Selling the threat of bioterrorism (LA Times investigates Alibek)

WASHINGTON — In the fall of 1992, Kanatjan Alibekov defected from Russia to the United States, bringing detailed, and chilling, descriptions of his role in making biological weapons for the former Soviet Union.

----------- Officials still value his seminal depictions of the Soviet program. But recent events have propelled questions about Alibek's reliability:

No biological weapon of mass destruction has been found in Iraq. His most sensational research findings, with U.S. colleagues, have not withstood peer review by scientific specialists. His promotion of nonprescription pills — sold in his name over the Internet and claiming to bolster the immune system — was ridiculed by some scientists. He resigned as executive director of a Virginia university's biodefense center 10 months ago while facing internal strife over his stewardship.

And, as Alibek raised fear of bioterrorism in the United States, he also has sought to profit from that fear.

By his count, Alibek has won about $28 million in federal grants or contracts for himself or entities that hired him.

The Los Angeles Times explored Alibek's public pronouncements, research and business activities as part of a series that will examine companies and government officials central to the U.S. war on terrorism -----------------------

Let’s first consider the AP story in the broader context of the Taliban interest in the anthrax vaccine laboratory.

In October 2001, the Taliban emissary to Pakistan denied any involvement in the anthrax mailings, saying “We don’t even know what anthrax is.” The Taliban had long denied having any interest in biological or chemical weapons research. The next month, however, reporters were tipped off by a senior official of the Northern Alliance to check out the Institute of Veterinary Vaccine Production in Kabul run by the Minister of Agriculture.

The lab was repeatedly targeted by bombers but the closest of 13 B-52 bombs landed 50 feet away, causing craters. There was a walk-in incubator to develop bacteria. The equipment used to make vaccines was taken away the day before the bombardment began. The cement walls of the building were cracked. Doors were blasted off their hinges. Shards of glass were strewn on the floor. At the end of one corridor on the second floor a reporter and photographer from The Mirror (UK) were led into a small office. The word “anthrax” was scribbled on an unbroken test tube. A sign read “to be safe than sorry” — the word “better” had fallen off. When AP journalist Kathy Gannon and a photographer stood in front of a glass bottle labeled in English “anthrax spore concentrate” in the two-story building, the photographer’s reflection shone back. The scientists explained that their work at the lab was intended only to develop animal vaccines. Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that “the one place where the only vial that had English on it said ‘anthrax’ kind of gives you pause.” Testing showed that it was avirulent strain used in developing animal vaccines. The scientists complained that much of the anthrax vaccine on hand had expired and that they were having trouble getting the supplies they needed to produce more. Before 9/11, private companies in India and Iran had been their main suppliers. Shipments were halted after Sept. 11, and the laboratories have had to rely on their stocks.

Mullahs oversaw the anthrax vaccine laboratory much to the consternation of the scientist in charge of the lab. The mullahs had ordered that the lab be moved to Kabul so that they could oversee it. According to one British press report, much of the laboratory staff had disappeared some months before 9/11 and their whereabouts were unknown. The Institute once had a staff of 45 and one of Afghanistan’s most modern buildings. The scientists gathered before an AP journalist and photographer pointed to a large clear container that held concentrated anthrax spores. The scientists explained that the Taliban had taken a keen interest in their work. Although he was famed for his ability to recite the koran and not scientifically inclined, the Minister of Agriculture would come and inspect what they were doing. The head of the lab explained, “He and his Taliban superiors were interested in the technical detail of what happened here, although they had no background in science.” The International Committee of the Red Cross and the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization provided the scientists technical help. The head of the lab acknowledging that the Taliban could have obtained the knowledge to handle and develop anthrax. Dr Raoufi said: “Sadly, some use what is meant to be good for their own destructive ends.”

