* Former lead Amerithrax investigator Richard Lambert quoted today: “The only avenue for remedying the government’s wealth of material omissions in this case would be through a congressional inquiry.”
Posted by DXer on February 27, 2017
Trump Should “Drain the Swamp” at the FBI Before Terror Strikes …
Accuracy In Media-2 hours ago
Playing down the threat of jihadist bioterrorism is something that U.S. intelligence agencies, led by the FBI, did in the case of the anthrax attacks …
by Cliff Kincaid on February 27, 2017
Bill Gates was recently quoted as saying that bioterrorism could kill more people than nuclear war, but that Western governments are not ready to deal with it. The situation may be worse than he thinks. What stories about his remarks at the Munich Security Conference did not explain is that the FBI has still failed to resolve the question of who carried out the post-9/11 anthrax attacks on America.
Some of the evidence points to al Qaeda, and there are reports that other Islamic terrorist groups, such as ISIS, are now developing biological weapons.
…
The independent investigators, including historian Kenneth J. Dillon, a former Foreign Service officer and intelligence analyst, and attorney Ross Getman, an expert on al Qaeda’s biowarfare program, are asking President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence to reopen the anthrax mailings investigation. This could lead, Dillon argues, to exonerating an innocent man, identifying the real al-Qaeda perpetrator, and getting to the bottom of what went wrong in America’s premier federal law enforcement agency.
In 2002, then-Rep. Pence wrote a letter asking why international links weren’t being probed in the anthrax mailings.
From the start of the FBI’s inquiry, the Bureau seemed determined to eliminate al Qaeda as a source of the attacks. Former government scientist Dr. Stephen Hatfill’s career was destroyed by the FBI as they sought to frame him. Eventually, the Department of Justice paid Hatfill a multi-million dollar settlement in recognition of the fact that they had persecuted an innocent man.
***
When we asked him for an interview, Lambert declined, saying “All of the information the Justice Department is withholding from the American people is either restricted from disclosure by the Privacy Act, governed by non-disclosure, non-disparagement clauses in other settlement agreements, or classified as national security information. The only avenue for remedying the government’s wealth of material omissions in this case would be through a congressional inquiry. Although bills have been introduced in the past to establish such an inquiry committee, they never became law.”
The independent investigators believe that Freedom of Information Act requests that are now being stonewalled by the FBI could lead to major breakthroughs and the clearing of Ivins if the FBI is ordered by the Trump administration to cooperate.
In his remarks on possible bioterrorism, Bill Gates said, “Imagine if I told you that somewhere in this world, there’s a weapon that exists—or that could emerge—capable of killing tens of thousands, or millions, of people, bringing economies to a standstill, and throwing nations into chaos. You would say that we need to do everything possible to gather intelligence and develop effective countermeasures to reduce the threat.”
Such a weapon could be in the hands of radical Islamic extremists. But if the FBI still hasn’t solved the matter of the post-9/11 anthrax attacks, what assurance do we have that the Bureau could prevent or solve the next devastating wave of biological attacks?
President Trump and Vice President Pence have every reason in the world to be concerned about what is happening at the FBI. They could, and should, reopen the anthrax investigation. It would be an opportunity to expose and remove the corruption that may remain in the Bureau and makes us vulnerable to another biological terrorist attack.
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CASE CLOSED ... what really happened in the 2001 anthrax attacks? 
DXer said
Sean Spicer has resigned.
DXer said
Is Marc Kasovitz quitting? He certainly should.
Then the President should resign.
DXer said
Okay, only Corallo, not Kasovitz.
But might the President resign to avoid indictment of a loved one?
DXer said
CBS is reporting that Marc Kasowitz it out and I credit that report after wavering last night.FN
I personally like and respect Special Prosecutor Mueller, from all that I’ve read (and I read a lot). But if Mr. Trump wants to increase their chances of prevailing in his defense, maybe all the White House would need to do is order the FBI to stop withholding Bruce Ivins’ Notebook 4282, which has notes from the day of the mailing of the Fall 2001 anthrax mailings. The FBI has it in hand after retrieving it — it could be produced today. Thomas Bossert could take the lead on Monday.
And if Amerithrax then were reopened, it likely would be shown that the FBI erred in its conclusion in the complex and difficult Amerithrax investigation.
Given that was Mr. Mueller’s biggest investigation, it would make it clear that he’s only human and makes mistakes.
Otherwise, with the growing revelations (in the past day) about Mr. Manafort’s finances, things, it seems, are going to end very badly for the Trumps in the Russia investigation.
FN/
Marc Kasowitz and Mark Corallo depart Trump’s legal team
There’s been a shakeup in President Trump’s legal team.
Marc Kasowitz is out as Mr. Trump’s personal attorney, CBS News chief White House correspondent Major Garrett reports. And Kasowitz’s spokesman, Mark Corallo, has resigned, Garrett says.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/corallo-kasowitz-depart-trump-legal-team/
DXer said
White House developing comprehensive biosecurity strategy: official
Jonathan Landay
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-security-biodefense-idUSKBN1A52HZ
ASPEN, Colorado (Reuters) – The Trump administration is developing the first comprehensive strategy to defend the United States against disease pandemics and biological attacks by terrorists, the top White House homeland security official said on Thursday.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-security-biodefense-idUSKBN1A52HZ
ossert noted that the Bush and Obama administrations took steps to address biological threats after letters containing anthrax spores were sent to two Democratic senators and several news organizations in the weeks following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. The spores infected 22 people, five of whom died.
But, he added, “There have been a lot of fits and starts in our investments.”
“At this point, we need to look clear eyed at the fact that we may have a devastating pandemic influenza or an intentional anthrax attack,” said Bossert.
***
He noted recent news reports that scientists in Canada used commercially available genetic material to construct the extinct horse pox virus, a relative of the small pox virus, which claimed tens of millions of lives before being wiped out.
“That’s (horsepox) not going to kill any of us, but that suggests that somebody might now in the future possess the ability to produce synthetic small pox without a live virus and that scares me to death,” he said.
The threat of disease pandemics demands global attention, he said.
DXer said
Mueller Expands Probe to Trump Business Transactions
By Greg Farrell
and
Christian Berthelsen
July 20, 2017, 10:31 AM EDT July 20, 2017, 10:59 AM EDT
The U.S. special counsel investigating possible ties between the Donald Trump campaign and Russia in last year’s election is examining a broad range of transactions involving Trump’s businesses as well as those of his associates, according to a person familiar with the probe.
The president told the New York Times on Wednesday that any digging into matters beyond Russia would be out of bounds. Trump’s businesses have involved Russians for years, making the boundaries fuzzy so Special Counsel Robert Mueller appears to be taking a wide-angle approach to his two-month-old probe.
FBI investigators and others are looking at Russian purchases of apartments in Trump buildings, Trump’s involvement in a controversial SoHo development with Russian associates, the 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow and Trump’s sale of a Florida mansion to a Russian oligarch in 2008, the person said.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-07-20/mueller-is-said-to-expand-probe-to-trump-business-transactions
Comment:
If President Trump were to fire Special Prosecutor Mueller, I expect that there would be a swift effort to both reappoint Mueller and to bring articles of impeachment against Mr. Trump.
Although people don’t agree with his politics, Vice President Pence (in contrast to Mr. Trump) seems well-suited to the Office of President.
Mr. Trump could always resign like Spiro Agnew did. That might serve to avoid RICO charges against officers of the Trump Organization (which are said by some to be coming).
Anthrax, Al Qaeda and Ayman Zawahiri: The Infiltration of US Biodefense
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
DXer said
At the meeting involving Donald Trump, Jr., was the former military officer present at the meeting Rinat Akhmetshin?
As the matter seems to get ever more serious, and more likely to involve weighty indictments, it is good that someone as well-regarded and well-suited to the job as FBI Director Mueller is at the helm.
It seems that Jared and Ivanka should return to New York City before the six byline Washington Post article drops.
The country needs fewer distractions so that the world’s many challenges and threats can be addressed — and the profanity of some defense counsel to the President isn’t the story of the day.
Anthrax, Al Qaeda and Ayman Zawahiri: The Infiltration of US Biodefense
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
DXer said
https://www.rferl.org/a/rinat-akmetshin-russia-gun-for-hire-washington-lobbying-magnitsky-browder/27863265.html
“Some of my clients are national governments or high-ranking officials in those governments,” Akhmetshin said in an affidavit in August 2012. “My government clients have highly sensitive discussions in my e-mails concerning the location or relocation of American military bases in areas within the former Soviet Union.”
More recently, Akhmetshin was caught up in a particularly nasty $1 billion legal fight concerning a potash-mining operation in central Russia. While a Dutch court was the main venue, the dispute spilled into U.S. courts when lawyers for one of the companies accused their counterparts of organizing a scheme to hack their computers and other communications.
The man who masterminded the scheme was Akhmetshin, according to a suit filed in November in New York state court that also accused him of being a former Soviet military intelligence officer who “developed a special expertise in running negative public-relations campaigns.”
DXer said
News
Agro-terrorism bill signed by President
Bill coordinates federal efforts to defend the U.S. agriculture and veterinary systems from terrorism.
Jacqui Fatka 1 | Jul 05, 2017
http://www.feedstuffs.com/news/agro-terrorism-bill-signed-president
DXer said
26 key bioterrorism jobs the Trump administration has not yet filled
By Lena H. Sun July 7, 2017
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2017/07/07/26-key-bioterrorism-jobs-the-trump-administration-has-not-filled/?utm_term=.903c93349748
DXer said
Osterholm plays detective, general in ‘Deadliest Enemy’ book
Mar 14, 2017
http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2017/03/osterholm-plays-detective-general-deadliest-enemy-book
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Michael+Osterholm+Deadliest+Enemy
An excerpt from “Deadliest Enemy”
https://www.mprnews.org/story/2017/03/28/books-deadliest-enemy
Twenty years ago there were five class A agents of greatest concern for bioterrorism: anthrax, smallpox, plague, tularemia, and hemorrhagic fever viruses such as Ebola. Today, I worry primarily about anthrax, smallpox, and any microbe that we can change through our new hyperslab tools to be readily transmissible to people or animals and resistant to current treatments or vaccines.
Anthrax — Bacillus anthracis — is a particularly effective biosweapon. It doesn’t transmit personstosperson, but when dried out, the bacteria preserve themselves as tiny, virtually weightless spores that are hardy enough to last for decades or longer. Archeologists have even found evidence of them in Egyptian tombs. When those spores are inhaled and reach the moist, comfortable environment of the lungs and gastrointestinal tract, they germinate, reverting back to their active form and releasing three deadly protein toxins. Inhalation of anthrax in the lungs causes pneumonia that kills between 45 and 85 percent of untreated victims. In dried form, anthrax can be hidden in any white powder and will not arouse the suspicion of airport security workers or anyone else.
Back in 1993, the congressional Office of Technology Assessment produced a report entitled “Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction: Assessing the Risk,” comparing the potential impact of chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons on Washington, DC. It concluded that a small airplane dispersing only 100 kilograms (about 220 pounds) of anthrax spores would kill more people than a Scudsclass missile carrying a hydrogen bomb. The Hsbomb would kill between 570,000 and 1.9 million in a 300ssquaresmile area, depending on such factors as weather and exactly where it was dropped. The anthrax dispersal would kill between 1 and 3 million under similar circumstances.
The late William “Bill” Patrick was a brilliant scientist and a friend to both Mark and me. He used to head up the American bioweapons program at Fort Detrick. Bill made a habit of carrying around a vial containing 7.5 grams of a harmless bacterial culture that looks just like anthrax under a microscope. In March 1999, testifying on Capitol Hill before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, he pulled out his vial, explained what it was, and declared, “I’ve been through all the major airports and security systems of the State Department, the Pentagon, even the CIA, and nobody has stopped me.” Seven and a half grams, by the way, would be just about the exact amount needed to kill everyone in a structure the size of a Senate or House office building.
Anthrax can be treated with certain broadsspectrum antibiotics like ciprofloxacin (Cipro), but quick diagnosis is essential and treatment can take weeks or months. And experimental lab work has already proved how easy it would be to develop antibioticsresistant strains.
Bioweapons are unlike any other of their brother weapons of mass destruction, and our response strategies for other WMDs will not work against them. As horrific as it is to think of two jetliners hitting and bringing down the World Trade Center towers, that was a readily “survivable” tragedy for New York City and the nation. At the end of the day on September 11, 2001, the terrorist act was over and the recovery could commence. With a bioterror event, the end of the day would be only the beginning, and no one would even know it yet. We likely wouldn’t recognize it for a week, by which time the initial victims would have carried their deadly infection to all parts of the United States and much of the world.
Even with biologic agents that are not transmissible personstosperson, the challenge is daunting. The Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, not far from where I live, is the largest shopping center in the United States, with an average of more than 100,000 visitors a day from all over the world. If anthrax were efficiently dispersed throughout the sprawling mall, there would easily be many thousands of cases and thousands of deaths as local healthcare systems were overwhelmed. The victims wouldn’t even know they’d been targeted until several days had passed and fever, chills, chest pain, shortness of breath, fatigue, vomiting, and nausea set in. For many of them, recognition would come too late.
It would be an event of historic proportions that could never be forgotten, not only because of all the death and disease and the almost unimaginable panic that would ensue, but also because it would simply be too big and complex a task to decontaminate the entire mall complex. And you couldn’t just tear it down, either. The AMI building in Florida was closed off for more than five years because of the risk of spreading the anthrax spores to the surrounding community. After a monumental cleanup effort it was finally declared anthraxsfree in 2007. A contaminated Mall of America — many times larger than the AMI building — would just sit there as an abandoned, hulking mass on the Minnesota prairie — as toxic and uninhabitable as Chernobyl.
Excerpted from “Deadliest Enemy,” Copyright c 2017 by Dr. Mike Osterholm and Mark Olshaker. Used with permission of Little, Brown and Company, New York. All rights reserved.
DXer said
Eric Holder to DOJ, FBI: ‘Be Prepared, Be Strong’
The former U.S. attorney general’s message comes amid the FBI’s investigation into possible Trump administration-Russia connections.
By Megan Trimble, Associate Editor, Social Media | June 30, 2017, at 12:11 p.m.
https://www.google.com/search?q=%5Chttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fnews&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8#q=FBI&tbm=nws&start=20
Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder tweeted a message early Friday for FBI and Department of Justice employees that was as vague as it was clear: Be prepared. Be strong.
Holder addressed his warning and encouragement to the “career men and women” in the FBI and DOJ, saying, “Your actions and integrity will be unfairly questioned. Be prepared, be strong. Duty. Honor. Country.”
Comment:
I definitely agree with the sentiment, but a few things come to mind: the Marc Rich pardon, the Terry McAuliffe donation to McCabe’s wife, and the Vahid Majidi confidence that Comey, his former supervisor, would sweep things under the rug relating to Amerithrax (expressed in his e-book).
The contemporaneous pages of Bruce Ivins Notebook are still being withheld by the FBI all these years later. And it was the FBI Laboratory that apparently was responsible.
And so if more than 140 bites were allowed in Holder’s tweet, one might also add that in this age of hyper-vigilant scrutiny, one should be especially concerned about appearances of conflict of interest and everyone should be disdainful of the usual considerations of CYA that conflict with duty, honor and country..
The point about Flynn submitting an affidavit in a suit involving McCabe is an example. (It is not easy to judge issues raised without knowing all the facts).
Andrew McCabe — and even Special Prosecutor — should obtain the best, impartial legal advice possible on issues of recusal raised. And then at least act in favor of limited recusal on close cases. For example, I do not imagine Mueller cross-examining Comey. Or McCabe making decisions about Flynn specifically.
If Senator Grassley had given Merrick Garland a hearing on his nomination to the Supreme Court, in the past it would have been possible to count on him to fairly navigate the thicket. But it isn’t. In that key instance, he showed himself to stand first for party, and then only second for the rule of law. He has some ground to make up in that department.
Moving forward, we are just going to have count on everyone making decisions that best uphold the FBI principles of integrity. As Canadian Malcolm Gladwell has pointed out, we should recognize that we are Americans first, partisans second.
Because of his narcissism, Donald Trump is a very dangerous man and the country faces some very perilous times. He is not suited to the White House and should resign. He has not made the Country great — he has proved a great embarrassment to the country and greatly lowered its standing in the world.
Anthrax, Al Qaeda and Ayman Zawahiri: The Infiltration of US Biodefense
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
DXer said
In the event that Trump is impeached, Vice President Pence and his staff will have their hands full setting the country back and course and restoring the dignity of the office.
The problem is that the Trump is not merely not suited in his demeanor, but that he is not qualified to address the substantive issues.
It would be too dangerous for the Vice-President to also be removed, and so it is important that Pence and his staff remain a polite distance from the indictments to come.
Anthrax, Al Qaeda and Ayman Zawahiri: The Infiltration of US Biodefense
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
DXer said
FBI Common Knowledge Challenge
Common Knowledge Scholarship Foundation
You can: Go to the provider’s website for more info
Award Amount
Minimum: $1000
Deadline Date
Varies
Awards Available 4
Description
The FBI Common Knowledge Challenge is available to current students attending a community college, college or university, or graduate school. The intent of the scholarship is to assist the student in understanding what it means to work for the FBI as an agency and as a career path. Students who register for the scholarship competition will be e-mailed a list of FBI Web site links from which questions will be derived. The student will answer the questions and receive a score. At the end of each round, the highest scoring student will be awarded a $1,000 scholarship.
Additional Information
Complete rules and regulations are found on the sponsor’s Web site.
Applicable Majors
All Fields of Study
Anthrax, Al Qaeda and Ayman Zawahiri: The Infiltration of US Biodefense
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
DXer said
by Cliff Kincaid on June 17, 2017
http://www.aim.org/aim-column/conspiracy-of-silence-about-mueller/
Print: Share:
I am amazed by the conspiracy of silence, on the right and the left, about former FBI Director Robert Mueller’s bungling of the anthrax case.
***
This didn’t have to happen, if journalists and commentators had been open and honest about Mueller’s real record. Simply put, Mueller can’t be trusted to arrive at the truth. The anthrax letters case proves it. He should never have received the appointment as special counsel. Barnes’ assertion that the deck has been stacked ignores the fact that he and his associates in the Never-Trump movement helped stack the deck. Why didn’t they blow the whistle on Mueller when he was appointed? Why do they ignore his real record now?
The trap has been set by those conservatives in the media, echoing their liberal colleagues, who wanted to pretend that Mueller is overflowing with honor and integrity. By showering him with praise, they have joined hands with the liberal media in setting the stage for Trump’s impeachment and forced resignation from office.
***
Call me a cynic, but I can’t help thinking that the Never-Trumpers in the media, such as Barnes, know precisely what is happening. They know Mueller is determined to take down Trump, but that he can only do so if he is given a clean bill of health as a first-rate investigator. Hence, they must whitewash Mueller’s corrupt record in advance of him filing charges against Trump and/or his associates.
Only in the swamp known as Washington, D.C. can a failed FBI chief be rehabilitated into a “straight-shooter,” qualified to bring down a president with the powers of a special counsel.
“In 2004,” retired Foreign Service officer and intelligence analyst Kenneth J. Dillon tells Accuracy in Media (AIM), “the FBI learned that the anthrax mailer was an al-Qaeda operative. Under White House pressure, Mueller suppressed this finding and continued to hunt for a domestic suspect. When scientist Bruce Ivins committed suicide in 2008, Mueller blamed him for the mailings, then lied to a Senate committee about it.”
“Although the anti-Trump special counsel railroad is on schedule, pending a Trump decision to fire Rosenstein and Mueller, it is still important for the public to know some of the details about how Mueller botched the anthrax case by falsely blaming various American scientists for the letters that killed five people and injured dozens.
At the time of the anthrax attacks, I was working closely with AIM founder Reed Irvine, who never backed down from a search for the truth. A series of AIM Reports challenged the FBI’s handling of the case and examined how various members of the news media, most notably New York Times columnist Nicholas D. Kristof, pushed dubious theories targeting innocent American scientist Steven Hatfill. Kristof operated on the basis of a phony theory, fed to him by a leftist, speculating that the anthrax letters were mailed by a right-winger, probably a white guy working for a U.S. lab. The FBI went along with the false premise, ignoring the obvious evidence of an al-Qaeda role.
To illustrate how Mueller botched the case, consider that the FBI didn’t have a shred of evidence against Dr. Hatfill, but drove him out of two prestigious jobs and ruined his career. At one point, the FBI claimed to have fished a piece of Hatfill’s lab equipment, supposedly an anthrax weapons device, out of a pond. The FBI spent $250,000 to drain the pond but found no evidence of anthrax in it. The device was a minnow bucket.”
“Acting like the KGB, one FBI agent followed Hatfill as he went to buy some paint, and ran over his foot with a car. Hatfill was given a ticket by D.C. police for walking over to the FBI car and trying to take a picture of his tormentor. It appeared that the FBI was trying to provoke Hatfill so they could arrest him on some flimsy charge and claim they were right about him all along. This is similar to how a special counsel operates.
Comey took over for Mueller at the FBI and could have reopened the case in order to determine why, in the end, the Department of Justice awarded Hatfill nearly $6 million in damages. Comey could have cleaned house, purging corrupt agents. Instead, Comey decided to maintain the cover-up and keep Mueller’s so-called sterling reputation intact. As a result, the FBI still maintains that another scientist, Ivins, who was persecuted and driven to suicide, was the culprit.
Even before the embarrassment with the minnow bucket, columnist Dan K. Thomasson had written that the FBI’s handling of the anthrax case “has to be the most incredible display of bizarre ineptness since former FBI director Louis Freeh took personal charge of the investigation to nail Richard Jewell for the bombing in Atlanta’s Olympic Park” in 1996. Jewell wasn’t guilty of anything except some genuine heroism that saved lives.
Ignoring the anthrax investigation debacle, some commentators are noting that Mueller is staffing his operation with Democratic Party lawyers. What else did you expect? His assignment is to bring down Trump. In regard to the President, we said on May 24, “Mueller will produce evidence of a crime out of nothing if he has to.” That’s what they tried to do to Hatfill.”
“In Trump’s case, it doesn’t matter if the charges are legitimate. All that matters is that they give the appearance of impropriety, so that the impeachment process can get underway.
Since Comey continued the Mueller anthrax letters cover-up, we have to assume that the FBI culture hasn’t changed, and that Mueller, now in charge of dozens of FBI agents as part of his special counsel investigation, will order his investigators to frame President Trump and/or his top aides with some charge or another. This is a vendetta that constitutes revenge on a President they don’t like and who is suspicious of their work.
At first I was amazed by the continuing cover-up surrounding Mueller’s terrible record, which also includes letting Islamists rewrite FBI training materials. Then, I thought about it and considered a major human flaw which characterizes the work of commentators and journalists—they don’t ever want to admit they’re wrong. They accepted Mueller’s work on the anthrax case as legitimate at the time, and now don’t want to revisit the matter because it would put their own judgments under scrutiny. It’s much easier, under these circumstances, to say that Mueller’s work was exemplary, even though such a claim is a blatant lie.”
Comment:
I find that Cliff writes lucidly about Amerithrax. Although I am an old school rule of law type (with liberal to moderate political leanings), the more dominant influence on my thinking is that I know the complexities of Amerithrax, being the only person I know who has read the many thousands of pages of public material available, to include the scientific literature, emails, laboratory notebooks and the like. I have followed the matter since December 2001 after hearing from a friend of Ayman Zawahiri and then learning about the Al Qaeda anthrax program from the CIA’s FBIS database.
Then a federal undercover helped for years doing graphics, some of which are at the link below.
Thus, the fact that I disagree with an Ivins Theory does not lead me to question Robert Mueller’s integrity. It just prompts me to advocate that he should encourage his former colleagues to make the maximum disclosure possible under FOIA — and even seek declassification of evidence that does not need to be classified..
The truth is complicated. I guess my most simple truth is that just because some difficult whodunnit eludes solution does not mean the guy in charge lacks integrity. Reasonable people can disagree — and new and better evidence can become available. The only ones who lack integrity are those who wrongfully withhold exculpatory evidence, or delay its production, just to cover their ass. It is those people who should be fired. Today.
Then when all the evidence is made available, Mueller’s conduct of the Amerithrax investigation can be more reliably judged by outsiders. If such an assessment showed “cause” for termination, so be it. WIth all due respect, Cliff never has raised a hand to help with FOIA requests — he is more concerned with the political theater than the true crime facts.
More narrowly, and as I have previously said, I don’t believe that evidence establishes that Jdey was the mailer as my friend Ken Dillon argues. I think Jdey might very well have been pulled from the 911 operation for a shoe bomb operation, for example, but that there is no reason to think he did double duty as the anthrax mailer.
I think Ken Dillon’s theory is reasonable, but that’s all. For that matter, I also think the Hatfill Theory, the Ivins Theory (and the unelaborated Battelle Theory) were reasonable, even intriguing, theories. I think we need additional disclosure – and I think there is a lot of information that is not classified that should be produced. (Or where it is overclassified, it should be declassified.).
For example, what was the second lab that Al Qaeda anthrax lab infiltrator Rauf Ahmad? I think there was massive, acute conflicts of interest in Amerithrax that riddled the investigation, especially relating to the science and collection of evidence. Indeed, the USAMRIID scientist known to make a powder out of Flask 1029 was the FBI scientist, not Bruce Ivins. And then that scientist threw out Ivins’ sample — with the FBI outrageously then construing that as evidence against Ivins, rather than exculpatory evidence.
Of all the theories, the theory I favor is the theory that Adnan El-Shukrijumah, who after meeting with Al Qaeda anthrax lab technician and KSM on or about September 11, 2001, called his mom and told her he was coming to the United States. The FBI would later find that he did in fact enter the United States. Moreover, the prior summer he had cased targets in Washington DC and New York City. His father had been translator for the Blind Sheik and the Blind Sheik had always figured in the motivation according to my sources of intelligence, to include the CIA’s FBIS database.
I think the evidence supporting an Adnan El-Shukrijumah Theory (as opposed to Jdey Theory) is far, far stronger — and Cliff is simply too busy with numerous other matters to appreciate that.
Plus, Cliff is annoyed at me for not ever saying anything bad about Special Prosecutor Mueller — other than that I wasn’t persuaded by his Hatfill Theory or his Ivins Theory.
p.s. If Hatfill did not want to have suspicion cast on him, he shouldn’t have forged his PhD certificate prior to getting a job to work with dangerous pathogens. p.s.s. Someone who forges a PhD certificate should lose their MD license, in my lay opinion. Cliff may want to give more serious considerations to his choice of heroes.
Anthrax, Al Qaeda and Ayman Zawahiri: The Infiltration of US Biodefense
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
DXer said
FBI whistleblower Coleen Rowley writes:
“Time Magazine would probably have not called my own disclosures a “bombshell memo” to the Joint Intelligence Committee Inquiry in May 2002 if it had not been for Mueller’s having so misled everyone after 9/11. Although he bore no personal responsibility for intelligence failures before the attack, since he only became FBI director a week before, Mueller denied or downplayed the significance of warnings that had poured in yet were all ignored or mishandled during the spring and summer of 2001.
Bush administration officials had circled the wagons and refused to publicly own up to what the 9/11 Commission eventually concluded, “that the system had been blinking red.” Failures to read, share or act upon important intelligence, which a FBI agent witness termed “criminal negligence” in later trial testimony, were therefore not fixed in a timely manner. (Some failures were never fixed at all.)
Worse, Bush and Cheney used that post-9/11 period of obfuscation to “roll out” their misbegotten “war on terror,” which only served to exponentially increase worldwide terrorism.
Unfulfilled Promise
I wanted to believe Director Mueller when he expressed some regret in our personal meeting the night before we both testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee. He told me he was seeking improvements and that I should not hesitate to contact him if I ever witnessed a similar situation to what was behind the FBI’s pre-9/11 failures.
A few months later, when it appeared he was acceding to Bush-Cheney’s ginning up intelligence to launch the unjustified, counterproductive and illegal war on Iraq, I took Mueller up on his offer, emailing him my concerns in late February 2003. Mueller knew, for instance, that Vice President Dick Cheney’s claims connecting 9/11 to Iraq were bogus, yet he remained quiet. He also never responded to my email.
A History of Failure
Long before he became FBI director, serious questions existed about Mueller’s role as acting U.S. attorney in Boston in effectively enabling decades of corruption and covering up of the FBI’s illicit deals with mobster Whitey Bulger and other “top echelon” informants who committed numerous murders and crimes. When the truth was finally uncovered through intrepid investigative reporting and persistent, honest judges, U.S. taxpayers footed a $100 million court award to the four men framed for murders committed by (the FBI-operated) Bulger gang.
Current media applause omits the fact that former FBI Director Mueller was the top official in charge of the anthrax terror fiasco investigation into those 2001 murders, whichtargeted an innocent man (Steven Hatfill) whose lawsuit eventually forced the FBI to pay $5 million in compensation.
***
Mueller didn’t speak the truth about a war he knew to be unjustified. He didn’t speak out against torture. He didn’t speak out against unconstitutional surveillance. And he didn’t tell the truth about 9/11. He is just “their man.”
Coleen Rowley, a retired FBI special agent and division legal counsel whose May 2002 memo to then-FBI Director Robert Mueller exposed some of the FBI’s pre-9/11 failures, was named one of Time magazine’s “Persons of the Year” in 2002. Her 2003 letter to Robert Mueller in opposition to launching the Iraq War is archived in full text on The New York Times and her 2013 op-ed entitled “Questions for the FBI Nominee” was published on the day of James Comey’s confirmation hearing. This piece also is cross-posted on Rowley’s Huffington Post page.
Comment: Yikes. Retired FBI special agent Rowley is pretty harsh in her assessment of former FBI Director Mueller. But given the pretty widespread view that Amerithrax has not been persuasively solved, I do think it is worth discussing the former Director’s role in Amerithrax to the extent it might lead to the production of documents properly disclosable under FOIA.
Mueller is still my hero, though, and a character ideal — at least you have to admit it is hard to beat his good PR and his resemblance to Gary Cooper in “High Noon.” So I’m at least not going to blame him for the FBI’s throwing out or misplacing the duct tape and handcuffs used in the Isabella Gardner heist while he was acting US Attorney in Boston. Not ever. I promise. Maybe the $10 million reward should go to person who finds the handcuffs in a warehouse in the event DNA is recovered that leads to the paintings.
Anthrax, Al Qaeda and Ayman Zawahiri: The Infiltration of US Biodefense
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
DXer said
A prosecutor’s summary of testimony by Aaron Zebley, one of Special Prosecutor Mueller’s recruits to his team investigating possible obstruction of justice by the President of United States, is below.
https://cryptome.org/usa-v-zm-030606-02.htm
Mr. Zebley basically explained that in addition to being Al Qaeda operative, Zacarias Moussaoui was a liar for not admitting that he was an Al Qaeda terrorist when he was first detained. Thus, he should be put to death.
Yikes, an Al Qaeda operative being deceptive — who would have thought. I guess that is why the FBI has a warrant process that would have permitted the FBI to search Moussaoui’s laptop if the FBI personnel had connected the dots available to them and realized that a search was authorized under relevant statute.
