Anthrax Biological Terrorism
The United Snakes Of Amerikkka has a long history
of experimentation, on unwitting human subjects, which goes back to the
beginning of this century. Both private firms and the military have used
unknowing human populations to test various theories. However, the extent
to which human experimentation has been a part of the united snakes. Biological Weapons
programs will probably never be known. Scientists find united snakes labs and
amerikkkan
expertise as source of mailed anthrax, a compilation of evidence and comments on the
source of the mailed anthrax
All the available evidence indicates that the source of the
mailed anthrax, or the information and materials to make it, is a united snakes
government program.
1.
ANTHRAX STRAIN
All letter samples
contain the same strain of anthrax, corresponding to the AMES strain in the N.
Arizona State University database (which has been used
for identification). The Ames substrain possessed by
N. Arizona State is referred to herein as the
"reference strain." That strain was obtained from
Porton Down (UK) in the mid-90's (the sample was
marked "October 1932"); Porton had gotten it from Fort Detrick. A 2000 paper by M.
Hugh-Jones, PJ Jackson,
P. Keim et al says that the Ames strain played a
central role in the US BW program [i.e., before 1969].
Hugh-Jones says he learned that from David Huxsoll,
Former Commander, USAMRIID. However, he says Vollum 1B
was the strain stockpiled (at least in the early days
of the US biological weapons program). The search for
better strains undoubtedly continued, leading the US
program to prefer the Ames strain because of its high
virulence. The Ames strain is used
now in the US
bio-defense program for testing vaccines etc. The Ames
reference strain in the N. Arizona collection is
probably the earliest Ames sub-strain (isolated in 1925
and sealed in 1928, perhaps sub-cultured in 1932).
There are at least four Ames sub-strains, all under the
control of Fort Detrick. They were isolated by
laboratories in Ames, Iowa but were not subsequently
studied or distributed by them. Undoubtedly the
confusion about Ames sub-strains could be cleared up by
USAMRIID, but they have been evasive.
2. WEAPONIZATION
"Weaponization"
is used here to mean
preparation of the form of anthrax found in the
Daschle letter: fine particles, very narrow size
range, treated to eliminate static charge so it won't
clump and will float in the air. The weaponization
process used was extraordinarily effective. The
particles have a narrow size range (1.5-3 microns
diameter), typical of the US process. The extraordinary
concentration (one
trillion spores per gram) and purity of the letter
anthrax is believed to be characteristic of material
made by the US process. A reporter who writes on
anthrax vaccine has privately stated that four labs
have told him that under the electron microscope the
appearance of the sample is like that of un-milled
anthrax spores. Milled samples are identifiable
because they contain debris. The optimal US process
did not use milling. The US weaponization
process is secret-Bill
Patrick, its inventor, says it involves a COMBINATION
of chemicals. The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology
(Washington DC) is studying the anthrax using an
energy dispersive X-ray spectroscope, which can detect
the presence of extremely tiny quantities of chemicals, traces of several chemicals have been
found. The Senate sample contains a special form of
silica used in the US process. It does not contain
bentonite (used by the Iraqis). All the letters probably
contained the same
material. The clumping of the anthrax in the two
letters mailed on Sept 18 (to NBC and the NY Post)
probably resulted from the letters getting wet in the
course of mail processing or delivery, according to
Army scientists. This conclusion is strengthened by
the similarity of the Florida anthrax (the first to be
observed, probably also mailed on Sept 18) to that in
the Daschle letter, mailed Oct 9.
3. ANTHRAX PRODUCTION
A study of genetic drift
at certain
locations in anthrax is underway at Northern Arizona
State University. The results are expected to give an
idea of how many times the letter anthrax had
replicated, in comparison to the reference strain-ie,
whether it was grown on a very large scale (as in a
State program) or on a very small scale, as would be
likely if recently made by a terrorist. Analysis of
trace contaminants could also indicate the
scale/method of production (ie, liquid medium, in a
fermenter, or solid medium, on petri dishes, a likely
method for small-scale preparation).
