Then:
Scientists estimate that the letter sent to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle originally contained about 2 grams of anthrax, about one-sixteenth of an ounce, or the weight of a dime.
But its extraordinary concentration – in the range of 1 trillion spores per gram – meant that the letter could have contained 200 million times the average dose necessary to kill a person.
Dugway’s weapons-grade anthrax has been milled to achieve a similar concentration, according to one person familiar with the program.
The concentration exceeds that of weapons anthrax produced by the old U.S. offensive program or the Soviet biowarfare program, according to Dr. Richard O. Spertzel, who worked at Detrick for 18 years and later served as a United Nations bioweapons inspector in Iraq. -Baltimore Sun, Decemeber 12, 2001.
Now:
What was initially described as a near-military-grade biological weapon was ultimately found to have had a more ordinary pedigree, containing no additives and no signs of special processing to make the anthrax bacteria more deadly, law enforcement officials confirmed.- Washington Post September 25, 2006.
Then:
The FBI is investigating the possibility that someone secretly grew the deadly anthrax mailed to politicians and media outlets last fall at an Army laboratory in Maryland and further refined it at home, a government source and a scientist said.
…While speculating how a terrorist might have obtained anthrax as virulent and finely milled as that used in the mailings that killed five people, “We came to the conclusion the source is really important,” Battersby said. “It really is difficult to develop an organism from one you haven’t cultured.”- CBS News June 28, 2002
Now:
Specifically, law enforcement authorities have refuted the widely reported claim that the anthrax spores had been “weaponized” — specially treated or processed to allow them to disperse more easily. They also have rejected reports that the powder was milled, or ground, to create finer particles that can penetrate deeply into the lungs.- Washington Post, September 25, 2006
I’m tired of the lies. The anthrax was studied extensively back in 2001 and 2002. They checked on genetic markers, they identified the anthrax as a substrain of Ames that was probably produced in Utah and shipped to Fort Detrick Maryland. They certainly counted the spore concentration back then and got it right. Did the government exaggerate the concentration back then? Or are they downplaying the concentration now?
Why bring up a five year old failed investigation now? To remind us how no one has been caught or punished for the events of September 2001? Or to remind us of the threat of bioterrorism and maybe give Republicans a little fear-boost in the polls.
Here’s a piece of advice: Believe nothing this administration tells you. Nothing. Either they were lying then or they are lying now.
