Tests of Daschle anthrax reveal Iraq trademark: report

Loosen the fan belt holding the diaper on your head. It's cutting off the blood supply.

While I think your WTC sceanrio about the Mossad is possible you have to understand that Israel has no allies, only common interests with a few nations. For every Israeli the paramount concern is survival and if keeping secret about Al Queda attacks on WTC would bring the power of the U.S. down on Israel's enemies at no cost to Israel, they would keep silent. But I don't believe that they'd launch a biological attack.Thy would have to know the consequences if discovered would be catastrophic, not only for Israel, but for American Jews. Israel possesses a well earmed arogance in matters military and intelligence, but they are not arrogant enough to try bioterror and blame Hussein.

Since when is Bentonite, a commonly mined clay a "chemical agent" ? I'm not sure that we can label Iraq over mixing kitty litter in with anthrax.

Save our men - let the bugs do their work. And when people start dropping like flies in Afghanistan and Iraq, we can just shake our heads and remark how stupid they were to experiment with dangerous biological organisms.

I like your thinking!! You sir should be a military planner!

Great discription. Kaopectate is mostly clay with a litte pectin thrown as a thicking agent.

Interesting. I guess its Kaolin clay -- to match the vitreous China likely in use at the time.

Kaolin--Just a little more cosmetic than bentonite.

Whatever happened to the bentonite angle?

Unresolved. Ari Fleischer was asked about it, and he described the analysis as "opinionated," or some such term. He said that the analysis showed no aluminum, which is indicative of no bentonite. ABC subsequently reported that some of the highest grades of bentonite don't contain aluminum.

Various rumors and tidbits have appeared related to the weaponization signature of the anthrax sent to Daschle since then. The last I recall seeing was in Newsweek, which reported that the weaponization process was not previously known to the US, that it was the highest quality they had ever seen, and there was a "surprise" ingredient, which authorities would not name. Personally, I think you can take all that with a large grain of salt.

Basically, the administration has decided it's not a good thing for the public to know what the analysis revealed at this time. You may infer what you like from that.

"Whatever happened to the bentonite angle?"

Nothing. Within a few days of releasing it, ABC withdrew the report. And that was the end of that there story.

There was no follow-up in the media about the bentonite discovery. Nor any follow-up concerning ABC's withdrawal.

Subsequently, another outlet reported that one of the scientists involved in the investigation said something akin to "In our analysis of the spores, we found a very surprising (chemical/substance/compound). It shocked us all."

And that was the end of that there story. The chemical/substance/compound was never identified. Nor was there ever any follow-up on this report, either.

I'd really like to know who told ABC to drop the story. My guess is that ABC's info was accurate.

By the way, I believe the active ingredient in bentonite, for purposes of deionization, is aluminum silicate.

I don't remember reading that ABC withdrew the bentonite story. My recollection is that, after the story came under attack, ABC stood by the story and said three labs supported it. Maybe they withdrew it later, but, if so, I don't think I ever saw that.

Here's an excerpt from April on Bentonite:

Remember Anthrax?

That's far from clear, and even if it were clear it probably wouldn't help solve these crimes.

In order to produce inhalation anthrax, bacterial spore-particles must be small enough--no more than a couple or three microns wide--to reach a victim's lower respiratory mucosa. And for decades, until very recently, scientists believed that the mechanical milling required to produce such fine dust artificially would also produce a charge of static electricity sufficient to bind anthrax spores together into oversized, harmless clumps. To prevent this from happening--to keep the spores separate, "floaty," and therefore deadly--bioweapons specialists in the United States and elsewhere went to considerable lengths to identify a chemical additive that would, like throwing a sheet of Bounce into your clothes dryer, remove the static. It has been widely reported, but never confirmed, that American scientists eventually settled on silica. It has been just as widely reported, and more or less confirmed, that the Soviet and Iraqi biowarfare programs each at some point used a substance called bentonite, instead.

The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology has performed energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy on anthrax powder recovered from at least two of last fall's letters and has apparently discovered trace amounts of silica, but no sign of aluminum, an element basic to the best-known and most common form of bentonite (montmorillonite). Based on this result, government investigators have concluded, according to the Washington Post, that "it is unlikely that the spores were originally produced in the former Soviet Union or Iraq." On the same basis, and getting similarly ahead of herself, Barbara Hatch Rosenberg has decided the spores were prepared by a rogue or sanctioned U.S. laboratory worker.

But the fundamental chemistry involved here cannot sustain such certainty. Silica, or silicon dioxide, is simple quartz or sand, the most abundant solid material on earth. "Bentonite" is the generic term for a class of natural or processed clays derived from volcanic ash, all of which are themselves mineral compounds of silica--and not all of which necessarily contain aluminum. In other words: Trace amounts of silica in an anthrax powder are consistent with the presence of bentonite. And the absence of aluminum from that powder is not enough to exculpate any foreign germ-warfare factory thought to have used bentonite in the past.

