Posted on 07/10/2008 11:36:35 AM PDT by TrebleRebel
Leahy: I almost hate to get into the case of Steven Hatfill. I've refrained from discussing this, I've refused to discuss it with the press. I've told them some aspects of it I was aware of were classified so of course I could not discuss it but also, considering the fact that my life was threatened by an anthrax letter, two people died who touched a letter addressed to me I was supposed to open, I'm somewhat concerned. What happened?
Mukasey: That case ...
Leahy: We're paying Hatfill millions of dollars, the indication being the guy who committed the crime went free.
Mukasey: Well, um, I don't understand, quote, the guy who committed the crime, unquote, to have gone free. What I do understand is...
Leahy: Nobody's been convicted.
Mukasey: Not yet.
Leahy: And five people are dead.
Mukasey: Yes, um...
Leahy: And hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent.
Mukasey: That case is under active investigation and I need to be very careful about what I say.
Leahy: We won't go any further. As I say, I feel somewhat reluctant because I was one of the targets. But I gotta say, what families of the people who died went through, what families of the people who were crippled went throug, even what my family went through. A lot of people are concerned and I won't say more because we are in open session but I think you and I probably should have a private talk about this sometime.
Mukasey: That's fine.
This is getting bizarre. They know something, that’s for sure.
This is getting bizarre. They know something, that’s for sure.
Pinging
Ping
Well, at least Leaky Leahy seems to have learned his lesson about revealing secrets in public. But the question is, why is it still secret, all this time later?
Bizarre, indeed.
The former assistant of Andrew Card is currently being prosecuted and fighting for his life for sedition. He is the FBI’s anthrax weapons suspect. Thus, discussion of it — given he has not been charged — is highly problematic. His office was 15 feet from leading anthrax scientist Ken Alibek and former deputy USAMRIID commander.
Andrew Card was the former White House Chief of Staff. Ali Al-Timimi was his assistant for 2 months when he was Secretary of the Department of Transportation in 1996. Thus, while the Administration was focused on Iraq, Mr. Card’s former assistant, whose father worked at the Iraqi embassy, was sharing the same fax, maildrop and water fountain of these leading anthrax scientists. Ali had a high security clearance for work for the Navy while at SRA in 1999 where the former USAMRIID deputy commander also worked in 1999. Ken and Charles consulted for Battelle. Charles was head of bio threat assessment for DIA.
Oops.
Mukasey’s “um...” says it all.
In a filing unsealed this Spring, Dr. Ali Al-Timimi’s lawyer explained that his client “was considered an anthrax weapons suspect.” Al-Timimi was a microbiologist who had worked in the building housing the “Center for Biodefense” funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (”DARPA”). He came to have an office 15 feet from the leading anthrax scientist and the former deputy commander of USAMRIID. Dr. Al-Timimi’s counsel summarizes:
“we know Dr. Al-Timimi:
* was interviewed in 1994 by the FBI and Secret Service regarding his ties to the perpetrators of the first World Trade Center bombing;
* was referenced in the August 6, 2001 Presidential Daily Briefing (”Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US”) as one of seventy individuals regarding whom the FBI is conducting full field investigations on a national basis;
* was described to his brother by the FBI within days of the 9-11 attacks as an immediate suspect in the Al Qaeda conspiracy;
* was contacted by the FBI only nine days after 9-11 and asked about the attacks and its perpetrators;
* was considered an anthrax weapons suspect;
[redacted]
* was described during his trial by FBI agent John Wyman as having “extensive ties” with the “broader al-Qaeda network”;
* was described in the indictment and superseding indictment as being associated with terrorists seeking harm to the United States;
* was a participant in dozens of international overseas calls to individuals known to have been under suspicion of Al-Qaeda ties like Al-Hawali; and
* was associated with the long investigation of the Virginia Jihad Group.
***
The conversation with [Bin Laden’s sheik] Al-Hawali on September 19, 2001 was central to the indictment and raised at trial. Al-Timimi called Dr. Hawali after the dinner with Kwon on September 16, 2001 and just two hours before he met with Kwon and Hassan for the last time on September 19, 2001.
[911 imam] Anwar Al-Aulaqi goes directly to Dr. Al-Timimi’s state of mind and his role in the alleged conspiracy. The 9-11 Report indicates that Special Agent Ammerman interviewed Al-Aulaqi just before or shortly after his October 2002 visit to Dr. Al-Timimi’s home to discuss the attacks and his efforts to reach out to the U.S. government.
