Anthrax: No Progress in Battle on Bioterror - Why?

Insight ^ | 21 October 2002 | Nicholas Stix

[templar]

Methinks they are as accurate as they were about the D.C. Sniper and are deceiving us for the same purposes!

Truth is, IMHO, they haven't got the slightest idea who is behind this. Their deception is to try to keep us from figguring that out.

[templar]

Still waiting for someone to explain to me how this ham-handed episode in any way rated the designation "terror".

Since 9/11 everything rates that designation. At least now we finally know who was behind the Tylenol murders of two decades ago: Muslim terrorists.

[mrustow]

Fresh from the profiling success of the experts in the DC sniper case, we need to committ criminal profiling to the dustbin of pseudo-science.

When it comes to terrorism the rule here is "there are no rules" That's why it's called terrorism, because it is not predictable.

Bump to that, but somehow I doubt we're rid of profilers and other pseudo-experts. News directors are addicted to them. The idea that there are simply some people who are intelligent observers and others who aren't, independent of phony "credentials," is alien to them.

[templar]

... no understanding that anthrax is a naturally-occurring agent.

A couple years ago I heard a guy on talk radio, don't remember his name. He gave a detailed instruction on how to obtain anthrax spores by visiting certain north western states and finding the burial trenches of animals from an outbreak a hundred or thereabouts years ago. He said you could just sort of drill with a fence post digger type of thing and pull up enough spores to start a personal bioweapons factory. I have no idea if this is actually true. I would have expected som idiot to have tried it by now if it was, I suppose.

[The Great Satan]

Anthrax: No Progress in Battle on Bioterror - Why?

There are two levels on which that question can be answered. On a superficial level, one observes that Operation Amerithrax is a showstring outfit staffed with knaves and fools (Ruby Ridge coverup artist Van Arp and Special Agent Bob "Joyce Chiang was kidnapped by Chinese white slavers" Roth), and that, early on, they were pointed at USAMRIID, where it was guaranteed they would never uncover anything remotely relevant to the anthrax.

On a deeper level, Operation Amerithrax hasn't made any progress because that is precisely its mission: not to make progress. There is nothing we can do right now to prevent the foreign power who weaponized the anthrax from using the same technology to kill millions of Americans. All the authorities can do is play for time. And that's exactly what they've been doing ever since the first case of inhalation anthrax in 25 years cropped up in Mohammed Atta's backyard. And the stall will continue for as long as necessary -- forever, if need be. Get used to it.

[mrustow]

The "profiling" process, always a matter of guesswork and talent, produces endless hypothesis, and progresses to hopeless group-think. Look how absurd the recent "psycho-sniper" profiling became. Bureaucrats and news media chose the story they like best as if it were fact, circulate the story widely, and then are reinforced in their error when they hear the story as fact in the media and word of mouth. Any competing narrative is ignored. This used to be called a "circle-jerk", a most accurate metaphor.

So, that's what a "circle-jerk" is, LOL!

[muawiyah]

All the peculiar language on the tarot cards comes from the cant of what is called "the 5% Nation". This was well covered yesterday evening in several FR threads.

[mrustow]

You wouldn't happen to have any links to them, wouldja? I'd be much obliged.

[Shermy]

Bump.

[okie01]

But a 15-year-old kid with a chemistry set couldn't do it . . . that's the point.

"That's not what I'm getting from all the reports."

Then I urge you to read...

FBI's Theory on Anthrax Is Doubted, from today's Washington Post.

This is the best-researched, most complete article on anthrax yet done by the mainstream media. It effectively addresses your questions.

[dirtboy]

If Drs. Keim and Spertzel are correct, the authorities have wasted precious time and resources on a wild goose chase.

The authorities seem to be doing quite a bit of that lately. Maybe the anthrax perp is driving a white van.

[dirtboy]

Thanks for the link.

[mrustow]

Parts of the article you linked sound awfully similar to the one posted here.

[okie01]

"Parts of the article you linked sound awfully similar to the one posted here."

Spertzel is quoted in both. And both cite some of the same concepts. But the Post offers a more technically detailed refutation of the "rogue scientist" theory.

Of course, they've the benefit of more space than Stix. And to see the mainstream media actually approach the anthrax story with some competence and an open mind is, you must admit, somewhat refreshing.

[Shermy]

"...The anthrax found in the letters was of the Ames strain, which originated in an infected cow in Texas in 1981. Until a 1997 federal law mandated strict controls and record-keeping for the scientific use and sharing of toxic substances, the Ames strain was passed around the world by scientists via mutual cooperation, with virtually no controls or oversight.

While it is possible that a small sample of the anthrax used in the attack was stolen from a U.S. bioweapons lab and then subsequently grown into larger quantities, it is much more likely that the perpetrator obtained the anthrax from any of a multitude of foreign sources...."