The FBI and Rosenberg seem also to have ignored what has been standard practice in U.S. biodefense, medical, and veterinary laboratories for most of the past thirty years: Work with virulent strains of anthracis in dried-spore, aerosolized form is virtually unheard of. Pentagon production of weapons-ready--and presumably silicate--anthrax powder was abandoned during the first Nixon administration. The U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) at Fort Detrick, for example, doesn't even own the requisite technology to manufacture dry aerosols; USAMRIID scientists, like their civilian counterparts, use only "wet" anthrax--which has usually been genetically altered or irradiated to render it non-toxic.

"My recollection is that, after the story came under attack, ABC stood by the story and said three labs supported it. Maybe they withdrew it later, but, if so, I don't think I ever saw that."

Now that you mention it, I recall ABC's initial defense of the story.

But I think the story was withdrawn about a week later. As I recall, it was reported by another outlet (as in "ABC has withdrawn their report that...").

I'm trusting memory here. The record, to be sure, is less than perfect...

Terror Tests

Additive Search Requires More Study

By Gary Matsumoto

W A S H I N G T O N, Nov. 1 — A group of military scientists is feverishly examining the microscopic spores of anthrax sent to Sen. Tom Daschle for clues to a mystery that could have profound implications for the United States and its ongoing war on terror: Who made it?

Contained in the deadly sample that arrived in Daschle's office on Oct. 15 are additives used to make the normally inert bacteria a better killer, and exactly which additives they are could point investigators in the direction of the anthrax's source, and from there, perhaps, to who sent it.

Biological weapons experts say producing potent samples like the spores in the Daschle letter require advanced techniques that leave tell-tale markers to who made it — the known manufacturers of biological agents all have different ingredients and methods for creating their wares.

ABCNEWS reported last week that initial tests on the Daschle letter discovered the presence of one of those important additives, bentonite, an anti-clumping agent that makes the spores float through the air and into the lungs more easily, and which United Nations weapons inspectors have associated with Iraq.

This issue is critical. Making anthrax deadlier by mixing it with such additives is a trademark of sophisticated, well-funded, government programs, which could point to state-sponsorship of the mail attacks. Finding bentonite or silica, a similar additive, is one of the few solid leads investigators would have on the possible source of the contaminated letters that have been showing up in mailrooms from Florida to New York City.

But there is dispute over what the additives are. The White House and the head of the Army's biological laboratories in Ft. Detrick, Md., have denied bentonite was present, and said even if it was, it would not necessarily point to Iraq as the culprit.

They said investigators have not ruled out domestic or foreign sources, and, experts in the field note, the equipment used to treat anthrax with bentonite is available on the open market, which could lead investigators to a suspect in the United States.

But mineralogists suggest the matter of the bentonite may not be closed

Checking Ingredients

The government's top labs have run the Daschle anthrax sample through a series of tests. An electron microscope study found the Daschle spores looked "virtually identical" to those found in Iraq by U.N. weapons inspectors in 1994. But after subjecting it to a sophisticated X-ray test last week, the Army concluded it contained no bentonite, a clay comprised of several minerals, including aluminum.

For the Army, no aluminum equaled no bentonite.

"One of its principal ingredients is aluminum," said Maj. Gen. John Parker, overall commander of the military laboratories doing the analyses. "And I will say to you that we see no aluminum presence in the sample."

That assessment may prove correct, but not based solely on the absence of aluminum. ABCNEWS has learned that at least two European chemical companies make a processed, aluminum-free bentonite. Mineralogist William Moll, who has mainly worked in private industry, says these synthetic bentonites are used as "free-flow agents" that give dry powders a "fluid" or "slippery" quality as the particles float through the air. The existence of such bentonite means further tests are needed to rule out the presence of the troubling additive.

One of America's leading experts on mineral clays, Hayden Murray, a professor emeritus of geology at Indiana University, says a company based in Munich, Germany, removes aluminum from bentonite to create a finer, more refined additive than one could make from the bentonite deposits found in Iraq.

Murray says at least two American companies mine such high-quality bentonite, but the German company has a much larger customer base in the Middle East.

Last week, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer confirmed the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology found another additive — silica — in the Daschle anthrax. Like bentonite, silica is used in pharmaceutical powders all over the world and would make the anthrax float through the air more effectively.

When the United States was still in the biological weapons business back in the 1960s, U.S. scientists experimented with anthrax, silica and bentonite. The former Soviet Union also used silica in powders with anthrax.

Spray Dryers

In fact, federal officials say many countries have the materials, the technology, and the know-how to put pharmaceutical powders to deadly use. Yet as far as anyone knows, only the United States and the former Soviet Union have actually produced an anthrax weapon in powdered form.

But Iraq, for one, is believed to have been trying. In the 1980s, Baghdad purchased three spray dryers from a Danish company for research purposes. In 1988 and 1989, Iraqi officials asked the Danish company that manufactured the dryers to help identify companies that would sell silica, as well as two other drying agents, kaolin and maltodextrin.

