fbi lab reports on anthrax attacks suggest another miscue

from mcclatchy: Buried in FBI laboratory reports about the anthrax mail attacks that killed five people in 2001 is data suggesting that a chemical may have been added to try to heighten the powder's potency, a move that some experts say exceeded the expertise of the presumed killer... The apparent failure of the FBI to pursue this avenue of investigation raises the ominous possibility that the killer is still on the loose. A McClatchy analysis of the records also shows that other key scientific questions were left unresolved and conflicting data wasn't sorted out when the FBI declared Ivins the killer shortly after his July 29, 2008, suicide... "America, the most advanced country in the world, and the FBI have every resource available to them," [Jacobsen] said. "And yet they have no compelling explanation for not properly analyzing the biggest forensic clue in the most important investigation the FBI labs had ever gotten in their history." As a result of Ivins' death and the unanswered scientific issues, Congress' investigative arm, the Government Accountability Office, is investigating the FBI's handling of the anthrax inquiry.

related history/mystery updates:
US secretly helped france develop nukes, documents reveal*
study finds data lacking on sailors' exposure to agent orange*
video: serbian war crimes suspect ratko mladic arrested*
dr kelly police probe thrown into doubt over riddle of prints on 'missing' dental records*
'all this, and heaven too': the woman who overthrew king louis-philippe*
never before heard tapes of jackie kennedy to be released*
the titanic: mass murder that created the federal reserve bank & the new world order's 20th century?*

warwhores: intel porn & weapon ads

pentagon reopens probe of 100s of employees w/ child porn*
flashback: intel agency workers downloaded child porn on govt networks*
report on drugging of guantánamo prisoners remains classified after 1yr*
veterans sue cia, army for experiments at detrick, edgewood*
navy to test its ability to vaccinate masses in a pandemic*
disney, monsanto discovered among blackwater's hidden clients*
video: weapon ads on dc metro just part of the scenery*
military recruiters are big winners in a bad economy*
obama prepares largest arms sale ever ... to saudi arabia*
USaudi arms deal moves ahead*
US attacks in pakistan reach record levels*
end of combat mission? US/iraqi raid in fallujah kills 6*

8/12 newspurge: how you gonna lift it with your arms folded tight?

9/11 updates:
german mosque used by 9/11 attackers shut down*
video: c-span tries & fails to cover the facts of 9/11*

biowars/envirohealth:
scientists say govt gulf oil spill report 'ludicrous'*
disappearing oil & gulf seafood:
passing the sniff test?*
smoke cloud covers moscow - authorities warn of radioactive cloud*
russia declares state of emergency in nuclear town as wildfires blaze*
video: cancer cluster near ft detrick in maryland*
leaking sarin rocket discovered at kentucky depot*
oregon's umatilla facility passes halfway mark for destroying chemical weapons*
e-cig maker agrees to halt sales in oregon*
massachusettes residents fight aerial insecticide spraying*
stop jane burgermeister from going to prison for speaking the truth*
feds investigating merck sales overseas*
who list reveals flu advisors with financial ties to pharma, vaccine manufacturers*
study shows puberty coming earlier for US girls*

drugwars:
marijuana megafarm hidden in wisconsin national forest*
calderón on mexico's drug war: stay the course*

econocrash:
economists herald new great depression*

ft detrick inventory turns up 9,220 more vials of pathogens

from washington post: An inventory of potentially deadly pathogens at Fort Detrick's infectious disease laboratory found more than 9,000 vials that had not been accounted for, Army officials said yesterday, raising concerns that officials wouldn't know whether dangerous toxins were missing.

After four months of searching about 335 freezers and refrigerators at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases in Frederick, investigators found 9,220 samples that hadn't been included in a database of about 66,000 items listed as of February, said Col. Mark Kortepeter, the institute's deputy commander.

The vials contained some dangerous pathogens, among them the Ebola virus, anthrax bacteria and botulinum toxin, and less lethal agents such as Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus and the bacterium that causes tularemia. Most of them, forgotten inside freezer drawers, hadn't been used in years or even decades. Officials said some serum samples from hemorrhagic fever patients dated to the Korean War.

Kortepeter likened the inventory to cleaning out the attic and said he knew of no plans for an investigation into how the vials had been left out of the database. "The vast majority of these samples were working stock that were accumulated over decades," he said, left there by scientists who had retired or left the institute.

"I can't say that nothing did [leave the lab], but I can say that we think it's extremely unlikely," Kortepeter said.

