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Go read a book, Treble, and stop flogging a dead horse.

Excerpts from the 2007 PhD thesis “An Assessment of Exploitable Weaknesses in Universities” (as retyped and numbered by me). (Any typos are mine).

1. “On October 29, 2001 the President stated in the Homeland Security Presidential Directive-2, “The Government shall implement measures to end the abuse of student visas and prohibit certain international students from receiving education and training in sensitive areas. including areas of study with direct application to the development of weapons of mass destruction. The Government shall also prohibit the education of training of foreign nationals who would use such training to harm the United States or its Allies.”

2. On December 1, 1862, Abraham Lincoln said in a message to Congress, “As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew.”

3. “The Biodefense program is centered around the National Center for Biodefense (NCD), located in Discovery Hall on the Prince William campus, headed by Charles Bailey. The program is intended to promote awareness of the national and international security challenges and medical and public health threats posed by biological terrorism and biological weapons proliferation.
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4. The program is intended to provide students with a background with fundamentals of science and technology of biodefense, threat analysis of biological weapons, and the specialized areas of medical defense, including engineering defense, non-proliferation in biodefense, and counter-terrorism/ law enforcement of biodefense. Students in this program have unique opportunities to participate in cutting-edge and meaningful research while working with the renowned investigators in the life sciences research center.”

5. “The scope of work defined on the NCBD website for cooperative research states that USAMRIID scientists will consult on the design, construction, and operation of specialized laboratory equipment for exposing animals to aerosolized agents. The education partnership “will provide a unique opportunity for students to work on research projects that could not otherwise be available in an educational environment.” GMU does not have any qualified person to determine whether or not this research and laboratory equipment falls within export control regulations.”

6. “The Department of Molecular and Microbiology (MMB) administers NCBD graduate degree programs in bio-defense. MMB also includes the Center for Biomedical Genomics (CBMG) located in Discovery Hall on the Prince William Campus.

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NCBD and CBMG, including some offices and research areas of the American Type Culture Collection (ATCC), are located in Discovery Hall, making this an attractive building on the Prince William Campus to target for information and technology.”

7. “Recent developments and discoveries in research and cutting edge technologies, including defense related technologies, by American and foreign national students in higher education require new means to control sensitive or potentially threatening information. This dissertation examined whether to and what degree universities are vulnerable to misuse, misapplication, and exploitation of information and technology and if the presence of foreign nationals contributes to this vulnerability.

8. “Yazid Sufaat is suspected of working on the development of biological and chemical weapons, specifically the anthrax program headed by Ayman Zawahiri known as ‘curdled milk.’” In June 2001, Sufaat travelled to Afghanistan and Pakistan to work for the Taliban Medical Brigade and to work with anthrax. Sufaat worked in the Afghan city of Kandahar, also known as ‘Hambali’ the alleged mastermind of the Bali 2002 bombing.

9. “In March 2003, handwritten notes and files on a laptop seized during the captive of al-Qaeda member Khalid Mohammed, include an anthrax production plan using a spray dryer. According to Ross Getman ... Mohammed told authorities that Zacarias Moussaoui inquired about crop dusters, possibly in relation to the anthrax work being done by Sufaat.”

10. “A June 1999 memo said the program should seek cover and talent in education institutions...”

11. “Discovery Hall currently has BSL 1, 2 and 2+ labs in which students work with attenuated and vaccine strains of Fracella tularemia, anthrax and HIV. GMU will eventually have new biological labs featuring a BSL-3 lab which will have anthrax and tularemia.”

12. “[]he Pasteur strain of anthrax is a select agent, not because it is a particularly pathogenic bug on its own, but it contains the genetic elements that can be recombined with other strains to make a pathogenic bug.”

13. “Collaborations include work with U.S. Army Medical Institute Infectious Disease (USAMRIID) and the Army Engineer Research and Development Center - Topographic Engineers Center (ERDC-TEC). Funded projects from state and federal grants and awards to study infectious diseases that result from biological terrorism or arise naturally include: U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Army Medical Research and Material Command, Commonwealth Health Research Board (Virginia), National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

[Elsewhere the author states U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center work included detection of biological agents]

14. “GMU currently collaborates with USAMRIID.”

