(like my practice wife). In my state only one party has to be aware that there is a recording being made.

Do I dare ask exactly what a "practice wife" might be?

The laws vary from state to state. Hence, Linda Tripp, Monica and the blue dress and there were even some controvery and questions about that. But that article at Boing Boing does suggest that for some interviews, back-up recording systems, like redundancy in flight controls, is not a bad idea. That guy got an interview with Martha Stewart, prolly on her insider trading scandal, that he would never have been granted twice. His two primary recording methods failed him.

Glenn calls for an independent commission, which is quasi-governmental in that it would no doubt have subpoena powers and so forth, but it would still be a creature of the Government with (likely) an interest in preserving, protecting, and defending that Government (as opposed to the Constitution, oaths or no), and -- like so many other commissions set up to investigate this or that matter, might well obscure matters more.

Che, there is some overlap, but also some unwarranted conflation or even confusion between the three, don't you think? The lines get blurred. WE the people are the government (democracy) and it is a government of laws (constitution) not men. Very confusing. And the state and the government are not one and the same, any more than the country is the same as the state, or the government.

Two rounds of tests for anthrax on the letter to Microsoft from Malaysia were inconclusive.

October 14, 2001

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0110/14/sm.01.html

"And in Nevada, a third round of tests now confirms a suspicious letter delivered to a Microsoft office in Reno, Nevada contained anthrax bacteria."

DATE= 10/15/01

TYPE= CORRESPONDENT REPORT

NUMBER=2-281812

TITLE= MALAYSIA / ANTHRAX (L ONLY)

BYLINE= SCOTT BOBB

DATELINE= KUALA LUMPUR

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Malaysian officials are expressing dismay over reports that a letter containing anthrax discovered in the United States (state of Nevada) was mailed from Malaysia and are asking for more information. Southeast Asia correspondent Scott Bobb reports from Kuala Lumpur that it is but one of several cases that have prompted fears of biological terrorism.

TEXT: Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad Monday said he wants the United States to provide information about the incident so that his government can launch an investigation. He told reporters so far he has not received any information but pledged full cooperation with the U-S government in investigating the case.

The Malaysian prime minister made the remarks before meeting U-S Special Trade representative Robert Zoellick, who expressed appreciation for the pledge.

/// ZOELLICK ACT ///

The Malaysia government promptly pointed out that this was a dreadful turn of events. I think that is an excellent description of it. And so we have to get to the bottom of it. There're various reports of where these things may or may not have come from. And I think we will try to do that because we have a common interest in not letting people use disease to kill innocent people.

/// END ACT ///

The U-S trade representative also met Monday with Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar, who later said he does not believe the letter came from Malaysia. The foreign minister said he expressed concern to Ambassador Zoellick that unverified reports could tarnish Malaysia's image at a time when its economy is already reeling from a drop in tourism and the global economic downturn.

/// REST OPT ///

Officials in the western U-S state of Nevada are investigating a letter contaminated with anthrax that was received at an office of the Microsoft software company. The letter contained a check that had reportedly been sent to a company vendor in Malaysia. But the letter was returned. The check and envelope reportedly were not contaminated, but pornographic material that had been placed inside was. Four people were tested for anthrax contamination but the results were negative.

It was the third case of anthrax exposure in a week. One person died last week in the southern state of Florida and several people were hospitalized after reportedly being exposed to anthrax. (signed)

NEB/SB/FC

Source:

VOA news

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/2001/10/mil-011015-20c92759.htm

or click on signature.

1) Genome screening:

So, if I read your comment right...you're supposed to use the rapid-test to screen for potential matches, and then do full-sequence scans on those matches to verify? And they stopped at "well, this potentially matches, so it's good enough for us", without testing any strains from other labs? -- Silash

Given the very limited information in the FBI documents, it’s pretty much impossible to tell what they did. They say they have four markers, which sounds like the older work done by the Keim group. Without looking at the actual details, very little can be said - but it doesn’t appear that they sequenced whatever was in the flask - work that would have been done by TIGR. From the Aug 04 LA Times article:

As the investigation ground on, authorities enlisted colleagues of J. Craig Venter, founder of a Rockville, Md., institute that had helped map the human genome...

...Venter said federal investigators within the last two years retrieved the anthrax evidence from the institute. "FBI came in and took freezers and all the samples," he said in an interview Sunday.

So, it doesn’t look like any whole genome sequencing of the flask strain was done.

2) Regarding Battelle (propensity):

Battelle calls itself a non-profit organization promoting scientific research. They are certainly a defense contractor, but not in the typical Lockheed/Boeing kind of way.

That’s not actually true. For example, Battelle is the lead technology owner on the so-called FutureGen project - the implausible plan to burn coal without emitting anything that was championed by the Bush Administration, a billion dollar project that the DOE recently pulled out of.

Battelle has many sections and divisions and is pretty hard to track down. It often acts as a subcontractor for a wide variety of companies, often quite secretly (for example, the only place Vaxgen disclosed that all of its anthrax vaccine work would be subcontracted to Battelle was in SEC filings.)

Battelle also manages five other labs for the federal government, and is involved in a whole host of other projects, always hiding behind some other named consortium. The Midwest Research Institute, that controls the direction of research at the National Renewable Energy Lab? A Battelle-Bechtel collaboration. Oak Ridge nuclear labs, Idaho nuclear labs, Brookhaven nuclear labs - all are managed by Battelle, indirectly via consortiums that Battelle belongs to.

Lawrence Livermore LLC? Also a Battelle, Bechtel, BWXT, U Texas / U Calif consortium. There are quite a few other examples. The role that Battelle Ventures plays in all of this is unclear - a fund that channels cash to other areas? They claim to be a non-profit, so their finances enjoy an extra level of shielding - so all in all, they are not really like Lockheed - Boeing - they are something much stranger and far more secretive. From all appearances, they sit right at the heart of the U.S. nuclear and biological warfare complexes.

What they also are is a federal poster child for public-private partnerships, the seamless joining of corporate and government interests, where funding is provided by the government, and patents are privately held, and there is zero legal accountability for the actions of the government “partners”. Battelle, in other words, is a techno-science version of Blackwater. If Dr. Strangelove was alive today in the United States, he’d most likely be a Battelle employee.

It’s not too hard to understand why this government would be willing to go to great lengths to protect this particular institution - the world’s largest privately held R&D corporation. They’ve been around ever since the Manhattan Project, when they were involved in the gaseous diffusion plant in Oak Ridge, TN.

As far as the non-profit status? Well, there are reasons for that, mostly related to Battelle’s long-term involvement in nuclear R&D for civilian and military purposes - it’s mostly about avoiding liability:

The 1988 amendments to the Price-Anderson [Nuclear Accident Indemnity] Act enabled DOE to assess civil fines and penalties against its contractors, but it specifically exempted DOE nonprofit contractors as well as their for-profit and nonprofit subcontractors and suppliers

Yes, they are on the short list of DOE exempted contractors. Exposure of Battelle as the source of the anthrax would likely have far-reaching consequences, and could easily lead to a large review of the entire issue of unaccountable public-private partnerships and government defense contracting. That may be the main reason for this state of affairs, perhaps.

Ike Solem