4. OTHER ANALYSES
It has just been reported
that the complete
sequence has been determined for the genomes of both
the anthrax used in the Florida attack and the Ames
reference strain to which it corresponds. This work
was done under government contract by the Institute
for Genomic Research, a private non-profit
organization. The results have not been made public
but they are in government hands and there has been no
retraction of the oft-repeated official statement that
the letter anthrax matches the Ames reference strain. In addition, sequence
data will reveal
whether the Ames reference strain is a mixture of
types, as sequencing has revealed to be the case for
another anthrax strain. If so, the proportions of the
mixture may differ from lab to lab and could be used
to identify the source. Senator Bob Graham, Chairman
of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in late
October that investigators can identify with great
certainty which lab produced the anthrax, but it will
be a laborious, time-consuming process. (Chicago
Tribune, 27 Oct 01).
5. SOURCE LOCATION
Contrary to early
speculation, there are no
more than about 20 laboratories known to have obtained
the Ames strain from Fort Detrick. The names of 15 of
these laboratories have been found in the open
literature (see Appendix
at bottom of page). Of these, probably only
about four in the US might possibly have the
capability for weaponizing anthrax. These include
both US military laboratories and government
contractors.
6.
INFORMATION REGARDING THE PERPETRATOR
Analysts believe the
letters were not
written by a Middle-Easterner. The FBI publicly
conjectures that the
perpetrator was a lone, male domestic terrorist,
obviously one with a scientific background and lab
experience who could handle hazardous materials. The perpetrator must have
received anthrax
vaccine recently (it requires a yearly booster shot),
whether or not he made the material himself, because
filling the letters was a dangerous operation. The
vaccine is in short supply and is not generally
accessible. Vaccination records must be available. The
perpetrator appears to be a forensic expert. In
preparing and mailing the letters he successfully
covered every personal trace.
7. TIMING
There was only one week
between Sept 11 and
Sept 18, when the first two letters (and probably
another letter, never found, to AMI) were postmarked.
This suggests that the anthrax was already in hand
before Sept 11. Did the perpetrator have advance
knowledge of the Sept 11 attacks? Secretary of Defense
Rumsfeld has said that he does not believe al Qaeda
was responsible for the anthrax attack, and other
public officials have increasingly indicated
that the perpetrator was probably domestic.
8. PUBLIC STATEMENTS
At first, US officials
provided
miscellaneous bits of information, some conflicting;
then denied some of the earlier information, then
clammed up. They now have a great deal of information
that has not been made public. Under pressure from
leaks, they have started a gradual release of
information again. The US rejected a UN resolution
offered by France to condemn the anthrax attack, on
the grounds that it could have been domestic
terrorism.
The Secretary of Health
and Human Services
said in October that some of the relevant information
is classified, and some is restricted by the FBI. John
Bolton, Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and
International Security, spoke on Nov. 19 at the
opening of the five-yearly Review Conference of the
Biological Weapons Convention in Geneva. At a press
conference following his talk, he said "We don't know,
as I say in the statement, at the moment, in a way
that we could make public, where the anthrax attacks
came from." This statement, as well as other
information, indicates that US officials DO know where
the anthrax came from. The FBI says it is now
investigating
government and contractor laboratories possessing the
Ames strain, and individuals who had access to them.
Col. Arthur Friedlander, Sr. Research Scientist at
USAMRIID, said no one there knows how to make dry
weaponsized anthrax. According to the New York
Times (2 Dec 01),
a law enforcement official close to the federal
investigation called the concept of a government
insider, or someone in contact with an insider, "the
most likely hypothesis it's definitely reasonable." An
American official sympathetic to this thesis was
quoted in the same article saying that, in addition to
military laboratories, "there are other government and
contractor facilities that do classified work with
access to dangerous strains, but it's highly likely
that the material in the anthrax letters came from a
person or persons who really had great expertise. We
haven't seen any other artifacts that point us
elsewhere." Senate Majority Leader
Thomas Daschle,
recipient of one of the anthrax letters, has been in
frequent contact with investigators. He said on Dec 8
that the perpetrator was probably someone with a
military background.
