At one point, a microbiologist imam suspected of being involved in the anthrax mailings (according to the WashPo who quoted name FBI agents) and colleague of fellow Falls Church “911 imam” had an office 15 feet from the former Deputy Commander of USAMRIID and famed Russian anthrax scientist Ken Alibek.

It perhaps was more than a happy coincidence for Ayman Zawahiri and Mohammed Islambouli that an active supporter of the Taliban and supporter of jihad was a US biodefense insider. Microbiologist Al-Timimi worked in the same building as LEADING ANTHRAX SCIENTIST Ken Alibek and former USAMRIID DEPUTY COMMANDER (and for a few months Acting Commander) Charles Bailey, who would come to publish a lot of research with the “Ames strain” of anthrax. Ken had a DARPA-funded work for USAMRIID involving Delta Ames. Now neither Ken nor Charles did anything wrong IMO. Charles has “lawyered up” only for institutional prudential reasons. Ali Al-Timimi was sentenced to life plus 70 years (before his conviction was overturned because of alleged NSA wiretapping in 2002. Al-Timimi was a current associate and former student of Bin Laden’s spiritual advisor, dissident Saudi Sheik al-Hawali. He would speak along with the blind sheik’s son — the blind sheik’s son served on Al Qaeda’s WMD committee — at charity conferences. In 2001 and 2002, he spoke alongside the “911 imam” Anwar Aulaqi. In Fall 2002, Aulaqi, who was repeatedly interrogated by the FBI during 18 months detention in Yemen recently, came and sought Ali’s help with jihad but Ali turned him away, according to his lawyer, Edward McMahon. Al-Timimi’s mentor Bilal Philips was known for recruiting members of the military to jihad. The first week after 9/11, FBI agents questioned Ali Al-Timimi, who was a microbiology graduate student in a program jointly run by George Mason University and the American Type Culture Collection (”ATCC”). Ali, according to his lawyer, had been questioned by an FBI agent and Secret Service agent in 1994 after the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. He had a high security clearance for work for the Navy and years earlier for two months had worked for the White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card when he was Secretary of Transportation. As time off from his university studies permitted, Ali was an active speaker with a charity Islamic Assembly of North America. Let’s see the email made available (in the redacted form). It’s too important an issue to fuzz things up when clarity is what is needed. Otherwise, the report is just a headache for the likes of RS or CJP or other USAMRIID Deputy Commanders.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_anthrax_attacks

The anthrax material

The letters contained at least two grades of anthrax material; the coarse brown material sent in the media letters and the fine powder sent to the two U.S. Senators. In addition, it has been suggested the anthrax material sent to an old Post Office Box address of the National Enquirer and then forwarded to AMI may have been an intermediate grade similar to the anthrax sent to the Senate.[4] The brown granular anthrax sent to media outlets in New York City caused only skin infections, cutaneous anthrax. The anthrax sent to the Senators caused the more dangerous form of infection known as inhalation anthrax, as did the anthrax sent to AMI in Florida.

Although the anthrax preparations were of different grades, all of the material derived from the same bacterial strain. Known as the Ames strain, it was first researched at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), Fort Detrick, Maryland. The Ames strain was then distributed to at least fifteen bio-research labs within the U.S. and six locations overseas.

DNA sequencing of the anthrax taken from Robert Stevens (the first victim) was conducted at The Institute for Genomic Research beginning in December 2001. Sequencing was finished within a month and the analysis was published in the journal Science in early 2002[5].

Radiocarbon dating conducted by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in June 2002 established that the anthrax was cultured no more than two years before the mailings. In October 2006 it was reported that water used to process the anthrax spores came from a source in the northeastern United States.[6] Erroneous press reports in 2003 indicated the FBI failed to reverse engineer the type of anthrax found in the letters.[7][8] According to Chemical & Engineering News, December 4, 2006[6] Later, the FBI claimed a “lone individual” could have weaponized anthrax spores for as little as $2,500, using a makeshift basement laboratory.[9]

A number of press reports appeared suggesting the Senate anthrax had coatings and additives.[10][11][12] Newsweek reported the anthrax sent to Senator Leahy had been coated with a chemical compound previously unknown to bioweapons experts.[13]

Two experts on the Soviet anthrax program, Kenneth Alibek and Matthew Meselson, were consultants with the Justice Department and were shown electron micrographs of the anthrax from the Daschle letter. They replied to the Washington Post article “FBI’s Theory on Anthrax Is Doubted” (October 28, 2002), reporting that they saw no evidence the anthrax spores had been coated and that more careful investigation of the specimens is necessary [14]

A week after Meselson and Alibek had their letter published in the Washington Post, the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP), one of the military labs that analyzed the Daschle anthrax, published an official newsletter stating that silica was a key aerosol enabling component of the Daschle anthrax.[15] The AFIP lab deputy director, Florabel Mullick, said “This [silica] was a key component. Silica prevents the anthrax from aggregating, making it easier to aerosolize. Significantly, we noted the absence of aluminum with the silica. This combination had previously been found in anthrax produced by Iraq.”

In February 2005, Stephan P. Velsko of Lawrence Livermore National Labs published a paper titled “Physical and Chemical Analytical Analysis: A key component of Bioforensics”.[16] In this paper, Velsko illustrated that different silica coating processes gave rise to weaponized anthrax simulants that look completely different from one another. He suggested that the difference in the look of products could provide evidence of what method the lab that manufactured the 2001 anthrax used, and thus provide clues to the ultimate origin of the material.

