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"Los Alamos..Illegally received a shipment of lethal, live anthrax In late October" -Quote MyTitle
Financial Times ^ | December 17, 2001 | Gwen Robinson

Posted on 12/18/2001 12:32:56 PM PST by t-shirt

Confusion deepens over government anthrax use

By Gwen Robinson

Financial Times

Published: December 17 2001

Confusion over the extent of US government involvement in anthrax development and research deepened on Monday after a Democratic congressman said documents in his possession showed that a laboratory under the Department of Energy had illegally received a shipment of lethal, live anthrax samples from a university in Arizona in late October.

The Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) "requested, received and used virulent anthrax it was not authorised to possess", Edward Markey, a member of the House energy committee, said on Monday.

The energy department declined to comment. But the question of how many research facilities - government and private - possess lethal anthrax strains is likely to generate further controversy, particularly in the wake of weekend admissions by the Central Intelligence Agency and the US army that their laboratories were conducting research on virulent anthrax spores.

Mr Markey said LANL had received the live anthrax from Northern Arizona University on October 26 but failed to report the shipment for nearly a month and was not authorised to work with virulent anthrax.

The admissions added to growing evidence that significantly more government, academic and private laboratories possessed anthrax strains for research purposes than initially thought. In November, at the height of the anthrax scare which has so far caused five deaths, investigators suggested that only a few government laboratories and a small number of researchers were involved in working on anthrax.

The main concern, warned commentators, is what increasingly appears to be the lack of clear, public records of facilities possessing anthrax and the possibility of lax controls over the bacteria.

The White House on Monday acknowledged that evidence in the recent spate of contaminated letter attacks was "increasingly looking like" the anthrax they contained was produced in the US.

A CIA spokesman on Monday confirmed weekend reports that the agency possessed some anthrax, but he said the agency's researchers used it "only to learn about potential biological warfare threats".

For its part, the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Disease said at the weekend it had obtained a supply of the lethal bacteria from the US agriculture department and had shared it with five laboratories in the US, Canada and the UK.

The latest disclosures are embarrassing for the Bush administration, not only because of current international criticism over the recent US rejection of efforts to strengthen a 1972 biological weapons convention. Confirmation of the involvement of various US military and civilian agencies has also fuelled doubts about the accuracy of US official reporting of its chemical and biological weapons research programmes.

Chuck Dasey, at the army's infectious diseases institute, appeared to confirm reports that researchers had found a genetic match between the anthrax spores in contaminated letters and the anthrax kept at the institute. But in a comment that generated more questions than answers, he said if true, that would not provide solid clues. "You can't say it all came from [the institute]. We got it from another lab in the first place and so presumably [the institute] is not the only lab that got it from the Department of Agriculture."

On Monday, reports said the FBI had expressed surprise over reports of the CIA's anthrax programme and was focusing its investigations on a contractor that worked for the CIA. The FBI was also investigating scientists at the various research laboratories.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Extended News; News/Current Events
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So far we know Dugway PG and the Army had and developed the exact starin of the of the Anthrax used in the Anthrax murders & attacks and did not tell the FBI, until the FBI found oput from whistleblowers.

The CIA and it's Contractor and Porton Downs Bio-Research had weaponized Anthrax and did not tell the FBI until whistle blowers leaked that to the press. And now we know that Los Alamos had illegally obtained Live Anhrax (presumably of military grade) in Late October and they also like the CIA, Army, Porton Downs refused to tell the FBI to help their murder investigation until insiders leaked it! Do this Government agencies/labs think they are above the law and they aren't obligated to obey the law and disclose what they know that could help solve these anthrax murders and attacks?

Also keep in mind that we have foriegn nationals(Many who are Arab/muslim) working in all of these government, military, university, and private labs.

------------------------------------------------------------

Also keep in mind that Ft. Detrick has admitted that it is the original source of all of this military grade Anthrax. -----------------------------------------------------------------

Pray for America.