Still, the overstock and the previous inaccuracy of the database raised the possibility that someone could have taken a sample outside the lab with no way for officials to know something was missing.

flashback: fort detrick disease samples may be missing

fort detrick disease samples may be missing

from frederick news-post: Army criminal investigators are looking into the possibility that disease samples are missing from biolabs at Fort Detrick. As first reported in today's edition of The Frederick News-Post by columnist Katherine Heerbrandt, the investigators are from the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division unit at Fort Meade. Chad Jones, spokesman for Fort Meade, said CID is investigating the possibility of missing virus samples from the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases. He said the only other detail he could provide is that the investigation is ongoing. Fort Detrick does not have its own CID office, Jones said, which is why Fort Meade's CID was brought in. Jones said he could not comment on when the investigation started. CID is responsible for investigating crimes where the Army is, or may be, a party of interest, according to the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command website. USAMRIID is the Army's top biodefense lab, where researchers study pathogens including Ebola, anthrax and plague.

In February, USAMRIID halted all its research into these and other diseases, known as "select agents" following the discovery of virus samples that weren't listed in its inventory. The institute's commander, Col. John Skvorak, ordered research halted while workers conducted a complete inventory of the institute's select agents. That inventory is nearly completed, though the exact end date isn't known yet, said Caree Vander Linden, USAMRIID spokeswoman. Vander Linden said she didn't know about the CID investigation and referred questions to the CID's head public affairs office. There is no indication whether the CID investigation is connected to USAMRIID's re-inventorying of its select agent stocks.

update1: army biolab's missing vials may never be found
(which, oddly, isn't that scary)
from danger room: Vials of a potentially harmful pathogen have gone missing at Fort Detrick, the Army's main biodefense lab. But don't freak out. The samples of Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis (VEE) virus are relatively small. The Army has found "no evidence yet of criminal misconduct," the Washington Post reports. And the virus usually causes only "a mild flulike illness" - although "brain inflammation and death" are possible, too. "It has potential for use as a biological weapon but is far less lethal than some other agents the lab works with." And that's the real thing to keep in consideration. This isn't anthrax, it's a relatively non-lethal biological agent. Yes, it is highly infectious and easily aerosolized. Yes, that makes VEE a good candidate for military applications. And yes, as a virus, once a person is infected, there is no cure; like the flu, you have to ride out the effects. But it's not really a mass casualty tool, if you're a terrorist looking for lots of bodies..."We'll probably never know exactly what happened," one Army official tells the Post. "It could be the freezer malfunction. It could be they never existed."

update2: army nearly done with probe of fort detrick pathogen lab

update3: detrick missing venezuelan equine encephalitis samples;
21 polo ponies from venezuela died at event in florida
from cryptogon: According to CBS News, the people investigating the deaths of the horses in Florida are focusing on the possibility that a tainted batch of a vitamin supplement called Biodyl might be to blame. All of the horses that died received the supplement. The five horses that didn’t receive the Biodyl are fine. Ok. Maybe that’s it. But… Would you believe that Fort Detrick is missing three vials of Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis? The U.S. Army has launched an investigation into the disappearance of the vials from the lab. Biodyl is made by a company called Merial, which is a joint venture between Merck and Aventis. Merial produces pharmaceutical products and vaccines for livestock, pets and wildlife. Are the two incidents related? I have absolutely no idea.

update4: pharmacy made mistake in horse drug

update5: supplement suspected in death of polo horses
from ap: Twenty-one prized polo horses that mysteriously died before one of the sport’s top championships were given a supplement that likely caused their deaths, the leader of the Venezuelan-owned team told an Argentine newspaper.

flashbacks: miltech: biolabs, spysats, germs & cern, daily dose of terror: drills, darpa, sims & dew & anthrax updates: ivins, labs & hatfill's predictive programming

daily dose of terror: drills, darpa, sims & dew

darpa sims, directed energy weapons

darpa wants sim to 'resurrect' battlefield trauma
from danger room: Far-off commanders can already watch battles unfold, thanks to spy drones, streaming video overhead. They can read after-action reports, to learn how troops on the ground experienced the fight. But those officers don't have detailed, digitally-animated simulations, merging all that info - and showing how similar fights might go, in the future. Which is a situation Darpa, the Pentagon's blue-sky research arm, would like to fix. The agency is holding a mid-December meeting in Virginia to launch its "RESURRECT" (REstoring SURvivability by REConstructing Trauma) project. It aims to "create high-fidelity computer simulations" of warzone events "for tactical, operational and strategic review."

