-Caveat Lector- It is pretty clear that the anthrax is domestic the letters read like letters from someone pretending to be a Muslim extremist -- -- -- -- -- - -- - -- -- - - - ----- -- --- -- - - - ---- - -- - - - -- ---- -- - -- -
Never wear your best trousers when you go out to fight for freedom and truth. Henrik Ibsen NEURONAUTIC INSTITUTE on-line: http://home.earthlink.net/~thew > From: Kris Millegan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Reply-To: Conspiracy Theory Research List <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Date: Fri, 26 Oct 2001 11:31:01 EDT > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: [CTRL] Fwd: Where the Anthrax Came From > > > > From: Alex Constantine <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Date: Friday, October 26, 2001 3:36 AM > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Where the Antrax Came From > > �the anthrax is so sophisticated it can only have been produced with > the backing of a government.... New Scientist can reveal that the bacteria > used in the attacks is not a strain that Iraq, or the former Soviet Union, > mass-produced for weapons. In fact, it is either the same strain the US > itself used to make anthrax weapons in the 1960s, or close to it....� > -------------- > New Scientist, 24 October 2001 > > Trail of terror > By Debora MacKenzie > > Who sent the anthrax letters and are there more on the way? > > THE cases just keep coming. Yet it's still not clear who's to blame for the > anthrax attacks, or whether there will be more. With little official > information so far about the nature and origin of the anthrax, claims and > counter-claims have been flying. > > Prominent voices in the US charge that the anthrax is so sophisticated it > can only have been produced with the backing of a government. Their > suspicions are directed at Iraq, which is known to have made anthrax and > other bioweapons. > > But New Scientist can reveal that the bacteria used in the attacks is not a > strain that Iraq, or the former Soviet Union, mass-produced for weapons. In > fact, it is either the same strain the US itself used to make anthrax > weapons in the 1960s, or close to it. Neither the strain nor the physical > form in which it has been sent out is particularly sophisticated, say > bioweapons specialists. > > What may matter more than the strain is how big a batch this anthrax came > from. This could reveal not only how many more of these mailings we can > expect, but also whether the bacteria were brewed in small-scale, makeshift > labs or bigger facilities. > > Work that could tell us is under way at a lab in the US. Crucial > geopolitical decisions could rest on what emerges from the electrophoresis > gels and computer programs of the lab's small band of bacterial geneticists. > > Last week, Tom Ridge, President Bush's newly appointed Homeland Security > adviser, stated that the anthrax sent to Florida, NBC and Senator Tom > Daschle were all the same strain. An FBI spokesman in Florida confirmed the > widespread reports that this was the Ames strain. > > But there has been confusion over what "Ames" means. The name was given to a > strain isolated at the US Department of Agriculture's veterinary lab in > Ames, Iowa, in the 1930s. This strain, which was later shared with > microbiologists around the world, still strikes cattle in the western US. > Recent American military research publications also mention an "Ames" strain > isolated from a cow in Iowa in 1980. > > However, the scientists analysing the anthrax from the attacks are comparing > its DNA with a library of strains collected from all over the world. And in > this collection, what's called "Ames" has more interesting origins. It > emerged in the mid-1980s from a freezer at the Centre for Applied > Microbiology and Research, the British biodefence establishment at Porton > Down, Wiltshire. > > Porton Down had acquired it from the US Army Medical Research Institute for > Infectious Diseases in Maryland. It is, say those who compiled the library, > the strain the US used when it produced anthrax weapons. That programme > ended in 1969, and the mass-produced anthrax was destroyed, although the US > and its allies kept samples. To be identified as "Ames", by these scientists > therefore, the anthrax used in the recent attacks must either be the > American military strain or one that's very similar. > > So why choose this strain? "Ames is certainly a challenge to any vaccine," > says Martin Hugh-Jones of Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge. When > lab animals immunised with the vaccine now being given to thousands of > American troops are exposed to anthrax, many are still killed by the Ames > strain. > > Alternatively, the attackers may simply have wanted a strain of proven > virulence that's hard to trace, says Ken Alibek, former deputy head of the > Soviet bioweapons programme. "If I were a terrorist I would certainly not > use a strain known to be from my country," he told New Scientist. > > The Soviets did not mass-produce Ames, says Alibek. Nor did the Iraqis. Like > Britain in the 1940s, Iraq favoured the Vollum strain, isolated at Oxford in > 1930, which has been identified in samples from its Al Hakam plant. And the > White House reiterated last week that all anthrax mass-produced in the US > was destroyed after 1969. > > Despite this, Ames would not have been have been hard to find. Samples of > the weapons strain were kept in the US and elsewhere. "The South African > collection had hundreds of different strains," Alibek points out. And Wouter > Basson, former head of the South African bioweapons programme, made several > trips to Libya after the fall of the apartheid government in 1994. Ames > could also, of course, have been obtained by someone in the US. > > Important clues also come from the size of the particles used in the > attacks. According to reports last week, they had been milled down to a few > micrometres, which is optimal for causing the inhalation form of the > disease. "The terrorists at least had access to considerable know-how," > concludes Michael Powers of the Chemical and Biological Arms Control > Institute in Washington DC. "This suggests some level of state involvement." > > But Alibek dismisses claims that milling the powder this fine is too hard > for mere terrorists. "You can use readily available equipment to do this," > he says. > > His view is supported by a secret experiment last year called Project > Bacchus, in which employees of the US Department of Defense covertly > produced a kilogram of bacteria similar to anthrax. It was milled to a few > micrometres using machines available openly in the US. > > Nevertheless, the attacks have caused relatively few inhalation cases so > far, which suggests that the spores were not blended with the anti-caking > chemicals used in anthrax weapons to promote airborne spread. This is the > secret of "weaponised" anthrax, says Alibek. He says sending the anthrax in > the mail is a "very primitive" way of distributing it, and suspects the > attackers don't have much material to work with. > > We could soon know. Paul Keim's team at Northern Arizona University in > Flagstaff has pioneered the genetic analysis of anthrax bacilli. Recently, > says team member Kimothy Smith, they have found that some DNA regions mutate > frequently, as often as once in every 1000 cell divisions. > > By comparing the amount of mutation, says Smith, "you can say with a high > degree of confidence how many bacterial generations separate an unknown > strain from closely related reference strains". Looking at which bits of DNA > have changed can also pinpoint the exact strain the unknown anthrax came > from. > > And that's not all. A small batch of anthrax will undergo many fewer cell > divisions than a big batch. It's possible that the analysis could reveal > whether the anthrax came from a 50-litre fermenter of the kind Project > Bacchus obtained or the huge vats of a state-sponsored bioweapons facility. > That could reveal how big an operation the attackers had - and whether we > must expect yet more attacks. > > =-=-=-=-=-= > > > > > <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html <A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html";>Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/";>ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