Minister of Agriculture Mullah Qari Abdullah hated the West. Seven months before 9/11 half of the lab’s staff disappeared. “We’d rather have been running the labs on our own,” the lead scientist explained. “But the mullahs were in charge of everything and we couldn’t stop them learning about our activities. There was always a danger information could get into the wrong hands.” The lab was first built in a northern province in 1993 with equipment from India. Scientists infected three sheep to study the results in developing new vaccines. They told a reporter from the Mirror that they buried the carcasses 30 feet down away from any water supplies. “This was very dangerous work, though we knew what we were doing. We developed the technology of how to keep anthrax bacteria and how to develop it for use in vaccines.” I would be suspicious of the anthrax research and any research during the Taliban (period) because they were under the control of Osama and al-Qaida,” the deputy head of Northern Alliance military intelligence, told The Associated Press. “We have strong evidence of their involvement in chemical weapons,” he added. “We believe that they were using government facilities, like the Ministry of Agriculture, to do their research in terrorism.” A source who worked at the factory told the Mirror (UK):: “There’s no doubt the Taliban were planning chemical or biological warfare against the West. I believe anthrax might have been first on their list.” It was the American Taliban John Walker Lindh that reported the battlefield rumor tha the next wave would be chemical or biological attack.

Let’s also consider previous reporting on the subject of anthrax in Afghanistan. Amerithrax Agents checked the Kabul area in May 2004 but came up empty, sources told the Washington Post. In November of that year, on additional information, agents spent weeks searching an area in the Kandahar mountains, several hundred miles outside of Kabul, but again found nothing. In January 2007, a Taliban spokesman was captured. An Afghanistan governor says his residence contained anthrax powder packets. According to a report by the Aghan Islamic Press Agency, as monitored by the BBC. the powdered anthrax was intended for mailing to government officials. The former Taliban spokesman quietly told a camera that he was “on a mission” when he was arrested.

The fellow who reportedly had “anthrax powder packets” had been living in Peshawar. Muhammad Hanif’s real name is Abdulhaq Haji Gulroz. Is this young guy mentioned above Qari Mullah Din Muhammad Hanif, the former madrassa-trained Minister of Education who wouldn’t let the medical school use cadavers? (That was a good thing, given that it didn’t have electricity) Is he a “Dr.” If so, what kind? The former education minister had not received a secular education and oversaw the medical school. A veterinary student in September 2001 said they had nothing in the way of facilities or equipment. It was the Agriculture Minister who had taken a keen interest in supervising the Red Cross/FAO-funded anthrax vaccine laboratory. Yazid Sufaat did his anthrax work, he says, as part of a Taliban medical brigade. A building associated with the charity WAFA housed a lab, and WAFA was a militant supporter of the Taliban. So while we await lab tests and further clarification or confirmation, the earlier sketchy report from January 2007 about anthrax powder packets is certainly intriguing — as is today’s AP item about the Gitmo detainee.

I wonder if this fellow knew the Filipino-looking gentleman who was bragging about his skill in processing anthrax. As described in US News, a former reporter from the Kabul Times actually may have met a Filipino carrying papers from Zawahiri and bragging about his ability to manipulate anthrax. The man apparently was Hambali’s lieutenant, Muklis Yunos, who had been Hambali’s right-hand man and was in charge of special operations for the Philippine Moro Islamic Liberation Front (”MILF”). British reporter Philip Smucker, explained that the Afghan reporter working with him spoke fluent Arabic and made regular undercover trips into Afghanistan from Pakistan. He had visited three functioning al Qaeda camps, at grave risk to his life. Smucker explains that his colleague had landed in a Kabul hotel with a Filipino scientist who had a signed letter from al Qaeda’s number two, Dr. Ayman al Zawahiri, authorizing him to help the network develop biological weapons. The man at the hotel had described his own efforts to develop an “anthrax bomb.” Filipino Muklis Yunos was an explosives expert who had participated with Yazid Sufaat in the December 2000 church bombings. Upon his arrest in May 2003, Philippine intelligence said he had received anthrax training in Afghanistan. Perhaps he was who the journalist encountered.

