Remember anthrax?
By dcmediagirl on August 1, 2008 at 9:03 AM in 9/11, Current Affairs
Now comes the news that the FBI’s top suspect in the anthrax mailings of 2001 has died of an apparent suicide. There are so many remarkable elements to this story that it’s hard to know where to begin, but here goes.
It turns out that the FBI had evidence to believe that the perpetrator of these attacks was Bruce E. Ivins, a biodefense researcher employed by the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) at Fort Detrick, Maryland.
If you lived in Washington, D.C. at the time of these attacks, which closely followed the 9/11 attack, the city was paralyzed by fear and paranoia, and with good reason: among the recipients of these dangerous mailings were Senators Pat Leahy and Tom Daschle. At the time I worked for a news organization whose headquarters was located about 5 minutes away from a still-smoldering Pentagon. We were evacuated each time some hapless reporter with a sweet tooth brought in a powdered donut and was careless enough to trail sugar on the floor, or whenever a dieter would spill some Splenda in the corridor. As we would go out the “moonmen” would come in.
Remember everyone stocking up on Cipro? Sure you do. What you may not remember, however, is ABC News’s role in stirring the pot on this story, spreading the news that tests conducted on the anthrax revealed that it contained the chemical additive bentonite, providing a possible link to – you guessed it – Saddam Hussein. And where were these tests conducted?
Fort Detrick.
Remember how the postal service was crippled and the Hart Senate Office Building was shut down during a cleanup that went on for weeks.
Remember too the notes that were sent along with this dangerous powder with their references to “Death to America”, “Death to Israel” and “Allah is Great”, further leading to speculation that these missives must have been sent by a radical Muslim individual or group with an ax to grind. The fact that the evidence points to a scientist at Fort Detrick is nothing short of shocking. Consider the implications of an Army researcher mailing anthrax with these notes. Why did he do it? You don’t have to be a member of the tin foil hat crowd to sit up and take notice.
Fort Detrick has a public relations nightmare on its hands and will have to conduct a thorough, transparent investigation to avoid the appearance of coverups and to put a stop to the conspiracy theories that are bound to circulate as a result of this story. And how about ABC News’s complicity in this national nighmare? It turns out no traces of bentonite were found in the anthrax. So why was ABC told that bentonite had been found?
I’ll be discussing this remarkable story on Tuesday at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT on Hour of Power, where we’ll also talk about how the left wing blogosphere has jumped the shark.
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Thank you for bringing this topic up.
It was obvious from the start that the anthrax villain was a domestic not foreign terrorist. The very first victim, before the DEMS in Congress started receiving the stuff, was the photo editor of a tabloid down in Florida…who posted the pictures of wild child JennaTonic Bush rolling around drunk on the ground as a teen, kissing other girls in her wasted state.
Oh, I meant published those pictures, not posted. He was killed for it.
I don’t know why anyone would be “shocked” it was a domestic terrorist. Besides the fact that a foreign terrorist wouldn’t pinpoint Bush enemies from a petty tabloid editor to Dems in office, there was plenty of evidence at the time it was homegrown anthrax.
I’m sure the guy who was suicided (Bush must be tying up loose ends before he leaves office) was not THE guy as it was probably not the idea of a “loner.”
But the fact that the bullshit “chemical additive tied to Hussein” was reported from Fort Detrick gives a better clue why that guy is now dead.
Thanks for the reminder on that detail.
There is no defense for the crimes of Cheney/Bush, and George Schultz, who put them there, but consider that leaving a trail leading so easily to Bush deflects investigation from the actual geopolitical operation. The people who run assassination operations are usually a lot smarter than the people who pay them to do it.
More on Ivins here:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2004-10-13-anthrax-labs_x.htm
bringing this forward from the other thread as FYI to those interested! It’s pretty funny this guy Manning!
——————
Good Morning!
FYI for those that follow Rev. Manning.
He has a couple new videos out. One in response to that Rapper’s video (Lewd&Crass)
and another called Michelle Obama is MIA
LMAO!
Ohhh my GOodness!
Then I stumbled on THIS one even more recent from Manning talking to some people that have emailed him.
whoa! The Bambi camp must surely HATE THIS GUY! But I can’t stop watching him for the next shocking thing to come out of his mouth! YIKES!!
I wish someone would write a diary about the concept of “persons of interest”.
This concept was introduced in the aftermath of 9/11 and just makes me crazy as it lowers the “probable cause” bar to ID a “suspect” without any constitutional protections.
Now you can be labeled a person of interest and have your life ruined without any recourse. It’s a terrible idea and NO ONE has ever spoken up about it.
This story is just incredible, actually not credible at all. Remember the good old days when you used to have to really investigate to come up with a good conspiracy theory? And even then it still just a theory. This administration has stolen that from us. Conspracies just aren’t any fun anymore. Nowdays they release this kind of info and most of us are just left scratching our heads. I would toss out a novel if the plot and the writing was this bad.
I think they are counting on that, yttik.
While we are all busy elsewhere they can be as messy as they like as the fold up shop.
Who’s going to try to unravel it all?
Suicide?
What, they couldn’t get him onto a KingAir and “Wellstone” him?
