Posted on 11/28/2001 4:24:32 PM PST by t-shirt
Scientists Decode Anthrax 'Fingerprint'
New York Times: Breakthrough Could Help Indentify Bioterrorists
Nov. 28, 2001
AP / CBS
(CBS) Scientists have decoded the genome of the anthrax bacterium in a breakthrough that could offer clues about who has been using the microbe as a deadly weapon, the New York Times reported Wednesday.
The newspaper said researchers at the Institute for Genomic Research, Rockville, Md., had decoded the genomes of two anthrax microbes of the Ames strain, which was used in attacks that have killed five Americans and seriously sickened others.
The genome provides a kind of "fingerprint" of the anthrax microbe that may be helpful to investigators trying to find the person or persons responsible for the attacks.
The institute's findings have been shared with law enforcement officials.
The institute's director, Dr. Claire Fraser, said "it's not inconceivable that at some point we could make an association between a molecular fingerprint" and the anthrax used in the attacks.
Scientists cautioned, however, that while the genome might well prove helpful to investigators, it was not a "smoking gun" that would point directly to the killer or killers.
In Connecticut, meanwhile, federal investigators continued to run into dead ends as they attempted to discover how a 94-year-old Connecticut woman contracted and died of anthrax last week.
The death of an 84-year-old man who lived in the same area Ottilie Lundgren does not appear to be related, Gov. John G. Rowland said Tuesday.
The man died at home, several weeks ago, and his body was not discovered for a few days, Rowland said.
"The 84-year-old man from Seymour did not die from anthrax," he said. "That report is conclusive from (the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) and from our own public health officials."
The case had drawn attention because of the possibility the man's mail had crossed with mail for Lundgren.
Lundgren died five days after she was admitted to Griffin Hospital in Derby, where she initially sought treatment for what appeared to be a respiratory ailment.
Authorities do not know whether Lundgren was infected through the mail, and tests of her home, recent mail, her mailbox and area post offices showed no contamination. But investigators have not ruled out the possibility that she was infected by mail that crossed paths with the anthrax-laden envelopes sent to members of Congress and the media in Washington and New York City.
Rowland also said a Seymour family was tested for the disease and showed no signs of infection. He gave no other details.
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Pakistan questioning 2 nuclear scientists
From Munir Ahmed & The Associated Press & MSNBC & Orlando Sentinel
> Posted November 28, 2001
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Pakistani investigators are interrogating two nuclear scientists about whether they helped Osama bin Laden make chemical weapons with anthrax, security and intelligence officials said today.
Six Pakistani officials, all of whom are involved in the investigation, told The Associated Press they have no direct evidence that the scientists were working on anthrax weapons, but that information from U.S. sources in Afghanistan raised their suspicions.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity.
Sultan Bashir-ud-Din Mehmood and Abdul Majid, both of whom worked for Pakistan's Atomic Energy Commission until retiring in 1999, made several trips to Afghanistan and met with bin Laden, but say they were simply doing charity work.
The government refused to comment on a possible anthrax connection. The top government spokesman, Gen. Rashid Quereshi, said only that the scientists are suspected of violating rules that apply to government scientists even after retirement, and of violating travel restrictions.
He said he could give no further details of the investigation until it is complete.
The two scientists were arrested on Oct. 23 in the eastern border city of Lahore. Authorities said last week that they had been released, but Quereshi said Tuesday that the scientists were brought in for further interrogation. No charges have been filed.
The security and intelligence officials said that during the first round of questioning, the scientists had concealed some facts and avoided questions that made them suspicious.
Pakistan asked the U.S.-led coalition to do some checking in Afghanistan, and the reports from those operatives led them to bring the scientists back in for further questioning, the officials said.
They said Pakistan is sharing details of the interrogation with investigators from coalition countries.
The information from Afghanistan included details of the men's ties to the Taliban Agriculture Ministry, which officials suspect of research into chemical weapons including anthrax. The officials gave no further details of the scientists' possible involvement.
The scientists traveled to neighboring Afghanistan several times after their retirement and met bin Laden on two occasions, government officials have said.
The scientists have said they visited Afghanistan on behalf of a charity organization that helped farmers and students. They deny passing nuclear secrets to Afghanistan's now-retreating Taliban regime or to bin Laden.
Officials in Pakistan, which conducted its first underground nuclear bomb tests in 1998, say there is nothing to suggest they revealed nuclear secrets to anyone in Afghanistan.