But there is a separate question as to why FBI Agent Harry Samit’s request for a warrant to search Moussaoui’s laptop was not granted. If it had been, the letter from Al Qaeda anthrax lab director Yazid Sufaat had been found and he could have been traced to Afghanistan. Sufaat’s gracious wife Chomel might have volunteered that he had gone to assist a Taliban medical brigade — she might even have volunteered that he was helping Al Qaeda with its anthrax program in the event she knew. Then, given Moussaoui’s inquiries about cropdusters, the FBI might have put two and two together. The New York squad was already aware of Zawahiri’s threats (through proxies) to use anthrax to protest detention of Blind Sheik Abdel-Rahman and other senior Egyptian Islamic Jihad leaders (even though that has never been acknowledged by the FBI).
Is Amerithrax a big CYA exercise intended to obfuscate the fact that the anthrax mailings could have been avoided just like 9/11 could have been avoided?
But baby steps, baby steps. Let’s start with this fact that Jdey was detained and then released.
The Administration should permit greater transparency — 15 years later — so that the public can understand whether there was obstruction of justice in connection with the Fall 2001 anthrax mailings.
Even those of us who don’t like Russians interfering in our elections, should want a persuasive solve of the Fall 2001 anthrax mailings. Politics has no proper role in true crime or intelligence analysis.
Isn’t the detention of Jdey — and his release — being concealed by the FBI for selfish, political and CYA reasons?
Anthrax, Al Qaeda and Ayman Zawahiri: The Infiltration of US Biodefense
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
5 You will hear Minnesota FBI Agent Harry Samit. He tried
6 hard and in vain to get more information from Moussaoui and about
7 Moussaoui in August 2001. He could not get a search warrant to
8 search Moussaoui’s belongings, neither a criminal search warrant
9 nor a search warrant under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance
10 Act or FISA. But Agent Samit had a hunch about Moussaoui, and
11 unfortunately that hunch turned out to be correct.
12 Agent Samit interviewed Moussaoui for about three and a
13 half hours over two days, August 16th and 17th, 2001. He did not,
14 however, get the information that we got in April 2005 during
15 Moussaoui’s guilty plea. He got instead a series of lies.
16 What Agent Samit did get was sent dutifully to FBI
17 headquarters in Washington, and on to the CIA and the FAA. And
18 had Moussaoui told the truth, the FBI would have put every
19 available agent on the case and found the plot.
20 You will hear in the case from former FBI official Mike
21 Rolince, who in August 2001 was the head of the FBI’s
22 International Terrorism Section. Mike Rolince was also there
23 during the Millennium threat in 1999, and there in the summer of
24 2001 when the threat environment was generally high but not
25 specific.
37
1 Like the discovery of the Millennium plot, Moussaoui’s
2 information would have led to an all-out effort by the FBI. One
3 of the primary agents involved in terrorism investigations for the
4 FBI and in the investigation of 9/11 is former FBI Special Agent
5 Aaron Zebley. Mr. Zebley will describe the investigation into the
6 9/11 attacks. He will also take you through in some detail how
7 the 9/11 plot could have been discovered had the FBI received
8 Moussaoui’s true information.
9 Using leads from the Statement of Facts, from that
10 information, Agent Zebley will take you to 11 of the 19 hijackers.
11 And Zebley will show you how those 11 hijackers could have been
12 found using three paths, using standard law enforcement
13 techniques, like financial information records and phone records.
14 First, when the agents arrested Moussaoui in August
15 2001, they knew he had paid in cash for the expensive jet
16 simulator training, so they asked him about the source of his
17 funding. He lied. He said he got his funding from associates in
18 England and from a business called NOP.
19 This, of course, was false. It really came from an
20 al Qaeda conspirator using an alias who sent it via Western Union.
21 The English information sent the agents off on a false trail
22 toward England. When Moussaoui did admit the truth in April 2005,
23 it was obvious he had gotten it by Western Union.
24 If you look at the screen you will see Western Union
25 records that show a transfer from Germany to Moussaoui in
38
1 Oklahoma. If we look at the next slide, please, Gerard, we will
2 look at the corresponding transfer — can you switch the document
3 order on that, Gerard — corresponding transfer from the United
4 Arab Emirates, UAE, to the man using the false name Ahad Sabet in
5 Germany. Contained within the records from that transfer from the
6 United Arab Emirates to Germany, which later went from Germany to
7 Moussaoui, is the contact cell phone number of the caller. That
8 number, 050-520-9905, comes back to a UAE cell phone. The sender
9 of that money from the UAE, again, gave that as a contact number.
10 Using standard law enforcement techniques, specifically,
11 finding phone records, the FBI can tell what numbers in the United
12 States called that UAE cell phone number that funded Moussaoui for
13 the jet simulator training.
14 Mr. Zebley will explain how the FBI got this information
15 after 9/11 and how the FBI could have gotten this information in
16 August 2001 had Moussaoui not lied. There are nine U.S. numbers
17 that called that UAE cell phone, it turns out. They all come back
18 to prepaid calling cards.
19 The next logical step is to see whether those calling
20 cards were used to call any numbers within the United States.
21 When you trace that back, you come to nine U.S. numbers total that
22 were called. Eight of those numbers come back to hijackers. And
23 if you look at that chart on the bottom you will see even just on
24 the initial round, that three of those come back to some of the
25 9/11 hijackers.
39
1 From those eight numbers the FBI can continue on and get
2 the name and location and address of five hijackers, including
3 addresses where some of the hijackers were staying until August
4 30th, 2001, and from tracing this even further up the path of
5 investigation, you can readily get to six more hijackers.
6 Second, the second avenue that Mr. Zebley will describe
7 relates to flight schools. In August 2001 Moussaoui lied to the
8 agents. They asked him about his associates. He named a
9 gentleman named Atif Ahmed in England. When Moussaoui told the
10 truth during his guilty plea in April 2005, he admitted that his
11 al Qaeda associates gave him something besides money, they gave
12 him information about flight schools in the United States.
13 In Moussaoui’s belongings that he left in Oklahoma is a
14 two-page list from a German aviation magazine listing United
15 States flight schools. Agents finally were able to get this after
16 September 11th with a search warrant. They would have gotten it
17 early, mid-August, had Moussaoui not lied.
18 The two-page list has 19 U.S. flight schools. It is a
19 simple manner for the FBI to send an agent to each of these flight
20 schools and ask whether any of the students stand out. Four of
21 these flight schools are in Florida, where the phone records show
22 there were hijackers. Two of these flight schools have Arabic
23 notation written by hand in the margin.
24 If you go to those flight schools and you ask if any
25 students, any foreign students stand out, and you will hear this
40
1 from employees of those flight schools and you will see it in the
2 flight schools’ records, two of these flight schools, Huffman
3 Aviation and Florida Flight Training Center, there are students
4 who would stand out, Mohamed Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi, and Ziad
5 Jarrah; three of the four pilot hijackers from September 11th.
6 Florida Flight Training Center even has the records for
7 a hijacker who couldn’t get into the United States, Ramzi Bin
8 al-Shibh, who applied several times for a U.S. visa and was
9 rejected, went so far as to apply to Florida Flight Training
10 Center.
11 He would have come and been a pilot hijacker, except he
12 couldn’t get into the United States. Bin al-Shibh even lists his
13 contact number on that application, in Germany, 49-40-718-99042.
14 That information is written somewhere else. That is written in
15 the notebook that Moussaoui had with him in Minnesota.
16 An employee from FFTC, Florida Flight Training Center,
17 will even tell you that she knew that Bin al-Shibh was related,
18 was connected with Ziad Jarrah, one of the hijackers, because
19 Jarrah went so far as to come and try to get Bin al-Shibh’s
20 deposit back to FFTC after Bin al-Shibh’s visa was denied.
21 Next, there is another list of flight schools in
22 Moussaoui’s belongings. It is a list of Pan Am facilities.
23 Remember that Moussaoui was training at the Pan Am International
24 Flight Academy in Eagan, Minnesota. This is a list found in his
25 duffel bag that he left behind in Oklahoma that agents were
41
1 finally able to get to after September 11th, and they would have
2 gotten there before had Moussaoui told the truth, not lied.
3 The 13 schools on this, eight of them feature jet
4 simulators. The FBI canvassed these schools after 9/11, could
5 have done it before 9/11, if Moussaoui hadn’t lied. One of these
6 schools, Arizona Aviation, an employee from that school will come
7 in, Peggy Chevrette, she will tell you in her experience, one
8 student stood out, one student stood out because he didn’t have
9 the requisite aviation background to be taking simulator training
10 on a Boeing 747. That student, Hani Hanjour, the fourth pilot
11 hijacker.
12 Thus, had Moussaoui told the truth and not lied, the FBI
13 quickly would have been on to all four pilot hijackers who
14 hijacked planes and crashed them to kill Americans on September
15 11th.
16 The final avenue that Mr. Zebley will describe involves
17 another item recovered from Moussaoui’s belongings after September
18 11th, again would have been discovered before September 11th had
19 he not lied. This is a letter, a false cover letter stating that
20 Moussaoui is the marketing representative for a Malaysian company
21 called Infocus Tech, owned by someone named Yazid Sufaat. This
22 letter is signed by someone named Yazid Sufaat.
23 Had Moussaoui not lied, FBI agents would have had this
24 letter and investigated Yazid Sufaat. A rudimentary investigation
25 of Yazid Sufaat connects him not only to Moussaoui, but also to
42
1 another one of the 9/11 hijackers named Khalid al-Midhar. Now,
2 Midhar was a name that had already been given to the CIA and the
3 FBI in that summer, and a little bit before, in 2001. The FBI got
4 the name al-Midhar and another 9/11 hijacker named Nawaf al-Hazmi
5 in August of 2001.
6 But nothing connected those two gentlemen to an aviation
7 plot. Had the FBI had this letter and the corresponding
8 information, it would have connected al-Midhar and al-Hazmi to the
9 9/11 hijackers, to Moussaoui, and Sufaat, and thus to an aviation
10 plot by al Qaeda.
11 Those are the avenues of investigation that Mr. Zebley
12 will describe to you. Had the FBI pursued them using standard law
13 enforcement techniques, in mid-August, they would have gotten to
14 the hijackers. What you are left with if you follow these paths
15 is 11 of the 19 hijackers and two of their addresses.
16 That’s a summary sheet of where that investigation leads
17 you. It includes all four pilot hijackers: Atta, al-Shehhi,
18 Hanjour, and Ziad Jarrah. But finding and arresting some of the
19 hijackers is only half the battle. The other half is not letting
20 named hijackers on to airplanes and not letting anyone on a plane
21 with a short knife or a box cutter.
22 The FAA is responsible for commercial airline security
23 in the United States. Where the FBI would be the offense looking
24 for the plot, had Moussaoui not lied, the FAA would be the
25 defense. The FAA routinely sends out security information to U.S.
43
1 airlines and airports. They do it all the time and they did it in
2 the summer of 2001.
3 In the summer of 2001 there was an elevated threat
4 environment, as they say, but you will see that the threats were
5 directed toward threats outside the United States, aviation
6 outside the United States, and the FAA security at that point was
7 focusing on its traditional fears, one, people smuggling bombs
8 onboard airplanes and, two, a traditional hijacking where
9 hijackers take over an aircraft and negotiate the return of the
10 airplane and the passengers and crew in exchange for some demands.
11 Had Moussaoui told the truth instead of lying, the FAA
12 would have known about the plot to hijack airplanes using
13 primitive weapons, short-bladed knives and box cutters. The FAA
14 would have done three definite things in response. One, the FAA
15 would have received from the FBI that list of 11 hijackers, put
16 them on a no-fly list, they are not on a plane, and that includes
17 all four of the hijackers trained to fly commercial jets with some
18 aviation training on 9/11.
19 But even if the FBI didn’t get the name and didn’t get
20 to the FAA, there is a simple solution, and that is had the FAA
21 known of the plot, they would not have let anyone on a plane with
22 a short-bladed knife or a box cutter. If Moussaoui had not lied
23 and said what he was doing and what we knew he knew, because he
24 told us in April 2005, the FAA would have changed the gate
25 security.
44
1 That would have kept the hijackers from getting on the
2 planes with the weapons you will learn that they used to hijack
3 the planes and kill Americans.
4 Also, had Moussaoui not lied, the FAA would have changed
5 the focus of its gate security in another important respect. The
6 FAA had in September 2001 and still has today a program called
7 CAPPS, and that acronym stands for Computer Assisted Passenger
8 Preselection System. It is a computer program to select
9 potentially dangerous passengers and select them for additional
10 security before boarding a commercial flight.
11 Before 9/11, anyone selected by the CAAPS system
12 couldn’t check their bag on to a plane until they themselves
13 boarded the plane. Why? Because the FAA before 9/11 was
14 concerned about people smuggling explosives in checked luggage
15 onto planes.
16 They weren’t concerned at that point about people taking
17 over a plane with a primitive weapon. Traditionally the thinking,
18 in addition, was that someone smuggling a bomb on a plane wouldn’t
19 get on the same flight. Even so, on the morning of 9/11, ten of
20 the 19 9/11 hijackers were selected by the CAAPS system, but
21 because many of them didn’t have checked luggage and because that
22 wasn’t the method they used to destroy aircraft, made little
23 difference.
24 If you look at this next slide here, that shows some of
25 the hijackers going through gate security, the hijackers of
45
1 American Airlines 77 at Dulles Airport. The next slide shows you
2 Nawaf and Salem al-Hamzi, brothers, hijackers, they had been
3 selected for CAAPS screening and they were getting their carry-on
4 bag swabbed for explosive residue as part of the secondary
5 screening there.
6 Had Moussaoui not lied and admitted the basics of the
7 plot, the CAAPS security screening would have been changed to look
8 not for explosives but for small knives and box cutters, and that
9 would have prevented the terrorists from getting on the plane and
10 getting on the plane with the weapons they used to turn those
11 aircraft into weapons to kill Americans.
12 There are specific and definite examples of when the FAA
13 has responded to terrorist threats to prevent harm from those
14 threats. An example is from 1995, the FAA took specific defensive
15 measures known as the Bojinka plot, which was intended to blow up
16 U.S. airliners flying over the Pacific. In the end, had Moussaoui
17 admitted in August 2001, instead of lying, what he told us in
18 April 2005, it would have been a very straightforward effort for
19 the FAA to keep those hijackers and to keep anyone with a knife or
20 a box cutter off a plane.
21 Now, what Moussaoui admitted in April 2005 is shocking.
22 It is shocking for all of us to have somebody come into a
23 courtroom like this one, stand up, proudly admit that he is a
24 terrorist, and say that he has devoted his life to killing
25 Americans. It is shocking to hear someone embrace evil.
46
1 But it is also shocking because it lays out the
2 information that necessarily would have saved lives on September
3 11th. But it did not. And the reason it did not is because a
4 loyal al Qaeda soldier did his part. He did his part because when
5 he could not pilot a plane to kill Americans, he made sure by
6 lying that his al Qaeda brothers did.
7 This man, the terrorist Moussaoui, did his part. He did
8 his part and he came in here later and told us all why, so that
9 his al Qaeda brothers could go forward and kill Americans.
10 Moussaoui lied so that murders could follow. He intended to kill
11 Americans and he did.
12 Moussaoui acted by lying, and 2,972 people died. They
13 were brutally murdered. He lied so his al Qaeda brothers could
14 commit those murders and those people were killed. They were
15 because of Moussaoui’s actions.
16 Hold him accountable for causing those horrible deaths.
17 Thank you.
DXer said
Robert Mueller: Commencement Speaker Unequal to Message
June 14, 2017, Cliff Kincaid, 2 Comments
https://www.academia.org/commencement-speaker-unequal-to-message/
“To make matters worse, all of this censorship occurred after Mueller’s investigation into the post 9/11 anthrax attacks was totally mishandled. Al Qaeda carried out the attacks, in conjunction with the actual 9/11 terrorist hijackings, but Mueller and his people blamed a series of American scientists. Finally, they found one they could blame, Bruce Ivins, who committed suicide following persecution by FBI agents. Ivins was dead and could not defend himself.
The anthrax letters, which carried statements of “Death to America” and “Death to Israel,” were assumed to be the work of right-wingers working for U.S. government military or civilian labs. One of Mueller’s agents, Richard Lambert, later sued Mueller for botching the probe.”
Comment:
Is Cliff Kincaid being too harsh on former FBI Director Mueller? It is true that the Lambert suit named Director Mueller who at all relevant times was FBI Director. Mueller was alleged to have inadequately trained the ethics official who thought that Attorney Lambert should not have gone to work for a Battelle-operated lab. But given that Battelle was one of the parties that had virulent Ames at labs it managed — labs that were subject to extensive FBI investigation as the origin of the anthrax — is anything Mueller did in that connection grounds for complaint?
Indeed, to be prudent, shouldn’t Attorney Lambert have obtained an ethics opinion clearing his employment before taking the job? Reasonable people can disagree, and both Mueller and Lambert (and I presume the ethics official) seem like reasonable people.
These government officials do not have an easy task navigating their career decisions — when unfolding events will be judged in the bright hindsight of a critical, second-guessing public. But Battelle was closely scrutinized — and, for example, had been sued by the widow of one of the victims, < Mr. Stevens. Indeed, journalist David Willman had travelled to Scandinavia to meet with the ex-wife of a Battelle vaccine manager just shortly before the FBI investigators won him over to an Ivins Theory that they wanted him to channel.
So I understand the criticism of the agents promoting an Ivins Theory that Director Mueller was fixated, they say, on a Hatfill Theory. But I do not think the unfortunate unfolding of the events relating to Attorney Lambert were grounds to question Director Mueller’s integrity. Instead, those facts are testament to the fact that the FBI can be harsh employment environment, where miscalculations and missteps can lead to unfortunate consequences.
I argued hard and long against a Hatfill Theory. But at no time was one of my criticisms that Mueller lacked integrity.
If anything, the Hatfill Theory demonstrated that Mueller was subject to political pressure by Leahy and Leahy’s chief of staff Luke Albee, who were predisposed to think in political terms. And my learned friend, BHR, helped that along.
On balance, a Hatfill Theory is no less reasonable (or less unreasonable) than an Ivins Theory. The claimed lack of access was not a persuasive grounds to suddenly conclude, “oops, never mind.” The reality was that virulent Ames would have been easy to acquire in both Building 1412 and 1425.
It was Hatfill, who forged his PhD certificate, who has been shown to have lacked integrity, not Robert Mueller.
Notwithstanding the federal lawsuit, I believe Attorney Lambert would confirm that, in his estimation, Mueller’s integrity is matched by his high intelligence.
DXer said
Even Trump’s Aides Blame Him for Obstruction Probe: ‘President Did This to Himself’
Trump ‘shot himself in the foot again with this cockamamie scheme to get Mueller to play ball.’
Lachlan Markay
Asawin Suebsaeng
Spencer Ackerman
06.14.17
“With the crisis engulfing Trump’s young presidency intensifying, senators, Trump aides, former prosecutors, and FBI veterans are sending the White House an urgent warning: Whatever you do, don’t. Fire. Mueller.”
http://www.thedailybeast.com/even-trumps-aides-blame-him-for-obstruction-probe-president-did-this-to-himself
Comment:
If it turns out that the withheld notebook pages alibi Bruce Ivins — and AUSA Rachel Lieber had briefed Mueller on this, and yet this exculpatory information was suppressed — then perhaps there would be grounds for terminating the former FBI Director.
I sense, however, that the reason Mueller did not congratulate the investigators is that as an experienced prosecutor, he understood that the investigation was ongoing. He likely would take no pleasure in running a victory lap over the grave of a man who had committed suicide under the pressure and was not here to defend himself.
If President Trump had better aim, instead of shooting himself in the foot again, he will have one of his subordinates ensure that the FBI complies with FOIA in regard to the pending request for the contemporaneous notes from Bruce Ivins’ Notebook 4282.
I can tell you what the notebook pages likely say: They show that the FBI’s claim that he had no reason to be in the lab was crock. He was doing small animal experiments, just as he said.
DXer said
CNN files lawsuit seeking Comey’s Trump memos
By Gregory Wallace
Updated 4:15 AM ET, Fri June 16, 2017
http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/15/politics/cnn-lawsuit-comey-trump-memos/index.html
DXer said
Trump Calls Comey ‘Cowardly’ in Latest Twitter Outburst
By GLENN THRUSHJUNE 11, 2017
Comment:
Mr. Trump’s comment is hard to fathom. Trump is the one trying to get Comey in trouble for coming forward with contemporaneous notes about what was said in the conversation that Trump was discussing in his interview with Lester Holt. That makes Trump the coward — for not wanting the best evidence available to resolve the “he said/he said” dispute.
As I urged before the election, Trump certainly lacks the temperament to be President.
I’ve always held Mr. Trump in low regard ever since he hired my late friendly acquaintance, Bill Kaczycki, and his company of illegal Polish immigrants, to demolish Bonwit Teller to make way for Trump Tower. The Trump Organization took over the bank account when Kaczycki became a slow and no-pay, upon having to pay so much to the mafia. Bill was always bitter because he went to jail while Mr. Trump bought his way out of trouble. Bill was an amiable sort — and spent his time playing chess with the fellow in charge of the jail.
Investigative reporters pay way too much time dwelling on our narcissist-in-chief’s tweets and not enough uncovering evidence of financial crimes.
Mr. Trump and his son-in-law Jared should both resign.
Trump is a disgrace and an embarrassment to our country.
If you love the United States, you will join in asking him to resign.
Anthrax, Al Qaeda and Ayman Zawahiri: The Infiltration of US Biodefense
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
DXer said
Let’s consider the suggestion by Cliff Kincaid (aim.org) and by Chris Ruddy (Newsmax) — who I believe went to the White House today — that Trump fire Mueller.
If he were to do that without cause, I think there would be movement on articles of impeachment.
But Chris Ruddy, despite being misled by his friend and well-meaning colleague Ronald Kessler, knows enough about Amerithrax to understand this argument:
Notebook 4282 contains contemporaneous notes that may debunk an Ivins Theory. Ivins had said that the FBI withholding of his notebooks prevented him from proving why he was in the lab on the date of mailing and week prior to that. (It confirmed the small animal experiments he was doing). If Robert Mueller allowed the FBI to proclaim Ivins guilty — whjle knowing of this evidence — and he would have been briefed, then Mr. Trump has the cause he would need to fire Mr. Mueller.
So putting aside the politics of the matter — and putting aside my high regard for former FBI Director Mueller — this blog has pointed out a possible source of “cause” for firing the Special Prosecutor. (Depending on what those pages of the notebook say).
Chris Ruddy, with the ear of the President, has the opportunity to make history. I once told Mr. Ruddy that I didn’t need to be paid for an article I wrote on this subject — because it was so important to get the message out.
Anthrax, Al Qaeda and Ayman Zawahiri: The Infiltration of US Biodefense
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
DXer said
Comment: I respectfully disagree with Cliff Kincaid. President Trump should not have fired Director Comey — and he most definitely should not now fire Director Mueller as urged in the article below. Republicans would agree that it was beyond the pale and it likely would lead to Mr. Trump’s impeachment in short order. Archibald Cox is my ultimate hero.
(Cliff asked me for a quote for the above article and my quote was that Mueller reminded me of Gary Cooper in “High Noon” — Cliff didn’t go with it.) :0).
Instead, Mr. Trump should fire his personal lawyer who made the grievous mistake of claiming that the New York Times was quoting from the letter days before the NYT actually did. I mean, how does one get that sort of thing wrong? It was a simple matter of googling and reading the news articles, and it was important to get right.
I think if Jared Kushner is ever indicted — on financial grounds — Mr. Trump may want to resign anyway as it would be too upsetting a situation to tolerate.
In the meantime, Jared and Ivanka should return to New York so as to not have Jared drawing additional fire in the direction of the White House and the President.
Trump Should Say “You’re Fired” to Special Counsel
http://www.aim.org/aim-column/trump-should-say-youre-fired-to-special-counsel/
Mueller approved Comey’s decision to testify to the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Comey testified that “Bob” would handle the obstruction of justice investigation against Trump. It can’t get any clearer than this. Trump is a marked man. We know what they’re doing.
Forget all of that media spin about Mueller’s sterling reputation. He was a terrible investigator in the anthrax case and fingered several innocent people.
Playing a tag team match against one opponent, the President, the Comey-Mueller combo looks unbeatable. Only Trump can stop Mueller now, and a decision to terminate Mueller might accelerate demands for Trump’s impeachment.
***
In Trump’s corner is a dysfunctional White House press office and Trump’s personal lawyer, who provided a statement at the National Press Club and then scurried away.
Who do you think is going to prevail under these circumstances?
The White House press office response to Comey’s testimony—that the President is not a liar—sounds suspiciously like Richard Nixon’s claim before he resigned that he was not a crook.
***
Writing in the New York Post, in a column headlined, “Trump’s in trouble after that Jim Comey hearing” John Podhoretz notes that while Comey said Trump was not under investigation before, “The problem for Trump is that he’s under investigation now.” That’s a reference to the Mueller obstruction investigation that can lead to the filing of impeachment charges.
Continetti writes that “By firing Comey and then tweeting recklessly about it, Trump elevated a long-running but manageable problem—the so-called ‘Russia thing’—into an independent investigation that seriously endangers his presidency.”
Comey is one smooth operator. He deliberately leaked to The New York Times his side of the story, regarding his private conversations with Trump, for the purpose of triggering the appointment of a special counsel. It worked. No wonder Trump is mad at Attorney General Jeff Sessions for opening the door to such a probe.
***
Trump can defeat this attack. But a personal lawyer who runs in and out of the National Press Club is not the answer. The announcement from the White House press office that Trump is not a liar will not be enough. And the idea that there is no legal case for obstruction of justice, from a conservative point of view, can’t save Trump from the special counsel’s own warped view of his mission to save the FBI.
Unless drastic action is taken, in the form of a “war room” with veteran conservative operatives to challenge the Mueller/Comey onslaught, Trump will likely lose.
As part of the counter-attack, Trump will have to fire Mueller, just like he fired Comey, and then he will have to drain the swamp at the FBI, as we urged before.
DXer said
There’s no indication Comey violated the law. Trump may be about to.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/06/09/theres-no-indication-comey-violated-the-law-trump-may-be-about-to/?utm_term=.53bdc15ae84d
By Philip Bump June 9
U.S. Code Title 18, Section 1513 makes it a federal offense for anyone who “with the intent to retaliate, takes any action harmful to any person, including interference with the lawful employment or livelihood of any person, for providing to a law enforcement officer any truthful information relating to the commission or possible commission of any Federal offense.”
DXer said
Richard Clarke’s book on “Warnings: Finding Cassandras to Stop Catastrophes” looks like it would be an interesting summer read.
If he were in his old job, maybe he would ask the FBI for a copy of the contemporaneous notes in the withheld (or destroyed) Notebook 4282 so as to judge for himself whether Bruce Ivins had no reason to be in the lab as was the premise of the FBI’s “Ivins Theory.”
Does the increasing likelihood of impeachment of President Trump perceived by some make a catastrophic event more likely?
Anthrax, Al Qaeda and Ayman Zawahiri: The Infiltration of US Biodefense
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
U.S. can handle worsening terror threat – ex White House adviser, May 25, 2017
http://in.reuters.com/article/usa-security-clarke-idINKBN18L006
By Michael Connor | NEW YORK
Even as terrorists grow more brazen, now even striking arenas packed with teenage music fans, improvements in counterterrorism technology and government preparedness make Americans safer than at any time since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, veteran U.S. counterterrorism expert Richard A. Clarke said.
Speaking in the Reuters Global Markets Forum chatroom, Clarke said rising ocean levels and improvements in computers are likely greater risks to Americans’ well-being than terrorism.
Clarke and R.P. Eddy, a former diplomat and chief executive of intelligence firm Ergo, recently wrote “Warnings: Finding Cassandras to Stop Catastrophes,” a book on avoiding and mitigating damage from catastrophes.
The following are edited excerpts from the conversation:
Question: Is America safer from such things as the recent worldwide cyber attacks and suicide bomber in Britain than when you left the government, after serving three presidents?
Answer: The U.S. is safer than when I left government in 2003 but in many ways the threats are worse. ISIS is far more capable than al Qaeda was. Cyber threats are vastly more sophisticated than they were just five years ago.
Q: What is your assessment of the current national security/counterterrorism operation in the White House? It seems in turmoil from the outside.
A: The president does make things look like they are in turmoil, but below him there are national security professionals still doing the job.
For Trump, the ‘Cloud’ Just Grew That Much Darker
By PETER BAKERJUNE 8, 2017
The “smoking gun” tape that doomed Mr. Nixon in 1974 recorded him ordering his chief of staff to have the C.I.A. block the F.B.I. from investigating the Watergate burglary. Critics said that Mr. Trump’s comments to Mr. Comey effectively cut out the middle man.
Trump Impeachment Odds Grow After Comey Testimony Amid Rush of Bets on President’s Exit
By Jason Le Miere On 6/8/17 at 4:33 PM
http://www.newsweek.com/trump-impeachment-odds-comey-testimony-623358
DXer said
Prepare the White House for President Pence
http://www.aim.org/aim-column/prepare-the-white-house-for-president-pence/
“Those who think that Russia-gate is a witch-hunt or a hoax that will run out of gas need to think again. As we are about to see with the live coverage of former FBI Director James Comey’s testimony, this is an opportunity for the media to have enormous fun, generate ratings, and make money bashing another Republican president.
I went back in time for a juicy quote from The Washington Post’s Ben Bradlee, a Democratic Party insider who commented during his paper’s coverage of the Reagan administration’s Iran-Contra affair that “This is the most fun we’ve had since Watergate.”
***
But can they bring down Trump? The odds look good.”
***
But the NFL probe is not how Mueller should be judged. As we have argued in two separate articles, Mueller’s mishandling of the anthrax letters case is more appropriate. Mueller dragged this case out for years and in the end got the wrong guy. Nobody in the media wants to talk about this because they know coverage of Mueller’s botched investigation will infuriate the former FBI director and serve to dry up sources in the special counsel’s office.”
***
One way to counter the Mueller probe is to discredit Mueller, using the facts about his terrible treatment of a series of American scientists in the anthrax case. In the end, the FBI paid off one scientist, to the tune of millions of dollars in damages, and drove another to his death. Meanwhile, the al-Qaeda operatives who carried out the attacks got away. That Mueller could survive this debacle with a sterling reputation is evidence of the corruption in the Washington, D.C. swamp.”
Comment:
Politics and my man-crush on Mueller are beyond the scope of this blog.
But I do agree that the FBI has failed to comply with FOIA. That noncompliance with FOIA evidences an arrogant disregard for the rule of law (while paying lip service to it).
The failure to produce the pages is based on CYA reasons and not any applicable exemption under FOIA.
Anthrax, Al Qaeda and Ayman Zawahiri: The Infiltration of US Biodefense
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
DXer said
Trump to nominate Christopher Wray to be FBI Director
Published June 07, 2017
Fox New
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/06/07/trump-to-nominate-christopher-wray-to-be-fbi-director.html
DXer said
My 12 different identities as an undercover FBI agent
By Michael Kaplan
June 3, 2017 | 11:42pm
Modal Trigger
Mark Ruskin Courtesy of Mark Ruskin
http://nypost.com/2017/06/03/my-12-different-identities-as-an-undercover-fbi-agent/
Comment: The undercovers in Amerithrax were only good as their scripts, as I discovered during a wasted year beginning mid-2008.
The lousy script reflected how mangled and uninformed the FBI’s analysis was in Amerithrax.
Other undercovers in Amerithrax (including the nice pregnant agent) had the problem that their identities were knowable from googling, as Henry Heine pointed out to Bruce Ivins when Bruce got back from the cruise with his brother.
I don’t know. If the FBI paid friendly female agents to be nice to me, I wouldn’t mind.
