Non-Subscriber Extract
All quiet on the anthrax front?
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| 05 June 2002 |
By Andy Oppenheimer
Even before 9.11, there was growing concern over the possible use of anthrax as a biological weapon. On 2 October 2001, this fear became reality as anthrax outbreaks, the result of a biological agent delivered through the mail, began to occur in the USA.
Weapons-grade anthrax, usually fatal in its pulmonary (inhalation) form, was removed, refined and eventually posted. It killed five people (not the mail recipients), sickened 17 others, paralysed mail delivery, forced many senators to evacuate their offices for more than two months, terrified the nation and caused some 35,000 more to take prophylactic antibiotics. There have been 15,000 anthrax hoaxes and false threats. The incidents have forced 540 postal facilities to close temporarily and have resulted in 71 arrests.
But the world’s first major act of biological terrorism remains an unsolved crime. Initially the investigation looked for a possible Al-Qaeda or Iraqi link, then to a domestic terrorist, then inwards to the US biodefense program itself.
Analysing the anthrax
The mail anthrax matches the Ames reference strain, which could possibly be traced back, via a tortuous route, to The US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) at Fort Detrick. And in 2001 the US Army Dugway Proving Ground in Nevada confirmed that in recent years it has conducted occasional, limited experiments with fully pathogenic anthrax powders. . . . Former staff at Fort Detrick during the 1990s reveal a research site in disarray with questionable security measures.
The anthrax discovered in the letters mailed to two US senators was so refined that it contained 1 trillion spores per gram. It was milled to produce the size most effective in spreading the bacteria: between one and three microns. This size is characteristic of weaponized anthrax made by US defense laboratories.
Speculation abounds
The lack of a definite result [from lab tests of the anthrax] has fuelled speculation. Most controversially, the finger has been pointed to an American scientist possibly someone formerly associated with the US biological defense program.
Dr Barbara Rosenberg, director of the Federation of American Scientists’ chemical and biological weapons working group, began the scientific sleuthing in February 2002, claiming the FBI is dragging its feet because an arrest would be embarrassing to the US authorities. Dr Rosenberg claims the FBI has known the anthrax mailer’s precise identity for months already, but has deliberately avoided arresting him because he “knows too much” that the United States “isn't very anxious to publicize.”
Given the technical expertise required to produce the mail anthrax, and the small universe of scientists with that knowledge, she estimates that perhaps fewer than 40 people could be suspects, and that the likely perpetrator is a disgruntled scientist. She suggests that there could have been a secret government program to test the practicalities of sending anthrax through the mail. The loosely supervised scientist then used his assignment to launch an attack on the media and Senate “for his own motives”. Hence, the big cover-up.
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