[IANA head] Bassem Khafagi was questioned about Dr. Al-Timimi before 9-11 in Jordan, purportedly at the behest of American intelligence. [redacted ] He was specifically asked about Dr. Al-Timimi’s connection to Bin Laden prior to Dr. Al-Timimi’s arrest. He was later interviewed by the FBI about Dr. Al-Timimi. Clearly, such early investigations go directly to the allegations of Dr. Al-Timimi’s connections to terrorists and Bin Laden — [redacted]”
The letter by Al-Timimi’s counsel attached as an exhibit is equally meaty. An example of an additional detail is that in March 2002, Dr. Al-Timimi spoke with Dr. Al-Hawali (Bin Laden’s sheik who was the subject of OBL’s “Declaration of War”) about assisting Moussaoui in his defense.
The filing and the letter exhibit each copy defense co-counsel, the daughter of the lead prosecutor in Amerithrax. That prosecutor has pled the Fifth Amendment concerning all the leaks hyping a “POI” of the other Amerithrax squad, Dr. Steve Hatfill.
In an e-mail obtained by FOX News, scientists at Fort Detrick openly discussed how the anthrax powder they were asked to analyze after the attacks was nearly identical to that made by one of their colleagues.
“Then he said he had to look at a lot of samples that the FBI had prepared ... to duplicate the letter material.” “Then the bombshell. He said that the best duplication of the material was the stuff made by [name redacted]. He said that it was almost exactly the same — his knees got shaky and he sputtered, ‘But I told the General we didn’t make spore powder!’”
FOX News reports:
“The FBI has narrowed its focus to ‘about four’ suspects in the 6 1/2-year investigation of the deadly anthrax attacks of 2001, and at least three of those suspects are linked to the Army’s bioweapons research facility at Fort Detrick in Maryland, FOX News has learned.
Among the pool of suspects are three scientists — a former deputy commander, a leading anthrax scientist and a microbiologist — linked to the research facility, known as USAMRIID.”
It thus appears that the FBI’s theory is that it was more than a happy coincidence for Ayman Zawahiri that an active supporter of the Taliban and supporter of jihad was a US biodefense insider. Microbiologist Al-Timimi worked in the same building as famed Russian bioweapons scientist Ken Alibek and former USAMRIID Deputy Commander and Acting Commander Charles Bailey, who would publish a lot of research with the “Ames strain” of anthrax. Al-Timimi was a current associate and former student of Bin Laden’s spiritual advisor, dissident Saudi Sheik al-Hawali. Ali would speak along with the blind sheik’s son at charity conferences — the blind sheik’s son served on Al Qaeda’s WMD committee. Al-Timimi’s mentor Bilal Philips was known for recruiting members of the military to jihad. The first week after 9/11, FBI agents questioned Al-Timimi. He was a microbiology graduate student in a program jointly run by George Mason University and the American Type Culture Collection (”ATCC”). Ali, according to his lawyer, had been questioned by an FBI agent and Secret Service agent in 1994 after the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. He had a high security clearance for work for the Navy in the late 1990s. In 1996, for two months had worked for the White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card when he was Secretary of Transportation. As time off from his university studies permitted, Ali was an active speaker with the charity Islamic Assembly of North America.
Good thing we got that competent Homeland Security thing going....the FBI needs to be investigated for their actions in railroading an innocent man and failure to get the culprits!
*
Doesn’t strike me as anything new.
Leahy has complained like this before, even suggesting a small town police department would have a better chance solving it.
I truly can't make up my mind whether I think Leahy really knows something, whether he just thinks that he knows something, or whether he's simply pretending to know something.
Based on some comments made in the past twelve months...Hatfield is likely an innocent bystander....who fits the case suspect picture by more than fifty percent. However, then we come to Ken Alibek...the former Russian chief scientist who is a big US scientist now. Alibek is hinted to have some kinda connections back to elements in the KGB (although most don’t think its a Russian-planned episode, more of a individual deal for personal gain).
I’m reserving my judgment on Hatfield because of this discussion over Alibek.
For those of us who didn’t know, ASAMRIID is an acronym for “US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases”
Judge, jury and executioner...wasn't there but knows who's guilty.
What was the motive behind the anthrax attack at American Media, publisher of:
The National Enquirer
Star
Globe
National Examiner
Sun
Weekly World News
Country Weekly
¡Mira!
