FBI - STILL SEARCHING FOR THE ANTHRAX MAN

Eye Spy Magazine ^ | 3/20/06 | Eye Spy

[TrebleRebel]

FBI - STILL SEARCHING FOR THE ANTHRAX MAN The fourth anniversary has come and gone since Bob Stevens, a British picture editor for American Media Inc., who had settled in Florida, became the first of five victims after coming into contact with Ames - a weapons grade strain of anthrax. At the time, the FBI were fairly convinced terrorism was involved, though the bureaus’ opinion has changed often and many officers remain openminded. The public could not have imagined that four years later, no-one has been charged with the crime of sending anthrax-laden envelopes in the post. The death of Mr Stevens sparked a huge international manhunt, and while the anthrax source has been traced, the identity of the killer dubbed the ‘anthrax man’ remains as elusive as Jack the Ripper. Eye Spy provides an update on the case.

[muawiyah]

BTW, everybody who'd been involved in the anthrax manufacturing process was interviewed by the FBI because ...... ?

Not because the FBI KNEW who did it, but because the FBI DIDN'T KNOW who did it.

They still don't know.

[maestro]

tnx 4 UR #14/18....

?.......USAMRID-Islamic-U.N. Division?

This has nothing to do with the 'INS'.....

/extreme sarcasm

Romans 10:17

[LambSlave]

Tell you what, if the US government knows all of the characteristics of weaponized anthrax held by other governments, it's not going to reveal them.

I know this, but it has nonetheless been revealed publically in several articles for some particular countries... that some countries use bentonite, that other nations use specially prepared silica, etc. Granted there are likely many other countries we know about that we don't read about in the news; but again the exclusive focus on USAMRID in a multi-million dollar federal investigation would suggest that our boys have good reasons to think it came from there.

[muawiyah]

The reason was the US Congress. In fact, you had a couple of Senators whose names were on those Anthrax letters ~ both were leftwingnuts, so the FBI found itself under intense pressure to find a rightwingnut who was after them.

Turns out the names and addresses were lifted from a newsletter page in a website called "Jewsforlife". That's where Brokaw's name was also listed, along with his address, as well as the peculiar offset for the word "BLDG" in the address.

A postal worker found that one out. Took him less than 5 minutes. I was there when he discovered it too (and no, it wasn't me).

The FBI wasted a lot of money trying to find if Tom Daschle had enemies who wanted to kill him. Almost anyone could have told them the answer of course.

[LambSlave]

Incredible story!! I understand and the details add up; very plausible theory... this is just the kind of mutation someone looking for a weapons grade strain would select... start with an already "hot" strain like Ames located in a remote area with little security, find/create a mutation with enhanced virulence factors and grab a sample.

[TrebleRebel]

You're correct that the weaponization processes are very specific and highly classified. Thus the weaponization signs on the senate anthrax are like a fingerprint. The fingerprint in this case is silica nanopowder attached to the spore surfaces using a specialized polymerized glass. See comments here:

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_anthrax_attack
In February 2005, Stephan P. Velsko of Lawrence Livermore National Labs published a paper titled "Physical and Chemical Analytical Analysis: A key compoent of Bioforensics" [20]. In this paper, Velsko illustrated that different silica coating processes gave rise to weaponized anthrax simulants that look completely different from one another. He suggested that the difference in the look of products could provide evidence of what method the lab that manufactured the 2001 anthrax used, and thus provide clues to the ultimate origin of the material.

In May 2005, Academic Press published the volume "Microbial Forensics" edited by Roger Breeze, Bruce Budowle and Steven Schutzer. [21] Bruce Budowle is with the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) Forensic Science Laboratory. Although the volume does not directly discuss the silica coatings found in the senate anthrax of 2001, the contributors to the chapters discuss in detail the forensics of silica coated weaponized bacterial spores. Pictures are shown of silica weaponized bacillus spores that are both mixed with silica and fully coated with silica. Pictures of weaponized Clostridium spores coated with colloidal (spherical) silica are also shown. Again, the aim of these studies is to define the forensic fingerprints of silica weaponization processes.

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I've heard 2 quite different and oposing stories on the weaponization fingerprint. The first says the fingerprint exactly matches a known US product - even down to knowing not only what US BW lab it was made in but what equipment in what building in what room was used to make it. But Detrick is not the place any of this work was done - and that's where Hatfill worked (hence, why any interest in Hatfill?). The second story says the US has never before seen anthrax like this, and still has failed to reproduce the engineering used to weaponize it identically. Hence it came from overseas.

