Posted on 09/28/2006 5:33:03 PM PDT by Shermy
WASHINGTON - The FBI denied Thursday that it ever overestimated the potency of the anthrax spores used in mailings that killed five people in 2001.
The bureau also rejected a request for a classified briefing on the case from Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J. Citing media reports, Holt said Wednesday that the FBI should have determined in days, not years, that the anthrax was less sophisticated than initially believed.
Shortly after the attacks, media reports said the spores contained additives and had been subjected to sophisticated milling — both techniques used in anthrax-based weapons — to make them more lethal. Earlier this month, there were media reports that the FBI belatedly learned that those techniques were not used and the anthrax was not enhanced.
Bureau officials say the early reports of weaponized anthrax were misconceptions, and the more recent reports misunderstood how early the FBI was able to accurately analyze the spores.
"The FBI and its partners in this investigation have never been under any misconceptions about the character of the anthrax used in the attacks," Assistant FBI Director Eleni P. Kalisch wrote Holt on Thursday. "On the contrary, since the earliest months of this investigation, we have consulted with the world's foremost scientific experts on anthrax and relevant bio-forensic sciences, both inside and outside the FBI. While there may have been erroneous media reports about the character of the 2001 anthrax, the FBI's investigation has never been guided by such reports."
In a letter Wednesday to FBI Director Robert Mueller, Holt had requested a classified briefing on the investigation.
Kalisch rejected that request on two grounds:
Although Holt and other members of Congress got updates and briefings in 2002 and 2003, Kalisch said the FBI and Justice Department decided to stop briefing members of Congress after sensitive investigative information was reported in the media citing congressional sources.
Because this is a criminal investigation rather than an intelligence activity, a briefing of the House Intelligence Committee, of which Holt is a member, would be inappropriate, Kalisch wrote.
In an interview, Holt responded, "The inference that any member of the intelligence committee was the source of previous leaks is outrageous, irresponsible and without foundation."
The case "clearly falls within the purview of the intelligence committee," Holt added. "Our job is to see that the government functions well and in the anthrax investigation our government has not functioned well."
In 2001, anthrax contamination was found in mail facilities in and near Holt's central New Jersey district and in his office on Capitol Hill.
Holt had written Mueller that the FBI's delay in determining what kind of anthrax was used meant that "resources were diverted and countless agents wasted their time investigating a small pool of suspects, instead of the broader search we now know was needed."
The FBI has conducted 9,100 interviews and issued 6,000 subpoenas in the case.
Holt asked Mueller to have Douglas Beecher, a scientist in the FBI's Hazardous Materials Response Unit, testify before the House Intelligence Committee.
In April, Beecher wrote an article published in a scientific journal in August saying there was "a widely circulated misconception" that the anthrax spores were made using additives and sophisticated engineering akin to military weapons production.
The anthrax attacks, in the days after Sept. 11, 2001, killed five people across the country and sickened 17. There were five confirmed anthrax infections and two suspected cases in New Jersey but no fatalities.
Ping.
5 people dead seems pretty deadly to me.
Considering their exposure I would say it is more deadly than most anything we have seen, i.e. bird flu, mad cow etc..
Died after hospitalization. Potentially this was an Anthrax for which we had no antidote/antibiotic. Only the Russians have such a beast.
I understand what you are saying but how many people out of the 1000 that worked there actually came into any contact with the Anthrax?
I am guessing not close to 10%
Shortly after the attacks, media reports said the spores contained additives and had been subjected to sophisticated milling — both techniques used in anthrax-based weapons — to make them more lethal. Earlier this month, there were media reports that the FBI belatedly learned that those techniques were not used and the anthrax was not enhanced.
Someone tell this idiot Holt that "media reports" do not neccessarily have anything to do with reality. This goes double for anonymously sourced ones.
Although Holt and other members of Congress got updates and briefings in 2002 and 2003, Kalisch said the FBI and Justice Department decided to stop briefing members of Congress after sensitive investigative information was reported in the media citing congressional sources.