Bashiruddin Mahmood and Abdul Majeed, both of whom worked for Pakistan’s Atomic Energy Commission until retiring in 1999, made several trips to Afghanistan and met with bin Laden, but say they were simply doing charity work. The government refused to comment on a possible anthrax connection. The top government spokesman, Gen. Rashid Quereshi, said only that the scientists are suspected of violating rules that apply to government scientists even after retirement, and of violating travel restrictions. He said he could give no further details of the investigation until it is complete. However, a report carried in “The Economist” magazine this week said evidence collected from a house in Kabul suggested the Pakistani residents, who have since fled, were working on a plan to build an anthrax bomb. The office was used by Ummah Tameer-e-Nau or Islamic Reconstruction (UTN), the charity founded by Mahmoud and Majeed two years ago to finance humanitarian and commercial activities in Afghanistan. On the floor of the building were documents about anthrax downloaded from the Internet as well as details of the U.S. military’s vaccination plans for its troops while an upstairs room was used as a workshop. What appeared to be a dismantled Russian rocket as well as a canister labeled “helium” had been left on the worktop, the Economist reported. NO CHARGES The two scientists were arrested on Oct. 23 in the eastern border city of Lahore. Authorities said last week that they had been released, but Quereshi said Tuesday that the scientists were brought in for further interrogation. No charges have been filed. The security and intelligence officials said that during the first round of questioning, the scientists had concealed some facts and avoided questions that made them suspicious. Pakistan arrests 2 scientists Pakistan asked the U.S.-led coalition to do some checking in Afghanistan, and the reports from those operatives led them to bring the scientists back in for further questioning, the officials said.
The scientists traveled to neighboring Afghanistan several times after their retirement and met bin Laden on two occasions, government officials have said.
The scientists have said they visited Afghanistan on behalf of a charity organization that helped farmers and students. They deny passing nuclear secrets to Afghanistan’s now-retreating Taliban regime or to bin Laden.
Officials in Pakistan, which conducted its first underground nuclear bomb tests in 1998, say there is nothing to suggest they revealed nuclear secrets to anyone in Afghanistan.
Mahmood is considered to be a founding father of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program, heading the country’s chief weapons-grade plutonium producer, the Khushab Nuclear Plant, until two years ago. Majeed was the technical director of the New Labs — Pakistan’s main nuclear weapons design facility. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pak scientist’s mother moves court; anthrax link alleged
India Times
November 28, 2001
LAHORE/NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 28: The mother of one of two retired nuclear scientists detained in Pakistan lodged a legal bid on Wednesday to win his release, court officials said. Fazilat Bibi, 85-year-old mother of Bashiruddin Mahmood, challenged his detention in the Lahore High Court and sought his immediate release. Pakistan said on Tuesday it had detained Mahmood and another retired nuclear scientist, Abdul Majeed.
The two men were initially released last month after questioning about their visits to and work in Afghanistan. But they were taken into custody again and Bibi’s lawyer told the court the family was not aware where were they being kept or under what charges.
The petition also urged the court not to allow the government to hand them over to another country or a foreign intelligence agency. There has been no official comment whether their expatriation was even being considered by Islamabad.
Meanwhile, sketches and calculations to make a helium-powered balloon bomb filled with anthrax have been found from the Kabul office of an NGO headed by Bashiruddin Mehmood, a leading US journal has said.
Such a balloon bomb was capable of showering deadly anthrax over areas as vast as New York or Washington. The ‘‘most chilling’’ items found from the Kabul premises included small bags of white powder and the ‘‘mass of calculations and drawings’’ of weather balloons with arrows indicating the suggested height of 10 kms or 33,000 feet, said The Economist in its print edition.
In Pakistan, military spokesman Major-General Rashid Qureshi denied suggestions that any link had been established between the scientists and anthrax-contaminated mail in the US.
He told a news conference in Islamabad that the two scientists were in detention possibly because of violating certain government rules governing the comments and travel of retired scientists. (Agencies)
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Freeper Research on the Anthrax Perp by Alamo-Girl:
The perp is here on a student VISA. He is Islamic and Middle Eastern. He may be a member of Al Queda. English is not his primary language, he may be a proficient computer user or coder especially if Al Queda.
He was given anthrax and perhaps more biochems – of various grades. They may have been made in Iraq – they may have been made here. He did not develop them himself. He knows lab procedures.
He is fairly diligent in handling the anthrax, but he is not perfect. He knows Dr. Malik, chairman of the Islamic Society of NJ. He may work with him. He’s been to the doctor’s office at 1542 Kuser Road in Trenton NJ. While there he accidentally infected the accountant next door at Civale Silvestri & Alfieri CPA, 1540 Kuser Road.
