granting his high security clearance has some serious explaining to do. Interviews conducted of people who knew Ali well would have been conducted and it could have pretty easily been determined that he had studied under one of the Awakening Sheiks who was the express subject of Bin Laden’s 1996 Declaration of War.
As always, hindsight is 20/20.
It’s more important that we digest things now in moving forward than look to find fault. As much as I admire the depth of research that underlies the books by Peter Lance, we should be looking to constructively move forward and not engage in second-guessing. It’s too much a diversion if government officials have to constantly watch their back, such as happened with the recriminations over how 9/11 was allowed to happen.
One other point I’d make though is that some failures of intelligence are systemic and institutional — some are individual. And we shouldn’t suffer fools gladly. While being polite, we should at least give short shrift to their views while serious intelligence analysis is done.
Note that at Lawrence Livemore, an HVAC repair person was caught in the Philippines meeting with operatives of the bad guys. But he wasn’t even muslim. His brother, a former black panther, had been a roommate of Bin Laden. They were both fundraising in the Philippines.
Lawrence Livermore was where the research to combat the perceived Bin Laden anthrax threat was started in the summer of 1998. The guy quit in early 2000 complaining of a back injury. He’s not been shown or accused of having done anything wrong — but it’s breathtaking to realize how the guy who comes in to fix the air conditioning at night, and who is a whiz at computers, might have unfettered access of DTRA secrets. Of the three classifications of access badges, he had the top level.
Budweiser Clydesdales, GOOD!! Miller’s Lite, BAD!
Kool Ade, GOOD! Miller’s Lite, BAD!
Charlie Pride, GOOD! Gay Pride, BAD!
Oops, Al Gore done done this, didn’t he?
Ed is mistaken that profiles are not revised. They are commonly revised. The Atlanta child murders and UNABOM are two well known examples. In Amerithrax, Director Mueller says the profile was revised somewhat. The original vague profile did not address motive. In October 2005, however, Director Mueller’s explanation pointed to a motivation of a hatred of US policy — he said to think 9/11, think Oklahoma City. They have not uploaded the revised (tweaked) profile.
Ed does not link FBI Director Mueller’s press conference that contradicts the premise of his entire webpage which was based on a December 20 ABC report that was quickly debunked. At the time, ABC had a French fabulist consulting on such issues who just made wild claims up.
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/595214/posts?page=29
Here’s a related story the next day on FreeRepublic that Ed framed his “profile” around.
``This is complete nonsense,’’ Michael P. Failey told The Herald Thursday. ``I have never been a researcher of anthrax. I’ve never had access to anthrax. I didn’t even know it was a bacteria until I saw it on TV. All I did was mention the word, that’s it.
``And I’ve got the FBI in here searching my house and taking my computer.’’
``We have developed no information that he ever had access to anthrax while he was at Battelle, and there was no anthrax in his home,’’ said one FBI official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
So after the FBI explains he never had access what does Ed do? Ed, mistakenly thinking BHR has the same theory, frames a theory positing he did have access. Even comes up with an imagined confederate that Ed without any basis falsely claims Mr. Failey knew.
Mr. Failey thinks it is nonsense. Presently, only 1 out of 3 FBI agents have a computer at their desk that permits them to access the internet. Soon that will change and agents will be able to readily obtain documentary evidence Ed’s theories — which he urges are FACTS — are frivolous.
As illustrated that Ed thinks that a 1st grader wrote the letter is a FACT — not his theory — Ed is a true believer with cognitive rigidity who never bothers to educate himself on other theories. In 6 years, I’ve never known Ed to go to a library.
Now in comparison to Ed’s 1st grader theory and the guy who got in an argument with his neighbor to draw attention to the fact he was in Wisconsin (and talked about simunitions on the date of mailing) did it, consider John Mueller’s theory in OVERBLOWN. There are perfectly intelligent points to be made against an Al Qaeda anthrax theory — Ed just never makes them. His only argument is that the hijackers are dead. Which is a really stupid argument. He never addresses the pertinent issues. I doubt the name Khalid Mohammed has even ever passed his lips.