1 posted on 12/18/2001 12:32:57 PM PST by t-shirt
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To: t-shirt
There are Arab scientists on the staff at Los Alamos...
2 posted on 12/18/2001 12:42:32 PM PST by medlarebil
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To: t-shirt
Related Anthrax Murder and terror threads:

Anthrax Likely Originated in U.S., White House Says

(1st FBI Finds Army ,Now CIA+PortonDown Linked To Anthrax Strain, Detrick Had To Be Original Source)

AnthraxVaccine Mulled For Up to3,000 Exposed,Experimental Use Likely to Be Controversial (GuneaPigs)

Army's Anthrax Material Surprises Some Experts (Why Did Army Not Disclose ThisBefore FBI Found Out?)

Army Working on Weapons-Grade Anthrax, Report Says (Spores Shipped Month Before Attracks Began)

Anthrax matches Army spores (Identical To Dugway PG, Ft Detrick Anthrax)

3 posted on 12/18/2001 12:42:52 PM PST by t-shirt
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To: medlarebil
Ofcourse! And are also many, many Chinese nationals on Los Alamos' staff who could be suspect---who could potentially be activated by Communist China at any given time.
4 posted on 12/18/2001 12:45:09 PM PST by t-shirt
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To: expose;archy;Alamo-Girl;Dark Wing;Freee-dame;Thud;Robert357;mafree;John H K; right_to_defend...
bump
5 posted on 12/18/2001 12:51:30 PM PST by t-shirt
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To: t-shirt
Thanks for the heads up!
6 posted on 12/18/2001 12:57:48 PM PST by Alamo-Girl
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To: lizma;JakeWyld;Fred Mertz; ratcat;jedediah smith;Black Cat;chainsaw;copycat;Mercuria;DoughtyOne...
bump
7 posted on 12/18/2001 1:05:24 PM PST by t-shirt
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To: Alamo-Girl
-------------THE ENEMY IS WITHIN---------------
8 posted on 12/18/2001 1:05:56 PM PST by Digger
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To: t-shirt
What the **** does the Energy Dept. need with live anthrax?
9 posted on 12/18/2001 1:06:25 PM PST by Arkinsaw
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To: t-shirt
What it shows is that lots more labs than suspected had the anthrax strain used on Daschle. Which means that lots of groups could have too. So the "strain" concept is a non-story.

And we get back to the question I've been asking for months - WHAT AEROSOLIZATION PROCESS WAS USED?

We'll have a handle on whodunnit when that is answered. Until then we can only rely on circumstantial evidence, which points to Iraq as the source and Al Qaeda as the vector.

10 posted on 12/18/2001 1:12:23 PM PST by Thud
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To: El Gato;LarryLied; tracer;bvw;Constitution1st;Aura Of The Blade; Blade;Travis McGee;prambo...
Scientist Found Slain In His Loudoun Home (2 More Bio-Experts Dead, EbolaVictimMissing)
11 posted on 12/18/2001 1:14:56 PM PST by t-shirt
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To: Arkinsaw
What the **** does the Energy Dept. need with live anthrax?

I was wondering the same thing myself.

12 posted on 12/18/2001 1:26:35 PM PST by northernwilson
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To: Arkinsaw
Supposedly nothing, but remember since Los Alamos is involved missiles and nuclear weapon tecnology development it could be used to develop missiles that can fire Anthrax or other biological warfare weapons.

And note further that the CIA under Clinton orders (without Congressional authorization)was secretly working on developing missiles/bombs that could fire biological weapons. U.S. Germ Warfare Research Pushes Treaty Limits (Clinton ClearVisionProgram CIA Developed Germ Bomb) And we also recently learned here:
(1st FBI Finds Army ,Now CIA+PortonDown Linked To Anthrax Strain, Detrick Had To Be Original Source)that the CIA had military grade anthrax.

--------

Please check out the links to other threads on the to above linked threads as well.

13 posted on 12/18/2001 1:27:48 PM PST by t-shirt
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To: Digger
bump!
14 posted on 12/18/2001 1:28:16 PM PST by Alamo-Girl
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To: northernwilson
Nothing legally---But when does legally stop the government?

But see post #13 and check out the links to see some of what they might be doing.

15 posted on 12/18/2001 1:30:06 PM PST by t-shirt
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To: Arkinsaw
Maybe they were working on a new way to sterilize Anthrax spores using nuclear radiation. I wouldn't be surprised if the equipment they are using at the USPS Indiana facility was based on research done at Los Alamos.

With all of the security lapses at Los Alamos lately it does bear closer scrutiny though.