Most of all, the puzzle piece needs to be put in the same box with the KSM and Hambali pieces — along with the spraydrying documents on the seized computer and the discovery of extremely virulent anthrax at a house in Kandahar in Fall 2003 after Hambali’s interrogation.

We know that they had anthrax spraydrying know-how in Afghanistan pre-9/11. KSM denies that the computer seized with the anthrax spraydrying documents was his computer — he says it the computer Mustafa Hawsawi, who was arrested the same day. Before departing for the UAE in early 2001, Al-Hawsawi had worked in the Al Qaeda media center (Al Sahab (Clouds) in Kandahar. He worked under KSM who in turn worked for Zawahiri. 9/11 attacks, Al-Hawsawi was a facilitator for the 9/11 attacks and its paymaster, working from the United Arab Emirates, sending thousands to Bin Al-Shibh in the summer of 2001. After 9/11, he returned to Afghanistan where he met separately with Bin Laden, Zawahiri and spokesman Abu Ghaith. KSM worked closely with al-Hawsawi and it would make perfect sense that the computer is actually al-Hawsawi’s. The fact that the anthrax spraydrying documents were on that computer, however, and that he had worked under KSM and Ayman in Kandahar in 2000, serves to suggest that the undated documents pre-dated 9/11, particularly given that extremely virulent anthrax was later found in Kandahar. At the same time, it suggests that Al-Hawsawi has personal knowledge relevant to anthrax.

The Washington Post explains that “What the documents and debriefings show, the first official said, is that “he was involved in anthrax production, and [knew] quite a bit about it.” Barton Gellman in the Post explains that al Qaeda recruited competent scientists, including a Pakistani microbiologist who the officials declined to name. “The documents describe specific timelines for producing biochemical weapons and include a bar graph depicting the parallel processes that must take place between Days 1 and 31 of manufacture. Included are inventories of equipment and indications of readiness to grow seed stocks of pathogen in nutrient baths and then dry the resulting liquid slurry into a form suitable for aerosol dispersal.” The Washington Post story notes that U.S. officials said the evidence does not indicate whether al Qaeda completed manufacture. The documents are undated and unsigned and cryptic about essential details.

The Washington Post reported in March 2003 that “[t]wo officials said this month’s discoveries have changed their minds about the significance of an abandoned factory found a year ago in Kandahar.. Some government analysts believe the Afghan laboratory may have been fully equipped and even operating before U.S. ground forces arrived.” (According to news reports, no traces of anthrax were found at the site). “It has been moved elsewhere, in another country, and we haven’t been able to find it,’ the official said.” The Post explains that another official said “there is obviously a connection” between the seized documents and the evacuated lab.” The unnamed official notes that Al Qaeda need not have smuggled equipment out to rebuild the factory because the spraydrying equipment can be purchased commercially. The 9/11 Commission Report noted in passing that one idea KSM had was reservoir poisoning.

Susan Schmidt and Ellen Naskashima of the Washington Post, described the fruits of Khalid Mohammed’s ongoing interrogation: “Mohammed has also told interrogators that he knows nothing about why Moussaoui and some of the hijackers were interested in learning how to operate crop-dusters, but he has said it could have been connected to Sufaat’s work on anthrax.”

Hambali was arrested in mid-August 2003 in Thailand. Hambali had fled Malaysia with his wife, Lee, not long after 9/11.