DXer said
Politics | Fri Jun 2, 2017 | 3:27pm EDT
Trump’s continued search for new FBI chief seen as chaotic: sources
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-justice-fbi-idUSKBN18T2S8
By Julia Edwards Ainsley | WASHINGTON
President Donald Trump is still looking for a new FBI director more than three weeks after he fired James Comey, and sources familiar with the recruiting process say it has been chaotic and that job interviews led by Trump have been brief.
Three close associates of three contenders for the job, all of whom have been interviewed by Trump, said the candidates were summoned to the White House for 10- to 20-minute conversations with Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Those conversations, which followed initial interviews at the Justice Department, have been light on questions about substantive issues facing the agency, the three associates said.
While the department has compiled a long list of candidates for the White House, there has been no “clear framework or logic for who was interviewed and why,” said one of the sources.
Another of the three sources described the process as chaotic and said that in one interview, Trump spoke mostly about himself and seemed distracted.
DXer said
Kellyanne Conway’s husband takes himself out of running for Justice Dept. job [as head of Civil Division]
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/lawyer-george-conway-kellyanne-conways-husband-takes-himself-out-of-running-for-justice-dept-job/2017/06/02/095ce682-47d8-11e7-98cd-af64b4fe2dfc_story.html?utm_term=.5bd1394d5e92
DXer said
On the Mood Among My Former Colleagues at the FBI
By Nora Ellingsen
Thursday, June 1, 2017
https://lawfareblog.com/mood-among-my-former-colleagues-fbi
“On May 18th, the FBI Intelligence Analysts Association, which represents a portion of the 22,000 non-agent employees in the FBI, published a letter calling for a nonpartisan, independent director. The letter, which was sent to Attorney General Sessions as well as ranking members in both the House and the Senate, enumerated several qualities that should be considered in the selection of the next director. Most notably, the association called for a director who understands and supports the FBI’s intelligence mission. More than a decade after the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act, the Analysts Association implores Washington to select and confirm a director who will ensure the FBI completes, “its transformation into a threat-based, intelligence-driven national security organization.” Director Comey, building on the work of Director Robert Mueller, had articulated that intelligence was at the core of everything the FBI did, and had prioritized making intelligence a true profession within the FBI.
Several days earlier, the FBI Agents Association endorsed former FBI agent and Representative Mike Rogers for FBI Director. In an official statement, the organization, representing 13,000 current and retired agents, called for a director, like Rogers, who would be committed to, “the centrality of the Special Agent to the Bureau’s mission.” Rogers was a Special Agent in the Chicago Division from 1989-1994 before leaving the FBI to run for Michigan State Senate.
While the two professional organizations have outlined different ways forward for the FBI, members of both mourn the loss of Director Comey. At the same time, life and investigations do carry on. So while accusations continue to fly out of the White House and the search for the next director drags on, FBI employees continue to do what they’ve always done: their jobs.”
dxer said
The prexy asks who knows what he meant by covfefe. My intelligence source at the White House advises me that he meant to type meant COFFEE. As in “coffee is a language all its own.”
DXer said
Off topic:
Hot Tip On Old Heist Could Be Worth $10 Million, Gardner Museum …
NPR-20 hours ago
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/05/24/529848502/hot-tip-on-old-heist-could-be-worth-10-million-gardner-museum-says
Comment: The hot tip first came in years ago:
“Hi Mr. Berghman!
The Madison clerk gave me your name a number of years ago when I went to Madison on a Nancy Drew-like vacation over the Isabella Gardner mystery.
It’s my understanding that you are entitled to the reward for the Isabella Gardner paintings, along with Elene and Jeanine.
If the Boston counsel who represented you in 2005 submitted a paint chip, and FBI forensics showed that it was not from the painting, I am thinking that it was just from a different painting from the group taken that night.
If Arnold Hiatt, the Board Member, did not tell Tony Amore, when he started the job, that’s really messed up — as I had given Tony your name at the time I visited Madison and he would have been able to more closely consider the forensics on the chip.
(At the time of my visit to Maine, Tony had asked me to cut my vacation short because he said I was making Elene nervous; p.s. I’m told Elene really admires you!).
With the doubling of the reward, even under the museum’s proposed pro rated approach, it seems that there are a whole lot of nice cars and college funds that would result.
I left a note for Ashley a couple years ago but didn’t hear back. (The Chinese restaurant was the first Chinese restaurant I ever went to — dating to 1976.)
Best of luck in what has to be one of the craziest true crime mysteries of all time. Mr. Kurkjian deserves a second Pulitzer it seems, and Jeanine and Elene and you — given that everyone agrees you were not involved in the heist — appear to deserve the reward.
If you are no longer represented by counsel, I would be glad to tell Tony you are a nice guy and help you get the paintings back to the museum — no fee, no representation. … Just in the interests of the public interest in having the paintings restored (to the extent some of them are salvageable). (Personally, art doesn’t do anything for me — a nice reproduction is just as good. The museum should have had insurance if it valued the paintings so highly.)
If you are up in Herkimer rather than Stuart, I will be in town for my high school 40th reunion in July and we could do it then. Otherwise, I could come to Florida on June 16th to meet to resolve any concerns.”
DXer said
The Boston lawyer was Bernard Grossman. It was Earle Berghman’s son, Keith, age 46, who brought Bernard and Earle together, and then Bernard who kept the ball rolling by involving Jeanine Guarente, Robert Guarente’s daughter.
They can split up the reward however they like — but in the event they have the paintings, it wouldn’t behoove them to delay even a bit. I would gladly claim the reward, if they prefer, by reason of having provided the information to the museum’s security director quite a few years ago. I emailed Tony, the museum security director, Earle Berghman’s name from the public library in Madison after meeting with the local clerk.
Of course, I would then have to share 50% with every public librarian I have ever promised a share of this or that reward.
DXer said
Off-topic:
I went to Little Falls today antiquing and looking for the lost Isabella Gardner treasures. In one antique place with 80 vendors, I found a large golden eagle, but it wasn’t the stolen Napoleon finial.
The weather was perfect, the canal setting was glorious, and people were very friendly. I went to see the old Masonic temple, a castle on a cliffside, but it had just been sold (after having just recently been listed). Someone got an amazing value. I hope they take good care of the building.
If someone needs a caretaker for the old Masonic temple, I’m available. One of the bedrooms is in a turret. I call dibs. Little Falls would be a great place to retire, whether Earle, the fellow who tried to return the paintings, or anyone.
If Jeanine Guarente, Elene Guarente and Earle Berghman were just attempting a con, it was a really lame con. I have no idea what they would have been thinking.
DXer said
Off-topic: Blogger Art Hostage is not impressed with the lead discussed in the Bloomberg article about the Isabella Gardner heist today. Art Hostage Comments:
“Arthur Brand, claims in the article on Bloomberg, below he is negociating with former IRA members to recover the Gardner art.
These leads are Irish drug dealers who work out of the Netherlands.
Furthermore, Arthur Brand claims a Dutch criminal had photo’s of the Gardner art back in the 1990’s and was trying to sell them in Europe. This criminal was Michel Van Rijn and he sold them to Irish criminals, but sadly they were copies/fakes and Michel Van Rijn scammed the buyers, who could not get them authenticated for obvious reasons.
These fake Gardner artworks have been passed through many hands over the years and if they are ever recovered it will become clear very quickly they are good quality fakes. Therefore no reward would ever be paid out and the reason given will be because they are copies, true or false.
However, this is not to say some of the original Gardner artworks might be held by Irish people, but this latest attempt by Arthur Brand is
chasing the fake Gardner art sold by Michel Van Rijn.”
If I were in the Netherlands, I might be inclined to credit a theory or claim that the Merlino crew sold the paintings up to trafficker Joe Murray in 2004 for $300,000, who then transported them by ship to Ireland. And I might buy a theory that there were photographs attempting to sell them in the early 1990s. But, for me, such a theory would be very inconvenient. I am more at home tracking down leads at a Utica homeless shelter. I think Jeanine attempted to return the paintings in 2004 through MA attorney Bernard Grossman and that the blue chip paint submitted didn’t test out because she had retrieved a paint chip where the paintings were stored on an interim basis — not being able to dig them up lest, she feared, it establish guilty knowledge and possession of stolen property. I think Attorney Bernard Grossman or Elene Guarente would be interesting interviews. Or, better yet, Jeanine.
DXer said
Errata: I meant to say that, as recounted in 2004 by a wholly unreliable witness on television (Youngsworth), the paintings were sold up the food chain to Joe Murray in 1992. He was the one famously involved in the Valhalla incident when a ship delivering arms to the IRA was seized. He made the mistake of bringing a knife to a gunfight in his kitchen at his summer home at Belgrade Lakes.
p.s. I had lunch today at Thai Village on Nassau St. Princeton, a block or so down from where the anthrax mailings were mailed.
DXer said
Here is the article I mentioned.
Cracking the Biggest Art Heist in History
For nearly three decades, detectives have sought to solve the theft of $500 million of artwork from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. They think the end is near.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-06-20/the-hunt-for-the-isabella-stewart-gardner-museum-artwork
“Brand acts as something of a liaison between criminals and the police. Controversially, he’ll try to make deals that allow the culprits to go free, because he says his primary goal is saving the art from the trash heap.
“There are very few like him who understand the reality of this sort of crime,” Amore said.”
***
“Brand says he almost never deals with the original thieves. Stolen art tends to move through many hands.”
“That’s where Brand has an opportunity to become the middleman. He can promise the sellers they won’t get in trouble, then get assurances that the police won’t make arrests.”
***
“But Amore believes the works are still in the U.S.”
Comment:
Jeanine Guarente was the trusted confidante of her father, Bobby Guarante, who passed in 2004. Bobby Guarante, the FBI believes, was holding the paintings for the Merlino crew.
Jeanine, Bobby’s wife Elene and Earle Berghman, acting through MA Boston attorney Bernard Grossman, attempted to return the paintings in 2004.
Earle’s son, Keith, recommended Attorney Grossman and then Attorney Grossman kept the momentum going by involving Jeanine.
Jeanine (whether true or not) is said to have knowledge of the paintings whereabouts even assuming Elene didn’t.
As I understand it, the paint chip submitted, however, did not test out.
Now given the trouble that William Youngsworth got in in the late 1990s, it boggles the mind that they would attempt such a lame con.
It seems more sensible to conclude that Jeanine mistakenly thought that the paint chip would prove out — being from a location where she may have known the paintings to have once been stored.
Earle is either in Mohawk or at the homeless shelter in Utica. (He alternates). He would be great to interview on film — and he may continue to waive the attorney client privilege as to Attorney Grossman, permitting Bernie to describe submission of the chip.
I personally think that talk of the IRA has been used by Attorney Marty Leppo and others peripheral to the Merlino crew to divert attention from the Maine/Guarente scenario for years.
One thing Earle Berghman could be asked is if Bobby Guarante knew Joe Murray. They were in the same line of business and Madison, ME is not far from Joe’s summer home in Belgrade Lakes. So it is a very reasonable possibility, which could have gotten some of the paintings to Ireland.
DXer said
Hopefully, when former intelligence analyst and Amerithrax researcher Ken Dillon obtains the first 50 pages from the memorandum written by Richard Lambert in Amerithrax, he will provide it to a news organization with investigative chops and the resources to flesh out the story.
In the Isabella Gardner case, Ben Anthony directed and filmed a riveting documentary called ARTWORLD DODGER. Being a news junkie is only occasionally worth the time upon a great fix like that.
Errata: The attempt to return the paintings by Bobby Guarente’s family members described above would have been late 2004 and/or early 2005 — it would have been after Bobby Guarente passed in 2004 but before Tony Amore assumed his position as security director in 2005. Bobby Guarente, before he died, had considered the same using a different attorney but didn’t trust him.
DXer said
Are Cliff Kincaid and Ken Dillon right? Or, instead, is Adnan El-Shukirjumah the mailer.
Anthrax, Al Qaeda and Ayman Zawahiri: The Infiltration of US Biodefense
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
Preliminary note:
I am too conflicted to want to deal with the criticism of FBI Director Mueller below. When I am not thinking of him as Gary Cooper in “High Noon,” I am thinking of him as Atticus Finch in “To Kill A Mockingbird.” Is it just because I’ve always been such a big fan of the FBI? (Until the “Hatfill Theory” and “Ivins Theory”) Or am I sucker for a former US Attorney who leaves his big firm to become a homicide prosecutor in DC who answers his own phone. I’ve always been a sucker for sales and a sucker for good PR.
Many of the agents on the Task Force promoting an “Ivins Theory” in 2008 (see David Willman’s copious footnotes) widely thought that Director Mueller was fixated on Steve Hatfill. But, more than most, I know what a difficult mystery Amerithrax was. I think there have been a number of reasonable theories — including the Jdey theory advanced by former intelligence analyst Ken Dillon and Cliff Kincaid in the article below.
Because of the compartmentalization of the investigation, the investigators who thought Mueller (and Lambert) were fixated on Hatfill, may have not known of their simultaneous pursuit of other theories (to include prominently an Al Qaeda theory).
If the FBI would produce Notebook 4282, it might help people get on the same page.
There is no FOIA exemption that justifies its continued withholding — and if there were any basis for withholding (of any type), they could simply write a letter stating the grounds and we then could proceed to litigate the issue.
Special Counsel Mueller Will Get His Man
https://www.aim.org/aim-column/special-counsel-mueller-will-get-his-man/
By Cliff Kincaid on May 24, 2017
One of the big problems with the media is that journalists publish so many things that aren’t true, especially when they are writing about people in positions of power whom they want to pursue their liberal agendas.
Consider this statement from a Politico article by Garrett M. Graff about the special counsel investigating Russia-gate: “Robert Mueller might just be America’s straightest arrow—a respected, nonpartisan and fiercely apolitical public servant whose only lifetime motivation has been the search for justice.”
This so-called straight arrow blew the biggest terrorism investigation in the history of the United States—the post-9/11 anthrax mailings which killed five people, and spread terror and panic in the populace.
We knew al-Qaeda carried out the actual 9/11 terrorist attacks. That was an easy one to solve. Al-Qaeda had declared war on the United States and had been broadcasting their intentions to hit the U.S. In a major intelligence failure, our CIA, FBI and other agencies failed to stop the deaths of almost 3,000 people.
But then-FBI director Mueller was also in charge of solving the post-9/11 anthrax attacks. He ignored the abundant evidence of an al-Qaeda role in those, too, because the FBI had picked up the anthrax mailer and let him go. He went on to bring down Flight 587 with a shoe bomb. All of this was just too embarrassing for Mueller to admit. A deliberate cover-up was engineered.
What’s more, FBI director Mueller purged government materials of information that identified the nature of the Islamic terrorist enemy. Judicial Watch has explained how this “disturbing” turn of events occurred. They document that training materials deemed “offensive” to Muslims were purged following secret meetings between Mueller and various Islamic organizations. What’s more, Judicial Watch indicates that Mueller thus became an agent of a broader Islamist “influence operation” aimed at “our government and Constitution.”
So Mueller failed to officially recognize the role of al Qaeda in the post-9/11 anthrax attacks, and then blinded the bureau from recognizing more evidence of Islamic terrorist operations on American soil.
And this is the guy who will get to the bottom of Russia-gate?
Among other things, Mueller fingered an innocent man for the anthrax mailings, and was sued by an FBI agent who led the inquiry. His investigation wasted years on a wild goose chase. Analyst Kenneth J. Dillon says Mueller’s mishandling of the investigation led to the suicide of scientist Bruce Ivins, who was conveniently blamed for the mailings.
“My research on the 2001 anthrax mailings case suggests that Mueller was responsible for the suicide of the alleged but wrongly accused mailer, Bruce Ivins, as well as for the subsequent cover-up. Mueller appears to have lied to a Senate committee about Ivins and destroyed key alibi evidence for him,” Dillon told Accuracy in Media (AIM).
There is no evidence that Ivins actually mailed the letters, and former FBI agent Richard Lambert says the FBI has “a wealth of exculpatory evidence” regarding Ivins. That evidence has conveniently turned up missing for independent investigators like Dillon who are seeking it through Freedom of Information requests. The FBI, he says, has been sitting for more than a year on one request for 16 pages from the official investigation on Ivins.
If we had a functioning democratic system and an honest press, we would have pressure on the FBI to investigate former director Mueller. Instead, Mueller is now in charge of investigating the President of the United States! This is how the “deep state” works.
Appropriately enough, the Politico article is accompanied by a photo of Mueller and his sidekick, former FBI director James Comey. That photo captures the truth about a relationship that makes Mueller’s task as special counsel a supreme conflict of interest that should disqualify him from the task. But Washington insiders remain quiet about the conflict because they want to see Trump go. They know Mueller is a company man who will protect Comey and savage Trump.
Those who say there is no evidence of a crime in Russia-gate miss the whole point. Mueller will produce evidence of a crime out of nothing if he has to. Former national security adviser Michael T. Flynn’s dealings with a Russian TV channel, though conducted out in the open for everyone to see through a speaker’s bureau, could become the basis of some flimsy “obstruction of justice” charges against Trump, his former boss who fired him.
It’s the old familiar “what did he know and when did he know it” routine that can trip up anyone, even a president.
Trump fired Comey for incompetence and frustration over his Russia-gate investigation that goes on and on, with no end in sight. Trump wanted to see it over and the facts to come out. He wanted the intelligence community to verify that evidence of “collusion” was not to be found after many months of fruitless investigation.
Both Democrats and Republicans realized that Comey was not up to the job. But now Democrats (and some Republicans) are gleeful. They know Mueller will protect Comey and get Trump.
Journalists are quiet about Mueller’s atrocious record on Islamic terrorism because they want his special counsel office of ambitious liberal attorneys to leak to them as the inquiry goes forward. Republicans on Capitol Hill are quiet because they know the FBI can destroy them through leaks.
At least under J. Edgar Hoover we had an FBI that investigated America’s enemies. Mueller’s job is to damage and destroy a President elected by the people. His job is to protect his friend, former FBI director Comey, who used a spurious document, the “Trump Dossier,” to conduct an inquiry that has turned up nothing. A former British agent compiled the dossier but the fingerprints of the Russians are all over it.
This document, which guided the FBI investigation, is the ultimate in meddling in America’s elections and democratic system, and the media pretend not to recognize it. Instead, the media repeatedly tell us that the Russians wanted to defeat Hillary.
As we said in a previous column, America’s elected government is hanging in the balance, and the media are cheering on this spectacle. What should the American people conclude if a “special counsel,” with seemingly unlimited resources and power, brings down a President elected by those people?
They should not be blamed for losing faith in the system. They are losing faith now as Washington pursues a phony scandal while the Islamic terrorists strike and kill young innocent teenagers in the heart of the West.
Remember that Americans losing faith in the system was supposed to be one of Russia’s objectives. Ironically, the Russia-gate investigation is designed to do just that. We have a government that can’t investigate itself.
It looks like the plan is to drag out the Mueller probe for a couple of years, so that the Democratic Party can take back the House of Representatives in 2018 and initiate impeachment proceedings against Trump. The Senate won’t convict, but Trump could be forced to step down.
None of this had to happen if America had maintained a free and independent press, willing to subject the FBI to the scrutiny they apply so recklessly and anonymously to Trump.
It is strangely appropriate that FBI apologist Garrett M. Graff wrote a book praising Mueller. He quotes Comey as saying about him, “His gift is that he’s decisive without being impulsive. He’ll sit, listen, ask questions and make a decision. I didn’t realize at the time how rare that is in Washington.”
Comey was described by Graff as having worked for “years” alongside Mueller. Yet Mueller is the straight shooter who will get to the bottom of the mess that Comey found himself in and which necessitated his firing?
How can any objective observer conclude anything other than that Trump is right when he says he is the target of a witch hunt?
It’s a dishonest press, and it’s going to get worse.
So while the special counsel pursues the chimera known as Russia-gate, the Islamic terrorists who killed innocent young girls in Britain now have their sights set on the United States.
Trump’s initiatives to protect the American people from such attacks are tied up in the liberal courts.
But Mueller will get his man!
Cliff Kincaid
Cliff Kincaid is the Director of the AIM Center for Investigative Journalism and can be contacted at cliff.kincaid@aim.org. View the complete archives from Cliff Kincaid.
DXer said
Is President Trump really going to keep interviewing for FBI Director? He’s got fine candidates among the several FBI officials and also Frances Townsend. Below is Fran Townsend’s twitter feed.
I would be happiest if Mike Rogers were chosen for the purposes of this blog and overcoming the FBI’s withholding of Notebook 4282 (containing the contemporaneous notes from the day of mailing in 2001), but I appreciate the widespread recommendation that a former politician be avoided.
https://twitter.com/FranTownsend?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Enews%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
Off-topic: In connection with those Isabella Gardner paintings stolen in 1990, I wrote Mr. Berghman, Robert Guarente’s friend, to encourage that he return the paintings, regardless of their condition.
Today I wrote:
“Hi Mr. Berghman,
The Madison [ME] clerk gave me your name a number of years ago when I went to Madison on a Nancy Drew-like vacation over the Isabella Gardner mystery.
It’s my understanding that you are entitled to the reward for the Isabella Gardner paintings, along with Elene and Jeanine.
If the Boston counsel who represented you in 2005 submitted a paint chip, and FBI forensics showed that it was not from the painting, I am thinking that it was just from a different painting from the group taken that night.
If Arnold Hiatt, the Board Member, did not tell Tony Amore, when he started the job, that’s really messed up — as I had given Tony your name at the time I visited Madison and he would have been able to more closely consider the forensics on the chip.
(At the time of my visit to Maine, Tony had asked me to cut my vacation short because he said I was making Elene nervous; p.s. I’m told Elene really admires you!).
With the doubling of the reward, even under the museum’s proposed pro rated approach, it seems that there are a whole lot of nice cars and college funds that would result.
I left a note for Ashley a couple years ago but didn’t hear back. (The Chinese restaurant was the first Chinese restaurant I ever went to — dating to 1976.)
Best of luck in what has to be one of the craziest true crime mysteries of all time. Mr. Kurkjian deserves a second Pulitzer it seems, and Jeanine and Elene and you — given that everyone agrees you were not involved in the heist — appear to deserve the reward.
If you are no longer represented by counsel, I would be glad to tell Tony you are a nice guy and help you get the paintings back to the museum — no fee, no representation. … Just in the interests of the public interest in having the paintings restored (to the extent some of them are salvageable). (Personally, art doesn’t do anything for me — a nice reproduction is just as good. The museum should have had insurance if it valued the paintings so highly.)
If you are up in Herkimer [NY] rather than Stuart [FL], I will be in town for my high school 40th reunion in July and we could do it then. Otherwise, I could come to Florida on June 16th to meet to resolve any concerns.
Anthrax, Al Qaeda and Ayman Zawahiri: The Infiltration of US Biodefense
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
DXer said
Joe Lieberman reportedly is no longer being considered to be FBI Director. The Administration is pressing the restart button.
How about Mike Rogers? I understand the points made against his appointment. But at least if he were appointed and approved, I bet he would direct the FBI to produce Bruce Ivins’ Notebook 4282 so that people can get on the same page in Amerithrax.
DXer said
Townsend: Trump team approached me for FBI director
This week’s Women Rule podcast dives into the experiences of three prominent women in the George W. Bush administration, including his homeland security adviser, who notes her candidacy for Comey’s job is ‘history making.’
By POLITICO Staff
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/05/24/townsend-trump-team-approached-me-for-fbi-director-238731
As for whether she’d take the job if offered, the former Bush official demurred: “You know what? I learned in the White House I don’t do hypotheticals,” she said, “but I will say I was quite honored and quite flattered to be approached.”
05/24/2017 05:28 AM EDT
Comment: So perhaps that is why she was at the White House the day or two before Mr. Comey was fired.
Anthrax, Al Qaeda and Ayman Zawahiri: The Infiltration of US Biodefense
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
DXer said
Agent Lisi, proponent of the Ivins Theory in Amerithrax, for a while was head of the Isabella Gardner art heist investigation as head of the Boston Field Office.
I’ve respectfully suggested that he was mistaken about Amerithrax.
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
I’ve argued that like the Isabella Gardner art heist, Amerithrax is NOT closed (or at least not correctly solved). Senator Patrick Leahy has said the same thing, and he was pretty angry about it. Upon googling, I see now that Vincent Lisi retired in July 2015.
Yesterday it was announced that the museum’s reward in that art heist case has now doubled to $10 million. The increased reward, on its terms, expires at the end of this year.
The surest way for Agent Lisi to test whether his Ivins Theory is correct, is to encourage the FBI to cough up under FOIA Bruce Ivins’ Notebook 4282, which contains contemporaneous notes from the date of mailing and the week prior.
It has been withheld by the FBI (without any applicable exemption under FOIA) for many years.
FBI Agents, whether current or former, sometimes seem more focused on future book and movie deals than on compliance with FOIA and the rule of law. See, e.g., Vahid Majidi’s e-book.
But with Amerithrax all but hopeless until the US is attacked in a mass aerosol anthrax attack, let’s see if we can group solve the Isabella Gardner art heist.
Here is the former Maine residence and barn of Robert Guarente searched by FBI in 2009
http://photos.syracuse.com/yourphotos/2013/03/isabella_gardner_art_heist.html
In trying to refresh my recollection about the case this morning, I see that I posted this:
DXer/Ross said…
“With these new 2015 reward and immunity offers in place then the likes of Jeanine Guarente, Elene Guarente and Earle Berghman (Bobby Guarente’s best friend) as well as Robert Gentile would be more willing to offer up what they know about the current whereabouts of the Gardner art.”
Hi Art Hostage! I’ve always enjoyed your blog. Certainly, the issues you raise regarding reward and immunity are important ones. I have a pretty good sense of things and think that all of the four you mention (1) would be granted immunity, and (2) recovery would be prorated. I think the more interesting aspect is that Earle said when he was interviewed early last year, that neither the FBI nor the museum had ever spoken to him. I gave Tony Earle’s name a couple years ago but he told me to back off because I was making Elene nervous. The clerk in Madison gave it to me after confirming that Elene was now paid up on her taxes for the old farmhouse.
For his part, Earle says that Bernard Grossberg, who did a good job representing his son, represented him, Elene and Jeanine in 2005 and approached the museum. Before passing, Bobby [Guarente] had considered using a different lawyer but didn’t trust him.
Board member Hiatt apparently did not tell Tony Amore because the chips tested negative.
Last year, Earle formally authorized Bernie to speak to the issue and waived attorney-client privilege. Bernie confirms the paint chips didn’t check out. Now personally, I think a better validation would be return of a lesser item. The FBI isn’t necessarily known for ensuring that it is relying on validated science.
The FBI and museum are way past wanting to cause Elene, Jeanine or Earle any trouble — and that is notwithstanding that Earle was a close associate of Bobby Guarente and not a Boy Scout Troop Leader.
Better yet, their respective children could submit the information and recover, no questions asked. It is as simple as passing on some information — and then there will be new Jaguars for all.
In any event, if you really have Elene’s interest at heart, then you should have her submit a simple claim for the abandoned property she has coming in MA. (It is over $100+). A couple years ago I tried to point out abandoned property in Maine to which she was entitled but I don’t know that she got the message.
Elene should overcome her nervousness. I sense that she really deeply admires Earle. They can spend 1/3 on the lawyer if they like.
And US Attorney Ortiz, the relevant professional, would always advise an unrepresented party to seek counsel. …
This is money that grandchildren will then be able to use to go to college. The way to make up for past sins is to evidence redemption. The way to make up for past sins is to set a good example for our children and grandchildren.
Of course, alternatively, they could continue to take what I’ll call the Billy Youngworth / Myles Connor style of negotiation. That approach has proven just about as successful as continued expressions by the FBI of confidence that the paintings will be returned. And now it’s been almost 25 years since Marty Leppo return the paintings in exchange for dropping distribution charges against Carmello Merlino!
Everyone deserves a chance at being with their soul mate — in someplace that is sunny and warm. :0) Elene and Jeanine didn’t steal the paintings — that have no exposure at all, unless they try to move the paintings. For that matter, Earle and Bobby Gentile didn’t steal the paintings either.
But I do know that it is time for Earle or Ashley to do a quick google for Tony’s email and tell him good news. Tony will make them rich.”
DXer said
As for yesterday’s news story, I see that I posted this in 2015.
http://stolenvermeer.blogspot.com/2015/03/stolen-art-watch-gardner-museum-art.html?showComment=1426642981639#c6113095946609202343
“Of course, the museum and FBI are very experienced with the various cons run by forgers and liars that have populated this matter — god help the pathological liar who continues that course.”
Yesterday’s news story:
West Virginia man accused of listing stolen Gardner Museum paintings (which he didn’t have) on Craigslist
https://www.boston.com/news/crime/2017/05/22/west-virginia-man-accused-of-listing-stolen-gardner-museum-paintings-which-he-didnt-have-on-craigslist
“A West Virginia man — who allegedly listed two rare paintings from the daring 1990 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum theft on Craigslist, despite not possessing them — was arrested Monday afternoon at his home by law enforcement officials, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Boston.
***
Desper, acting under the pseudonym “Mordokwan,” allegedly posted foreign Craigslist listings and directed interested buyers to create an encrypted email account to communicate with him. Officials say they were alerted of the listings by individuals hoping to help recover the artwork, as well as some seeking the $5 million reward being offered for the stolen art’s return.”
DXer said
Off-topic:
Isabella Gardner:
“The museum announced Tuesday it was doubling its reward to $10 million for information leading to return of the stolen art.”
***
“We encourage anyone with information to contact the museum directly and we guarantee complete confidentiality,” Amore said. “This offer is a sign that our investigation remains active.”
Comment:
As a great lead, I like Robert Guarente’s friend, who upon his death, worked through a Boston lawyer — along with Guarente’s wife and daughter — to return the paintings in 2004. The FBI’s forensics raised a question and it did not move forward. The Museum’s Board member, who had been the one contacted, did not tell Tony Amore about when Tony took the job. And so for the next decade, Tony didn’t know anything about it.
Fast forward years many later, the fellow then, after a car accident, moved to Herkimer New York to stay with his daughter and son-in-law, a few doors down from the first Chinese restaurant I ever visited in 1976. A couple years ago, I staked out the restaurant, over a large plate of dumplings, hoping he would come in, from where he had been staying a few doors down, but no luck. I then left a note at their door offering to help them return the paintings but never heard. Of course, I often don’t answer the telephone if I don’t recognize the caller. And people who come knocking too loud soemtimes are taken away by police cruiser before I have a chance to visit.
The day I made my approach, I was charming while buying some Russian tea at the nearby Eastern European grocery store, so that I had eyes and ears on the street.
At the door, for good luck, I left my pitch on the back of a chinese zodiac paper place mat.
If you want to find this man, who upon being mended, returned to Florida, among the possible leads is the expensive car he once was pictured as having bought down there.
With the reward increased to $10 million, there’s even more than enough to go around. And so hopefully the fellow’s daughter and son-in-law appreciate that they’ve done nothing wrong. Neither has the father, Guarente’s friend (who, btw, Elene, Robert Guarente’s wife, was sweet on upon her husband’s passing).
I can’t bring myself to raise the issue with the FBI or Tony. We’ve seen that the FBI doesn’t take well to the suggestion that their science was flawed. (This involved testing of a paint chip in 2004).
The one time I was in Maine on vacation, Tony told me I was making Elene nervous and asked me to leave.
But the failure of the Board member to tell Tony about it when he took the job illustrates well the dangers of compartmentalization — it can be prove the death knell of sound analysis.