16 posted on 12/18/2001 1:33:21 PM PST by anymouse
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Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion.

Albuquerque Journal
October 25, 2001 
Pg. 1

LANL Probing Attacks
Jennifer McKee Journal Staff Writer

Lab Home to Repository Of Anthrax Genetic Information

Bits of anthrax DNA taken from deadly, contaminated letters on the East Coast are likely at the Los Alamos National Laboratory where researchers are taking part in the investigation into the anthrax attacks.

LANL confirmed Wednesday its anthrax research team has been participating in the criminal investigation into attacks in New York, Florida and New Jersey. The research currently taking place at Los Alamos is likely under way in the lab's Biosciences building. Los Alamos scientists, however, aren't the only researchers working on the federal investigation

The lab, in particular scientist Paul Jackson, has long been rumored to be a part of the investigation. Los Alamos is home to the world's largest repository of anthrax genetic information, has been researching the organism for 10 years, and has unique expertise in analyzing the germ.

Another lab associate, Paul Keim, a professor at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, has already been confirmed as working on the case by scientific colleagues. Keim is not working at Los Alamos.

Lab spokeswoman Nancy Ambrosiano and Bioscience Division Director Jill Trewhella would not go into specifics about who at the lab was involved or exactly what they're doing.

"It's devastating that (the anthrax attacks) are happening," Trewhella said. "But I am grateful that we have prepared."

The fact that the lab has confirmed its involvement sheds light on what researchers are likely doing and what they're working with.

The lab's special expertise lies in making quick genetic analyses of the bacteria that causes anthrax disease bacillus anthracis. Such analysis can tell scientists where the anthrax originated, whether it has been genetically changed to be heartier, even whether someone tried to manipulate the bug's genes but failed, Trewhella said.

Los Alamos and NAU researchers, working in collaboration, have developed several ways of analyzing the DNA. One involves taking very quick "fingerprints" of the bacteria by dissolving some of the DNA, Trewhella said. The DNA will break into fragments, unique to each kind of anthrax, Trewhella said. That analysis, however, doesn't give a very detailed picture of the bug. Los Alamos and NAU researchers have developed a very in-depth analysis of the DNA that looks at minute genetic differences between strains of anthrax. Much of that work is conducted at Los Alamos, Trewhella said.

In order to do such work, scientists need portions of the bacteria's DNA. While the lab is officially remaining mum on the subject, the fact that the lab has confirmed researchers there are working on the case at all, strongly suggests some portion of the anthrax involved in the East Coast letter attacks must be at Los Alamos lab.

The lab's work does not involve entire anthrax spores, only portions of the DNA, which cannot cause disease.

Anthrax has shown up at various locations in Florida, New York, New Jersey and Washington, D.C, at news organizations, government offices and the post offices that handle their mail. So far, three people have died of the disease, according to The Associated Press.


17 posted on 12/18/2001 1:46:32 PM PST by Nita Nupress
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To: t-shirt
>Los Alamos..Illegally received a shipment of lethal, live anthrax In late October

I'm not a big fan of Occam's razor myself, but it seems like half a dozen Freepers are constantly quoting it. In this case, it almost seems fitting. If any number of US intelligence agencies are on record as having anthrax or having easy access to it, then do we really need to drag in Chinese or Arab saboteurs? Isn't that complicating the situation needlessly? After all, it's the US government that's made the most hay out of the "threats" to security. All the new powers and regulations have benefited the US government more than they've benefited any foreign power. (Indeed, I can't see that any foreign power has really benefited from 911. Whereas the FEDS sure have. And some US businesses...)

Mark W.

18 posted on 12/18/2001 1:47:15 PM PST by MarkWar
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To: Nita Nupress

Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion.

Albuquerque Journal
November 06, 1998

Pg. A1

Biological-Attack Analysis Lab Proposed for LANL
Ian Hoffman Journal Northern Bureau

Nuke Facility Seeks Anti-Terror Funding

SANTA FE -- The federal nuclear-weapons lab in Los Alamos is thinking of building a lab for genetic analysis of potentially lethal bacteria, among them organisms intended by terrorists or foreign nations for use as weapons.

Inside the tiny lab, scientists in gloves and surgical scrubs would use cutting-edge genetics to "fingerprint" the DNA of pathogens such as those that cause anthrax and botulism.

