Reply #5: Anthrax 2001: data dump

[JackRiddler]

Starting with the "Justice for 9/11" complaint, Nov. 2004 - sorry if a lot's going to repeat in the following...

APPENDIX A6

ANTHRAX ATTACKS


The targeting, timing and open-source evidence of the still-unsolved anthrax attacks of September and October 2001 suggest a covert action by a group of conspirators aiming to achieve a shift in the balance of domestic political power; possibly also with intent to distract from the ongoing 9/11 investigations. There is probable cause to believe parties other than the original perpetrators have engaged in a cover-up, destruction of evidence, and obstruction of justice after the fact. Five deaths and 22 infections are attributed to the attacks, with one decedent (Kathy Nguyen) and many of the injured parties having resided in New York State.


1. Numerous waves of hoax anthrax mailings using threat letters and harmless powders had occurred in the years and months previous to September 11, with various targets: abortion clinics, political figures, most of them clearly unrelated to the later real anthrax attacks.

2. Immediately after September 11, the specter of a possible follow-up biological warfare attack was raised as an imminent possibility and a subject of many rumors. The Federal Aviation Administration ("FAA") imposed a two-day ban on agricultural crop-duster flights (September 23-25, see, The Label, 9/01, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, at pested.unl.edu/thelabel/tlsep01.htm). Apparently the FAA acted on information that al-Qaeda operatives had considered using crop-dusters to deliver andthrax or other pathogens from the air, and that alleged 9/11 ringleader Mohamed Atta had inquired prior to September 11 about renting such planes ("Report: U.S. Warns of Chance of Attack This Week," Reuters, 9/23/01).

3. The first wave of anthrax letters was apparently mailed from Trenton, New Jersey with postmarks of September 18, 2001. The Federal Bureau of Investigation ("FBI") has published photographs of two envelopes addressed to the network news anchor Tom Brokaw (of NBC) and The New York Post. Other mailings presumably went to the network news anchors Peter Jennings (of ABC) and Dan Rather (of CBS). Employees of both later developed symptoms, but envelopes addressed to ABC and CBS are not known to have been recovered. Although persons in the New York area began to develop symptoms that later turned out to be anthrax-related as early as on September 22, the first confirmation that an individual had been diagnosed with inhalation anthrax came on October 3, 2001. The victim was Robert Stevens, a photo editor with The Sun tabloid at the offices of American Media, Inc. ("AMI") in Boca Raton, Florida.

4. Despite the widespread expectations and warnings of an imminent biological warfare attack between September 11 and October, 2001, Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson on October 4 assured the public from the White House briefing room that, "I want everybody to understand that sporadic cases of anthrax do occur in the United States.... t this point in time, it's an isolated case, and there is no other indication anybody else has got anthrax." (The New Republic, 10/16/01, online at www.tnr.com/express/crowley101601.html)

5. Stevens died on October 5, the first known victim of inhalation anthrax in the United States in 27 years. The FBI reported finding anthrax spores on Stevens's keyboard at work on October 7, at which point the AMI offices were shut down. Another AMI employee, Ernesto Blanco, hospitalized with pneumonia on October 1, tested positive for anthrax (he later recovered). By then the most widespread and logical assumption was that the events constituted a premeditated attack. "Scientists in the US are analysing the anthrax that killed Stevens, and comparing it to strains from around the world, in an effort to trace the bacteria's geographic origins," the New Scientist wrote. "The results have not yet been announced." ("Florida cases likely to be first ever anthrax attack," New Scientist, 10/9/01 at www.anthraxinvestigation.com/misc2.html#NewSci02)

6. The FBI has published photographs of two envelopes from the second wave of anthrax letters, which were postmarked October 9 in Trenton, NJ and addressed to Sen. Tom Daschle (D-SD), at the time Senate Majority Leader, and Patrick Leahy (D-VT), at the time chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. (Subsequent reports of anthrax letters or spores discovered at mailrooms in other Federal agencies and at State Department consulates in Lithuania and Pakistan were later reportedly determined to have been the result of cross-contamination in the postal system, mistaken testing, or hoax mailings.) The anthrax in the letters to the two Senators was found to be ten times as pure as the anthrax in the letters to the media, and had therefore gone through a far more sophisticated stage of processing designed to "weaponize" it.

7. On October 10 and 11, 2001, Iowa State University in Ames destroyed anthrax spores collected over more than seven decades and kept in more than 100 vials, "after relatively brief deliberations with the FBI" and with the additional approval of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ("CDC"). The move was supposedly prompted by security concerns, given the ongoing investigation of the Stevens death. The destruction of the vials was overseen by James A. Roth, a microbiologist at the university's College of Veterinary Medicine, who later said, "we think had all the strains already" (New York Times, 11/9/01, emphasis ours). The spores in the attack mailings were later determined to have been derived from the "Ames strain" of anthrax commonly used in biological warfare research and development, of which the originals were kept by the University. We submit that the move is suspicious on its face in both timing and the justification given, and may constitute destruction of evidence in an ongoing criminal case. A full investigation would clarify the background, determining for example if the University truly acted on its own initiative or under pressure from a governmental agency or third party, and the reasons behind the FBI and CDC approval of the move.

