However, the same story has the FBI saying: ---------------------------------- Federal investigators, however, have said they are targeting someone with knowledge of science, possibly a scientist with military links, in their hunt for those behind the anthrax attacks. The New York Times quoted FBI spokesman John Collingwood as saying the possibility of a link between the alleged hijackers and the anthrax attacks had been fully investigated months ago. 'Exhaustive testing did not support that anthrax was present anywhere the hijackers had been. While we always welcome new information, nothing new has in fact developed.' ----------------------------------
So what about those military links (more - much more - at the end of this post)? ---------------------------------- http://www.sunspot.net/news/custom/attack/bal-te.anthrax24mar24.story?coll=b al-home-headlines "In recent weeks, FBI agents have repeatedly visited the Army's biodefense center at Fort Detrick in Frederick, one of more than 20 laboratories in the United States and several foreign countries that have the Ames strain of anthrax used in the mail attacks. The agents have given polygraph exams to employees with access to anthrax and have studied records of the bacteria, said workers at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases." ----------------------------------
So at this stage we have the head of the JHCCBS contradicting the FBI, which has its eye on Ft. Detrick. Now for something more bizzare: The former head of the JHCCBS, D.A. Henderson, who is now director of the office of public health preparedness, was a vocal critic of Ft. Detrick for its experiments on animals and especially for not destroying the last specimens of smallpox in the US (link courtesy Charles Januzzi). http://college3.nytimes.com/guests/articles/2001/11/18/883509.xml ---------------------------------- It is a season that is quickly becoming fraught with complications for Dr. Henderson, who has spent the past decade waging a determined, passionate — and, critics say, misguided — campaign to destroy the last remaining vials of the smallpox virus, in part to prevent it from being misused. This week, the Bush administration decided to retain the virus so scientists can use it to develop a range of new vaccines and treatments for the disease.
The decision means that the smallpox germ will very likely outlive Dr. Henderson, who is now in the uncomfortable position of having to defend the White House stance.
"There is a lot of concern about what D. A. in his new, highly exalted position, is going to say," said Dr. Peter Jahrling, a virologist at the Army's bioterrorism preparedness laboratory in Fort Detrick, Md., who has been Dr. Henderson's chief opponent in the destruction controversy. "Is he actually going to change his tune?" ----------------------------------
So the Bush admin hires this guy to muzzle him and Ft. Detrick is given the go-ahead for smallpox research. Henderson should be outraged. But what does he do? He practically endorses a cockamamie story about the S11 guys having anthrax that gets Ft. Detrick off the hook. BTW Henderson's successor and former assistant at JHCCBS is loyal to and a big fan of her ex-boss, so no surprise that they spin the same spin:
---------------------------------- A top federal bioterrorism official said yesterday that he found "awfully suspicious" the fact that a Sept. 11 hijacker sought treatment for a lesion resembling cutaneous anthrax. Dr. Donald A. Henderson, commenting on a report in The New York Times yesterday, cautioned that there isn't necessarily a connection between the hijackers and the anthrax-laced letters that killed five people last fall. ----------------------------------
Then he bad-mouths the FBI because Ft. Detrick is supposed to house the samples gathered by the FBI as evidence and unsurprisingly, it's dragging its feet:
---------------------------------- The institute is preparing a room to receive samples of Ames anthrax subpoenaed last month from labs around the country. But the room is not yet fully equipped to receive the samples, so the labs have been given extensions to comply with the subpoenas, institute spokeswoman Caree Vander Linden said last week. Henderson, who said the FBI does not share investigative information with him, said he was puzzled that the bureau has taken so long to collect the samples, which are to be compared scientifically with the mailed anthrax. "You'd think they would have done that in the first couple of weeks," Henderson said. "It's given anyone a chance to get rid of any evidence that may have existed." ----------------------------------
Something is going on with Henderson. Anyway, the Anthrax guy is practically nailed. He's Lt. Col. Philip Zack, former head of the pathology lab at Ft. Detrick, fired for Arab-baiting, and seen sneaking into the lab at night, leaving behind him slide labels entitled "anthrax 005". Here's the full story:
Hakki
Monday, January 21, 2002, 12:00 a.m. Pacific http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/134393798_anthrax21.html Deadly specimens disappeared from Army research lab in '90s
By Jack Dolan and Dave Altimari The Hartford Courant
Lab specimens of anthrax spores, Ebola virus and other pathogens disappeared from the Army's biological-warfare research facility in the early 1990s during a turbulent period of labor complaints and recriminations among rival scientists there, documents from an internal Army inquiry show.
