* The soon-to-be-released DoD report attributes Dugway’s problems with radiation dosing viability testing, and aseptic procedures to “scientific uncertainty” concerning dose levels and time intervals between irradiation and viability testing; Bruce Ivins experienced the same thing at USAMRIID
Posted by DXer on July 17, 2015
CASE CLOSED ... what really happened in the 2001 anthrax attacks? 
DXer said
Here is a copy of the “Review Committee Report: Inadvertent Shipment of Live Bacillus anthracis spores by DoD”
Click to access Review-Committee-Report-Final.pdf
DXer said
Procedures Faulted in Army Lab’s Shipment of Anthrax
By MATTHEW ROSENBERGJULY 23, 2015
According to a Pentagon report, the main problem at Dugway was that only about 5 percent of the anthrax samples that the lab irradiated were reviewed to ensure that the virus had been inactivated, a rate far lower than that of similar facilities.
…
Mr. Work said the F.B.I. had assisted in the initial Pentagon review. The Army is now engaged in a deeper investigation to determine whether anyone should be held responsible for the failures at Dugway.
Inactivated anthrax is used for research, and Dugway was the largest producer of such samples in the United States before production was suspended. The Pentagon has been working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to retrieve live samples sent from Dugway.
DXer said
Nancy A. Youssef
WHOOPS07.23.159:26 PM ET
Pentagon ‘Shocked’ by Anthrax Leak
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/07/23/pentagon-shocked-by-anthrax-leak.html
Since 2003, that lab, Dugway Proving Ground, mistakenly sent out live spores around the world 50 percent of the time. …
“They had a job to produce this, and they ignored safety standards,” Richard Ebright, professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Rutgers University. “They knew from their own results, even with their own flawed quality testing, that it was failing.”
…
The reports suggested that officials realized years earlier that attempting to kill anthrax in such large batches with such minimal standards was not working. The DoD officials refused to say why the protocols were not adjusted or who made the decision to keep using them.
Indeed, it is possible officials at Dugway even lied to those conducting the report.
Kendall said when investigators asked Dugway about their failure rate, officials there said it was 2-3 percent. When investigators reviewed the records, they found a 21 percent failure rate, or what DoD tried to explain away as a “simple misunderstanding.”
…
Kendall said there was no major difference between protocols at Dugway and the other three DoD labs that inactivate anthrax, but did not explain why officials were not examining the remaining facilities.
…
Ebright, however, called it “criminally negligent.” …
To be sure, there are no federal standards for how to kill live anthrax spores, leaving DoD to come up with their own procedures. There is no standard because the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has consistently refused to set them. And so the individual institutions, like Dugway, have crafted their own.
…
“There is no legitimate military or civilian purpose that requires inactivated anthrax from fully virulent strains,” Ebright said.
DXer said
US Army Shipped Same Virulent Anthrax Strain Used After 9/11 Attacks
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2015/07/23/us-army-shipped-same-virulent-anthrax-strain-used-after-911-att.html
The U.S. Defense Department on Thursday confirmed the live Anthrax samples the Army mistakenly shipped around the world was the same virulent strain used after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. …
The samples were from the so-called Ames strain, a particularly virulent form of the bacteria used in the 2001 Anthrax attacks. After letters containing the substance were sent to the offices of news media and U.S. lawmakers, five people were killed and 17 others were infected. Bruce Iv[i]ns, a government microbiologist, committed suicide after authorities were preparing to charge him in the case.
***
One of the firms sent it to a subcontractor, which tested the sample, found live bacteria growing and contacted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it stated.
***
Even so, Frank Kendall, the Pentagon’s top weapons official, acknowledged that Dugway officials at first incorrectly reported that just 2-3 percent of the Anthrax samples tested positive for living organisms in verification testing. The actual figure was closer to 30 percent */ — a level that someone should have noticed, he said.
“That’s a significant difference,” he said. “The technical leadership at Dugway should have understood that.”
