(TINFOIL ALERT) Anthrax mailer back at work? Behind rabbit fever scare?

[Pab Sungenis]

I've been doing some thinking, and while I don't usually go in for the tinfoil hat stuff, here are some disturbing thoughts and some even more disturbing extrapolations. So, suit up :tinfoilhat: and let's head in.

What do we know, or are reasonably sure of knowing?

1. The Anthrax Mailer operated within the United States. The letters were mailed from the Trenton, NJ, area. It wasn't someone sending them from Europe or Asia.

2. The strain used came from a government lab. Please note that this does not suggest that the government was behind it. Far from it. It may have been one rogue element or it could have been from a stolen sample. Either way, we know the anthrax was also domestic in origin.

3. The Anthrax Mailer is a right-winger. With the exception of one of the letters (to the NY Post) the letters were sent to prominent Democrats or representatives of the "liberal media."

4. The Anthrax Mailer is either extremely incompetent, or....

5. The Anthrax Mailer is attempting to silence opposition to the Republican cabal through terror. (5) is the more likely choice, since early letters warned the recipients to take antibiotics.

6. Tularemia was detected in Washington, DC, during the big Anti-War March on September 24th, 2005 The official CDC report, for those who haven't read it, can be found here.

7. There have been reports of Tularemia-like symptoms from some people who were at the protest. While we haven't had a confirmed case that I'm aware of, we haven't heard from everyone who was there and probably never will since the protest was a quarter million people strong.

8. Tularemia has been weaponized. A good writeup on the disease can be found in this page from Indiana University, Bloomington. At the bottom is an acknowledgement that at least two nations are known to have developed weaponized and aerosolized Tularemia: the Soviet Union and...the United States.

9. There are vaccines against known weaponized strains of Tularemia. A person going out spraying intended victims wouldn't be a suicide sprayer; if he knew what he was doing, he could be properly innoculated.

Now, we start to put some pieces together.

10. It's possible that the same labs developed weaponized Anthrax and weaponized Tularemia. Not an unreasonable assumption; labs making bioweapons could honestly be expected to manufacture more than one. Or, alternately, they could have come from the same storage facility.

11. It's likely, if Tularemia was used against protesters on September 24th, it was done to intimidate the left, and discourage people from attending future protests. Low-level "attacks" near areas where the government bio-detectors are, enough to cause some Tularemia symptoms but not enough to kill, might make some people think twice before joining an organized march against * in the future.

12. If that is the case, then the motives of the Anthrax Mailer and the Tularemia-er are remarkably similar. In fact, it's entirely possible that they're the same person, or part of the same group.

I put it to you that both incidents, if the Tularemia scare can be considered an incident, were perpetrated by the same person or people.

Now, let's double-layer our tinfoil, and add some Saran Wrap and duct tape for good measure, as we jump to horrendous conclusions and unthinkable possibilities.

13. Government scientists have resurrected the 1918 pandemic flu virus. Researchers have recreated the virus in an attempt to understand it better.

14. Scientists have discovered that the 1918 flu virus, which killed millions of people world-wide, was most likely an avian flu that mutated to allow human-human transmission. This puts it in the same category as the current "bird flu" that has killed over 60 people and is frightening others. Cite.

15. Bush wants to use the bird flu as an excuse to gut posse comitatus. Just one of many cites can be found here. If there's an outbreak, Bush wants to use the military to quarantine areas, essentially declaring martial law.

16. Bush and other Republicans have been eager to repeal or gut posse comitatus, even to using the slow response to Hurricane Katrina as an excuse. I don't need to provide cites for this, do I? We've all read the remarks. It didn't work.

My conclusion:

We have to resist, actively if need be, any attempt to authorize martial law in epidemic situations, and....

...we have to find the right-wing terrorist(s) behind the Anthrax and Tularemia scares right away, before they can get their hands on the 1918 flu or other strains under study and find a way to deliver it, or Bush may finally get his wish.

"If this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator." - George W. Bush, December 18, 2001.

[willing dwarf]

1. Like Granny talking to Sylvester & Tweety Bird

"Now who would do such a thing?" "Sylvester...you didn't put antraz in Tweety's bird feed, now did you?"

[bullimiami]

2. well if the anthrax mailer is the us govt then you might just be right.

[electropop]

16. Hmmm, is there anybody high in the Republican leadership with medical

knowledge, and the ruthless, corrupt personality to undertake bioweapons attacks? Anybody...anybody... Perhaps somebody with close knowledge of the Senators who were attacked, who might want to intimidate Senators... Somebody with great wealth and ready access to medical laboratories... Can't think of anybody... The perfect candidate might be a doctor in the Senate, but now I'm being silly. Doctors don't become Senators, do they?