8. According to news reports, starting on September 11 the White House administered doses of the broad-spectrum antibiotic Cipro, which is effective against anthrax, to an undetermined number of staff members. Judicial Watch later filed a lawsuit demanding the White House produce documents and information on the rationale for this decision ("JW Sues Bush Administration For Anthrax Docs. Seeks Documents About Terrorist Attack that Killed At least Five," www.judicialwatch.org/archive/newsletter/2002/0802k.shtml). A full investigation would seek to determine on what information the White House acted, and whether it implies specific advance knowledge of the coming anthrax attacks.


/ more notes

• Operation Clear Vision: reconstructing Russian anthrax bombs (1997-2000)
- State Department objected: violation of biowarfare conventions
"A bomb is a bomb is a bomb."
- Pentagon, CIA insisted, went ahead with research.
- Suspended by White House in 2000.

• Operation Jefferson (West Jefferson, Ohio: Battelle Memorial Institute)

• Revival of programs under Bush administration.
- Supermarket terrorism ($1 million budget)
- Judith Miller allowed to report from facility by Pentagon after French objection.


The Congress that rushed through the USA PATRIOT Act nearly unread was the same Congress that was packing and rushing out of Washington because the leadership of the opposition Democrats had been subjected to an anthrax attack.

I consider this fact inseparable from any discussion of how the USA PATRIOT Act was passed. The chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Patrick Leahy, received an anthrax letter within days of questioning the original draft of the USA PATRIOT Act. The Senate majority leader, Tom Daschle, also received a letter at the same time. Soon after, both reversed themselves and dropped their objections to the legislation, which radically curtails the civil liberties guaranteed in the U.S. Bill of Rights.

By way of anthrax, Congress was terrorized and broken.

The anthrax attacks of October 2001 should have put an end to doubts about the "War on Terror" and the likelihood that elements of the U.S. government are willing to stage inside-job terror attacks on American soil. Instead the attacks have been forgotten, although at the time they were trumped up into something even bigger than 9/11.

Unlike the case of 9/11, the facts about the anthrax attacks are simple, clear and close to conclusive:

-The Bush government revived an anthrax program early in 2001 on orders from Cheney and had developed a new milling process just before Sept. 11. Incredibly, this was called "Project Jefferson" (!).

- A week before Sept. 11, the New York Times reported that the Pentagon was experimenting in the "defensive" development of anthrax milling methods. Government scientists were assigned to put together home-made laboratories, using only materials available commercially, on the sparse budget of a mere one million of your taxpayer dollars. When this was revealed, the Pentagon said they weren't actually taking the final step, of milling live spores (although I wonder why, once ready, they would not want to see how well their lab works). The idea of the exercise, supposedly, was to see what terrorists might whip together from store-bought items. The French got wind of this program and complained to a United Nations committee, since the biowarfare convention outlaws all research, including "defensive research." To allay these concerns, the Pentagon invited an NY Times reporter, our old friend Judy Miller, to the Texas base where the experiments were held.*
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/04/international/04GERM.html?searchpv=nytToda
y&pagewanted=all
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/04/international/04BIOW.html

-On Sept. 11th the White House immediately put some of its staff, reportedly including Cheney himself, on Cipro. How did they know to pick this antibiotic, out of the many available? How could they guess that anthrax (or another pathogen against which Cipro can protect) was coming? This is the subject of a discovery suit by Judicial Watch: how did they know?**

-A wave of stories immediately after Sept. 11th announced that anthrax was the likeliest next attack. We were even threatened with a specific sequence of future attacks: anthrax, smallpox, plague. (They've been drumming up the smallpox scare ever since the anthrax attacks stopped.) Of all the hundreds of biowar germs and literally thousands of types of terror attacks, why was this idea circulated so prominently? Who was behind spreading these stories? Why so specific?

-Suspect Hatfill, while working biowarfare research at SAIC/Batelle Memorial in 1999, commissioned his colleague in science, William Capers Patrick, the renowned dean of American biowarfare research, to write a report on modalities that terrorists might employ in sending anthrax through the mail.

-The report from that study specified an ideal spore concentration and weight of anthrax sample per envelope. These were the amounts that were then reportedly used in the attacks on Daschle and Leahy. In other words, the anthrax attackers had access to this secret report.

-The anthrax went first to the headquarters of the country's biggest tabloid owner (National Enquirer and The Sun). The Enquirer had printed a series of anti-Bush "conspiracy" stories, including one claiming that McVeigh was still breathing after his execution. The Enquirer also published embarrassing pictures of the Bush twins drunk, which had gotten much play on Drudge and similar outlets. Was this an object lesson to the media? (Note: never established how it got to Bob Stevens; no envelope located; theory that it may have been spread from one floor to another by a vacuum cleaner .. or was he directly hit, via keyboard?)