Comment: Ha! Even the sample first discovered to be live was routed through Edgewood, the Maryland biotech company and that company’s subcontractor.
Vahid Majidi, who relied on the specious process of elimination in ruling out other possibilities, is head of the review committee that just issued the report. Let Dr. Majidi explain why the analysis he relied upon in accusing Dr. Ivins hasn’t been demonstrated to be unreliable.
Coincidental or not, having him head things is associated with highly truncated conclusions — where the implications were not spooled out further back in time, to the time of the 9/11 mailings.
The FBI expressly ruled out those labs where the Ames anthrax had undergone irradiation procedures.
*/ As I recall, the figure was 21%.
DXer said
Pentagon cites ineffective testing in shipping of live anthrax — but still isn’t sure how it happened
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2015/07/23/pentagon-cites-ineffective-testing-in-shipping-of-live-anthrax-but-still-isnt-sure-how-it-happened/
By Dan Lamothe July 23 at 4:00 PM
A 38-page report released by the Pentagon on Thursday said that while Dugway is one of several government facilities that store and irradiate live anthrax, the lab is the primary producer of it and other toxins used in research. But the samples it tested were the smallest of all Defense Department laboratories, and tested the soonest after irradiation.
The review found that it is possible that some anthrax may have been damaged by the gamma rays, but not killed. Given time, it is possible that it could regenerate itself, investigators found.
***
The review also said it cannot be ruled out that live and irradiated anthrax were cross-contaminated. It recommended testing anthrax after irradiation in a different facility than where it is kept beforehand.
DXer said
“More bad irradiation news” – USAMRIID’s Bruce Ivins found that sometimes samples that had tested negative then upon retesting came up “hot”
Posted by Lew Weinstein on June 19, 2015
Bruce Ivins experienced repeated irradiation failures with virulent Ames anthrax
Posted by Lew Weinstein on June 13, 2015
In 2006, Bruce Ivins’ was having Ames irradiated at 4 Mega Rads
Posted by Lew Weinstein on June 24, 2015
https://caseclosedbylewweinstein.wordpress.com/tag/irradiated-anthrax/
Bruce Ivins at USAMRIID found it amazing that 6 million rads wasn’t killing the spores
Posted by Lew Weinstein on June 13, 2015
DXer said
Exclusive: Pentagon Blames Anthrax Fiasco on…No One at All by Nancy A. Youssef
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/07/16/pentagon-blames-anthrax-fiasco-on-no-one.html
The report refers to “scientific uncertainties” in “sample sizes” for testing and in “incubation periods” between irradiation and testing. In other words, Dugway didn’t know exactly how much anthrax it was blasting with gamma rays—or how long the bacteria should sit before scientists examined it.
But Ebright contends that these “scientific uncertainties” cannot account for the failure of Dugway’s quality control testing to detect that spores still were viable. He notes that Dugway produced hundreds of batches of spores over a decade-long interval and consistently failed to detect live spores. “This massive, consistent failure cannot be accounted for, or explained away by, minor technical issues such as sample sizes and time periods between irradiation and testing,” Ebright said.
“It is hard to believe testing actually was done. If it was performed, it was performed in an appallingly bad way,” he added.
The report also noted deficiencies in Dugway’s “aseptic” procedures for keeping unwanted microbes—microbes other than anthrax itself—out of production of anthrax spores. Ebright said sloppiness with sterile techniques at Dugway is not surprising, given the other practices at Dugway, But it does not by itself account for the shipment of live spores.
Comment: Dr. Ebright yesterday described the report’s conclusion to me as “worse than hot air.” The phrasing arose when another email correspondent used the phrase “hot air” to describe an earlier article in the day about “resistance” to radiation that had developed.
In contrast to my friend, I think a focus on punishment leads to a truncated exploration of the implications of the report — such as the risk that there were earlier radiation failures given those same “scientific uncertainties.”
I would rather have documents than scalps any day.
DXer said
Dr. Ivins reports he had not known the FBI anthrax expert made a dried powder out of Ames from RMR 1029 for DARPA until after 9/11; did the FBI scientist and his assistants participate in the dried aerosol project at USAMRIID?