His wife, an ethnic Chinese Malaysian who converted to Islam, was also detained. After being shipped to Jordan, where he was harshly interrogated, Hambali eventually began providing information about Al Qaeda’s anthrax production program. He told interrogators that the terror network had succeeded in producing what author Ron Suskind describes as an “extremely virulent” strain of anthrax before the September 11 attacks. In the autumn of 2003, Suskind reports, U.S. forces in Afghanistan found a sample of the virulent anthrax at a house in Kandahar. Pulitzer Prize winning author Ron Suskind writes: “One disclosure was particularly alarming: al Qaeda had, in fact produced high-grade anthrax. Hambali, during interrogation, revealed its whereabouts in Afghanistan. The CIA soon descended on a house in Kandahar and discovered a small, extremely potent sample of the biological agent.” He continued: “The anthrax found in Kandahar was extremely virulent. What’s more, it was produced, according to the intelligence, in the months before 9/11. And it could be easily reproduced to create a quantity that could be readily weaponized.”

Based on the additional information being provided in 2003, authorities also captured two mid to low level technicians —an Egyptian and a Sudanese. President Bush has explained that these mid-to low level technicians were part of a Southeastern Asian based cell that was developing an anthrax attack on the United States. Sufaat wrapped things up in the Summer of 2001, according to Tenet, and briefed Hambali and Zawahiri over the course of a week. That’s the ominous note — along with Tenet’s report that the planning was in parallel with 9/11 planning and that Ramzi bin-Al-Shibh had a CBRN role.

Although it was not in the unclassified charges, there was a mention in the transcript about him being a cell operations leader in Kandahar. Note that there has long been circumstantial evidence of anthrax in Kandahar.

One of the hijackers, Ahmed Al-Haznawi, went to the ER on June 25, 2001 with what now appears to have been cutaneous anthrax, according to Dr. Tsonas, the doctor who treated him, and other experts. He had arrived in Florida earlier that month. “No one is dismissing this,” said CIA Director Tenet. Alhaznawi had just arrived in the country on June 8. His exposure perhaps related to a camp he had been in Afghanistan. He said he got the blackened gash-like lesion when he bumped his leg on a suitcase two months earlier. Two months earlier he had been in camp near Kandahar (according to a videotape he later made serving as his last Will and Testament). His last will and testament is mixed in with the footage by the al-Qaeda’s Sahab Institute for Media Production that includes Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri and Sulaiman Abu Ghaith. There are some spiders that on rare occasions bite and cause such a blackened eschar (notably the Brown Recluse Spider found in some parts of the United States)

Dr. Tara O’Toole of the Biodefense Center at John Hopkins concluded it was anthrax. The former head of that group, Dr. Henderson, now director of the office of public health preparedness at the Department of Health and Human Services, explained: “The probability of someone this age having such an ulcer, if he’s not an addict and doesn’t have diabetes or something like that, is very low. It certainly makes one awfully suspicious.” The FBI says no anthrax was found where the hijackers were. (The FBI tested the crash sites where the planes came down and found no traces of anthrax). Although no doubt there are some other diseases that lead to similar sores, it is reasonable to credit that it was cutaneous anthrax considering all the circumstances, to include the finding by the 9/11 Commission that “In 2001, likely that the John Hopkins people are correct that the lesion was cutaneous anthrax.

At the time, CBS reported that “U.S. troops are said to have found another biological weapons research lab near Kandahar, one that that was eyeing anthax.” But CBS and FBI spokesman further noted that “Those searches found extensive evidence that al-Qaida wanted to develop biological weapons, but came up with no evidence the terrorist group actually had anthrax or other deadly germs, they said.” Only years later did we learn that there was in fact extremely virulent anthrax at Kandahar. (Though some senior officials at the CIA and FBI knew this in Autumn 2003) Thus, a factual predicate important to assessment of the John Hopkins report on the leg lesion needed to be reevaluated.

The Washington Post has previously reported that authorities had received information, for example, from at least one detainee at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, that there was an anthrax storage facility in the Kabul area. The Washington Post explained that “[b]ecause the deadly letters contained the Ames anthrax spores, manufactured in the United States, authorities entertained the possibility that they had been removed from a U.S. lab and transported overseas.” Amerithrax Agents checked the Kabul area in May 2004 but came up empty. Then in November 2004, on further information, agents had spent several weeks unsuccessfully searching an area in the Kandahar mountains, several hundred miles outside of Kabul. In 2005, an internal report was prepared summarizing the status of the Amerithrax investigation and Leahy and TrebleRebel and Ed are all frustrated at the delay in its resolution.

