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Physics of anthrax is beyond al-Qaida, Sandia Labs expert says
Albuquerqque Tribune ^ | 10/26/01 | By Sue Major Holmes

Posted on 10/26/2001 11:19:17 AM PDT by woofie

A bioweapons expert from Sandia National Laboratories says the anthrax-by-mail attacks suggest a degree of sophistication beyond the al-Qaida terrorist organization.

"Unless they bought it from Iraq or something, it's not likely to be al-Qaida," Alan Zelicoff said in an interview Thursday from Washington, D.C. What makes the current attacks different from anthrax outbreaks of the past is not the anthrax itself, but rather the way it has been dispersed, said Zelicoff, who joined Sandia 12 years ago and works for its Center for National Security and Arms Control.

The anthrax in the current attacks has been treated "with materials that make it float in the air. That's no mean trick; it's a hard thing to do," Zelicoff said. "It suggests a sophisticated program with a lot of expertise, not in biology . . . but in aerosol physics."

"That's the big cataclysmic shift," he said.

Ordinarily, anthrax spores would simply fall to the ground, which has kept the bacteria from being a widespread bioterrorism threat in the past.

The current attacks suggest "roomfuls of equipment, specialties in aerosol physics and lots of testing," Zelicoff said.

"It's a hard, hard, hard thing to do and way beyond the capacity" of groups such as the al-Qaida terrorist network or militia organizations, he said.

The United States considers Osama bin Laden, head of al-Qaida, the prime suspect in the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

A story in Thursday's editions of The Washington Post quoted government sources as saying the anthrax that contaminated Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle's office might have been made in America. The story said the anthrax was treated with a chemical additive made only in the United States, the former Soviet Union and Iraq. It quoted an unnamed source as saying "the totality of the evidence in hand" suggests it was unlikely to have come from the former Soviet Union or Iraq.

However, Zelicoff - who stressed he has no information on the threats beyond what he has read in newspapers - said Iraq has the necessary sophistication, based on information released by a United Nations special commission that did weapons inspections in Iraq through much of the 1990s before Iraq closed its borders to inspections.

"They had the drying equipment; they had the milling equipment; they had the aerosol testing equipment, the expertise on staff in engineering and physics, to do this kind of work," he said.

Scientists at several medical labs around the country have spent days analyzing the bacteria from the attacks, but officials have said it's still unclear whether the mailed anthrax spores, which have caused illness in New York, Washington, Florida and New Jersey, all came from the same place.

There have been 13 cases of anthrax nationwide in the past few weeks, most with known connections to mail.

Zelicoff, whose area of expertise is early detection of large-scale dissemination of biological organisms, was in Washington on Thursday to brief Congress about monitoring for biological threats. The briefing was canceled because of the anthrax investigations.

"The truth about routine monitoring is we do not have it," Zelicoff said. "And that will be key if there's large-scale biological (threats) or someone, God forbid, uses a communicable disease such as smallpox or a new influenza strain."

America's public health system - the repository of information about diseases - is severely underused, he said. It's cumbersome for doctors to report disease information, and it's difficult for public health officials to analyze information when they're not getting enough data from doctors.

For example, one of the postal workers who died came in with flulike symptoms. But, Zelicoff said, there had not been a single case of flu reported in Washington since last winter.

"The doctors don't know that. They don't get routine information, not even to say there's not any flu, so they're not going think twice about dismissing" respiratory complaints, he said.

"It's easy to shrug someone off as having flulike symptoms. . . . But if someone is telling me there's not one single case of flu in Albuquerque, I'd think twice about a bad respiratory illness and not shrug it off as flu," said Zelicoff, a medical doctor.

New Mexico has a pilot program aimed at alerting public health experts to unusual cases or clusters of cases as soon as doctors become aware of them. The program currently operates only at University of New Mexico Hospital and at sites connected with Memorial Medical Center in Las Cruces.

The system "gives data to public health officials in Santa Fe who are the experts. . . . They're good at looking at it and saying, We've seen this before, there's no need to worry,' or That's an unusual pattern, we need to start investigating,"he said.

Such a system made easy for doctors to use and widely operated would allow the nation to spot bioterrorism diseases, since they cause severe symptoms in people who ordinarily are healthy.

"It will capture those cases - not as the result of physicians - but because of patterns of unusual disease," Zelicoff said.


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1 posted on 10/26/2001 11:19:17 AM PDT by woofie
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To: woofie
But not beyond Saddam, I'll bet...
2 posted on 10/26/2001 11:20:02 AM PDT by Silly
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To: woofie
"It's a hard, hard, hard thing to do and way beyond the capacity" of groups such as the al-Qaida terrorist network or militia organizations, he said.

But within the capacity of home-grown American "hate" groups? Which is it, folks?

3 posted on 10/26/2001 11:22:16 AM PDT by Ratatoskr
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To: woofie
Your other screen name, Zvadist (I think that's how you spelled it) has posted a simialr misinformation thread. Busy today, eh? How many more names have you to use in your posts?
4 posted on 10/26/2001 11:23:40 AM PDT by MHGinTN
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To: Ratatoskr
However, Zelicoff - who stressed he has no information on the threats beyond what he has read in newspapers - said Iraq has the necessary sophistication, based on information released by a United Nations special commission that did weapons inspections in Iraq through much of the 1990s before Iraq closed its borders to inspections.