Posted by Lew Weinstein on December 13, 2011
GAO: Why are the so-called “Iraq sample” and Battelle discussed under the heading about IVINS’ knowledge of reported proposals to start conducting animal challenges at USAMRIID with dried Ames anthrax powder? What consulting did the DARPA-funded researchers at GMU’s Center for Biodefense who came to share a suite with Ali Al-Timimi do for Battelle in 1999? What work with virulent Ames did SRI in Frederick, MD do for those researchers?
Posted on December 14, 2011
FBI is still withholding from the public and GAO the notebook pages relating to the research involving the virulent Ames spores provided in 1998 to the DARPA researchers studying this decontamination agent described in this August 2012 patent; Flask 1029 distributions to researchers doing work at USAMRIID were not recorded on the Flask 1029 inventory where it was done at USAMRIID.
Posted on September 5, 2012
USAMRIID provides this response about the lack of documentation associated with the missing 98 vials of Ames anthrax from Flask 1029 under the DARPA-funded JHU-APL project under which USAMRIID was required to provide unidentified contractors virulent Ames anthrax
Posted by Lew Weinstein on November 20, 2014
DXer said
The person working with particle sizer in hot suite in 1412 in order to characterize particulates used Ames provided by Ivins but does not know whether sample provided pursuant to the 2002 subpoena; the notebook was transferred. This notebook should be obtained under FOIA.
Posted on January 1, 2012
Who worked alone on the dried aerosol project in Building 1412 and what does he or she say about the research? Was virulent Ames ever made into a dried powder in Maryland or Virginia?
Posted by Lew Weinstein on April 23, 2011
This is an interview of a scientist who had been working on the DARPA research while at USAMRIID; did Joany Jackman leave the remaining Ames from Flask 1029 with Terry Abshire or John Ezzell when she left?
Posted by Lew Weinstein on April 12, 2011
GAO: Did Patricia Fellows Ever Find the Missing “National Security” Sample That Dr. Ivins Was (Apparently Falsely) Told Was From Iraq Before Moving On To SRI That Summer? Was There An Emailed Response(s) To Dr. Ivins’ Question? Her Deposition Should Not Be Shredded.
Posted by Lew Weinstein on December 14, 2011
DXer said
Who Was The Only Person In [Redacted] Spoke To About The Dried Aerosol Project? Was It Ivins Assistant, The Aerosol Expert Pat F.? It Was Not Ivins Because His Name Would Not Have Been Redacted.
Posted by Lew Weinstein on January 11, 2012
The Dried Aerosol Project At USAMRIID Was to Determine The Breakthrough Point for the Recombinant Protective Antigen Vaccine; Equipment Was Purchased and Preliminary Experiments Were Performed : Dugway Was Considered As Supplier Of Dried Virulent Spores
Posted by Lew Weinstein on January 1, 2012
Was the sample that Dr. Ivins says he was told was from Iraq — but wasn’t — actually from the dried aerosol project that had been launched at USAMRIID unbeknownst to Dr. Ivins? [Yes] Who brought it to him? Where did it come from?
Posted by Lew Weinstein on December 14, 2011
Anthrax, Al Qaeda and Ayman Zawahiri: The Infiltration of US Biodefense
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
DXer said
The dried aerosol work in Aerobiology did not continue because dried agents are difficult to contain and decontaminate and because dried agents have dual use implications
Posted by Lew Weinstein on April 19, 2011
DXer: John Ezzell forthrightly (to my way of thinking, heroically) answered all my questions relating to the DARPA research in which Flask 1029 (the “murder weapon” to borrow US Attorney Taylor’s term) was used to make a dried powder Ames aerosol.
Posted by Lew Weinstein on December 10, 2010
why did the FBI keep evidence of John Ezzell’s dried powder from the NAS?