Auto World Weekly
Shape
Men’s Fitness
Flex
Looking Good?
Good post.
It’s not bizarre,
If you have some experience,
Reading Leahy’s past talks,
on the subject.
It’s not bizarre, but ordinary babbling.
Another Clinton scandal being quietly covered up?
Leahy: “I wish they had turned this investigation over to some good sheriff or police chief somewhere. I think it’s been very badly handled.”
http://vermontdailybriefing.com/?p=729
At least Hatfill is still alive. If we're going to investigate the FBI, let's go back and investigate them for the dead people like Randy Weaver's wife and the kids at Mt. Carmel first.
Andrew Card was Mr. Bush’s White House Chief of Staff.
But the issue is one of counterintelligence analysis. Or true crime analysis, if you like. Not the politics as war that passes for participatory democracy in the beltway or on internet forums.
All those, like my good friend Dr. Rebel and most everyone else, who do not appreciate the infiltration that occurred, have no business finding fault with the FBI or the press — or even the Administration.
The FBI, in contrast, did not miss the infiltration that occurred. The CIA and FBI have been kicking ass for 7 years.
All things considered.
TexasCajun,
Your question has prompted me to realize that I’ve made a fundamental error. His official webpage (Al-Timimi’s) said that he worked for Andrew Card, the former Secretary of Transportation, for 2 months in 1996.
But Mr. Card was Secretary of Transportation 1992 until 1993 — not 1996.
Mr. Card served as the 11th U.S. Secretary of Transportation under President George Bush.
So crediting the webpage of his defense committee, as I do, I now understand it to mean that he worked for Mr. Card in 1996, and at that time he was the former Secretary. In 1996, I believe he was head of the automobile association. So perhaps he just did computer work for the trade association.
Thanks!
But didn’t Clinton and Maddie Albright’s policy of sharing/teaching sensative technologies to anyone that wanted to enroll part of these departments being infiltrated with bad guys?
Mukasey: Not yet.
Call me a cockeyed optimist, but I get VERY positive vibes from this.
It's absolutely clear that Mukasey is saying he expects to see something happen --- and maybe fairly soon. Otherwise, the conversation would have gone like it always seemed to go in the past:
Leahy: Nobody's been convicted.
Mukasey: It's an extremely complex case, one of the most complex cases the FBI has ever handled.
Replying "Not yet" seems to also say, "But just wait."
IMO
"Patience is the companion of wisdom." -- St. Augustine
"The two most powerful warriors are patience and time." -- Tolstoy>/i>
"Patience and fortitude conquer all things." -- Ralph Waldo Emmerson
The problem of infiltration most analogous would be Ali Mohammed, who was OBL’s head of intelligence. He also was a US Army Sergeant, worked briefly for the CIA and an FBI informant. He was hiding in plain sight. Peter Lance’s TRIPLE X is very useful background in understanding Amerithrax and the infiltration posed by Al-Timimi.
The DIA gave me the correspondence showing the infiltration of the UK biodefense conferences by Rauf Ahmad, a Pakistani scientist helping Ayman. See Washington Post’s October 2006 “Suspect and Setback in Qaeda Anthrax Case” or NYT “Qaeda Letters Show Anthrax Plans” by NYT in May 2005 or so. But Rauf never carried the ball over the goal line or even got in the huddle — someone in the US did. The FBI apparently suspects Ali of accessing the biochemistry information surreptitiously. Ayman Zawahiri says he got the idea only because USG officials kept saying how easy it was.
Also analogously, in 1985, American Type Culture Collection, which co-sponsored Ali Al-Timimi’s bioinformatics program, shipped Iraq various anthrax strains (not including Ames).
I’m also reminded of when the 100 (intended to be TOW-equipped) helicopters were sold to Iraq during the height of the Iraq-Iran war to Iraq’s Department of Agriculture. They, according to Tariq Aziz’ press conference, were for agricultural spraying missions. The combat configured helicopters were intended, so the press story went, for agricultural spraydrying missions. (But even assuming the USG did not know they were to be equipped with TOW missiles, a US-controlled item, it was still very dubious policy.) The arms trafficker, when prosecuted, said Ollie had approved it all and his notebooks kept in the basement would show that (if they were produced). His name was Sarkis Soghanalian. He has given interviews on the subject.
