Posted on 11/29/2001 7:54:23 AM PST by The Energizer
Papers on BioPort found in office of terrorist suspects
LANSING, Mich. (AP) BioPort Corp., the nation's only manufacturer of an anthrax vaccine, confirmed Thursday that information on the company was found in an office in Afghanistan used by two retired nuclear scientists from Pakistan.
The men are being questioned by Pakistani authorities about whether they helped Osama bin Laden make chemical weapons with anthrax.
The New York Times reported Wednesday that an office the men used in the Afghan capital of Kabul contained documents about the history of anthrax and the Pentagon's plans to immunize members of the U.S. military against anthrax.
The documents included a military report describing plans for anthrax vaccine production at BioPort in Lansing.
BioPort spokeswoman Kim Brennen Root said Thursday that the report was a publicly released environmental study completed in 1998, just before BioPort purchased the labs it now owns from the state.
``It would have been accessible through libraries or the Internet,'' Root said. ``It's not unexpected that a sophisticated organization like al-Qaida would be looking for information from several sources.''
Root said the documents were probably used to get information about the military vaccination program. At one time, the military planned to inoculate 2.4 million U.S. troops with BioPort's vaccine, but that program was put on hold because of manufacturing and supply problems at BioPort.
BioPort is hoping the vaccination program will resume after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration inspects the company's labs in mid-December.
Root said BioPort has no plans to increase security at its labs. National Guard troops have been on the property since early October.
The Pakistani men, Sultan Bashir-ud-Din Mehmood and Abdul Majid, both worked for Pakistan's Atomic Energy Commission until retiring in 1999. They made several trips to Afghanistan and met with bin Laden, but say they were simply doing charity work.
Correction. This company is the SOLE producer of the largely untested and unreliable anthrax vaccine that has helped in sending many in uniform to the hospital or the brig.
Nancie Drew and Secret Squid-please see BlueDog's reply #16
Energizer: Bioport gave the documents to whom?
("Both articles fail to point out that a few years ago, former employees of Bioport STOLE and gave important, original documents that included the fermentation recipe for anthrax, i.e., how to make large quantities of bugs.")
Who did they give the documents to?
Could this possibly be a reference to the three scientists the lab brought on in 1990 to help gear up for orders from the Pentagon? They changed the formula (recipe) for the vaccine and until sometime last year or this year, were the only ones at Bioport who knew the recipe.
When Bioport had to disclose the list of ingredients to the FDA, they couldn't because the three scientists refused to divulge the information unless Bioport would give them a royalty agreement.
I understand that was settled late last year or this year, but I don't know the terms.
As to who could have obtained the "Ames" strain of the anthrax bacteria, the answer is who knows?
The army's bioweapon lab at Ft. Detrick, Maryland admits to giving it to the Michigan lab, several universities in the U.S. and its British counterpart at Porton Down (which was later taken over by Fuad El Hibri).
Ft. Detrick also provided Iraq with seven different strains of anthrax, they say that can't be sure one of them wasn't the Ames strain. This, they say, because records didn't always identify it as "Ames" and sometimes used other descriptions.
Also, in 1998, Iraq was said to have requested the Ames strain from Porton Down (Fuad el Hibri) which request was supposedly refused. This despite the fact that it was furnished (by el Hibri) to Saudi Arabia after they had been turned down by the Pentagon. It has not been disclosed who in Saudi Arabia received the anthrax. Some suspect it could have been a bin Laden connection. El Hibri certainly had a lot of contacts in Saudi Arabia as earlier he was manager of operations and credit for Citibank's operations in that country.
Any entity working on developing an anthrax vaccine must also possess the anthrax bacterium. The Ames strain is the prefered strain because it is one of the most virulent and a vaccine developed from it would provide maximum protection. Of course it would also make the most virulent weapon.
ALQaeda, Iraqi anthrax distribution paid for Saudi Wahhabist investors at Bioport??
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