-The wife of the paper's editor had rented an apartment to Mohamed Atta and Marwan Al-Shehhi. Was the paper going to do a story about this that would not have fit the official 9/11 line?

-At this point, the FBI on a request from Iowa State University allowed the destruction of a stockpile of original Ames strain samples on Oct. 13, days after the Bob Stevens case became known. Why?! This was a precaution?!

-The next group of attacks hit the New York media. The letters arrived just as the Afghanistan campaign began and caused maximum coverage of nothing but anthrax. For a vital week or two, both the Afghanistan campaign and the 9/11 investigation became secondary concerns to the media.

-At that point the FBI immediately called off one-half of the thousands of agents who were working on 9/11 and put them to work on anthrax.

-The third wave of attacks, the one that exactly fit the specifications of the secret paper commissioned by Hatfill, was sent first to Daschle and Leahy - the majority leader of the Democratic opposition in the Senate, and the Democratic head of the Judiciary Committee.

-The government said the anthrax powder sent to Daschle and Leahy had been put through a much more sophisticated process of milling to aerosolize the spoors, such as would require advanced technology from a state weapons program.

-This exceptional piece of constituent mail arrived at Daschle and Leahy's offices about a week after the USA PATRIOT Act was submitted to the Congress. Leahy had initially opposed the Act, and requested clarification of its more extreme provisions from Ashcroft. Ashcroft never answered.

- Senate offices were shut down and Capitol Hill went into an uproar. For weeks, as employees lined up for doses of antibiotics, Hazmat and FBI agents poked around in the Senate.

- By the end of that month the Republican-majority House chose to run home. As they left, they cast their votes for the USA PATRIOT Act and its negation of the U.S. Constitution. As Republican Congressman Ron Paul has made clear, most of them did not even receive a text of the 300-page final version of the USA PATRIOT Act before they voted for it, let alone read it.

- The Senate soon followed suit, also approving USA PATRIOT.

- Reports told that Sens. Kennedy and Levin, two other liberals, had also received anthrax letters, although no photos of these letters were published.

- The notes included with the anthrax letters to Daschle, Leahy and Tom Brokaw tried to point the blame at Arab perpetrators, but these were clumsy and transparent. ("Allah is Great" instead of "God Is Great" or "Allah Akhbar.")

- The news at first wanted to blame it on Arabs, or Iraq. Why should that damned Osama bin Laden hate the Democratic leadership, as opposed to Republican leaders?

- Only days later did reports arrive of anthrax being found in mail to the White House, Pentagon, Federal Reserve, CIA, etc. All of their mail had by then been very safely isolated on military bases. No details about these alleged attacks have been released. We have not seen copies of the letters, as was the case with the letters to Daschle, Leahy and Tom Brokaw. There have to my knowledge been no follow-up reports on the provenance of the anthrax employed in these cases. (In fact, most reports now say all anthrax reports other than AMI and the letters mailed to media and Democratic senators in Sept./Oct. 2001 turned out not to be anthrax.)

How strange how the first attacks, the only ones that had a chance to get through, went to the Democratic leadership!

- Suddenly, the anthrax wave stopped as quickly as it had begun. The biggest U.S. media story of October 2001 was effectively swept away. The media obediently switched to the taking of Kabul and spent November 2001 preparing us for a thoughtful Thanksgiving, with endless soul-searching stories asking how our country could have ever produced Johnny Taliban Walker.

- Anthrax has since been mentioned only rarely and out of context, as when Powell had the gall to hold up a vial of white powder at the UN and ask where Saddam is hiding his anthrax. Well, Colin, where are you keeping yours?

-All the foreign anthrax letters reported at various times in 2001 have been dismissed as white-powder hoaxes.

-It was established quickly that the anthrax to Leahy and Daschle was of recent production, with high-quality, weaponized spores such as can be produced only by a specialist at an advanced facility; and that the lineage goes back to Fort Detrick, Maryland and the Ames strain used by American biowarfare programs.

-For all this, the anthrax perpetrator(s) made an obvious effort to minimize casualties and target the letters very specifically to individuals. The same amount of anthrax could have been spread in a fashion causing many more deaths.

-Having gotten as far as Steven Hatfill, the FBI investigation stalled. Hatfill has been a "person of interest" for more than two years, his house has been invaded several times by sniffer-dog teams, and the FBI even drained a pond near his house to see if he had grown anthrax spores in it; but no further progress has been reported in the investigation.

- Could it be that the "lone perpetrator" thesis is not sustainable, and they don't want to deal with the implications?

What can we conclude?