The perp may be from Pakistan and may have sought out Dr. Malik’s help (because he is also from Pakistan) to get employment/access to a nearby university hospital, Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital at Hamilton. Dr Malik is on the staff there. The perp may have used lab facilities in the hospital (either at Hamilton or the main campus or one of its affiliates) to safely handle or prep the different batches of anthrax.
There probably are other people in his cell who may already be in custody - one with Florida license plates and others from Canada.
Several arrests of Pakistani nationals were made in Trenton/Hamilton two weeks ago --some in the Greenwood Village apartments, and some at 1001 N. Olden Street. The N. Olden Street arrests took place after a witness observed a man gingerly placing letters enclosed in a ziploc bag into his car. The car had Florida license plates.
Just after the events of September 11, the FBI arrested Mohammed Pervez, a naturalized U.S. citizen of Pakistani descent. Pervez was a Jersey City roommate of Ali Ayub Kahn and Mohammed Jazweeth Azmath, suspected of being hijackers whose plans were thwarted when their plane was grounded in St. Louis. Pervez, who worked in both Trenton and Newark train stations, was also a roommate of the potential anthrax suspects detained from the Greenwood village apartments in Hamilton.
There may be a chain of infection following the medical route – like there is following the mail route.
In DelRay Beach, Florida – a pharmacist (Gregg Chatterton at Huber Healthmart Drugs) claimed to have talked to Atta and another hijacker when they came into his pharmacy with ailments last August. Mostly, we heard about Atta, who had red hands. But the other hijacker, Marwan Al-Shehhi, had symptoms of inhalation anthrax (cough) that would have required him to visit a doctor in his area. The pharmacist said that a man resembling Al-Shehhi had returned to have a prescription filled, but his name was not found in their records – leading the investigators to think he had used an alias. The pharmacist said the red hands looked like a result from washing with bleach – that it did not look like cutaneous anthrax.
In Chester PA on 11/14/01 - teams of FBI agents complete with hazmat gear and tents, broke down door(s), swabbed and seized evidence at two homes and the city hall. One house was shared by City Health Commissioner Irshad Shaikh and his brother Masood. The other was the home of city accountant Asif Kazi. They are all from Pakistan. Kazi’s wife had a prescription for Cipro. Kazi had been seen dumping a cloudy liquid and handing a silver canister to someone.
Dr. Shaikh PhD. has been the Commissioner of Health since 1994. He received his undergrad and postgraduate diplomas in Community Medicine in Pakistan. He received his Masters and PhD in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. He is fellow of the Public Health Leadership Institute (PHLI). PHLI is an executive leadership program of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the University of California at Berkeley. Dr. Shaikh also holds a faculty appointment at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.
Welcome to the Johns Hopkins University Center for Civilian Biodefense Studies"...Sponsored by The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation & The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation..."
Freepers wonder if this Could he be THE Asif Kazi, or is it a very common Pakistani name?
Tests are now being performed for Dr. Gerald Weisfogel who believes he may have had skin anthrax earlier than the mailings. There are three Gerald M. Weisfogel's listed in NJ - Franklin Park, Kendall Park and Metuchen. Dr. Gerald Weisfogel is chief of cardiology at the JFK Medical Center in New Jersey, which is in Edison, New Jersey. Edison is just across the river from New Brunswick. He indicated on GMA that he had Middle Eastern patients.
Kendall Park, Franklin Park, Edison, and Metuchen are all close to each other, going north on Rte. 1. So all the addresses are probably for the same guy: hospital in Edison, offices in Metuchen and either or Franklin Park or Kendall Park, and home in the fourth place
There are significant labs in Piscataway, across the river from New Brunswick, the main campus of RWJ. Robert Wood Johnson has two high-profile microbiology labs in Piscataway -- the CABM(Center forAdvanced Biotechnology and Medicine) and the Waksman Institute. The Waksman Institute is a "microbe farm," producing germ "products" for industry and research.
Metuchen is right up the road to the northeast. (And down the road about 12 miles along Route 1 is the Islamic Society and Franklin Park.)
The perp accidentally infected the lady in New York. He did not go there by subway – he drove in. He may have gone to New York to pick up or deliver the anthrax. The car he used is most likely still contaminated. He may have rolled down a window or opened a door at just the wrong time for Kathy. The perp, may be working for RWJ University Hospital and had a business contact with Kathy’s hospital.
