Posted on 04/07/2002 8:49:09 AM PDT by Brian Mosely
Edited on 09/03/2002 4:50:15 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
You have been misinformed.
"Contrary to what was initially out there at the beginning of the investigation, this anthrax, we do not believe, was made up in a garage or a bathtub," Harp [assistant FBI director in charge of the anthrax investigation] said. (Anthrax terror remains a mystery)
Army connection?
One of the labs capable of producing anthrax spores is the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Maryland.
"When you think of where did anthrax possibly come from, you have to think of our laboratory," said Maj. Gen. John Parker, who until his retirement last week oversaw the team of scientists at the lab assigned to the FBI case.
Over the years, Fort Detrick shared its anthrax with others labs for research purposes. In the 1990s, there was a series of security lapses.
It also has a long history of training highly skilled scientists, leading some to suggest the spores or even the anthrax killer might be associated with the lab.
Barbara Rosenberg, a microbiologist with the State University of New York at Purchase, accuses the FBI of stalling to protect government secrets.
"There may be embarrassing information connected with the entire event and there may not be real enthusiasm about bringing this information out to the public," she said.
The FBI hotly rejects such suggestions.
"Those are uninformed ... outsiders," Harp said.
As for Assistant Director Hart's expertise ---
Van Harp, special agent in charge of the FBI's Cleveland bureau, defended Kroner and Lynch in a press release, saying, "Their entire careers in the FBI have been dedicated to fighting organized crime and public corruption and making Youngstown a better place to live."
From James Traficant Threatens to Sue Department of Justice. Hart appears to be an ordinary FBI gumshoe, probably a lawyer or an accountant, and unlikely to know what he's talking about.
That might have been true in September or October, but if it's still true now it's because of official negligence. With sufficient stockpiles of the already existing anthrax antitoxin, we can neutralize this threat, and save the lives of the great majority of those exposed to anthrax.
Which makes it interesting that he would be "in charge" of the investigation, given the stakes involved. Of course, the "investigation" is a sham -- Bush and Cheney have never been in any doubt about where the anthrax came from, nor did the sender make any great effort to hide his identity. After all, Bush has to know who he's not supposed to hit, right?
The New York Times blew the gaffe on the real nature of this anthrax -- and it ain't no bathtub brew -- six months ago: Contradicting Some U.S. Officials, 3 Scientists Call Anthrax Powder High-Grade. The same Times reporter, William J. Broad, recently did it again, revealing that one of the 9-11 hijackers sought treatment for cutaneous anthrax, a fact known to the authorities but kept from the public since last October: Report Linking Anthrax and Hijackers Is Investigated.
I see no reason why the method couldn't be mass-produced. The method is to inject the toxin in question into livestock like horses, and to extract the resulting antitoxin. This is the classical method of producing antitoxins, and it is the method still used for the botulin antitoxin that the CDC stockpiles. I see no reason why large quantities of the antitoxin could not be produced in this way. According to the linked story, China seems able to produce adequate quantities. I would imagine it might be possible today to buy large quantities of the antitoxin from China and/or Russia.
I wouldn't say the antitoxin is exactly safe for humans. The chief complication is serum sickness. But I think that a bad reaction is a whole lot better than dying. And the CDC finds the risk acceptable with its botulism antitoxin, which presents precisely the same risk of serum sickness.
For a graphic description of the effectiveness of anthrax antitoxin, read Ken Alibek's Biohazard. In the book, Alibek describes how one of his coworkers was dying of anthrax (cutaneous, but on his neck, so that the swelling was cutting off his breathing,) when he was saved by a timely administration of "antiserum."
Secondly, not a single one of the letters was demonstrated to have "originated" in New Jersey.
Sure enough the letters were postmarked there, and they contaminated machinery, but there was no contamination in any mail acceptance equipment or areas.
On the other hand, evidence of actual mailing was found in Florida.
I have covered how this probably happened in depth several times on other anthrax threads. What you need to do is make a search for "Muawiyah" and "anthrax" and "postal".
Second, the ER doctor must have a remarkable memory to ID two guys he saw over four months ago. More likely he was prompted.
Third, there is no reliable chain of custody of the medical record -- the FBI brought it to the doctor.
This is most likely a planted story.
I think you're underestimating the extent to which business and profits drive U.S. government actions. On the importance of such business considerations with respect to government decisions about the anthrax vaccine, I recommend reading Germs, by Judith Miller et al.
The main reason I entertain the "mad scientist" scenario is because I am very suspicious of the notion that Saddam (or his equivalent in other places) is so clueless as to think that the anthrax letter attacks would do anything more than buy a few years time before the hammer of doom falls with a resounding thud. As I have said, perhaps some country's leadership has miscalculated in this instance, but I don't think that's where the smart money will be placing its bets--not without evidence that is stronger and more credible than has been publicly reported.
One thought does occur to me, however: suppose that Saddam believes that in, say, two years time, he will have some new, improved WMD that the US won't be able to deal with anytime soon. In such a case, he might very well use his anthrax weapon to buy time until his other superweapon is ready. Just a thought.
The antitoxin is a particularly attractive treatment because the effectiveness of vaccines is highly questionable. Besides the side-reactions, there is doubt about whether the vaccine would be effective at all against respiratory anthrax, and in any case a vaccine might well not be effective against new strains of anthrax. But all strains of anthrax presumably produce the same toxin, and that means the antitoxin would be effective against all of them.
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