anthrax - Fausta's Blog

While the celebrities pledge, Al Qaeda bungles an arms experiment:

An al Qaeda affiliate in Algeria closed a base earlier this month after an experiment with unconventional weapons went awry, a senior U.S. intelligence official said Monday.

The official, who spoke on the condition he not be named because of the sensitive nature of the issue, said he could not confirm press reports that the accident killed at least 40 al Qaeda operatives, but he said the mishap led the militant group to shut down a base in the mountains of Tizi Ouzou province in eastern Algeria.

He said authorities in the first week of January intercepted an urgent communication between the leadership of al Qaeda in the Land of the Maghreb (AQIM) and al Qaeda’s leadership in the tribal region of Pakistan on the border with Afghanistan. The communication suggested that an area sealed to prevent leakage of a biological or chemical substance had been breached, according to the official.

“We don’t know if this is biological or chemical,” the official said.

The story was first reported by the British tabloid the Sun, which said the al Qaeda operatives died after being infected with a strain of bubonic plague, the disease that killed a third of Europe’s population in the 14th century. But the intelligence official dismissed that claim.

A J Strata:

While a lot of my blogging associates have been making light of the apparent deaths of 40 al Qaeda fighters in the last few weeks from a reported Bubonic Plague outbreak – my first and last feelings have been blaring alarm bells. I have a BS in biology and I must say I find it hard to believe the plague could knock out 40 people so quickly. At least the naturally occurring variety. The natural plaque (which still roams the Earth) is from flea bites from infected fleas.

What happens in some cases, which causes an acceleration of the spreading, is the virus transforms into an air borne version called pneumonic plague. It is this version of the plague causing bacteria which could make a lethal WMD.

Is the Sun’s article a false report meant to scare Al Qaeda out into the open?

For all our sakes, I hope so.

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The WaPo reports that Hair Samples in Anthrax Case Don’t Match
Strands From Mailbox in Princeton Are Not From Ivins, Investigators Say

Federal investigators probing the deadly 2001 anthrax attacks recovered samples of human hair from a mailbox in Princeton, N.J., but the strands did not match the lead suspect in the case, according to sources briefed on the probe.

In fact,

Nearly seven years after the incidents, however, investigators have come up dry in their efforts to find direct evidence to place Ivins at the Nassau Street mailbox in September and October 2001.

Before you jump into any conspiracy theories, I must clarify my opinion: this was a botched investigation, not a conspiracy.

You may recall that the FBI and other intelligence and national security agencies were overwhelmed after 9/11 2001, and the letters were postmarked September 18, 2001, a week after the 9/11 attack. That much is clear. The FBI apparently wants to cover its blunder by stonewalling. As my Congressman, Rush Holt, said in this interview,

So far the FBI has stonewalled it. Every time any member of the FBI from the director on down, has come to either the panel I chair, or the Committee which I also sit, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, I’ve asked them this question, or this series of questions, and they always come with a statement prepared by – I guess by the Congressional Relations Department – they can’t comment, this is an investigation that’s on-going, and they’ve really stonewalled it. Stonewalled all of Congress, not just me.

You can read Rep. Holt’s statement on the anthrax investigation here, and you’ll find prior information at his website.

The Senate and the House both want answers. The WaPo reports,

Yesterday, the Senate Judiciary Committee announced it will call FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III to appear at an oversight hearing Sept. 17, when he is likely to be asked about the strength of the government’s case against Ivins. A spokeswoman for Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), a vocal FBI critic, said he would demand more information about how authorities narrowed their search.

The House Judiciary panel, meanwhile, is negotiating to hold a separate oversight hearing in September with bureau officials, in a session that could mark the first public occasion in which Mueller faces questions about the FBI’s handling of the anthrax case.

The letters were mailed less than two miles away from where I’m writing this post. Congressman Holt’s own office in Washington was one of the few House offices contaminated. Five people died and seventeen others were infected.

We need more answers on just how the FBI has reached its conclusions.

Prior post: Regarding those anthrax letters that were mailed from Princeton

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