ABC Radio News Reporting That Anthrax Spore Coating Used by Iraq

ABC Radio News ^ | 10/26/01 | ABC

[randita]

ABC Radio News just reported that the coating on anthrax spores found in Sen. Daschle's office was the coating used by Iraq. Nothing further.

[Ozymandias Ghost]

Got it ...thx. I need to do some more research on the various coating technologies ...from what I understand, though, your premise seems viable.

[aristeides]

It's got to be Iraq. The National Enquirer says so: Letters Prove Saddam Behind Attack .

[gumbo]

Here's the headline from the abcnews.com site. The "malicious additive" title story link goes nowhere, however -- did they delete the story? (Time to get my tinfoil hat out?)

A Malicious Additive
Despite a last-minute denial from the White House, several sources tell ABCNEWS the anthrax in the tainted letter sent to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle was laced with bentonite. The potent additive is known to have been used by only one country in producing biochemical weapons — Iraq.
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[aristeides]

I suppose it might be a technical computer glitch, but I think it's much more likely that influence is being brought to bear on ABC to suppress the story. But what's the point of doing that when millions of people have heard the ABC report on TV or radio, or seen the story on the Internet?

[gumbo]

I suppose it might be a technical computer glitch, but I think it's much more likely that influence is being brought to bear on ABC to suppress the story.

That's what I thought too. Hmmmmm.... [Twilight Zone music playing here].

[CedarDave]

Bentonite is nothing more than a generic term for a naturally occurring clay formed from the decomposition of volcanic ash and composed of the clay mineral montmorillonite. It is completely harmless (unless you get stuck in it while driving on wet western dirt roads!). Besides being used in the oil industry, it seals stock ponds and I use it all the time to keep those nasty anthrax spores and other bacteria from getting into water wells or groundwater monitor wells that I drill. Halliburton is by no means the main supplier.

[aristeides]

I don't like the idea of killing innocent Iraqis either, but what alternative do we have? War is war. Do you have a better idea? I'm all in favor of a restricted tac-nuke strike that only has as its targets military objectives. Granted, innocent Iraqi civilians will die as a result. But how else can we maintain the deterrent value of our nuclear arsenal, and on balance save lives?

I have argued long and hard on this forum against the morality of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as I hope Arthur McGowan will attest. But I do not see what alternative we have now.

[gumbo]

ABC radio news still reporting story as of 9:30 pm EDT. Now they're saying testing at Fort Dietrich found positive for bentonite, but "other labs downstream" (whatever that means) say "more testing needs to be done."

[Aliska]

Remember, it's Friday. And the story could have been leaked or unreliable, for that matter.

Obviously they want to play it way down and I would hope for good reason.

In any case, the cat is out of the bag and it's going to be tough to get it back in.

My only thought is they don't want to get pulled into something before they are ready (or do anything at all) and a big important and, the continual sell to the American public. The peaceniks and dissenters are having more influence than the administration likes possibly. Or something else entirely.

What a way to have to run a war.

[El Gato]

George W. Bush, Jan 2002 "My fellow American's, I have just finished signing legislation outlawing the Iraq. The bombing begins in 5 minutes"

Yeh, but Reagan was just joking, Dubya won't be. :)

I think I would modifiy the second sentence to : "The ICBMS, were launched 25 minutes ago, and the SLBMs 5 minutes ago from beneath the Arabian Sea". Why risk pilots? Times approximate, but the idea would be what the Army Artillery types call a "time on target" mission. As an old AF type, I hate to say it, but I think SLBMs would be a better choice. Less warning time for Saddam to scramble to his bunker, and the trajectories won't get the Russians or the Chinese quite as hot and bothered, well maybe the Russians would if you launch from the south, or the Chinese would if you launch from the West, say the Eastern Med somewhere, but not for long in either case. :)

[El Gato]

Did Atta meet with Iraqi agents in Germany before the attack..?

No.................he met them in the Czech Republic, twice, meeting a different "diplomat" each time. Saddam is toast, he just doesn't know it yet. He's a dead man walking.

[El Gato]

Well, if this is the smoking gun, Saddam had better make peace with Allah

While he'll get to explain himself to Allah, sooner rather than latter I hope, I think it's too late to make peace with Him. Ol' Saddam, he gots lots of 'splaining to do, lots and lots.

[gumbo]

The peaceniks and dissenters are having more influence than the administration likes possibly. Or something else entirely.

Could be, but I think your "something else entirely" is more likely.

Doubt Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, even Powell give a flying fig about the peaceniks.

That "something else entirely" may be that it's too dangerous to declare war on Iraq -- for now.

[El Gato]

The confustion arises in part because while the strain of the anthrax is the Ames strain, first isolated in the US, the processing seems to indicate a state sponsor, probably Iraq. Information was posted last week sometime indicating that the Iraqi's had ordered a sample of the Ames strain from a commerical lab in the US back before the Gulf War. It could be that the used that strain for the "deniable" terrorist applications, but their own home grown and much nastier, that is antibiotic resistant, strain for their own military bioweapons. They would have applied the same processing to each batch after it had been grown.

[Boss_Jim_Gettys]

"What it actually infers is that the original spore strain ...the Ames strain ...came from the US ...which is true."

In fact it does more than that. The US never weaponized the Ames strain. This quote appeared in the October 15, 2001 issue of Chemical & Engineering News (written before the strain was known):

"It's bad news if it turns out to be the Ames strain," says Bill Patrick, who headed the U.S. bioweapons program before it was terminated in 1969. "Ames is perhaps a bit more virulent than the [Vollum 1B] strain the U.S. weaponized."

I am shocked the Washington com.Post could have missed this. (/sarcasm)

[Aliska]

I think you've got it. We must be patient. A real balancing act going on here.

[El Gato]

Atta met twice with Iraqi intelligence

Yep, that's where I'd read the twice, but the new story out of the UK indicates it was more than that, lots more, and that the meetings took place in several European countries. Saddam might just as well put his head between his legs and bid a fond adieu to his posterior. Perhaps the rest of Iraq, exclusive of the Kurdish areas and maybe Bashra, should considering doing the same to it's collective tush.

[blaster88]

The link on the ABC site is just a bad URL - the article is still there.