Anthrax, Al Qaeda and Ayman Zawahiri: The Infiltration of US Biodefense
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
DXer said
I think it is going to take Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Steve Kurkjian to find the paintings.
Putting aside any differences as to the question who was on Merlino’s crew with Guarente in 1991, it is Steve Kurkjian who picked up the ball that was dropped by the museum in 2004, when the Boston lawyer submitted the paint chip on behalf of the anonymous client/s.
When school is out, if someone pays expenses to Florida, I’ll bring the sledge hammer.
I’ve been distracted running down Dutch Schultz’s missing $50 million stash. I’ve tracked his mountain hideout in late November 1934 to 3-4 miles Northwest of Corinth, NY. It only took me 20 years. I am just waiting for the camera crew to load up the car. Besides, I much prefer dead gangsters to live ones.
.
Boston mobster-turned-pastor reveals knowledge of Gardner paintings’ location
http://www.christiantimes.com/article/former-boston-mobster-turned-pastor-reveals-knowledge-of-gardner-paintings-location/59869.htm
Suzette Gutierrez Cachila31 July, 2016
“A former mobster who has turned his life around and now has a new identity said he has information about the location of the missing Gardner paintings.
Notoriously known as Robert “Bobby” Luisi Jr., the mobster who became a pastor and now goes by the name Alfonso Esposito, used to lead a group that included two men suspected of stealing artwork from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum worth $500 million 26 years ago.
Luisi revealed in an interview with the Boston Globe that one of the two men, Robert Guarente, told him where they hid the paintings.
He said Guarente told him about it when they were together in a safehouse. While they were watching a television show about the Gardner paintings, Guarente told him the 13 pieces of artwork were buried under a concrete floor in Florida.
Luisi said Guarente asked him if he knew possible buyers …”
DXer said
I now see that I posted this comment in 2015:
http://stolenvermeer.blogspot.com/2015/03/stolen-art-watch-gardner-museum-art.html
Comment:
“I am hoping that someone with the credentials of one of the Globe reporters … interviews museum Board member [Arnold] Hiatt so that we can better understand why the 2005 attempt to return the paintings by Bobby Guarente’s best friend, daughter and wife was not passed on to museum security director Tony Amore. Tony assumed the position of museum security director in 2005. Tony says (I believe) that Earle Berghman’s name was in his database — which then makes it very hard to understand why Mr. Berghman hadn’t been interviewed. (Last spring he reported that neither the museum nor the FBI had interviewed him).
I realize that hindsight is 20/20 but things are best advanced by having the history understood. The point is not to find fault through hindsight but to understand where the right turn might have been missed in retracing steps.
I’ve long urged that Bobby Guarente’s old farmhouse in Madison, Maine be searched using ground penetrating radar and a backhoe. Guarente’s friend, Bobby Gentile, was in the concrete laying business in 1991.” [I then came to favor Gentile’s used car lot in South Windsor, CT, where a building was razed at the time of Elene’s grand jury testimony].
I gave Earle’s name to Tony years ago after it was given to me by a clerk in Maine as Bobby Guarente’s friend and contemporary in the same business. But Tony told me I was making Elene nervous and so I called short my vacation with my daughter rather than make some gangster’s wife nervous by asking questions.
As one place in Florida to start, years ago I liked Mr. Benjamin, Merlino’s elderly confidante who would stop by the garage regularly and meet with Merlino. He and his wife moved to Florida.
DXer said
http://nypost.com/2017/05/22/trumps-grace-at-the-western-wall-the-probe-mueller-comey-bungled-and-other-comments/
Reporter: Mueller, Comey Bungled FBI Anthrax Probe
The appointment of former FBI Director Robert Mueller as special counsel in the election-meddling investigation was “greeted with a chorus of supportive croaking from inside official Washington, aka The Swamp,” Carl Cannon notes at the LA Daily News — but he “didn’t experience the same rhapsody.” First off, Mueller and ousted FBI head James Comey “have a long history as professional allies.” So “for Mueller to be brought in to investigate the behavior of the guy who sacked Comey seems a conflict of interest.” More important: They “badly bungled the biggest case they ever handled” — “the 2001 anthrax letter attacks that took five lives and infected 17 other people,” including three New York Post employees. “When the facts finally came out,” he notes, they “made the FBI look feckless, incompetent and easily manipulated by outside political pressure.”
Comment:
I think an under appreciated influence (never discussed by me) was Luke Albee in Senator Leahy’s office. The FBI seems to have been swayed by the views of someone who took a partisan political approach and FBI profilers (including an FBI profile stemming from the UNABOM matter) rather than being guided by the intelligence analysis above.
Then, after Dr. Ivins’ suicide, it was full-tilt CYA mode in a race across the finish line.
DXer said
Carl M. Cannon’s piece does not seem to me to be very informed.
Comey, Mueller bungled big anthrax case together: Carl M. Cannon
The Whittier Daily News
But to inform the discussion, I have written the lead Amerithrax investigator, who reported to Director Mueller, and asked the following questions.
Attorney Lambert,
My questions below are all derived from some images uploaded over a half decade ago at a website
Anthrax, Al Qaeda and Ayman Zawahiri: The Infiltration of US Biodefense
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
The order of the questions, I believe, tracks the images as uploaded, so that you can see the documentary source that prompts the question. Feel free to just write PASS on any question you don’t want to answer for any reason. The question then will just be dropped (and the entire sequence renumbered). And even EDIT a question if rewording a question would permit you to give a meaningful answer. Our shared purpose is advance public understanding while complying with all applicable rules and policy considerations, including considerations of privacy. If any answer is too boring or uninformative, then I might just drop it so as to not lose the audience.
On the science, I have added a final question from Martin Hugh-Jones, who links the published articles detailing his thinking.
1. Did the FBI recognize that where scientists were submitting samples of the Ames strain, the perp/s would have an incentive to not admit that they ever had it?
2. Do you agree that as a general matter, it was possible for an individual with access to simply walk out of a lab that had it?
3. In March 1999, the Egyptian Islamic Jihad shura members announced that Ayman Zawahiri intended to use anthrax against US targets. Montessori Al-Zayat, the Blind Sheik’s lawyer, announced that Ayman Zawahiri would retaliate with anthrax to retaliate for the rendering of senior Egyptian Islamic Jihad leaders, to include his client, Blind Sheik Abdel-Rahman. Might that have been the motive for the Fall 2001 anthrax mailings?
4. Did the FBI know of the evidence that Ayman Zawahiri planned to use universities and charities as cover in developing anthrax for use against US targets?
5. Ayman Zawahiri reported to Muhammed Atef on anthrax planning. Atef was killed in November 2001 upon a bombing. Is it fair to say that Ayman Zawahiri would have been fully able to assume oversight of the anthrax planning?
6. Did the FBI know that Egyptian Islamic Jihad intelligence head Ali Mohammed recruited Dahab (who was at Cairo Medical School)? And that together, according to what they reported to Bin Laden, they recruited 10 sleepers in the US?
7. Did the FBI know that in September 1999 , an open letter from London radical sheik Al_Bakri called for Holy War, and that Bin Laden responded in a message read in local mosques?
8. Did the FBI know that the open letter from Al Bakri to Bin Laden stated:
“Using any biological weapons in self-defense is, in Islam permissible, and I believe we are currently operating under a defensive jihad. Obviously we regret what could happen to innocent people, but there are always people who are war casualties or, if you like, victims of war.”
The Al Qaeda manual specifically had a chapter on lethal letters and instructed that the letter should be sealed using silicone sealant on the inside so as to prevent the mailman from being harmed. Were the letters in fact taped?
9. In the indictment of KSM, Al-Hawsawi and others, it was alleged that camps were used to conduct operations against the United States targets around the world and experiments in the use of chemical and biological weapons. Thomas Ridge on television has said that Al Qaeda used anthrax in experiments on animals. Were rabbits used? Mice? Dogs?
10. Ayman Zawahiri wrote a planning memo to Muhammed Atef: “I would like to emphasize what we previously discussed — that looking for a specialist is the fastest, safest and cheapest way [to embark on a biological and chemical weapons program].” The correspondence between Ayman Zawahiri and Rauf Ahmad (often known as Abdur Rauf) indicate that Rauf Ahmad was such a specialist who had been hired to work for Al Qaeda?
11. A letter from Abu Abdullah Al-Kuwaiti outlining the next attack against Americans, noted their fighters’ willingness to kill hundreds of thousand with their biological equipment. It stated: “The groups that are present and Europe are above suspicion.” … “We obtain our intelligence information from your government and intelligence agencies.” Was Abu Abdullah Al-Kuwaiti likely in a position to know?
12. In a brief filed in the case of United States v. Al-TImimi, Dr. Al-Timimi’s counsel wrote: “We know Dr. Al-Timimi “was considered an anthrax suspect.” His counsel was Jonathan Turley. Was counsel’s statement accurate?
13. A laboratory containing anthrax-spraying documents was discovered at the home of Pakistani bacteriologist Abdul Qadoos Khan. The documents at the Qadoos home revealed that Al Qaeda had a feasible plan for anthrax. KSM says that the laptop was the computer of Mustafa Hawsawi.
Was the Task Force able to exclude KSM’s assistant Hawsawi as an accomplice in the Fall 2001 anthrax mailings?
14. Is the Flight 93 hijacker who tested positive for anthrax the same fellow who had the leg lesion Tara O’Toole thought consistent with anthrax?
15. What do you think was the cause of the leg lesion of the cause of the leg lesion of the hijacker who came in June 2001 from Kandahar where Al Qaeda had an anthrax lab? ( Yazid Sufaat briefed Zawahiri over the course of a week). In a memo distributed in 2002, Dr. Tara O’Toole of the Biodefense of Johns Hopkins, later head of biosecurity at Homeland Security, concluded it was anthrax.
17. The NAS Review of Science in FBI’s anthrax case (02-15-11): “S. 10 A review should be conducted of the classified materials that are relevant to the FBI’s investigation of the 2001 Bacillus anthraces meetings, including all of the data and material pertaining to the overseas environmental sample collection.” Do you agree with this recommendation of the NAS Panel reviewing the same? Michael Garvey, a former CIA scientist, says that Ames was detected but that the FBI discarded the finding. Why did the FBI discard the finding?
18. At the sentencing of Aafia Siddiqui, US District Court Judge Berman stated that Aafia “had claimed that a short time after moving there was a man named Abu Lubaba issued a Fatwa for her to do biological research in order to develop defenses for her country should Pakistan be attacked by an enemy. And she did them for approximately four months. Did Amerithrax investigators at the FBI Laboratory know about Aafia’s research?
19. In correspondence on Zawahiri’s computer indicates that he used “school” as code for Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Major Salafist-jihad operatives have explained that martyrs go to heaven in the should of a green bird. And the Al Qaeda website, the New Brunswick-mirrored Azzam publication website, explained that “In The Hearts of Green Birds” refers to what is inside.” Green is the symbol of Islam. Might a code have been used by a salafist-jihadist operative in the addressing of the Fall 2001 anthrax letters purporting to be from Greendale School and using a Federal Eagle stamp that pictured a large green bird?
20. Were you aware that US Senators Daschle and Leahy played key roles in both appropriations to Israel and Egypt regimes and the rendering of senior Egyptian Islamic Jihad leaders? Might that have related to the reason that they were symbolic target of the Fall 2001 anthrax letters?
21. Was a handwriting comparison done comparing Atta’s handwriting to the handwriting in the letters containing the mailed anthrax?
22. Was the FBI able to exclude Adnan El-Shukrijumah (now deceased) as the mailer of the Fall 2001 anthrax letters?
23. Was Jdey Abderrauf captured and released about the same time as Zacarias Moussaoui?
24. Do you agree with the CIA’s public, unclassified conclusion: “We believe that al-Qaeda has explored the possibility of using agricultural aircraft for large-scale dissemination of biological warfare agents such as anthrax”?
25. Was virulent Ames anthrax genetically identical to the attack anthrax at the Dugway Proving Ground at Utah?
26. Did the FBI ever locate the Apple laptop that had been in Dr. Ivins’ lab — having been installed in the summer 2001?
27. Was the genetically identical Ames kept in both Building 1412 and 1425 at USAMRIID?
28. Co-workers estimate that up to 350 had access to the genetically identical Ames — and that was just at USAMRIID. Does that figure sound like a reasonable estimate to you?
29. Were you aware that the “two-person” rule was not implemented at USAMRIID until January 2002? Thus, it is expected that Bruce Ivins’ late night animal and weekend checks by himself came to an end?
30. Do you recall that Bruce Ivins helpfully provided the FBI a 2004 article about adding silica to the spore coat in bacillus spore suspensions?
31. Do you recall that two slants and tissue material were sent from Texas? Did the FBI track down the second lab that had the second slant sent in the early 1980s? (A former USAMRIID employee who then went to work for the CIA had it).
32. Did the FBI’s photocopier toner report EXCLUDE the make and model of photocopier used at USAMRIID but INCLUDE the make and model used in Maryland by KINKOs so often used by the hijackers in August and September 2001?
33. Was the dried powdered Bacillus anthraces given Dr. Ivins to test really from Iraq? (Or was he just told that).
34. 12 of 24 rabbits died over the course of 3 days after an October 2, 2001 subcutaneous challenge. Doesn’t the evidence tend to indicate that Ivins was in the lab working on that experiment?
35. Do you agree that meglumine and diatrizoate were both detected in the USAMRIID RMR 1029 same — but meglumine and diatrizoate were NOT DETECTED in the 2001 letter spore evidence. Doesn’t this tend to indicate that the mailed anthrax was not taken directly out of Flask 1029??
36. Would you agree that the records show that Dr. Ivins had group therapy sessions scheduled on both September 17, 2001 and on October 8, 2001, the dates he supposedly was mailing the anthrax letters?
37. The Al Hayat letter bombs involved lethal letters sent to newspapers in NYC and DC and symbolize targets relating to the WTC 1993 plotters. Might the Al Hayat letter bombs been the model for the Amerithrax letters?
38. In Ameirthrax, a key leaker of the hyped Hatfill stories was suggested to be the father of the lawyer who later represented “anthrax weapons suspect” (his counsel’s phrase) Ali Al-Timimi pro bono. Was Attorney Seikaly in charge of the criminal division at the US Attorney’s Office? What was his role in Amerithrax?
39. The FBI’s anthrax scientist (JE) explained to me in July 2009 that the anthrax spores prepared at USAMRIID for DARPA were gamma irradiated. Is gamma irradiation always effective?
40. What equipment did he use to dry the spores? A lyophilizer?
41. An email from February 2003 indicates that Bruce Ivins thought it was an “incredible coverup” that he was not allowed to swab the Diagnostic Services Division at the same time he swabbed his lab and offices. Did you consider swabbing the Diagnostic Services Division at the same time Ivins’ lab was swabbed?
42. Why was the FBI asking everyone if they had seen olive oil in one of the aerosol rooms?
43. Do you think, with the benefit of hindsight, that maybe the dogs were smelling olive oil at Denny’s when they reportedly went nuts?
44. Do you agree that more than one person could have been involved? Might the mailer have been someone other than the processor? Might the processor have been someone other than the source of the virulent Ames?
Bonus question:
Submitted by consulting scientist MHJ:
“My question for Richard is in relation to the agency non-response to our finding that the letter spores had been microencapsulated.
Martin Hugh-Jones, Barbara Rosenberg, Stuart Jacobsen. 2011
The 2001 attack anthrax: Key observations, Journal of Bioterrorism & Biodefence, S3-001 doi: 10.4172/2157-2526.S3-001
[citations omitted due to a limit of 4 permitted in a post]
and
Martin Hugh-Jones, Barbara Rosenberg, Stuart Jacobsen. 2012
Evidence for the source of the 2001 attack anthrax, Journal of Bioterrorism & Biodefence, S3:008. doi: 10.4172/2157-2526. S3-008
[citations omitted due to a limit of 4 permitted in a post]
All we got was a letter to the NYT from a third party that we were mistaken. But I now know from a colleague within the agency that our microencapsulation interpretation of the FBI data is now accepted. The chemicals necessary for this silanisattion are very specific, made by only three companies, and it would have taken less than 10 days to have tracked down who had purchased one or other of them in 2000-2001 and compared that list with institutes known to have B. anthracis cultures. A visit would have then revealed who had what microenca[psulated spores and so on. Very simple. But nothing was done. Why?
In 2014 the GAO published their report on the FBI investigation and listed various shortcomings.
GAO. 2014. Anthrax: Agency approaches to validation and statistical analyses could be improved. United States Government Accountability Office http://www.gao.gov/products/gao-15-80
But of special interest they found that the letter spores could not have come from the flask in Rm 2018 at Ft Detrick. Specifically, The anthrax spores found in the letters contained a mixture of B. anthracis mutants, labeled A1, A3, D1, D2, and E. And for proof that the letter contents did not originate from the RMR 1029 flask in Ivins’ lab, as claimed by the FBI, go to table 3, page 27, and figure 8, page 64 of the GAO report. Replicate tests of undiluted samples from RMR 1029 showed 17/30 (57 per cent +) positive for mutant A1, 29/30 (97 per cent +) for mutant A3, 23/30 (77 per cent +) for mutant D1, 24/30 (80 per cent +) for mutant D2, and 30/30 (100 per cent +) for mutant E. Thus the chance of a sample being positive for all 5 mutants is only 34 per cent. When these results are matched with those of letter spores the latter were 100 per cent + for mutants A1, A3, D1, and D2 but only 23/30 (77 per cent +) of the letter replicates were positive for E. How come all the flask replicates had E but only 23/30 of the letter spore replicates? Clearly they had separate origins and RMR 1029 was not the source for the letter spores. The majority of the RMR 1029 spores originally came from Dugway in 1997.
This excludes Ivins from preparing the spores and from being the perpetrator, quite apart from a wealth of other evidence excluding his participation. That Ivins had access 24/7 to this flask was the keystone of the FBI “evidence.” The FBI did not respond.
DXer said
Comey, Mueller bungled big anthrax case together: Carl M. Cannon
http://www.redlandsdailyfacts.com/opinion/20170519/comey-mueller-bungled-big-anthrax-case-together-carl-m-cannon
***
“The third and most important factor tempering my enthusiasm for the new special prosecutor is that Comey and Mueller badly bungled the biggest case they ever handled. They botched the investigation of the 2001 anthrax letter attacks that took five lives and infected 17 other people, shut down the U.S. Capitol and Washington’s mail system, solidified the Bush administration’s antipathy for Iraq, and eventually, when the facts finally came out, made the FBI look feckless, incompetent, and easily manipulated by outside political pressure.
This, too, was an enormously complex case. But here are some facts…”
Comment:
The author is distinguished and his piece is eloquent. But those two facts do not constitute evidence relevant to the difficult Amerithrax whodunnit.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/authors/carl_m_cannon/
“Carl M. Cannon is the Washington Bureau Chief of RealClearPolitics and Executive Editor of RealClear Media Group. Carl is a past recipient of the Gerald R. Ford Journalism Prize for Distinguished Reporting and the Aldo Beckman Award, the two most prestigious awards for White House coverage. Previous positions include Executive Editor of PoliticsDaily.com, DC Bureau Chief for Reader’s Digest and White House correspondent for both the Baltimore Sun and National Journal. He was a 2007 fellow-in-residence at Harvard University’s Institute of Politics, a past president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, and is a published author.”
DXer said
Carl M. Cannon wrote the early praise of his friend David WIllman’s book — which explains why his views circulating today went off the rails.
DXer’s analysis of the current state of the evidence … on the refusal of David Willman and others to confront evidence that disputes their claims … on the LA Times for allowing Willman to cover the case when it is clearly a conflict of interest … and on Frontline for failing to include the rabbit evidence which totally demolishes the FBI’s assertions about what Dr. Ivins was doing in his lab when investigators and prosecutors without basis claim he was making the attack anthrax
Posted by Lew Weinstein on October 16, 2011
In addition to helping the FBI with Amerithrax, the psychic relied upon by David Willman helped with 911 by her astral travelling and retrieval of etheric body parts at Ground Zero … She reports she was granted her psychic abilities by a being claiming to be an extraterrestial
Posted by Lew Weinstein on June 11, 2011
David Willman relies extensively upon Dr. Ivins’ first therapist, Judith M. McLean, who writes of how she acquired her psychic abilities in her book available for sale on Amazon.com — from a being from another planet
Posted by Lew Weinstein on June 11, 2011
the material on the CASE CLOSED blog about Judith McLean (see prior posts linked below) is relevant to an evaluation of the validity of David Willman’s conclusions in his recently published “The Mirage Man” … because Willman himself, in his publicity blurb (see below), shows just how much he relied on the psychic who says … she was granted her abilities by an extraterrestrial being … got sick in 2001 from doing astral recovery work at Ground Zero and in Afghanistan after 9/11 … and was pursued by nasty Taliban entities
Posted by Lew Weinstein on June 12, 2011
DXer said
Yale Daily News on Lieberman:
http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2017/05/18/lieberman-64-law-67-leading-candidate-for-fbi-director/
Lieberman ’64 LAW ’67 leading candidate for FBI director
Jacob Stern May 18, 2017
Just over a week after President Donald Trump’s controversial firing of Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey, Joseph Lieberman ’64 LAW ’67 has emerged as the leading candidate to serve as the next FBI chief, according to reports from CNN, Politico and NBC News.
***
In an article published in the News in 2003, Lieberman’s classmates recalled the senator’s discipline and self-awareness. Few expressed surprise at their peer’s meteoric rise in Washington, D.C.
DXer said
Bob Adelman seems to object Joe Lieberman, among other reasons, because he went to Yale undergraduate and Yale Law School. To the contrary, that is a plus.
Monday, 22 May 2017
Trump Considers Joe Lieberman for FBI Director
Written by Bob Adelmann
https://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/politics/item/26066-trump-considers-joe-lieberman-for-fbi-director
“Lieberman is a graduate of Yale University and Yale Law School, a red flag for those who are sensitive to establishment types who have flowed for years from that campus into public service… “
DXer said
Alice Fisher of Latham & Watkins has withdrawn from the pool of contenders to lead the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Fisher is a former head of the criminal division at the Department of Justice during George W. Bush’s administration and a prominent white-collar lawyer and firm manager at Latham’s Washington, D.C., office.
She interviewed with Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein for the top FBI job on Saturday, less than a week after President Donald Trump fired director James Comey.
A source close to Fisher provided this statement Wednesday afternoon:
“Alice is honored and humbled to have been considered. While she had productive discussions with those working on the nomination, she determined she would not proceed.
“She has tremendous respect for the Justice Department and deeply values the hard work the men and women at the bureau and throughout the department do every day to protect the American public. She will do all she can to help support the president’s nominee as they take on this incredibly important national security and public safety role.”
Comment:
Her work is in criminal white collar defense. I am not within the beltway and am not involved in politics, but I never like it when when criminal defense lawyers pledge their support to a prosecutor or top investigator.
DXer said
Joe Lieberman Is reportedly the frontrunner to lead the FBI Joe Lieberman is the lead author of a 2015 report that concluded:
“The nation has not come to fully appreciate the severity of the biological threat and our leaders have not demonstrated the political will to fully address it.”
Although I think Mike Rogers also would have been confirmed without too much difficulty, he had served on the transition team for the first 10 days — leaving when Christie left.
And so Joe Lieberman is perhaps a safer choice (than Mike Rogers) in this time of a controversy relating to Russia that may be boiling over.
But, at age 77, it would be up to him if he were to decide to accept an appointment were offered. (I think, on further consideration, he might decline).
President Trump shouldn’t feel a need to appoint someone already known to the public. There were several highly qualified current FBI managers interviewed who have more relevant background and experience.
I’m thinking that despite the most recent news, President Trump will appoint someone else (such as Fran Townsend).
It certainly wasn’t a position that Joe Lieberman lobbied to get.
Haaretz-5 minutes ago
A senior administration official told Reuters on Wednesday that Lieberman was one of the leading candidates to replace fired FBI chief James Comey.
Trump ‘very close’ to picking new FBI chief, leaning toward Lieberman
The Hill-10 minutes ago
Trump met with four candidates for the top law enforcement post Wednesday … Lieberman would be an unusual pick for the job — past FBI chiefs have either …
Reports: Joe Lieberman Leading Choice for FBI Director
Newsmax-17 minutes ago
Joe Lieberman is reportedly President Donald Trump’s leading choice for FBI director, … Other candidates included acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, former …
The Biothreat Is Real — And We’re Not Ready, Report Says
http://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/biothreat-real-were-not-ready-report-says-n452906
by Maggie Fox
It’s a scary scenario: A genetically engineered Nipah virus is sprayed into the air during a July 4th celebration in Washington, D.C., and across the country, killing more than 6,000 people.
A badly prepared United States does almost nothing at first, and people die as officials scramble to get a grip on what happened.
“It’s a made-up story line, but one that could happen, says former senator Joe Lieberman, who helped head a committee that wrote a report released Wednesday on the lack of preparedness for a biological attack or epidemic.
“At some point, we will likely be attacked with a biological weapon.”
“We wanted to start the report with something that got people’s attention, that’s not far-fetched,” Lieberman told NBC News.
“Based on our investigations, it’s a plausible scenario.”
Even though the U.S. government has been warned repeatedly of such biological threats, and has spent nearly $80 billion since 2000 on preparations, it’s not doing so in an organized way, according to the privately funded report from the group headed by Lieberman and former Homeland Security secretary Tom Ridge.
“We are spending about $6 billion a year in biodefense and we don’t think we are getting our money’s worth out of it,” Lieberman said.
“There is no centralized leader for biodefense. There is no comprehensive national strategic plan for biodefense. There is no all-inclusive dedicated budget for biodefense,” the report reads.
“At some point, we will likely be attacked with a biological weapon, and will certainly be subjected to deadly naturally occurring infectious diseases and accidental exposures, for which our response will likely be insufficient.”
The report calls for the vice president to be in charge of biodefense, to give White House authority to the effort, and to coordinate all the other departments and agencies.
Lieberman says it’s urgent.
“The more we looked at this, the more real we concluded the threat is,” he said. “You have got groups like ISIS looking to and willing to do the most terrorizing things they can possibly do. They specifically endorsed biological warfare and threatened to attack the U.S. homeland with biological weapons.”
***
Home-grown blunders are also likely. The Department of Defense accidentally sent around live anthrax, live smallpox was found in a National Institutes of Health freezer and even the Center for Disease Control and Prevention had a mishap in which more than 80 people were exposed to live anthrax.
“The nation has not come to fully appreciate the severity of the biological threat and our leaders have not demonstrated the political will to fully address it,” the report says.
DXer said
I think it was Nicole on MSNBC who is suggesting it seems that it is close to a “done deal”:
Joe Lieberman front-runner for FBI post, Trump says
By Tal Kopan, Gloria Borger, Jeremy Diamond and Ariane de Vogue, CNN
Updated 3:37 PM ET, Thu May 18, 2017
Washington (CNN)Former Sen. Joe Lieberman is President Donald Trump’s top pick to be nominated as FBI director, Trump said Thursday.
Speaking to reporters while meeting with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, Trump said he is “very close” to choosing a new FBI director to replace James Comey. And asked if Lieberman, the Democrat-turned-independent senator from Connecticut was his top pick, Trump said yes.
Trump met with Lieberman Wednesday and found him “agreeable,” a source said.
p.s. CNN indicates that Lieberman is 75 (rather than 77 as I think I just posted).
DXer said
John McCain: ‘Joe Lieberman Has More Experience’ Than Any of My Democratic Colleagues
http://time.com/4785068/john-mccain-joe-lieberman-fbi-director-trump/
.@senjohnmccain to me now: ‘Joe Lieberman has more experience than all of my Dem. colleagues combined. So screw them. And u can quote me.’
– Lisa Desjardins (@LisaDNews) May 18, 2017
***
I was asking @SenJohnMcCain about Dems saying Lieberman doesnt have enuf law enf experience. (He also stopped me from walking into a sign.)
– Lisa Desjardins (@LisaDNews) May 18, 2017
***
Lieberman, who ran as Al Gore’s vice presidential candidate in 2000, visited Trump at the White House on Wednesday to discuss the position, according to the Associated Press. While Lieberman served as a Democratic senator from Connecticut for more than two decades, he is not necessarily popular among Congressional Democrats.
He lost his Democratic primary bid in 2006 and only kept his seat by running as a third-party candidate. He then endorsed McCain for president in 2008 and spoke at the Republican National Convention that year. Lieberman is now senior counsel at Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman, a law firm that has represented Trump in various legal battles over the years.
Anthrax, Al Qaeda and Ayman Zawahiri: The Infiltration of US Biodefense
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
DXer said
Lieberman Is a Finalist for F.B.I. Director, Trump Says
By GLENN THRUSH and MAGGIE HABERMANMAY 18, 2017
But members of Mr. Trump’s staff — alarmed by his rapid embrace of Mr. Lieberman, a charming 75-year-old political operator with no federal law enforcement experience — have quietly urged him to take more time to make such a critical hire. By late Thursday, the president appeared increasingly likely to leave Friday for a nine-day foreign trip without picking a new director, according to three senior administration officials speaking on the condition of anonymity.
DXer said
Patrick Leahy says that he assumes that Senator Lieberman will take his name out of the running like Senator Cornyn did — because the country needs someone who is not political in any way, shape or manner.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/politics/manchin-people-were-frustrated-by-lack-of-details-at-rosenstein-briefing/2017/05/18/ed5e51e4-3c12-11e7-a59b-26e0451a96fd_video.html
DXer said
It seems that former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn is in a lot of trouble.
Thank goodness we have legislators like Adam Schiff, Patrick Leahy, John McCain and numerous others to see us through this difficult period.
Michael Flynn, while secretly paid by Turkish agent, halted military plan against ISIS, May 18, 2017
• 5 hours ago
http://www.syracuse.com/politics/index.ssf/2017/05/michael_flynn_while_secretly_paid_by_turkish_agent_halted_military_plan_turkey_o.html#incart_river_home
You may recall that in his exit interview, upon being let go by President Obama, he warned about the anthrax threat.
http://breakingdefense.com/2014/08/flynns-last-interview-intel-iconoclast-departs-dia-with-a-warning/
“Flynn: I know that’s a scary thought, but in 2004, there were 21 total Islamic terrorist groups spread out in 18 countries. Today, there are 41 Islamic terrorist groups spread out in 24 countries. A lot of these groups have the intention to attack Western interests, to include Western embassies and in some cases Western countries. Some have both the intention and some capability to attack the United States homeland.
For instance, we’re doing all we can to understand the outflow of foreign fighters from Syria and Iraq, many of them with Western passports, because another threat I’ve warned about is Islamic terrorists in Syria acquiring chemical or biological weapons. We know they are trying to get their hands on chemical weapons and use what they already have to create a chemical weapons capability.
Remember anthrax was used in 2001 [killing five people] and pretty much paralyzed Capitol Hill. If that anthrax had been dispersed more efficiently, it could have killed a quarter million people.”
DXer said
Majority leader Mitch McConnnell could have predicted that Merrick Garland would not be interested in the job.
Senator McConnell’s Invoking his name does nothing to mitigate the shame McConnell should feel for the Republicans not having held a hearing — had his name put to an up / down vote.
The Republicans seriously undermined our governmental institutions and the orderly process of law. The Republican Senators should have acted like Americans first, and partisans second.
DOJ #2 — by not appointing an independent investigator/special prosecutor — promises more of the same.
Appointment of a special prosecutor is what is needed to help ensure confidence in government — appointment of a special prosecutor merely avoids the inherent conflict of interest that we have seen explode in the country’s face this past week.
