Troubling Anthrax Additive Found

ABCNEWS>COM ^ | 10/28/01

[HiTech RedNeck]

One question would be how much bentonite. The story seems to give the impression that it's more than a trace.

[HiTech RedNeck]

a more intriguing possibility: both/and. Abdul supplies the anthrax, Jimmy stuffs the envelopes.

[Johnny_Apollo]

all about bentonite: saudi makes it amongst others: http://www.roskill.co.uk/benton.html

[KC Burke]

And Iraq winning the coin toss, but not understanding the game, has elected to recieve.

[ET(end tyranny)]

Oh, please. Bentonite is just about as innocuous and harmless a substance as can be imagined. It is simply a pure form of clay, used as a dessicant and absorbent. Its probable use in anthrax is to keep the spores dry and therefore less likely to clump together. But the chemical is not "potent" except in the scientifically illiterate minds at ABC.

And what made some of the anthrax more dangerous? It's ability to remain airborn longer. That is where the bentonite comes in. The bentonite causes the spores to repell one another, and thus become and remain airborn longer. And that is where the danger is!

[mercy]

I was going to inform the folks about bentonite but decided to read the thread FIRST. (first time for everything) You did a good job. Bentonite is as common as mud. In fact it IS mud. We line ponds with it when they don't hold water well.

[CurlyDave]

Get a grip folks.

1. The bentonite thread was discussed last night also. The stuff is clay. It is dug up out of the ground processed and sold by the box car load. It has a lot of uses, including keeping particles from caking together so they can stay suspended in air longer. It is also used in kitty litter and swimming pool filters. Anyone with a few $ can go into a swimming pool supply store and buy a large sack of it.

2. The $100,000 spray drier is an industrial machine used for processing materials by the ton. So far the US has seen a few letters with anthrax in them, but the total might amount to a couple of ounces, probably a lot less. No one needs an industrial spray drier to generate a few ounces of powder.

The quantities we have seen so far are kitchen table amounts.

If anyone is really using a $100,000 spray drier to make anthrax in the US, they are not mailing it out. This is the type of thing you use to make powdered instant coffee, instant tea, etc. Think of the volumes of that stuff used every day in the US and then ask where is all the anthrax going?

Bottom line here is that any moderately good chemist would know about using bentonite to keep powders from caking and the same chemist would be able to pulverize small amounts of a coarse anthrax powder into a fine one without a $100,000 machine. Bentonite doesn't mean that Sadam is behind it, all it does is cast some suspicion and gives a few other leads to follow up.

[Asuryan]

The Justice Dept. probably wants to try out their new anti-terrorism laws on the militia groups.

I'll believe that it's a right wing group when the United Nations is closed down to anthrax being found there. What right wing group would send anthrax to the New York Post when they could send it to the UN instead?

[Liberal Bob]

While the childlike script of three letters bearing Trenton postmarks has been a focus of intense scrutiny, other reports suggest an Iraqi connection might be shown by analyzing anthrax samples for traces of bentonite, a common clay used in kitty litter.

Iraq has used the substance to "weaponize" anthrax -- a technique for preventing its deadly microscopic spores from clumping together for better dispersal -- according to Tim Trevan, a former United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq.

Investigators reportedly are exploring if bentonite is present in anthrax sent from Trenton last month to the Washington, D.C., office of Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.). At least 28 people were contaminated by a powder that Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge described as more highly concentrated than anything sent so far.

Link to above. They are not my words

[Restorer]

My point was that the article states that bentonite is a dangerous and "potent" chemical. It is entirely possible that adding bentonite to anthrax will make the anthrax more dangerous, but that's an entirely different question. The article makes it clear that the author had no clue what bentonite. Since I had heard the term before, but couldn't remember exactly what is was, I looked it up on Google.

Took all of about .5 seconds to find more than I ever wanted to know about the substance.

Why can't the writers at ABC do the same?

[Mike Darancette]

Bentonite differs in chemical compisition depending on where it was mined - I'm sure that they are checking that out as we read and post.

[GeronL]

bump

[meenie]

South Dakota has bentonite by the square miles. Maybe Daschle has a secret admirer from his home state.

[samtheman]

Was it Churchill who said something like, "sometimes the truth is precious and must be protected inside a wrapping of lies"?

[ET(end tyranny)]

Because they are morons! You don't expect them to learn how to read do you?

[Fulbright]

Brian Ross, on This Week, said it was bentonite and silica--confirmed by four different sources.

This after Fleischer denied Friday any bentonite was found at all.