9. MOST LIKELY HYPOTHESIS
The perpetrator is probably an American microbiologist who has access to weaponized anthrax or to the expertise and materials for making it, in a US government or contractor lab. He does not live in or near Trenton, N.J. but more probably in the Washington, DC area. Trenton, N.J. is probably accessible to him (it is a stop on the Amtrak line that runs along the East coast), but if he is smart enough to handle anthrax he is smart enough not to mail it from his home town. The anthrax in the letters was probably made and weaponized in a US government or contractor lab. It might have been made recently by the perpetrator on his own, or made as part of the US bio defense program; or it may be a remnant of the US biological weapons program before Nixon terminated the program in 1969.Weaponization of dry anthrax after 1972, when the Biological Weapons Convention was signed, could be construed as a violation of the Convention. The motive of the perpetrator was not necessarily to kill but to create public fear, thereby raising the profile of BW. He simply took advantage of Sept 11 to throw suspicion elsewhere. The letters warned of anthrax or the need to take antibiotics, making it possible for those who handled the letters to protect themselves; and it seems unlikely that the perpetrator would have anticipated that the rough treatment of mail in letter sorters etc, would force anthrax spores through the pores of the envelopes (which were taped to keep the anthrax inside) and infect postal workers and others. The choice of media as targets seems to have been cleverly designed to ensure publicity about the threat of biological weapons. One can only speculate that the perpetrator may have wished to push the US government toward retaliatory action against some enemy, or to attract funding or recognition to some program with which he is associated. The choice of Senators Daschle and Leahy as targets may be a clue that has yet to be deciphered. The US government has undoubtedly known for some time that the anthrax terrorism was an inside job. They may be reluctant to admit this. They also may not yet have adequate hard evidence to convict the perpetrator. In opposition to most of the countries of the world, the Bush administration turned down a Protocol to monitor compliance with the ban on biological weapons last July. In so doing it reversed the policy of the previous three administrations aimed at strengthening the Biological Weapons Convention, which lacks verification measures. The action put the US at odds with most of its allies and fueled accusations of US unilateralism, according to the Washington Times (Dec 5). The anthrax attacks have had no effect on administration policy. At the start of a five-yearly Biological Weapons Convention Review Conference last month, Under-Secretary Bolton caused dissention by accusing several parties to the Convention of violating it. On Dec 7, the last day of the conference, the US double crossed its European allies by reversing a compromise agreement of the previous day, thereby causing an uproar and derailing the Conference. According to European diplomats, failure of the conference sends the message that the international community is not willing to enforce the ban on biological weapons.
Conclusions:
A recent
report by the
Congressional GAO, as well as many recent statements
by military and
non-governmental experts in the BW field, holds that
terrorists are unlikely to be able to mount a major
biological attack without substantial assistance from
a government sponsor. The recent anthrax attack was a
minor one but nonetheless we now see that it was
perpetrated with the unwitting assistance of a
sophisticated government program. It
is
reassuring to know that it was not perpetrated by a
lone terrorist without state support. It is not
reassuring, however, to discover that a secret US
program may have been the source of that support, and
that security is so dangerously lax in military or
defense contractor laboratories. US government
insistence on pursuing and maintaining the secrecy of
elaborate biological threat assessment activities is
undermining the prohibitions of the Biological Weapons
Convention and encouraging biological weapons
proliferation in other countries, which in turn may
support bio-terrorist attacks on the American public.
APPENDIX
LABORATORIES THAT HAVE WORKED WITH THE AMES STRAIN OF
ANTHRAX
(Information obtained from open sources)
1.USArmy Medical Research Institute for
Infectious Diseases (Ft. Detrick, MD)#*
2.Dugway Proving Ground (Utah)#*
3.Naval Research Medical Center and associated
military labs (MD)#
4.Battelle Memorial Institute (Ohio; plus laboratories in many other locations)#*
5.Duke University Medical School, Clinical Microbiology Lab.
(NC)
6.VA Medical Center, Durham (NC)
7.USDA laboratory and Iowa State College of Veterinary Medicine, Ames
(Iowa)
8.LSU College of Veterinary Medicine*
9.Northern Arizona State University (Arizona)*
10.Illinois Institute of Technology Research Institute (IL)
11.University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center,
Albuquerque (NM)*
12.Institute for Genomic Research (MD)
13.Chemical and Biological Defense Establishment, Porton Down (UK)*
14.Center for Applied Microbiology and Research, Porton (UK)*
15.Defense Research Establishment, Suffield (CA)*
In addition, CDC, NIH, Los Alamos and a few others
may have the Ames strain.
* Obtained through a FOIA request by the Washington
Post (article Nov 30, 01)
# indicates laboratories in the US that are probably
more likely than the others to have weaponization
capabilities.
"...Hide nothing from the masses of our people. Tell no lies. Expose lies whenever they are told. Mask no difficulties, mistakes, failures. Claim no easy victories ..."PAIGC-1965