Huge sieve strains muck in anthrax search

http://www.newsday. | June 25, 2003, 5:40 PM EDT | The Associated Press

[Princeton]

FREDERICK, Md. -- Investigators looking for clues to the 2001 anthrax attacks appeared to be using a giant sieve to strain muck scooped from the bottom of a drained woodland pond, a newspaper reported Wednesday.

The device resembled a boxing ring, The Frederick News-Post reported. Eight workers in brightly colored safety vests and hard hats stood inside it Tuesday and used rakes to comb through loads of mud dumped by a steam shovel.

The FBI had the one-acre pond drained June 9 as part of its investigation into the anthrax-laced letters that killed five and sickened 17 in the fall of 2001.

The pond is in the Frederick Municipal Forest, a watershed that provides some of drinking water for the nearby city of Frederick. The search poses no threat to the city's water quality, city officials have said.

The pond search will likely end by the end of this week or early next week, city spokeswoman Nancy Poss said Thursday after conferring with Frederick City Police Chief Kim Dine, who gets regular FBI briefings on the project. Once the search is done, it will take a contractor about a week to restore the site, Poss said.

The pond is of special interest because of items retrieved from its depths last winter. The Washington Post first reported May 11 that divers recovered items including a clear box with holes that could accommodate gloves. Also recovered were vials wrapped in plastic.

Several FBI and Justice Department officials have told The Associated Press, speaking on condition on anonymity, that investigators think someone could have used these items to safely place anthrax in envelopes. Testing of the items has not produced definitive evidence of anthrax contamination, these officials said.

The pond is eight miles from the Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, the primary custodian of the strain of anthrax found in envelopes sent to the victims.

The FBI has described Steven Hatfill, a biological weapons expert who formerly worked as a researcher at the institute, as a "person of interest" in the investigation. Hatfill has denied any involvement in the attacks. Copyright © 2003, The Associated Press

[Semper Paratus]

That giant sucking sound you hear is that of the FBI's credibility if that pond turns out to be a dry well.

[TrebleRebel]

ping

[Princeton]

[Sacajaweau]

Gee, what to think!! It doesn't seem to make ANY sense but then we know they don't tell us everything.

It STILL sticks in my mind that the "snipers" were picked up close by. What better "runners" could there be for the Anthrax envelopes.

They "mastered" the "hit and run" technique and their blue junker was bought 6 miles away from the mailing site. Malvo "permanently" left school the day Steven's death was announced. They never mentioned the pond until AFTER they picked up Malvo & Mohammed.

[G.Mason]

"......used rakes to comb through loads of mud dumped by a steam shovel."

Steam shovel?

I'm sorry, but who the hell wrote this article, Mike Mulligan?

[StriperSniper]

How many Endangered Species were hurt by this? ;-)

[Princeton]

[eno_]

Headline:

FBI FAILS TO FINS ASS WITH BOTH HANDS AND FLASHLIGHT, GIANT SIEVE NO HELP EITHER

[hgro]

Unfortunately the F.B.I. lost credibility at Ruby Ridge, lost more at Waco and lost the remainder at the Atlanta bombing by persecuting the wrong guy.

This is one agency that should be dismantled and a new and hopefully better organization established.

[Hegemony Cricket]

"FBI FAILS TO FIND ASS WITH BOTH HANDS AND FLASHLIGHT, GIANT SIEVE NO HELP EITHER"

sub-head - "But the muck-raking continues none-the-less"

[razorback-bert]

Do they call it "The Hoover Muck Raker"?

[Pan_Yans Wife]

"...and lost the remainder at the Atlanta bombing by persecuting the wrong guy."

Didn't you hear they found Eric Rudolph?

[John Beresford Tipton]

"Didn't you hear they found Eric Rudolph?"

He was found by the local Barney Fife.

[jpl]

Unfortunately the F.B.I. lost credibility at Ruby Ridge, lost more at Waco and lost the remainder at the Atlanta bombing by persecuting the wrong guy. This is one agency that should be dismantled and a new and hopefully better organization established.

And don't forget about Joe Salvati, the guy who the FBI had imprisoned for 32 years for a murder he didn't commit, even though they knew he was completely innocent of any wrongdoing.

[TrebleRebel]

I agree. This could put a great deal of suspicion on innocent turtle hunters everywhere.

[Princeton]

"The real anthrax killer

sends his condolences to Hatfill

over his crushed toe."


Quick - who wrote this and where?

[Princeton]