Posted on 08/18/2008 4:29:04 PM PDT by Shermy
If Silicon Was Detected, Why?
What are the implications of the findings detection by Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (”AFIP”) AFIP’s of silicon and oxygen and conclusion it was silica? Or alternatively, the implications of this finding by the Sandia researcher it was silicon.
The FBI recently has made it clear that the silica detected by the AFIP was not an additive used for the purpose of weaponization. I gave the press a copy of the article I got from the FBI lab scientist Beecher long ago in an attempt to resolve the debate as to silica as an additive once and for all. While the press just focused on the fact that there was no “additive,” does the AFIP conclusion that silica was strongly indicated shed critical light on the investigation of the anthrax mailings in the Fall of 2001? The surface of the anthrax spores showed silicon and oxygen on the EDX and General Parker, head of USAMRIID, reported that silica was detected (though at the time he stated that they did not know the reason). If silica was detected as officially reported, why?
Hypothesis #1:
Use of sol-gel as a drying agent. Russian bioweaponeer Ken Alibek has explained that: “There is an old microbiology or chemical technique to dry out some stuff. Actually it involves silica gel. That’s what you need to keep in mind. Because, if you remember when you buy shoes what you got inside shoes is silica gel. So, you got silica gel. It was put in there for a specific purpose - to remove moisture.”
Hypothesis #2:
In 2003, I had speculated that the silica on the spore surface was due instead to a silicone sealant spray on the inside of the envelope (rather than as a coating). The standard manual instructions on poison letters advise using such a spray or sealant so as to avoid killing the mailman. In “Target: Terrorism: Look at Al Qaeda’s Dreadful Recipe Book,” CNN on November 15, 2001 quoted the manual: “Write a letter to the victim mentioning very exciting and very interesting news.” Wipe the envelope from the inside with silicone sealant”) The FBI seized a Gatorade bottle filled with glue in its first search in November 2001) The owner of the home searched said: “Then they took away our Elmer’s glue for testing. I told them, ‘You’ve been surveilling this house for weeks, and this is what you do?”
Hypothesis #3:
But in the event a silicone sealant is not the reason, then as an alternative hypothesis perhaps the FBI is looking for someone coming from some place with very high levels of silica in the water. Water is used both in culturing the anthrax spores and can be used in purifying them. Silicon does not occur as a free element in nature, but it occurs as silicates and silicon dioxide. Silica, like arsenic, is found in the makeup of water from regions of high volcanic activity. Parts of California, New Mexico, Mexico, and other regions contain silica concentrations in excess of 30 mg/L.
The Senior Scientist, Directorate of Science and Technology, Central Intelligence Agency, has been one of those involved in determining whether stable isotopes of elements in the water used as a culture medium can identify the geographic origin or water used in culturing the anthrax used in the mailings. The published journal articles indicates that the CIA funded the research. “Stable isotope ratios as a tool in microbial forensics—Part 1. Microbial isotopic composition as a function of growth medium.” “Stable isotope ratios as a tool in microbial forensics: Part 2. Isotopic variation among different growth media as a tool for sourcing origins of bacterial cells or spores”; “Stable isotope ratios as a tool in microbial forensics—part 3. Effect of culturing on agar-containing growth media.” Coincidentally, I recently tested a number of Russian mineral waters and elsewhere associated with geothermal springs that had very high TDS (or Total Dissolved Solids). (One imported mineral water from a geothermal spring in Mexico tested above the legal limit for arsenic but has not been recalled; another water, an apparently unauthorized counterfeit Muslim holy water, has been recalled for excessive levels of arsenic).
Hypothesis #4:
If the silica detected by AFIP is due to some other sort of lab contamination generally, lots of things contain silica that may have leached, such as rice hull ash.
Hypothesis #5
For example, the example cited in a November FBI 2001 memo was leaching from glassware.