Richard Clarke’s new book YOUR GOVERNMENT FAILED YOU addresses this issue of infiltration and counterintelligence.
Just how much credibility does Richard Clarke have?
HIs new book is very substantive. I think of him as authoritative, highly experienced, and very credible. His new book suffers overall, IMO, due to the fact that the last decades have been littered with decisions that in hindsight can be deemed mistakes. I’m not sure the book charts a path that will avoid mistakes as the causes have been so varied. Moreover, he of course was party to many of the mistakes. But for wonks I highly recommend it. Although I tend to wait until the movie comes out, I did make progress reading McClellan’s WHAT HAPPENED book today. It is Condi Rice I have a problem with — I mean, the minute the words “Who could have imagined planes flying into...” she should have tendered her resignation. It was not only her job to imagine it — but there was intel historically that she should have known about. On anthrax, Clarke says Condi said, in his presence, that was not why she took the job. But I’m not moved by politics. The answer to the whodunnit is more interesting to me — whatever that turns out to be. The rest is soap opera.
I made a 7 x 9 rag rug with inlaid shadows of the towers.
The title is: WHO THE HELL WAS RIDDING SHOTGUN?
This woman has NO business in government.
Here are some familiar links. TrebleRebel, wouldn’t it be neat if one day you had your coffee and then — a lightbulb went off — and you became either DoubleRebel or QuadrupleRebel? If you think the connections of the guy who accessed the biochemistry information are interesting, the connections of the guy who is the mailer would blow your mind.
Suspect and A Setback In Al-Qaeda Anthrax Case - washingtonpost.com
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/30/AR2006103001250.html
Hardball Tactics in an Era of Threats - washingtonpost.com
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/02/AR2006090201096.html
“Anthrax Mystery: Evidence Points to al-Qaida,” Newsmax, June 7, 2007
http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2007/6/6/163931.shtml?s=lh
“Al Qaeda, Anthrax and Ayman: means, opportunities, motive, and modus operandi,” Cryptome.org, November 2002
http://cryptome.org/alqaeda-anthrax.htm
To: Princeton; TaxRelief
Estragon, meet Vladimir!
Wait here.
45 posted on Sat Aug 9 00:14:43 EDT 2003 by headsonpikes
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 42 | View Replies | Report Abuse]
To: headsonpikes
Thank you Samuel Beckett!
I thought you'd never blow that damn whistle.
46 posted on Sat Aug 9 00:31:01 EDT 2003 by Princeton (the knots of folly grow tighter)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 45 | View Replies | Report Abuse]
Thanks for the memories!
http://www.nysun.com/national/times-wins-in-libel-suit-brought-by-former/81820/
Times Wins in Libel Suit Brought By Former Anthrax Suspect
By JOSH GERSTEIN, Staff Reporter of the Sun | July 14, 2008
A federal appeals court is handing a legal victory to The New York Times by upholding a lower court’s ruling tossing out a former Army scientist’s claim that he was libeled by the newspaper in columns which linked him to the deadly anthrax attacks in 2001.
The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Richmond, Va., ruled that the scientist, Stephen Hatfill, was a public figure in the national debate over bioterrorism preparedness.
With Dr. Hatfill deemed a public figure, he could only win his suit by proving that the Times deliberately lied about him or knew that it was likely the information they were printing was false. Dr. Hatfill could not meet that burden, the appeals court said in a unanimous ruling from a three-judge panel.
“Throughout his career, Dr. Hatfill was not only repeatedly sought out as an expert on bioterrorism, but was also a vocal critic of the government’s unpreparedness for a bioterrorist attack, as evidenced by the topics of his lectures, writings, participation on panels, and interviews,” Judge Paul Niemeyer wrote, joined by Judges M. Blane Michael and Clarence Beam. “Through these media Dr. Hatfill voluntarily thrust himself into the debate. He cannot remove himself now to assume a favorable litigation posture.”
Judge Niemeyer said the author of the columns, Nicholas Kristof, wasn’t libeling Mr. Hatfill because the columnist has strong reason to consider the scientist to be the lead suspect in the crime. “Indeed the record contains substantial evidence to support The New York Times’ contention that Kristof actually believed that Dr. Hatfill was the prime suspect.”
The lawsuit was a tightrope-walk for the Times, particularly because Mr. Kristof refused to identify his confidential sources for the columns. The district court judge who handled the case, Claude Hilton, imposed a fairly mild sanction on the Times, simply barring the newspaper from relying on information from those sources.
