Battle Axe,
Aren’t you correct that the inverted plasmid is important and highly probative evidence in proving Amerithrax? Consider the work done by the fellow who collected Ames on mutagenesis. And the work done by UNMC circa 2000. And then consider Ali Al-Timimi’s high security clearance for work for the Navy. The UNMC’s DNA vaccine research had caused it to expand to require experts in genomics. Ali’s field was genomics. Didn’t SRA International, Ali’s employer, work with the Navy in the Spring of 2001?
Barbara Hatch Rosenberg, who runs the Federation of American Scientists’ chemical and biological arms control program, announced in December 2001. “I’m certain it’s someone connected with a government program, or who works in a laboratory connected with a government program,” she said. “The grapevine has it that the results of an experiment on genetic variation at certain locations suggest that this material was made in a very small batch, and that suggests that the material was not made in some old weapons program on a large scale,” she said, citing sources inside and outside the government. “All the available information is consistent with a U.S. government lab as the source, either of the anthrax itself or of the recipe for the U.S. weaponization process,” wrote Rosenberg on a webpage.
Wasn’t BHR correct? Just mistaken that it was Dr. Hatfill? And mistaken that the motive was to sound an alarm so as to increase spending?
Sources:
Elliott TB, Brook I, Harding RA, Bouhaouala SS, Peacock SJ, Knudson GB.
Radiation Medicine Department, Nuclear, Biological, Chemical Interactions and Countermeasures Research Team, Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute, 8901 Wisconsin Avenue, Bethesda, MD 20889-5603, USA.
[AFFRI is at UNMC]
Bacillus anthracis infection in irradiated mice: susceptibility, protection, and therapy.
Mil Med. 2002 Feb;167(2 Suppl):103-4. No abstract available.
PMID: 11873486 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
See also
Infect Immun. 1988 January; 56(1): 176-181
Transposon Tn916 mutagenesis in Bacillus anthracis.
B E Ivins, S L Welkos, G B Knudson and D J Leblanc
Division of Bacteriology, U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, Fort Detrick, Maryland.
__________
Photoreactivation of ultraviolet-irradiated, plasmid-bearing, and plasmid-free strains of Bacillus anthracis.
G B Knudson
ABSTRACT
The effects of toxin- and capsule-encoding plasmids on the kinetics of UV inactivation of various strains of Bacillus anthracis were investigated. Plasmids pXO1 and pXO2 had no effect on bacterial UV sensitivity or photoreactivation. Vegetative cells were capable of photoreactivation, but photo-induced repair of UV damage was absent in B. anthracis Sterne spores.
_________
Immunization against anthrax with aromatic compound-dependent (Aro-) mutants of Bacillus anthracis … - all 4 versions »
BE Ivins, SL Welkos, GB Knudson, SF Little - Infection and Immunity, 1990 - Am Soc Microbiol
Page 1. Vol. 58, No. 2 INFECTION AND IMMUNITY, Feb. 1990, p. 303-308 0019-9567/90/
020303-06$02.00/0 Immunization against Anthrax with Aromatic Compound-Dependent
(Aro-) Mutants of Bacillus anthracis and with Recombinant Strains ...
Cited by 47 - Related Articles - Web Search
I love the opening of the book.
That’s why I get so annoyed at Mr. Lake when he intentionally omits the 2007 BBC and AP articles about AQ allegedly having weaponized anthrax. (One case involved the Information Minister who had the powder in packets for mailing to government offiicals and another the Gitmo Kabul military commander who allegedly possessed anthrax upon his capture).
People should feel free to advocate whatever position they like but they should not put blinders on and fail to disclose material that, unless debunked, tends to support a contrary view.
My only disagreement with Colonel Larsen is that he assumes that the FBI has had blinders on rather than aggressively pursued all leads in a confidential national security investigation. What Mueller in 2005 said as to motive was:
Remember 911. Remember Oklahoma City.
And what Ashcroft said was that people misunderstand what the DOJ means when they use the word “domestic” — it in no way excludes highly educated supporters (in the US) of the militants.