fighting with photons: the most famous weapon of science fiction is rapidly becoming fact
from economist: Like so much else in science fiction, the ray gun was invented by H.G. Wells. In the tentacles of Wells’s Martians it was a weapon as unanswerable by earthlings as the Maxim gun in the hands of British troops was unanswerable by Africans. Science fiction, though, it has remained. Neither hand-held pistols nor giant, orbiting anti-missile versions of the weapon have worked. But that is about to change. The first serious battlefield ray gun is now being deployed. And the next generation, now in the laboratory, is coming soon. The deployed ray gun (or “directed-energy weapon”, in the tedious jargon that military men seem compelled to use to describe technology) is known as Zeus. It is not designed to kill. Rather, its purpose is to allow you to remain at a safe distance when you detonate unexploded ordnance, such as the homemade roadside bombs that plague foreign troops in Iraq... The Missile Defence Agency releases a fact sheet about its Airborne Laser. Raytheon has a video and a press release about LADS.

please see: history of 'directed energy weapons'

eads north america's tentainer(tm) mobile shelter
from marketwatch: A compact and highly deployable mobile shelter for military medical support missions, emergency response and disaster relief will be unveiled by EADS North America at this month's Association of Military Surgeons of the United States (AMSUS) annual meeting in San Antonio, Texas, beginning Monday, Nov. 10. The new unit, called Tentainer, is a hybrid shelter that combines a rigid-walled, lightweight lower container with a multi-cell inflatable tent upper portion. Built by EADS North America Integrated Shelter Systems in Russellville, Ark., Tentainer is tailored for applications such as military forward surgical stations, trauma treatment facilities, first aid stations and mobile command posts.

kuwaiti navy, nato conclude military drills in gulf
from rtt news: Kuwaiti Navy and ships from the Standing NATO Maritime Group 2 (SNMG2) concluded strategic military exercises Sunday, the first of their kind in the Gulf region. The joint exercises were part of the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative (ICI) and a security agreement with the NATO on information exchange. The six-day drills included fast inshore attack training, anti-piracy demonstration, an air defense exercise, and a demonstration of firepower.

miami pandemic drill, russia/nato, china space

test drill at miami international airport aims to slow pandemics
from miami herald: About 400 people participated in the nation's first pandemic flu exercise at Miami International Airport. What if a deadly global pandemic were sweeping across the world and the United States needed to try to delay its effect on our shores? For the first time, at Miami International Airport on Wednesday [nov5], about a dozen federal, state and local agencies participated in a simulation exercise to review the steps needed to screen international passengers arriving in the face of a severe influenza pandemic. "It's an opportunity to test the plan, see how it works and what needs to be improved, so that when we need to use it for real we are ready," said Christine Pearson, spokeswoman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. About 400 people participated in the test drill, including about 200 voluntary actors. CDC, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Transportation led the effort... "A pandemic is inevitable, but we can't say it's imminent," said Dr. Martin Cetron, director of global migration and quarantine for the CDC.

navy intercepts ballistic missile target in fleet exercise
from spacewar: Vice Adm. Samuel J. Locklear, Commander, U.S. Third Fleet has announced the successful Navy intercept of a ballistic missile target over the Pacific Ocean during Fleet Exercise Pacific Blitz. This was the first Fleet operational firing to employ the Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) against a ballistic missile target. Command and control of this mission resided with Commander, U.S. Third Fleet, based in San Diego, Calif... "The successful engagement of ballistic missile targets from ships at sea is extraordinary... Pacific Blitz highlights the successful transition from developmental test flights to operational fleet execution and demonstrates the viability of the Maritime BMD Concept of Operations."

nato voices serious worries about russian missile plans
from afp: NATO has "serious worries" about the compatibility of Russian plans to deploy missiles in a western Russian enclave with arm control "arrangements," an alliance spokesman said Wednesday. "We have seen the press reports on the statement of President (Dmitry) Medvedev regarding deployment of Iskander missiles to the Kaliningrad region," spokesman Robert Pszczel told AFP. "If confirmed, it would raise serious worries concerning the conformity with existing arms control arrangements which are important for European security," he added.

venezuela & russia discuss nuclear energy & flights
from ap: Top Venezuelan and Russian officials met Thursday to discuss bilateral agreements on everything from nuclear energy to direct flights connecting Caracas to Moscow. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin headed a delegation of business leaders visiting Venezuela to discuss development plans prior to Russian President Dimitri Medvedev's visit later this month. "In a moment when the banks of the developing world are going bankrupt and disappearing, our two countries are negotiating the creation of a binational bank that will allow the financing of development," Venezuelan Vice President Ramon Carrizalez said.

china's space industry takes off
from spacedaily: China put another two satellites into orbit on Wednesday, just weeks after its third successful manned space mission and the first space walk by Chinese astronauts in September. The space industry is taking off, thanks to the 30-year-old Reform and Opening-up Drive, said Zhou Jianping, chief designer of the manned space program. China established its space sector in the 1950s, an era of difficulty and hardship.