In May 2005, Academic Press published the volume “Microbial Forensics” edited by Roger Breeze, Bruce Budowle and Steven Schutzer.[17] Bruce Budowle is with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Forensic Science Laboratory. Although the volume does not directly discuss the silica coatings found in the Senate anthrax of 2001, the contributors to the chapters discuss in detail the forensics of silica coated weaponized bacterial spores. Pictures are shown of silica weaponized bacillus spores that are both mixed with silica and fully coated with silica. Pictures of weaponized Clostridium spores coated with Colloidal, spherical silica are also shown. Again, the aim of these studies is to define the forensic fingerprints of silica weaponization processes.

In July 2005, Dr Michael V Callahan (who is presently with DOD’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)) gave a briefing before the Subcommittee on Prevention of Nuclear and Biological Attack.[18] Dr Callahan stated “First, the attack illustrated that advanced expertise had readily been exploited by a bioterrorist; the preparation in the Daschle letter contained extraordinarily high concentrations of purified endospores. Second, the spore preparation was coated with an excipient which helped retard electrostatic attraction, thus increasing aerosolization of the agent.”

The August 2006 issue of Applied and Environmental Microbiology[19] contained an article written by Dr. Douglas Beecher of the FBI labs in Quantico, VA. The article, titled “Forensic Application of Microbiological Culture Analysis to Identify Mail Intentionally Contaminated with Bacillus anthracis spores ,” states “Individuals familiar with the compositions of the powders in the letters have indicated that they were comprised simply of spores purified to different extents.” The article also specifically criticizes “a widely circulated misconception” “that the spores were produced using additives and sophisticated engineering supposedly akin to military weapon production.” The harm done by such things is described this way: “This idea is usually the basis for implying that the powders were inordinately dangerous compared to spores alone. The persistent credence given to this impression fosters erroneous preconceptions, which may misguide research and preparedness efforts and generally detract from the magnitude of hazards posed by simple spore preparations.” However, after this article had appeared the editor of Applied and Environmental Microbiology, L. Nicholas Ornston, stated that he was uncomfortable with Beecher’s statement in the article since it had no evidence to back it up and contained no citation.[20]

In April 2007 an analysis of the spore preparation was published in the International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence[21]. This analysis by Dr. Dany Shoham and Dr. Stuart Jacobsen pointed out that the sophisticated additives and processing used to create the weapon likely could be used to trace the origin.

In August 2007 Dr. Kay Mereish, UN Chief, Biological Planning and Operations, published a letter in Applied and Environmental Microbiology titled “Unsupported Conclusions on the Bacillus anthracis Spores”.[22] This letter, published in the same journal as FBI scientist Douglas Beecher (see paragraph above), points out that the statements made by Dr. Beecher in his article on the lack of additives were not backed up with any data. She suggested that Dr. Beecher publish a paper with analytical data showing the absence of silica or other additives. Such data would include SEM images of the pure spores as well as EDX spectra and EDX images showing the absence of any foreign additives such as silica or the elements silicon and oxygen. Dr. Mereish referenced a 2006 CBRN, Counter-Proliferation and Response meeting in Paris where a presenter announced that an additive was present in the attack anthrax that affected the spore’s electrical charges.

Fox News [23] reported in March 2008 that an email written by a scientist at Fort Detrick revealed details of the powder preparation - these details appear to be consistent with a highly specialized powder. The Fox News report said “But in an e-mail obtained by FOX News, scientists at Fort Detrick openly discussed how the anthrax powder they were asked to analyze after the attacks was nearly identical to that made by one of their colleagues. “Then he said he had to look at a lot of samples that the FBI had prepared … to duplicate the letter material,” the e-mail reads. “Then the bombshell. He said that the best duplication of the material was the stuff made by [name redacted]. He said that it was almost exactly the same … his knees got shaky and he sputtered, ‘But I told the General we didn’t make spore powder!’” The Fox News report added that around 4 persons, all with connections to Fort Detrick, were being looked at as suspects by the FBI.

It’s truly unfortunate active duty military can’t publicly let our nation hear their opinion…
the left would be overcome with “schock & awe”. If you seriously believe the three amigos didn’t
know who was funding their trip, as the old saying goes,”I’ve got some water front property in Arizona you’ll love”! As for bill who posted above…
(1) Saddam broke the armistice numerous times…we didn’t need any ones permission to go back and finish the job
(2) He had WMD…every credable intelligence agency in the word knew it and said so. Wonder where they are…check out the Bacca Vally in Syria. Also, there’s probably tons of things still buried in Iraq,
like the Soviet migs the Air Force recently uncovered (but not covered by the major media).

All you Code Pinkies and their supporters…FYI…out troops disdain you and everything you stand for!
If you can read these, thank a teacher. If you can read it in English, thank someone in a military uniform! God Bless Our troops & Our president!

The connection to Oil for Food is also interesting…since that was a UN program.

I have another thought…Dems always say they love our Country, Support Our troops…carry that further and see what committees these guys sat on..note the contributions from seveal Soros Groups to Mc Dermott..I was able to access his fast…note the Large Donation from the Arab Lobbying groups as well.

This guy and his pals, especially the comment “war is not the answer” from Bonoir who also didn’t mind being USED by Sadaam Hussein!

Ithink the Dems support our Enemies Soldiers and Support Enemy Countries..as long as they are tyrants and murderers like the Syrians..

Who paid for Pelosi’s Middle eastern State Visits? Who is paying for the current ones…and JUST WHERE IS THE CONGRESS LATELY?