Dr. Hatfill’s lawyers said the Times’s defiance should have been punished more sternly, but the appeals court panel said yesterday that the district court’s action “did not amount to an abuse of discreation.”
The FBI carried out several searches for evidence linking Mr. Hatfill to the anthrax-laden mailings. However, neither he nor anyone else was ever charged in the case.
Last month, the federal government agreed to pay $5.8 million to resolve a Privacy Act lawsuit in which Mr. Hatfill accused government officials of illegally releasing information about him to the press. The stories came from anonymous leaks and an unusual public statement in which the attorney general at the time of the attacks, John Ashcroft, openly described Mr. Hatfill as a “person of interest” in the investigation.
Dr. Hatfill’s suit against the government drew significant attention because a former reporter for USA Today, Toni Locy, faced potentially ruinous fines for refusing to name her sources for articles about Dr. Hatfill. The contempt ruling against Ms. Locy was on appeal when the case was settled.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=5368813&page=1
Cheney Thought He Had Lethal Anthrax Dose
Scare Prompted Veep to Take Hard Line onTerror Suspects, New Book Contends
By MARK MOONEY
July 14, 2008
RSS In the days after 9/11, when fears of another terrorist strike were at their peak, Vice President Dick Cheney was convinced that he had been subjected to a lethal dose of anthrax, according to a new book.
White House insiders from that white-knuckle time told author Jane Mayer, who authored “The Dark...
White House insiders from that white-knuckle time told author Jane Mayer, who authored “The Dark Side, The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals,” that the scare contributed to Cheney’s insistence on hard-line tactics for fighting terror.
(Getty/ABC News)White House insiders from that white-knuckle time told author Jane Mayer, who authored “The Dark Side, The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals,” that the scare contributed to Cheney’s insistence on hard-line tactics for fighting terror.
Mayer, a writer for the New Yorker, claims that the vice president became the driving force in pushing for tougher interrogation tactics that critics charge went over the legal line and constitute torture.
In the days after the horror of 9/11, the country seemed to be under assault from many sides, with anthrax letters showing up in Congress and newsrooms.
On Oct. 18, 2001, a White House alarm went off indicating that sensors had detected dangerous levels of radioactive, chemical or biological agents. According to Mayer, anyone who had entered the White House situation room, including Cheney, had been exposed.
Well, that’s a bummer about the Times lawsuit. I was hoping they’d have to pay through the nose.
:(
Excerpt from book:
“The anthrax spores in the letter to Daschle were so professionally refined, the Central Intelligence Agency believed the powder must have been sent by an experienced terrorist organization, most probably Al Qaeda, as a sequel to the group’s September 11 attacks.
During a [October 17] meeting of the White House’s National Security Council that day, Cheney, who was sitting in for the President because Bush was traveling abroad, urged everyone to keep this inflammatory speculation secret.
“They thought there had been a nerve attack,” a former administration official, who was sworn to secrecy about it, later confided.
They thought Cheney had already been lethally infected. ...
At Cheney’s urging, they had received a harrowing briefing just a few weeks earlier about the possibility of a biological attack.” (p. 3)
***
“Cheney in particular was so stricken by the potential for attack that he insisted that the rest of the National Security Council undergo a gruesome briefing on it on September 20, 2001. When the White House sensor registered the presence of such poisons less than a month later, many, including Cheney, believed a nightmare was unfolding. “It was really a nerve-jangling time,” the former official said.
In time, the Situation Room alarm turned out to be false. But on October 22, the Secret Service reported it had what it believed to be additional traces on an automated letter-opening device used on White House mail.
***
By August [2003], Hambali had been captured, and had reportedly gave information leading to the revelation that Al Qaeda had been in the process of producing high-grade anthrax.
The Malaysian scientist who had been developing the anthrax had been in custody since before [KSM], since December 2001, raising questions about why the capture of Mohammed was so essential to establish this threat.
In any case, it predictably triggered renewed fears in the White House, where Bush and Cheney hammered the Agency for more details and chastised the FBI for doing too little to root out domestic sleeper cells.”
