* What is our government hiding? Who is doing the hiding? Why? These are crucial questions affecting our national security, not only with respect to the 2001 anthrax attacks, but also today.
Posted by DXer on September 29, 2015
IT WASN’T IVINS … and the FBI must by now know that they drove the wrong man to suicide
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DXer commented on * Dugway anthrax – Will it take Congressional subpoena power to fill in the blanks in the email asking about weaponized anthrax that came to Detrick via FedEx and then was shipped out and some was missing?
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After producing the email attachments that have already been collected but have not yet been uploaded (to include documents such as Amerithrax Inventory 1-13), will USAMRMC be producing the documents relating to shipments of anthrax spores between USAMRIID and Dugway?
Consider the first quarter of 2003, for example. I am advised that spores from Dugway to USAMRIID were shipped on 15 JAN 03. Then spores were shipped from USAMRIID to Dugway on 4 MAR 03. And then spores were shipped from Dugway to USAMRIID on 11 MAR 03.
Is USAMRIID going to only produce the documents relating to shipments after 9/11? Did someone at USAMRIID or USMRMC destroy the documents of such shipments predating the murder of the five people, including the elderly Ottilie Lundgren? Or do the documents still exist and USMRMC/CDC/Army still insist on concealing them — all the while the Secretary of the Army is flying the banner of transparency and accountability.
CASE CLOSED ... what really happened in the 2001 anthrax attacks? 
DXer said
While the Army don’t get their work done, ISIS and Al Qaeda reportedly are planning to attack.
https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&gl=us&tbm=nws&authuser=0&q=ISIS+chemical+biological+attack&oq=ISIS+chemical+biological+attack&gs_l=news-cc.3..43j43i53.1375.6950.0.7254.31.8.0.23.23.0.99.581.8.8.0…0.0…1ac.1.LlhJJy4IZ_o&gws_rd=ssl
DXer said
JAG: Put the black magic marker down and step aside.
Anthrax, Al Qaeda and Ayman Zawahiri: The Infiltration of US Biodefense
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
DXer said
I received excellent assistance from Lauren McGuinn at FBI today.
It is very important in making FOIA requests to help the agency understand the request and to find the document.
The requester may only have one request — but the FBI has many hundreds of requests and just as many complex cases.
So do as I say and not as I do: take the time both in writing and advance research to specifically identify the relevant documents sought.
More light, less heat is almost always the best approach.
Always think of the FBI as drinking from a firehose.
DXer said
There is a new category of thirteen items in the USAMRMC Electronic Reading Room. The documents were uploaded today. (Yet it lists “posting dates” from August and October 2011.) Yesterday, the wonderful USMRMC official pointed out that they were in the folder but had not been uploaded.
She wrote: “I am going through some of my Dr. Ivins folders looking for an attachment that someone else asked me for and I’m finding some items I don’t think were put in the reading room. Did you ever receive Amerithrax Inventory 1-13? Some have FBI receipts for property.” It is my understanding that there was some sort of glitch or innocent oversight that caused the documents to not be uploaded. In any event, as always, I appreciate the disclosure of documents pursuant to FOIPA — whatever the particular reason for delay.
Called out just now from “A Walk In The Woods,” the movie theater graciously gave me my money back. Robert Redford and Nick Nolte had just started out on the Appalachian Trail from Georgia. Like walking the Appalachian Trail, obtaining documents under FOIPA is a marathon, not a sprint. To avoid being eaten by a bear, you don’t need to run faster than the bear — you just have to run faster than the guy with you being chased by the same bear.
FN
You can see the versions of the USAMRMC Electronic Reading using the “Wayback Machine.”