He is a member or attendee of The Islamic Society of Central Jersey. He has written many letters to them; he knows the zip code by heart. Although he gave a different town name on the return address (Franklin Park) – he automatically used the zip code he knew for that area. But the zip code does not go with Franklin Park.
There are probably canceled checks or correspondence at the Islamic Society of NJ that can be matched to his handwriting.
He is a member of Islamic student associations. He may have attended or be in association with a student at ETSU which is near an elementary school named "Greendale" in Abingdon, VA (a tri-state area.) He didn’t grab that name out of the air – neither brook nor dale would be common words to him.
In the alternative, he might have intentionally changed the name of a nearby school "Greenbrook" to "Greendale." The Greenbrook school only goes to the 4th grade.
Another possibility: Greendale and Franklin, WI are right next to each other. The NJ school is Greenbrook School, not Greendale. Could it be some Freudian slip? There are 15,000 Muslims in the area.
The block lettering may indicate that he is a tutor for elementary level students or has (or is undertaking) an engineering or architecture education.
The emphasis on the letters might have been intentional – pointing to ATTA.
If he is Al Queda, he may present himself secular – going to bars, joining clubs, protesting the terrorists, etc.
He may be dead or missing. Freeper Research on Anthrax Profile 11/26/01
Freeper Research on Anthrax Perps - Updated 11/20/01
More new anthrax Info:
Chilean anthrax letter sent from NY: police
November 28, 2001
BERN, Switzerland (AP) — A suspected anthrax letter sent to Chile bore a Swiss postmark but may have been mailed from New York, Swiss police said today.
Dr. Antonio Banfi, a paediatrician in Santiago, Chile, received the letter — with a Swiss postmark and a Florida return address — two weeks ago in what may be the first confirmed case of anthrax-contaminated mail outside the United States.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention initially confirmed the contamination last week and was conducting further tests.
Swiss Federal Police Office said the letter was part of a large mailing sent on behalf of a Florida company by the New York branch of the Swiss Post Office.
Swiss Post International Inc. provides worldwide bulk mailing services for companies. Under U.S. rules, letters sent within the country by international post offices must carry a foreign postmark.
The letter sent to Chile bore a postmark from Zurich, Switzerland, but had no date — typical of letters sent by the New York branch, Swiss officials said.
On Tuesday, officials at Mosby Inc., a publisher of medical journals, told the Orlando Sentinel that whoever mailed the letter listed their Orlando, Fla., headquarters as the return address. Mosby is one of three publishing imprints owned by Harcourt Health Sciences.
The FBI's Orlando office declined comment.
The CDC was conducting tests to determine whether the suspected spores in the letter to Banfi was from the same strain as anthrax found in letters in Washington and New York.
Neither the person who opened the envelope nor 12 others who were nearby have tested positive for exposure to anthrax spores. All were given antibiotics as a precaution, Chilean health officials said.
Five people have died of the disease since last month.
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Also remember not to give up any of your rights for a false sense of security.
By the way, I'm SO glad Bush is using the military tribunal approach! None of MY rights have to be given up, and I support Bush in doing whatever he and his advisers think is necessary to make our country secure. Even if it pisses off all the right people.
Anthrax Scare Gives UN Pact a Fresh Edge (Globalism Empowered By Terrorism)
Group [Greenpeace Germany] Says U.S. Expert Believed Behind Anthrax Attacks Reuters
Posted by Oldeconomybuyer:
November 28, 2001
BERLIN (Reuters) - The anthrax attacks in the United States were probably the work of a member of a U.S. biological warfare program, the magazine of environment pressure group Greenpeace Germany reported Wednesday.
The magazine said its article was based on information from a U.S. delegation source at the U.N. biological weapons conference in Geneva that began last week. The attacks have killed five people.
``The U.S. delegation believe it is an inside job... Their members also have more information than has been made public,'' Kirsten Brodde, a reporter for the magazine, told Reuters.
The magazine said: ``It seems the attacker ... wanted to force through an increase in the budget for U.S. research on biological weapons.''
It speculated that the attacker, who used anthrax-laced mail, had probably wanted to cause panic rather than kill anyone.
U.S. investigators have still not determined who was behind the attacks, but Attorney General John Ashcroft has signaled the authorities were inclined to believe they had a domestic source.
The attacks occurred in the aftermath of the September 11 suicide plane attacks on New York and Washington and prompted initial accusations by President Bush that Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden may been responsible.
Asked about the magazine article, an FBI spokesman reiterated that investigators were pursuing a number of leads but no arrests appeared imminent.
A spokesman for the U.S. delegation in Geneva said he did not have any information about the article.