Such an appointment does not speak to the merits or prejudge the outcome of such an investigation.
Washington Post
Merrick Garland not interested in FBI job, friends say
Washington Post – 1 hour ago
Judge Merrick Garland, whose nomination to the Supreme Court by President Barack Obama was blocked by Senate Republicans, has no interest in being the new FBI director, according to associates.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he recommended Merrick Garland, former President Obama’s pick for the Supreme Court who the Senate did not vote on, to lead the FBI. | Getty
McConnell: I recommended Merrick Garland for FBI director
By Nolan D. McCaskill
05/16/17 09:53 AM EDT
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has encouraged President Donald Trump to nominate Merrick Garland to lead the FBI, the Kentucky Republican said Tuesday.
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/05/16/mitch-mcconnell-merrick-garland-fbi-director-238439
I have spoken with the president about it. I recommended Merrick Garland,” McConnell told Bloomberg Politics’ Kevin Cirilli.
“Yeah, it may surprise people, but he has a deep background in criminal law,” he continued. “He was the prosecutor in the Oklahoma City bombing case. And I think it would make it clear that President Trump will continue the tradition at the FBI of having an apolitical professional.”
Senate Democrats vow to block Trump’s FBI director, demand special prosecutor, May 16, 2017
http://www.timesnow.tv/international/article/president-donald-trump-james-comey-senate-democrats-special-prosecutor-washington-chuck-schumer/61138
Comment: The DOJ #2 needs to appoint a Special Prosecutor unless he wants the recent shameful developments to go down as his legacy. Appointment of a Special Prosecutor is simply a recognition of the conflicts of interest — it does not prejudge what the outcome of such an investigation would be.
DXer said
Scoop: Trump, irked at cabinet and staff, mulls sweeping shake-up
https://www.axios.com/scoop-trump-irked-at-cabinet-and-staff-mulls-sweeping-shake-up-2407137307.html
DXer said
In today’s news, Frances Townsend has now interviewed for the position.
Earlier story:
Former top terror adviser spotted at White House day before FBI director was fired
• By James Gordon Meek
May 10, 2017
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/top-terror-adviser-spotted-white-house-hours-fbi/story?id=47335248
A former White House counterterrorism official, who many consider to be a candidate to replace fired FBI Director James Comey, was spotted at the White House shortly before Comey was “terminated” six years ahead of the end of his term.
Frances Townsend, who served in the George W. Bush administration as a White House homeland security and counterterrorism adviser, posted several photos on her Twitter and Instagram accounts snapped while inside the White House on Monday afternoon.
***
Townsend owns an impressive resume. She was a federal prosecutor in New York who rose to be a senior intelligence official at the Department of Justice and U.S. Coast Guard in Washington. A protégé of Rudy Giuliani when the Republican was a top federal prosecutor, she later became a close adviser and confidante of President Bill Clinton’s Attorney General Janet Reno.
DXer said
Today’s news:
FBI Agents Association Endorses Mike Rogers For Next FBI Director
DXer said
May 18 OpEd by FBI Agents Association President:
FBI union: Don’t limit search for new director
Thomas F. O’Connor 7:31 p.m. ET May 18, 2017
There should not be a blanket requirement that the person has never been involved in politics: Opposing view
The next FBI director will be leading the world’s premier law enforcement agency through one of the most challenging times in the bureau’s history. The discussion on potential nominees must move beyond disqualifying persons based on overgeneralized categories, and toward specific attributes of potential candidates.
The next director needs to have the trust and confidence of the agents who he or she leads; the strength to be independent; experience in national security and criminal issues; and the ability to work on a bipartisan basis with Congress. The position requires someone whose sole purpose in every decision is to uphold the Constitution and the rule of law.
After reviewing potential candidates, the FBI Agents Association recently endorsed Mike Rogers, a former member of Congress, to be the next FBI director. We made this endorsement because of his public service, not despite it.
As chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rogers, a former FBI special agent and military veteran, worked diligently, discretely and in a bipartisan manner on the most important security threats. He has shown that he can confront sensitive issues without politicizing them, and he showed a willingness to come to conclusions guided by the available evidence, not ideology. These attributes are why he was able to build a strong working relationship with both Democrats and Republicans.
Finding someone who is dedicated to the mission of the FBI and preserving the Constitution should be the most important criteria for selecting the next FBI director.
Thomas F. O’Connor is president of the FBI Agents Association.
DXer said
Mike Rogers, under consideration by President Trump as a possible replacement for FBI Director Comey, hosts a show on declassified information about spies.
DXer said
With FBI Director Comey relieved of his duties by President Trump, maybe a new FBI Director could view Amerithrax with fresh eyes and approach the issue with a fresh perspective.
The former WMD Director, Vahid Majidi, in his e-book explained that Comey had been his supervisor and that he was confident Comey had his back.
But with the former lead Amerithrax investigator Lambert pointing to compartmentalization as a huge problem — and Vahid Majidi and other FBI Laboratory people never in a position to know what they perhaps needed to know — maybe a fresh pair of eyes and a fresh perspective would help.
Anthrax, Al Qaeda and Ayman Zawahiri: The Infiltration of US Biodefense
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
DXer said
https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-05-11/trump-said-to-consider-ex-congressman-rogers-for-fbi-director
Trump Considering Ex-Congressman Mike Rogers for FBI Director, Official Says
Jennifer Jacobs
May 11, 2017, 10:06 AM EDT May 11, 2017, 10:32 AM EDT
President Donald Trump is considering Mike Rogers, a former congressman and FBI agent from Michigan, among the candidates to replace James Comey as FBI director, a White House official said.
Rogers, 53, a former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, retired from Congress in 2015 after seven terms to pursue a career in talk radio. He advised the Trump presidential transition team on national security issues but was asked to leave at about the same time New Jersey Governor Chris Christie was removed as head of the transition.
Rep. Rogers says al-Qaeda interested in bioweapons
Tuesday, Jul 5, 2011 @ 2:44pm by BioPrepWatch Reports
U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers (R – Mich.) recently spoke about al-Qaeda’s plans to acquire weapons of mass destruction and what the United States can do in response.
Rogers, the chairman of the House Select Committee on Intelligence, said evidence gathered from Osama bin Laden’s compound showed that al-Qaeda is still interested in chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear weapons, according to WXYZ.com.
Last week, Rogers introduced a bill aimed at protecting the United States from attacks by weapons of mass destruction.
“What this does is encourages the private sector to engage in research and development to develop the next generation of vaccines for radiation exposure for biological weapons attacks, small pox, anthrax, and chemical weapons attacks,” Rogers said, WXYZ reports. “God forbid any of that happening, but we need to be prepared.
“It’s like the fire department. You want them there even though you never want to have to use them.”
Rogers, who once worked for the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Army, recently met with Pakistan’s intelligence chief. He said that he is as pessimistic about U.S.-Pakistan relations as he has ever been.
“We continue to have dialogue with them even today to try to get us back on track,” Rogers said, according to WXYZ.
Anthrax, Al Qaeda and Ayman Zawahiri: The Infiltration of US Biodefense
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
DXer said
An Invitation
From: [Tom Daschle and Mike Rogers]
To: [John Podesta]
Date: 2016-01-12 19:29
Subject: An Invitation
Dear John,
We hope this note finds you well. I’m sure things are very busy for you right now!
Former Congressman Mike Rogers and I invite you to join us for a salon dinner discussion on biodefense on February 22nd at 6:00 pm at the Cosmos Club in Washington D.C. As you know, biosecurity is an issue that I had the unfortunate experience of dealing with first hand when anthrax was sent to my Senate office. However, even with the anthrax attacks that took place in 2001, and the Ebola outbreak in 2014, biodefense isn’t being as seriously considered as I believe it should be.
Mike, as I am sure you know, during his time in office was the Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Mike built a legacy as a tireless and effective leader on biodefense, counterterrorism and national security policy. Mike currently hosts a nationally-syndicated radio show, is a CNN national security commentator, a Distinguished Fellow at the Hudson Institute and serves on the Board of Trustees at the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress.
Last year, I had the privilege of serving on the Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense led by Governor Ridge and Senator Lieberman. Mike briefed the panel and informed our final recommendations. Now that that the panel’s report has been released, we believe we have an opportunity to elevate the political prioritization of biodefense and preparedness, as well as advance near and mid-term changes to address the challenges and gaps we continue to face.
Mike and I would like to bring together a small group of thought leaders, such as yourself, for an informal discussion. Ideally, we would like to build on the discussion that the Blue Ribbon Panel Study began, and identify some actionable priorities. In the end, we hope to use the ideas gathered during the dinner discussion to develop both short-term and mid-term strategies for increasing political interest in improving our national health security.
Given your experience and expertise in these areas, Mike and I are hopeful that you will be able to join us.
…
All the best,
Tom Daschle
Former US Senate Majority Leader
Mike Rogers
Former Chairman, Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
DXer said
There are a number of articles today reporting the recommendation by Democrats and others that appointment of a politician be avoided. That would include Mike Rogers, even though his bipartisan, problem-solving approach, seems fairly well-established.
That perhaps would point to current or former judge or law enforcement official (e.g., Ray Kelly).
I don’t envy the position of anyone appointed — they rightfully will be grilled about their independence from President Trump.
Past contacts and conversations, including visits to the White House, Trump Tower etc. will be probed, as will connections to highly partisan former campaign associates.
Although I think Mike Rogers would have made a fine appointment, I think the chances of his appointment are seriously diminished given the developing theme.
With my focus the production of Notebook 4282 providing the contemporaneous notes of Bruce Ivins was in the lab on the date of mailing and week prior, that’s unfortunate.
On the other hand, a sitting or former judge, perhaps, might be able to quickly grasp the wrongfulness of the continued withholding under FOIA that is continuing.
And an FBI Director, above all, should embody the rule of law — and be a master of the principles that apply.
Anthrax, Al Qaeda and Ayman Zawahiri: The Infiltration of US Biodefense
http://www.amierithrax.wordpress.com
DXer said
It seems unlikely that the President would name John Cornyn. As -South Carolina as Lindsey Graham (R) noted, John Cornyn under normal circumstances would be a superb choice to be FBI director,” Graham said on “Meet the Press” on Sunday. “But these are not normal circumstances.”
Cornyn quiet after interview for FBI director
By Kevin Diaz
May 15, 2017 Updated: May 15, 2017
http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Cornyn-quiet-after-interview-for-FBI-director-11147912.php
Cornyn as FBI director would cause big Senate shakeup
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/05/13/john-cornyn-fbi-director-senate-238355
The Texas senator is seriously considering accepting the job if nominated, sources said. He spoke with Attorney General Jeff Sessions about the post earlier this week and is interviewing with the former Alabama senator on Saturday — both indications that Cornyn is a true contender for the post.
If he’s offered the job and accepts, Cornyn’s confirmation could turn into a brutal partisan affair that would grip the Senate for weeks. He appears unlikely to receive traditional senatorial deference from Democrats, given the blowback over Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey as the agency was investigating potential ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Cornyn asked former Attorney General Loretta Lynch to appoint a special counsel to investigate Hillary Clinton’s email use but has resisted Democrats’ calls for one to probe Trump campaign contacts with Russia. Earlier this year he called the two situations “apples and oranges.”
Though Republicans believe Democrats would support Cornyn, Democrats are already suggesting that they will make their votes contingent on a special prosecutor being appointed to investigate Trump associates’ ties with Russia.
DXer said
Q&A: The U.S. Department of Justice scrapped independent forensics panel, but the scientific questions ‘are not going away’
By Kelly Servick
Apr. 14, 2017 , 1:30 PM
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/04/qa-us-department-justice-scrapped-independent-forensics-panel-scientific-questions-are
I served on the anthrax investigation—the National Academy of Sciences study that was done on [the 2001 anthrax mailings]—so I can tell you that the culture of criminal justice feels very uncomfortable when you question their techniques. And that is natural. These people are trying to reduce crime by putting people away. And here you have a situation in which techniques that they have used for many, many years come into question, and I think there is natural instinct to say, “Oh, God.” Some of that may have been there. But there are also a lot of people who recognize that these problems aren’t going away. And the way to deal with this is to do the science.
DXer said
Bengaluru: Wipro gets email threat ‘pay 500 cr in bitcoins or suffer bio-terror’; warned of attack by May 25
http://bangaloremirror.indiatimes.com/bangalore/cover-story/bengaluru-wipro-gets-email-threat-pay-500-cr-in-bitcoins-or-suffer-bio-terror-warned-of-attack-by-may-25/articleshow/58540034.cms
By Binoy Valsan, Bangalore Mirror Bureau | Updated: May 5, 2017, 11.37 PM IST
The sender has also claimed that he has isolated 1 kg of high-quality ricin and would be sending 2 grams in envelopes to one of Wipro’s offices in the city in the coming days to prove that he was not bluffing. He has also cautioned the firm to be careful while dealing with his ‘sample dose’.
The email also contains the link to a news item about the mysterious death of 22 stray dogs at Baranagar in Kolkata, uploaded on the portal of a leading English news daily. The incident occurred on January 21 in Baranagar locality where the carcasses of 22 dogs were found on the road near a construction site. The sender claimed that he had isolated a high-quality, beta strain of the toxin and had tested it on those dogs.
DXer said
Inside a young Jersey Shore man’s alleged path to ISIS
NJ.com-7 hours ago
An FBI review of Lepsky’s cell phone found that from Jan. 14 to Feb. 4 he conducted approximately 3,340 internet searches, many relating to ISIS propaganda and terrorist attacks.
He searched items like “how to make anthrax powder” and “anthrax explosive.”
Comment:
I can share the FBI the bother of searching my cell phone. (There was only one night that a former ADA who still parked in an official spot had my phone and any opportunity to download it — but he claims not to know how it came to be hidden in his car and I take his claim at face value.)
Most recently, a few minutes ago, after getting back from the Saratoga area, I searched “Devil’s Pond, Corinth, NY” and then I searched “Don’t let Satan draw you too fast” and “Dutch Schultz”
DXer said
“FBI translator, now living in Syracuse, disclosed investigation to ISIS terrorist, papers say,” May 3, 2017
http://www.syracuse.com/crime/index.ssf/2017/05/fbi_translator_now_living_in_syracuse_disclosed_investigation_to_isis_terrorist.html#incart_m-rpt-1
FBI translator who married ISIS terrorist refuses to talk about tryst
By Kirstan Conley, Gabrielle Fonrouge and Bruce Golding
May 3, 2017
http://nypost.com/2017/05/03/fbi-translator-who-married-isis-terrorist-refuses-to-talk-about-tryst/
“But federal prosecutors said she deserved leniency because she seemed “to have done all within her power to assist the government since her arrest,” calling her cooperation “significant, long-running and substantial.”
Comment: Relationships can be messy — and emotions can be inconvenient. It’s not like she grew up in the US. We should try to give everyone the benefit of the doubt and not rush to judgment. Daniela, come to scrabble club on Wednesdays— it’s open book.
DXer said
Confronting The Crisis In Forensic Science Labs09:01
http://www.wbur.org/radioboston/2017/05/02/forensic-science
Play
May 02, 2017
There is a crisis in forensic science. Namely: mounting evidence that forensics rely on flawed science and that experts overstate their accuracy in court.
Take for example hair analysis — once a commonly trusted tool in criminal trials. You know, when an expert would testify that they found strands of hair on the victim that matched the perpetrator. This was before DNA analysis came on the scene. Turns out, hair analysis is very subjective and potentially very flawed, even though it was used by the FBI for more than 30 years.
That is why in 2013, the Obama administration launched the National Commission on Forensic Science, an independent committee charged with improving the reliability of forensics and creating uniform standards across the country.
Last month, Attorney General Jeff Sessions disbanded the commission. Sessions said the Justice Department will conduct its own review of forensic science.
Guest
Suzanne Bell, chemistry and forensic science professor at West Virginia University. She’s also a former member of the now-defunct National Commission on Forensic Science.
DXer said
Worse Than Ebola: U.S. Not Preparing for the Next Bio-Threat
by Maggie Fox
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/zika-virus-outbreak/worse-ebola-u-s-not-preparing-next-bio-threat-n753526
The U.S. government is slacking off on preparing for the next big pandemic or biological terrorism attack and is not only endangering its citizens but also missing out on a great opportunity to score political points, experts said Monday. …
interest” after the 2001 anthrax attacks, and the federal government was spending about $6 billion a year on various scattered biodefense projects, according to a 2015 report from the blue ribbon panel. …
“When the bad day comes, it will be horrific,” Cole said.
It is not a divisive issue,” he said. “In the case of the president, it would be really good politics, because it would be unexpected.”
President Donald Trump could win “bipartisan acclaim” if he made biodefense a cause, Cole said. “I am not arguing that we should do this from a political perspective. I am arguing it is good politics to do this,” he added. “This would be a good time for an administration to seize the opportunity, in my view.”
“The scenario we are facing in the future is a much more dangerous and threatening scenario than the Ebola scenario,” he added. “We as a country and the world have a long way to go to be ready for a truly seriously threat.”
Because it’s so obvious, it may be hard to do, Cole said.
“The more sensible the suggestion, the less likely it is to happen in Washington, D.C.,” he said to laughter.
Comment:
Hm.
Before spending billions — or even the first dime — why not use a first class postage stamp to submit a targeted FOIA request to the FBI . Or better yet, pick up the telephone and call FBI’s Kris Weart and ask that he not delay any further in producing Bruce Ivins’ Notebook 4282. That Notebook provides Dr. Bruce Ivins with the reason he was in the Bioilevel 3 lab on the date of mailing and week prior to that.
These experts and politicians should simply email Kris and say that there is a public interest in getting people on the same page in Amerithrax. (The FBI claims that the public is not interested in the threat of a biological attack and therefore there is no reason to expedite the request).
Indeed, until the FBI produces the notebook, don’t further fund the FBI’s new headquarters. The FBI seems to have lost track of the fact that it is bound by law and needs to comply with FOIA.
Individual employees within the FBI have always been about CYA rather than the rule of law.
“Weart, Kristopher R. (RMD) (FBI)”
DXer said
A well-known anthrax expert, who is learned on matters relating to anthrax found in the wild but not on the Al Qaeda operatives found in the wild, wrote the former lead investigator of Amerithrax a day or two ago and asked:
“The Afghan facility was in Afghanistan, so how did the spores get to Princeton to be mailed within the very very tight time schedule if that was the source?”
I took the liberty of responding:
“As I have often told you, Adnan El-Shukrijumah called his mom on or about September 11 and told he was coming to the US. (She protested, saying that he would be arrested.)
Shukrijumah was an associate of Mohammed Atta. He was the son of a Saudi missionary and had grown up in Brooklyn — indeed, the mosque visited by Zawahiri and another key player in the mid-1990s.
Shukrijumah cased Washington DC and NYC in the summer of 2001 along with Al-Hindi (another bad hombre) and another.
Adnan was calling his mom from KSM’s house, where Yazid Sufaat, the Al Qaeda “CEO” and just briefed KSM on progress.
The FBI then later explained that evidence indicated that Adnan El-Shukrijumah had in fact entered the country.
El-Shukrijumah is now dead, which might make it easier for FBI documents in the FOIA Sarasota litigation to find their way into public.
Hindsight is 20/20. In addition to difficulties relating to compartmentalization and large organizations, sometimes things simply aren’t learned until later.
Although I personally disagree with the FBI, I’ve never thought I could do better. It is just a difficult case.
I find a number of theories and scenarios plausible. My main interest is in having the FBI Laboratory produce Notebook 4282 which has contemporaneous notes from the date of mailing and the week prior.
I have always urged that whether Bruce Ivins had other reasons to be in the lab (small animal experiments, with him doing the weekend and night checks) is best established (or not) through his contemporaneous entries in his lab notebook.
I think an Ivins theory was just as plausible as a number of other theories but that there are documents that are not classified or subject to privacy exemptions under FOIA that would further undermine it greatly.
Bruce shared that notebook with another scientist but USAMRIID’s practice is simply to delete the person’s name — under FOIA exemption (b)(6).
On notebooks, I have only ever been asking that the FBI give USAMRIID the notebook back so that it can upload it with the other dozen or two notebooks I have had uploaded.
The FBI FOIA contact is Kris Weart, who is a nice and responsive fellow. He just has not produced the notebook — and it’s been many months.
He should deny the request so that suit can be brought and attorneys fees recovered.”
DXer said
If people want to contact Attorney Lambert, the former lead Amerithrax investigator for interviews, his email address is in the Complaint. Lambert0618 [at ] gmail.com. It is also on Linked In.
Here is the Richard Lambert interview.
Major props are due private investigator Ed Opperman for scoring and uploading the interview.
I’m so impressed and appreciative of his civic-mindedness that I just asked him for help to track down Dutch Schultz’s missing millions. :0)
DXer said
The interview is an hour, rather than two hours. You can stop after the one hour mark.
Highlight:
KSM was leading the planned anthrax attack on the US, according to the recent 2 hour interview of former lead Amerithrax investigator Richard Lambert (that I’m transcribing and posting as I listen to it).
“That was their design and was being directed by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed..” (23:52)
At 23:04
Question: “The person or persons or group had to be kinda ready…. to get going. They only had a week, from 911 to the mailing…
They had to have been planning this prior to 911 to have this anthrax ready and the letters.. right?”
Lambert: “Yes, that’s exactly right. It has now been declassified and it is out there in the media that what we know is that Al Qaeda had a very robust biological program. that was getting very close to having an anthrax weapon developed. They were moving quickly in that direction. They had a microbiologist that they had hired. They had a laboratory set up outside of Kandahar in Afghanistan and they were actively seeking pathogens.”
“You know in my mind I believe the 911 attacks actually preempted an anthrax by Al Qaeda because clearly they were moving in that direction. That was their design and was being directed by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed..” (23:52)
Anthrax, Al Qaeda and Ayman Zawahiri: The Infiltration of US Biodefense
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
DXer says: Adnan El-Shukrijumah is the anthrax mailer … on or about 9/13/2001, he phoned from KSM’s house to tell his mom he was coming to the US
Posted by Lew Weinstein on June 6, 2014
DXer said
One question I would propose someone to ask (while emphasizing whatever else of their interest):
Tom Ridge, former Homeland Secretary (from ’03-’05), this week said that “al-Qaida did experiments on anthrax in animals” — did AQ use the “Ames strain” like Dr. Garvey reports the CIA detected at the Afghan lab?
Posted by Lew Weinstein on November 15, 2015
DXer said
DXer said
Former lead Amerithrax investigator Richard Lambert has a book in draft that will have to undergo FBI prepublication review. (Richard Lambert interview, published March 2017, 59.11)
DXer said
Senator Patrick Leahy has never accepted the FBI’s decision to close the case in the series of anthrax-laced letters mailed to public officials in fall 2001.”I still wonder who sent it and why they sent it.”
In a brief interview Tuesday, he said he has “extreme doubts” about the case. “I’ve expressed those concerns to the FBI ,and this report (the NAS report) adds to those concerns,” Leahy said.
Unlike Mr. Baruth, author of the new Leahy biography, Senator Leahy knows all about the “Leahy Law.”
And I seriously doubt, Senator Leahy, an experienced federal prosecutor, places the weight Mr. Baruth does about Dr. Ivins’ short, cute poem about a tea pot.
Anthrax, Al Qaeda and Ayman Zawahiri: The Infiltration of US Biodefense
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
DXer said
Philip Baruth, in his biography of Senator Leahy, at page 215 writes:
“Even as the Amerithrax task force laid its thick dossier of evidence before the public, even as a skeptical Tom Daschle came to accept the bureau’s conclusion as solid, Leahy remain convinced — and very publicly so — that the FBI had failed to ferret out the entire network behind the attacks. That alone was an explosive thought, and an even more explosive statement to enter into the public record.
But after having been briefed in Vermont by FBI director Mueller on August 7, 2008, Leahy chose a packed Judiciary Committee oversight hearing nine days later to amplify the allegations he had first laid out for me the previous September.
Voice low but steady, and pausing throughout for emphasis, Leahy alleged the existence of a full-blown criminal conspiracy, in language borrowed very deliberately from his days as a courtroom prosecutor. He had always had the instructs of a performer; he had spent long years honing his capacity for the sound bite. But behind this particular bite lay long years of resentment and anger and fear for his family. All of which gave five of Leahy’s sentences in particular a palpable force:
“If [Ivins] is the one who sent the letter, I do not believe in way way, shape or manner that he is the only person involved in this attack on Congress and the American people. I do not believe that at all. I believe there are others involved either as accessories before or accessories after the fact. I believe there are others out there. I believe there are others who can be charged with murder.”
Comment: Although Senator Leahy is the former prosecutor, not me, I don’t believe there is a statute of limitations for murder. A murder charge can be filed even decades after the alleged murder was committed. So it seems that Senator Leahy may be correct when he said that the case is not closed.
DXer said
Senator Leahy (and I am a big fan) would like to see Amerithrax persuasively solved:
“If [Ivins] is the one who sent the letter, I do not believe in way way, shape or manner that he is the only person involved in this attack on Congress and the American people. I do not believe that at all. I believe there are others involved either as accessories before or accessories after the fact. I believe there are others out there. I believe there are others who can be charged with murder.”
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
Steve Kurkjian (and I am a big fan) wants to see the Isabella Gardner paintings returned: “We have got to generate public interest,” he said. “Not only in the mystery but in what was lost.”.
Author wants to see Gardner heist solved
By Bera Dunau The Foxboro Reporter
Apr 6, 2017
I just want to help you find Dutch Schultz’s missing millions in the hopes you’ll share the story and take me out to a nice dinner.
The Ongoing Search For Dutch Schultz’s Missing Millions
by Ross E. Getman
“Blam!” “Blam!” “Blam!” When police arrived and asked Dutch Schultz who shot him, he replied, “I don’t know, but they were pretty good shots.”
This is a true story of a treasure worth an estimated $50 million dollars hidden by Dutch Schultz before being gunned down. The iron chest containing the loot was hidden by Dutch Schultz and his bodyguard Lulu Rosenkrantz. It very likely was hidden in either Upstate New York or Fairfield County, Connecticut.
In 1935, fresh from the successful conviction of Al Capone on tax evasion charges, federal authorities targeted Dutch for failing to report any of the millions he made on his bootlegging enterprise and numbers racket. While Dutch was awaiting his Syracuse trial on the tax charges, the United States Attorney allowed him to stay in Connecticut. The press soon caught up with him in early April, when he was discovered at a hideout in Norwalk. The home was nice — near the water on a peninsula. There was a tall fence in the backyard.
Several years ago, my daughter and I learned that he and his bodyguard, Lulu Rosenkrantz had buried his chest in the backyard, in the garden — but then moved it.
In addition to Liberty Bonds, Dutch put diamonds from the heist of a jewelry store in the chest. One of his lieutenants testified that he never put in a bill that was less than $1,000. Sometimes it was so full he would have to sit on it to close it. The FBI claimed that Schultz did six million dollars in business a year, and collected $825,000 in just the six weeks before he was murdered in October 1935. J.Edgar Hoover said: “That means one million every two months was being paid to just one racketeer.”
Schultz had several options to take the chest after the press flushed him out.
Tuckahoe
First, he could take it to his secret residence in Tuckahoe, NY — en route to the trial in Syracuse. The big old Victorian house is at the corner of White Plains Road and Winterhill Road in Tuckahoe. The home has been converted into a dormitory, Koepchen Hall, by neighboring Concordia College. As an official of Eastchester Historical Society once commented to the press: “That’s where Dutch Schultz lived.” “We know it’s a fact.” “One of our members went to high school with his daughter.” The house was convenient to a brewery Dutch owned in Yonkers, NY through a proxy. There was a secret tunnel leading across the street to a historic tavern. Later it came to be known as the Stephen Ward House, which now also provides housing for college students. The tunnel between the two was filled in. At the Yonkers brewery, Dutch ran hoses under ground and delivered his beer to the taverns directly from the secret bootlegging operation at the Chicken Island brewery.
Newburgh
Second, another possibility was to take it to a house in Newburgh, NY, that a minion had fortified in 1932 (according to online real estate records). A local resident confides to me that there was a secret hiding place behind a book shelf that opened big enough for a chest. The house was not far from a tavern connected by a tunnel. Dutch and Lulu had been seen riding horses in the area in Fall 1934 when Dutch was still on the lam. The FBI dispatched agents to investigate. When Dutch turned himself in, a newspaper reported: “Ten days ago, the Commissioner added, he had information that Schultz was hunting ‘on his own private estate outside of Newburgh, N.Y.’ ” There was a tunnel from the house to the nearby speakeasy. At last report, the house has been put up for sale. The speakeasy is now the site of North Plank Road Tavern. The owner has described to me how, upon renovation, a secret trap door was discovered that concealed guns and booze under the kitchen.
Lake George, NY
Third, maybe he took the chest to Lake George. When spotted in Newburgh, a tip phoned in to New York City indicated that he first went to a “row of cottages” in Lake George. He spent 10 days there before turning himself in at Albany. He was worried about being shot by the federal men and State Troopers who were increasingly determined to get him. Rather than in Newburgh, about 110 miles from Saratoga, he now was reported “safe in a mountain hideaway not twenty-five miles from Saratoga Springs.” “[H]is hideaway, according to Saratoga report, defies discovery by anyone not familiar with the mountains.”
The August 1935 issue of “Fortune”, in an article titled “Saratoga,” similarly reported that Dutch Schultz had been there that summer and that his hideout could be seen from the “highest point in Saratoga.” “The New York Sun,” November 26, 1934 announced “Dutch Schultz reported near Saratoga now: Federal Agents Gathering There for Search of Mountains.” When a 25-mile radius is drawn around Saratoga Springs, the area within the blue line of the Adirondacks includes both Lake George, NY in the north— and Northville, NY in the northwest.
Dixie Davis, while he later was in the midst of disbarment proceedings and faced the risk of prosecution by Thomas Dewey, hunkered down with his girlfriend Hope Dare at a Lake George cottage. “We took a cottage at Lake George, in the Adirondacks, to wait and see what would happen.” Dixie knew a lot about Dutch’s whereabouts and travels, and so perhaps he and Hope Dare went to Lake George in search of the stash. Did they find it? Dixie later died of a heart attack upon a home invasion.
In 1935, Davis was upset that Dutch had murdered a mob associate Jules Martin right in front of him at the Cohoes Harmony Hotel. It was unlikely that Dutch shared information about where he kept the chest with Dixie.
Troy, NY
Fourth, he and Lulu may have taken the chest to a hideout in Troy.
After he pressed by police to leave the Hendrick Hudson hotel, and spending some time again in Lake George, Dutch turned to several Troy-area hideouts. Dutch and his attorney Dixie Davis sometimes walked through the city and once were at the old Drake’s drugstore about a block up from his residence at 4th & Congress St. He later moved to an apartment on the East Side that he rented under an assumed name. During this early 1935 period, he was also in Lansingburgh, a village in northern Troy. His wife Frances stayed with him for some of the time in Troy in February.
Saratoga Springs, NY
Fifth, another possibility was in Saratoga Springs itself. The Gideon Putnam hotel opened on July 27, 1935 amidst great fanfare. It is located in Saratoga Spa State Park. Gideon Putnam was the nephew of Revolutionary War hero Israel Putnam, who famously waved back his sword at pursuing British solders and yelled “talk to the sword!” Dutch Schultz used the “talk to the sword!” phrase in his morphine-addled last words — quickly followed by “Shut up!, you got a big mouth!”
