Colleague (of accused anthrax killer Bruce Ivins) Says Anthrax Numbers Add Up to Unsolved Case

[JohnyCanuck]

A microbiologist who supervised the work of accused anthrax killer Bruce E. Ivins explained to a National Academy of Sciences panel Thursday why the arithmetic of growing anthrax didn't add up to Ivins' mailing deadly spores in fall 2001.

"Impossible," said Dr. Henry S. Heine of a scenario in which Ivins, another civilian microbiologist working for the Army, allegedly prepared the anthrax spores at an Army lab at Fort Detrick. Heine told the 16-member panel that Ivins would have had to grow as many as 10 trillion spores, an astronomical amount that couldn't have gone unnoticed by his colleagues.

According to FBI calculations, Ivins accomplished this working after-hours in a special suite for handling lethal agents designated B3, for Biohazard Level 3. A bar chart released by the bureau (PDF) when it closed its nearly 9-year-old Amerithrax case in February showed that in August and September 2001, the months immediately before the first anthrax letters were mailed, Ivins logged 34 more hours in the B3 suite than his combined total for the previous seven months.

"That's more than 8,000 hours (close to a year) short of what he would have needed to grow the anthrax," Heine told ProPublica in an interview after his NAS presentation.

Heine, one of the few scientists at the Army lab with the skills to grow large batches of anthrax, told ProPublica it would have taken around "100 liters of liquid anthrax culture," or more than 26 gallons, to grow all the dried spores that killed five Americans and infected 17 others.

http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0423/colleague-anthrax-numbers-add-unsolved-case/

[Kingofalldems]

1. K and R for the truth

[Robb]

2. Kick.

ProPublica link: http://www.propublica.org/article/colleague-says-anthrax-numbers-add-up-to-unsolved-case

And another note, PP won both a Pulitzer less than two weeks ago.

[Bitwit1234]

3. I think the republicans are responsible and there is no one,

absolutely no one on the face of this earth that will convince me otherwise. They targeted only democrats and democratic supporters. If it was just random how come. They were afraid that these people had something on bush and his administration and they wanted them gone. They got away with another series of murder and this stupid bunch of democrats let them.

[peekaloo]

5. don't forget those network "liberal" news anchors, too.

Hmmmmm.

[peekaloo]

4. All wrapped up with a pretty bow and presented as a going away gift

for Bu$h/Cheney.

Why would anyone doubt the official story?

mega :sarcasm:

[Voice for Peace]

6. i don't doubt it was a treasonous black op which included assisted suicide.

in some plane of existence these people will get their just rewards.

[UTUSN]

7. K&R Big #5. I smell CHEENEE. n/t

[lumberjack_jeff]

8. Government scientists spent a year growing 26 gallons of anthrax, used to poison D senators.

Boy, that sounds like a difficult crime to solve. Who would have the motive to poison Democratic Senators, and why would they try to frame muslim terror groups? I guess we'll never know.

Solving crimes is so... partisan.

[troubledamerican]

9. Iceberg

Sept 2001: White House takes Cipro (anti-Anthrax med) PRIOR to 9/11: Washington Post.
http://www.webcitation.org/5jpoTH18h


Dec. 2001: Bush Obstructs Investigation into Boston FBI -- and hijackers -- and Boston FBI's Robert Mueller, now director:
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines01/1214-01.htm


Sept 11 2001: Evening: Cheney given Cipro, weeks before Anthrax Attacks

White House Mail Machine Has Anthrax
By Sandra Sobieraj
Associated Press Writer
Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2001; 8:11 p.m. EDT

WASHINGTON –– President Bush said confidently Tuesday that "I don't have anthrax" after biohazard testing at the White House and the discovery of anthrax on a mail-opening machine at a screening facility six miles away.

All White House mail – more than 40,000 letters a week – is examined at military facilities across the Potomac River.

"Let me put it this way," Bush said. "I'm confident that when I come to work tomorrow, I'll be safe."

Asked if he was tested for the germ that has killed three people already this month, or if he was taking precautionary antibiotics, Bush replied simply: "I don't have anthrax."

At least some White House personnel were given Cipro six weeks ago. White House officials won't discuss who might be receiving the anthrax-treating antibiotic now.

On the night of the Sept. 11 attacks, the White House Medical Office dispensed Cipro to staff accompanying Vice President Dick Cheney as he was secreted off to the safety of Camp David, and told them it was "a precaution," according to one person directly involved.

http://www.webcitation.org/5jpoTH18h

[JohnyCanuck]

10. kick n/t