Unlike Sept. 11th, the anthrax attacks were a selective wave of terror. The confirmed letters, the ones that resulted in the deaths of six people, were targeted at specific individuals: reporters, news media personalities, and four leading Democratic senators. This was by design, there was nothing random about it. The perpetrators have not been presented and so we can only speculate about their motives, but there is no doubt about the direct and predictable effect of their design: the attacks were perfectly sequenced and timed to cow the opposition, force through the Patriot Act, make an exampe of deviant journalists, divert the 9/11 investigation, and frighten and occupy the media during the first phase of the Afghanistan war. The attacks provided important reinforcement in keeping these various actors from questioning the official post-Sept. 11th atmosphere of terror and panic. They were the key step in initiating the formal transformation of American society and law.

In simpler words, the anthrax attacks look exactly as though they were planned and executed by a black-ops or damage-control team working on behalf of the Bush regime's goals, either as rogues or as appointed hitmen. They may have hit Bob Stevens as a revenge job, they hit the media to shut them up, and they hit Daschle and Leahy to intimidate them into accepting the USA PATRIOT Act. We might compare the crew who were responsible for this to Nixon's Plumbers, except that they were more sophisticated and effective in their choice of methods; or, perhaps, they simply had better protection among their sponsors.

That is the hypothesis so far that best covers all of the above facts. In this case, there is no doubt which way Occam's razor cuts. Anthrax was almost certainly an inside job.

In fact, this is the thesis that many people subscribe to when speaking off the record in the the world capital of paranoia itself, Washington, DC.

And what has Daschle done or said about these facts? Are Brokaw and Rather really unaware of all this? They have chosen not to defend themselves against what are, in effect, attempts on their own lives.

This is the context in which we should view the Jan. 2002 call from Cheney, the premature Cipro-taker, to Daschle, the anthrax recipient. Cheney threatened Daschle of dire consequences if he should push too hard for a 9/11 investigation in the Congress. This single call led to a series delays in the Congressional joint inquiry of Sept. 11, which finally opened in June 2002.

Daschle - and Leahy, and all the other Senators including Kerry and Edwards - are so scared, or so compromised, or otherwise being blackmailed with other threats, that they have not risen to this challenge. I don't envy or accuse them, but how can you expect these guys to ever confront the Bush mob?

(*NOTE: What justification is there for programs like "Jefferson"? This program not only finds out what terrorists might do, it no doubt discovers ways to do it that they might not have thought of themselves. The government scientists gain the astonishing insight that there's fuck-all they can do to stop evil biology students from engaging in such activities if they so wish. And the program's results will be written up in a little "defensive" manual on how to make your own anthrax lab. One day, probably soon, that will end up in the hands of one of our freedom fighters somewhere... and a years down the line he or his successor will use it against the U.S., thus setting off the next round of "defensive" activity on our part. At least it's lucrative!)

(** Note 2: Interestingly, earlier in the year one Jerome Hauer took up his new job under Tommy Thompson at the Health Department, as the advisor for bioterrorism. This is the same Jerome Hauer who developed the West Nile spraying program and, ahem, the Office of Emergency Management on Floor 23 of WTC 7, during his tenure as a terrorism adviser to the City of New York. And the same Hauer who claimed to have gotten John O'Neill his last job, as counter-terror chief at the WTC, where he died on Sept. 11th.)




i. The anthrax poisonings and attempted poisonings of elected representatives and media figures were carried out by an as-yet unidentified lone scientist without the knowledge or support of any state agency or agents. Moreover, these rogue attacks had no coordination or connection to the 9/11 plot, did not influence any 9/11 inquiries, and did not appreciably affect the post-9/11 balance of domestic political power.
g. Also languishing is a Judicial Watch suit demanding the White House clarify the rationale for placing some of its staff on the antibiotic Cipro immediately after the 9/11 attacks (on September 11, but before the anthrax attacks).17

6. ANTHRAX ATTACKS: The as-yet unsolved anthrax attacks of October 2001 and their impact on domestic politics and the 9/11 investigations. (Appendix A6)
4 Reportedly, planned hearings of several Congressional committees were curtailed or cancelled after pressure by the White House and Vice-President Cheney personally on Daschle, who had also been targeted with an anthrax mailing a month after September 11 when he was speaking out against the White House proposal for the USA PATRIOT Act.
17 Question whether this is an indication of foreknowledge constituting official misconduct or a crime under certain circumstances.


"A classified report dated February, 1999 discusses responses to an anthrax attack through the mail. The report, precipitated by a series of false anthrax mailings, was written by William Capers Patrick, inventor of the US weaponization process, under a CIA contract to SAIC. The report describes what the US military could do and what a terrorist might be able to achieve. According to the NY Times (12 Dec. 01) the report predicted about 2.5g of anthrax per envelope (the Daschle letter contained 2g) and assumed a poorer quality of anthrax than that found in the Daschle letter. If the perpetrator had access to the materials and information necessary for the attack, he must have had security clearance or other means for accessing classified information, and may therefore have seen the report and used it as a model for the attack."