Fairfield, Connecticut
Or maybe he stashed the chest closer to where he hoped to settle. Once the scheduled April 1935 tax evasion trial in Syracuse was done, Dutch hoped to settle in Fairfield County in Connecticut. “I like it here,” Dutch said. “And if I win [the tax evasion trial] I will make this my permanent home.” He had some friends who were influential fraudsters living there in Fairfield under false identities. They had all the right connections — including connections in DC that Dutch hoped would avoid or quash the federal tax problems. His friend Phil Coster (Musica) lived on Mill Plain Road. Dutch and Lulu would ride the trail from the Dudley Brothwell’s nearby Brookside Stables. Dutch and Lulu would leave their entourage behind. Stable logs show in the summer of 1935 he rode his horse, Sun Tan, almost daily in August. “I like riding. It’s the only exercise I get.” He would have passed a lot on Campbell Road in Fairfield that was being built that summer (according to real estate records found at the local historical society). In the late 1930s, after Coster (Musica) wrote in his suicide note that there was no buried treasure, one local policeman was found digging under the dog house of Coster’s St. Bernard.
Analysis
While he was awaiting the Syracuse trial, Dutch spent the first ten days in April 1935 with Frances, who was five months pregnant, at the house in Norwalk, CT. Dutch had entered a two-month lease. He leased the home under his real name, Arthur Flegenheimer. He abruptly had to leave after 10 days because of the press attention. Headlines around the country reported that day that “Dutch Schultz Flees Curiosity Seekers.” His neighbors did not know that the quiet man who would nod at them when they passed was the notorious Dutch Schultz.
Dutch turned in his keys to Mrs. Lyman Bracken, the woman who had rented it to him, on April 11, 1935. When my daughter and I visited the Norwalk residence some years ago, I asked “Did you know that Dutch Schultz, the famous gangster, lived here for 10 days in 1935?” Vivian, the gracious owner, described that she and her husband had heard the history. Whenever they renovated the house, they would look into every nook and cranny. Then, a couple years before our visit, upon digging in the garden they found a metal sheet that had covered a rectangular hole. She offered my young daughter ice cream as an added treat. The entire experience was wonderful Connecticut Yankee hospitality offered to New York neighbors.
The key question that needs answering is: “Where did Dutch Schultz and Lulu Rosenkrantz sleep on the nights of April 11, 12 and 13, 1935?”
On April 15, 1935, the Syracuse Post-Standard reported that “Flegenheimer arrived at Hotel Syracuse [on the 14th] shortly before 5midnight after a nine-hour drive from Connecticut.” Where did he leave the chest off? Did he really come directly from Connecticut? That more likely is the reporter’s assumption.
Dutch gave interviews during the course of the trial. Schultz says he liked reading. His favorite book was by Stefan Zweigh — it was about Joseph Fouche, Napoleon’s head of intelligence. He said the characters reminded him of people he knew. He acknowledged that he was married. But when asked if he had children, he said “We’ll skip that. Just forget it.” He was furious when he learned that directly behind him, someone had written on a blackboard, in big letters, “ ‘X’ Marks The Spot.”
Only he and Lulu knew where he took the chest. He didn’t tell his young wife Frances. His wife was left destitute after Dutch and Lulu were gunned down in October 1935, when they returned to New York City after Dutch was acquitted for tax evasion. There had been a hung jury in Syracuse. Then there was an outright acquittal upon a retrial in Malone, NY. Dutch had always been confident that he would be able to win the hearts and minds of the farmers and townspeople in Syracuse and Malone. After all, he was big spender and a man of good will. Back in New York, Dutch suggested to the “Commission” that prosecutor Tom Dewey needed to be killed — whether the Commission agreed or not. Dutch didn’t count on his business associates taking such a harsh view of his independent streak. He and Lulu were gunned down by Murder, Inc. killers at the Palace Chophouse in Newark, New Jersey in late October 1935. For the genealogy experts out there, his daughter Ann born 1934 and son John born in 1935, are nowhere to be found.
The treasury bills reportedly have never been redeemed. Thomas Dewey, the famous prosecutor, Governor of New York and Presidential candidate, generated headlines like “Dewey Hunting Schultz Cache in Hines Case” as he prosecuted the corrupt Tammany Hall politicians.
After he was acquitted in Malone, NY, Dutch returned to Syracuse to thank some “friends.” An August 5 newspaper quoted him saying from Malone: “I don’t know exactly what my plans are. I hope to get to New York by the end of the week. I’ll probably stop in Albany first. [Albany is where his attorney Noonan had an office]. Right now I’m interested in seeing my friends in Syracuse — friends I’ll never forget.” But soon after he arrived to the top floor of the Hotel Syracuse, there was a knock on the door. John Ross, a process server, had travelled from Albany by train to serve Dutch with notice that he was to be deposed in three days in Albany. He would have to testify under oath about the location of his assets or face contempt charges.
Dutch’s entourage promptly made multiple diversionary reservations — on plane and train. A news report indicates that he stayed up late the morning of August 6th, Tuesday. One report at the time noted that he was planning a circuitous route on back roads. Was the report just to avoid being bumped off by rivals? Or was he planning a route that would take him and Lulu back to the chest. His friends in Syracuse likely included Charles Garzone, who had owned a stables and tavern on South Ave here in Syracuse. The place was known for gambling. Garzone’s grandson, a documentary filmmaker, says he uncovered evidence his grandfather was a mob associate, who may have reported to the Lucky Luciano-led Commission, which included Dutch.
The chauffeur, “Mike”, made a conspicuous departure the next morning. But Dutch and Lulu snuck out the back way, using the Hotel Syracuse service elevator. The Syracuse Journal headline on August 6, 1935 blazed: “SCHULTZ FLEES FROM SYRACUSE.” They arrived at the Hotel Bridgeport, on August 7. But where had they spent the night of August 6? His lawyers caught up with them to plan how they would respond to this newest threat to his freedom. Dutch and Lulu snuck out the back of Hotel Bridgeport late August 7 just before midnight, returning at 5 a.m. The next day, speaking to a reporter at the hotel restaurant, Dutch suggested that he had been out with the boys playing poker.
Phoenicia
As for the widespread suggestion that the chest was hidden in the Catskills, that theory, in my long-considered opinion, was balderdash. It appears to have originated from a treasure writer in 1968 who first inserted a sentence in Dutch’s morphine-addled delirium at the hospital after he was shot. The sentence added was something like: “Hey, Lulu, let’s go up to Phoenicia and dig up the loot.” F.J. Lang was the court stenographer at Schultz’s bedside after he was shot in October. Lang’s transcript was published in the New York Times at the time. The sentence that has fueled documentaries and spawned an “Unsolved Mystery” episode does not appear in the transcript. Nor does it appear in the excellent book KILL THE DUTCHMAN, written by the late Paul Sann, Executive Director of the Daily News. Schultz and his colleagues were in Phoenicia a couple years earlier — in 1933. In particular, the treasure writer, Schurmacher, mistakenly described a scene from the Hotel Stratfield in Bridgeport, where Dutch reportedly loaded the chest in front of seven witnesses, as occurring in 1933 rather than 1935. If you come across a treasure theory that includes someone’s claimed psychic vision after seeing an episode of “Unsolved Mysteries” — rather than corroborated historical evidence — you can safely leave your shovel at home.
On the other hand, Phoenicia is between Syracuse and Bridgeport too — just like Yonkers, Newburgh, Troy, Saratoga and Lake George. Until the chest is found, we won’t know where it was hidden.
Last Words
Dutch’s last words are fascinating. His drug-addled narrative contains many possible clues and is provably rooted in the people and facts of his life. “French Canadian bean soup” and “Talk to the Sword!” are just two of the many curious phrases that await consideration of an arm-chair detective. It may have been “Oh, oh; dog biscuit, and when he is happy he doesn’t get snappy” that led the policeman to dig under the doghouse of a Schultz associate, Costa, in Fairfield. Then there are these words to live by: “Mother is the best bet and don’t let Satan draw you too fast.”
We should crowd-source the solution of Dutch Schultz’s missing millions. You can keep the millions — or as Dutch said in his delirium, “open the soap duckets” — so long as I have a story to tell.
DXer said
I have been traveling back and forth to Saratoga on recent weekends and finally turned up what I think is Dutch Schultz’s mountain hideout — 3-4 miles from Corinth, NY.
I am going to be bummed if North Korea launches before I can turn in the information relating to the $50 million+ cache into the FBI and IRS for my finder’s fee. So, FBI Director Comey, consider this the formal stake to my claim.
Director Hoover, like Thomas Dewey, had been looking for the cache.
Add this towards the end of the analysis above, immediately after “Saratoga”:
Corinth.
Corinth is a small community in Saratoga County about 14 miles by car north of Saratoga. Dutch turned himself immediately after Baby Face Nelson, was shot to death by federal men in Chicago. A “shoot to kill” order had been issued.
Some G-men were killed in Chicago. Dutch reasonably feared that the dragnet was tightening and he would not survive a gun battle with the federal men and State Troopers.
Suddenly, he turned himself in at Albany — with no explanation given as to where he had been. He first introduced himself to tax attorney James Noonan, Noonan claimed, that day, and Noonan reports that he had not told him where he had been staying.
The New York Sun observed at the time:
“The place from which Schultz presumably came to Albany is a hunting lodge three or four miles northwest of Corinth, which is a little settlement near Saratoga Springs. It is used frequently by members of the local Saratoga gang, which is a branch of an Albany gang, the latter an affiliate if not a subsidiary, of the Schultz gang. It was natural, therefore, that when Dutch wanted some solitude, at least so far as Federal agents were concerned, he should go there.
The cottage, with big fireplace and thick walls, is where most of the Saratoga group go when peace officers begin to annoy them. This is not, incidentally, too frequent, as the gangsters were able to go through the streets of the Spa last New Year’s Eve shooting out street lights with machine guns. and suffering no penalty for it. This was fun. Their business, however, is mostly transporting liquor and narcotics from Canada by airplane.
Further confirmation of the accuracy of The Sun’s information came today from Police Commissioner Valentine, who said that ten days ago the police had investigated a rumor that Schultz was gunning on his “private estate” back of Newburgh, but had found him gone. Then, said the Commissioner, later information came that he was hiding near Saratoga, and they and Federal men were hot after this tip when Schultz’s surrender made further pursuit unnecessary.”
DXer said
The Travel Channel doesn’t understand why I backed out of filming this weekend in Saratoga.
DXer said
How a preemptive strike on North Korea could end up killing millions
http://theweek.com/articles/692872/how-preemptive-strike-north-korea-could-end-killing-millions
Harry J. Kazianis
From here, things get even worse. Kim launches dozens of chemical and biological weapons at South Korea and Japan. Sarin, VX ,and other toxins are lobbed at Tokyo, Pusan, and other large cities. Millions of people try to flee the impacted areas just as in Seoul — creating a panic not seen since World War II.
***
In just a few hours, hell is unleashed on the Korean peninsula. And while the United States and its allies would eventually win any war against North Korea, it is clear from the above — far from what could be the most extreme of examples of a Second Korean War — what damage the Kim regime could do in a military confrontation. Indeed, the price of such a victory could be millions of people dead and large sections of Korea rendered uninhabitable for decades, if not longer.
DXer said
How To Survive A Nuclear Attack
http://www.wikihow.com/Survive-a-Nuclear-Attack
DXer said
Commentary: The next super weapon could be biological
Reuters-Apr 19, 2017
Last month Senator Joseph Lieberman – who has been warning of biological attack since before 9/11 and has said the United States has been …
By Peter Apps
With the threat of chemical weapons in Syria and nuclear arms in North Korea, the risk of biological weapons has largely dropped off the international agenda. But evolving technologies and genetic engineering may open the door to new dangers.
Other than the “anthrax in the mail” attacks that followed 9/11, killing five people, there have been few serious attempts at biological attacks in recent years. Most global powers scaled back their biological weapons research in the 1970s, partly because of the difficulties of getting fragile bacteria and viruses to survive being dropped in bombs or missiles, or even sprayed.
Militant groups like al Qaeda and Islamic State have largely embraced the other end of the technological spectrum, turning to basic but brutal tactics such as using a car or truck to attack pedestrians in Nice, Berlin and elsewhere.
***
Last month Senator Joseph Lieberman – who has been warning of biological attack since before 9/11 and has said the United States has been “damn lucky” to avoid it – called on President Donald Trump and Congress to make biodefense a national priority.
***
The greatest danger may come if any of the handful of people who have relevant expertise decide to mount solo attacks. After anthrax-filled envelopes began to appear in government and other offices in late 2001, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents concluded that a microbiologist and U.S. Army researcher, Bruce Ivins, was likely responsible and was believed to have acted alone. Ivins committed suicide in 2007, shortly before his planned arrest; a panel of scientists later cast doubt on the FBI’s evidence against him.
DXer said
Bill Gates: Terrorists could wipe out 30 million people by weaponising a disease like smallpox
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2017/04/19/bill-gates-terrorists-could-wipe-30-million-people-weaponising/
“Bioterrorism is a much larger risk than a pandemic,” he said.
***
“Whether the next epidemic is unleashed by a quirk of nature or the hand of terrorist, scientists say a fast-moving airborne pathogen could kill more than 30 million people in less than a year. So the world does need to think about this.”
Last year the Nuffield Council of Bioethics warned that ‘garage scientists’ could unleash dangerous genetically modified organisms into the environment using unregulated technology which is already available online.
Chemistry kits which allow genetic editing can already be bought online for under £100.
Scientists are concerned that a new technique, called Crispr, is now so cheap and widely available that amateurs will start experimenting at home, or in school labs.
***
So the scariest thing is something like the 1919 flu which really spreads everywhere and because people are moving around more it’s easier for it to spread than back in 1919. If 1919 came back we have no immunity to that strain.”
Mr Gates urged Theresa May to maintain the 0.7 per cent GDP foreign aid pledge.
“The UK’s foreign aid investments are, in fact, long term investments in the health and security of British citizens here at home,” he added.
“A disease is more likely to become an epidemic when countries are unstable and have no functioning health system. We can’t build a wall to hold back the next global epidemic.”
DXer said
Harvard study reveals how anthrax spores trigger harmful immune …
Homeland Preparedness News-Apr 18, 2017
Anthrax bacterium, called Bacillus anthracis, was used as a weaponized chemical agent in 2001, when a series of letters coated in the …
Anthrax bacterium, called Bacillus anthracis, was used as a weaponized chemical agent in 2001, when a series of letters coated in the chemical agent were sent to two Democratic senators and various national news media offices. The attack resulted in the deaths of five people while injuring 17 others. In response to the event, a number of anthrax vaccine dosages are stored in the U.S. Strategic National Stockpile in the event of another bioterrorism incident.
DXer said
Sessions’ Justice Dep’t Will End Forensic Science Commission
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESSAPRIL 10, 2017, 1:54 P.M. E.D.T.
WASHINGTON — Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Monday he is ending an Obama-era partnership with independent scientists that aimed to improve the reliability of forensic science, as longstanding concerns remain about the quality of such evidence in court cases.
https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2017/04/10/us/politics/ap-us-justice-department-forensics-review.html
DXer said
In 1996, Dr. Randall Murch created the FBI’s Hazardous Materials Response Unit. Dr. John Ezzell was its anthrax expert and made a dried powder using Ames from Dr. Ivins’ Flask 1029. Dr. Murch, who played the key role in the investigation in its early years, has a new article on an effective microbial forensics program for law enforcement and national security purposes. He would be highly informed on any consideration of avoiding any conflict of interest of having Dr. Ezzell collect the samples of virulent Ames beginning in late 2001 and continuing in the spring of 2002. He could also describe the process by which the FBI sought to ensure that it collected all relevant samples under its method of having the scientists themselves submit samples. (JE’s lab did not submit a sample, for example, and so the methodology seems to have been flawed.)
It is ironic that it was the FBI’s FHMRU scientist who made a dried powder out of the Ames from Flask 1029 — not Ivins — and yet the FBI scientists never submitted a sample from their own stock.
Indeed, then the FHMRU scientist threw out the sample submitted by Ivins.
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00005-014-0289-7
June 2014, Volume 62, Issue 3, pp 179-185
Designing an Effective Microbial Forensics Program for Law Enforcement and National Security Purposes
• Randall S. Murch
Abstract
Forensic capabilities that provide lead information, and investigative, intelligence, prosecution and policy decision support can be invaluable for responding to and resolving bioterrorism events. Attributing biological attacks through scientific and other resources and processes is an important goal, for which science can be instrumental. Some even believe that having effective microbial forensics capabilities along with others can even deter adversaries from using biological weapons. For those nations that do not have such or wish to integrate or upgrade capabilities, thoughtful analysis and consideration of certain design principles will increase the likelihood that success will be attained.
IAP Scientific Seminar “Natural or Deliberate Outbreak—How to Prevent or Detect and Trace its Origin: Biosecurity, Surveillance, Forensics” co-organized by the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Military Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology on 6 December 2013 in Warsaw.
Dr. Murch defines attribution:
Scientific Attribution: Assignment of a sample of
questioned origin to a source of known origin to the
highest degree of scientific certainty possible, at the
same time excluding origination from other sources.
Attribution requires the comparison of samples
from one or more questioned sources (‘‘Q’’) with
samples from one or more known sources (‘‘K’’),
using samples that can be analyzed with highly
discriminating methods. Attribution can be quantitatively
and qualitatively expressed. Increasingly
and more intensely, the science underlying ‘‘attribution’’
is being scrutinized and expectations are
increasing for accuracy, reliability, validity because
of the importance and impact of legal decisions
made that forensic science can contribute to.
– Legal (or Policy) Attribution: A determination with
respect to who committed acts of interest or who is
otherwise involved, according to criteria accepted
and applied within a legal system, e.g., ‘‘beyond a
reasonable doubt’’ (the legal standard for conviction
of a crime in legal systems such as in the U.S.).
While science can inform an attribution decisions,
they are rarely made based upon science alone.
Comment:
In Amerithrax, we now know that Dr. Ivins had the experiment with the 52 rabbits in the first week of October 2001 — and thus US Attorney Taylor was mistaken in claiming Dr. Ivins had no reason to be in the lab. Similarly, we now know that the lyophilizer was not available to Dr. Ivins in the B3 as the US Attorney had indicated. It was the duty of the haz mat people to read Dr. Ivins’ email (according to Scott Decker) and so it was that squad that seems to have not merely dropped the ball, but encouraged the quarterback to throw it down in a Victory bounce before crossing the finish line.
Amerithrax ranks as one of the greatest failures in intelligence analysis in the history of US — beginning with the profilers relied upon in October 2001 to develop a profile (rather than resorting to the available classified intelligence analysis) and ending with a false gloss of certainty encouraged by the scientific people… who, by the way, appear to have had a massive conflict of interest.
Anthrax, Al Qaeda and Ayman Zawahiri: The Infiltration of US Biodefense
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
DXer said
In 2000, the year before the anthrax mailings, Randall Murch, the fellow who headed the Amerithrax investigation (the polygraphs, the anthrax smelling bloodhounds) etc. worked for the Defense Threat Reduction Agency as head of the Advanced Systems and Concepts Office.
(He worked for DTRA between two stints at the FBI’s Laboratory.
stupid question: Did John Ezzell make the dried powder out of Ivins’ genetically matching Ames strain for the fellow who headed the science investigation for Amerithrax for the first several years?
Dartmouth Institute hosts public discussion on threat of bioterrorism July 7
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~news/releases/2000/june00/bio.html
Posted 06/30/00
Ken Alibek, Chief Scientist at Hadron Inc. and President of its Advanced Biosystems Inc. subsidiary, will head a panel of visiting experts at Dartmouth College examining the threat of biological terrorism in the United States on Friday July 7. The discussion is free and open to the public and begins at 7:30 p.m. in Room 100 of the Thayer School of Engineering.
Alibek, author of the new book Biohazard and former Deputy Director of the Soviet Union’s biological warfare program, will open the discussion with an overview titled “Is the American Public Safe From Bio-Terrorism?” His talk will be followed by a discussion with a panel of experts including George Baer, Chairman of Strategy and Planning at the U.S. Naval War College; David Franz, Vice President of the Chemical and Biological Defense Division of the Southern Research Institute; Milton Leitenberg, Senior Fellow, Center for International and Security Studies in the School of Public Affairs, University of Maryland; Randall Murch, Director of the Advanced Systems and Concepts Office, Defense Threat Reduction Agency, Department of Defense; and Raymond Zilinskas, Senior Scientist at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Monterey Institute of International Studies.
The public session is part of a three-day conference and workshop sponsored by Dartmouth’s Institute for Security Technology Studies (ISTS) where experts from around the country will assess the threat posed by bioterrorism. Attendance at the rest of the workshop is by invitation only.
DXer said
One of those robots taking over the world — and sending spam — mistakenly asked me to join Dr. Murch on his Linked-In Network yesterday.
What does David Franz, who headed Southern Research Institute at Southern Research Institute, the contractor for Hadron who did the B3 work with the Ames strain, say about his and Alibek’s association with Randy Murch, the fellow who came to head the FBI’s science investigation?
What does Ken Alibek and Charles Bailey (top DTRA biothreat assessment person) — the pair that shared a suite with convicted seditionist, Ali Al-Timimi — say?
Gotta love those robots.
I recall Charles Bailey in 2001 saying that he wasn’t going to talk about the detection of silica because he didn’t want to give terrorists any ideas.
Oops. Too late.
I may be annoyed at Dartmouth for not giving credit for AP courses anymore, but you gotta thank modern recording technology.
Anthrax, Al Qaeda and Ayman Zawahiri: The Infiltration of US Biodefense
http://www.amerithraxwordpress.com
DXer said
As Richard Preston, in Demons in the Freezer once explained,
“”One evening, I drank beers with some FBI scientists at the Quantico Boardroom, a bare-bones cafeteria and pub, and they started tossing out all sorts of ideas about how you would actually solve a bioterrorist crime. Most of them were high-tech solutions, involving sensor machines and exotic lab techniques, but a section chief named Randall Murch, who had created the Hazardous Materials Response Unit, told the group that he thought that, in the end, traditional detective work would solve a biological crime. Ultimately, humans make mistake,” Murch said.”
The fellow who came into my life and did my graphics for years once told me that after Ivins’ suicide, the focus turned to understanding who screwed the pooch in Amerithrax and why.
What did he mean?
What does Senator Leahy mean when he dramatically and publicly said that the case, in fact, is not closed?
Anthrax, Al Qaeda and Ayman Zawahiri: The Infiltration of US Biodefense
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
DXer said
Richard Preston – The Demon In The Freezer 2 – Project Avalon
projectavalon.net/THE_DEMON_IN_THE_FREEZER_Richard_Preston.pdf
by R Preston – 2001 – Cited by 3 – Related articles
John Ezzell has been the anthrax specialist for the FBI’s Hazardous Materials …… Randall Murch, who had created the Hazardous Materials Response Unit, told …
DXer said
Dr. Murch was right, wasn’t he? The science in the end did not come close to pinpointing a perp. The genetics limited things to up to 377 at USAMRIID alone. That hardly narrowed things to Dr. Ivins.
And the stamp defects limited things to the States of Maryland and Virginia — if the FBI’s evidence is tested and credited. That hardly narrowed things to Dr. Ivins.
There was no science that narrowed things to Dr. Ivins. In fact, Dr. Bartick’s photocopy examination expert report excludes the USAMRIID’s phtoocopiers, doesn’t it?
In fact, as to how Dr. Ivins spent his time, the FBI is willfully withholding his contemporaneous notes.
It was the FBI’s scientist who made a dried powder out of Flask 1029 — even though Dr. Murch and Agent Wilson never told us that.
It was the FBI’s expert who made a dried powdered Ames that then was going to be subjected to a corona plasma discharge — — even though Dr. Murch and Agent Wilson never told us that..
It was the FBI’s anthrax expert who made a dried powdered aerosol out of the “murder weapon” — and the FBI did all that it could to keep the fact a secret. So don’t add insult to injury, Randall, by disparaging taxpayers for being a suspicous lot.
Outside observers don’t have to have an agenda to point to the FBI scientists and contractors who had (and have) a conflict of interest. Outside observers such as attorneys and the GAO trained in perceiving conflicts of interest may just sense that the FBI scientists didn’t want us to know because they thought they might get in trouble for the total lack of biosecurity that characterized government biodefense work under their watch.
Dr. Murch was scheduled to speak at the conference that Ken Dillon organized and Lew moderated — but then Randy pulled out and instead John Ezzell appeared.
I would have liked to hear Dr. Murch explain why it took Dr. Ezzell to first share such central and material facts relating to creating a dried aerosol at USAMRIID out of Ames supplied from Flask 1029.
All of the FBI’s evidence against Dr. Ivins is tainted.
When DC and NYC is attacked with anthrax by Ayman Zawahiri and Anwar Awlaki, all the FBI scientists will have wanted to overcome all past withholding of documents.
The FBI profiler Candice may have thought Leahy is obscure. And she may not have known about Ayman Zawahiri’s plan to use anthrax against US targets using the cover of universities and charities even though it was known by the DIA from documentary evidence dating to 1998.
But the FBI and CIA now has had 10 years to come to understand that Ayman Zawahiri does not make a threat he does not intend to try to keep.
And he has threatened to destroy the District of Columbia and New York City.
Is this really a time to overlook the uncertainties and tainted evidence that characterizes Amerithrax?
Or is it time to do the John Ezzell/ Gary Cooper manly think to do and to own up to the facts so the bad guys can be brought to justice and the country kept safe.
It is time for Vice President Pence to take the reins of biodefense — or at least prod the FBI into producing the contemporaneous notebooks that the FBI is outrageously refusing to produce.
Anthrax, Al Qaeda and Ayman Zawahiri: The Infiltration of US Biodefense
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
DXer said
Be Prepared for an Emergency. Be Red Cross Ready!
http://www.redcross.org/get-help/prepare-for-emergencies/be-red-cross-ready/get-a-kit
DXer said
Harvard is having a contest to come up with a new line for the last sentence of their alma mater.
The line about Puritans concludes a sentence that is “an exhortation to pursue the truth until a certain endpoint,” said Danielle S. Allen, a professor and political philosopher on the Presidential Task Force on Inclusion and Belonging, which launched the competition.
Harvard’s motto is “Veritas,” Latin for “truth,” she noted, adding, “there shouldn’t be any endpoint to the pursuit of truth, nor should we imply that the pursuit of truth is for any particular ethnic group.”
I’ve submitted:
’Til the dawn of true justice draws nigh.
DXer said
Back the late 1990s, the FBI was faced with the Congressional charge that there was a “cultural disease” within the FBI lab. The FBI had taken the position that there was no instance where the FBI Laboratory had withheld exculpatory evidence.
FBI Crime Lab Subcommittee members heard testimony from current and former FBI officials on operations of the FBI Crime Lab since an April report…
https://www.c-span.org/video/?92251-1/fbi-crime-lab
Fast forward twenty years to 2017, we find that the former lead Amerithrax investigator says that the FBI is withholding a staggering amount of information exculpatory of Bruce Ivins.
If we don’t learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it.
NYT interview of former lead Amerithrax investigator Richard Lambert: “a staggering amount of exculpatory evidence” regarding Dr. Ivins remains secret
Posted on July 16, 2016
I have long pointed to one such item being withheld as Ivins Notebook 4282. That notebook is not subject to any exemption beyond redaction of Patricia Fellow’s name in a few instances under (b)(6).
The staff of the White House Principals Committee, which has oversight of matters of WMD-attribution, should ask that the FBI produce the document under FOIA — allowing for any redactions contemplated by the FOIPA statute.
When the Notebook and other exculpatory evidence is produced, we will be able to better assess the FBI’s cotton-candy “Ivins Theory” of the case.
The CIA’s detection of the Ames strain of b. anthracis in Afghanistan was discarded by the FBI due to different testing results, sampling procedures, and methodology used by the FBI and IC (“Intelligence Community”)
Posted on April 30, 2015
DXer said
Jeff Sessions in the hearing (at 6:21:00) says that the FBI had a culture of not wanting bad things to come out about it.
Then-Senator (now Attorney General) Sessions explained that it was a fundamental principle that any time there is reason to think an innocent person was convicted (such as when exculpatory evidence is being withheld), immediate steps should be taken.
“We all make mistakes,” he noted.
The difference lies in whether we are willing to correct them (or at least disclose the exculpatory evidence so that its materiality can be judged).
DXer said
The FBI’s Hazardous Materials Research Unit was co-founded by Dr. Randall Murch, chief of the Scientific Analysis Division of the FBI’s Laboratory Division (who later oversaw Amerithrax), and Dr. Drew Richardson, the HMRU director.
It is unclear why Randall Murch had Dr. John Ezzell put in charge of collecting samples given that it was known that he had made a dried powder out of Ames anthrax.
Did USAMRIID’s John Ezzell and Terry Abshire, through no fault of their own, turn out to have a massive conflict of interest?
Posted by Lew Weinstein on November 14, 2015
why did the FBI keep evidence of John Ezzell’s dried powder from the NAS?
Posted by Lew Weinstein on March 21, 2011
FBI scientist John Ezzell has explained that dried Ames and Sterne spores went to studies for DARPA at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Labs in Columbia, MD
Posted on October 28, 2015
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 on April 12, 2011
DXer said
Unlike the forthcoming and stalwart John Ezzell, Randall Murch, formerly of DTRA and the FBI, and now an adjunct professor at Virginia Tech in plant pathology — today as in the past — refuses to answer any questions. He refuses to address the issue of this massive conflict of interest and irregularities in evidence-handling (to including evidence, such as Ivins’ submitted sample, being thrown out).
It was Murch’s FHMRU that made a dried powder of Ivins’ genetically matching Ames strain, not Bruce Ivins.
Then it was the scientific undertaking that he oversaw that led to the CIA’s detection of Ames anthrax in Afghanistan to be rejected.
DXer said
US launches cruise missiles against Syria
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-launches-missiles-against-syria-report-2017-04-06
Justice League Official Trailer 1
DXer said
US fires missiles into Syria in response to chemical weapons attack
Updated on April 6, 2017 at 10:13 PM Posted on April 6, 2017
http://www.syracuse.com/us-news/index.ssf/2017/04/breaking_us_launches_air_strikes_against_syria_base.html#incart_m-rpt-1
DXer said
Syrian army says U.S.-led air strike on Wednesday hit IS poison gas depot, killing hundreds
The Syrian army said that an air strike late on Wednesday by the U.S.-led coalition hit poison gas supplies belonging to Islamic State, releasing a toxic substance that killed “hundreds including many civilians.”
The incident proved that Islamic State and al Qaeda-linked militants “possess chemical weapons”, a statement by the army flashed on Thursday by Syrian state TV said.
There was no immediate independent confirmation.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-gas-idUSKBN17F18D
DXer said
North Korea may be able to arm missiles with sarin, Japan PM says
By Yoko Wakatsuki and James Griffiths, CNN
Updated 6:17 AM ET, Thu April 13, 2017
http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/13/asia/north-korea-missiles-japan/
DXer said
Syria chemical attack ‘fabricated’ – Assad
7 minutes ago
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-39588876
Syria’s President Bashar-al Assad says reports of a chemical attack by his forces were “100% fabrication”.
In an exclusive video interview with Agence France-Presse, he said his government had handed over all its chemical weapons stockpiles in 2013.
However, the US, the World Health Organization (WHO) and chemical weapons inspectors have all cast doubt on the government’s claims.
The alleged chemical attack on 4 April killed more than 80 people.
Russia, a key ally of Syria, angered the West on Wednesday by vetoing a UN draft resolution over the attack on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun, in the eastern province of Idlib.