Executives at Los Alamos National Laboratory think the new lab could help guarantee Los Alamos a piece of federal anti-terrorism funding, which soared to $3 billion this year.

"We hope it's going to grow," said nuclear physicist Hans Ruppel, LANL's acting associate director for strategic and supporting research. "We recognize what motivates Congress -- national security -- and we'll respond to that." LANL also envisions the new lab hosting joint research into infectious diseases with the University of New Mexico and the state.

The lab would occupy a windowless, 230-square-foot room inside an empty aluminum building at LANL's Technical Area 54, not far from the lab's burial trenches for low-level radioactive waste.

The lab would feature double doors, negative air pressure and full-time filtered air -- all designed to keep biological agents from escaping.

Disease researchers call this a biosafety level 3, or BSL-3, lab, and it's a standard facility at major U.S. universities and pharmaceutical firms. Two are known to exist in New Mexico, both used by UNM in Albuquerque primarily for research into tuberculosis and Hantavirus.

"It's good for science in New Mexico to have this capability. I would urge them to proceed," said virologist Brian Hjelle, who regularly works in UNM's BSL-3 labs and developed the leading test for Hantavirus. "The risks these facilities pose to the community are about as close to zero as you can get."

LANL can work with some live biological agents now but wants the extra safety of the new laboratory for its workers.

Activists are nonetheless leery of LANL's move toward handling live biowarfare agents, saying the work could raise suspicions among other nations and perhaps provide cover for countries seeking bioweapons as an inexpensive alternative to nuclear arms.

"This creates prima facie problems of compliance with the Biological Weapons Convention. Why locate this at a facility whose primary function is development of offensive nuclear weapons?" asks University of Illinois law professor Francis Boyle, a member of the Council for Responsible Genetics, an anti-biological weapons advocacy group.

"You can imagine the way the Third World is going to see it: We say don't do this, meanwhile our own people are putting dual-use research into a known weapons lab," said Boyle, who authored the 1989 Bioweapons and Anti-Terrorism Act, which outlaws manufacture of biological weapons.

BSL-3 labs protect workers and the public against exposure to organisms better than most hospital labs but less than the nation's two biosafety level four labs, used by the U.S. Army at Fort Detrick, Md., and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta to handle the most lethal viruses, such as smallpox and Ebola.

LANL's lab is one of at least three that are contemplated by the U.S. Department of Energy, the others proposed for Oak Ridge and Lawrence Livermore national labs in Tennessee and California.

They would join the U.S. Army Medical Institute of Infectious Diseases as the nation's only labs performing defense research using live biowarfare and bioterrorism agents.

Roughly half the lab's work would be in the national-security arena, for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Department of Defense or other federal agencies, lab officials said.

"The FBI wants the answer now: Is it a viable organism? What strain is it?" said biophysicist Scott Cram, director of LANL's Life Sciences Division, citing an example of the lab's proposed work.

Samples of tissue or dirt -- for example, collected by a United Nations inspection team -- would be delivered in triple-layered packaging. Molecular biologists would use LANL-pioneered advances in DNA fingerprinting to identify any suspected biological warfare and bioterrorism agents.

The rest of the new lab's work would be joint research with the New Mexico Department of Health and the University of New Mexico, both of which are eager for help with infectious-disease research.

The number of BSL-3 labs in the United States is unknown because they are not licensed or regulated by any federal agency. Workers in such labs have been infected, mostly by tuberculosis, but there are no recorded infections of humans or animals by organisms escaped from a BSL-3 lab in the United States.

LANL molecular biologist Paul Jackson, who would be director of the new lab, already performs DNA analysis on anthrax-causing bacteria that are dead.

LANL director John Browne will make the final decision on the new lab after environmental studies are completed early next year.

19 posted on 12/18/2001 1:49:42 PM PST by Nita Nupress
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To: Nita Nupress

Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion.

Albuquerque Journal
March 4, 2001, Sunday
 Pg. 1

Anthrax Is Rogue Weapon of Choice
Jennifer McKee Journal Staff Writer

It goes like this:

You're the leader of a rogue nation. You've got charismatic power in spades, but are tight on cash and badly in need of an arsenal. Nukes? Don't even try, said Paul Jackson, a scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory overseeing the lab's bioweapons project. Nuclear weapons are too expensive.