I don’t know how shocking it is. In fact, I was still working on my Masters in Biology in 2001 and everyone knew that there were only a couple of places in the world capable of producing weapons grade Anthrax. And if I am remembering this correctly there was Anthrax missing from Fort Detrick and another scientist, who was innocent and got a huge settlement, was named in the papers almost immediately. The only shocking thing for me is that it has taken nearly 7 years to nab the guy when the FBI knew where it came from almost immediately. What would have really shocked me was if the Anthrax originated outside of the U.S. and outside of a government funded operation. The terrorists in the middle east did not have even close to the capacity to pull weaponizing Anthrax off. Although, we have been training their microbiologists and other scientists for years.
If memory serves, they knew where it came from because they had genetically marked it. Any scientist from Ft. Dietrick would know that they could trace it back since it wasn’t a wild strain. That makes it hard for me to believe that anyone from USAMRID was involved with it…without “assurances” at least.
The most frightening thing about this is the time-frame. All these years, and only one other guy was being scrutinized. I guess I’ve seen too many 007 films and read too many Grisham books!
dcmediagirl:
Thanks. This is the first I have heard about this, and I am not kidding when I say I have asked outloud–several times over the years: “Whatever happened to the whole anthrax scare? Who did that crap?” (Kinda like I still ask about the eastern coast black out. WTF happened? And gimme a real answer.)
You know, it wasn’t just DC. It happened shortly after 9/11, right, because we all just thought GREAT! More Hell coming when we learned of the anthrax crap.
I think NY based news stations got anthrax scares. I remember that. You know, so it was WTC–then anthrax…also, in NYC, there was ANOTHER plane crash right after 9/11–an American Airlines plane crashed into a neighborhood in Queens. It was a massive fireball, tons of damage and death.
It was so awful for NY that year.
Also, the republican firebrand blogger who was a freeper, sending out false batches to intimidate media people.
Right wingers as American terrorists, who could have imagined?
FWIW, you can get bentonite practically anywhere. It’s commonly used as a fining agent for wine, among other things.
I don’t understand the purpose of treating a bio agent with it. Seems like it would make it clumpy and more likely to settle than disperse. Guess that’s why I’m not a bio-terrorist.
Bentonite is mined, among other places, extensively in Idaho. Visiting a friend up there years ago, I complained about the build-up of the dust in my nose. Was told that the local motto at the mine was: “Bentonite Builds Bigger Boogers.”
You can buy Bentonite clay at most any herbal remedy retailer or on the Internet for about $15/LB.
Not enough information for me to know if Dr. Ivins was in fact the person responsible for the domestic terrorism. The track record of the FBI & Justice Dept. isn’t good — regarding Richard Jewel who was the HERO and not the villain of the Olympic bombing in Atlanta.
I always thought it was fishy that Prez bush had taken Cipro so darn soon. Almost as if someone had pre-knowledge about the Anthrax.
Thanks for posting this fascinating story. I would have completely missed it otherwise.
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.
Is it usual and customary for the Feds to tell a suspect’s lawyer, someone suspected of murder, 5 murders, and terraism several days or more in advance that his client will soon be arrested on several extremely serious charges?
As the Church Lady was wont to say, “Isn’t that special?”
This seems odd to me–this is not some business deal that may have broken SEC regulations, it’s not some civil suit. Very odd, but I am not a lawyer nor a government law enforcement person….
That seemed fishy to me from just hearing the summaries.
Now, we learn that the genetic DNA–which could place the anthrax into one specific room, you see–is itself highly controversional.
Ought to be a few movies out of this one!
Here’s another angle:
http://www.legitgov.org/#breaking_news
Anthrax scientist awarded highest nonmilitary honor from DoD in 2003 – Mission accomplished!
Anthrax scientist stood to benefit from a panic –The contract was the first awarded under legislation promoted by President [sic] Bush, called Project BioShield.
02 Aug 2008
Bruce E. Ivins, the government biodefense scientist linked to the deadly anthrax mailings of 2001, stood to gain financially from massive federal spending in the fear-filled aftermath of those killings, the Los Angeles Times has learned. Ivins is listed as a co-inventor on two patents for a genetically engineered anthrax vaccine, federal records show. Separately, Ivins also is listed as a co-inventor on an application to patent an additive for various biodefense vaccines. The product had languished on laboratory shelves until the Sept. 11 attacks and the anthrax mailings, after which federal officials raced to stockpile vaccines and antidotes against potential biological terrorism.
He also played a lead role in helping a private company, BioPort, win regulatory approval to continue making the vaccine required for U.S. service personnel deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan and other regions.
At a Pentagon ceremony on March 14, 2003, Ivins and two colleagues from USAMRIID were bestowed the Decoration of Exceptional Civilian Service, the highest honor given to nonmilitary employees of the Defense Department…
Did you see the link on the right hand nav of the Web site you linked to? Which has a template that is virtually identical to the original?
http://911scholars.org/
Something tells me that whatever is written on “legitgov.org” should be taken with a boulder of salt.
DON’T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU READ.
Who is “Michael D. Rectenwald” that runs the website referenced above? Never heard of him. Why should we care about his website?