Here is the version from March 2012. The documents were not there.
https://web.archive.org/web/20120310091649/https://mrmc.amedd.army.mil/index.cfm?pageid=foia_reading_room.overview
Here is the version from November 1, 2013. The documents were not there.
https://web.archive.org/web/20131213123028/http://mrmc.amedd.army.mil/index.cfm?pageid=foia_reading_room.overview
Here is the version from September 6, 2015. The documents were not there.
https://web.archive.org/web/20150906125423/http://mrmc.amedd.army.mil/index.cfm?pageid=foia_reading_room.overview
Contents of: Amerithrax Inventory uploaded today:
• Amerithrax Inventory 1 (REDACTED).pdf (1492 KB) — Posted: 10/14/2011
• Amerithrax Inventory 10 (REDACTED).pdf (1467 KB) — Posted: 10/18/2011
• Amerithrax Inventory 11 (REDACTED).pdf (1846 KB) — Posted: 08/19/2011
• Amerithrax Inventory 12 (REDACTED).pdf (4609 KB) — Posted: 08/19/2011
• Amerithrax Inventory 13 (REDACTED).pdf (1631 KB) — Posted: 08/19/2011
• Amerithrax Inventory 2 (REDACTED).pdf (7377 KB) — Posted: 10/14/2011
• Amerithrax Inventory 3 (REDACTED).pdf (4302 KB) — Posted: 10/14/2011
• Amerithrax Inventory 4 (REDACTED).pdf (23760 KB) — Posted: 10/17/2011
• Amerithrax Inventory 5 (REDACTED).pdf (10496 KB) — Posted: 10/17/2011
• Amerithrax Inventory 6 – part 1 (REDACTED).pdf (30195 KB) — Posted: 10/17/2011
• Amerithrax Inventory 6 – part 2 (REDACTED).pdf (994 KB) — Posted: 08/19/2011
• Amerithrax Inventory 7 (REDACTED).pdf (4521 KB) — Posted: 08/19/2011
• Amerithrax Inventory 8 (REDACTED).pdf (1248 KB) — Posted: 08/19/2011
• Amerithrax Inventory 9 (REDACTED).pdf (1983 KB) — Posted: 08/19/2011
DXer said
Here is an inventory of samples collected by HMRU from a particular USAMRIID suite. The items were left by former USAMRIID employees.
Click to access Amerithrax%20Inventory%205%20(REDACTED).pdf
I am not comfortable criticizing a lack of inventory control or filing given that I recall lapses of my own. I just mean to pass on what some of the documents produced today under FOIA are about.
DXer said
In the September 14, 2004 search, the FBI took 208 samples of b. anthracis Ames strain from USAMRIID — and 99 unknown biological samples.
Click to access Amerithrax%20Inventory%206%20-%20part%201%20(REDACTED).pdf
DXer said
For anyone still interested in a Hatfill theory, note that this 33 page of items seized in July 2004 sometimes reveals location of refrigerator.
Although I personally don’t subscribe to a Hatfill Theory, I thought it was a bit screwy that they claim to have excluded Hatfill based on a lack of access to the genetically matching Ames.
Click to access Amerithrax%20Inventory%204%20(REDACTED).pdf
DXer said
Last-Ditch Effort
FBI Imposes October Deadline to Make a Case in the 2001 Anthrax Poisonings
By Brian Ross
July 20, 2004 — FBI agents returned to search the U.S. Army’s biological weapons labs at Fort Detrick, Md., as part of a last-ditch effort by the bureau to make a case in the 2001 anthrax attacks, federal officials tell ABC News.
The FBI has set a self-imposed Oct. 1 deadline for its agents to build a case that will stand up in court, officials said.
After matching the anthrax used in the deadly attacks with anthrax at the Army facility, investigators now hope to further narrow the hunt among the hundreds of researchers who have worked at the Fort Detrick labs, sources tell ABC News.
The labs at Fort Detrick were once the workplace of former government weapons scientist Dr. Steven Hatfill, who has been called a “person of interest” in the case.
Hatfill has repeatedly and strongly denied any involvement.
According to federal officials, the FBI has essentially taken over the so-called “hot zone suites,” where work with infectious substances is conducted.