The magazine is linked to the environmental lobby group and shares its offices, but it said it was financially and editorially independent.
Click Here For Some Startling Numbers
No wonder we don't hear much about polls anymore.
Especially if it pisses of the right people. :)
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3aebc4a26794.htm
Personally, after having been under the boot heel of Sasquatch @ DOJ for eight long ones, running block for every little social peccadillo of Klintoon and executing every hair-brained stunt the administration could cough up under color of law, it’s even a wonder these flunkies could even find their butt with both hands, a flashlight, road atlas and a GPS…
Much less a terrorist flinging anthrax all over the place.
A Google search gives no indication that the supect, Allah Rakah, was ever released. Reportedly, Rakah had been under surveillence for several days before he was arrested. On that basis, it looks like we've had at least one of the anthrax perps in custody for three weeks now. Interesting, no?
"It had not occurred to Leaphorn earlier that Baker was not, in fact, an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. . . . something about him suggested a quick, inquisitive, impatient intelligence. Leaphorn's extensive experience with the FBI suggested that any of these three characteristics would prevent employment. The FBI people always seemed . . . trimmed, scrubbed, tidy, able to work untroubled by any special measure of intelligence. O'Malley was still talking. Leaphorn looked at him, wondering at this FBI policy. Where did they find so many O'Malleys? He had a sudden vision of an office in the Department of Justice building in Washington, a clerk sending out draft notices to all the male cheerleaders and drum majors . . . ordering them to get their hair cut and report for duty."
In other words, they aren't very big on brains, they aren't creative, they aren't imaginative, they cover their butts and wear neat clothes and neat haircuts, they climb the career ladder by doing what they're told, and that's about the extent of it. Ordinarily, the only cases they break are when an informer comes in and tells them who did it.
Wasn't it just the other day where we were questioning the mettle of our youth? Instead of going down to the recruiters and asking "Dude, when can I go and shred some ragheads, dude?", they're staying at home hoping that those who already had the balls to join and fight will do it all for them.
This is another of x42's "Me First" legacy. grrrrr.
EW DELHI: Sketches and calculations to make a helium-powered balloon bomb filled with anthrax have been found from the Kabul office of an NGO headed by Bashiruddin Mehmood, one of the two Pakistani nuclear scientists detained in Islamabad for questioning on their alleged links with Osama Bin Laden, The Economist has said.
Such a balloon bomb was capable of showering deadly anthrax over areas as vast as New York or Washington.
The "most chilling" items found from the Kabul premises included small bags of white powder and the "mass of calculations and drawings" of weather balloons with arrows indicating the suggested height of 10 km or 33,000 feet, said The Economist in its print edition.
The premises located in the "wealthiest district" of Kabul belonged to the Ummah Tameer-e-Nau (UTN), whose president is a leading nuclear scientist and a plutonium technology specialist Mehmood, who along with another scientist Abdul Majid were detained again on Tuesday in Islamabad for questioning, The Economist said.
The two men, who are alleged to have made frequent trips to Afghanistan and met Laden on two occasions, have denied the charges.
"Since UTN was run by one of Pakistan's top scientists, a man with close links to the Taliban and, it is said, close ideological affinities with Laden, the circumstantial evidence points to only one conclusion, the paper said.
"Whoever fled this house when the Taliban fell was working on a plan to build a helium-powered balloon bomb carrying anthrax," the journal said.
In Islamabad, Pakistani authorities ruled out any link between two nuclear scientists and anthrax attacks in the US.
"There are no linkages established at all with any anthrax-related capability between the scientists and those people (al-Qaeda)," military government spokesman Major General Rashid Qureshi told reporters.
Despite the clearance, the two scientists remained in custody on as yet unspecified charges.
Qureshi said there were certain rules retired scientists were supposed to observe, which include "prevention from making certain statements and also travelling."
"Frankly, beyond that I am not privy to any other details."
Qureshi denied any knowledge of reports that US officials had also questioned the two scientists in custody.
"I do know that the investigation is being carried out by Pakistan authorities. I am quite sure that information is being shared if it of any value (with the Americans)," he said
Good. I am going to show this post to the guys wearing the lampshades in the living room corner, and to the repair van that has been blocking my driveway for the past week.( The plus side is that crime is down in the neighborhood.)
Anyone remember the guy who shot all the people in their cars outside the CIA in 1993? His name was Mir Aimal Kasi. After the shootings he fled to Pakistan, where he was ultimately captured and returned to the U.S.
Hmmmmm............
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