http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-anthrax19-2008aug19,0,7852992.story

or click sig

The really interesting question is how the FBI went about collecting samples from different labs to test. If you recall, the FBI shut down and searched Detrick in 2004, after Richard Lambert took over the investigation - was that ever done at Dugway or West Jefferson Ohio?

The real issue is that the anthrax spores were from the Ames strain of anthrax - were all the samples collected by the FBI also Ames strain types? The Ames strain is also used in vaccine trials as the "challenge strain" - meaning that West Jefferson Ohio has access to both the Ames strain and the technology needed to weaponize them.

If they had a perfect match, they should have sequenced the entire genome to confirm. In other words, the genetics is so far unsupported - and the physical forensics is not even reported.

Kaycees: You are so completely wrong, it is not even funny. If you loaded up an unmanned aerial vehicle with 500 pounds of the material sent in the Oct 9th letters and circled around over New York City and Long Island, spores would blanket the city, and would be almost impossible to clean up. A hundred thousand people might die and millions more would flee, turning the region into a ghost town - and that's not my scenario, that's the result of a CDC national emergency training exercise.

More on the FBI's briefing from the Frederick Post (link signit):

Dr. James Burans, associate lab director of the Department of Homeland Security's National Biodefense Forensic Analysis Center, said the anthrax powder used in the mailings could have been produced by one person in three to seven days.

Dr. James Burans, Naval Medical Research Institute, Bethesda, MD - a close collaborator with Battelle. The guy has even published papers with Battelle employees, as the senior author, no less:

Title:Integrated optic immunoassay for virus detection

Authors: Boiarski, Anthony A.; Busch, James R.; Miller, Larry S.; Zulich, A. W.; Burans, James

Affiliation: Battelle Memorial Institute/Columbus Div., Edgewood Research, Development and Engineering Ctr., Naval Medical Research Institute.

Too much. Basically, Battelle is off limits because it is a flagship of the efforts to privatize all U.S. government functions. Battelle runs government-owned nuclear and biowarfare facilities for the government as the core of its business, and then tries to commercialize that military technology on the side. That's the central theme in the U.S. government these days: everything must be privatized.

This is actually a good example of Naomi Klein's shock doctrine theme - the 9/18 and 10/9 attacks were a shock that led to the passage of the Patriot Act, a 20-fold explosion in federal biowarfare contracts - and the main beneficiaries have been Battelle and a handful of other firms - Project Bioshield. Try a google news search for Project Bioshield.

Nevertheless, here's an example of the crap put out by the press today: "At a press conference this week, government investigators demonstrated beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Ivins — who committed suicide before he could be indicted — was their man."

Really too much.

To be specific, I think only a small, but vocal, proportion of Americans actually 'love' war, though they do probably have a disproportionate effect on presidential races. The rest of us, I think are caught in the old catch 22. We hate war, of course, but this half century old war economy has guaranteed such an amazing lifestyles that we certainly don't want to lose any of that by going out and getting ourselves arrested protesting a war (and I mean ARRESTED, as in not days, but months and even years). That's one facet. Its a fool's game, though. Now that other large nations have gotten the taste for affluence, they'll need more oil and more resources, and they'll need war economies too. And there's not enough for everybody. This is reflected a bit in Russia v. Georgia, and that's just the start. Paul Krugman made some depressing observations about the similarities between the current period, and the pre World War 1 globalized world. It can only get worse, as populations grow larger, and new players (China, Russia, India) with their own dice get in the game for what's left of the world's energy resources.

Some interesting quotes from yesterday's FBI briefing:

"There were a lot of lessons learned," FBI Assistant Director Vahid Majidi said. "Were we perfect? Absolutely not. We've had missteps, and those are the lessons learned. ... It was over the last few years that we were able to incorporate all of the lessons learned that we have throughout this investigation."

The complete genome mapping of the unique killer strain _ the cornerstone of the forensic case _ won't be public for months, maybe more than a year, because it will be published in peer-reviewed scientific journals that take time. The outsiders who had questions about the government's case wanted to see the complete genomic map sooner.

"There are still many nagging questions about this," said Dr. Michael Stebbins, who directs the Federation of American Scientists' biosecurity project and wasn't at the Monday's briefing. "Unfortunately a lot of them are not going to be able to be answered in the immediate future."

Majidi understands that: "I don't think, No. 1, we're ever going to put the suspicions to bed. There's always going to be a spore on the grassy knoll."

http://www.wtopnews.com/?nid=116&sid=1453011. The story is also available on Salon: http://www.salon.com/5things/2008/08/18/fbi_destroyed_anthra/index.html

Dr. Vahid Majidi is the Assistant Director, Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate for the FBI. http://www.fbi.gov/libref/executives/majidi.htm. From his biography it does not look like he is an expert in this type of investigation.

The 9/11 anthrax attacks *in context*:

BEGIN ARTICLE

http://infowars.net/articles/august2008/150808Investigation.htm

Steve Watson

Infowars.net

Friday, August 15, 2008

Judiciary Committee To Investigate Plot To Paint Plane In UN Colors And Provoke Shootdown Over Iraq

Conyers conducting examination into intelligence fixing and forgery

As part of a major examination into the evidence that the Bush administration forged intelligence documents to justify the invasion of Iraq, the House Judiciary Committee will also look into various considerations, plots and attempts to provoke war, including the idea of goading Saddam Hussein to shoot down a mock UN plane.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers has announced that he and his staff will investigate the evidence most recently collated and presented by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ron Suskind in his book The Way of the World: A Story of Truth and Hope in an Age of Extremism.

According to a press release earlier this week, Conyers' office will examine:

"Reported examples of the Bush Administration considering other deceptive schemes to justify or provoke war with Iraq, such as the reported consideration of painting a U.S. aircraft with UN colors in order to provoke Iraq into military confrontation."

The revelation first appeared in February 2006 when minutes of George Bush and Tony Blair's pre-war January 2003 meeting surfaced. Amongst the clear evidence that the two were planning to begin military action on March 10th 2003, irrespective of whether the United Nations had passed a new resolution authorizing the use of force or not, came the provocation idea.

President Bush said: "The US was thinking of flying U2 reconnaissance aircraft with fighter cover over Iraq, painted in UN colors. If Saddam fired on them, he would be in breach."

He went on: "It was also possible that a defector could be brought out who would give a public presentation about Saddam's WMD, and there was also a small possibility that Saddam would be assassinated."

The investigation will primarily focus on the evidence that the White House ordered the CIA to forge a handwritten letter from the head of Iraq's intelligence service to Saddam Hussein that purported to link the Iraqi dictator to the ringleader of the hijackers Mohammed Atta, as outlined by Suskind in his book.

It will also review the evidence that the Bush Administration deliberately ignored information from Iraq’s chief intelligence officer that Saddam Hussein possessed no WMDs and instead forged intelligence to suggest he had an active weapons program.

In an interview with Democracy Now! John Conyers called the investigation "the most critical investigation of the entire Bush administration".

END ARTICLE

It's rather difficult to miss the pattern, eh? The mainstream media, however, are working overtime to not see the pattern. In fact, they have played a key role in enabling several of these frame-ups. At the moment, they are laboring mightily to erase the Bruce Ivins case from the public memory.