A team of more than 20 agents have been at the base since last Friday, focused on labs in two buildings, officials told ABC News.
“[They’re] trying to see if there are any spores in the environment, spores that might have been released while somebody was theoretically making anthrax,” said Jerry Hauer, an expert on biological and chemical terrorism and director of public health preparedness at the Department of Health and Human Services.
Close to Making a Case?
Almost three years have lapsed since letters containing anthrax were sent to the U.S. Senate and several news organizations. As a result, five people died and 17 others were poisoned.
Scientists say anthrax spores could survive for as long as 50 years and that this week’s search holds the possibility of producing new evidence.
No one has ever been charged in the case.
But a former federal official says Hatfill remains the focus of the investigation.
“I think they’re very close to making a case but as they say, that last five yards is often the most difficult to get,” said Hauer, who is an ABC News consultant.
Earlier this year, Hatfill sued the government for targeting him, but a federal judge put the case on hold until Oct. l, after officials said the case was at a critical juncture.
That date now serves as the deadline for the FBI to make a case against Hatfill or get off his back.
DXer said
We should all be so lucky as to have the friends who rose in Bruce Ivins defense — for example, to point out that the genetically matching sample would have also been stored in Building 1412.
Off-topic:
Friends mark 30th anniversary of murder with plea for information
By Joleen Ferris Sep. 24, 2015
See more at: http://www.wktv.com/news/Friends_mark_30th_murder_anniversary_with_plea_for_information.html#sthash.4xGlMZxA.dpuf
Oneida County District Attorney Scott McNamara had the gut-wrenching task of calling Kimberly Simon’s parents and telling them that the man they thought killed their daughter, and had spent nearly 20 years in prison for it, was exonerated by DNA evidence and going to be freed. It was back to the agonizing uncertainty of 1985 for those who loved Kimberly Simon.
“I find it amazing that high school kids or somewhere close to high school age have kept these secrets and are afraid to come forward, I find that amazing,” says Swald.
McNamara agrees and thinks there are people who know what happened to Simon.
DXer said
I am not getting the links to work consistently when I post them. But I believe this shorter link works.
http://mrmc.amedd.army.mil/index.cfm?pageid=foia_reading_room.overview
Then if you want to see a particular new document uploaded, you can go to the “Amerithrax inventory” section.
Consider the wide range of refrigerators from which samples were taken.FN/
I believe if someone knowledgeable looked at the inventory of items seized in July 2004, they would agree that the data tends to corroborate Dr. Henry Heine’s claim that even the genetically matching Ames was stored all over Building 1412 in small amounts.
https://caseclosedbylewweinstein.wordpress.com/?s=Henry+Heine
Click to access Amerithrax%20Inventory%204%20(REDACTED).pdf
FN/ Samples were seized numerous freezers, to include Freezer MMCN# D2871, Freezer MMCN# B5183, Freezer E8295, Freezer F 4555, Freezer 5899, Freezer MMCN D2871, Freezer E6605, Freezer E5691, Freezer F 3893, Freezer MMCN F4713, Galaxy Refrigerator, Freezer 8289,
Refrigerator under counter, and more.
DXer said
Reconstructing events from long ago depends significantly on documentary evidence.
Document analysis hinges on obtaining the relevant documents.
One practical problem in Amerithrax was that the FBI took some key notebooks from USAMRIID and did not return them — to include Notebooks 3655 and Notebook 4010.
It would help to get people “on the same page” if those notebooks are now located and uploaded. Life would be dull if all had the same theory about difficult true crime mysteries such as Amerithrax. But we should all agree the value of getting “on the same page” to the extent consistent with FOIPA — which includes its statutory privacy provisions which will necessitate some (b)(6) redactions.