[MADem]

24. Paging Doctor Frist!!! Doctor Frist!!!

Of course, I question his medical knowledge--he didn't do too well with his video diagnosis of Terri Schiavo.

But hey, he knows cat anatomy inside-out!

[YDogg]

3. Unfortunately, I don't find this beyond the realm of possibility.

I don't think any of this is impossible anymore.

[0007]

4. It does have all the ear marks that would arouse a curiosity.

I find it also strange that all those biologists has been taken out in one form or the other.

[MostlyLurks]

5. I loves a good conspiracy theory!

The only potential problem I can see - and this may just be my own lack of knowledge weaponizing bioagents - is in the scale of the two attacks.

It seems to me that the difference between stuffing some white powder in an envelope and spreading an aerosolized bioagent in non-lethal doses to a massive crowd, in public and out in the open is an order of magnitude. The 'thrax attack seems like small potatoes, one-man-band kind of hijinks when compared to a tularemia attack on a huge crowd. But maybe that's not true.

At any rate, I neither believe nor deny any of this, I just thought it was a stimulating train of thought.

Mostly

[Kailassa]

33. No, the anthrax attack was much more difficult than this.

As so few of the virus are needed to create an illness, I expect an attenuated version of Tularensis Francella was used, otherwise there would have been people dying by now. So that is the only complicated part. It has to involve a lab already doing that, which could be done anyway to produce a vaccine, or a scientist with access to a suitable lab doing it specially.

The rest is easy, put it in a liquid it can survive in, use a perfume atomiser, and spray a bit here and there as you walk with the marchers. Either the sprayer is immunised or he/she will already be on tetracycines, and be quite safe.

[LiberalEsto]

6. I went to the Sept. 24 march and have felt lousy since then

Constant flu-like aches and joint pains. My left knee is so bad that the pain wakes me up in the middle of the night. I feel like I have a fever, but my temp. is normal (98.3), so I haven't gone to the doctor.
But I looked up the symptoms of tularemia, and they seem different from whatever I've got.

Anybody else feeling lousy since the march?

[mod mom]

7. Yeah, whole family fell ill. My son has been tested for Tularemia, result

not until next week. I posted the other day about my experience. My pediatrician called and said Childrens' Hospital not concerned because only coverage is from "conspiracy theory" sites. I responded back that it came from the Washington Post, ABC, and NBC sites. Was told he was just the messenger. Will post results when I get them.

I wrote to CDC about how poorly the situation was handled. There was nowhere on their site where public could get information about this incident, either de-bunking it or legitimizing it. It is also absurd that there was a delay by Homeland Security in releasing the findings and is rediculous that one has to wait a week for results.

BTW, this incident has not discouraged me for attending future rallies. I am in the fight against this evil for the long haul, and WILL NOT be swayed to back down by their intimidation.

We stood in front of the WH and joined the throngs of other patriots in raising our miidle finger to *. They must be stopped and it is up to us.

[LiberalEsto]

8. My husband just got back from the doctor

He went on the march with me and has been sick the last couple of weeks. Really bad cough.
The Biaxin they gave him last week hasn't helped. They just gave him a prescription for 5 more days of it. If it doesn't help I will insist he get tested for tularemia.

What are your family's symptoms?

[mod mom]

11. congestion, headache, body aches, low fever, son had tiny blisters on roof

of mouth. Tested neg for strep. No one at school ill ( he is 9 yo)

[willing dwarf]

10. Well I have

My jaws ache. I've been waking in the morning full of aches which is strange for me, and completely zapped of energy, but no fever. But like you, I figure it's just a virus.. Hope you feel better soon.

[LiberalEsto]

12. You too!

Maybe it's just a case of Bushlemia (nausea brought on by the thought of the * misadministration)

[file83]

23. There are others with Tularmeia symptoms....

This may interest you: Tularmeia symptoms being discussed

[Watchmaker]

9. Weaponization is the same for anthrax and tularemia

The technique of weaponization is the same for both anthrax and tularemia. In fact, the Russians used the same silica/resin weaponization for all their dry powder BWs - anthrax, tularemia, plague, etc.

Reading the following links with careful attention to detail:

http://cryptome.org/bioweap.htm
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/bioweapons/redlies.html
http://cryptome.quintessenz.at/mirror/anthrax-powder.htm

reveals that the anthrax sent to the senate contained, in fact, the Soviet blueprint for aerosol engineering. The trick is coating the spores with silica nanoparticles and using the resin to make the nanoparticles stick to the surface - this is a very challenging piece of materials engineering.

These engineering tricks were transferred to the US when Alibek defected. His first job was a CIA sponsored spell at Battelle in Jefferson, Ohio, where he was charged with re-engineering the Soviet dry powder tricks.

Any fool can make anthrax spores - or tularemia. But these germs are pretty useless unless they are weaponized. It's like having a slug of lead without a rifle or gunpowder.

