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--- Original Message ---
From: "jill stallard" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Cnd-elist] Anthrax and Porton Down
Date: Wed, 20 Mar 2002 17:55h
IS WEST THE SOURCE OF DEADLY ANTHRAX?
Western Daily Press - and Bath Chronicle - 16 March 2002
http://www.westpress.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=71037&command=displayConte
nt&sourceNode=70589&contentPK=1271788 and
http://bristol.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=467&group=webcast
The worldwide search for the anthrax killer last night dramatically switched to
Britain's top secret bio-defence centre at Porton Down in Wiltshire. Yesterday the
Press reported how the deadly anthrax attacks which have claimed the lives of five
people and left 13 other infected may have been the result of CIA research which went
disastrously wrong. Now intelligence sources have revealed the top-secret West base
has become the focus of a �2.5million FBI hunt for the terrorist who terrified the
United States with an unprecedented wave of anthrax attacks. The FBI were yesterday
urgently checking to see if the milled weapons-refined anthrax used in the US is a
strain of anthrax from Porton Down codenamed 'Ames'.
We can reveal that MI5 officers have been closely involved with the FBI since the
anthrax outbreak in the States and that senior intelligence officers have made several
visits to the West germ-warfare base. The MI5 findings were sent to FBI Director
Robert Mueller, and a source close to the director last night told the Press that the
"Porton Down connection is highly valuable".
Since the Gulf War, the long-established relationship with the US biochemical defence
programme and Porton Down has deepened, with the Wiltshire base "an equal partner"
according to Washington intelligence expert, Eric Olson.
Mr Olson told the Press yesterday:
"Porton Down is working flat out trying to discover what are the latest nerve agents
being created by Saddam Hussein. My information is that Iraq has considerably advanced
in the area since the Gulf War."
Scientists working with the FBI say the Ames anthrax strain was sent from Porton Down
in 1997 to America's most secret germ-manufacturing plant. The top-secret plant is
known as Camp 12 and is sited in the depths of the
high-security Nellis military range in Nevada.
The area is guarded by armed troops and state-of-the-art detection equipment. Until
now the plant has been a closely guarded secret, its existence repeatedly denied. But
now the FBI has focused on the plant's contact with Porton Down.President Bush's
spokesman, Ari Fleischer, has confirmed: "Camp 12 is created to mimic steps a rogue
state like Iraq would take to create a bio-arsenal. It is designed to protect our
servicemen and women from such weapons." The FBI have not ruled out a scientist with a
grudge may have worked at Camp 12 and obtained quantity of the milled Ames strain from
Porton Down to create the fear and panic still ongoing in America. Professor Martin
Hugh-Jones, of Louisiana State University, a worldranking authority on anthrax, said:
"The attacks have all the signs of being done by an expert microbiologist working in
the bio-defence industry. It is virtually impossible for Ames to be used by
terrorists."
Washington-based Dr Barbara Sternberger, an expert in bio-defence research, monitors
work going on at Fort Detrick, America's other biochemical research complex. She said:
"The FBI have a shortlist of people. They have all been interviewed. But suspicion and
proof are two different things."
Next week suspicions may harden as MI5 report to the FBI on the trail that sent the
deadly Anthrax spores flying out in lead containers from Porton Down some 5,000 miles
to Camp 12 in Nevada. The FBI believe this evidence will enable them to establish if
their chief suspect learned some of his expertise while working at Porton Down. There
are regular exchange visits between the establishment and scientists from Fort Detrick
and Camp 12. An FBI psycho-profiler said the prime suspect is a loner with equipment
costing no more than �2,000.
Added the Quantico-based profiler: "He is not the traditional 'mad scientist' with
long hair and a crazed laugh.He's going to turn out to be the classic member of his
community. But he's unlikely to be married. If he was, his wife or kids would have
turned him in by now."
A Ministry of Defence spokesman last night denied Porton Down was under investigation
but the Western Daily Press stands by its report. Gordon Thomas is an intelligence
analyst and author of bestsellers Gideon's Spies and Seeds of Fire.
_____________________________
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