As for the source of any anthrax found in this fellow’s possession, consider the dog that didn’t bark. Consider the lack of sophistication of some of the individuals associated for example, Abu Ghaith, the founder of WAFA charity and Al Qaeda’s spokesman in 2002. Biochem documents and materials were found in a house associated with the charity. But Gitmo proceedings give us additional insight into WAFA. The manager of the Kabul WAFA office office explained that shortly before September 11, he helped Abu Ghaith to leave Afghanistan, and his family leave for Karachi, Pakistan. He had known Abu Ghaith from Kuwait. Before 9/11, he had been in Kandahar working with WAFA. He was paid $200 a month but had been willing to work for free as a volunteer. But after a month, he got a new supervisor he did not like. He would get upset when medical supplies came and it was broken or crooked. He complained about the expensive long distance calls young people would make, but his supervisor disagreed with his complaints. When the supervisor rifled through his and his wife’s things, he had reached his limit. His supervisor, in any event, said he only wanted people from Mecca working for him and kicked him out on about August 1, 2001. After bringing his family to Pakistan, he returned to Kabul where he met Abu Ghaith. He spent 16 days in what has been described as a “safe house” in Kabul while waiting to go safely back to Pakistan. “I am not a combat fighting animal. It is just a charity orgnaization. What is my mistake? Why are you mentioning Al Qaida and fighting when I worked for a charity organization?” He says he did not know Abu Ghaith was an Al Qaeda spokesman until after 9/11. The Tribunal found his statements to be self-serving and unpersuasive. Abu Ghaith, as Al Qaeda’s spokesman at the time, later made grandiose threats claiming that Al Qaeda had the right to use their military, nuclear, and biological equipment to kill hundreds of thousands of people.

Equally unremarkably, the family of one 22 year-old from Kuwait who allegedly worked in Kabul in July 2001 and then was captured in Karachi would call home often and was involved in some honey trading.

In short, the unclassified evidence relating to the unlawful combatants associated with WAFA in Afghanistan tended not to be rocket scientists, but Al Qaeda’s practice of using charities as cover was well-established.

Now let’s zero in on the Washington Post statement again that “[b]ecause the deadly letters contained the Ames anthrax spores, manufactured in the United States, authorities entertained the possibility that they had been removed from a U.S. lab and transported overseas.” It is interesting to note that an analysis of the ratio isotopes should have been able to distinguish between anthrax grown in the United States and anthrax grown in Afghanistan. So rather than merely entertaining the possibility, perhaps the United States knew that is exactly what happened. If Al Qaeda operatives in the US had finely powdered anthrax, might they not transfer it to the combat theater?

Okay.

I’ve been in contact with the FBI.

The December 20, 2001 story was groundless as explained by the FBI at the time.

The French political magazine should press criminal charges against Debat for fraud. He made false representations as an inducement to be paid money.

They have taken down all their interviews/stories based on him.

ABC should too.

You should take down your webpage which you based on the ABC story (only to the extent you profile the Wisconsin bowling alley person).

The BHR theory, btw, which at its origin referenced people she knew who had given a short list of suspect to the FBI... well, one acquaintance of hers with whom she conferred was not an insider at all — he’s on a terrorist watch list.

That would be Francis Boyle.

Some naive folks among the radical left (I’m a Naderite so my observations are not politically motivated) have actually been naively carrying water for the Salafists, who murdered 3,000 innocents.

And I’m giving leftists like Francis the benefit of the doubt in saying they’ve just acted naively.

But it’s time for America to stop suffering fools gladly.