1 minute video using Post-It Notes to explain Amerithrax matter (solution involves US-based supporters of Al Qaeda)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8PrTXtHDyI
don’t know how much of this is credible, but here it is:
http://condensedcrap.blogspot.com/2008/07/anthrax-attacks-us-army-attacked-its.html
Anthrax attacks - the US Army attacked its own citizens in a biowar attack
from, and all credit due to http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/
WMR has received follow-up information, first reported by Fox News on March 28, 2008, that the US Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) was the source for the aerosolized anthrax attacks launched against Congress and the news media in late 2001. The attacks were designed to maintain the siege mentality of the American people and ensure quick passage by Congress of the USA PATRIOT Act.
Fox reported in March that “The FBI has narrowed its focus to ‘about four’ suspects in the 6 1/2-year investigation of the deadly anthrax attacks of 2001, and at least three of those suspects are linked to the Army’s bioweapons research facility at Fort Detrick in Maryland . . . Among the pool of suspects are three scientists — a former deputy commander, a leading anthrax scientist and a microbiologist — linked to the research facility, known as USAMRIID. The FBI has collected writing samples from the three scientists in an effort to match them to the writer of anthrax-laced letters that were mailed to two U.S. senators and at least two news outlets in the fall of 2001, a law enforcement source confirmed.” (Condensed Crap note: Could it be Dr. Philip M. Zack, Dr. Marian K. Rippy, and Barbara Hatch Rosenberg?)
USAMRIID denied it produced or maintained the type of powdered anthrax sent through the mail, an operation that killed two US postal employees at the Brentwood facility in Washington and sickened scores of others and also killed US postal customers around the country. However, Fox News obtained an email from a USAMRIID employee describing how he was surprised to learn the powdered anthrax was produced at Fort Detrick. The e-mail written by the employee who had been asked to compare the anthrax sent through the mail with that produced at Fort Detrick read in part: “Then he said he had to look at a lot of samples that the FBI had prepared . . . to duplicate the letter material . . . Then the bombshell. He said that the best duplication of the material was the stuff made by [name redacted]. He said that it was almost exactly the same . . . his knees got shaky and he sputtered, ‘But I told the General we didn’t make spore powder!’”
WMR has now learned from an informed source in Frederick, Maryland, the location of Fort Detrick, that the author of the email was in the highest echelons at USAMRIID. Previously, WMR learned from an official of the National Guard Bureau in Provo, Utah that the aerosolized anthrax used in the attacks was originally produced at the US Army’s Dugway Proving Ground in Utah, the location of the government’s only aerosolized anthrax production facility in the country, and sent to Fort Detrick for use in the postal system attacks in 2001.
WMR has also learned from a source close to the anthrax case that the recent out-of-court settlement by the Justice Department with one-time US government scientist Steven Hatfill was an attempt by the Justice Department to get out from under the anthrax case and a potentially embarrassing production of documents implicating the govenrment through the discovery process. Hatfill sued the government for being named a “person of interest” in the anthrax case. Under the settlement agreement, Hatfill will receive $2.825 million paid out in a yearly annuity of $150,000. The overall settlement by the government with Hatfill and his lawyers is in excess of $5 million.
Former FBI agent Brad Gannon wrote the following on ABC News’ website: “The anthrax investigation, almost from the beginning, was hampered by top-heavy leadership from high ranking, but inexperienced FBI officials, which led to a close-minded focus on just one suspect and amateurish investigative techniques that robbed agents in the field the ability to operate successfully.”
Even with the proof that Fort Detrick was the source of the anthrax used in the bio-terrorism attack on Congress, the postal system, and the news media, USAMRIID is expanding its BSL (Biosafety Level) -3 and BSL-4 biocontainment laboratories at Fort Detrick, a move that has the citizens of the city of Frederick and Frederick County up in arms. There is now a move to reject the Army’s own Environmental Impact Statement on the safety of the expansion and have the National Academy of Sciences review and approve or reject the safety measures being taken by the Army at Fort Detrick. The National Academy of Sciences already rejected a National Institutes of Health (NIH) risk analysis on a proposed BSL-4 lab at Boston University as “not sound and credible.”
The history of Fort Detrick and accidents have nearby residents of the bio-warfare lab nervous. In 2002, USAMRIID scientists revealed that over 24 biological agents, including anthrax and Ebola virus, went missing during the 1990s from the Fort Detrick facility. In April 2002, anthrax spores were released into a USAMRIID office and hallway and a USAMRIID scientist tested positive for exposure to anthrax at the facility. In 2003, vials of anthrax and brucellosis were found buried in landfills at Fort Detrick.