Someone needs to look up a gal named Rosenberg who was holding meetings with Senate staffers on the sly.
In an interview, Holt responded, "The inference that any member of the intelligence committee was the source of previous leaks is outrageous, irresponsible and without foundation."
Someone tell this idiot Holt to google "Rockefeller, Wyden and Durbin."
The case "clearly falls within the purview of the intelligence committee," Holt added. "Our job is to see that the government functions well
Someone please measure Holt's nose... I think it shot out a few inches.
Holt had written Mueller that the FBI's delay in determining what kind of anthrax was used meant that "resources were diverted and countless agents wasted their time investigating a small pool of suspects, instead of the broader search we now know was needed."
Well, they were investigating many more people than the media led us to believe. According to the press there was only one person of interest in spite of repeated assertions by the FBI that there were at minimum 20 persons of interest after many had been eliminated as suspect.
Holt asked Mueller to have Douglas Beecher, a scientist in the FBI's Hazardous Materials Response Unit, testify before the House Intelligence Committee. In April, Beecher wrote an article published in a scientific journal in August saying there was "a widely circulated misconception" that the anthrax spores were made using additives and sophisticated engineering akin to military weapons production.
I hope Beecher doesn't have ties to Cuba like most everyone else the Dems bring up.
I know CDC employees in DC/Baltimore who have told me hundreds of postal employees in the DC-area tested positive for anthrax antibodies. Basically every postal worker in the DC area was dosed with Cipro after the letters were found. I assume the same was true for the NYC employees who came into contact.
I also know that hundreds of employees at a prominent NYC media outlet recieved Cipro.
I believe thousands were infected with the anthrax and the Feds didn't even try to number those who tested positive for antibodies.
To the poster who claimed only Russia had anthrax like this - er, no, it's garden variety Ames strain. Any government could have cultured it, including Iraq, Iran or Afghanistan, and a number of nongovernmental bodies - such as al Queda or Hezbollah - could have done it as well.
The anthrax mailing is what it appears to be - an act of Islamist terror, possibly connected to the 9-11 attacks, possible not, but certainly inspired by the same hateful ideology.
Do you know if these folks who tested positive for anthrax antibodies are still testing positive???
That might really help.
Testing positive for antibodies means that you were exposed but did not contract the disease as your immune system overwhelmed the invaders.
A strange thing happened during the accidental release of anthrax from the Russian facility in 1980??? The very young appeared to have some resistance. The mechanism of this resistance is yet to be explained.
bookmark
After reading the Washington Post article I believe the position is this -
It wasn't "weaponized" in the sense of additives mixed in, but it is still sophisticated in some sense due to its purity. How to picture what this sophistication entails is still murky. Does this include the process called "milling?" Some of the comments might mean they are pursuing DNA tests to match the germs to other stocks national and international. Alibek had said he didn't think the anthrax was special but for him, a former USSR bioweapons worker, perhaps it wasn't relatively special.
Holt seems to be a good guy. Read his letter. He's also a scientist.
Two words: Leaky Leahy.
L
Is Michael J. Sniffen Jennifer's Lovett?
ping
Interesting, this FBI assistant director blames the media and claims the FBI and its "partners" knew right from the beginning there were no addives.
Two problems here (1) AFIP was an FBI partner, (2) The media got their information on additves from named sources at AFIP.
The assistant director appears to be conveniently not referencing any of this - almost like it doesn't exist.
Not sure why you think Holt is a good guy. I read the letter and it looks like nothing more than an attempt to throw some more crap on the fan and hope that it sticks on GW Bush.
I wish they would get to the bottom of this attack on our country but a 'congressional hearing' will do nothing but give a bunch of drama queens in congress a stage!
The American people need to write the FBI and demand that they look at the real attackers...ISLAMIC TERRORISTS!
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