Science Applications International Corporation ("SAIC")

"Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act" ("USA PATRIOT Act")

Resources

"Anthrax and Biological Weapons" by Richard J. Ochs (www.freefromterror.net). Reconstructs anthrax attacks with emphasis on their political impact. Author in basic agreement with the above analysis.



"Analysis of the Anthrax Attacks," Barbara Hatch Rosenberg, Federation of American Scientists, archived at www.anthraxinvestigation.com/anthraxreport.htm.

"The Anthrax Cases," by Ed Lake, www.anthraxinvestigation.com. See especially timeline at www.anthraxinvestigation.com/#Timeline. Meticulous compilation of all news reports, open-source evidence, and possible scenarios; differing with the analysis of Rosenberg, author determined to uphold "lone wolf" scenario.

Marilyn W. Thompson, "The Pursuit of Steven Hatfill," Washington Post, 9/14/03 www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A49717-2003Sep9?language=printer

Not long after he got there in 1999, Hatfill and SAIC Vice President Joseph Soukup hired Patrick to study the potential dangers of anthrax sent through the mail. Patrick calculated what would happen if anthrax were to be stuffed into a standard-size envelope. He based his findings on filling an envelope with 2.5 grams of Bacillus globigii, an anthrax simulant. Patrick, who was polygraphed by the FBI for three hours last year, says he was under the impression the research would be used in preparedness training. But the study received no attention until 2002, when the FBI unearthed it and tried to determine whether it had served as a template for the anthrax mailings.

Reports on Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Leahy's opposition to provisions in USA PATRIOT Act legislation, "Senate Democrats, White House Reach a Deal on Anti-Terror Bill," Washington Post, 10/4/2001, archived at www.anthraxinvestigation.com/wp1003.html

Ron Paul says the text of the USA PATRIOT bill was not made available for review until the night before the vote: Kelly Patricia O Meara, "Police State," Insight Magazine, 11/9/01 www.insightmag.com/main.cfm?include=detail&storyid=143236

www.insightmag.com/main.cfm?include=detail&storyid=143236

Guy Gugliotta and Gary Matsumoto, "FBI's Theory On Anthrax Is Doubted. Attacks Not Likely Work Of 1 Person, Experts Say," Washington Post, 10/28/02.
www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A28334-2002Oct27?language=printer

H.P. Albarelli Jr. "Anthrax Investigation Provokes Charges of Cover-Up," Counterpunch, 3/13/02
www.ccmep.org/hotnews/anthrax031302.html

Kathy Bushouse and Jon Burstein, "Widow of anthrax victim files lawsuits alleging negligence," South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 9/25/03.
Archived at www.anthraxinvestigation.com/misc6.html#ss-30924

William J. Broad, "Top Scientists Link Lethal Anthrax to U.S. Weapons Program," New York Times, 12/3/01. Archived at cooperativeresearch.org/timeline/2001/nyt120301.html


cooperativeresearch.org/timeline.jsp?timeline=complete_911_timeline&theme=anthrax

Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) confirms rumors circulating in Washington that this sweeping new law, with serious implications for each and every American, was not made available to members of Congress for review before the vote. "It's my understanding the bill wasn't printed before the vote — at least I couldn't get it. They played all kinds of games, kept the House in session all night, and it was a very complicated bill. Maybe a handful of staffers actually read it, but the bill definitely was not available to members before the vote."

And why would that be? "This is a very bad bill," explains Paul, "and I think the people who voted for it knew it and that's why they said, 'Well, we know it's bad, but we need it under these conditions.'" Meanwhile, efforts to obtain copies of the new law were stonewalled even by the committee that wrote it.

I like to refer to this legislation," continues Strossen, "as the 'so-called antiterrorism law,' because on its face the provisions are written to deal with any crime, and the definition of terrorism under the new law is so severely broad that it applies far beyond what most people think of as terrorism." A similar propensity of governments to slide down the slippery slope recently was reported in England by The Guardian newspaper. Under a law passed last year by the British Parliament, investigators can get information from Internet-service providers about their subscribers without a warrant. Supposedly an antiterrorist measure, the British law will be applied to minor crimes, tax collection and public-health purposes.

Under the USA PATRIOT Act in this country, Section 802 defines domestic terrorism as engaging in "activity that involves acts dangerous to human life that violate the laws of the United States or any state and appear to be intended: (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination or kidnapping."



www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A28334-2002Oct27?language=printer
FBI's Theory On Anthrax Is Doubted
Attacks Not Likely Work Of 1 Person, Experts Say

By Guy Gugliotta and Gary Matsumoto
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, October 28, 2002; Page A01

A significant number of scientists and biological warfare experts are expressing skepticism about the FBI's view that a single disgruntled American scientist prepared the spores and mailed the deadly anthrax letters that killed five people last year.

These sources say that making a weaponized aerosol of such sophistication and virulence would require scientific knowledge, technical competence, access to expensive equipment and safety know-how that are probably beyond the capabilities of a lone individual.


