Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: TrebleRebel
I guess it means you shouldn’t even be mentioning evidence in an “on-going criminal investigation” in a peer reviewed scientific journal in the first place.

The article didn't mention any evidence.

Your argument is that because he DID NOT mention critical evidence it shows that the FBI is covering up some illegal U.S. government bioweapons program.

Have you forgotten your own argument?

Douglas Beecher's article describes established facts from routine microbiology. It says,

... even in a crude state, dried microbial agents have been long considered especially hazardous. Experiments mimicking laboratory accidents have demonstrated that simply breaking vials of lyophilized bacterial cultures creates concentrated and persistent aerosols.

and

While size analysis of freshly prepared powders may bear signatures of the production process and predict some of their performance characteristics, size determinations for material recovered after it has been deployed must be viewed with circumspection. Particle size distributions are dynamic (13), changing as a powder experiences different conditions upon handling, such as compaction, friction, and humidity among other factors.

and

Particles aerosolized from purified powdered spores consist either of individual spores or aggregates of individual spores. The great majority of particles are generally the smallest particles in the population (2), which are single spores in spore powders.

and particularly this statement:

In essence, even if most of a spore powder is bound in relatively few large particles, some fraction is composed of particles that are precisely in the size range that is most hazardous for transmission of disease by inhalation.

So, while he uses such general and well-known established information elsewhere in the article, your gripe seems to be that he was doing something sinister when when he applied such established information to the attack spores of 2001 this way:

Individuals familiar with the compositions of the powders in the letters have indicated that they were comprised simply of spores purified to different extents. However, a widely circulated misconception is that the spores were produced using additives and sophisticated engineering supposedly akin to military weapon production. This idea is usually the basis for implying that the powders were inordinately dangerous compared to spores alone. The persistent credence given to this impression fosters erroneous preconceptions, which may misguide research and preparedness efforts and generally detract from the magnitude of hazards posed by simple spore preparations.

All he's really saying is that it has been long known to just about every microbiologist that simple purified spores are extremely dangerous. He's just adding that any attempt by conspiracy theorists to claim that only spores which have been "weaponized" with sophisticated techniques are dangerous, is just plain moronic bulls**t.

Where's the argument in that?

Ed at www.anthraxinvestigation.com

523 posted on 09/05/2007 11:33:20 AM PDT by EdLake
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 521 | View Replies ]


To: EdLake
Where's the argument in that?

The editor-in-chief of the journal Beecher published in has stated that his comment about no additives was not properly cited and no documentation was given to back it up. He said, in effect, that it should not have been published in his journal.
The editor relied upon the reviewer to catch this (the editor does not have time to read hundreds of manuscripts word for word every month). I doubt Matthew Meselson will ever review another paper for that journal.
If you are now claiming that the lack of documentation is because the information is secret, that is simply a childish argument. If the information of nom additives is so secret, it should never have been mentioned in the first place. If it is NOT secret, then it would OK to publish that there were no additives as long as the paper carried accompanying data - such as detailed SEM and EDX images of the Daschle spores. That is the argument. Another way of saying this is - "If you have something to say - say it - or else shut up".
524 posted on 09/05/2007 11:45:31 AM PDT by TrebleRebel
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 523 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson