Then:
Scientists estimate that the letter sent to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle originally contained about 2 grams of anthrax, about one-sixteenth of an ounce, or the weight of a dime.
But its extraordinary concentration – in the range of 1 trillion spores per gram – meant that the letter could have contained 200 million times the average dose necessary to kill a person.
Dugway’s weapons-grade anthrax has been milled to achieve a similar concentration, according to one person familiar with the program.
The concentration exceeds that of weapons anthrax produced by the old U.S. offensive program or the Soviet biowarfare program, according to Dr. Richard O. Spertzel, who worked at Detrick for 18 years and later served as a United Nations bioweapons inspector in Iraq. -Baltimore Sun, Decemeber 12, 2001.
Now:
What was initially described as a near-military-grade biological weapon was ultimately found to have had a more ordinary pedigree, containing no additives and no signs of special processing to make the anthrax bacteria more deadly, law enforcement officials confirmed.- Washington Post September 25, 2006.
Then:
The FBI is investigating the possibility that someone secretly grew the deadly anthrax mailed to politicians and media outlets last fall at an Army laboratory in Maryland and further refined it at home, a government source and a scientist said.
…While speculating how a terrorist might have obtained anthrax as virulent and finely milled as that used in the mailings that killed five people, “We came to the conclusion the source is really important,” Battersby said. “It really is difficult to develop an organism from one you haven’t cultured.”- CBS News June 28, 2002
Now:
Specifically, law enforcement authorities have refuted the widely reported claim that the anthrax spores had been “weaponized” — specially treated or processed to allow them to disperse more easily. They also have rejected reports that the powder was milled, or ground, to create finer particles that can penetrate deeply into the lungs.- Washington Post, September 25, 2006
I’m tired of the lies. The anthrax was studied extensively back in 2001 and 2002. They checked on genetic markers, they identified the anthrax as a substrain of Ames that was probably produced in Utah and shipped to Fort Detrick Maryland. They certainly counted the spore concentration back then and got it right. Did the government exaggerate the concentration back then? Or are they downplaying the concentration now?
Why bring up a five year old failed investigation now? To remind us how no one has been caught or punished for the events of September 2001? Or to remind us of the threat of bioterrorism and maybe give Republicans a little fear-boost in the polls.
Here’s a piece of advice: Believe nothing this administration tells you. Nothing. Either they were lying then or they are lying now.
Did the government exaggerate the concentration back then? Or are they downplaying the concentration now?
My guess is that they’re downplaying and rewriting now.
Why bring up a five year old failed investigation now?
Even 5 years ago Bush was trying to blame the anthrax on Saddam Hussein and Iraq. It is almost October and you can tell it’s an election year because DHinMI and his hyenas are pretending to speak for feminism (I kid you not) on DK and the SYFPH diaries were blooming all over the ‘liberal’ blogs.
My guess is that they’re going to try to sell an October suprise in which they ‘prove’ that Iraq was responsible for the anthrax mailings and did indeed have weapons of mass destruction.Insdeed, i would be willing to take bets on it.
— Dr. Doug Rokke speaking on April 21, 2003 in Los Altos, CA, USA
http://www.mindfully.org/Nucs/2003/Rokke-Depleted-Uranium-DU21apr03.htm
Under ordinary circumstances, my instinct would be to say they were lying then about the danger, to get the Patriot Act passed.
But these aren’t ordinary people or ordinary times.
I suspect we’re being lied to now, to forestall any questions of why there’s been no arrests in this case in 5 years.
But you’re absolutely right, logically they had to be lying then or lying now. If they were lying then, as you point out, they manufactured a lot of realistic-looking props in terms of consistent test results.
More likely they’re lying now to hide the same. Most of that data has probably vanished down the rabbit hole never to be seen again…
I vote for hidden option 3, they were probably completely full of shit then and now.
That’s the brutal part about this all, Republicans bloviate about how we’re all going to die if Democrats are elected. This, of course, conveniently ignores that thousands have died directly as a result of Republican malfeasance.
if their lips are moving they are lying. October should prove to be interesting. Everyone out there prepared for a disaster or attack of some kind?
I have come to believe that the anthrax episode was manufactured somewhere very deep in the Bush government. (I also think David Kelly was murdered, so this should authenticate my tin-foil hat).
No single episode — because it was drawn out over several weeks — had as much impact on American and Congressional public opinion as that anthrax scare. It reinforced the initial shock of the attacks. In terms of how it consolidated the Bush presidency, nothing dominates it.
So, please tell me what’s wrong with this theory. I would be more than pleased to be assured that it is wrong. It’s just that, in my present state of ignorance, there are so many reasons to think it might be right.
Thanks, Booman, for bringing this issue back up again. It keeps getting pushed under the rug.
And for further consideration …
Though coincidence does not equal proof, how very convenient that Anthrax was sent only to opponents of the Bush Regime. Daschle and Leahy were opposing the Patriot act. As for the tabloid newspaper editor who unfortunately died, who knows what salacious story they were preparing about the Bush twins engaging in drunken public sex or whatever.
And why would enemies of the U.S. send WMD letters to members of an emasculated opposition party rather than take out their revenge on those in power? Once again, not logically a proof, but questions that any cogent theory must answer.
I really hate it that the Bush Regime has me wearing tinfoil hats now …
From a few comments at – believe it or not – free republic:
Not usually part of the tin-foil hat crowd but in this case have been suspicious from the outset about the anthrax attacks. When one looks at who was most likely to profit from the attacks, it was clearly the administration. The attacks helped to gin up fear in the populace and, as noted above, ram through the Patriot Act. In case anyone forgets, there were also aggressive administration efforts to tie the attacks to Iraq, thus preemptively justifying a preemptive attack on that country. The careful selection of targets is also suggestive. The toxic mail was sent to media outlets (newspapers and TV), assuring rapid and widespread distribution of the story; and to US Senators (Democratic), assuring their compliance in pushing through desired administration legislation. Interesting that while the attacks had maximal fear-inducing impact at the time, morbidity and mortality were, relatively speaking, quite limited. This was a well-planned and sophisticated operation. Could rogue scientists have pulled this off and why would they?
Also important to note that, prior to 911, the Army was producing weaponized anthrax, acknowledged by Rumsfeld, and possibly in violation of international treaties (perhaps the reason it didn’t get much play in American news). The Army and CIA were quick to deny the anthrax came from their stocks but note that, because the DNA analysis clearly pointed to the US Ames strain and they couldn’t support a denial on that basis, they said they only had the liquid form.
Richard O. Spertzel, a biological warfare expert and a member of the Iraq Survey Group was clear about the sophistication needed to successfully implement such an attack:
Having vanished from the radar, why is this story appearing now? Well, one possibility is that the anthrax culprit (like Osama) hasn’t been found -another Bush failure – and there is precious little evidence that either has been pursued aggressively of late. This story whitewashes the administration’s lack of seriousness in tracking down known terrorists. It also reminds people to “be afraid” when going to the polls. Let’s just hope they’re not ramping up to an October anthrax surprise.
As pointed out by Ron the source cited in the WaPo piece is not original. A good example of the administration feeding faux news to gullible, lazy journalists.
When studying the cases of the past, it was a regular pattern. The earliest stories would often prove true, and everything that came later was part of the cover-up.
I’d believe those early stories. No one knew then that they needed to lie.
In addition, I did a timeline for someone of events following 9/11, and found a real scandal that’s never been discussed in depth (except, perhaps, in fictional form in V for Vendetta). In the wake of the Anthrax scare, Cipro sales went through the roof. Cipro is the brand name for one of the drugs that serves as an effective antibiotic to Anthrax.
Now in Canada, seeing they were in short supply, and seeing how the company would not or could not keep up with enough production to meet the foreseen demand, the government seized the patents and handed them to generic companies and got all the Cipro they needed. Cipro is made by Bayer. Bayer was being very unreasonable. The Canadians took matters into their own hands. The American government, on the other hand, just shelled out lots of money to Bayer, never mind the public concern.
I’ve often wondered who the major shareholders at the time were, and if they included Cheney, Rumsfeld, or other familiar names. Remember when the Avian Flu scare was at its height, we learned that Rumsfeld owned shares in the company Gilead that made the remedy medicine Tamiflu.(See http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=%20ME20051026&articleId=1148
.)
The reason for coverup stories like this is that every news article goes into massive databases – Nexus and others. If only the truth can be found, that’s disaster for conspirators. So they muddy the waters, and get these other stories. Now there’s “reasonable doubt” or better yet, persuasive disinformation that people can point to and say hey, what are those conspiracy theorists talking about? It says right here in the paper that the anthrax was NOT weapons grade.
Like I said, it’s a VERY familiar pattern. Check out the 11/23 article in the New York Times on the Kennedy assassination, and you’ll find that one bullet entered the back but never exited, and was presumed to have been lost in Kennedy’s chest. There’s massive support for the fact that the bullet did not exit, and how this worried the doctors, in the medical records compiled by the House Select Committee on Assassinations. I clipped them and posted them on my Real History Archives site. There never was a chance that a single bullet killed Kennedy and wounded Connally. But that didn’t stop the lies from being propagated. (See http://www.realhistoryarchives.com/collections/assassinations/jfk/icebulls.htm .)
Great post.
There was another significant quote in the post article (emphasis added):
The anthrax attacks played a significant part in the buildup to the Iraq war, as many people found anthrax a far more credible threat than the cobbled-together nuclear stuff. It worked so well last time, I think it’s pretty clear what’s happening now. Expect to see articles about Iran’s bioweapons (after all, they did use chemical weapons in self-defense in the iran-Iraq war). And that’s just the beginning.
Serene in his faith, speaking in code to the religious right, Bush sails on, across a sea of commas. Forget about an “October Surprise.” Prepare for a “November Surprise” instead — one coming after the election. That looks to be Bush’s best chance to try to clean up Iraq once and for all by going after Iran and bringing “real democracy” to the Middle East at last, before any meddling new Congress can stop him. Bush knows everything will be fine. He’s working his way through the commas and approaching the end of the sentence. He’s the democracy-bringer, and he’s doing God’s will.
Hey booman, where are you, looks like you need to ban this ip address or block this member…