Washington's Brentwood Post Office remains closed after anthrax spores were sent through the mail facility last year. (LUCIAN PERKINS -- THE WASHINGTON POST)

As a result, a consensus has emerged in recent months among experts familiar with the technology needed to turn anthrax spores into the deadly aerosol that was sent to Sens. Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) and Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) that some of the fundamental assumptions driving the FBI's investigation may be flawed.

"In my opinion, there are maybe four or five people in the whole country who might be able to make this stuff, and I'm one of them," said Richard O. Spertzel, chief biological inspector for the U.N. Special Commission from 1994 to 1998. "And even with a good lab and staff to help run it, it might take me a year to come up with a product as good."

Instead, suggested Spertzel and more than a dozen experts interviewed by The Washington Post in recent weeks, investigators might want to reexamine the possibility of state-sponsored terrorism, or try to determine whether weaponized spores may have been stolen by the attacker from an existing, but secret, biodefense program or perhaps given to the attacker by an accomplice.

(FOLLOW LINK - VERY LONG ARTICLE)


Next to Old Rec Hall, a 'Germ-Making Plant'

New York Times
September 4, 2001
By JUDITH MILLER
www.nytimes.com/2001/09/04/international/04BIOW.html

CAMP 12, NEVADA TEST SITE, Nevada - In a nondescript mustard-colored building that was once a military recreation hall and barbershop, the Pentagon has built a germ factory that could make enough lethal microbes to wipe out entire cities.

Adjacent to the pool tables, the shuffleboard and the bar stands a gleaming stainless steel cylinder, the 50-liter (53- quart) fermenter in which germs can be cultivated.

The apparatus, which includes a latticework of pipes and other equipment, was made entirely with commercially available components bought from hardware stores and other suppliers for about $1 million - a pittance for a weapon that could deliver death on such a large scale.

The factory was built by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, an arm of the Pentagon that works to contain the spread of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. Officials said the project was intended to assess how hard it would be for a terrorist or rogue nation to assemble a germ factory.


-------------------------------------

Following is interview with JOHN JUDGE (has a detail wrong: FBI was contacted by U of Iowa 10 days AFTER the first anthrax envelope was mailed, during the "Bob Stevens phase" of the attacks, and hence a smoking gun destruction of evidence! According tot the story the University wanted to destroy it, and asked the FBI if they could, and the FBI allowed this. Was front page of NY Times.)


"Anthrax - didn't come from abroad, the trail led to door of Ft. Detrick and then it stopped. They realized from its DNA signature that it was Ames screen-which means U. of Iowa, which had an archive of all the known pathenogenic strains of anthrax_.if you inhale it's a lot more lethal_. People would order various strains from them in order to work on cures for it or work to weaponize it. Once they identified it as Ames strain, it would have been possible to go back to Ames and figure out which particular batch this came from and then that batch would have had a paper trail of who had ordered that batch, but 10 days before the first Anthrax envelope was mailed, (this was recorded by the NY Times, and this was called a "bungling" of the investigation) FBI contacted the U. at Ames and convinced them to destroy the entire 70 year archive. So, there's absolutely no paper trail left. But there is information in the public record info about Project Jefferson and Operation Clear Vision, both running in year up to 9/11 reported on September 4th and 5th, it was a international scandal, USA was doing projects and experiments with chemical and biological elements that violated international treaties that the US had signed. They claimed that they had to because something similar was going on in Russia. Project Jefferson was first ordered by Rumsfeld when he came in to Pentagon, he tasked the DIA to generate the next generation of Anthrax. Anthrax should be genetically altered to be more resistant to the normal antibiotics (which was the case with this), and more weaponized, more distributable. _was weaponized at a level they had never seen. In other words, the earlier weaponization had gotten it down to 2 or 3 billion spores per gram, this was over a trillion spores per gram. It was a very lethal weapon. It couldn't have been developed by some guy in a lab. But on September the 9th, two days before the attack, the DIA held a press conference here in DC and announced they had developed the next generation of anthrax. Also, right on 9/11 the White House staff was told to go on Cipro. There was also a huge contract with Bioport, who put that out right before the attack. The Peace Center began when all this was a twinkle in some geneticist's eye.

SH: What are your conclusions about Anthrax?

JJ: Well, I think that this was another domestic terrorist attack that had the signature of US intelligence, or military intelligence on it. I think that that's where people have been reluctant to look.


-------- anthrax stories in the week before Sept. 11:

U.S. Germ Warfare Research Pushes Treaty Limits

September 4, 2001
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
by Judith Miller, Stephen Engelberg and William J. Broad.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/04/international/04GERM.html?searchpv=nytToday&pagewanted=all

Over the past several years, the United States has embarked on a program of secret research on biological weapons that, some officials say, tests the limits of the global treaty banning such weapons.

The 1972 treaty forbids nations from developing or acquiring weapons that spread disease, but it allows work on vaccines and other protective measures. Government officials said the secret research, which mimicked the major steps a state or terrorist would take to create a biological arsenal, was aimed at better understanding the threat.