postal anthrax aftermath: has biodefense spending made us safer?
from sciam: As the Federal Bureau of Investigation was about to move in, U.S. Army biodefense scientist Bruce Ivins committed suicide, thus possibly closing the chapter on the first—and so far only—fatal bioattack in U.S. history. The FBI alleges that Ivins, who worked at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) in Fort Detrick, Md., mailed anthrax-laden letters in September and October 2001 that killed five people. The incidents sparked a massive infusion of research funds to counter civilian bioterrorism, $41 billion spread over seven federal departments and agencies. Yet some observers argue that those funds have done little to guard against another bioterror incident, especially if the FBI is right about Ivins.

envirohealth: biodefense, flying syringes & vaccine protests

huge new biodefense lab is dedicated at ft detrick
from washington post: The Department of Homeland Security dedicated a massive biodefense laboratory in Frederick yesterday, moving toward the facility's opening despite questions raised about the risks of deadly pathogens to be studied there. When the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center at Fort Detrick is fully operational in March, about 150 scientists in the lab will be tasked with protecting the country from a bioterrorist attack through prevention or containment. Another goal is to allow investigators to fingerprint biological agents such as viruses and bacteria, quickly tracing their source and catching the offender. But critics cite the case of Bruce E. Ivins, a researcher at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, also at Fort Detrick, as evidence that such installations might help bioterrorists get access to lethal agents. FBI investigators think Ivins, who committed suicide in July, was responsible for the 2001 anthrax attacks.

emergency declarations smooth way for vaccine makers

fda conspired with chem industry to declare bpa harmless
from natural news: The FDA has been caught red-handed conspiring with the chemical industry to conclude that Bisphenol-A, the plastics chemical, is harmless to human health. As revealed by the Environmental Working Group, the FDA based its evaluation of BPA on a report authored by the American Chemistry Council (ACC), a trade group that represents chemical companies and plastics manufacturers. The FDA's evaluation concluded that BPA was perfectly safe for consumers of any age, including infants. This conclusion stands in direct opposition to the Canadian government, which declared BPA to be a toxic chemical on Oct. 18 and moved towards banning the chemical in baby bottles. Even the U.S. National Institutes of Health says BPA may be dangerous, admitting it is concerned about BPA's "effects on development of the prostate gland and brain and for behavioral effects in fetuses, infants and children."

officials fear greyhound passengers exposed to tb

gates funds research into 'flying syringe' mosquitos for 'vaccines'
from afp: The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation awarded 100,000 dollars each on Wednesday to scientists in 22 countries including funding for a Japanese proposal to turn mosquitos into "flying syringes" delivering vaccines. The charitable foundation created by the founder of software giant Microsoft said in a statement that the grants were designed to "explore bold and largely unproven ways to improve global health."

bill gates' mysterious new company

anthrax updates: ivins, labs & hatfill's predictive programming

frederick news post column proclaims ivins' innocence
from 9/11 blogger: Terrific column in the Frederick News-Post today about the flimsiness of the govt case against Ivins. Please email Katherine Heerbrandt thanking her for naming the "elephant on the grassy knoll." Note that contractor Battelle, who received this contract for $750 million, is a tax-exempt organization. No doubt they will use the $750 million to heal the sick and bring comfort to the afflicted...

"When Norm Covert, a conservative former Fort Detrick public affairs officer, and attorney Barry Kissin, liberal activist opposing Detrick's biolab expansion, agree that Bruce Ivins was not the anthrax killer, either the world's spinning off its axis, or the truth is staring us so hard in the face we'd have to be blind to miss it. Covert's piece this week in thetentacle.com establishes what many in our community, including scientists and support staff at USAMRIID, past and present, know: Bruce Ivins had nothing to do with preparing or sending the anthrax letters."

flashback: september 4, 2001: nytimes 'exposes' secret US project to create deadly anthrax strain in possible violation of int'l treaty
from history commons: A New York Times article reveals that the US has been secretly conducting research on biological weapons that likely violates an international treaty banning the use of biological weaponry. The article, by Judith Miller, Stephen Engelberg, and William Broad, is titled, “US Germ Warfare Research Pushes Treaty Limits.” The US signed an international treaty in 1972 that forbids countries from developing or acquiring weapons that could spread disease, but it allows work on vaccines and other protective measures.

Creating Deadlier Anthrax - Beginning during the Clinton administration, the US began genetically engineering a more potent variant of the anthrax bacterium. Supposedly, this was done to help the US come up with defenses against such a bacterium being used against the US by terrorists or another country. The research is being done in at the West Jefferson, Ohio, laboratory of the Battelle Memorial Institute, a military contractor. It is said to be in response to advances in anthrax research conducted by the Russians in the 1990s. The program is still in an experimental phase, but the National Security Council is expected to give the final approval later in September.

