* an interview with David Relman, vice chair of the NAS review committee, reveals clearly that the science cannot prove that Dr. Bruce Ivins is the sole perpetrator or even involved … and, by the way, it seems Al Qaeda had Ames anthrax

listen to the interview at …

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/healthreport/stories/2011/3150060.htm

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Dr. David Relman of Stanford – Vice Chair of the NAS committee

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David Relman, MD, vice chair of the NAS review committee, is a professor of microbiology and immunology and of infectious diseases at the Stanford University School of Medicine. He answered the questions below from Bruce Goldman, a science writer in the medical school’s communications office.

Q: Did your review uphold the FBI’s findings? Is this case still open?

A: Dr. Relman:

• The main conclusion by the FBI and Department of Justice of their scientific investigation was that the Bacillus anthracis in the letters was derived from a flask called RMR-1029, which was located in the lab of Dr. Bruce Ivins at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Disease in Frederick, Md.

we found some problems and gaps in the scientific investigation

• Although the scientific evidence was supportive of a link between the letters and that flask, it did not definitively demonstrate such a relationship, for at least two reasons.
• it’s possible that the samples gathered by the FBI missed mutants that arose during such runs. This possibility was not given adequate consideration.
• the FBI still might not have found other matches, because there’s no guarantee that the bureau had assembled a comprehensive library of lab strains

The newly revealed, but inconclusive, information

about possible B. anthracis Ames

at an al Qaeda overseas location highlights this issue.

• In addition, the instructions in the subpoena the FBI sent to scientists known to be in possession of the B. anthracis Ames strain lacked specificity, so there’s no certainty that scientists who were subpoenaed submitted samples of all the mutant strains in their possession.
• In light of these and other problems and gaps in the science performed as part of this investigation, our overarching finding was that …

it is not possible to reach a definitive conclusion

about the origins of the B. anthracis in the mailings

based on the available scientific evidence alone

read the entire interview at … http://med.stanford.edu/ism/2011/february/relman.html

LMW COMMENT …

• The FBI, under the best possible interpretation, botched the scientific investigation.
• there is thus no science, no forensic evidence and no witness to link Dr. Bruce Ivins to the anthrax mailings
• in addition, much relevant information was not only kept from the public, but also from the scientists who were supposed to be doing the investigation.
• the FBI has not and presumably cannot prove its assertion that Ivins was the sole perpetrator of the attacks, or even involved

The FBI’s investigation must be re-opened

and properly reviewed by someone with the competence to do so

and the subpoena power to obtain the information they need.

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** Lew’s web interview 2-7-11 … mostly about the anthrax case

* CASE CLOSED – opening scene … the DIA re-investigates the FBI’s failed case

* buy CASE CLOSED at amazon *