The projects, which have not been previously disclosed, were begun under President Clinton and have been embraced by the Bush administration, which intends to expand them.

Earlier this year, administration officials said, the Pentagon drew up plans to engineer genetically a potentially more potent variant of the bacterium that causes anthrax, a deadly disease ideal for germ warfare.

The experiment has been devised to assess whether the vaccine now being given to millions of American soldiers is effective against such a superbug, which was first created by Russian scientists. A Bush administration official said the National Security Council is expected to give the final go-ahead later this month.

Two other projects completed during the Clinton administration focused on the mechanics of making germ weapons.


ANOTHER TIMELINE, FOCUSING ON THE MICROBIOLOGIST DEATHS:

Origins of the Patriot Act

September 11, 2001: Some White House personnel, including Vice President
Cheney's staff, are given Cipro, the anti-anthrax drug, and told to take it
regularly on the evening after the attacks. Judicial Watch
later sues the Bush Administration to release documents showing who knew
what and when, and why Presidential staff were protecting themselves against
anthrax before any anthrax attacks were known - while Senators, Congressmen
and others were not.

September 18, 2001: The first anthrax letters are mailed out, two days
after the anti-terrorism bill Patriot Act is first proposed. But the
anthrax crisis won't begin until October 4 with the first confirmed
sickness.

October 1, 2001 (B): The New York Times notes the "stepped up warnings on
the spread of chemical and biological weapons" based on a number of
statements from officials in the past few days. White House chief of staff
Andrew Card: "I'm not trying to be an alarmist, but we know that these
terrorist organizations, like al-Qaeda, run by Osama bin Laden and others,
have probably found the means to use biological or chemical warfare."
Representative Henry J. Hyde (R) says biological weapons "scare" him more
than nuclear weapons because they can be brought into the country "rather
easily." Rumsfeld, Ashcroft and others give similar warnings. Just three
days later, anthrax attacks become big news (see October 4, 2001). Times, 10/1/01]

October 2, 2001 (B): The "anti-terrorism" Patriot Act is introduced in
Congress, but is not well received by all. One day
later, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D) says he doubts the Senate will
take up this bill in the one week timetable the administration wants. As
head of the Senate, Daschle has great power to block or slow passage of the
bill.

On October 4, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D) accuses
the Bush administration of reneging on an agreement on the anti-terrorist
bill. Leahy is in a key position to block or slow the bill. Some warn that
"lawmakers are overlooking constitutional flaws in their rush to meet the
administration's timetable."

October 9, The anthrax letters to Daschle and Leahy are mailed and
postmarked on October 9, 2001 while difficulties in passing the Patriot Act
continues.

October 9, 2001: Senator Feingold (D) blocks an attempt to rush the USA
Patriot Act to a vote with little debate and no opportunity for amendments.
Feingold criticizes the bill as a threat to liberty.

October 10-11, 2001: The FBI orders the original batch of the Ames strain
of anthrax in military government laboratories to be destroyed., making
tracing the anthrax type more difficult. Suspicions that the anthrax used in
the letters was the Ames strain are confirmed on October 17. Times, 11/9/01, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 12/01] What possible excuse can
the FBI have for allowing this destruction, especially when the Ames strain
was already suspected?

October 15, 2001: Senator Daschle's office opens the letter mailed October
9, containing a lethal dose of anthrax. Senator Leahy's similar letter is
misrouted to Virginia on October 12, and isn't discovered until November 17.


October 15, 2001 (B): The BBC says "Bush has pointed the finger at Osama
bin Laden" for the anthrax attacks. Bush states, "There may be some possible
link. We have no hard data yet, but it's clear that Mr. Bin Laden is an evil
man."

October 16-17, 2001: 28 congressional staffers test positive for anthrax.
The Senate office buildings are shut down, followed by the House of
Representatives.

October 24, 2001: The House of Representatives passes the final version of
the Patriot Act and other previously unpopular Bush projects: Alaska oil
drilling, $25 billion in tax cuts for corporations, taps into Social
Security funds and cuts in education. Republican Congressman
Ron Paul states: "It's my understanding the bill wasn't printed before the
vote - at least I couldn't get it. They played all kinds of games, kept the
House in session all night, and it was a very complicated bill. Maybe a
handful of staffers actually read it, but the bill definitely was not
available to members before the vote." It is later found that only two
copies of the bill were made available in the hours before its passage, and
most House members admit they voted for the Act without actually reading it
first. Two days later, the Senate passes the final
version of the Patriot Act. Anthrax targets Senators Daschle and Leahy now
support the bill. Bush signs it into law the same day.

Ancillary notes:

November 12, 2001: Dead microbiologist is Dr. Benito Que, 52, was "an
expert in infectious diseases and cellular biology at the Miami Medical
School. Police originally suspected that he had been beaten on November 12
in a carjacking in the medical school's parking lot. Strangely enough,
though, his body showed no signs of a beating. Doctors then began to suspect
a stroke."