Fitzgerald, from the FBI behavioral unit, in 2002 was wrong. But that was five years ago.
Our Own Worst Enemy
by Colonel Randall J. Larsen USAF (Ret)
http://www.hachettebookgroupusa.com/books/34/0446580430/chapter_excerpt25523.html
Introduction
Wrong Questions Produce Wrong Answers
JUST NINE DAYS AFTER THE 9/11 ATTACKS, TWO MEN AND A WOMAN CROSSED Pennsylvania Avenue and approached the northwest entrance to the White House. All three carried briefcases. Security was incredibly tight, and it took them nearly fifteen minutes to clear the metal, explosives, and radiological detectors, and a physical search of their bags. These were not regular times at the White House, and these were not regular guests.
Everything appeared normal, but a uniformed Secret Service agent asked one of the men why he had a surgical mask in his briefcase. The man replied, “Just for demonstration. You saw Mayor Rudy Giuliani wear one at Ground Zero, right?” The three were permitted to enter. They walked down two corridors and up two flights of stairs. After waiting for several minutes in a small room, Vice President Dick Cheney and several of his senior staff members walked into the room. In the same briefcase that contained the surgical mask, not more than ten feet from where the vice president was seated, was a test tube filled with weaponized Bacillus globigii. None of the security devices had detected it.
During that meeting, Vice President Cheney asked the question: “What does a biological weapon look like?”
I pulled the test tube from my briefcase and said, “Sir, it looks like this, and by the way, I did just carry this into your office.” I went on to explain that Bacillus globigii is harmless, but physically and even genetically it is nearly identical to Bacillus anthracis—the bacterium that causes anthrax. If you can make the former, you will have no difficulty making the latter.
Two weeks later, Dr. Tara O’Toole, the director of the Center for Biosecurity–University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and I walked into CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia, to meet with the chief of indications and warning. While going through the security checkpoint, I noted the presence of a guard in full battledress uniform and armed with a machine gun (something not often seen at CIA Headquarters). After making eye contact with him, I took the test tube from one pocket, looked at it for a moment to make sure he could see it, and gently placed it in the other. The guard said nothing. Once again, a test tube of weaponized Bacillus globigii was carried into one of the most secure buildings in America.
Three weeks later, the office of Tom Daschle, the Senate minority leader, received an envelope filled with a far smaller quantity of weaponized and dangerous Bacillus anthracis. The young intern running the automatic letter-opening machine saw a fine mist of powder emerge from the envelope, and the Capitol Police were summoned. Later that day, all members of Congress and their staffs were evacuated from the Capitol Building and the six congressional office buildings. The Senate Hart Office Building, home to Tom Daschle and his staff, would remain closed for ninety days. It was contaminated with anthrax.
It would be easy to place the responsibility for the two earlier security lapses on the men and women entrusted with guarding the White House and CIA Headquarters. After all, if they can’t protect their own house, how can we expect them to protect ours? But centering the blame on these individuals is both unjust and inaccurate. The failure was not one of execution, but of education. This lack of education and understanding of homeland security is the root of our problems. The Secret Service agent saw the test tube in my briefcase, but he asked about the surgical mask. He asked the wrong question. He is not alone.
Yes, this is the one reason that no one has yet been arrested. You have to find the smoking gun that fired that bullet.
Since all the material mailed was the same stuff, they have to find that source and heads will roll.
So far, they have looked in every nook and cranny in USAMRIID and NOT found it. They looked everywhere Hatfill ever was and have NOT found it. Otherwise he would be toast in some cell.
We have the technology to know exactly what it was right down to the inverted basepairs on the plasmid. It is so unique that it will be thrown out of court if it is not that exact thing.
I say what makes this one different is that it was a wet lesion. Dripped a lot, a running sore. All the literature written prior to 9-11 said that anthrax was a dry lesion. This is a different cat! The inversion must code for an extra water somewhere. All the rest of the description fits.