* The FBI’s genetic analysis in Amerithrax rested on the UNVALIDATED scientific assumption that all samples that had been inactivated were in fact dead and that such samples thus could not have been the source of the virulent anthrax mailed shortly after 9/11.
Posted by DXer on June 15, 2015
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Tagged: *** 2001 anthrax attacks, *** Amerithrax, FBI anthrax science, FBI's genetic analysis, NAS review of FBI anthrax science. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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DXer said
In his new book, Mark Kortepeter writes:
“”John Ezzell confronted me in the Medical Division hallway with a highly irregular request. “I’ve got the FBI here in the kitchen,” he said. “They want to test some letters in the oven.” “Are you kidding me” I was floored. “Very soon the American public will demand to know what to do with their mail,” John said. “The FBI is trying to figure out what to tell them.”
DXer said
Filed under “don’t try this at home, kids”, Mark Kortepeter in his new book, INSIDE THE HOT ZONE writes:
“John [Ezzell] had filled letters with spores of an environmental organism, Bacillus globigii, to be tested as a surrogate for the anthrax bacteria, Bacillus anthracis. He needed my permission to conduct a scientific experiment: to bake the letters at different temperatures and times in our commercial oven to find an appropriate setting that would kill anthrax spores without setting the letters on fire. The results of the experiment could be used to inform the American public how to decontaminate their mail safely.”
DXer said
https://vault.fbi.gov/Amerithrax/amerithrax-part-40-of/view
On four (4) polypropylene tubes containing Bacillus anthracis
Ames for use in fermentor production runs. On the first
spore production run of the 19 total runs that would be initiated
for shipment to between 04/23/1997 and 09/03/1997.
***
70ml of irradiated spores, concentration 5.0×107 spores/ml, dated 09/23/1997 were recovered in a consensual search of the Lothar Salomon Life Sciences Test Facility at the Dugway Proving Ground, Dugway, Utah on 06/30/2004.
DXer said
DoD Anthrax Update: Live Samples Sent To Mississippi
78 labs have received live anthrax and counting…
The Department of Defense has increased the number of government-run and private labs that have received live anthrax to 78, and Mississippi has been added to the list of states that have received the virus, making 20 states, including the District of Columbia and four countries.
http://www.talkradionews.com/pentagon/2015/06/29/dod-anthrax-update-live-samples-sent-to-mississippi.html#.VZGxbuvuj2Q
DXer said
Germ Bank Security: Safeguards for a new age of challenges
Posted by Sandra Maksimovic-Sara on June 26, 2015
http://outbreaknewstoday.com/germ-bank-security-safeguards-for-a-new-age-of-challenges-83133/
DXer said
The lead bullet and Amerithrax case studies are presented in:
The Role of Databases in Forensic Science
Karen Kafadar Department of Statistics University of Virginia kkafadar@virginia.edu
http://www.stat.virginia.edu
DXer said
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/06/16/cdc-lab-incident-reports-foia/28806263/
After serious lab mishaps, CDC says it needs 3 years to release…
USA TODAY – 3 hours ago
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — which has publicly disclosed three serious laboratory accidents during the past year involving Ebola, anthrax …
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — which has publicly disclosed three serious laboratory accidents during the past year involving Ebola, anthrax and a deadly strain of bird flu — says it will take three more years before it will release copies of all incident reports for the agency’s labs in Atlanta and Fort Collins, Colo.
On Jan. 6, in an effort to determine the extent of lab accidents at the agency, USA TODAY filed a request under the federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) seeking copies of all incident reports at CDC labs during 2013 and 2014. The CDC granted the request “expedited” processing status because USA TODAY had demonstrated there is a compelling public need for the information. The agency initially said it anticipated responding by June 4.
But in a letter sent Friday, the CDC now says it anticipates it will take another three years to release its laboratory-incident reports. CDC Director Tom Frieden did not respond to interview requests.
***
Two members of Congress who have been investigating CDC’s lab-safety mishaps expressed concern about the agency’s expected delay in releasing the records.
“CDC should be transparent, cooperative, and publicly accountable, and that would include properly responding to Freedom of Information Act requests in a timely fashion.
***
Adam Marshall, a legal fellow at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, a national non-profit that advocates for transparency, said the FOIA requires agencies to make a determination on records requests within 20 days and they can take an additional 10 days in certain unusual circumstances.
“I think what’s reasonable is compliance with the law,” Marshall said Tuesday. “In cases like yours where there is a really heightened need for the public to have access to this information, it’s incredibly important that the agency comply with its statutory obligation. It’s a travesty for the American public that they aren’t.”
DXer said
The FBI in its Vault or otherwise has not produced all the lab notebooks showing transfers from Flask 1029, which contained virulent Ames thought to have contained the four “morphs” contained in the anthrax mailed in Fall 2001.
Source:
“On 09/21/2006 and 9/22/2006 SAs ________________________ conducted a detailed review of inventory for RMR-1029, provided by Bruce Ivins, FD-3-2s, electronic communications, and subpoenaed material such as scientific notebooks and 11t material transfer paperwork in order to substantiate from the time of its inception on 10/22/1997 through the window of opportunity for the second anthrax mailing in October. 2001.”
“Noted transfers of material were substantiated using laboratory notebooks 3745, 3945, 4000, 4010, 4237, and 4251.”
https://vault.fbi.gov/Amerithrax/Amerithrax%20%20Part%2024%20of%2059
Guess which transfer of virulent Ames Lab Notebook 3945 addressed?
Guess who was supplied that virulent Ames?
Lab Notebook 3945 was not returned by the FBI to USAMRIID.
.
DXer said
The FBI is wrongfully withholding under FOIA the notebook 3655 which involved genetically matching Ames anthrax that showed a silicon signature. It took the only copy from USAMRIID — thus preventing USAMRIID from producing it.
Why did the DOJ and FBI deem it acceptable not to return all of the lab notebooks — when the AUSAs appreciate the importance of the contemporaneous record of events provided by the notebooks?
Posted by Lew Weinstein on December 7, 2011
DXer said
Indeed, powderized anthrax was made by the FBI’s expert — whose lab threw out Dr. Ivins submitted sample. It was irradiated before being lyophilized.
The Ames was genetically matching and was kept in an unlocked freezer in Building 1412. The FBI’s claim that it the genetically matching Ames was only stored in Building 1425 was a crock from the very beginning (see US Attorney Taylor’s August 8, 2008 press conference) and the FBI knew it.