Other Secret Programs - The CIA has also built and tested a germ bomb, but removed several parts to keep it from being functional. And the Defense Department has built a mock germ factory in the Nevada desert to demonstrate how easily terrorists could build such a factory. Both these projects are said to use inert substances instead of real deadly germs.

Dubious Legality - An unnamed senior Bush administration official says all these projects are “fully consistent” with the biological weapons treaty. However, some Clinton administration officials say these projects violate the treaty. They point out that such experiments would draw loud protests from the US if a country deemed hostile to the US were performing them. The US recently rejected efforts to strengthen the biological weapons treaty an allow international inspections of biodefense laboratories in order to keep details of these recent projects secret..

flashback: 1998: future anthrax attacks suspect hatfill writes unpublished novel envisioning false flag biological attack on US
from history commons: In 1998, scientist Steven Hatfill writes and copyrights a novel depicting a biological terrorist attack on the US. This novel will be one reason why he will be suspected for the 2001 anthrax attacks (see October 2001), before being eventually cleared of any role in those attacks after years of suspicion (see August 1, 2002 and June 27, 2008). The novel, entitled Emergence, depicts a bubonic plague attack by a Palestinian terrorist on the White House and Congress. The bacteria is released in the White House through sprayers installed in a wheelchair, sickening the US president and top Congressional leaders. The terrorist is said to be funded by the Iraqi government, and the novel ends with the US attacking Iraq and dropping a nuclear bomb on Baghdad in retaliation. Hatfill envisions the US media “whip[ping] the American public into a state of near total hysteria” over the attack. He apparently asks for help from friends to get the novel to a publisher or agent, but the help never materializes. The novel will remain on his computer until it is discovered in an FBI raid on his apartment in mid-2002. The FBI will leak details about it to the media in August 2002.

However, one detail will not be made public until an article in Vanity Fair one year later: in a short epilogue, a Russian mobster reveals that his own organization and not Iraq was responsible for the attack. The mobster says: “The reaction was as great as we had hoped for the entire focus of the American FBI has now shifted towards combating chemical / biological terrorism and this is allowing us to formulate the unprecedented expansion of our organization.”

(kinda like how martin keating, the brother of the governor of oklahoma, wrote a book in the early 90's about 'tom mcvey' bombing the murrah building... probably just a coincidence)

anthrax updates: leahy, boyle, grassley, coverups & 2 groups

leahy not satisfied with the anthrax investigation
from empty wheel: The biggest news from a blogger chat with Patrick Leahy at the DNC today came in response to a question I threw out as we adjourned - about whether or not he was convinced with the FBI's case in the anthrax case. We had this exchange:

emptywheel: Do you think Ivins acted alone? Are you convinced Ivins sent the anthrax letters?

Leahy: No, I'm not satisfied. I think someone was involved either before or after. I'm not satisfied with the answers I've gotten.

I suggested that he had seen significantly more evidence than the public had seen-he gave me a funny look; I'm not sure what that meant. He said SJC will do a hearing with Mueller in mid-September. Leahy expects some hard questions from both Democrats and Republicans.

govt biological weapons legislator: anthrax inside job coverup continuing
from steve watson: A former government biological weapons legislator appeared on the nationally syndicated Alex Jones show yesterday to discuss his detailed knowledge of the cover up of the 2001 anthrax attacks, which he is adamant were perpetrated by criminal elements of the US government in an attempt to foment a police state by killing off opposition to hardline post 9/11 legislation. Dr Francis A. Boyle literally helped write the law with regards to terrorism, as he was responsible for drafting the Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989 that was passed unanimously by both Houses of Congress and signed into law by President Bush Snr.

charles grassley on the anthrax investigation
from glenn greenwald: For today's edition of Salon Radio, I spoke with GOP Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa who, to his credit, has been the leading critic in the Senate of the FBI's anthrax investigation. Sen. Grassley wrote an August 7 letter to Attorney General Mukasey and FBI Director Mueller complaining about the FBI's secrecy and botched investigation and demanding answers to multiple key questions. In the interview, Sen. Grassley reveals that the Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Pat Leahy (of which Grassley is a member), will now hold hearings to investigate the FBI's case against Bruce Ivins.

project anthrax & the coverup (part6): vaxgen's donald francis & aids; the thai experiments; the mailings as fascist 'cinical trials'
from alex constantine: The anthrax mailings and the development of vaccines were inseparable projects - these involved animal and human experimentation. On August 3, 2008, USA Today explained the work that Dr. Ivins did at Ft. Detrick, specificially - terminal animal experiments:

