Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Bruce Ivins Wasn't the Anthrax Culprit - WSJ.com
This guy seems to know what he's writing about, and it doesn't match the government's story.
That could easily give one pause to think that maybe the government just wants this to go away, rather than admit that someone out there knows what's going on, i.e. how to weaponize powdered anthrax.
Pretty creepy...
That could easily give one pause to think that maybe the government just wants this to go away, rather than admit that someone out there knows what's going on, i.e. how to weaponize powdered anthrax.
Pretty creepy...
Here's part of Richard Spertzel's recent Wall Street Journal article:
"Information released by the FBI over the past seven years indicates a product of exceptional quality. The product contained essentially pure spores. The particle size was 1.5 to 3 microns in diameter. There are several methods used to produce anthrax that small. But most of them require milling the spores to a size small enough that it can be inhaled into the lower reaches of the lungs. In this case, however, the anthrax spores were not milled.
What's more, they were also tailored to make them potentially more dangerous. According to a FBI news release from November 2001, the particles were coated by a 'product not seen previously to be used in this fashion before.' Apparently, the spores were coated with a polyglass which tightly bound hydrophilic silica to each particle. That's what was briefed (according to one of my former weapons inspectors at the United Nations Special Commission) by the FBI to the German Foreign Ministry at the time.
Another FBI leak indicated that each particle was given a weak electric charge, thereby causing the particles to repel each other at the molecular level. This made it easier for the spores to float in the air, and increased their retention in the lungs.
In short, the potential lethality of anthrax in this case far exceeds that of any powdered product found in the now extinct U.S. Biological Warfare Program. In meetings held on the cleanup of the anthrax spores in Washington, the product was described by an official at the Department of Homeland Security as 'according to the Russian recipes' -- apparently referring to the use of the weak electric charge."