Posted by Lew Weinstein on March 21, 2011
In the article above, Ms. Youssef’s use of the word “discover” rather than “allege” was not apt. She may be unfamiliar with Amerithrax.
Anthrax, Al Qaeda and Ayman Zawahiri: The Infiltration of US Biodefense
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
DXer said
Dr. John Ezzell, the FBI’s anthrax expert, attended a recent conference on the anthrax mailings … his comments answered some questions and raised others
Posted by Lew Weinstein on December 7, 2010
In the 5 February 2002 Response to subpoena produced today, USRMIID notes dry simulants of anthrax were produced and stored in room 212 of building 1412 (which was where FBI’s scientist was located and not building 1425 where Ivins was located)
Posted by Lew Weinstein on May 22, 2014
USAMRIID today produced a copy of it’s response to a 17 January 2002 subpoena and admitted to the one project where a dried powder was made (by the FBI’s expert at USAMRIID who was collecting the samples from others)
Posted by Lew Weinstein on May 22, 201https://caseclosedbylewweinstein.wordpress.com/2014/05/22/usamriid-today-produced-a-copy-of-its-response-to-a-17-january-2002-subpoena-and-admitted-to-the-one-project-where-a-dried-powder-was-made-by-the-fbis-expert-at-usamriid-who-was-collecting-the/
Under the Agreement between JHU/APL and USAMRIID’s DSD, USAMRIID was to include work with virulent strains, and not just the Ames from Flask 1029 (Dugway Spores) that had been irradiated. 98 vials of Dugway spores are missing — claimed to have been destroyed the previous year.
Posted by Lew Weinstein on October 27, 2014
DXer said
Report says Al-Qaeda still aims to use weapons of mass destruction against U.S.
By Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/25/AR2010012502598.html
“When al-Qaeda’s No. 2 leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, called off a planned chemical attack on New York’s subway system in 2003, he offered a chilling explanation: The plot to unleash poison gas on New Yorkers was being dropped for “something better,” Zawahiri said in a message intercepted by U.S. eavesdroppers.”
Comment:
Is it appropriate for the United States Army, in defending the country, to not have taken the probe back earlier to pre-911? The strain involved in the recent events was the virulent Ames strain, which was the same strain used in the Fall 2001 anthrax attacks.
Relatedly, is it appropriate for the CDC to truncate its “investigation” — as it is doing behind closed dooors?
My nephew just lost his chickens near the back woods to a raccoon. Wasn’t it a question of not “if” but “when”?
And doesn’t the raccoon, now trapped and relocated, have a mate or a friend?
If RHE would channel his anger to pushing back the timeline — and carrying the “probe” further back in time — we might actually learn the lesson that history is trying to teach us.
Scapegoating is actually what we did in Amerithrax. We found a fall guy and thought of ourselves as actually having accomplished what needed to be accomplished.
Career considerations of prosecutors and investigators who wanted to declare victory overcame a more cautious, skeptical analysis.
We shouldn’t gamble when we can’t afford to lose — especially when the lives of innocents are at stake.
Anthrax, Al Qaeda and Ayman Zawahiri: The Infiltration of US Biodefense
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
DXer said
Someone commented on Ms. Youssef’s article and the sentence I suggested here was inapt:
Jag_Pop 13 hours ago
“The FBI’s main culprit was discovered years later to be Bruce Ivins, an Army biodefense researcher.”
After reading this article I Googled and reviewed some of what had been written in the past about Bruce Ivins.
Indeed a suspicious fellow. One thing that was *not* explicitly mentioned in this article, and unavoidable when reading (most) anywhere else about Bruce Ivins, is that Bruce Ivins received (intentionally and routinely) batches of anthrax from Dugway.
The anthrax the FBI said Bruce Ivins mailed to Congresspersons and the media in a terror attack originated from Dugway.
The anthrax originated in Dugway.
Back then when we were all reading about Bruce Ivins we would have barely made note when Dugway was mentioned in an article (repeatedly). Instead we should have done a face palm every time we read that name.
Read this interesting one (even though it does not say Dugway):