Stop spending all your time looking at pornography on the web, Ed and go read a book. Report on Mueller’s points re anthrax so we can see how the issue might be argued.
OVERBLOWN (index)
anthrax
14, 21, 24, 25, 32, 35, 37, 148, 149, 169-170
anthrax attacks
14, 31, 37, 148. 149, 169-170
biological weapons
5, 7, 14-15, 20-26, 27, 31-32, 35, 38, 39-40, 42, 164, 203n, 204a
Here is an excellent column on the risks of proliferation of research. (Dr. Al-Timimi serves as Exhibit A of the thesis).
Katherine Heerbrandt
Breach of trust
Originally published November 07, 2007
http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/opinion/display_columnist.htm?StoryID=67318
Here is another resource, a chapter, readily available at the library (by Dr. Ken Alibek and other GMU experts) that contradicts Ed’s discussion of anthrax.
Ed relies on Ken as his main expert even though Ken thinks US-based operatives of AQ are responsible.
Bioterrorism and Infectious Agents: A New Dilemma for the 21st Century
Book Series
Emerging Infectious Diseases of the 21st Century
Anthrax: A Disease and a Weapon
1-35
Now for a serious treatment of such issues, you can read the title referenced by the columnist
Assessing the Biological Weapons and Bioterrorism Threat
http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pubs/display.cfm?PubID=639
It was done by an experienced University of Maryland researcher who has closely followed such issues over the years. While I don’t agree with the author as to who is responsible for the Fall 2001 anthrax mailings (and a lot has come to light in 2006 and 2007), unlike Ed, the author addresses the issues and is well-read on the subject. This author raises and addresses the relevant issues where Ed just avoids informing his readers or posting relevant articles, confident he can mislead the casual observer. The author has a book coming out — I haven’t asked him if it concerns this same subject but it may.
Here is a summary of his argument in the 2005 publication:
“It is nearly 15 years since biological weapons (BW) have become a significant national security preoccupation. This occurred primarily due to circumstances occurring within a short span of years. First was the official U.S. Government suggestion that proliferation of offensive BW programs among states and even terrorist groups was an increasing trend; second was the discovery, between 1989 and 1992, that the Union USSR had violated the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) since its ratification in 1975 by building a massive covert biological weapons program; third was the corroboration by the UN Special Commission in 1995 that Iraq had maintained a covert biological weapons program since 1974, and had produced and stockpiled large quantities of agents and delivery systems between 1988 and 1991; and, fourth was the discovery, also in 1995, that the Japanese Aum Shinrikyo group, which had carried out the nerve gas attack in the Tokyo subway system, also had spent 4 years attempting—albeit unsuccessfully—to produce and disperse two pathogenic biological agents. The distribution of professionally prepared anthrax spores through the U.S. postal system in the weeks afterwards September 11, 2001, magnified previous concerns by orders of magnitude. In December 2002, after U.S. forces had overrun much of the territory of Afghanistan, it was discovered that the al-Qaida organization also had spent several years trying to obtain the knowledge and means to produce biological agents. These new factors shifted the context in which BW was considered almost entirely to “bioterrorism.” Within 4 years, almost $30 billion in federal expenditure was appropriated to counter the anticipated threat. This response took place in the absence of virtually any threat analysis. The purpose of this monograph is to begin to fill that gap.”
FBI and Universities Unite to Fight Terror
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16067492
National Public Radio (Morning Edition) ^ | November 7, 2007
Posted on 11/07/2007 7:19:33 AM PST by ZacandPook
Nation: FBI and Universities Unite to Fight Terror Nov-07-2007, Morning Edition
“Morning Edition, November 7, 2007 · The FBI is concerned that the open environment at U.S. universities makes it child’s play for political or corporate spies to steal U.S. research. The relationship between the FBI and universities has traditionally been strained, but the fight against terrorism creates new bedfellows.”
