With all the tape, ink, fiber, hair and bio-scrub material the FBI has collected since Nov 2007, absence of proof here feels like (tentative) proof of absence.

Clutch Cargo! You are an investigator! A bit brash, tho

It was pretty exciting for a minute there. But I'm glad it settled, it would have been too much if it was true.

And Mr. Cult, I thought, climbed down with a much dignity as a person can muster in that situation. I know I couldn't have.

But above all, the shameless manipulation of these attacks by the Bush administration to beat War On Iraq drums, along with the eager connivance of media, shines clearly from the heretofore unplumbed nadir reached in this episode, if you get my drift. Nod-nod, wink-wink.

I heard Wolf Blizer say something but it was very vague.

The charge that he (deliberately) submitted material from a DIFFRERENT flask ... and, the other vague charge I've heard nothing concrete about, that he tried to make another employee look guilty ... are probably the most troubling... though the latter could have been an attempt at "helping the police" and "gilding the lily" to convict someone he actually believed was a guilty party (I'm guessing Hatfil).

We haven't heard yet from Hatfil who was contacted last week but declined to comment given ongoing investigation, suicide, etc.

Ivin may be guilty ... but I'm far from convinced ... too many questions remain and no rebuttal yet heard... given the harrassment, I'm amazed he survived as long as he did.

That was a hell of an enjoyable rant. I read it twice. You almost morphed into Rufus there for a moment. I wonder what happened to Rufus. I miss him. He was a talented ranter, as well as an accomplished misspeller. There's an art to it. Yours was very good.

This shouldn't surprise anyone but reading the first document by the postal inspector I was reminded of my many years working for the letter carriers' union in the Post Office. Postal Inspectors routinely write up their memos with the worst possible slant towards their intended target. They can make Mother Theresa look like the worst, most corrupt gang leader. After years of training, it comes natural to them.

Just a thought. Back to the documents.

It's funnier that that. The letters are to "various members of society."

Then the focus on media and Senators as if this were ominous. It would be, if the letters were only to Media and Senators. But they are not.

What do they say? Are they polite?

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2008/0806081anthrax5.html

False alarm apparently. Wrong JW. But heed my warning about jumping to conclusions. We all do it, but CC has an agenda and an obvious bias in all this and that means the facts will tend to lead him where he might want them to go, not where the facts would to take an objective investigator. I'm just watching while you all whitewash the fence. Fun, ain't it?

Tom Sawyer

The more I think about it, the more I think the DOJ did the "transparent" redactions purposefully to release information and identities that "should" have been redacted.

Oh well, more to go.

The rabbit hole is lovely, dark and deep.

I heard Wolf Blizer say something but it was very vague.

The charge that he (deliberately) submitted material from a DIFFRERENT flask ...

(it's so damning, you would think they would emphasize it more. There's something more to the story, or they are overstating it.)

"and, the other vague charge I've heard nothing concrete about, that he tried to make another employee look guilty ... are probably the most troubling... though the latter could have been an attempt at "helping the police" and "gilding the lily" to convict someone he actually believed was a guilty party (I'm guessing Hatfil)."

Not Hatfill. Hatfill didn't work there.

It's a joke, the FBI is taking selected facts to make him look guilty. The "long drive" story is ridiculous. So what, he took a long drive once. So?

and he was unarousable when found around 0130 a.m. It's possible he had anoxic injury (if his brain wasn't getting oxygen because he was "unable to defend his airway" (iow, he was passed out and -- in combination with whatever else was in his system -- his reflexes were shot so he didn't reflexively adjust his position when he wasn't breathing well.)

As far as I can tell, liver failure, once in progress, is hard to impossible to turn around. It's more like a creeping organ death. In contrast, acute kidney failure fairly often corrects to near-normal function with supportive care (even dialysis if needed) (Most dialysis patient have had years of chronic renal failure with progressive deterioration of kidney function.)

Not that you deserve it.

BA Radiation Biophysics, University of Kansas

PhD Molecular Biology, UCLA

Postdoctoral research, yeast genetics, UC Berkeley

Postdoctoral research, retroviruses, Stanford

Biopesticide start-up senior scientist 10 years on artificial culture of insect parasitic nematodes (as far as I know, this is still the only industrial process for stirred-tank fermentation of a multicellular animal)

My own biopesticide start-up 10 years, artificial diets for predatory insects and artifical culture of a bacterial parasite of plant nematodes (raised about $5 million in venture capital, private investments and government grants for that operation away from the main biotech hubs)

Several patents, trademarks and scientific publications

If you had been paying attention to my posts, you would have seen me go back and forth over the last few days on my feelings about whether the attack material came from Dugway. The key to that is whether the spores were treated with high tech materials. There are highly conflicting reports out there on this and the information in the search warrant affidavit does not clear that up. Matt Meselson at Harvard notes that silicon was found in B. subtilis spores years ago. The FBI documents don't allow us to distinguish between silicon that may be a structural component of the spore as Meselson suggests or silicon as a component of silica or other glass-like coatings. If they would make the X-ray spectra avaialable, along with spectra of reference samples of purified spores alone and weaponized spores from Dugway, that question could be answered unequivocally in a few seconds. (By the way, I was busy writing a blog post asking that very question when you started your attack on me).

The post you reacted so strongly to was just my quick summary of what I found in the warrant documents. I wasn't trying to say that was the truth, I was just summarizing what they claimed as the basis of their reason for getting the search warrant. You jumped to a very wrong conclusion about the reason for that post and jumped all the way to accusing someone who, as far as I know, is totally unrelated to the discussion at hand.

I want to know the truth here. If RMR-1029 is purified spores with a high technology coating and was produced at Dugway, then Dugway and Battelle have a lot to answer for whether Ivins sent the attack material or not.

Spertzel has been a tool for the neocons for years and has been one of the leading dissemblers for the case for the invasion of Iraq. I don't trust him for a second. It is entirely possible that he is intentionally deflecting attention from Dugway. You should give that idea some serious thought.

Click my name for the blog post I was working on when you attacked me.