Anthrax Sent Through Mail Gained Potency by the Letter

New York Times ^ | Tuesday, May 7, 2002 | By WILLIAM J. BROAD and DAVID JOHNSTON

[JohnHuang2]

Tuesday, May 7, 2002

Quote of the Day by Miss Marple 5/2/03

[Mitchell]

Ping. This article has more new information than any I've seen for a long time:

...the anthrax grew more potent from one letter to the next....

...whoever sealed the letters, without leaving any fingerprints, tore off successive strips of tape from the same roll....

...the anthrax in the letters to the NY media] was heavily contaminated... with vegetative cells [instead of the desired spores]

...the Leahy anthrax is finer [than the Daschle anthrax], its spores having a smaller range of particle sizes....

... the Daschle powder was found to be nearly pure spores. [T]he concentration was extraordinarily high.... But... the particles turned out to have a large size range. While single spores predominated, the experts said, some Daschle clusters ranged up to 40 microns wide — far too big to penetrate human lungs.

... the Daschle and Leahy powders were quite different, the latter finer and more uniform.

...the envelopes... had very large pores.... bigger than the largest Daschle anthrax clusters [more porous than standard envelopes].

There's one statement that I think is incorrect however. The article says: "Experts said the Daschle and Leahy letters, starting at the same place in New Jersey on the same date and ending up at the same destination in Washington, appear to have taken similar if not identical postal routes." I thought the Leahy letter had been misdirected to the State Department, unlike the Daschle letter.

[My Identity]

ping

[My Identity]

My Crackpot Theory

BIN LADEN CONNECTION
During the 1999 Egyptian trial of 107 suspected terrorists, Ahmad Salamah Mabruk (military commander of Islamic Jihad and No. 2 to al-Zawahiri -- bin Laden's No. 2) talked about al Qaeda's "biological and chemical weapons." Mabruk spoke of the purchase of dangerous biological agents by bin Laden associates, through the mail, for as little as $3,865, "shipping included" from Eastern Europe. The accused terrorists also claimed to have made agreements to buy "samples of anthrax" from a factory in Southeast Asia and a culture of the paralyzing botulinum bacteria from a lab in the Czech Republic for $7,500. Further, bin Laden and al-Zawahiri had a list of 100 targets worldwide, all related to the United States or Israel.

US labs sold the strain in question all over the world for research purposes. Pharmaceutical companies have to have the Anthrax samples to test how effective new drugs and vaccines are. They purposely use the worst forms of Anthrax because they are the most important for testing their drugs.

PHARMACEUTICAL HOUSES
Now, I realize the path I am taking to get here is a bit torturous, but the Southeast Asia link to anthrax makes sense if you have experience with their micro-manufacturing expertise. They have impressive, world-class manufacturing abilities in semiconductors and pharmaceuticals. Now it's well documented that OBL was trying to get some bad bugs. How he did it would be pretty simple. First he has his minions look around for chemical supply houses and pharmaceutical companies in their local countries. They then go about ordering sample quantities from the usual suspects (Eastern Europe, Asia, etc.). They successfully acquire a half-dozen different samples. These are tested in Afghanistan and found to be pretty effective, some more so than others. The one from the Southeast Asia pharmaceutical company is found to be particularly nasty and refined (it is very weaponized). OBL is pleased that he hasn't been screwed (as with the russian mob's fake nukes). So OBL and al-Zawahiri arrange for the remaining material to be sent to the US. In fact, they take of everything. They make the envelopes, write and copy the letters, pick the targets, etc. They might have even assembled the letter "bombs" in Afghanistan. All the material is then forwarded to the US-based terror cells. The cells end up with three or more different samples along with instructions to attack the American Media and leading American politicians. Media targets get less-deadly anthrax, a warning shot in effect to get their attention. Politicians get deadly, highly weaponized anthrax. Death blows to weaken the resolve of all politicians.

[Mitchell]

The tape analysis however indicates that the packaging was done at the same time and does not coincide with a timeline of the production if it was indeed staggered.

Excellent point.

[Nogbad]

Have to think about that one.

But where in heck did the tape come from?

Surely they know that. Why don't they tell us?

[muawiyah]

"Dr. Alibek raised another possible factor. The F.B.I., he said, needed to weigh the possibility that post office sorting machinery might have had an effect. "It could be an additional process of milling," he said, "like a mortar and pestle.""

Yes, packaged at the same time - probably in Florida, and mailed at the same time. New Jersey probably came into the picture when pieces were misrouted in equipment (trays) thought to be empty.

The Staten Island letter carrier arrested a couple of weeks back for involvement with Islamist terrorist factions would know just how to get these letters into a post office without having them go through normal mail collection pathways.

Add to that the various impacts generated in ordinary postal handling, and you may find that the "militarization" took place en route! Ken Alibek would certainly understand how that might be done. It would probably be worthwhile to take him on a tour of a major MPC (Mail Processing Center) to closely observe what happens. He could relate that to his own experience and understanding in this field.

[browardchad]

"It had to be one of the most porous materials," an official said of the attack envelopes compared with standard ones.

Weren't these the standard pre-stamped envelopes sold by the Post Office? I recall your comments that they're sold in packs of five...

[Doctor Stochastic]

Electrophoresis is the process you described. It's used in the DNA analysis. Your idea of testing for trace chemicals using electrophoresis is reasonable.

[EternalHope]

Lots of new info here.

The Leahy letter used higher quality anthrax (consistently smaller spores) than the Daschle letter!?!

All the letters were sealed using the same role of tape, but the anthrax in each letter was sorted into progressively smaller and more consistent spore sizes.

Why they did this is a mystery, but it certainly ought to give us some clues into the manufacturing process they used.

Anybody (except mass media "reporters" and FBI spokesmen) still believe the "lone domestic right wing nut terrorist" theory?

[Mitchell]

Weaponization is difficult. It was a major goal of the U.S. bioweapons program. On general principles, it seems unlikely that just passing the envelope through a postal machine by chance would have produced a powder as good as, or maybe better than, the best powder the U.S. was able to produce after years of engineering design effort.

[Mitchell]

Weren't these the standard pre-stamped envelopes sold by the Post Office?

That's what we've been told. And photographs of the envelopes are available on the web.

[ex-Texan]

I have a friend and her brother was a high ranking law enforcement official in New York. He told her way back months ago the U.S. knew who the anthrax terrorist was and he had been locked away forever. National security violations .... locked up, the key has been flushed. He will never see the light of day.

[EternalHope]

Part of the problem, they admit, is a lack of advisers skilled in the subtleties of germ weapons.

Yeah, right.

A biologist aiding in the investigation said the increasing potency of anthrax in the letters might suggest that the attacker was a thief who stole several samples.

Now we got 'em! All we have to do is find a lab with stored anthrax samples separated into the same size groupings and we will know the source! This is easy!

Ahem... Since finding the source would be easy if all this is true, how come we haven't? Could it be (gasp!) the source is NOT some domestic nutcase who stole some samples?

[Mitchell]

There was a FR thread on this, back in October. Here's a link,

[Mitchell]

I have a friend and her brother was a high ranking law enforcement official in New York. He told her way back months ago the U.S. knew who the anthrax terrorist was and he had been locked away forever. National security violations .... locked up, the key has been flushed. He will never see the light of day.

Did the story include the nationality of the person? Or anything else that would shed some light on this?