Two suspects in the anthrax attacks, Hatfill and Ivins, were widely publicized as the leading “lone nut” perpetrators under government investigation. Hatfill’s case was characterized by critics as “protected” by the CIA, after being named by Dr. Barbara Rosenberg and no actual physical evidence was ever produced. Ivins, who had helped the government’s scientific case, eventually became the only suspect. By 2008, a character profile and erroneous anthrax “strain” association had led to the accumulation of charges. Days before he was to be indicted, Dr. Ivins committed suicide (with Rx Tylenol). Phillip Zack, who was implicated by the Hartford Courant, was never charged or seriously investigated, leaving some researchers to speculate on his possible guilt. And then there are others, unmentioned or barely known, who were targeted, harassed, or worse…
“Ignored by the mainstream media, Battelle was already an early suspect in October 2001 as well. First it was Michael P. Failey, a former Battelle employee, who was arrested twice…On November 12th 2001, famous BioScientist Don C Wiley vanished in Memphis. His dead body was found six weeks later, 200 miles away, next to the Mississippi river. His death started a series about strange circumstances of suddenly killed BioScientists…And what about the strange death of Vladimir Pasechnik on November 21st, former director of the Institute of Ultra Pure Biochemical Preparations (
BioPrep), who produced Anthrax as well? …In the meantime, as Newsweek found out, Fort Detrick cleared [Hatfill’s] records, and Hatfill started a job at Louisiana State University…
http://911review.org/Sept11Wiki/Hatfill,Stephen.shtml
Stephen Jay Hatfill — sued the government for being “named a ‘person of interest’ in the case by then Attorney General John Ashcroft, speaking on national television…[and was] formally exonerated by the Justice Department in August 2008.”
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“Stephen Hatfill.. once worked for Battelle. Hatfill worked at USAMRIID/Fort Detrick and knew William Patrick III. In 1999, he left USAMRIID for a job at SAIC (Scientific Applications International Corp.), a huge defense contractor where he did work detailing the risks of biological and chemical attacks. In 2001, the CIA rejected him for a job and the Pentagon suspended his existing security clearance…
http://911review.org/Sept11Wiki/Hatfill,Stephen.shtml*
“One outfit that has spent a great deal of time and energy in blaming Dr. Hatfill for the anthrax attacks is the Jewish Defense Organization (JDO). This group has labeled Hatfill a “Nazi” because of his ties to the Afrikaner Resistance Movement. In The Weekly Standard article, “The Hunting of Steven J. Hatfill,” David Tell claims the JDO is responsible for spreading many of the damning accusations that now surround Dr. Hatfill. The JDO is an offshoot of the terrorist Jewish Defense League, founded by the late Rabbi Meir Kahane….It is interesting that a small extremist group like the Jewish Defense Organization appears to have been the first to “document” the background and personal history of Dr. Steven Hatfill.”
http://mindprod.com/politics/anthrax.html*
On May 28, 1998, Hatfill and Hauer spoke together at the same CFR meeting about “Building a ‘Biobomb”…Hatfill was at that time Senior Research Associate at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases.”….
“Hauer ignored one report by Barbara Rosenberg (on possible anthrax suspects), but he certainly knew who she was. He first met her on April 10, 1998, at a “roundtable on genetic engineering and biological weapons” under President Clinton. The small group of outside experts and cabinet members present there included: William Cohen (at the time Secretary of Defense), CIA boss George Tenet, Craig Ventner (Celera), Joshua Lederberg (Rockefeller University, Defense Science Board), Thomas Monath (Oravax/Acambis, former CDC and USAMRIID), Hauer, and Barbara Rosenberg. In November 2001, Hauer was still ignoring the investigations by Barbara Rosenberg, who had already worked out a list of possible anthrax suspects, scientists who would have been able to gain access to the original Ames strain from USAMRIID, Fort Detrick.
http://www.fas.org/bwc/news/anthraxreport.htm …Among the suspects on this list were Battelle and the Battelle Memorial Institute administrators, who supplied the Dugway anthrax proving facility in Utah”
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Phillip Zack (or Zackerie) — implicated in a series of news reports run by the Hartford [Connecticut] Courant. Zack is described as a member of the The Camel Club, scientists at Fort Detrick, who harassed coworker Assaad and was caught on tape entering the facility after hours in 1992.
..”The case against Dr. Phillip M. Zack began unravelling when Egyptian-born scientist Dr. Ayaad Assaad, now a U.S. citizen, was called in by the FBI for an interview on October 2, 2001. The FBI had received an unsigned letter falsely accusing Dr. Assaad of being responsible for mailing the anthrax tainted letters…but before anyone knew about the anthrax-laced letters.”