"Ivins performed research that required exposing research animals to airborne anthrax, according to a 1998 report in the journal Vaccine. The goal was to test whether a new vaccine could guard against anthrax inhaled in a bioterrorist attack." The strain of anthrax employed "in Ivins' vaccine experiments was a wet form sprayed into the faces of macaque monkeys through a mask."

top anthrax expert: 'maybe there's 2 groups' of anthrax killers
from george washington: William Patrick is the leading U.S. expert on weaponizing anthrax, and has multiple patents in anthrax weaponization. Patrick made an interesting point in a November 2001 article in USA Today:

Further complicating things, the spores contained in the first attack, on a Florida media company, have been described by investigators as a clumpy powder, which would make a poor aerosol. Only two weeks later, the finely prepared Daschle-letter spores appeared. Those spores were ground so fine that they apparently drifted across offices and contaminated other letters in the mail. The same strain of anthrax was used in all the attacks, suggesting a common source.

The bioterrorists "must have had a hell of a short learning curve," says Patrick, who headed U.S. bioweapons work until the program's halt in 1969. "Or maybe there's two groups."

In other words, either a single killer or group of killers went from a crude anthrax preparation to an extremely advanced weaponized form of anthrax in 2 weeks, or there were two groups of killers.

The anthrax sent in the first letters was coarse, brown, "sandlike", and clumpy. The anthrax sent to Daschle and Leahy was white and very fine.

ivins tried to mislead fbi on anthrax
from usa today: The FBI said Monday that Bruce Ivins, the bioscientist whom they say launched the 2001 anthrax attacks, helped them figure out how to collect the anthrax samples needed for the investigation. On Feb. 27, 2002, Ivins submitted a sample that didn't meet those standards. The FBI destroyed his sample without testing it, said Vahid Majidi, assistant director for the FBI's Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate.

fbi admits it destroyed evidence in anthrax case
from ap: FBI scientists early on had — but destroyed — the unique strain of anthrax used in the deadly 2001 attacks that years later would lead them to Dr. Bruce Ivins, now the government's top suspect. FBI Assistant Director Vahid Majidi (vah-HID muh-JI-dee) said the initial anthrax sample that Ivins took from his Army lab in February 2002 and gave investigators did not meet court-ordered conditions for its preparation and collection. Majidi said the sample kept at the FBI lab was destroyed because the bureau believed it might not have been allowed as evidence at trial. Not until after April 2004 did investigators trace strains of genetically-unique anthrax back to Ivins' lab at Fort Detrick, Md. (This version CORRECTS that sample might NOT have been allowed.))

why people who question the anthrax attacks won't question 9/11
from 9/11 blogger: I think I've figure out why many people who question the government's explanation for the anthrax attacks don't question the official story about 9/11.

Specifically:

* 9/11 involved much greater loss of life - while 5 people died in the anthrax attacks, close to 3,000 died on 9/11

* While none of us have seen gruesome images of the victims of the anthax attacks, we watched horrific images of 9/11: planes slamming into buildings, people jumping out of the Twin Towers, the Towers collapsing . . .

* 9/11 was the first attack on the U.S. by "foreign terrorists". As such, it was the point at which America took the fork in the road away from traditional notions of liberty, justice and the Geneva Convention and towards the "war on terror"

9/11 and the anthrax attacks - and the government's "investigation" into both - were actually very similar in many ways, as I will show in my next essay.

However, while many people can see how ridiculous the government's case against Dr. Bruce Ivins as the "sole culprit" is, they are so traumatized by the 3,000 dead, the horrible images, and the status of 9/11 as the "day when everything changed", that they simply will not allow themselves to honestly and fully investigate 9/11.

anthrax, hatfill & more: additions to the complete 9/11 timeline
from history commons: Most of the new entries published by the 9/11 Timeline this week deal with the anthrax scare. The main drug used to combat anthrax was Cipro, which a high government official advised some reporters to take shortly after 9/11. Although an inquiry was launched into a coverup of problems with it in May 2000, the FDA endorsed the drug two months later. Hoax letters similar to the later anthrax mailings were sent to Fox News from 2000, and one may have been received by a Florida tabloid in mid-September 2001. The anthrax attacks are associated with the Patriot Act, which Democratic Senator Russ Feingold blocked on October 9. Two other Democratic senators were then targeted by the killer, and 28 congressional staffers tested positive for the disease. Congress then passed the bill without reading it.

anthrax fall guy ivins reminds frederick, maryland locals of the frank olson 'suicide' case of 50yrs ago
from peters new york: The story of Frank Olson was documented in the months before 9/11 in an article in the New York Times magazine section. Written by his son's Harvard schoolmate, Michael Ignatieff, we learn from the story that "Frank Olson's specialty... had been the development of aerosols for the delivery of anthrax." In the years immediately preceding his death, Olson was one of the top officials at the government's biological weapons laboratory at Fort Detrick.