The 1992 inquiry also found evidence that someone was secretly entering a laboratory late at night to conduct unauthorized research, apparently involving anthrax. A numerical counter on a piece of lab equipment had been rolled back to hide work done by the mystery researcher, who left the misspelled label "antrax" in the machine's electronic memory, according to the documents obtained by The Hartford Courant.
Experts disagree on whether the lost specimens pose a danger. An Army spokeswoman said they do not, because they would have been killed by chemicals used to prepare them for microscopic study. A prominent molecular biologist said, however, that anthrax spores could be retrieved from a treated specimen.
In addition, a scientist who once worked at the Army facility said that because of poor inventory controls, it is possible some of the specimens went missing while still viable, before being treated.
Not in dispute is what the incidents say about disorganization and lack of security in some quarters of the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, or USAMRIID, at Fort Detrick, Md., in the 1990s. Fort Detrick is believed to be the original source of the Ames strain of anthrax used in the mail attacks last fall, and investigators have questioned people there and at a few other government labs and contractors.
It is unclear whether Ames was among the strains of anthrax in the 27 sets of specimens reported missing at Fort Detrick after an inventory in 1992.
One of the 27 sets was later found and is in the lab; an Army spokesman said it might have been in use when the inventory was taken. The fate of the rest remains unclear. In addition to anthrax and Ebola, the specimens included hantavirus, simian AIDS and two labeled "unknown" — an Army euphemism for classified research.
The 27 specimens were reported missing in February 1992, after a new officer, Lt. Col. Michael Langford, took command of what Fort Detrick brass viewed as a dysfunctional pathology lab. Langford, who is no longer at Fort Detrick, said he ordered an inventory after he recognized there was "little or no organization" and "little or no accountability" in the lab.
More troubling to Langford than the missing specimens was what investigators called "surreptitious" work being done in the pathology lab late at night and on weekends.
Mary Beth Downs told investigators she had come to work several times in January and February of 1992 to find that someone had been in the lab at odd hours, clumsily using the sophisticated electron microscope to conduct some kind of off-the-books research.
After one weekend that February, Downs discovered that someone had been in the lab using the microscope to take photos of slides and apparently had forgotten to reset a feature on the microscope that imprints each photo with a label. After taking a few pictures of her own slides that morning, Downs was surprised to see "Antrax 005" emblazoned on her negatives.
Downs also noted that an automatic counter on the camera, like an odometer on a car, had been rolled back to hide the fact pictures had been taken over the weekend. She wrote of her findings in a memo to Langford, noting that whoever was using the microscope was "either in a big hurry or didn't know what they were doing."
It is unclear if the Army ever got to the bottom of the incident, and some lab insiders believed concerns about it were overblown. Lab technician Charles Brown, who conducted the inventory for Langford, said the scientific process doesn't always follow a 9-to-5 schedule.
"People all over the base knew that they could come in at any time and get on the microscope," Brown said. "If you had security clearance, the guard isn't going to ask you if you are qualified to use the equipment. I'm sure people used it often without our knowledge."
Documents from the inquiry show that one unauthorized person who was observed entering the lab building at night was Langford's predecessor, Lt. Col. Philip Zack, who at the time no longer worked at Fort Detrick. A surveillance camera recorded Zack being let in at 8:40 p.m. on Jan. 23, 1992, apparently by Marian Rippy, a lab pathologist and close friend of Zack's, according to a report filed by a security guard.
Zack could not be reached for comment. In an interview last week, Rippy said that she doesn't remember letting Zack in, but that he occasionally stopped by after he was transferred off the base.
"After he left, he had no (authorized) access to the building. Other people let him in," she said. "He knew a lot of people there and he was still part of the military. I can tell you, there was no suspicious stuff going on there with specimens."
Zack left Fort Detrick in December 1991, after a controversy over allegations of unprofessional behavior by Zack, Rippy, Brown and others who worked in the pathology division. They were accused of harassing Egyptian-born Ayaad Assaad, a former Fort Detrick scientist who had extensive dealings with the lab and who later sued the Army, claiming discrimination.
Assaad said he had believed the harassment was behind him until October, when it suddenly surfaced after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
He said that is when the FBI contacted him, saying someone had mailed an anonymous letter — a few days before the existence of anthrax-laced mail became known — naming Assaad as a potential bioterrorist. After interviewing Assaad, FBI agents decided the note was a hoax.
But Assaad said he believes the note's timing makes the author a suspect in the anthrax attacks, and he is convinced that details of his work contained in the letter mean the author must be a former Fort Detrick colleague.
Brown said he doesn't know who sent the letter, but that Assaad's nationality and expertise in biological agents made him an obvious subject of concern after Sept. 11. Brown said the tipster might have been acting in the country's best interest.
"It probably was someone from Detrick," he said. "Some people are more patriotic than others."