Google WEB turns up hits; Google NEWS doesn't- my opednews article goes into some detail on this

Thank you *so* much, Glenn, for picking up the widely-ignored fact that the Princeton area is chock-full of biopharmaceutical companies large and small.

As an area resident, it has been my suspicion all along that the anthrax came from a corporate lab in central NJ working under some kind of secret, Black Budget government contract. The longer the case has gone unsolved, the more convinced I've become that a private company must be involved -- the Bush administration would never protect a purely public lab so thoroughly.

The Batelle connection definitely is worth looking into, but they're just one possibility -- I don't think we know yet who in central NJ might have had access to the anthrax.

As a biomedical science writer who already knew *way* more about anthrax than I was comfortable with, I also suspect that the anthrax perp(s) did not get the results they were expecting: I don't think they expected the anthrax to get out of the envelopes & into the postal system the way it did. This may be why the attacks don't seem to have been repeated.

Or it may be that the invasion of Iraq was their goal, so from their POV the anthrax attacks were basically successful.

Perhaps certain people in Congress knew that we were creating weaponized anthrax and might face penalties for permitting the US to violate international treaties...much the same way those same people in Congress knew about torture and warrantless surveillance and did nothing.

They learned from the Nixon years that you need to get Congress in on it so they won't investigate.

Hooray science!

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?

You and Jane, et al, are highly commended from these quarters for your efforts to educate the public on the glaring loopholes in this anthrax 'breakthrough' by the FBI.

As the evidence has emerged from the White House's destruction of intelligence operative Valerie Plame, of its partisan witchhunt under the auspices of a completely discredited Justice Department, of its forgeries and lies to provoke a war with Iraq while leaving Osama Bin Laden unmolested, its use of torture, murder and denials of due process, its effort to wiretap numerous Americans for the 'crime' of opposing Bush's dirty deals and other examples too numerous to cite, there's one clear pattern that emerges.

Truth is immaterial. Policy is not based on the nation's best interests. Everything is secondary to winning the next election. Period.

So while Karl Rove and Harriet Miers stonewall the Congressional investigation without any lawful merit for doing so, the pattern emerges once again, hoping to fool Americans again to trust those that have failed the trust test repeatedly.

WE get a series of terrorist trials, just in time for the election season. We get a 'breakthrough' on the anthrax case without that pesky thing called 'evidence', we get claims that the surge has 'won' the war in Iraq after Baghdad's been divided into a rat maze, the professional classes have fled that country, and Kirkuk is on the verge of a rupture that will again disrupt oil markets and provoke the threat of military conflict with Turkey.

Every bit of it timed to the campaign season, so McCain can claim the legacy of Bush, with his multiple 'victories' against terrorists.

Accountability. Truth. Both concepts have been abandoned by too many elected politicians and their corporate media defenders. The efforts you and Jane are putting forth demonstrate those old concepts can be renewed as a force to be reckoned with. Give them hell; they've earned it. And more important, the taxpayers and citizens deserve to see the lies and distortions fully exposed so they can exercise their rights and responsibilities knowledgeably.

Then we might be able to focus on our real enemies, foreign and domestic and root out the rotted carcasses of all the dead ethics and destroyed rights that have fallen in the name of political wins for the few at the expense of our national - and individual - interests.

Next up for the right wing, massive strike on America. Let's get in line, people.

According to yet another unnamed source, CNN is reporting that Ivins took an unscheduled leave during the day he is thought to have mailed the letters in Princeton.

Link at bottom.

Like totally solid evidence man.

"On Wednesday night, I had a 45-minute discussion with MIT Professor Noam Chomsky on wide-ranging matters, which was scheduled to run today, but a technical glitch destroyed all but the last six minutes of the recording."

Glenn Greenwald,

How about exploiting our 'Surveillance State' for good instead of evil? Submit a FOIA request for the lost portion of your interview. Or just ask one of the telecoms. Or homeland security.

Of course, if you feel that'd be somehow counterproductive, taken out of context, or whatnot, I'll understand.

I thought about it, and still might, but I need to keep the whole episode out of my mind for a little longer still in order for the misery to subside.

Very good point of comparison regarding Colin Powell's WMD case to the UN before the war. I very distinctly remember just how sold almost everyone was by his presentation, and how depressing/infuriating that was to me.

You're right, if the government can be so monumentally wrong and deceptive on a matter of war and peace, why not on this latest mystery?

Deepest condolences on the loss of your Chomsky recording.

Glenn, I use a Olympus WS-110 WMA Digital Voice Recorder with a phone attachment (Olympus ME-15 Microphone). It works graet and it records in mp3 file extension. Both can be had on Amazon for less than $80.

that explains the investigations, the sequences, the people, the techniques, the evidence, etc.

This was, after all, "a terrorist act" that killed some, injured others and frightened millions. "Cased closed" is insufficient. It is doubtful, given the history of this investigation, that even one "Warren Commission" type sifting and reporting will be sufficient, but the place to start is "the evidence."

It has gone on so long and remains so murky, the public record remains so confusing and so self-contradictory. This would then provide a "solid" argument for rebuttal or demand for further clarification.

Flawed as it would undoubtedly be, the good people at "Frontline" would then have a place to begin ....