DOJ once had a crackerjack paralegal working on Amerithrax. I know this because he and I liked the same folk singer and DOJ personnel was on strict orders to keep me away from him when I visited DC. I suspect if a Congressional Committee were to obtain that annotated database of documents, staffers would have a roadmap to locate the most pertinent documents. There certainly is no effective Congressional oversight on the hide-the-ball being played by DOJ and FBI relating to Amerithrax.
The former lead Amerithrax investigator says that DOJ is withholding a staggering amount of information that is exculpatory of Dr. Bruce Ivins. He further says that Amerithrax is not “solved” — because the the DOJ’s “Ivins Theory” has never vetted through the lense of the exculpatory information being intentionally concealed by the FBI.
If members of Congress spent as much time obtaining the Amerithrax documents being withheld by the FBI under FOIA as they do posturing for the press, Amerithrax long ago would have been “solved.”
I’ve never thought for a moment that USAMRIID has intentionally concealed documents.
From: Ivins, Bruce E Dr USAMRIID
To:
Subject:
RE: FBI Request Date:
Thursday, September 02, 2004 3:43:00 PM
Special Agents a_________re currently going over notes and notebooks in my office. Does the FBI need data on the Ames strain up to the present, or only up to a certain time? (I am currently in the process of making and purifying Ames spores, obtaining Ames spores from Dugway Proving Ground, and sending Ames spores to Battelle Research Laboratories.) Also, instead of my going through thousands of computer files to see if the word “Ames” is in them, couldn’t the FBI have someone do that who is experienced in such computer work?
Also, the FBI currently is in possession of 15 notebooks from my office, including notebooks of and myself.
If you’d like me to talk to Special Agent let me know. Otherwise, could you please let meknow. Otherwise, could you please let me
See attachment. Please provide requested ” final contract documents” (bullet #2). as appropriate, as I’m going to be the clearinghouse for all of the requested information. Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks
If you’d like me to talk to Special Agent know about the above.
– Bruce
From: To:
Subject: Date:
Ivins, Bruce E Dr USAMRIID
RE: FBI Request Friday, September 03, 2004 1:50:00 PM
(b)(6)
How am I supposed to come up with items that are already in FBI hands? – Bruce
DXer said
Much of the DOJ/FBI’s “Ivins Theory” rested on his attempted recollections in 2007 and 2008 — years after the fact. Instead, the appropriate procedure to follow would have been to make available to him the contemporary documents so that he could reconstruct events.
Why would the FBI think that the Ivins could reconstruct events without his documents — to include his emails and relevant notebooks?
See, e.g.,
From: To: Subject: Date:
Ivins, Bruce E Dr USAMRIID
RE: Lab Analysis Meeting (UNCLASSIFIED)
Wednesday, January 30, 2008 10:13:35 AM
Thanks, so much, I’m trying to find as much information on our help with the FBI and the repository from the January – May [2002] timeframe. I have that meeting down, but have no clue as to what it was about, or if I was even there. I remember one important meeting I had to miss because I had already accepted being on a review team down at NIH, but I don’t know if this was it or it was sometime else. Thanks for all your informational help! What I can dig up is only spotty.
-bruce
Bruce Ivins
—–Original Message—–
From: Sent:
Wednesday, January 30, 2008 9:05 AM
To: Ivins, Bruce E Dr USAMRIID Subject: Re: Lab Analysis Meeting (UNCLASSIFIED)
Bruce,
If I have anything it is in my old mail archives that I was able to access on computer. The last time I tried, it didn’t work. However, I am going to try to reload those archives onto PC within the next week. I will get back to you in the next week or so.
The other thing I can try is to search my old hard drive. The new Macs can’t read the old text documents.
It doesn’t ring a bell, but it has been a while.
On 1/30/08 8:21 AM, “Ivins, Bruce E Dr USAMRIID” wrote:
> Do any of you remember what this was about? I don’t recall going to it.
> Any helpful information (such as subject matter, attendees, etc.)
> would be very much appreciated. Thanks loads!
> > -bruce
> Bruce Ivins