A BSL-4 lab is the most secure but most dangerous. BSL-4 labs contain cultures for deadly diseases for which there are no vaccines and no cures. BSL-3 labs are less secure but contain highly-contagious disease cultures that are species-threatening.
Although the United States is a party to international treaties banning the production of biological weapons, the US government is funding the expansion of BSL-3 and BSL-4 biolabs across the country, from Boston University to the University of Texas in Galveston, the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research in San Antonio to Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland, Battelle Memorial Institute in West Jefferson, Ohio to the University of Illinois in Chicago, Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland to the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, and Lawrence Livermore Labs in California to Los Alamos in New Mexico. All are being funded
I perused that “Wayne Madsen Report” web site, and to me it exhibits all the marks of your typical ultra-paranoid, America hating, red diaper baby international socialist author. He doesn’t appear to be saying anything different from what Frances Boyle and Barbara Hatch Rosenberg have been saying for years.
I thought you guys might like this from Nature, might even understand the lingo in the letter from.
Published online 2 July 2008 | Nature 454, 15 (2008)
Pay-off agreed for expert fired after anthrax attacks
A biological-weapons researcher will receive US$5.85 million to drop his civil case against the US Department of Justice, which publicly named him in association with a series of anthrax attacks in 2001.
Steven Hatfill, a former employee of the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick in Frederick, Maryland, was named by then-attorney general John Ashcroft as a “person of interest” after a string of anthrax mailings to media outlets and lawmakers. Hatfill was followed, his phones were tapped and he lost his job at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge (see Nature 419, 104; 2002).
Hatfill said that this had violated his privacy rights. As part of the terms, the government admits no wrongdoing in the case.
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Did the FBI also botech the forensic science investigation? The forensic science evidence behind the anthrax attacks is highly controversial and needs to be properly debated by scientists qualified not only in microbiology but also the physics and chemistry of aerosol powders. FBI scientist Douglas Beecher published a highly controversial paper in August 2006 - claiming, without data, that the spores contained no additives. This is the opposite of what was reported by US Army labs. Details are given here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_anthrax_attacks The August 2006 issue of Applied and Environmental Microbiology contained an article written by Dr. Douglas Beecher of the FBI labs in Quantico, VA.[22] The article, titled “Forensic Application of Microbiological Culture Analysis to Identify Mail Intentionally Contaminated with Bacillus anthracis spores ,” states “Individuals familiar with the compositions of the powders in the letters have indicated that they were comprised simply of spores purified to different extents.” The article also specifically criticizes “a widely circulated misconception” “that the spores were produced using additives and sophisticated engineering supposedly akin to military weapon production.” The harm done by such things is described this way: “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.” However, after this article had appeared the editor of Applied and Environmental Microbiology, L. Nicholas Ornston, stated that he was uncomfortable with Beecher’s statement in the article since it had no evidence to back it up and contained no citation.[23] In August 2007 Dr. Kay Mereish, UN Chief, Biological Planning and Operations, published a letter in Applied and Environmental Microbiology titled “Unsupported Conclusions on the Bacillus anthracis Spores”.[25] This letter, published in the same journal as FBI scientist Douglas Beecher (see paragraph above), points out that the statements made by Dr. Beecher in his article on the lack of additives were not backed up with any data. She suggested that Dr. Beecher publish a paper with analytical data showing the absence of silica or other additives. Such data would include SEM images of the pure spores as well as EDX spectra and EDX images showing the absence of any foreign additives such as silica or the elements silicon and oxygen. Dr. Mereish referenced a 2006 CBRN, Counter-Proliferation and Response meeting in Paris where a presenter announced that an additive was present in the attack anthrax that affected the spore’s electrical charges.
02 Jul, 2008 Posted by: Dave Hedging
Shermy, you write:
“I thought you guys might like this from Nature, might even understand the lingo in the letter ...”
Let me stop at one of the first sentences to explain the jargon. The writer asks:
“Did the FBI also botech the forensic science investigation?”
Botech is a term in forensic science such as was employed this week in Atlantic City when a 400 pound man on a long streak (pardon the pun) was escorted out the door. It didn’t pass the smell test, to use related legal jargon. He said, “This stinks!”
Perhaps it was Ed who uploaded a commentary yesterday with pictures, so that microbiologists in the field will understand the finer points, at
“XXX Movie”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVosAyxNCQc
Or I guess it was TrebelRebel.
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