Posted on 10/28/2001 8:10:03 PM PST by Liberal Bob
Despite a last-minute denial from the White House, 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
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!
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.
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?
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.
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?
This after Fleischer denied Friday any bentonite was found at all.
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