15. “As a student in the biodefense program, the author is aware that students without background checks are permitted to work on grants, specifically Department of Defense, that has been awarded to NCBD under the Department of Molecular and Microbiology at GMU. Students are also permitted to do research separately from work in the lab for their studies. Work and studies are separate, but related by the lab. Thus, student access, research and activities go unchecked and unmonitored. Students have access to critical information and technology.”

16. A principal investigator (PI) may hire a student based on a one on one interview, post doctoral or masters interest, technical abilities, publications, previous work and lab experience, whether student qualifications match the principal interrogators current research, whether there is a space, and if the timing is right. There is no formal screening process or background check that the author is aware of for teaching or research assistantships.

17. “Discovery Hall is composed largely of strains of bio-agents that are avirulent for humans; thus, security for agents is not as stringent.”

18. “It is the access that students have to technology at GMU that can possibly allow them to weaponize them to weaponize the harmful agents once they obtain it.”

19. “Although computers are password protected, anyone can access the computers located throughout the labs. Research results can be recorded on lab computers. Someone wanting to access research results would first have to understand what the numbers meant. Research results are also kept in a lab notebook that is kept in the lab or office. This enables other students to repeat what was already done or to see results.”

20. “It is alarming that a project is not reviewed periodically for export control regulations because the direction of research could deviate or the status of controlled information or technology could change.”

21. “Upon hearing about instances or missing equipment in Discovery Hall, the author contacted campus security who was unaware of instances of missing equipment. Missing equipment should be reported to the equipment liaison. Missing equipment may not be reported to campus security because labs tend to share equipment. Equipment also goes missing because it is not inventoried if it is under $2,000.

22. [An example from October 2006 of equipment that went missing was a rotissery hybridization over belonging to the Center for Biomedical Genoimics]

“This equipment can be used to manufacture biological agents and genetically modified agents, which could potentially be used as biological weapons.”

23. “A DI system is a de-ionized water system, which removes the ions that are found in normal tap water. The assistant director for operations noticed the DI system in Discovery Hall was using the entire 100 gallons in two days, which is an enormous amount of water for the four DI taps in the whole building. According to the assistant director for operations, it is difficult to calculate the reason for that much water since no leak was found. A large amount of water used over a short period of time for unknown reasons could indicate that the research is being conducted covertly.”

24. “The events at GMU demonstrate opportunity to create a clandestine lab, the ability to sell items illegally, or the ability to exploit school equipment for ill intent. It also demonstrates vulnerability to theft, and a lack of technology and control and protection.”

25. “The threat posed by Islamic extremists interacting with students at universities is a concern since college students are impressionable and have the potential to be influenced by radicalism and radical preachers. The radical preacher Ali Al-Timimi is an illustrative example.

26. Ali Al-Timimi earned a doctorate in 2005 in computational biology from GMU. His doctoral dissertation is entitled “Chaos and Complexity in Cancer.” Brought to the author’s attention, was that Al-Timimi had an office in Discovery Hall.”

27. “He was convicted and sentenced to ten federal counts of supporting and encouraging terrorist activities, specifically urging his followers to join the Taliban to fight the U.S. troops and to train with the terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole.”

28. “According to Broadside Newspaper at George Mason University, study groups made up of Muslim students at Mason gathered on a weekly basis to hear lectures by Shaykh Ja’far Idris at Dar Al-Aqam. According to the Broadside, Idris is an internationally known Salafi cleric and a member of the Salafi diplomatic corps, who was forced to leave the United states in 2003 due to pressure from the U.S. Government. Al-Timimi participated in events sponsored by the Mason’s Muslim Students Association.

29. “The ability of the student to misuse, misapply or exploit information and technology learned from conducting biological research using the assets and capabilities available is extremely vulnerable.

30. “The student already has access to the knowledge and understands how to use and misuse biological agents. These students know the potential applications for the information and technology that is used during biological research. The students are able to access the information easily and work with the technology regularly... This information and technology is also extremely sensitive as stated earlier in the study.”

31. “A student with legitimate access to Discovery Hall has easy accessibility to equipment. A student with access to the loading dock could steal equipment on the weekend when campus security is not present in Discovery Hall. A student could also walk out of the entrance with equipment on the weekend without security present.

32. “If it was discovered that a student at GMU used information and technology against the U.S. which was learned and accessed at GMU the consequences would be severe. Such an incident would cause an immediate end to research.”
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http://www.anthraxandalqaeda.com