November 16, 2001: Dead microbiologist: Dr. Don Wiley, 57, disappears
during a business trip to Memphis, Tennessee. He had
just bought tickets to take his son to Graceland the following day. Police
found his rental car on a bridge outside Memphis. His body was later found
in the Mississippi River. Forensic experts said he may have had a dizzy
spell and fallen off the bridge.

November 21, 2001 (B): Dead microbiologist: World-class microbiologist and
high-profile Russian defector Dr. Vladimir Pasechnik, 64, dies of a stroke.
Pasechnik, who defected to Britain in 1989, had played a huge role in the
development of Russian biowarfare, heading a lab of 400 "with an unlimited
budget" and "the best staff available."

November 24, 2001: Three more dead microbiologists: A Swissair flight from
Berlin to Zurich crashes during its landing approach; 22 are killed and nine
survive. Among those killed are Dr. Yaakov Matzner, 54, Amiramp Eldor, 59
and Avishai Berkman, 50.

December 10, 2001: Dead microbiologist: "Dr. Robert Schwartz, 57, was
stabbed and slashed with what police believe was a sword in his farmhouse in
Leesberg, Va. His daughter, who identifies herself as a pagan high
priestess, and three of her fellow pagans have been charged."

December 14, 2001: Dead microbiologist: Nguyen Van Set, 44, dies in an
airlock filled with nitrogen in his lab in Geelong, Australia. The lab had
just been written up in the journal Nature for its work in genetic
manipulation and DNA sequencing. Scientists there had created a virulent
form of mousepox. "They realized that if similar genetic manipulation was
carried out on smallpox, an unstoppable killer could be unleashed,"
according to Nature.

January 2002: Two dead microbiologists: Ivan Glebov and Alexi Brushlinski.
Pravda reports that Glebov died as the result of a bandit attack and reports
without explanation that Brushlinski was killed in Moscow.

February 9, 2002 (B): Dead microbiologist: Victor Korshunov, 56, is bashed
over the head and killed at the entrance of his home in Moscow, Russia.

February 11, 2002: Dead microbiologist: Dr. Ian Langford, 40, is found
dead, partially naked and wedged under a chair in his home in Norwich,
England. When found, his house was described as "blood-spattered and
apparently ransacked."

February 28, 2002 (B): Two dead microbiologists in San Francisco: While
taking delivery of a pizza, Tanya Holzmayer, 46, is shot and killed by a
colleague, Guyang Huang, 38, who then apparently shot himself.

March 13, 2002: A bomb and two smaller explosive-type devices are found and
defused in the stairwell outside of the Shelby County Regional Forensic
Center, Memphis, Tennessee, where county medical examiner Dr. O. C. Smith
works. Smith states, "We have done several high-profile cases including
missing Harvard researcher Dr. Don Wiley... The police state, "It
potentially could have been a large blast if exploded." The mystery gets
deeper: in June, Dr. Smith is attacked, bound with barbed wire and left with
a bomb tied to his body (see June 1, 2002).

March 24, 2002 (C): Dead microbiologist: David Wynn-Williams, 55, is hit by
a car while jogging near his home in Cambridge, England.

March 25, 2002: Dead microbiologist: Steven Mostow, 63, dies when the
airplane he was piloting crashes near Denver, Colorado. He worked at the
Colorado Health Sciences Centre and was known as "Dr. Flu" for his expertise
in treating influenza, and expertise on bioterrorism.

May 2, 2002: After extensive testing, the DNA sequence of the anthrax sent
through the US mail in 2001 is deciphered, and it confirms suspicions that
the bacteria originally came from USAMRIID. Furthermore, analysis of
genetic drift determines that the attacker's anthrax was not separated from
the source anthrax at USAMRIID for many generations. It suggests that
USAMRIID or USAMRIID samples given to Dugway Proving Grounds in Utah and/or
Porton Downs in Britain are the most likely sources of the anthrax used in
the attacks.

June 1, 2002: Memphis, Tennessee, medical examiner O.C. Smith is attacked
with chemical spray, bound with barbed wire, and left lying in a nearby
parking lot with a bomb tied to his body. He is rescued several hours later.
In recent months, Smith has been working on the death of Harvard University
microbiologist Don Wiley, who supposedly fell from a Memphis bridge in
December (see November 16, 2001).

August 18, 2002 (B): An FBI forensic linguistics expert says the anthrax
mailer was probably someone with high-ranking US military and intelligence
connections. He says he has identified two suspects who both worked for the
CIA, USAMRIID and other classified military operations. He expresses
frustration about accessing evidence. "My two suspects both appear to have
CIA connections. These two agencies, the CIA and the FBI, are sometimes seen
as rivals. My anxiety is that the FBI agents assigned to this case are not
getting full and complete cooperation from the US military, CIA and
witnesses who might have information about this case."