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In this case it does; yes the strain existed naturally and went to USAMRID in the 1980's, but DOD Labs ARE THE ONLY SOURCE IN THE US OF WEAPONIZED AGENT-- this is not just the organic agent, it is the means of dispensing it. There are only four countries in the world that can weaponize agents, each process is unique, highly classified, and has its own chemical fingerprint; this one has been cited in numerous sources as having come from USAMRID-- hence the screening of employees who worked there such as Dr. Stephen Hatfield.

The term "weaponization" in regards to Anthrax is essentially meaningless.

Probably the best overall source of info on the case is

http://www.anthraxinvestigation.com/

Even if you disagree with his opinions (I know people here generally have a brain aneurysm over even the slightest suggestion that the attacks were not perpetrated by either Iraq or Al Queda...he is very critical of the focus on Hatfill, however) it's still a good timeline (much mythology over the timeline) and basic info.

There's been no report whatsoever detailing the method of weaponization, or if that technique were even used by the US.

Secrets are being kept.

Personally, I think there are at least three distinct possibilities ~ one of them is that the same people who attacked the USPS back in the 1970s shortly after the abortive Bulk and Foreign Facility strike in New Jersey. Their friends are among those who target Hatfill.

Another is that the Atta gang did it, and there are reports of some of them having anthrax infections.

Another is that the group associated with the Blind Sheikh (in jail for his part in the first WTC attack) did it ~ and that includes a former postal employee who worked in Staten Island.

The strain, genotype 62, was isolated at College Station Texas in 1981 and was sent to Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, who then sent it on to USAMRIID.

Chances are real good that they (Ames Diagnostic Lab) kept a copy. There was a collection of anthrax...much like a coin collection, one of every kind, at the Iowa State Veterinary School. One of the profs worked half time in each place.

In the fall semester of 1990, when I was a student there, the woman sitting across the table from me came in late to class. She made a big deal about why she was late. She had stopped to get the mail and had opened the package that she found in her mailbox. The dry ice fell out and shattered. She thought it contained seeds. (You don't ship seeds with dry ice.) It also contained a note in a language she did not recognize.

When she suddenly realized that the package was not intended for her, she then looked at the label. She was horrified to see that it did NOT have her name on it.

So I said to her, How did it get in your box?

It had her address correct but the name of a Pakistani. So since she could not put the thing back together she felt compelled to hand deliver it to the Pakistani. She thought he would be mad at her for opening his mail. But she said he was glad to get it as he was expecting it.

I thought that it was crazy to send anything with dry ice to a residence.

ONE WEEK LATER, this same woman showed me a dreadful sore on her inner forearm. She said her husband had the same thing on his face!!!! Since I was the only entomologist she knew, and the physician had told her it was a bug or spiders bite, she wanted me to see it. I have a vivid memory of the sore.

While the WTC was still smoldering, the anthrax letters were mailed. When I heard on the radio that this same university, Iowa State at Ames, had destroyed their entire collection of anthrax only 5 days after the first guy died, I had a bright light come on in my head.

I know I know something about this. For 9 months I read everything I could find. Who had destroyed this collection? What does an anthrax sore look like.

Finally, I put it all together. The sores I saw were very similar to the pictures of anthrax sores on the CDC website. But there was one difference. The ones I saw dripped profusely. I even have a book where the woman dripped onto one of the pages.

So what did I see? What can I remember about these incidents from now 15 years ago?

I think what I saw was the aftermath of the theft of the anthrax.

This woman lived at 161E and there was a Pak with the name that I remember her saying living at 116E. He was from Faisalabad, Pakistan. At the vet school was another Pak also from Faisalabad. (Where we caught KSM)

I say that (and this is 3 weeks after Rabbi Meir Kahane was murdered in NY) the Pak in the vet school lifted it and mailed it to his friend. But crime doesn't pay and all criminals are nervous. The second most common thing to mess up is transposition of numbers.

Now for the discrepancy. The literature prior to 9-11 states that anthrax does not drip. Yet if you read GERMS by Judith Miller (you don't have to like her to read the book), you will find a quote by Margano on page 315-6. He was one one the postal employees that got it. He said his sore drip, drip, drip like a faucet.

That is exactly what I saw. Then if you look at the forensic information, you will see that the stuff that was mailed was a mixture of genotype 62 and genotype 62 with a 929 basepair inversion on the plasmid.

I think that this inversion is what caused the dripping.

I have tried to get the FBI interested. I have presented this to 4 different offices, the CIA, local police, the CDC, etc etc.

Finally, on June 20, 2004, I wrote a letter to the Postal Inspectors in Detroit at the request of an out of town policeman who came to the store. (and yes, I tell everyone I meet.)

FOURTEEN MONTHS LATER, on August 25, 2005, I got a call from the Postal Inspection service attached to Amerithrax. Then on November 18, 2005 three Postal Inspectors came to my place of business and asked me some questions. I think they are working on it.

I'll not hear until it is all over. My book is somewhere in Wash. DC., not yet tested to my knowledge.

There is a lot more but my computer wants to disconnect.

Battle Axe

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:

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.

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.