Like many items employed in the production of germ weapons, the dryers and the chemicals were "dual use." Spray dryers, for instance, are commonly used to make powdered milk. U.N. weapons inspectors say the Iraqi dryers were eventually used to make biological weapons.

The FBI apparently has its own suspicions about the use of spray dryers in the germ attacks. When ABCNEWS phoned the company that sold Iraq the dryers, officials there said the FBI had called the previous day.

'Pure Spore' Clues

The concentration of spores in the Daschle sample is another potential clue scientists can use to find its source.

In creating a germ weapon, microbiologists must induce bacteria like anthrax into a spore state, a hardier form of the cells that protects them against extreme temperatures and other environmental stress. Spores can be induced in various ways, but American scientists discovered one of the best techniques in the '70s, years after abandoning its offensive biological warfare program. Iraq improved on the U.S. method, creating a preparation that was almost 100 percent spores.

That fits Parker's description of what he saw when he looked at the Daschle sample. "I have looked at the specimen under the microscope, both the electron microscope and the scanning microscope, and I can say that the sample was pure spores," he said. Parker also said the spores were "uniform in size," and "highly concentrated." In an amateur preparation, experts like former Soviet biological warfare scientist Ken Alibek would expect to see a mixture of anthrax organisms in different stages of development. "Like a mix of seeds and plants," says Alibek.

At times, the language of bacteriology sounds almost botanical. When an oval-shaped spore "germinates" it grows into a rod, which looks like a short pretzel stick. Microbiologists refer to this as the organism's "vegetative" state. Alibek would expect a "home-brewed" anthrax preparation to look like a hodgepodge of spores and vegetative cells.

'Ted Kaczynski With a Petri Dish'

But federal officials say even the level of purity in the Daschle sample is no proof that a foreign state is connected to the attacks. Instead, a theory favored by some federal investigators might be described as "Ted Kaczynski with a petri dish." According to this view, "a disgruntled Ph.D." here in America could have launched this wave of bioterror with a "well-equipped laboratory" and a tiny speck of virulent anthrax, which is quite simple to nurture into large colonies. That is, if he get his hands on the right strain. America's biowarfare scientists remain divided on this point. The trick is still making an effective powder, which requires more than an advanced degree in microbiology. Bill Patrick, former chief of "product development" at Fort Detrick in the waning days of the U.S. offensive biological weapons program, believes the small amount of anthrax recovered so far, apparently just 2 grams in the Daschle letter, points to "a small operation."

Patrick and another Fort Detrick veteran, Col. David Franz, both say they'd expect state-supported bioterrorists to use larger amounts of anthrax in more ambitious attacks. For Franz, the threshold of proof for state involvement is 50 kilograms, or 100 pounds of anthrax, an amount that could cause, under perfect conditions, Hiroshima-like casualties.

Former U.N. weapons inspector Richard Spertzel disputes this logic. He maintains that the use of a small amount of anthrax in these attacks does not prove the perpetrators only possessed a small amount. "Look at what they've accomplished with a few letters," says Spertzel. "They didn't need to use more."

Another dissenter from the prevailing conventional wisdom, Alan Zelicoff of Sandia National Laboratories, admits that a "disgruntled Ph.D." could get a hold of a virulent anthrax strain and culture it, but "he wouldn't know the aerosol physics to create the powder. This is a complex engineering problem," says Zelicoff.

Sources privy to the federal investigation say the tests on the Daschle sample are still under way. Even if these tests ultimately find bentonite, as well as silica, they will not prove Iraqi involvement. In the language of criminology, the manufacturing techniques, and the additives in the aerosol powders, may add up to a known modus operandi, but they are not "fingerprints."

Although Spertzel is convinced that the accumulating circumstantial evidence is "narrowing the field," he concedes that investigators may never know with certainty the identity of the terrorists behind the germ attacks.

"I don't think that we're going to see a smoking gun that's going to implicate this country, or that company," says Spertzel. "That's the hard thing to swallow with these anonymous attacks. You want to defend yourself, but from whom?"

A Followup on Bentonite

On Nov. 1, 2001, ABCNEWS.com ran the report above regarding the U.S. Army's analysis of the anthrax material sent to the office of Sen. Thomas Daschle. The report included the U.S. Army's statement that the sample had been found to contain no aluminum and therefore could be concluded to contain no bentonite.

The story also reported on suggestions that an unnamed German company might make a processed, aluminum-free bentonite. That company has contacted ABCNEWS.com and said that while it does remove some aluminum from bentonite, it does not remove all aluminum.

This is a good thread. Re-reading this material, as in "Remember, Anthrax?" posted by Shermy, is very helpful.

And, I suspect that, at some undetermined time in the future, it will all somehow become "current" again.

Worth a bookmark...