Hypothesis #6
It related to the DARPA-funded patent filed March 14, 2001 by the leading anthrax scientist and deputy USAMRIID relating to use of silica in the culture medium to concentrate anthrax. At one point, they both were about 15 feet from the man described by his lawyer as the FBI’s “anthrax weapons suspect.”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26279202/
Msnbc
..FBI officials admitted Monday that destroying the initial Ivins sample was a mistake, but said it didn’t really hinder the investigation because the technique used to trace the source of the anthrax to Ivins had not been developed yet. Luckily, a copy of that first sample was sent to an outside professor, who years later used it to help further link Ivins to the killer strain...
(But it sounded better as innuendo that Ivins’ acts delayed the investigation)
...Contradictions in accounts
At times the officials and scientists contradicted themselves, even down to the number of flasks containing the anthrax Ivins had. They eventually agreed it was one one-liter triangular flask capped with cheesecloth that linked Ivins to the attacks...”
ABC says some intereseting things,
http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/FedCrimes/Story?id=5603993&page=2
...The scientists noted that the anthrax used in the attacks had no additives on the anthrax spores, but that the mineral silica was present in the deadly substance.
Although the FBI was able to reverse-engineer anthrax similar to the anthrax used in the mailings, scientists have been unable to reproduce it with the silica. ...
Good question ~ knowing that the fellow leading the FBI investigation was a “newbie” fresh out of the CIA’s inspector general’s office, and very much tied in with the Leftwingtard crew then preparing to cause much mischief within the CIA (Valerie Plame, Mary McCarthy, etc.), maybe destroying the original sample was an effort to slow the investigation lest a Leftwingtard be uncovered.
Analyze her statements on the matter with a view to their having been crafted to steer the investigation AWAY from people she knew or in fact suspected of involvement.
No.
Recall my note that a saboteur could have a field day by infiltrating a very small anthrax sample into the lab ~ they are, after all, set up to keep anthrax "IN", not "OUT".
NO? How strange. None should be above suspicion in this case, particularly people as noisy as Babs Rosenberg.
I commented on another thread,
Let’s say he provided the “right” one the first time,
but not the second.
What if both are acceptable whatever their preparation? Both were Ames sub strains — did the FBI request/warrant only asked for “Ames strain”? That is, not all of its sub-varieties? Then Ivins did nothing wrong, among other reasons to not suspect his guilt.
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 computational biologist 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. He was within 15 feet of the two men who had filed a patent in mid-March 2001 explaining how silica is used in the culture medium to overcome vander waals forces, thus permitting the concentration of the anthrax. It was supported by underlying biochemistry information not publicly available and there is no evidence that Bruce Ivins had access to the biochemistry information.
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.
Who approved the destruction of the anthrax from Ivins flask after he had provided the sample?
In an e-mail forwarded by USAMRIID researcher Bruce Ivins to 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.”
Ali Al-Timimi worked in the same building as famed Russian bioweapons scientist Ken Alibek and former USAMRIID Deputy Commander and Acting Commander Charles Bailey. Al-Timimi was a current associate and former student of Bin Laden’s spiritual advisor, dissident Saudi Sheik al-Hawali. While anthrax scientist Bruce Ivins was dwelling on the girls of Kappa Kappa Gamma, Ali Al-Timimi was preaching on the end of times and the inevitability of the clash of civlizations. He was in active contact with the sheik whose detention had been the express subject of Bin Laden’s 1996 Declaration of War. At GMU, Dr. Bailey would publish a lot of research with the “Ames strain” of anthrax. The anthrax used in the anthrax mailings was traced to Bruce Ivins’ lab at USAMRIID, where Ivins, according to a former colleague, had done some work for DARPA that had included drying anthrax using a lyophilizer. 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 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. The defense webpage reported that in 1996, for two months had worked for the White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card (who had been Secretary of Transportation in 1992-1993). As time off from his university studies permitted, Ali was an active speaker with the charity Islamic Assembly of North America.
The government claims that silica was detected and yet nowhere explains how it came to be present in the anthrax attack if not present in the anthrax found in Ivins’ flask. An unnamed FBI source reports that anthrax has a natural tendency to absorb silicon from its environment if it is present in the culture medium or water used to grow it. The government finds it notable that Ivins worked late on October 4 and October 5, even though it had just been announced that anthrax had been mailed. By all appearances, the investigators got the wrong man.
Pssst. We like it when government workers work late.
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