Stay on anthrax trail

Palm Beach Post ^ | 5/22/05 | Palm Beach Post

[TrebleRebel]

Stay on anthrax trail Palm Beach Post Editorial

Sunday, May 22, 2005

Three and a half years after panic hit South Florida, cleanup from the nation's first anthrax attack has begun in Boca Raton. Yet the federal government has made no arrests in the case or indicated that it is close to solving the crime, which is why a judge was correct not to dismiss the lawsuit against the government by the victim's family.

In October 2001, Robert Stevens of Lantana worked as a photo editor at the American Media Inc. building in Arvida Park of Commerce. Less than a month after the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, he was exposed to anthrax that arrived in a letter to the tabloid publisher. On Oct. 5 of that year, he became the first of five people nationwide to die. The anthrax was disseminated in a series of letters. The attacks closed portions of Capitol Hill and several post offices.

In September 2003, Mr. Stevens' widow sued the government, claiming that the anthrax had come from Fort Detrick, Md., home of the Army's Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases. Maureen Stevens alleged that a security lapse had allowed the anthrax to be removed and thus caused her husband's death. Not surprisingly, the government first sought a postponement, then asked U.S. District Judge Daniel T.K. Hurley to dismiss the case. Last month, as The Post reported, Judge Hurley rejected not just the motion but the idea that the government would be blameless.

"It is reasonable," Judge Hurley wrote, "for members of the general public to expect that security procedures and policies governing handling of lethal biohazards by medical research laboratories are designed not only for the protection of the employees and communities surrounding the laboratories, but for the public at large, which is realistically and forseeably at risk in the event that a deadly organism or contagion is released."

The government must respond by June 2. By then or soon after, cleanup of the old AMI building may be complete. If the government isn't going to produce a criminal, the lawsuit offers the best chance for now of the government at least having to produce some answers.

[TrebleRebel]

Good to see anthrax back in the news ping.

[Peach]

Thanks for the ping. Did you see the NYT article on anthrax yesterday?

[Useless_eater_on_steroids]

Paging Lt.Col Philip Zack to the red phone

"Documents from the inquiry show that one unauthorized person who was observed entering the lab building at night was Langford's predecessor, Lt. Col. Philip Zack, who at the time no longer worked at Fort Detrick. A surveillance camera recorded Zack being let in at 8:40 p.m. on Jan. 23, 1992, apparently by Dr. Marian Rippy, a lab pathologist and close friend of Zack's, according to a report filed by a security guard. "

[TrebleRebel]

Yup, I saw the NYT article. Did you the know the guy named in the article who filed the FOIA request is a former Freeper (Pokerbuddy)?

[Mitchell]

Thanks for the ping.

[Southack]

"In October 2001, Robert Stevens of Lantana worked as a photo editor at the American Media Inc. building in Arvida Park of Commerce. Less than a month after the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, he was exposed to anthrax that arrived in a letter to the tabloid publisher. On Oct. 5 of that year, he became the first of five people nationwide to die."

That's some powerful propaganda. Look at the lies quoted above. First of all, you don't die from anthrax 4 days from exposure (the longest possible October exposure to Oct 5 mentioned above). To die from anthrax on October 5, Stevens needed to be exposed to anthrax 3 weeks earlier.

Second, there was no letter to the AMI tabloid building. No one has such a letter. No such letter was ever found. For all that we know Stevens was contaminated by handling cash paper money that the 9/11 terrorists used to pay their rent, since their landlord was also the wife of someone at the AMI building.

[Mitchell]

Ping.

[Strategerist]

There's a lot of mythology regarding the timeline.

For example, no less than five people had their first symptoms of cutaneous anthrax BEFORE Bob Stevens started feeling ill.

Also, the earliest any of the known letters were postmarked was September 18th. It stands to reason that the missing AMI letter was likely postmarked around that time.

[Southack]

"It stands to reason that the missing AMI letter"

There was no letter to the AMI building. The anthrax came in via another source, perhaps via cross-contaminated cash used to pay the terrorists' rent.

[Strategerist]

Sort of hard to prove a negative.