"They had the drying equipment; they had the milling equipment; they had the aerosol testing equipment, the expertise on staff in engineering and physics, to do this kind of work," he said.

5 posted on 10/26/2001 11:25:00 AM PDT by woofie
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To: woofie
Let's get this straight. It's beyond the international, heavily financed Al Quaida, but it's not beyond the capabilities of domestic (i.e. dreaded "right-wing") terrorist groups?
6 posted on 10/26/2001 11:26:03 AM PDT by Atticus
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To: Silly
So much for the 'homegrown terrorist/ right wing kook" theory that the mainstream media and certain rats (dodd for expample) have been pushing. They will be very disappointed by this turn of events.

Now we know why Saddam went to ground (literally) when the anthrax attack broke publicly.

7 posted on 10/26/2001 11:26:42 AM PDT by Leto
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To: Leto
I'm with you.
8 posted on 10/26/2001 11:27:42 AM PDT by Silly
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To: MHGinTN
You are sadly misinformed...I have no idea what you are talking about ....This guy is saying it is probably Iraq
9 posted on 10/26/2001 11:27:46 AM PDT by woofie
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To: MHGinTN
what are you talking about.....isn't this a real newspaper site?
10 posted on 10/26/2001 11:28:07 AM PDT by francisandbeans
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To: woofie
I think that there are two main possible sources. One they got it from Iraq. The other is they got it from the Russian mafia who had USSR anthrax.

But, another possibility is it is stolen from the US. The article about the al Qaeda member who was in the US military for years is an eye opener.

An opporative like that could have pilfered some somehwhere along the line.

11 posted on 10/26/2001 11:28:40 AM PDT by tallhappy
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To: Atticus
Read the article ...he says Iraq
12 posted on 10/26/2001 11:28:51 AM PDT by woofie
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To: woofie
My gut feeling is that what is happening now is a field trial.

The real one will be a massive distribution with mutated anthrax.

13 posted on 10/26/2001 11:28:57 AM PDT by Clive
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To: woofie
Considering the ease of accessibility by foriegn nationals to US flight schools, is it beyond the realm of reasonable thought to contemplate that Muslim extremists could infiltrate the areas where infectious diseases are stored and studied?
14 posted on 10/26/2001 11:31:07 AM PDT by onehipdad
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To: MHGinTN
However, Zelicoff - who stressed he has no information on the threats beyond what he has read in newspapers - said Iraq has the necessary sophistication, based on information released by a United Nations special commission that did weapons inspections in Iraq through much of the 1990s before Iraq closed its borders to inspections.

You need to apologize to me

15 posted on 10/26/2001 11:31:57 AM PDT by woofie
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To: woofie
"Unless they bought it from Iraq or something,
16 posted on 10/26/2001 11:32:31 AM PDT by Mr.E
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To: woofie
Yeah, we all know this (except _Jim and a few others) ...but today Arie Fleischman continues to tell us that the anthrax in Daschles office could have been turned out by any college PhD microbiologist in a home lab. As long as the administration continues to flip flop and obfuscate on this issue, I have to assume it is all part of their disinformation campaign.
17 posted on 10/26/2001 11:34:04 AM PDT by Ozymandias Ghost
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To: woofie
Sorry. I didn't mean to suggest the author was pointing to domestic terrorists.
18 posted on 10/26/2001 11:34:06 AM PDT by Atticus
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To: Ratatoskr
"It's a hard, hard, hard thing to do and way beyond the capacity" of groups such as the al-Qaida terrorist network or militia organizations, he said."

But not beyond their budget!

The point of the terrorist network is that it is a loosely knit group of cells, all of whom are committed to the downfall of the United States, and dedicated to helping out in each other's plots. For instance, when the FBI stormed a NJ house where a cell was mixing a chemical bomb planned for the UN a couple years ago, they found a famous terrorist bomb expert from Peru with the al-Qaida members. In another case, the FBI also picked up a member of the Japanese Red Army who was also doing specialized work for al-Qaida. (See Yossef Bodany's book TERROR on the first World Trade Center bombing.)

What people aren't yet absorbing is that we are fighting an alliance of world terrorist groups! Al-Qaida is just in the limelight right now.

19 posted on 10/26/2001 11:37:05 AM PDT by wjeanw
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To: woofie
"Unless they bought it from Iraq or something, it's not likely to be al-Qaida," Alan Zelicoff said.

Imagine this one about slamming airliners into the WTC and Pentagon: "Unless they hijacked the planes or something, it's not likely to be al-Qaida," Alan Zelicoff said. He went on to explain that the terrorists in Afghanistan certainly had no production facilities capable of manufacturing large, twin-engine passenger jets.

Where can I sign up to an "expert" and get my fifteen minutes of fame? Sheesh!

20 posted on 10/26/2001 11:37:53 AM PDT by Boss_Jim_Gettys
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