That's why it's very unlikely that someone stole a sample of non-weaponized anthrax from some place like Detrick and then fermented up quantities of it and weaponized it. It's too difficult to do this.

Thus the fully weaponized product had to be removed from a BW lab somewhere. But how could this happen without complicity of the lab and the people who oversee the lab?

Understand that and you understand everything. This is an all-or-nothing game. Either the anthrax of 2001 was perpetrated with the full blessing of the US government or it came from a foreign BW lab, and we were attacked by that foreign nation.

[marions ghost]

13. It's possible

that the Tularemia scare was put out there for nefarious reasons --I don't doubt that theory for a minute--but people need to know that the CDC is now insisting that the initial tests for Tularemia were never at any time conclusive (indicating possibly 'false positives'),and therefore it was just that--a SCARE. The response was obviously weirdly bungled, and why didn't the lab report directly to the CDC, instead of to Homeland Security? (Of course if anyone DOES come down with Tularemia, it will prove the CDC is lying...but I think those who were on the mall need to READ THIS from wednesday's Washington Post:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/04/AR2005100401544.html?nav=hcmodule

Test Results Cited in Delay of Mall Alert"
CDC Explains Why Local Officials Weren't Told for Days About Bacterium Detection

By Susan Levine and Sari Horwitz
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, October 5, 2005

Area health officials were not notified for five days that sensors on the Mall had detected a potentially dangerous bacterium there last month because subsequent tests were not conclusively positive, a federal official said yesterday.

The Department of Homeland Security delayed in alerting the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the same reason, said Richard Besser, who directs the CDC's coordinating office for terrorism preparedness and emergency response. More than half a dozen sensors showed the presence of tularemia bacteria the morning after thousands of people gathered on the Mall for a book festival and antiwar rally, yet the CDC was not contacted for at least 72 hours.

Testing never identified all the definitive markers for which scientists were looking, and officials were wary of issuing a false alarm, Besser said. He called the entire incident "highly unusual," but he acknowledged that it would prompt the two agencies to review their protocol and the timeliness of their response "to make sure the system doesn't have any flaws in it."

(snip)

Besser said that if the initial evaluation had revealed true positives, the laboratory would have immediately contacted Homeland Security, which would have immediately brought CDC and local health agencies into the discussion. Instead, as late as Thursday, CDC officials expected final testing to disprove the presence of the bacteria. "So we didn't really think there was a need to alert public health officials," he said.

[Mira]

14. I've been low level sick since being at the March, and so has my son

Is it too late to recommend this for the Greatest page to hear from others?

I am pretty mad about it!
Mad about not having the information come out for 5 days and the fact that it happened at all, and mad about not knowing what to do, and if to worry.
Mad about Bush laying a base for militarizing a government response to illness, instead of letting hospitals and doctors handle it.

We got to keep the eye on the ball, though, and can't get diverted from our primary goal which is to find a way to get them out.

[marions ghost]

15. you have every reason to be angry at how

this was bungled by the agencies.

BUT READ my post #13, the CDC said on Wednesday that there were NO TRUE POSITIVES for Tularemia at the mall. Therefore it was a scare, not a reality. So I think you can stop worrying...which is not to say that we all shouldn't be outraged at how this was handled.

[electropop]

17. Yeah, I might be worried about CDC credibility if they were tied in

with the Federal Government that we are fearing as the culprit. Oh wait... :scared:

I was at the protest, but have been fine.

[marions ghost]

25. If the CDC

says, as it did through WaPo reporters, that the initial tests were NOT what they call "true positives" (see post 13)and then people were to come down with Tularemia, the CDC would have 0 credibility for a long time. So I don't think they would risk that. I believe at this point this was a scare and not a true threat. However it COULD have been real, as we all know, and the RESPONSE to it would not have been good enough. And the question of how it got out as even a "scare" needs to be asked. There needs to be an investigation--of course it seems we can't let the govt investigate itself anymore without independent scrutiny.

So I'm with you on being skeptical about what happened here, but I think it's also important to accept that there was probably no real Tularemia threat, so people can stop worrying that they were exposed to it. We certainly know a lot more about it NOW, though, as a result of this scare.

[tavalon]

30. Don't worry about the CDC's credibility

It was shot years ago.

on edit: for any of you who are "in the know" about the previous CDC debacle I'm referencing, the phrase I used above was not an intentional pun. I hate puns.

[Skidmore]

18. May I borrow this list for use else where

and credit it appriately, of course.

[Pab Sungenis]

21. Of course.

No need to even credit it. Just rambling musings in the public domain.

[rhett o rick]

19. Question. How would someone spread this bacteria in the Washington Mall?

Or is that a stupid question? I am not being a smart-ass. Would the spreader have to wear gloves and face mask?