The resolution would have required Mr Assad’s government to co-operate with an investigation into the attack.
“There was no order to make any attack,” Mr Assad told the AFP. “We gave up our arsenal a few years ago. Even if we have them, we wouldn’t use them.”
He also said he would only allow what he called an “impartial” investigation into the attack, to ensure it would not be used for “politicised purposes”.
DXer said
ISIS Militants Launch Multiple Chemical Weapons Attacks On Iraqi Troops
By Tom O’Connor On 4/17/17 a
http://www.newsweek.com/isis-militants-chemical-weapons-attack-soldiers-iraq-585174
This weekend’s chemical weapons attacks followed an alleged gas attack earlier this month against civilians near the northwestern rebel-held city of Idlib in neighboring Syria. The U.S. and some other Western nations have blamed the incident on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and, in response, launched a volley of Tomahawk cruise missiles against a Syrian airbase. The Syrian government and its Russian ally denied that the Syrian military was behind the attack and said a Syrian airstrike struck a hidden chemical weapons facility used by rebel groups, resulting in the deadly discharge that killed dozens of civilians. Russian President Vladimir Putin and the nation’s defense ministry also accused Syrian rebels and ISIS of staging chemical attacks and framing Assad to draw international support.
DXer said
The Unsung Equestrian Heroes Of World War I And The Plot To Poison Them
April 6, 20175:08 AM ET
Sarah McCammon
http://www.npr.org/2017/04/06/522594344/the-unsung-equestrian-heroes-of-world-war-i-and-the-plot-to-poison-them
DXer said
What we know about Syria’s chemical weapons
By Laura Smith-Spark and Juliet Perry, CNN
Updated 9:52 AM ET, Wed April 5, 2017
http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/05/middleeast/syria-sarin-chemical-weapons-explainer/
DXer said
World News | Tue Apr 4, 2017 | 3:25pm EDT
U.S. believes sarin used in attack near Idlib: U.S. source
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-sarin-idUSKBN1762KV
The U.S. government believes the chemical agent sarin was used in an attack in the northwestern province of Idlib on Tuesday that was “almost certainly” carried out by forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a U.S. government source said.
DXer said
Syria conflict: The spectre of nerve agents – again
By Dan Kaszeta Chemical weapons specialist
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-39489998
The weapon used may not have been Sarin. It could plausibly have been one of the other nerve agents. …
Documents released by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) show that the Assad government had the ability and supply chain to produce VX, a nerve agent that is a non-volatile liquid that can cause contamination that can last for weeks or months.
***
The issue of where the precursor chemicals come from amidst sanctions is of concern.
Chemical arms control appears a lost cause in the Syrian civil war, but also the international failure to enforce treaties damages arms control in the future.
Chemical weapons, Sarin and others disproportionately punish civilians, particularly the young and old, and disrespecting chemical warfare bans sets a horrible precedent.
Dan Kaszeta is a London-based consultant. He is a former US Army Chemical Corps officer and has worked in chemical defence issues for over 25 years, including assignments at the White House Military Office and the US Secret Service.
DXer said
Background:
U.N. Inspectors Find Sarin and VX Nerve Agents in Underground Syrian Regime Lab
By Jack Moore On 9/19/16 at 12:14 PM
•
The Syrian regime is continuing to produce chemical weapons in contravention of the deal to hand over all of its stockpile for destruction, according to a confidential report from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
UN Inspectors Find Sarin and VX Nerve Agents in Underground …
Newsweek-Sep 19, 2016
The report alleges that its inspectors traced the deadly nerve agents Sarin and VX to an underground Syrian regime lab, according to journal …
http://www.newsweek.com/un-inspectors-find-sarin-and-vx-nerve-agents-underground-syrian-regime-lab-500124
DXer said
World News | Tue Apr 4, 2017 | 8:27am EDT
France wants U.N. Security Council to meet after ‘disgusting’ Syria gas attack
France’s foreign minister called on Tuesday for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council after what he said was a “disgusting” gas attack on Syria’s rebel-held Idlib province.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based war monitor, said a suspected chemical attack by Syrian government or Russian jets killed at least 58 people, including 11 children, in the rebel-held northwestern province of Idlib.
“A new and particularly serious chemical attack took place this morning in Idlib province. The first information suggests a large number of victims, including children. I condemn this disgusting act,” Jean-Marc Ayrault said in a statement.
***
Russia, backed by China, cast its seventh veto to protect the Syrian authorities and Russian President Vladimir Putin described the draft resolution as “totally inappropriate.”
Comment: Trump should condemn the use of chemical weapons and call for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council. He should urge passage of a resolution condemning it and targeting those responsible with sanctions.
It might help moderate the view that he is in league with Putin.
Trump campaign adviser Carter Page met with Russian spy in 2013
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/politics/ct-carter-page-russian-spy-20170403-story.html
Chicago Tribune-11 hours ago
According to the court documents, Podobnyy tried to recruit Carter Page, an energy consultant working in New York at the time, as an .
DXer said
Top EU Diplomat Says After Syria Gas Attack: Assad Has ‘Primary Responsibility’
| April 4, 2017, at 8:26 a.m.
| April 4, 2017,
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2017-04-04/top-eu-diplomat-says-after-syria-gas-attack-assad-has-primary-responsibility
“Obviously there is a primary responsibility from the regime because it has the primary responsibility of protecting its people.”
Comment: This is not suitable basis for attribution. Although it is early yet, what is the evidence of responsibility?
DXer said
White House blames Syria’s Assad regime for Idlib chemical attack
Yahoo News-8 hours ago
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House on Tuesday blamed the chemical weapons attack in Syria’s Idlib province directly on the government of President …
UN Security Council to discuss suspected chemical attack in Syria
Posted on April 4, 2017
http://www.syracuse.com/us-news/index.ssf/2017/04/syria_chemical_attack.html#incart_river_home
DXer said
Dozens killed in suspected gas attack in Syria
http://nypost.com/2017/04/04/dozens-killed-in-suspected-gas-attack-in-syria/
BEIRUT — A suspected chemical attack in a town in Syria’s northern Idlib province killed dozens of people on Tuesday, Syrian opposition activists said, describing the attack as among the worst in the country’s six-year civil war.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group put the death toll at 58, saying there were 11 children among the dead. Meanwhile, the Idlib Media Center said dozens of people had been killed.
The media center published footage of medical workers appearing to intubate an unresponsive man stripped down to his underwear and hooking up a little girl foaming at the mouth to a ventilator.
There was no comment from the government in Damascus or any international agency in the immediate aftermath of the attack.
It was the third claim of a chemical attack in just over a week in Syria. The previous two were reported in Hama province, in an area not far from Khan Sheikhoun, the site of Tuesday’s alleged attack.
***
The Syrian activists had no information on what agent could have been used in the assault. They claimed the attack was caused by an airstrike carried out either by the Syrian government or Russian warplanes.
DXer said
The ‘biological Chernobyl’: Day death came on the wind
April 4, 2017
http://www.news.com.au/technology/science/human-body/the-biological-chernobyl-day-death-came-on-the-wind/news-story/03bbe01846705463bd39800334d472bb
DXer said
Base X: The Isle of Anthrax
By Rebecca Kreston | March 31, 2017
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/bodyhorrors/2017/03/31/isle-of-anthrax/
Two bioterrorism stunts seem to have prompted the British Ministry of Defence to reconsider the status quo of Gruinard island. In 1981, a package was discovered on the property of the Chemical Defense Establishment at Porton Down filled with soil reportedly sourced from the island.(10) A group calling themselves “Dark Harvest” released a press statement declaring that two microbiologists had retrieved 300 pounds of Gruinard soil, a portion of which had been packaged and delivered to Portion Down in an attempt to return “the seeds of death” in protest of the experiments and the island’s uninhabitable state. Testing of the packaged soil found that it did indeed contain anthrax and that the soil appeared similar to samples from Gruinard. Four days later, a second package of apparent Gruinard soil was discovered at a meeting of the ruling Conservative Party, though the sample did not contain any anthrax.
DXer said
Author: How the Mall of America could become ‘as toxic and uninhabitable as Chernobyl’
The Thread MPR News Staff , Tom Weber · Mar 29, 2017
https://www.mprnews.org/story/2017/03/28/books-deadliest-enemy
In one chapter, Osterholm delves into the issue of bioterror and the devastating possibilities of an intentionally-released outbreak. He imagines a scenario: An anthrax attack at the Mall of America. Below is an excerpt:
An excerpt from “Deadliest Enemy”
Twenty years ago there were five class A agents of greatest concern for bioterrorism: anthrax, smallpox, plague, tularemia, and hemorrhagic fever viruses such as Ebola. Today, I worry primarily about anthrax, smallpox, and any microbe that we can change through our new hyperslab tools to be readily transmissible to people or animals and resistant to current treatments or vaccines.
Anthrax — Bacillus anthracis — is a particularly effective biosweapon. It doesn’t transmit personstosperson, but when dried out, the bacteria preserve themselves as tiny, virtually weightless spores that are hardy enough to last for decades or longer. Archeologists have even found evidence of them in Egyptian tombs. When those spores are inhaled and reach the moist, comfortable environment of the lungs and gastrointestinal tract, they germinate, reverting back to their active form and releasing three deadly protein toxins. Inhalation of anthrax in the lungs causes pneumonia that kills between 45 and 85 percent of untreated victims. In dried form, anthrax can be hidden in any white powder and will not arouse the suspicion of airport security workers or anyone else.
Back in 1993, the congressional Office of Technology Assessment produced a report entitled “Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction: Assessing the Risk,” comparing the potential impact of chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons on Washington, DC. It concluded that a small airplane dispersing only 100 kilograms (about 220 pounds) of anthrax spores would kill more people than a Scudsclass missile carrying a hydrogen bomb. The Hsbomb would kill between 570,000 and 1.9 million in a 300ssquaresmile area, depending on such factors as weather and exactly where it was dropped. The anthrax dispersal would kill between 1 and 3 million under similar circumstances.
The late William “Bill” Patrick was a brilliant scientist and a friend to both Mark and me. He used to head up the American bioweapons program at Fort Detrick. Bill made a habit of carrying around a vial containing 7.5 grams of a harmless bacterial culture that looks just like anthrax under a microscope. In March 1999, testifying on Capitol Hill before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, he pulled out his vial, explained what it was, and declared, “I’ve been through all the major airports and security systems of the State Department, the Pentagon, even the CIA, and nobody has stopped me.” Seven and a half grams, by the way, would be just about the exact amount needed to kill everyone in a structure the size of a Senate or House office building.
Anthrax can be treated with certain broadsspectrum antibiotics like ciprofloxacin (Cipro), but quick diagnosis is essential and treatment can take weeks or months. And experimental lab work has already proved how easy it would be to develop antibioticsresistant strains.
Bioweapons are unlike any other of their brother weapons of mass destruction, and our response strategies for other WMDs will not work against them. As horrific as it is to think of two jetliners hitting and bringing down the World Trade Center towers, that was a readily “survivable” tragedy for New York City and the nation. At the end of the day on September 11, 2001, the terrorist act was over and the recovery could commence. With a bioterror event, the end of the day would be only the beginning, and no one would even know it yet. We likely wouldn’t recognize it for a week, by which time the initial victims would have carried their deadly infection to all parts of the United States and much of the world.
Even with biologic agents that are not transmissible personstosperson, the challenge is daunting. The Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, not far from where I live, is the largest shopping center in the United States, with an average of more than 100,000 visitors a day from all over the world. If anthrax were efficiently dispersed throughout the sprawling mall, there would easily be many thousands of cases and thousands of deaths as local healthcare systems were overwhelmed. The victims wouldn’t even know they’d been targeted until several days had passed and fever, chills, chest pain, shortness of breath, fatigue, vomiting, and nausea set in. For many of them, recognition would come too late.
It would be an event of historic proportions that could never be forgotten, not only because of all the death and disease and the almost unimaginable panic that would ensue, but also because it would simply be too big and complex a task to decontaminate the entire mall complex. And you couldn’t just tear it down, either. The AMI building in Florida was closed off for more than five years because of the risk of spreading the anthrax spores to the surrounding community. After a monumental cleanup effort it was finally declared anthraxsfree in 2007. A contaminated Mall of America — many times larger than the AMI building — would just sit there as an abandoned, hulking mass on the Minnesota prairie — as toxic and uninhabitable as Chernobyl.
Excerpted from “Deadliest Enemy,” Copyright c 2017 by Dr. Mike Osterholm and Mark Olshaker. Used with permission of Little, Brown and Company, New York. All rights reserved.
Anthrax, Al Qaeda and Ayman Zawahiri: The Infiltration of US Biodefense
http://www.amierthrax.wordpress.com
DXer said
http://tass.com/society/937603
Society & Culture, March 26,
According to media reports, a flask with anthrax virus was found in a deserted building in central Moscow when it was being demolished
MOSCOW, March 26. /TASS/. Russia’s emergencies ministry is checking media reports about a flask with anthrax virus found in central Moscow, a spokesman for the ministry’s Moscow department told TASS on Sunday.
“Media reports are being verified,” the spokesman said.
According to media reports, a flask with anthrax virus was found in a deserted building in central Moscow when it was being demolished.
Comment: Anthrax is not a virus, it is bacteria.
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White House on lockdown after suspicious package reported nearby
• 9 minutes ago
• Geoff Herbert | gherbert@syracuse.com
http://www.syracuse.com/us-news/index.ssf/2017/03/white_house_lockdown_suspicious_package.html#incart_river_home
Comment:
I used to work two buildings over while at Don McGahn’s law firm. It’s actually a comparatively small building. It seems like it would be a formidable challenge to secure, especially given the height of nearby buildings.
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Congress’s Duty in the War With ISIS
By THE EDITORIAL BOARDMARCH 25, 2017
Justice League Official Trailer 1
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“Inside the FBI: New York’: First Promo & Premiere Date For Dick Wolf’s USA Network Docuseries”
by Erik Pedersen
March 24, 2017 6:00pm
http://deadline.com/2017/03/inside-the-fbi-new-york-promo-premiere-date-dick-wolf-usa-network-video-1202051501/
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Comment:
If the Fall 2001 anthrax mailings were proved an act of international terrorism, there would be a massive financial recovery under this new statute, JASTA.
The FBI, however, says it cannot find the notebook with the contemporaneous notes in Notebook 4282 showing why Ivins was in the lab those days.
Funny how they were able to find all the other notebooks — but that the anthrax smelling dogs that the FBI relied upon (ha!) ate that one.
I heard yesterday from the FBI FOIA person — who reports no progress.
World News | Fri Mar 24, 2017 | 10:59am EDT
Saudi Arabia faces $6 billion U.S. lawsuit by Sept. 11 insurers
http://www.reuters.com/article/usa-saudi-sept-idUSL2N1H10GI
Saudi Arabia is facing a renewed $6 billion lawsuit by dozens of insurers seeking to hold it responsible for business and property damage caused by the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
The lawsuit filed late Thursday in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan is the latest effort to hold Saudi Arabia liable for the attacks.
Nearly 3,000 people died when hijacked airplanes crashed into the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon near Washington, D.C., and a Pennsylvania field.
Insurers, including Liberty Mutual, Safeco, Wausau and many Lloyd’s syndicates, accused Saudi Arabia and a state-affiliated charity of providing funding and other material support that enabled Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda to conduct the attacks.
The Saudi government has long denied involvement. Lawyers for the government and the charity, the Saudi High Commission for Relief of Bosnia & Herzegovina, on Friday declined to comment or could not immediately be reached for comment.
Saudi Arabia long had broad immunity from Sept. 11 lawsuits in the United States.
That changed in September, when Congress overrode a veto by former President Barack Obama and adopted the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, permitting such lawsuits to proceed.
The insurers said they plan to show that the Sept. 11 attacks were an “act of international terrorism” within the meaning of JASTA. They are seeking more than $2 billion in compensatory damages, plus triple and punitive damages.
At least seven lawsuits were also filed in the Manhattan court on behalf of individuals.
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I was discussing with Dr. Dillon my disagreement with his theory of Amerithrax. And the week prior I was discussing my discussing with Hugh-Jones my disagreement with his theory.
But if there weren’t differing theories, Amerithrax wouldn’t be an interesting true crime mystery.
By analogy, finding the stolen Isabella Gardner paintings will validate, or not, any particular theory in that case.
“Six theories behind the stolen Gardner Museum paintings”
By Shelley Murphy and Stephen Kurkjian Globe Staff | Globe Correspondent March 18, 2017
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/03/18/six-theories-behind-stolen-gardner-museum-paintings/JmwHou86qo5MtBzX1fb9cI/story.html
DXer said
In Unabomber it took a phone to break a long-suffering case. Same could be true in Amerithrax (or by analogy, Isabella Gardner).
For example, my friend Steve’s article this week explains:
“The investigation remains active and ongoing, according to Kristen Setera, a spokeswoman for the FBI’s Boston office, who urged anyone with information about the whereabouts of the missing works to contact the FBI, the museum, or a third party.”
Now if you like Chinese take-out in Herkimer, contact me and I’ll arrange for you and/or yours to get the $5 million reward.
Steve already has the film rights and so I’m sure he would be happy for me to help with the reward and give his movie a dramatic ending.
Similarly, I told a Kennedy School of Government researcher last week in connection with Amerithrax, that his focus on lessons to be learned for academic purposes could very well lead to a recovery of a $5 million or even $25 million dollar reward.
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Off-topic:
Spring is here so it is time for me to make a one-time off-topic post in hopes of finding a partner for treasure hunting. Lew perhaps will indulge me this one time given that we all need an occasional respite from what is becoming an increasingly topsy-turvy world:
The Ongoing Search For Dutch Schultz’s Missing Millions
Blam! Blam! Blam! When police asked Dutch Schultz who shot him, he replied, “I don’t know, but they were pretty good shots.”
This is a true story of a treasure worth an estimated $50 million hidden by Dutch Schultz before his precipitous death. The iron chest containing the loot was hidden by Dutch Schultz and his bodyguard Lulu. It very likely was hidden in either Upstate New York or Fairfield County, Connecticut.
In 1935, fresh from the successful conviction of Al Capone on tax evasion charges, federal authorities targeted Dutch for failing to report any of the millions he made on his bootlegging enterprise and numbers racket. While Dutch was awaiting his trial on the tax charges, which was to be held in Syracuse, the US Attorney allowed him to stay in Connecticut. But the press soon caught up with him in early April, when he was discovered at a hideout in Norwalk. The home was nice — near the water on a peninsula. There was a tall fence in the backyard.
In recent years, my daughter and I learned that he and his bodyguard, Lulu Rosenkrantz had buried his chest in the backyard, in the garden — but then moved it.
In addition to Liberty Bonds, Dutch put diamonds from the heist of a jewelry store in the chest. One of his lieutenants testified that he never put in a bill that was less than $1,000. Sometimes it was so full he would have to sit on it to close it. The FBI claimed that Schultz did 6 million in business a year, and collected $825,000 in just the 6 weeks before he was murdered in October 1935. J.Edgar Hoover said: “That means $1 million every two months was being paid to just one racketeer.” DA Thomas Dewey described his lottery racket as a $100 million-a-year operation.
Schultz had several options to take the chest after the press flushed him out. First, he could take it to his secret residence in Tuckahoe, NY — en route to the trial in Syracuse. The big old Victorian house is at the corner of White Plains Road and WInterhill Road in Tuckahoe. The home has been converted into a dormitory, Koepchen Hall, by neighboring Concordia College. As an official of Eastchester Historical Society once commented to the press: “That’s where Dutch Schultz lived.” “We know it’s a fact.” “One of our members went to high school with his daughter.” The house was convenient to a brewery Dutch owned in Yonkers, NY through a proxy. There was a secret tunnel leading across the street to a historic tavern. Later it came to be known as the Stephen Ward House. The tunnel was filled in. At the Yonkers brewery, Dutch ran hoses under ground and delivered his beer to the taverns directly from the secret bootlegging operation at the Chicken Island brewery.
Second, another possibility was to take it to a house in Newburgh, NY, that a minion had fortified in 1932 (according to online real estate records). A local resident reports to me that there was a secret hiding place behind a book shelf that opened big enough for a chest. The house was not far from a tavern connected by a tunnel. Dutch and Lulu had been seen riding horses in the area in Fall 1934 when Dutch was still on the lamb. The FBI dispatched an agent to investigate. There was a tunnel from the house to a nearby speakeasy. At last report, the house has been put up for sale. The speakeasy is now the site of North Plank Road Tavern. The owner has described to me how, upon renovation, a secret trap door was discovered that concealed guns and booze under the kitchen.
Yet another possibility was a home in Saratoga, where the bosses would stay. It was associated with one of the casino owners, a prominent Saratoga resident. Law enforcement was especially pliable in that County. The residence had a connection to Revolutionary War hero Putnam, who famously waved back his sword at pursuing British solders and yelled “Talk to the Sword!” A national magazine reported in August 1935 that Dutch had been seen in Saratoga that summer. Dutch used the “talk to the sword!” phrase in his morphine-addled last words.
Once the scheduled April 1935 tax evasion trial in Syracuse was done, Dutch hoped to settle in Fairfield County in Connecticut. “I like it here,” Dutch said. “And if I win [the tax evasion trial] I will make this my permanent home.” He had some friends who were influential fraudsters living there in Fairfield under false identities. They had all the right connections — including connections in DC that Dutch hoped would avoid or quash the federal tax problems. His friend Phil Coster (Musica) lived on Mill Plain Road. Dutch and Lulu would ride the trail from the Dudley Brothwell’s nearby Brookside Stables. Dutch and Lulu would leave their entourage behind. Stable logs show in the summer of 1935 he rode his horse, Sun Tan, almost daily in August. “I like riding. It’s the only exercise I get.” He would have passed a lot on Campbell Road in Fairfield that was being built that summer (according to real estate records found at the local historical society). In the late 1930s, after Coster (Musica) wrote in his suicide note that there was no buried treasure, one local policeman was found digging under the dog house of Coster’s St. Bernard.
While he was awaiting the Syracuse trial, Dutch spent the first 10 days in April 1935 with Frances, who was five months pregnant, at the house in Norwalk, CT. Dutch had entered a two-month lease. He leased the home under his real name, Arthur Flegenheimer. He abruptly had to leave after 10 days because of the press attention. Headlines around the country reported that day that “Dutch Schultz Flees Curiosity Seekers.” His neighbors did not know that the quiet man who would nod at them when they passed was the notorious Dutch Schultz.
Dutch turned in his keys to Mrs. Lyman Bracken, the woman who had rented it to him, on April 11, 1935. When we visited the Norwalk residence some years ago, I asked “Did you know that Dutch Schultz, the famous gangster, lived here for 10 days in 1935?” Vivian, the gracious owner, described that she and her husband had heard the history. Whenever they renovated the house, they would look into every nook and cranny. Then, a couple years before our visit, upon digging in the garden they found a metal sheet that had covered a rectangular hole. She offered my young daughter ice cream as an added treat. The entire experience was wonderful Connecticut Yankee hospitality offered to New York neighbors.
The key question that needs answering is: “Where did Dutch Schultz and Lulu Rosenkrantz sleep on the nights of April 11, 12 and 13, 1935?
On April 15, 1935, the Syracuse Post Standard reported that “Flegenheimer arrived at Hotel Syracuse [on the 14th] shortly before midnight after a nine-hour drive from Connecticut.” Where did he leave the chest off? Did he really come directly from Connecticut? That more likely is the reporter’s assumption. Dutch gave interviews during the course of the trial. Schultz says he liked reading. His favorite book was by Stefan Zweigh — it was about Joseph Fouche, Napoleon’s head of intelligence. He said the characters reminded him of people he knew. He acknowledged that he was married. But when asked if he had children, he said “We’ll skip that. Just forget it.” He was furious when he learned that directly behind him, someone had written on a blackboard, in big letters, “ ‘X’ Marks The Spot.”
Only he and Lulu knew where he took the chest. He didn’t tell his young wife Frances. His wife was left destitute after Dutch and Lulu were gunned down in October 1935, when they returned to New York City after Dutch was acquitted for tax evasion. There had been a hung jury in Syracuse. Then there was an outright acquittal upon a retrial in Malone, NY. Dutch had always been confident that he would be able to win the hearts and minds of the farmers and townspeople in Syracuse and Malone. After all, he was big spender and a man of good will. Back in New York, Dutch suggested to the “Commission” that prosecutor Tom Dewey needed to be killed — whether the Commission agreed or not. Dutch didn’t count on his business associates taking such a harsh view of his independent streak. He and Lulu were gunned down by a Murder, Inc. killers at the Palace Chophouse in Newark, New Jersey in late October 1935. For the genealogy experts out there, his daughter Ann born 1934 and son John born in 1935, are nowhere to be found.
The treasury bills reportedly have never been redeemed. Thomas Dewey, the famous prosecutor, Governor of New York and Presidential candidate, generated headlines like “Dewey Hunting Schultz Cache in Hines Case” as he prosecuted Tammany Hall.
After he was acquitted in Malone, NY, Dutch returned to Syracuse to thank some “friends.” An August 5 newspaper quoted him saying from Malone: “I don’t know exactly what my plans are. I hope to get to New York by the end of the week. I’ll probably stop in Albany first. [Albany is where his attorney Noonan had an office]. Right now I’m interested in seeing my friends in Syracuse — friends I’ll never forget.” But soon after he arrived to the top floor of the Hotel Syracuse, there was a knock on the door. John Ross, a process server, had travelled from Albany by train to serve Dutch with notice that he was to be deposed in three days in Albany. He would have to testify under oath about the location of his assets or face contempt charges.
Dutch’s entourage promptly made multiple diversionary reservations — on plane and train. A news report indicates that he stayed up late the morning of August 6th, Tuesday. One report at the time noted that he was planning a circuitous route on roads. Was the report just to avoid being bumped off by rivals? Or was he planning a route that would take him and Lulu back to the chest. His friends in Syracuse likely included Charles Garzone, who had owned a stables and tavern on South Ave here. The place was known for gambling. Garzone’s grandson, a documentary filmmaker, says he uncovered evidence his grandfather was a mob associate, who may have reported to the Lucky Luciano-led Commission, which included Dutch.
The chauffeur, “Mike”, made a conspicuous departure the next morning. But Dutch and Lulu snuck out the back way, using the Hotel Syracuse service elevator. The Syracuse Journal headline on August 6, 1935 blazed: “SCHULTZ FLEES FROM SYRACUSE.” They arrived at the Hotel Bridgeport, on August 7. But where had they spent the night of August 6? His lawyers caught up with them to plan how they would respond to this newest threat to his freedom. Dutch and Lulu snuck out the back of Hotel Bridgeport late August 7 just before midnight, returning at 5 a.m. The next day, speaking to a reporter at the hotel restaurant, Dutch suggested that he had been out with the boys playing poker.
As for the widespread suggestion that the chest was hidden in the Catskills, that theory, in my considered opinion, was balderdash. It appears to have originated from a treasure writer in the late 1950s who first inserted a sentence in Dutch’s morphine-addled delirium at the hospital after he was shot. The sentence added was something like: “Hey, Lulu, let’s go up to Phoenicia and dig up the loot.” F.J. Lang was the court stenographer at Schultz’s bedside after he was shot in October. Lang’s transcript was published in the New York Times at the time. The sentence that has fueled documentaries and spawned an “Unsolved Mystery” episode does not appear in the transcript. Nor does it appear in the excellent book KILL THE DUTCHMAN, written by the late Paul Sann, Executive Director of the Daily News. Schultz and his colleagues were in Phoenicia a couple years earlier — in 1933. In particular, the treasure writer, Schurmacher, mistakenly described a scene from the Hotel Stratfield in Bridgeport, where Dutch reportedly loaded the chest as occurring in 1933 rather than 1935. If you come across a treasure theory that includes someone’s claimed psychic vision after seeing an episode of “Unsolved Mysteries” — rather than corroborated historical evidence — you can safely leave your shovel at home.
Life is short. Play hard but don’t waste precious time. On the other hand, Phoenicia is between Syracuse and Bridgeport too — just like Yonkers, Newburgh and Saratoga. Until the chest is found, we won’t know where it was hidden.
Dutch’s last words are fascinating. His drug-addled narrative contains many possible clues and is provably rooted in the people and facts of his life. The verbatim full-text is available at your local library or at blurb dot com. “French Canadian bean soup” and“Talk to the Sword! are just two of the many curious phrases that await consideration of an arm-chair detective. It may have been “Oh, oh; dog biscuit, and when he is happy he doesn’t get snappy” that led the policeman to dig under the doghouse of a Schultz associate, Costa, in Fairfield.
We should crowd-source the solution of Dutch Schultz’s missing millions. You can keep the millions so long as I have a story to tell.
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FBI Director Comey is testifying that the FBI is probing the Russian interference with the election and that he cannot comment on a pending investigation.
I can.
Syracuse Opera: Artists hope you’ll pick their Faberge eggs to honor ‘Eugene Onegin’
http://www.syracuse.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2017/03/syracuse_opera_artists_hope_youll_pick_their_faberge_eggs_to_honor_eugene_onegin.html#incart_river_home
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“Time to Worry about Anthrax Again,” in the current issue of Scientific American.
Authors are Paul S. Keim, David H. Walker & Raymond A. Zilinskas
“Dozens of people died of anthrax in a Central Asian city in 1979. Only later did it become clear that the outbreak had occurred because of an accident in a secret Soviet bioweapons facility.
The bacterium that causes anthrax, known as Bacillus anthracis, is particularly well suited for arming unconventional weapons. Some parts of the former Soviet program were verifiably dismantled in the 1990s.
Recent revelations underscore new concerns that the Russian government may be relaunching its bioweapons program, which would be a violation of an international treaty first signed in 1972.”
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Time to Worry about Anthrax Again
Recent insights into a long-ago accident show just how deadly bioweapons can be
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/time-to-worry-about-anthrax-again/
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Biosafety coordinator presents on bioterrorism
Published March 13, 2017
http://isanticountynews.com/2017/03/13/biosafety-coordinator-presents-on-bioterrorism/
One of the most famous acts of bioterrorism in U.S. history was the anthrax attacks that occurred a few days after 9/11, in which envelopes containing anthrax spores were mailed to the offices of a pair of U.S. senators and several news media organizations….
A big component of biosafety monitoring is BioWatch, an air monitoring program started by the Bush administration after 9/11. There are filters at secret locations throughout the state that are used to test the air for the presence of infectious or viral agents that could be weaponized by bioterrorists. These filters are meant to detect possible bioterrorist attacks quickly.
***
Although Minnesota does not have much of a history of bioterrorism, it is not completely without potential targets for such attacks. One example Lundquist mentioned was the Mall of America, which is both a national landmark and a highly populated space. Lundquist said the ramifications of an attack there would go beyond the loss of life during the attack itself: The mall could be turned into a Chernobyl-like permanent biosafety danger zone due to the hardiness of dangerous pathogens used by bioterrorists.
“It would be impossible to clean the Mall of America,” Lundquist said. The mall also could not be torn down after such an attack because doing so would cause residual bacteria or virus spores to disburse over many miles through the air.
***
Anthrax spores carry an electrostatic charge that cause them to stick to surfaces, Lundquist said. Weaponization of anthrax, which gained so much press coverage after the post-9/11 anthrax attacks, requires the would-be bioterrorists to remove that charge.
Comment: The Al Qaeda manual chapter on preparing deadly letters sought to avoid harming anyone other than the recipient by the use of tape or wiping it down with a silicone sealant — the manual specifically instructed on avoiding harming the mail carrier.