It mentions biochemistry info and prepatent know-how. Has a clip by a speech by FBI Director Mueller yesterday.
The correspondent is Dina Temple-Raston who wrote the recent very readable book about the young men in the “Buffalo cell” who in 2001 went to Afghanistan to a training camp and then got in trouble for it.
Consider the access that a microbiologist working with his former teacher, Bin Laden’s sheik Al-Hawali, had to know-how from the Defense Advance Research Projects Agency program funded at the George Mason University Center for Biodefense. At one point, his office was about 10 feet from the famed Russian bioweaponeer Ken Alibek and the former USAMRIID head Charles Bailey, who has published a lot papers using the Ames strain of anthrax. The scientist’s name was Ali Al-Timimi. Judging from the directory, they shared the same fax number and mailstop. He was sentenced to life plus 70 years for sedition — for exhorting some young men to go defend their religion and fight jihad. He had a high security clearance for work for the Navy, according to a fascinating article by Milton Viorst in the Atlantic Monthly. His bionformatics program was co-sponsored by the American Type Culture Collection, which has the most diverse microbiological collection the world. While ATCC does not have Ames in its online catalog, they do not deny to me that they had it in their patent repository.
Pork-fueled proliferation merely increases the risk of infiltration. Emails between Ayman Zawahiri and Atef in Spring 1999 show that they did not even begin to consider biological weapons until the USG kept telling them how it easy it was. Ayman decided that they should use the cover of universities and charities in weaponizing anthrax. The Defense Intelligence Agency has produced correspondence showing that one scientist, Rauf Ahmad, was attending conferences in the UK sponsored by their biodefense establishment, Porton Down. He visited laboratories including one with thousands of pathogens and tells Ayman “I successfully achieved our targets.”
Here are the details of the infiltration of the program at GMU.
Sheiks, Bioweaponeers, And DARPA
http://members.bellatlantic.net/~vze43v8m/alqaeda,anthraxa.html#SheikandtheBioweaponeers
a. Hardball Tactics In An Era Of Threats
b. The Education Of Ali Al-Timimi
c. “The Straight Path”: Connecting the Dots
http://members.bellatlantic.net/~vze43v8m/alqaeda,anthraxa.html#StraightPath
d. GMU Center For Biodefense: Discovery Hall
e. Islamic Ruling On The Peace Process
f. The 2006 Arrest Of Former Falls Church “911 Imam” And Fellow Salafist Lecturer Awlaqi
g. Real Men Don’t Type: Ability of Intelligence To Prevent Domestic Bioterrorism
Vous m’incitez à rougir, mon amour.
Badabing Badablonde,
Excite là-bas des nouvelles aujourd’hui d’un jihadist Libyen qui a rencontré dans Kandahar avec Zawahiri et Atef et Ben Laden dans l’Eté de 2000. Il rapporte que Ben Laden a projeté pour utiliser WMD pour dissuader contre l’invasion d’Afghanistan. Faire ne vous l’aimez pas juste ! Cela est le motif ! Dissuasion ! Avertissement. Menace. Dissuasion. Il est exigé par le coran et c’était la stratégie solide. Trop mauvais un missile a atterri sur la tête d’Atef.
http://www.bloggernews.net/111561
Que ce moyen, bêler des moutons ?
Vous êtes fou, oui ?
No. Le bêler du mouton est que TrebleRebel entend dans sa pièce d’hôtel sur ses affaires trébuche.
Au moins, à cet emplacement, ils permettent affaires à l’amour avec les enfants comme les jeunes comme vous.
Mais je ne comprends pas cette fascination avec les jeunes garçons ou dix chapeaux de gallon.
Comme I toujours TrebelRebel : Dans l’amour et dans les traductions d’anglais-français, obtenez vous ce que vous payez.
Il devrait payer plus.
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