In 1953, Olson was found on a New York City sidewalk, his body bloodied and broken, apparently after a fall from his hotel room. The details of his death, ruled a suicide, remained a mystery for more than twenty years. But in 1975, an article in the Washington Post revealed that, contained in a report issued by the then-recently concluded U.S. President's Commission on CIA Activities was an account of a scientist who had been administered a dose of LSD without his knowledge, suffered side-effects from the drug, went to New York under CIA escort for psychological treatment, and jumped out of a hotel room window.

massive anthrax updates: the case is far from closed

hair samples in anthrax case don't match*
flashback: on 9/11 high govt official advises some reporters to take anthrax antibiotic cipro'*
dr ivins, anthrax & why I don't believe the fbi*
project anthrax & the coverup: (part5): operation jefferson, roots of the plot, hauer, patrick, hatfill, ivins & human experimentation*
anthrax follies & the bizarro effect*
lawyers skeptical fbi could have convicted ivins*
flashback: bayer reduces price of anthrax antibiotic cipro for US govt only*
flashback: as anthrax fears mount, canada overrides bayer’s patent for cipro; US does not'*
"if i were a betting man, i'd wager that cheney was behind the anthrax attacks"*
sander hicks: 'mad scientist' ivins & other 9/11 legends*
anthrax suspect passed 2 polygraphs*
3 key questions still unanswered in anthrax case*
some question fbi's anthrax case*
16 labs had the killer anthrax strain*
fbi will analyze ivins' computers*
anthrax case raises doubt on security*
sorority fixation may be key clue*
anthrax plot started early, will drag on*
anthrax suspect's lab: 'rat's nest'*
the fbi’s selective release of documents in the anthrax case*
ivins went nuts... but it was the fbi who drove him crazy*
anthrax letters are not in ivins' handwriting*
widow of first anthrax victim says she believes fbi account*
flashback: ’strange coincidence’ briefly increases suspicions al-qaeda is behind anthrax attacks'*
project anthrax & the coverup: (part4): the el-hibri loop, hatfill & special forces, introduction to vaxgen, ivins redux & rumsfeld*

video: limited hangout olbermann & official story posner: anthrax case a ‘conspiracy nightmare’*
audio: fbi's anthrax case not closed!*
the killer anthrax did not originate at fort detrick*
fbi anthrax case: paid witnesses?*
fbi told to blame anthrax scare on al-qaeda by white house officials*
anthrax attack was a classic false flag op targeting arabs*
burying the evidence on anthrax*
dr. bruce ivins, the perfect patsy*
the anthraX files*
ivins reportedly made edits to wikipedia*
col anderson refutes false allegations against ivins*
'justice' dept releases anthrax attack docs*
anthrax attacks & the assault on civil liberties*
suicided & slandered: scientist's death comes with enough lies to disappear the scandal of the century*
officials say scientist was solely responsible for anthrax attacks*
US authorities say deceased scientist responsible for anthrax attacks*
flashback: gop senator alleges top officials deliberately leaked false leads to hide lack of progress in anthrax investigation*
flashback: bush suggests link between anthrax & al-qaeda'*
flashback: cheney suggests al-qaeda could be responsible for anthrax attacks*
tape excerpts of ivins restraining order request*
fbi harassment drove ivins to 'suicide'*
the dead anthrax patsy's shady therapist*
white house memo exposes rove knew of problems with anthrax vaccine*
anthrax victim's widow speaks out*
ivins/anthrax scandal explained by wayne madsen*
anthrax suspect would have gotten vaccine royalties*
anthrax scientist bruce ivins stood to benefit from a panic*
videos: down the anthrax rabbit hole*
now we know: the anthrax attacks were an inside job*
anthrax suspect commits suicide in US*
evil of anthrax came silently in ordinary letter to tom brokaw*
suicide riddle of US scientist linked to 2001 anthrax attacks*
associated press helps gov't to brush anthrax attacks under the carpet*
doctor: anthrax suspect was 'homicidal'*
anthrax suspect was committed to a psychiatric hospital shortly before his death*
ivins & the fbi’s 'court document': psyop blaming iraq for anthrax attacks*
army declines comment on anthrax researcher*
anthrax mystery deepens*
report: therapist feared scientist poisoned people*
project anthrax & the coverup: saic, hatfill & bio-economic state terrorism (part 1 2 3)*
scientists question fbi probe on anthrax*
piling on bruce ivins*
the hidden anthrax letters suspect*
daschle criticizes anthrax investigation, saying fbi should provide more information*
daschle has doubts about anthrax probe*
white house attempted to pin anthrax attacks on al-qaeda*
schechter: death of a scientist & the bio-war mystery*
ivins' mental health and his link to 'bio-port'*
anthrax evidence is called circumstantial*
sealed docs outline anthrax details*
fbi probes attacks on scientists*
dna exposed anthrax suspect*
feds sued over anthrax documents*
officials: sorority obsession seen in anthrax case*
anthrax linked to princeton sorority*
questions raised over whether gov't is framing dead army scientist for anthrax attacks*
'suicide’ of anthrax scientist–another mossad frame up?*
former fbi official: after 9/11, white house told fbi to blame anthrax attacks on al-qaeda*
3 vital questions for abc news about its anthrax reporting in 2001*
researcher kept security clearance as fbi closed in*
officials: sorority obsession seen in anthrax case*
sorority fixation may be key clue*
anthrax linked to princeton sorority*
anthrax dryer a key to probe*
is another bruce ivins lurking in a biolab?*
fbi told to blame anthrax scare on al-qaeda by white house officials*
how solid is the anthrax evidence?*
govt's purported 'anthrax killer' was a registered democrat*
pressure grows for fbi’s anthrax evidence*
video: anthrax suspect’s colleague blames fbi for suicide*