Also, contrary to more mythology, the FBI did in fact spend the first several months of the investigation trying to link the 9/11 terrorists to the anthrax; they didn't come up with any at all in any location where they lived. If they had money contaminated with enough till kill Stevens it would have been where they lived as well.

Also, the "landlord" that was the wife of Steven's boss was actually a Real Estate agent; it wasn't as if terrorists were living in their house and paying cash rent.

Your theory strikes me as fairly dubious wishful thinking.

[eno_]

You are probably correct. That is a likelier answer than that the terrorists took an interest in the tabloid press.

But it leads to uncomfortable questions.

Like, how many people died of "pneumonia" that was actually anthrax? It is a statistical impossibility that that old woman in Connecticut was the only one.

[eno_]

No contaminated location was ever found, so, why not cross-contamination? Since no AMI letter was found, either, and targeting AMI never fit very well, why not look at other likely sources of contamination?

[Peach]

Excellent points, Southack!!!

[Peach]

I had not known he was a freeper!

[TNdandelion]

I don't think you are reading the article correctly. I don't think they are implying that Stevens was exposed in October...just that is about the time when he came down with symptoms and died.

According to Richard Preston (Thh Demon in The Freezer), Stevens and his wife were in Charlotte, NC on Sept 27th (Thurs) visiting family. The following Sunday, he started feeling ill while on their drive home. Monday, he was running a fever and Tuesday he was admitted to the hospital and died the following Friday (Oct 5th)....of inhalation anthrax not cutaneous anthrax.

Preston asserts that he was exposed to inhalation anthrax sometime in September. When the HAZMAT folks tested the mail bin at Stevens' workplace, it was full of inhalation anthrax spores.

[Southack]

"the FBI did in fact spend the first several months of the investigation trying to link the 9/11 terrorists to the anthrax; they didn't come up with any at all in any location where they lived. If they had money contaminated with enough till kill Stevens it would have been where they lived as well. Also, the "landlord" that was the wife of Steven's boss was actually a Real Estate agent; it wasn't as if terrorists were living in their house and paying cash rent."

The FBI came up with no link to the 9/11 terrorists and the AMI building attack, even though Stevens, who worked at the AMI building died of anthrax, a janitor at the AMI building caught anthrax but was cured, and Steven's boss's wife rented the apartment to two of the 9/11 terrorists.

What F'n schmucks, an FBI that can't see any possible link between renting the terrorists an apartment and simultaneously seeing people associated with renting that apartment catching anthrax.

Anthrax easily cross-contaminates paper. Paper checks, cash paper money, envelopes, mail, you name it. You can get anthrax from any of the above, and many did.

Even a simple rent application form could be cross-contaminated.

The 9/11 terrorists rented an apartment mere miles from the AMI building, but oh no, the FBI sees "no link."

Effin schmucks, everyone of them. Complete, incompetent government schmucks.

It doesn't matter if the terrorists paid their apartment rent with paper checks or paper cash money...all of it can easily be contaminated by anthrax. As can rent application forms. Nor would any of the above necessarily contaminate someone's home. Handle cash money or a check that's contaminated and you may very well catch an anthrax infection. But you've spent the money or deposited the check before you got home, so no contamination there.

[Southack]

"he was admitted to the hospital and died the following Friday (Oct 5th)....of inhalation anthrax not cutaneous anthrax. Preston asserts that he was exposed to inhalation anthrax sometime in September. When the HAZMAT folks tested the mail bin at Stevens' workplace, it was full of inhalation anthrax spores."

Those aren't different types of *anthrax* spores, those are merely different types of *infections* from the same anthrax.

Get anthrax in your skin, you catch a cutaneous anthrax infection. Breath that same anthrax and you come down with inhalation anthrax.

[TrebleRebel]

Also, contrary to more mythology, the FBI did in fact spend the first several months of the investigation trying to link the 9/11 terrorists to the anthrax; they didn't come up with any at all in any location where they lived.

That's true - but they also thoroughly swabbed Steve Hatfill's home and anywhere else he had been for spores and didn't find any. But that didn't stop them making him the number 1 suspect.

[nw_arizona_granny]

Ping