[mom cat]

26. Not is they were already vaccinated.

[lostnfound]

32. I don't know, but in the 60s they used lightbulbs in the subways (link)

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/07/13/1357237&mode=thread&tid=25

Bacteria in NY subway lightbulbs.

That was a harmless bacteria, but the one they sprayed from ships in SanFrancisco was not so harmless.

[nashville_brook]

20. add to this Libby's note to Judith Miller, and the dead microbiologists

Libby said Miller had more "stories" to cover, including bioweapons -- and by "stories" he means Bush propaganda -- ergo -- ??

and while we're on the subject of bioweapons, lets not forget all the dead microbiologists:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=125&topic_id=56764&mesg_id=56764

just data points, ya'll

[rhett o rick]

22. Has the Corp Media picked up on this yet?? Would this fall under GWB

war on terror? If so, i am sure it will be handled with the same expediency as the rest of the war.

[mom cat]

27. List of dead microbiologists and scientists

http://www.stevequayle.com/dead_scientists/UpdatedDeadScientists.html

List of Dead Scientists

Died 2005

#78: Leonid Strachunsky. Died: June 8, 2005 after being hit on the head with a champagne bottle. Strachunsky specialized in creating microbes resistant to biological weapons. Strachunsky was found dead in his hotel room in Moscow, where hed come from Smolensk en route to the United States. Investigators are looking for a connection between the murder of this leading bio weapons researcher and the hepatitis outbreak in Tver, Russia.

#77: Robert J. Lull, age 66. Died: May 19, 2005 of multiple stab wounds. Despite his missing car and apparent credit card theft, homicide Inspector Holly Pera said investigators aren't convinced that robbery was the sole motive for Lull's killing. She said a robber would typically have taken more valuables from Lull's home than what the killer left with. Lull had been chief of nuclear medicine at San Francisco General Hospital since 1990 and served as a radiology professor at UCSF. He was past president of the American College of Nuclear Physicians and the San Francisco Medical Society and served as editor of the medical society's journal, San Francisco Medicine, from 1997 to 1999. Lee Lull said her former husband was a proponent of nuclear power and loved to debate his political positions with others.

#76: Todd Kauppila, age 41. Died: May 8, 2005 of hemorrhagic pancreatitis at the Los Alamos hospital, according to the state medical examiner's office. Picture of him was not available to due secret nature of his work. This is his funeral picture. His death came two days after Kauppila publicly rejoiced over news that the lab's director was leaving. Kauppila was fired by director Pete Nanos on Sept. 23, 2004 following a security scandal. Kauppila said he was fired because he did not immediately return from a family vacation during a lab investigation into two classified computer disks that were thought to be missing. The apparent security breach forced Nanos to shut down the lab for several weeks. Kauppila claimed he was made a scapegoat over the disks, which investigators concluded never existed. The mistake was blamed on a clerical error. After he was fired, Kauppila accepted a job as a contractor at Bechtel Nevada Corp., a research company that works with Los Alamos and other national laboratories. He was also working on a new Scatter Reduction Grids in Megavolt Radiography focused on metal plates or crossed grids to act to stop the scattered radiation while allowing the unscattered or direct rays to pass through with other scientists: Scott Watson (LANL, DX-3), Chuck Lebeda (LANL, XTA), Alan Tubb (LANL, DX-8), and Mike Appleby (Tecomet Thermo Electron Corp.)

See list for the others.

[mom cat]

28. Also this article on the anthrax search:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/10/05/eveningnews/main917143.shtml
Anthrax Investigation Grows Old

WASHINGTON, Oct. 5, 2005
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(CBS)


Quote

"We have a situation where there is no smoking gun per se. There is no link, no direct link between the person and the event and the material used."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Randall Murch, Former FBI Lab Manager


(CBS) Four years have passed since the anthrax attacks, reports CBS News correspondent Jim Stewart, but despite what it calls the biggest investigation of all time, the FBI has no solution, and admits it could happen again.

It was the simplicity of it all that was so scary. Someone drops a letter in the mail, it disappears into the system, and there mingles with millions of others to spread its deadly spores. Five people died. Twenty-two were contaminated.

Anyone could get it, from well-known newsmen and politicians to elderly retirees. Anthrax didn't discriminate, and as we soon learned...the same person was behind it all.

"The tests to date have concluded that the strains are indistinguishable," Tom Ridge said Oct. 19, 2001.
more...

[tavalon]

29. I have one problem with this

the tularemia scare would only work if it was picked up in the media and spread around. It doesn't look like this spread much beyond a couple of blogs and a message board or two.

[Pab Sungenis]

31. Yes, but....

(1) The terraist had no way of knowing the MSM would sweep it under the rug, and
(2) It did get where it counted: the blogs and websites we use to organize.