related: 'justice' department falsely claims anthrax case is closed & the supposed lone anthrax gunman supposedly suicided

'justice' department falsely claims anthrax case is closed

authorities declare 2001 anthrax attack case solved

from dpa: The US Justice Department Wednesday said it was convinced that a top government scientist who committed suicide last week was the sole person responsible for the deadly 2001 anthrax attacks that terrified the nation.

Bruce Ivins was set to be indicted last week for the anthrax-laced mailings, sent only weeks after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The department earlier Wednesday unsealed hundreds of court documents it believed proved that Ivins had sent the letters.

'We believe that, based on the evidence we have collected, we could prove his guilt to a jury beyond reasonable doubt,' said Jeffrey Taylor, US attorney for the District of Colombia.

the supposed lone anthrax gunman supposedly suicided

from ap: Anthrax-laced letters that killed five people and severely rattled the post-9/11 nation may have been part of an Army scientist's warped plan to test his cure for the deadly toxin, officials said Friday. The brilliant but troubled scientist committed suicide this week before prosecutors could charge him with murder.

The sudden naming of scientist Bruce E. Ivins as the top - and perhaps only - suspect in the anthrax attacks marks the latest bizarre twist in a case that has confounded the FBI for nearly seven years. Last month, the Justice Department cleared Ivins' colleague, Steven Hatfill, who had been wrongly suspected in the case, and paid him $5.8 million.

Ivins worked at the Army's biological warfare labs at Ft. Detrick, Md., for 18 years until his death on Tuesday. He was one of the government's leading scientists researching vaccines and cures for anthrax exposure. But he also had a long history of homicidal threats, according to papers filed last week in local court by a social worker.

US to pay hatfill $5.8m in anthrax op settlement

from raw replay: NBC's Pete Williams reported that the U.S. Government has agreed to pay Steven Hatfill about $5.8 million in the case of the anthrax attacks that happened soon after 9/11. Hatfill had been declared "a person of interest" in the attacks. Williams said that it is "safe to assume" that Hatfill is no longer considered a person of interest. This video is from MSNBC News Live, broadcast June 27, 2008.

update1: fda issues warning on cipro
from ap: Drug safety officials Tuesday imposed the government's most urgent safety warning on Cipro and similar antibiotics, citing evidence that they may lead to tendon ruptures, a serious injury that can leave patients incapacitated and needing extensive surgery... The two leading drugs covered by the warning are Cipro, made by Bayer, and Levaquin, which is made by Ortho-McNeil. Cipro became a household name during the anthrax attacks of 2001. It is effective against that deadly bacteria, and is among the medications stockpiled by the government in case of a bio-terror attack.

update2: who planned the anthrax attacks?
from justin raimondo: You remember the anthrax attacks – or do you? It often seems, to me at least, that this important catalyst for the invasion of Iraq and our supremely wrong-headed post-9/11 foreign policy has been flushed down the collective memory hole. For all the attention that's been paid to that spooky chapter in the history of the "war on terrorism" in the intervening years, it may as well have never occurred. That's why news of the former prime suspect's ultimate vindication – and his victory in a $5.8 million lawsuit in which he accused the feds of unfairly targeting him as a "person of interest" (as John Ashcroft put it) – seems like a visitation from another time, the ghost of 9/11 past, haunting and mocking us. It sends chills down my spine – because, you see, the real culprits are still out there.