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But like I said — the Daschle product does not look like the Dugway simulant made by those aerosol article authors.

No, it probably doesn't look exactly the Dugway simulant. That particular simulant in the picture above from Dugway contains a whopping 20% by weight of silica. The actual senate spores likely contained 1% silica or less. That would mean it was a state-of-the-art product - much more advanced than the Dugway simulant.

There is little doubt, however, that the silica could actually be seen in the SEM. This follows from the "Demon in The Freezer" account given above - Geisebrt and Jahrling actually said they could see the silica - they described it as "fried egg gunk dripping off the spores". You do agree that this would count as seeing it - right?

But this is fully backed up by AFIPs Newsletter. AFIP stated that there was an unkown material that was seen by Detrick - they then identified that material as silica. You do agree that it would be difficult to identify a material if that material is invisible to begin with, right?

As far as identifying the material as silica - this is trivial - the software loaded in the EDX will even do it for you.

As far as misidentifying silica as "naurally occurring silicon" is concerned - NOPE - that doesn't work either. The peak for free silicon is at a different energy than silica. Also, an oxygen peak is present for silica - and all of this is calibrated with a standard sample of known silica.

AFIP released their actual EDX spectrum of the standard silica sample they used. It's shown below. This is contrary to Meselson's fabricated statement that AFIP only released a spectrum with a silicon peak.

TrebleRebel and Ed,

Consider the anthrax simulant used Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus, Ohio, to determine ECASOL’s effectiveness in summer 2001.

On December 4, 2001, a representative from the United States Marine Corps testified before the United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, confirming that the decontamination technology developed by Nevada-based Electro-Chemical Technologies Ltd., produces a highly effective biocidal agent which is not only a highly effective anthrax killer, but also harmless to human beings.

Mike Grosser, technical director and program manager for the U.S. Marine Corps’ Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Defense Systems in Quantico, Va., explained that the decontaminant known as ECASOL is produced by the electro-chemical activation technology developed by ELCH.

The ECASOL generator (delivery device) designed jointly by Electro-Chemical Technologies and Battelle Memorial Institute for the Marine Corps can produce up to 600 gallons of ECASOL per hour.

What anthrax simulant did it use? What Ed calls the “horse and buggy” simulant used in the aerosol experiments done under Ken’s supervision in 1998 and 1999 when he was Battelle Program Manager? Or something different.

That particular simulant in the picture above from Dugway contains a whopping 20% by weight of silica. The actual senate spores likely contained 1% silica or less. That would mean it was a state-of-the-art product - much more advanced than the Dugway simulant.

And that is the totally dreamed-up basis for your conspiracy theory. You ASSUME that Dugway was making anthrax powders using new techniques in violation of international agreements.

But what the Aerosol Science article shows us is that they use OLD techniques BECAUSE developing new techniques would violate international agreements!

I just put a new comment about all this on my web site. Here's what I wrote:

Here's some background information from www.cdi.org about the agreements:

U.S. efforts to eliminate biological weapons began in earnest under the Nixon administration. On November 25, 1969, President Nixon declared that the United States would not use chemical weapons in a first instance, and he renounced the use of biological weapons in any situation. Future biological weapons research was confined to defensive measures such as immunization, detection and safety. Consequently, the Department of Defense destroyed large stockpiles of biological weapons. Canada, Sweden and the United Kingdom followed suit and began to abolish their BW stockpiles as well.

The United States, through the United Nations Conference of the Committee on Disarmament, discussed the possibility of an international agreement with the Soviet Union. On August 5, 1971, the Soviet Union and the United States agreed to a revised draft of the convention and a vote in the General Assembly resulted in 110 for the treaty, and 0 against. The United States Senate ratified the convention in 1974 during the Ford administration.

Developing new techniques for making bioweapons would not be considered a defensive measure in any context allowed under the treaty.

To conspiracy theorists [like TrebelRebel], the fact that the end-product from those old techniques was nothing like what was in the anthrax letters mailed in September and October of 2001 was seen as "proof" that the anthrax powder in the letters came from some NEW and totally illegal program. And their beliefs were enflamed by articles in the media, such as "Terror Anthrax Linked to Type Made by U.S." in the December 3, 2001, issue of The New York Times, the "FBI's Theory On Anthrax Is Doubted" article from the October 28, 2002, issue of The Washington Post, and, of course, the absolutely absurd, pure conspiracy theory article "Anthrax Powder - State Of The Art?" from the November 28, 2003, issue of Science Magazine.

Your conspiracy theories have taken a BIG hit with this new information. They've always been ridiculous, but now we can see just how ridiculous.

Ed at www.anthraxinvestigation.com