1) The Ames strain was isolated from a cow in Texas in 1980 and is endemic to that region, as shown by isolation of another Ames strain from another dead cow in 1997. This does not mean that it had not been previously found in Ames Iowa in the 50s, or in China in 1962.

2) The Ames strain is the so-called "challenge strain" for anthrax - meaning that if a new vaccine is being developed by USAMRIID, Battelle or Emergent Biosolutions (Bioport with a name change), they use the Ames strain - meaning that both Battelle and Bioport, aka Emergent Biosolutions, aka the DHS lolly with close ties to the Bush Administration, have access to the Ames strain. Then there is Pfizer, noted Republican supporter and also a main client of Battelle Pulmonary Therapeutics - see where this litte case leads? Pfizer hopped all over Battelle Pulmonary Therapeutics, didn't they? Oh, guess what - 80% of Pfixer donations go to Republicans. Hmm... Obviously, there is no connection. Or is there? Hard to say, isn't it?

3) So much for the genetics - you want an exact match, you have to do whole genome sequencing - just ask the leading expert, Paul Keim. He WILL tell you the same thing I'm telling you - he has already, look it up. The FBI genetic forensics is flagrant bullshit, and they are not even reporting the physical forensics.

4) Nobody knows who did this. The list of plausible suspects extends from the Defense Intelligence Agency to the CIA to Battelle Pulmonary Therapeutics (I think I'll pass) to Emergent Biosolutions and then where. Here's a name for you, though: Wilbur Gantz, a member of Battelle Pulmonary Therapeutics.

In the spirit of the FBI's persection of Bruce Ivins, here is a new suspect - a member of BPT - for your consideration (but don't forget Ted Turner! (Google "turner anthrax" for "The Real Story")

Wilbur H. Gantz, is retired from PathoGenesis, which he founded and then served as President, CEO and Chairman. PathoGenesis, which was acquired by Chiron Corporation in September 2000, develops and markets drugs to treat chronic human infectious diseases. PathoGenesis developed and marketed worldwide TOB, the first aerosolized antibiotic solution to receive regulatory approval. Previously, he was president of Baxter International, Inc. where he held a number of executive positions during his 25-year career there. Gantz also is currently a director of The Gillette Company; W.W. Grainger, Inc. and the Harris Bank and Trust Company. He is a past trustee of Princeton University.

Yes, I'm connecting the dots - just like the FBI.

the Mounties: "We always get our man"

the FBI: "We always get somebody"

ROTFL (Rolling on the floor laughing)

The FBI case is crap. Any lawyer - even the drunk and destitute public defenders - could have gotten this case tossed with their eyes closed.

The PR trail is immense, though - and the conspiracy theory monkeys are definitely at it - look at what Alternet ran: "Dick Cheney did it." The same Alternet that pulls down millions every year from secretive corporate-funded non-profits - gack. Conclusion? The so-called "non-profit alternative media" is a bad joke - privately funded propaganda that serves the interests of the neocon agenda. Give me the corporate media any day - at least they are trackable.

The proof? The silence on the anthrax case. Pattern recognition is the best tool for analysis of this issue, by the way. Don't know what I'm talking about? Get yourself an education. Lie, steal, cheat, whatever - but please - educate yourself.

Yours, Ike Solem ike_solm@hotmail.com

I personally think the whole case against Ivins turns on his opportunity to mail the letters and on their postmarked date. If it turns out that it was impossible for him to mail them, then he had nothing to do with the crime or, horrors!, it was a conspiracy. That he had help. Surely lone nuts never do. This pivotal fact of being able to mail or not to mail is so important that the FBI will back-pedal to the news orgs in order to back-fill when there are contradictions making the original suppositions about Ivins's whereabouts false. But what WAS he doing on the day the letters were mailed? Surely there is some evidence of where he was and where he therefore could not be. The silence is deafening after the original story.

That said, the points made about how skepticism about the government's official story is treated as harebrained conspiracy theory are right on.

I might go further. Saddam as anthrax-sender was something originally promoted by which agencies? Surely NOT the FBI. Was it the Pentagon? Remember the stories (made up out of whole cloth) that one of the " 9/11 hijackers" had cutaneous anthrax? What ever happened to that? Remember the crop-duster stories and the linkage with the death of the Florida photographer?

Not only were the victims meaningful to the story, so were the original falsehoods about perps, and the callous unconcern with which they were proferred to a terrified public, as though someone knew there was no vital security matter at stake. As though a lie did not endanger the public, but merely reinforced the case for war with someone we now know was not to blame. How much was bin Laden to blame for 9/11, I wonder. You have to wonder, don't you? Even if it is considered holy writ that even if Saddam didn't do the anthrax or participate in 9/11, bin Laden did. But isn't it a maxim of the law that once you impeach a liar on the stand, his credibility is shot for all time? We know about some lies, but do we know about all the lies?

In a way, the FBI comes off a little better than some other agencies here, because at least they early on identified the killer as domestic. That must have really annoyed the administration.

Oh yes, and one more thing. How quickly the anthrax plot unfolded after 9/11. I thought that lone nuts acted on their own time, especially with something as sensitive as this. And the way it all fit with the legislation following 9/11. Remarkable. As though someone knew what was coming.