Interesting People mailing list archives
IP: Evidence and Comments on the Source of the Mailed Anthrax
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Sun, 09 Dec 2001 15:52:28 -0500
Date: Sun, 09 Dec 2001 12:58:52 -0500 From: tim finin <finin () cs umbc edu> Organization: UMBC http://umbc.edu/ This is a very interesting compilation of information about the antrax mailings. The author is a molecular biologist formerly of Cornell Medical College and now Research Professor at the State University of New York. She chairs the Federation of American Scientists' (FAS) Working Group on Biological Weapons, a core group of ten professionals with expertise ranging from technical to medical to legal to political, and, in addition, dozens of collaborating consultants on specialized issues. A Compilation of Evidence and Comments on the Source of the Mailed Anthrax, Barbara Hatch Rosenberg, Federation of American Scientists, revised 12/6/01 http://fas.org/bwc/news/anthraxpaper.htm The final section of this article offers some interesting hypotheses: 9.MOST LIKELY HYPOTHESIS The perpetrator is an American microbiologist who has access to recently-weaponized anthrax or to the expertise and materials for making it, in a US government or contractor lab. He does not live in or near Trenton, but more probably in the Washington, DC area. Trenton is probably accessible to him (it is a stop on the Amtrak line that runs along the East coast), but if he is smart enough to handle anthrax he is smart enough not to mail it from his home town. The anthrax in the letters was made and weaponized in a US government or contractor lab. It might have been made recently by the perpetrator on his own, or made as part of the US biodefense program; or it may be a remnant of the US biological weapons program before Nixon terminated the program in 1969. Weaponization of dry anthrax after 1972, when the Biological Weapons Convention was signed, could be construed as a violation of the Convention. The motive of the perpetrator was not necessarily to kill but to create public fear, thereby raising the profile of BW. He simply took advantage of Sept 11 to throw suspicion elsewhere. The letters warned of anthrax or the need to take antibiotics, making it possible for those who handled the letters to protect themselves; and it seems unlikely that the perpetrator would have anticipated that the rough treatment of mail in letter sorters etc, would force anthrax spores through the pores of the envelopes (which were taped to keep the anthrax inside) and infect postal workers. The choice of media as targets seemed to have been designed to ensure publicity about the threat of biological weapons. One can only speculate that the perpetrator may have wished to push the US government toward retaliatory action against some enemy, or to attract funding or recognition to some program with which he is associated. The choice of Senators Daschle and Leahy as targets may be a clue that has yet to be deciphered. The US government has known for some time that the anthrax terrorism was an inside job. They may be reluctant to admit this. They also may not yet have adequate hard evidence to convict the perpetrator. In opposition to most of the countries of the world, the Bush administration turned down a Protocol to monitor compliance with the ban on biological weapons last July. In so doing it reversed the policy of the previous three administrations aimed at strengthening the Biological Weapons Convention, which lacks verification measures. The anthrax attacks have had no effect on administration policy: the US delegation has just resisted subsequent international efforts to strengthen the Convention at its five-yearly Review Conference, which ended on December 7.
For archives see: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
Current thread:
- IP: Evidence and Comments on the Source of the Mailed Anthrax David Farber (Dec 09)