But that's no problem. Mother Nature has already perfected dozens of ways to wipe out human beings.

Voila: biological warfare, the cheap, effective alternative to nuclear weapons. Jackson and his team of scientists in the lab's Biosciences Division play a unique role in tracking biological weapons around the world. They're in charge of mapping the genes of a spate of possible weapon-ready microbes. First on the list is Bacillus anthracis, the common soil spore that causes the disease anthrax.

The Los Alamos scientists have mapped the DNA of hundreds of strains of the microbe and the lab is now home to the world's largest repository of genetic information on Bacillus anthracis and its closely related microbe cousins. The scientists are mapping the DNA because the organism's genes vary slightly depending on the soil where it originated. Bacillus anthracis in New Mexico, for example, is slightly different from Bacillus anthracis in France.

With enough genetic information, Jackson said, scientists can take a sample of the organisms say, some spores deployed as weapons on a city and tell exactly where they came from and, therefore, what country probably made and deployed the weapon.

Knowing the genes also speeds up the time it takes doctors to identify an anthrax outbreak, especially one caused by weapons, Jackson said.

So far, the lab handles only the DNA of disease-causing microbes, not living cells. The only "live" Bacillus anthracis at the lab is the anthrax vaccine, said Jill Trewhella, head of the lab's Biosciences Division, which oversees the Bacillus anthracis research. Anthrax vaccine, which is sold at many feed stores for veterinary use, is living Bacillus anthracis organisms with part of their genetic material removed. The organisms look normal to the body's immune system, but are incapable of causing infection.

Los Alamos wants to build a different laboratory, one designed to safely handle small amounts of live, and possibly deadly, microbes. The plan is opposed by some northern New Mexicans who fear having any amount of deadly disease near their homes.

Both Jackson and Trewhella said they're not deaf to those concerns. But they stress the importance of LANL's bioweapons research and the strict safety measures scientists must take when working such organisms.

Incidentally, Jackson said, live Bacillus anthracis microbes couldn't infect people, anyway. The disease is spread by the organism's spores, and the actual Bacillus anthracis organism doesn't live long outside its host.

Rare in humans

(snip - misc. info about "woolhandler's disease" that we already know) 


Figuring it out

Anthrax is good for weapons, Jackson said, because it's cheap and easy to make, stores for a long time, and when delivered properly can kill lots of people.

"All you need is a background in microbiology," Jackson said, and you can cook up a batch of Bacillus anthracis pretty easily.

The United States once played with the idea of weaponizing the spore. In the 1950s, America's brief biological-weapons program looked specifically at Bacillus anthracis, according to the CDC. President Nixon banned all such research in 1969, Jackson said.

Since then, most Americans who gave the disease much thought were veterinarians, ranchers or isolated researchers like Jackson.

The former Soviet Union also had an active anthrax program. An accidental leak at one of its factories killed 66 people in 1979. Iraq threatened to deploy the disease during the Gulf War.

During the Cold War, however, Jackson said, most bomb-watchers were looking at nuclear weapons. Today, the fear is of rogue nations and leaders lacking the money and scientists needed to pull off a nuclear bomb, which even 55 years after its debut is still pretty difficult to build.

Weaponized Bacillus anthracis spores are usually cooked up with thickeners into a "peanut brittle" type stuff, Jackson said. Then it's ground up into tiny flakes ready to be launched.

According to a World Health Organization report, 95,000 people in a city of 500,000 would die within three days of the release of 50 kilograms of Bacillus anthracis spores. Under ideal conditions, the report reads, the disease could prove fatal to about half the population as far as 160 kilometers downwind.

The disease also is easily traceable, Jackson said, given the genetic differences dependent upon its point of origin.

Mapping the DNA is easy, Jackson said. The hard part is getting samples of Bacillus anthracis from every corner of the world, especially places like Russia, which don't necessarily want the United States knowing anything about the Bacillus anthracis in their nations, and more than likely, in their weapons.

Trewhella said people may not value this research now, but they will if someone ever uses an anthrax weapon.

"They'll want to know" someone was working on the problem, she said.


20 posted on 12/18/2001 1:57:52 PM PST by Nita Nupress
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