…”Lab specimens of anthrax spores, Ebola virus and other pathogens disappeared from the Army’s biological warfare research facility in the early 1990s during the very same period that the conspirators were harassing Dr. Assaad. An 1992 inquiry into the disappearance of the deadly pathogens found evidence that someone was secretly entering the laboratory late at night to conduct unauthorized research involving anthrax.”
http://aztlan.net/zack.htm _______________________________________________________________
Vahid Majidi. [Source: FBI]In the face of continued widespread doubt about the government’s case against deceased anthrax attacks suspect Bruce Ivins (see August 12, 2008), the FBI holds a press conference presenting more of its scientific evidence against Ivins. A panel discussion of experts working with the FBI is headed by Dr. Vahid Majidi, the FBI’s assistant director for the Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate, and Dr. Chris Hassell, who heads the FBI’s laboratory. The others on the panel are Paul Keim, Dr. James Burans, Dr. Rita Colwell, Claire Fraser-Liggett, Jacques Ravel, and Dr. Joseph Michael. They are all scientists who assisted with the FBI investigation.
Majidi says, “[T]here were no additional additives combined with the [anthrax] to make them any more dispersible.” He adds, “The material we have is pure spores.”
Hassell says that over 60 scientists worked with the anthrax investigation, validating the data throughout the process. He also says that more than ten peer reviewed scientific articles will be published in the coming months about the science behind the investigation’s findings.
Michael explains that initial results showed that the anthrax spores contained silicon and oxygen. This led to erroneous conclusions that the anthrax had been weaponized with additives to make it more deadly. Later, more powerful microscope analysis showed that the silicon and oxygen were within the anthrax spores and not a layer outside the spores, indicating the anthrax was not weaponized.
Burans says the silicon and oxygen were natural occurrences in the spores and they would not have made the anthrax deadlier since they were not on the outside of the spores.
Asked if the silicon and oxygen could have been intentionally put in the anthrax by a person, an unnamed official replies, “The understanding of that process is not well understood.”
Majidi says scientists were unable to determine what equipment was used to turn wet anthrax into the dry powder used in the attacks.
Burans says that one reason why there was so much confusion about the weaponization of the anthrax is because so little is known about dry anthrax. Nearly all experimentation on anthrax is done using wet anthrax, because it is much safer to handle. He says: “to this day in our laboratories, we avoid at all costs working with [anthrax] in dried form. There’s no reason to.”
Majidi says scientists were able to make anthrax resembling the anthrax used in the attacks, and the anthrax they made behaved in the same way. However, they were not able to recreate the presence of silicon inside the spores. He says, “It would have been easy to make these samples at USAMRIID.” Burans adds that one person could make the amount of anthrax used in the letters in three to seven days. (US Department of Justice 8/18/2008) http://www.historycommons.org/entity.jsp?entity=paul_keim_1&printerfriendly=true
“The FBI admits that about 400 people may have had access to Ivins’ RMR-1029 anthrax preparation, but asserts all were “ruled out” as lone perpetrators. FBI never tried to rule any out as part of a conspiracy, however. That is only the first of many holes in FBI’s case… http://cryptome.org/0001/meryl-nass.htm
“Dr. Heine said he did not dispute that there was a genetic link between the spores in the letters and the anthrax in Dr. Ivins’s flask…But samples from the flask were widely shared, Dr. Heine said. Accusing Dr. Ivins of the attacks, he said, was like tracing a murder to the clerk at the sporting goods shop who sold the bullets. “Whoever did this is still running around out there,” Dr. Heine said. “I truly believe that.” http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/23/us/23anthrax.html
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Others:
“In early March 2000 at his home in Irvine, Orange County, California, Larry C. Ford, M.D., died of a shotgun blast. His death was later ruled a suicide, notwithstanding the fact that his firearms had supposedly been confiscated by the police several days before, after the attempted murder of his business partner, a crime for whichhe was a principal suspect. Only later was it revealed that Ford had served as a consultant to both the CIA and the chemical- and biological-weapons program of the South African Defense Forces, headed by Wouter Basson. Ford’s contributions to Basson’s program included lecturers on converting ordinary items into lethal biological weapons. After Ford’s death his Irvine neighborhood was evacuated for several days as federal authorities excavated a weapons’ bunker in Ford’s yard and removed samples of various toxic biological agents found in Ford’s refrigerators. The specific biological agents found in Ford’s home have never been identified by the authorities, nor have they reported if any toxic agents were found in the university and other laboratories used by Ford. An initially frenzied FBI investigation quickly became quiescent. One Ford associate reports that Ford had been in contact with BioPort Corporation, sole U.S. manufacturer of anthrax vaccine. Recently discovered evidence indicates that, shortly before his death, Ford was actively preparing to move his medical-scientific work abroad. Close Ford associates expected a revival of the investigation after the onset of the recent anthrax incidents but have observed no evidence of any current Ford-related activity on the part of the FBI or other agencies. [Forensic Intelligence International, LLC Re: Investigation into Responsibility for Recent Anthrax Incidents, Stephen P. Dresch, Ph.D.]”
http://www.heartson.com/Politics/anthrax_research_timeline.html
Stephen Jay Hatfill — sued the government for being “named a ‘person of interest’ in the case by then Attorney General John Ashcroft, speaking on national television…[and was] formally exonerated by the Justice Department in August 2008.”
Bruce E. Ivins — “The government suggests that he had a motive for the crime: The anthrax vaccine program he was working on was going badly” http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/06/AR2008080602794.html
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