[LambSlave]

BTW, everybody who'd been involved in the anthrax manufacturing process was interviewed by the FBI because ...... ? My point was that NOT EVERBODY involved in the antrax weaponization process was interviewed; just those who worked with the weaponization of AMES at one particular lab-- USAMRID...

[LambSlave]

We probably won't know the answers to your questions until the investigation is over, maybe not then... My assumption is that the focus of the investigation is not coincidental; that there must be strong evidence tied to Detrick. Seems reasonable, but we won't know until it is all over; and even then we might not know...

[TrebleRebel]

The bentonite story was always a red herring. Bentonite is used all the time in BT formulations for insecticdes but it has nothing to do with weaponizing simulants or anthrax. A UN inspector found a bag of bentonite at an Iraqi insecticide site and wrongly concluded the Iraqis were using it for aerosol weaponization tests. Likely it was just being used as a standard filler.
Bentonite is useless for creating aerosols - it consists of plate like crystalline material which sticks together like glue. Silica nanopowder is the key to weaponization of anthrax. It consists of tiny (12nm diameter) amorphous, ping pong ball shaped particles. These particles coat the spores and stop them clumping together.

[Battle Axe]

It is my theory that first it was stolen, then mutated and weaponized.

You really have to look at the comment by??? "It really didn't have to be that good!" Someone who really knew what they were doing "weaponized" it.

The process of weaponization to me is the cleaning and purification of the individual spores. Natural stuff come with a lot of debris, thus causing the spores to stick together and make the clumps heavy. Heavy enough to have gravity take over.
Normally it just lands on the ground and is not light enough to be breathed into the lungs.
Weaponized anthrax is cleaned anthrax, no debris, no static cling, just floats in the air, so light that gravity doesn't bother it.

You can as Mr. Muy......(can't spell) says, weaponize any strain. The selection of the strain would be crucial to any successful attack. The most virulent would be selected. Also one that held some antibiotic resistance.

However, the stuff that was mailed was survivable, if help was obtained early enough. Drugs that we have will work. I don't really think anyone needs the vaccine. They are usually only 80% effective anyway. Only rabies vaccine is 100% effective.

The real problem with anthrax is the fear.

Just to be clear: It was first stolen, then manipulated somehow into the variation that we found in the letters and then weaponized.

It was not stolen in a weaponized form, IMHO.

[LambSlave]

Good points. I am familiar with Bentonite, but despite it's ineffectiveness in this application it WAS reportedly part of the Iraqi weapons program-- even though this was probably incorrect as you point out, I'd wager that this was still the reason for the interest in screening for this compound.

[Battle Axe]

multi-million dollar federal investigation would suggest that our boys have good reasons to think it came from there

NO!!

Just look at the testimony of the FBI agent that arrested Z. Moussoui. The big whigs blocked his investigation that would have uncovered 9-11.

[LambSlave]

I do not exclude the possibility that it was stolen and then later weaponized; it is entirely possible.

I think your last comment is the most important of the thread; the primary power of these weapons is fear and ignorance. Good sanitation will defeat most of them for reasonably healthy people; vaccines will likely kill more people than the outbreak; the gobs of money put out to "protect" us is politicians pandering to public fear... playing right into the hands of the perpetraters, IMHO.

[Battle Axe]

Chances are that he closed his eyes and picked one. Murphys law in effect.

He could have wanted one that originated in the US, but we may never know that part.

[Domestic Church]

" They did, screening every scientist who had custody or
knowledge of the process. Read between the lines."

There supposedly was an Arkansas Trooper (Russell Welch ?) who died of weaponized anthrax in the early nineties. He had the task of investigating Clinton.

[VOA]

bump

[BeHoldAPaleHorse]

FBI - STILL SEARCHING FOR THE ANTHRAX MAN

They don't even know the Muffin Man.

[ASA Vet]

and that includes a former postal employee

As a group those are certainly suspicious characters. ;)

[jpl]

This strain came from a Department of Defense lab (USAMRID), hence it WAS domestic.

I hate having to keep saying the same thing over and over again in every single one of these anthrax threads, but I guess I have no choice.

The idea that the anthrax had to have been stolen directly from USAMRIID is bogus information that was out of date a long time ago. They legally gave the strain to a number of different labs many years ago, including a lab in Canada and a lab in Great Britain, which was under largely PRIVATE control for a few years.

In other words, the idea that the anthrax could only have been removed from USAMRIID is way off, and therefore simple logic dictates that the idea that the perp had to be a "domestic" is also false.

Contrary to what a lot of people seem to believe, the feds truthfully don't even know with absolute certainty which lab the anthrax used was taken from.

It's really amazing how much bad information has been disseminated on this subject.