* Did the anthrax grown in soil reported at the June 2001 anthrax conference by Dr. Ezzell and his colleagues contain a Silicon Signature?
Posted by DXer on March 19, 2011
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Posted by DXer on March 19, 2011
This entry was posted on March 19, 2011 at 8:23 am and is filed under Uncategorized. Tagged: *** 2001 anthrax attacks, *** FBI anthrax investigation, USAMRID scientist John Ezzell. 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
In their recent article, Hugh-Jones, Rosenberg, and Jacobsen write:
“Microencapsulation of pathogens in US biodefense research
Although there is no evidence to indicate that the tin and silicon content of the spores conferred any benefit for purposes of the letter attacks, their presence is meaningful if the attack spores had been prepared legitimately for other purposes. Silicone microencapsulation would have been desirable for increasing the resistance of the spores to inactivation by hazards such as UV light, ozone or toxic materials38, and for preventing detection of the spores by some methods. (It is at the spore coat, rather than the external membrane (the exosporium) of Bacillus anthracis that these functions occur39). These are properties of military concern. The use of microencapsulation for such purposes was already an old idea40 in the biodefense community in the years immediately preceding the attacks.”
I have mentioned that Dr. Koehler, for example, in Houston had a $100,000 grant from the CIA to study the persistence of anthrax in soil. The research related to the question how long the anthrax would persist if dispersed on a battlefield. That lab was upgraded in March 2001 to B3. The doors were unlocked. See TK interview by NPR in Fall 2001. The lab was wiped out upon being flooded by millions of gallons in June 2001. TK’s lab (graduate student Melissa D.) was inserting virulent plasmics (x101 and x102) into avirulent strains to render them virulent. CIA says none of its strains were missing. How would it know if the lab was wiped out?