* Will Star Amerithrax Reporter Scott Shane Obtain Evidence of FBI Agent Wade Ammerman’s Concerns About An Awlaki-Al-Timimi-Anthrax Connection In His Federal Civil Suit Under FOIA?
Posted by Lew Weinstein on August 18, 2012
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Posted by Lew Weinstein on August 18, 2012
This entry was posted on August 18, 2012 at 7:31 am and is filed under Uncategorized. Tagged: *** 2001 anthrax attacks, *** Amerithrax, *** FBI anthrax investigation, Awlaki-Al-Timimi, Scott Shane, Wade Ammerman. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
DXer said
Matt Connolly writes today about former FBI agent John Connolly in the Whitey Bulger matter.
He raises the question about whether the FBI complies with the rules and regulations governing Top Echelon informants — and whether the rules are so vague as to permit what later in construed as misconduct.
The FBI should not let John Connolly die in prison
http://www.enterprisenews.com/blogs/theenterprise/x1843774058/The-FBI-should-not-let-John-Connolly-die-in-prison
“To date, almost fifteen years from the time Judge Wolf first started his hearings the issue of what can an FBI agent do to protect his top echelon informant is left open. The FBI hierarchy has not been called upon to come into court to explain its boundaries.”
***
“My post here does not consider those issues. I’m dealing with the big white elephant in the room that no one seems to see. I am suggesting that when the rules and regulations are deliberately vague and FBI agents are allowed to freelance with informants, just because this becomes public knowledge and the FBI is embarrassed, the FBI should not run away from an agent when it knew exactly what he was doing and allowed him to think he was doing his job.”
***
The FBI has all its rules and regulations to cover itself — but it operates in a manner totally different than that.
“It’s time some of the top brass come forward and tell us what it was like. It’s time to get over Hoover’s first commandment that all that matters is not to embarrass the FBI. It has a guy who worked for it for 20 years and who retired with honor and great acclaim. The Boston jury gave him a pass on what he did as an FBI agent with the gangsters understanding instinctively that was part of his job. The FBI hierarchy did not help him when he was in the fight but now it can at least work to show that he was doing what he was supposed to be doing and that providing information to his informants was part of his job.”
DXer said
Whistleblower and Liability Protections for Scientific Laboratory Employees
JS Gonzalez, V Sutton – … of Biosecurity, Biosafety and Biodefense Law, 2012 – degruyter.com
… The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) determined that Bruce Ivins, a career research scientist
at the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID)
laboratory, was the person most likely to have mailed the anthrax letters. …Whistleblower and Liability Protections for Scientific Laboratory Employees
JS Gonzalez, V Sutton – … of Biosecurity, Biosafety and Biodefense Law, 2012 – degruyter.com
Comment:
A JD-PhD with BL-3 and BL-4 was let go from ATCC shortly after starting upon complaining of the incredibly lax security there. (She called me out of the blue and said everything I was writing about Al-TImimi’s access to the patent repository at ATCC was right on the mark.) If whistleblowers at ATCC were promptly terminated and given 2 weeks severance, what did that bode for the FBI’s science effort shedding light? The former collection scientist Jason B. came to lead the Amerithrax science effort. Who was the FBI scientist who submitted ATCC’s sample to the FBI? JB? Was he responsible for or involved in the whistleblower’s termination? GAO: the scientist is available to interview.
DXer said
In briefing this month in the case, the government argued that “zero plus zero will always equal zero.” 1/
Is that true? Or does a zero plus zero sometimes spell an aerial attack on aircraft carriers?
Can aircraft carriers be defended using hot air? 2/
A recent study used prolonged temperatures of 77ºC (170.60ºF ) My sauna is 180ºF. While I haven’t read the study yet, does that mean if one is exposed to aerosolized anthrax, one could fruitfully go and hang out in a sauna and save oneself by listening to DOJ justifications for withholding the legal rationale for concealing what they know about the Awlaki-Al-Timimi-Anthrax lead? (…when the reality just relates to those famous “political sensitivities”)
Would taking in the hot humid air tend to protect oneself from the attack?
What’s the downside of at least declassifying the legal reasoning?
1/
Government Files Further Briefing in SDNY FOIA Cases
By Wells Bennett
Thursday, August 9, 2012 at 1:59 PM
http://www.lawfareblog.com/2012/08/government-files-further-briefing-in-sdny-foia-cases/
2/
J Appl Microbiol. 2012 Aug 16. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2672.2012.05423.x. [Epub ahead of print]
Test method development to evaluate hot, humid air decontamination of materials contaminated with Bacillus anthracis ∆Sterne and B. thuringiensis Al Hakam spores.
Buhr TL, Young AA, Minter ZA, Wells CM, McPherson DC, Hooban CL, Johnson CA, Prokop EJ, Crigler JR.
Source
CBR Concepts and Experimentation Branch (Z21) and Sensor Technology Branch (Q31), Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren Division, Dahlgren, VA.
Abstract
AIMS:
To develop test methods and evaluate survival of Bacillus anthracis ∆Sterne and B. thuringiensis Al Hakam spores after exposure to hot, humid air.
METHODS AND RESULTS:
Spores (>7 logs) of both strains were dried on six different test materials. Response surface methodology was employed to identify the limits of spore survival at optimal test combinations of temperature (60, 68, 77°C), relative humidity (60, 75, 90%) and time (1, 4, 7 days). No spores survived the harshest test run (77°C, 90% RH, 7 days) while >6.5 logs of spores survived the mildest test run (60°C, 60% RH, 1 day). Spores of both strains inoculated on nylon webbing and polypropylene had greater survival rates at 68°C, 75% RH, 4 days than spores on other materials. Electron microscopy showed no obvious physical damage to spores using hot, humid air, which contrasted with pH-adjusted bleach decontamination.
CONCLUSIONS:
Test methods were developed to show that hot, humid air effectively inactivates B. anthracis ∆Sterne and B. thuringiensis Al Hakam spores with similar kinetics. © 2012 The Authors Journal of Applied Microbiology © 2012 The Society for Applied Microbiology.
DXer said
http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/07/26/48735.htm
Thursday, July 26, 2012Last Update: 11:56 AM PT
DOJ Can’t Shelve Third Suit Over Drone Strike
By ANNIE YOUDERIAN
In its December 2011 complaint, The New York Times and two reporters seek “copies of all Office of Legal Counsel opinions or memoranda since 2001 that address the legal status of targeted killing, assassination, or killing of people suspected of ties to Al Qaeda or other terrorist groups by employees or contractors of the United States government.”
The Times also wants a copy of “all Office of Legal Counsel memorandums analyzing the circumstances under which it would be lawful for United States armed forces or intelligence community assets to target for killing a United States citizen who is deemed to be a terrorist.”
The complaint from the ACLU and its foundation seek records related to the “legal authority and factual basis for the targeted killing” of al-Awlaki and two other U.S. citizens.