New book -

Draper in the new Bush biography “Dead Certain” reports that on October 4, 2001, Bush had teared up during a speech at the State Department thanking them for their hard work. Back at the White House, Bush motioned Fleischer into the Oval Office. “A Boca Raton tabloid editor had checked into a Florida hospital yesterday, Bush told Fleischer. Anthrax. The veil of resoluteness fell away from the president. His shoulders were hunched. Fleischer had never seen him more upset. Neither man said a word — neither had to: This was it, the second wave.”

_______

“The evidence is increasingly looking like it was a domestic source. But again, this remains something that is not final nor totally conclusive yet.... I can’t give you the scientific reasons behind it, but you can assume they’re based on investigative and scientific means.... There’s a big difference between the source of it [the anthrax] and who sent it, because the two do not have to be tied.” — Ari Fleischer at press conference (March 2002, I believe)

News -

Sources: Retired judge may replace Gonzales,” CNN, September 15, 2007

“While with the Southern District, Mukasey presided over many high-profile trials, including that of Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman and 11 co-defendants, who were charged with plotting to destroy New York City landmarks.”

As illustrated by the rest of the passage at 167-168 in Draper’s Bush biography, what Ari meant was that after the months of an operating presumption of a foreign tie to the anthrax (9/11 link). By the end of the year, they were thinking that the anthrax was a US-based operation from supporters not connected to 9/11. Everyone just misinterpreted what they meant by “domestic” —as Ashcroft has also explained.

Ari wasn’t suggesting it was taken by A from a Lab and then mailed by A’s friend B, such as your theory.

For example, that would merely be analogous to where you had your friend make all the deletions to Wikipedia while feigning that you had an interest only in the “facts.”(You don’t deny it). Yet note that all the stuff added by TrebleRebel (or whoever) that your accomplice deleted was factually incontrovertible and fully proper pursuant to Wikipedia protocol.

When an allegation is made that A and B have operated pursuant to an agreement like that, it is a “conspiracy theory.” Thus, your theory is a conspiracy theory — as is my theory of the recent subterfuge involving the Wiki passages on the anthrax mailings. (Such deletions of indisputably correct and relevant material just result in the other person’s time spent in good faith being wasted.)

Admittedly, the risk of alleging a conspiracy theory is absent direct evidence of an agreement, the inference of an agreement may be faulty. So I am asking you now to confess as I asked you privately. I respect you as a man of integrity and will take you at your word. But please address the issue so I can show TrebleRebel how a mystery is solved. (A mystery is best resolved by direct respectful engagement, not subterfuge or mean words or irrelevant pictures. TrebleRebel’s pictures address some deep-rooted insecurity he has on the subject of his attractiveness given TrebleRebel’s pattern baldness and beer belly). Badabing is a good woman to stand by him given the whole dental thing and bad breath going on.

P.S. If you can appreciate how upset Bush was on October 4, consider that Greenspan was faced with anthrax contamination in December 2001 and then May 2002 — involving correspondence addressed to him. Then there was a May 2003 false scare. So now check out what Greenspan has to say.

... even if not as dramatic as his comment that the invasion of Iraq was all about oil.

For example, that would merely be analogous to where you had your friend make all the deletions to Wikipedia while feigning that you had an interest only in the “facts.”(You don’t deny it).

You need to stop babbling and start making sense. If you address a message to both me and TrebelRebel, you need to clarify who you mean when you say "you."

I've made some recent changes to the Wikipedia entry for the Anthrax Attacks of 2001. I even put a comment on my web site about it.

I make more changes today. My IP address shows up as 65.29.180.145. Unlike TrebleRebel, I make no secret about who I am. I do things openly.

Only one change that I made was deleted, and that was done by 76.184.217.42 (someone in Texas). He deleted facts stated by Douglas Beecher because I said they contradicted what Gary Matsumoto wrote. So, I put back Beecher's statements and just said they contradicted the reports that only sophisticated powders are dangerous. I left out Matsumoto's name.

Ed at www.anthraxinvestigation.com

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