A lot of contradictory stuff gets said about electrostatic charge. William Patrick specifically published that the Fall 2001 anthrax powder, fortunately, did have an electrostatic charge, causing it to stick.
I agree with the assessment of one DIA/then CIA CTC analyst who said, in his view, that forensics had never been sufficient to rule in or rule out a suspect.
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U.S. Navy Film Reveals Crazy Cold War Chemical Weapons Plans
http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/us-navy-film-reveals-crazy-cold-war-chemical-weapons-plans-19763
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http://www.hstoday.us/briefings/daily-news-analysis/single-article/agro-terrorism-threats-to-nations-food-supply-addressed-in-house-senate-bills/9cc2f1365f04fb90506c665084711594.html
Agro-Terrorism Threats to Nation’s Food Supply Addressed in House, Senate Bills
By: Anthony Kimery, Editor-in-Chief
03/02/2017 ( 9:24pm)
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Bipartisan bills to address the threat of agro-terrorism and high-risk events which pose serious threats to food, agriculture and livestock industries across the United States were jointly introduced by legislators in both the House and Senate this week.
It’s “imperative we take precautions and have preparedness policies in place to mitigate potential risks,” they said in a joint announcement.
The legislation comes at a time when authorities have repeatedly warned that public health preparedness nationwide is in serious disarray, as Homeland Security Today has reported.
The Securing our Agriculture and Food Act was introduced by Rep. David Young (R-IA), Rep. Donald Payne, Jr. (D-NJ) and Rep. Dan Donovan (R-NY), and Sens. Pat Roberts (R-KS) and Claire McCaskill (D-MO).
In their joint announcement, they said, “Our nation faces global and complex national security challenges. Agro-terrorism, and other high-risk events, pose serious threats to our food, agriculture and livestock industries across the United States. It is imperative we have preparedness policies in place to quickly respond to events threatening US agriculture or food production systems – ultimately protecting these key industries which impact every Americans on a daily basis.”
***
In a USA Today op-ed last October, Tom Daschle, a former Senate majority leader and a member of the bipartisan Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense, and Richard B. Myers, a retired Air Force general and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, wrote, “The 15th anniversary of September 11 honored the far-too-many who lost their lives that horrific day. Almost unnoticed was the 15th anniversary of the US anthrax attacks that occurred soon thereafter and left 5 dead, 17 infected and more than 10,000 at risk of exposure. The magnitude of those attacks clarified the need to address bioterrorism more comprehensively in the United States.”
However, they pointed out, “Americans rarely consider the potential for our enemies to attack our nation’s agricultural infrastructure and food supply with biological weapons. They should. Agriculture security is national security.”
“Fourteen years ago,” they said, US Navy SEALs found a list of pathogens and a schematic in an Afghanistan cave that Al Qaeda planned to use to produce bioweapons. In addition to six human pathogens, ten pathogens targeted food, six targeted livestock and poultry and four targeted crops. Clearly, Al Qaeda was considering agro-terrorism.”
Comment:
It would violate the hadiths to attack livestock or crops.
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https://homelandprepnews.com/stories/20979-better-federal-coordination-needed-protect-nations-food-supply-biological-attacks/
Better federal coordination needed to protect nation’s food supply from biological attacks
Monday, January 30, 2017 by HPN News Desk
Amy Kircher
Greater coordination between the Department of Agriculture and other federal agencies like the Department of Homeland Security is needed to help prevent a biological attack on the U.S. agriculture industry that threatens the nation’s food supply, a panel of experts on agrodefense said last week.
The Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense hosted a meeting at Kansas State University to discuss the challenges and solutions in defending the nation’s agriculture industry from chemical and biological threats.
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Unlocked – Official trailer
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgpU5M6gtBI ;
The FBI’s Most Notorious Cover-Up
Bill Gates was recently quoted as saying that bioterrorism could kill more people than nuclear war, but that Western governments are not ready to deal with it. The situation may be worse than he thinks. What stories about his remarks at the Munich Security Conference did not explain is that the FBI has still failed to resolve the question of who carried out the post-9/11 anthrax attacks on America. ;
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In the 43 minute interview above, which I am listening to now, Cliff Kincaid interviews Ken Dillon. Ken was the organizer of a UCLA-sponsored conference in DC on the Amerithrax mailings that Lew Weinstein moderated. He is a former foreign service officer and intelligence analyst. His PhD in history is from Cornell.
I do not agree with all of the particulars of Ken’s theory but I do not discount it. He and I totally agree that, absent a reopening of the investigation, the way to get people on the same page is to obtain additional key documents under FOIA currently being withheld. Ken’s thoughtfulness and Cliff’s lucidity are a powerful combination. I hope they contact Senator Grassley and the White House to seek assistance on outstanding FOIA requests, or more dramatically, seek to have the investigation reopened.
Anthrax, Al Qaeda and Ayman Zawahiri: The Infiltration of US Biodefense
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
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Was the 340 ml. of Ames anthrax sent on June 27, 2001 from Dugway to USAMRIID for irradiation the anthrax that reportedly went missing?
Posted by Lew Weinstein on October 6, 2015
Comment: I believe that 340 ml. was shipped by John E. rather than Bruce I. John E. was the key USAMRIID scientist working for the FBI.
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https://www.tapinto.net/towns/flemington-slash-raritan/articles/emergency-drill-tests-anthrax-response
Emergency Drill Tests Anthrax Response
By TAPINTO FLEMINGTON-RARITAN STAFF
March 2, 2017 at 10:45 AM
ALEXANDRIA, NJ – The county conducted a drill recently to test its response to an emergency such as an anthrax attack.
The purpose of the drill was to evaluate the county’s Division of Public Health ability to distribute medication during a public health crisis.
The county maintains a “Fixed Facility Plan” that would provide medication to employees of county businesses to protect them and their families in such an event.
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Donald Trump announced last night that he will form a new agency to publish a regular list of all crimes committed by immigrants.
Leaving the wisdom of the President’s proposed VOICE agency to one side (to debate at the dinner table or in Congress), let’s consider one of the leading entries should be on such a list: Adnan El-Shukrijumah.
Steve Bannon,
What crime(s) did green card holder Adnan El-Shukrijumah commit?
Are terrorists crossing the US-Mexico border? Excerpts from the …
Christian Science Monitor-Jan 15, 2017
Mr. Shukrijumah, a green-card holder from Saudi Arabia who had lived … on to say that one of the three men is “likely Adnan G. El Shukrijumah, .
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2017/0115/Are-terrorists-crossing-the-US-Mexico-border-Excerpts-from-the-case-file
Let me suggest to you, and then prove to you (with your assistance)…
DXer says … Adnan El-Shukrijumah, son of Saudi missionary, was the Fall 2001 anthrax mailer and FBI is withholding relevant documents
Posted by Lew Weinstein on May 12, 2016
In February 2003, the FBI announced that “Jafar the Pilot” (aka Adnan El-Shukrijumah) had entered the country sometime after September 1, 2001
Posted by Lew Weinstein on September 26, 2014
DXer said
DXer says: Adnan El-Shukrijumah is the anthrax mailer … on or about 9/13/2001, he phoned from KSM’s house to tell his mom he was coming to the US
Posted on June 6, 2014
9/11 Congressional press conference tomorrow: Anthrax mailing suspect Adnan El-Shukrijumah, son of a salaried Saudi missionary, was at this Sarasota, FL home with his accomplice, 911 lead hijacker Mohammed Atta.
Posted by Lew Weinstein on January 6, 2015
Al Hawsawi, who had the anthrax processing documents scanned on his laptop, was closely affiliated with Adnan El-Shukrijumah
Posted by Lew Weinstein on September 22, 2014
FBI’s Undercover Informant Asaad Is Frustrated That He And FBI Missed Opportunity To Thwart Mohammed Atta and Anthrax Letter Suspect Adnan El-Shukrijumah, Al Qaeda’s Current Head Of External Operations
Posted on May 26, 2013
DXer said
Former Congressman Mike Pence long ago opined in a public letter that Al Qaeda was involved in the anthrax mailings. He now is slated to be the country’s next Vice-President. Will Notebook 4282 from the date of mailing now be produced so as to help to finally resolve the issue? A government mediator wrote a couple weeks ago and was preparing to contact the FBI.
But if Vice-President Pence were to order a review of Amerithrax, the FBI would find that it was no longer business as usual in Washington.
“Many observers, including most outside scientists, have argued that the FBI’s “Ivins Theory” was unpersuasive. The FBI reasoned that Dr. Ivins had no reason to be in the lab on particular dates. Some DOJ and FBI officials reasoned he must have been making and preparing a powderized anthrax to kill 5 people. I have interviewed the Al Qaeda anthrax lab director Yazid Sufaat, however, and he does not deny responsibility for the Fall 2001 anthrax mailings.
Yazid Sufaat says that, contrary to some media reports, he was successful in developing anthrax, but prefers other bugs; he views anthrax as good for sabotaging, but not killing
Posted by Lew Weinstein on April 30, 2015
Al Qaeda anthrax lab technician tells DXer that he realizes that by addressing these issues he may “jack myself up” but says that the “plan is on the way” — what does he mean when he says the “plan is on the way”?
Posted by Lew Weinstein on May 1, 2012
***
DXer says … Adnan El-Shukrijumah, son of Saudi missionary, was the Fall 2001 anthrax mailer and FBI is withholding relevant documents
Posted by Lew Weinstein on May 12, 2016
DXer says: Adnan El-Shukrijumah is the anthrax mailer … on or about 9/13/2001, he phoned from KSM’s house to tell his mom he was coming to the US
Posted on June 6, 2014
https://caseclosedbylewweinstein.wordpress.com/2014/06/06/dxer-adnan-el-shukrijumah-is-the-anthrax-mailer-on-9132001-he-phoned-from-ksms-house-to-tell-his-mom-he-was-coming-to-the-us/ “
DXer said
FOIA requestor Dr. Dillon is an academic and publisher. He is a former intelligence analyst associated with the US State Department. In testing the FBI’s theory that Dr. Ivins had no reason to be in the lab, he has sought Lab Notebook 4282 which contains contemporaneous handwritten notes about one of the many experiments he was working on (at pages 65-70). The pages were first obtained by the FBI in 2003 and put in Part 1A of an FBI 302 report. See 1A GJ 1100.
In response to Dillon’s FOIA request for information relating to Ivins’ activities in Sep.-Oct. 2001, the FBI falsely claimed that it had uploaded the information (such as Notebook 4282) to the FBI’s “Vault”
Posted by Lew Weinstein on October 15, 2015
The original was then seized again in 2007 and not returned. An FBI agent in an excel spreadsheet that has been produced explains that the notebook has entries from the time of the mailings. (See Part 55 of 59 of Amerithrax documents in the FBI’s “Vault.”) The FBI and DOJ have failed to produce the notebook despite requests by both me and Dr. Dillon. Specifically, there are notations from September 14, 15 and from September 18, 2001, the date of the first mailing.
The Army has sought the return of the notebooks taken by Dr. Ivins for years — and has uploaded all those that it has and that eventually were returned by the FBI. Notebook 4282, however, still has not been returned. According to USMRMC FOIA Officer Sandra Rogers, the FBI still has not returned Notebooks 4037, 4010 and 4282, preventing the Army from uploading them in USAMRMC’s excellent reading room that was created containing my FOIA requests directed to USAMRIID.
http://mrmc.amedd.army.mil/index.cfm?pageid=foia_reading_room.overview
I have uploaded the FBI discussing the documents relating to Notebook 4282 that is still subject of the DOJ and FBI’s game of hide-the-ball at the hyperlinks above. I have forwarded them to Attorney Matt Hurd. Attorney Hurd, who has been very gracious, has expressed a willingness to have an attorney reconsider the denial. But that will lead to an attorney doing the same ineffectual searches in the decades-old database being used of words like “Notebook” “USMRMC.” Instead, Attorney Hurd should pick up the phone and call FOIA analyst Meredith Savary or former lead Amerithrax investigator Richard Lambert or someone currently at the FBI who would know and ask where to find the documents. To claim that the dog ate the lab pages in Dr. Ivins’ notebook on the date of mailing of anthrax that killed 5 people is unacceptable. I am advised by FOIA Officer Ms. Rogers that the Notebook 4282 that the FBI has not returned is titled “Anthrax.”
This past year, Hambali, the supervisor of Al Qaeda anthrax lab director Yazid Sufaat, saw the light of a courtroom for the first time since his capture in 2003. That’s an incredible 13 years without any transparency about his involvement in Al Qaeda’s anthrax program.
On this issue of the FBI blaming Dr. Bruce Ivins for the anthrax mailings,however, there is no justification for there not to be government in the sunshine. The Department of Justice and FBI should comply with FOIPA. The Department of Justice and FBI, first and foremost, should stand for the rule of law.
Anthrax, Al Qaeda and Ayman Zawahiri: The Infiltration of US Biodefense
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
DXer said
Mr. Bannon,
Here’s a plan to keep in mind in moving forward.
DXer said
Senator Grassley,
Perhaps you could could call Kris Weart at the FBI and ask if him he’s found Notebook 4282, the notebook with the notebook entries on the date of Fall 2001 anthrax mailings. He’s working on it but it would help for him to know his efforts are appreciated.
Anthrax, Al Qaeda and Ayman Zawahiri: The Infiltration of US Biodefense
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
DXer said
For those with a different agenda, when Yazid Sufaat’s assistant said “I made the anthrax”, he was lying under coercion.
Senate Torture Report: Yazid Sufaat’s assistant Al-Barq alternately would say “I made the anthrax” or “I lied”
Posted on December 10, 2014
And when Yazid Sufaat said he made the anthrax, the couch was the wrong color and he was too affable.
Yazid Sufaat says that, contrary to some media reports, he was successful in developing anthrax, but prefers other bugs; he views anthrax as good for sabotaging, but not killing
Posted on April 30, 2015
And when Rauf Ahmad reported on his visit to [REDACTED; Porton Down] to obtain just the right laboratory strain of anthrax, and said he had successfully achieved his targets, that just meant that his flight was on time.
Or that the use of the bioreactor by Rauf Ahmad confirmed he was a no-talent and Steve Hatfill, who had to fake an PhD to get the job, was a talented and skilled lab technician because he had a bioreactor.
Abdur Rauf’s “I have successfully achieved” letter to Ayman al-Zawahiri
Posted on July 4, 2009
And I guess when Rauf Ahmad/and his colleagues presented on having isolated anthrax at Porton Down conference (see item linked in this thread), it justified these same people arguing that Al Qaeda had not succeeded in isolating anthrax for a decade and a half even though Rauf Ahmad’s paper was in the public domain — and of these same scientists attended the conference where he presented — and knew he had attended when I first disclosed his name in 2002.
Foreign scientists, I guess, are just not as skilled as Americans. Is that really the argument?
Heck, Ali Timimi read a genomics argument while the jury was deliberating.
Anthrax, Al Qaeda and Ayman Zawahiri: The Infiltration of US Biodefense
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
DXer said
The same armchair pundits simply ignore and overlook Sufaat’s report he had previously worked for the Malaysian Armed Forces biological weapons program
Al Qaeda anthrax lab tech says he had been part of Malaysian Armed Forces biological weapons program
Posted on March 23, 2012
They totally ignore that Yazid Sufaat does not deny responsibility for the mailings.
In written correspondence with the Case Closed blog, the Sacramento State graduate and former Malaysian Army Captain Yazid Sufaat has invoked the “Fifth Amendment” and declined to disclose the b. anthracis strain he was using.
Posted on April 28, 2015
And reach deductions quite unlike those reached by many.
2014 Straits Times report : Into what weapons did Yazid Sufaat attempt to load anthrax?
Posted on February 23, 2014
Most of all, they have not begun to read the thousands of illuminating pages of documents provided by the FBI.
Anthrax, Al Qaeda and Ayman Zawahiri: The Infiltration of US Biodefense
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
DXer said
I have to disagree with anyone who says that Yazid Sufaat could have made more (but didn’t) from his Malaysian jail cell
or al-Barq from a secret Jordanian and then Israeli prison. Or the assistant who was killed.
If Al Qaeda was guilty, Atef was followed up after a bomb was dropped on his head. (He was in charge of the anthrax program).
Moreover, I have to disagree with an American scientist that has such a poor opinion of foreign scientists,
whether working alongside and learning from Peter Turnbull at Porton Down or Porton Down-sponsored conferences,
or working alongside and learning from Bruce Ivins and Arthur Friedlander and Pat Fellows at USAMRIID,
or working alongside and learning from and having access to Ken Alibek’s computers in the lab at the Center for Biodefense at GMU and ATCC,
or working alongside and learning from Kimothy Smith at LSU.
The FBI and Ken Alibek disagrees with such pundits on the difficulty — Alibek has made the stuff where these pundits like my friend Stuart and his co-authors haven’t.
Alibek’s position was always that a sometimes sophistication lies in simplicity — the brilliance of a method can be that the simple method results in a sophisticated product.
Specifically, my dear and dear friend Stuart Jacobsen published an ill-considered article arguing that the sophistication pointed to Iraq. (See Shoham and Jacobsen article).
Now some would carry on the tradition and say the floatability of the anthrax points away from Al Qaeda. “The letter-fill was too sophisticated for the Al Quaeda bunch”, they say.
Well, in contrast, I have a lot of respect for the abilities of foreign scientists. Heck, Dr. Ayman had 40 doctors in his family — more doctors than many people meet in a lifetime.
More to the point, the experts who actually know how to make the stuff disagree — and my expert, JP, was head of the Air Force lab that did controlled experiments.
Politics and preconceptions have no role in true crime or intelligence analysis.
If people don’t want to join in seeking Notebook 4282, with notes from the date of mailing — because they have loosey-goosey deductions about what Al Qaeda should have or could have done — they should just sit on their hands. There’s a new Sheriff in town and hopefully his deputy (Pence) will to not allow such loosey-goosey deductions put our country at risk. Hopefully, Vice-President will politely encourage the FBI to cough up the Notebook 4282 and identify the second lab that Rauf Ahmad visited.
I, for one, am tired of politics and just want the contemporaneous documents. And I want the second lab that Rauf Ahmad visited to be publicly identified. You will be shocked!
DXer said
Vice-Admiral Grace Hopper.
This one’s for you.
DXer said
Who will replace Channing Phillips as U.S. attorney for D.C.?
By Colbert I. King March 12
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2017/03/12/who-will-replace-channing-phillips-as-u-s-attorney-for-d-c/?utm_term=.523ba0245726
D.C. alert: A new sheriff is coming to town, courtesy of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and President Trump’s White House.
***
The field of possible candidates isn’t limited to D.C. residents, though there are excellent attorneys in private practice and experienced current and former assistant U.S. attorneys living within our borders. But when party affiliation, ideology and Trump loyalty get figured into the equation, it’s possible the search will widen beyond the metropolitan Washington area.
So, too, the possibility of the city getting a U.S. attorney who is up on the law, in good standing with Sessions, Stephen K. Bannon and other assorted White House operatives, but, unlike Phillips and several of his predecessors in that j
Oh well, fair warning is fair play.
Speaking of which, bid farewell to “pay to play,” fooling around with bids and taking care of political friends.
A new sheriff is coming to town.
GAO: The Special Prosecutor In The Stevens Case Recently Found That Two Unidentified AUSAs From The DC US Attorneys Office Advised That It Was The Practice Of That Office Not To Produce FBI 302s As Jencks Material.
Posted on March 18, 2012
DXer compares statements made by US Attorney Jeffrey Taylor and FBI Assistant Director Joseph Persichini at their August 8, 2008 press conference to the documentary evidence so far produced (NOTE: much more is still being withheld)
Posted by Lew Weinstein on June 10, 2011
How could US Attorney Taylor not have known that the matching anthrax was commonly in Building 1412?
Posted on July 8, 2010
DXer said
The head of the Amerithrax prosecution Daniel Seikaly pled the Fifth Amendment about leaking the hyped Hatfill stories that derailed the Amerithrax investigation for 7 years. His daughter later came to represent “anthrax weapons suspect” (to borrow defense counsel’s phrase) Ali Al-Timimi pro bono. GAO: Was an apparent conflict of interest avoided on the grounds that her representation began after her father left DOJ? Or was there a continuing appearance of a conflict of interest?
Posted by Lew Weinstein on September 3, 2011
floor plan of suite at GMU’s Discovery Hall in 2001 with Ali Al-Timimi and leading anthrax scientists
Posted by Lew Weinstein on February 7, 2010
Who does former lead Amerithrax prosecutor Daniel Seikaly and his daughter, Ali Al-Timimi’s former defense counsel, think is responsible for the anthrax mailings of Fall 2001?
Posted by Lew Weinstein on May 22, 2011https://caseclosedbylewweinstein.wordpress.com/2011/05/22/who-does-former-prosecutor-daniel-seikaly-and-his-daughter-ali-al-timimis-former-defense-counsel-think-is-responsible-for-the-anthrax-mailings-of-fall-2001/
Catherine Herridge’s NEXT WAVE: Anwar Awlaki, Ali Al-Timimi and why FBI Agent Wade Ammerman wanted to allow Anwar Awlaki to meet with Ali Al-Timimi in October 2002
Posted by Lew Weinstein on June 21, 2011
DXer said
what BL-3 lab did Abdur Rauf visit?
Posted by Lew Weinstein on June 29, 2009
If a person does know this, then why would you seek to undermine an Al Qaeda theory? Politics? Preconceptions? Personal interest? instead, the focus should be on getting the answer to this question.
The NYT in mid-2000 was misled by Milton who mistakenly interpreted the order of the undated letters from Rauf to Ayman.
DXer said
People should ground discussion on Rauf Ahmad’s correspondence with Ayman Zawahiri from 1999.
from DXer … infiltration of U.S. Biodefense? … Zawahiri’s Correspondence With Infiltrating Scientist Was Part of Parallel Compartmentalized Cell Operation
Posted by Lew Weinstein on February 20, 2010
DXer said
Martin:
Rauf Ahmad told Dr. Ayman that he had learned processing tricks from his internet acquaintance that he met at the conference – Les B.? Peter T.? Kimothy? Bruce? Arthur? John? Pat? Someone at GMU/ Center of Biodefense?
Because of the compartmentalization of the investigation — which lead investigator Lambert says messed the investigation up in his memo to Director Mueller — those investigating Bruce would know nothing about the processing tricks learned by Rauf Ahmad from the scientist he met (very likely from Porton Down or USAMRIID).
Thus, the conflict of interest could not be revealed if, say, it was Les and he was the one who (working for the FBI at Maryland) discarded the CIA’s detection of Ames at the Afghan lab.
I’ll assume that his internet correspondent was not Martin who attended the conference and met Rauf Ahmad — though I need to ask given the early subpoenas that went to LSU and University of Michigan, long before the other labs generally.
And I won’t know it wasn’t Kimothy unless someone tells me. (But working for Paul Keim, it would have been a very profound conflict of interest.)
In fact, there would have been a breathtaking conflict of interest in the case of almost any of the individuals, given that most all of them worked on the investigation.
The Philly head of forensics, Garvey, the former CIA scientist, who said that the FBI’s discarding of the CIA’s detection of Ames in Afghan was tantamount to a sexual predator doing the forensic tests in the rape case.
I appreciate that such conflicts of interest are not particularly of anyone one’s making — it was a small world back then and there would be numerous overlapping ties. (I guess it depends on the nature of the “processing tricks.”)
But can we at least rule you/MHJ out? Am I correct Rauf Ahmad did not learn any processing tricks from MJH and that he did not have internet correspondence with him?
Note that Rauf Ahmad’s work in 1999 was long before any spinning of things toward Iraq by the Bush Administration that took office in 2001. Al Qaeda’s anthrax program needs to be understood through the contemporary documents and not the spin by political activists.
Anthrax, Al Qaeda and Ayman Zawahiri: The Infiltration of US Biodefense
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
DXer said
In written correspondence with the Case Closed blog, the Sacramento State graduate and former Malaysian Army Captain Yazid Sufaat has invoked the “Fifth Amendment” and declined to disclose the b. anthracis strain he was using.
Posted on April 28, 2015
Trentonian (10/20/13) … Congressman Rush Holt: “Myriad questions remain about the anthrax attacks and the government’s response to the attacks.
Posted by Lew Weinstein on October 21, 2013
The head of the Amerithrax prosecution Daniel Seikaly pled the Fifth Amendment about leaking the hyped Hatfill stories that derailed the Amerithrax investigation for 7 years. His daughter later came to represent “anthrax weapons suspect” (to borrow defense counsel’s phrase) Ali Al-Timimi pro bono. GAO: Was an apparent conflict of interest avoided on the grounds that her representation began after her father left DOJ? Or was there a continuing appearance of a conflict of interest?
Posted by Lew Weinstein on September 3, 2011
floor plan of suite at GMU’s Discovery Hall in 2001 with Ali Al-Timimi and leading anthrax scientists
Posted by Lew Weinstein on February 7, 2010
DXer said
Many observers, including most outside scientists, have argued that the FBI’s “Ivins Theory” was unpersuasive. The FBI reasoned that Dr. Ivins had no reason to be in the lab on particular dates. Some DOJ and FBI officials reasoned he must have been making and preparing a powderized anthrax to kill 5 people. I have interviewed the Al Qaeda anthrax lab director Yazid Sufaat, however, and he does not deny responsibility for the Fall 2001 anthrax mailings.
Yazid Sufaat says that, contrary to some media reports, he was successful in developing anthrax, but prefers other bugs; he views anthrax as good for sabotaging, but not killing
Posted by Lew Weinstein on April 30, 2015
Hambali: Recommendation for Continued Detention (excerpt)
Posted by Lew Weinstein on April 25, 2011
There were Al Qaeda operatives meeting with Mohammed Atta in the United States that were not caught (or were caught and released).
Atta Was Coordinating With Jdey’s Associate Al-Hazmi, First In Fort Lee, NJ In Late August 2001 And Then In Laurel, MD in September 2001 ; Jdey’s Associate Nawaf Al-Hazmi Had Been At The Planning Meeting At Yazid Sufaat’s Kuala Lumpur Condo With Anthrax Planner Hambali And Anthrax Lab Director Yazid Sufaat And Yet The FBI Never Told The Public That Jdey Had Been Detained Along With Moussaoui In August 2001 (With Biology Textbooks) And Then Released
Posted by Lew Weinstein on January 25, 2012
DXer says … Adnan El-Shukrijumah, son of Saudi missionary, was the Fall 2001 anthrax mailer and FBI is withholding relevant documents
Posted by Lew Weinstein on May 12, 2016
DXer said
Requestor Dr. Dillon is an academic and publisher. He is a former intelligence analyst associated with the US State Department. In testing the FBI’s theory that Dr. Ivins had no reason to be in the lab, he has sought Lab Notebook 4282 which contains contemporaneous handwritten notes about one of the many experiments he was working on (at pages 65-70). The pages were first obtained by the FBI in 2003 and put in Part 1A of an FBI 302 report. See 1A GJ 1100.
In response to Dillon’s FOIA request for information relating to Ivins’ activities in Sep.-Oct. 2001, the FBI falsely claimed that it had uploaded the information (such as Notebook 4282) to the FBI’s “Vault”
Posted by Lew Weinstein on October 15, 2015
The original was seized again in 2007 and, according to the Army, not returned. An FBI agent in an excel spreadsheet that has been produced explains that the notebook has entries from the time of the mailings. (See Part 55 of 59 of Amerithrax documents in the FBI’s “Vault.”) The FBI and DOJ have failed to produce the notebook despite requests by both me and Dr. Dillon. Specifically, there are notations from September 14, 15 and from September 18, 2001, the date of the first mailing.
The Army has sought the return of the notebooks taken by Dr. Ivins for years — and has uploaded all those that it has and that eventually were returned by the FBI. Notebook 4282, however, still has not been returned. According to USMRMC FOIA Officer Sandra Rogers, the FBI still has not returned Notebooks 4037, 4010 and 4282, preventing the Army from uploading them in USAMRMC’s excellent reading room that was created containing my FOIA requests directed to USAMRIID.
http://mrmc.amedd.army.mil/index.cfm?pageid=foia_reading_room.overview
I have uploaded the FBI discussing the documents relating to Notebook 4282 that is still subject of the DOJ and FBI’s game of hide-the-ball at the hyperlinks above. I have forwarded them to Attorney Matt Hurd. Attorney Hurd, who has been very gracious, has expressed a willingness to have an attorney reconsider the denial. But that lead to an attorney doing the same ineffectual searches in the decades-old database being used of words like “Notebook” “USMRMC.” Instead, Attorney Hurd should pick up the phone and call a can-do FOIA specialists who could lay his hands on the pages from the notebook.
On this issue of the FBI blaming Dr. Bruce Ivins for the anthrax mailings,however, there is no justification for there not to be government in the sunshine in accordance with FOIA. The Department of Justice and FBI should comply with FOIPA. The Department of Justice and FBI, first and foremost, should stand for the rule of law and provide Notebook 4282.
Contrary to the slightly overbroad suggestion by Attorney Lambert today, the notebook is not subject to a FOIA exemption and is not classified. Amerithrax is closed. The FBI has said so and so for FOIA purposes, it must be deemed closed.
Of course, when the FBI retrieves the notebook pages from its files, the FBI can redact what it likes. Then pursuant to the statute, those litigations could be appealed administratively, and if necessary, then litigated.
But to say that the dog ate the notebook is unacceptable.
Anthrax, Al Qaeda and Ayman Zawahiri: The Infiltration of US Biodefense
http://www.amerithrax.wordpress.com
DXer said
Some Background:
NYT interview of former lead Amerithrax investigator Richard Lambert: “a staggering amount of exculpatory evidence” regarding Dr. Ivins remains secret
Posted by Lew Weinstein on July 16, 2016
FOX NEWS interview with RICHARD LAMBERT … Former agent claims FBI concealing evidence in anthrax case
Posted by Lew Weinstein on April 22, 2015
FBI cannot locate anthrax case lab notebook for the day first letters were mailed!
Posted by Lew Weinstein on August 25, 2016https://caseclosedbylewweinstein.wordpress.com/2016/08/25/fbi-cannot-locate-anthrax-case-lab-notebook-for-the-day-first-letters-were-mailed/
Al Qaeda anthrax lab technician tells DXer that he realizes that by addressing these issues he may “jack myself up” but says that the “plan is on the way” — what does he mean when he says the “plan is on the way”?
Posted on May 1, 2012
DXer said
Infiltrating Al Qaeda scientist Rauf Ahmad did a lot more than have a servant serve tea and cookies to his US interrogators at a comfortable ISI safehouse
Posted by Lew Weinstein on April 26, 2015
The FBI did not take custody of the Pakistan anthrax scientist Rauf Ahmad who conducted a seminar on using a balloon to disperse the anthrax he had made
Posted by Lew Weinstein on January 17, 2015
The UK Lab That Let Al Qaeda Scientist Rauf Ahmad Leave With Virulent Anthrax in 1999 Made A Mistake; To Keep The Lab’s Identity A Secret Prevents Us From Learning From History
Posted on December 5, 2014
CIA and FBI Knew Rauf Ahmad harvested “anthrax spore concentrate” for Al Qaeda for experiment on guinea pigs on “7-4-001” – handwriting on anthrax spore concentrate is same as handwriting of Rauf Ahmad in correspondence planning anthrax lab with Ayman Zawahiri
Posted by Lew Weinstein on November 26, 2014
DXer said
The Chair of the Dangerous Pathogens 2000 conference at which the Al Qaeda scientist’s Rauf Ahmad’s research on killing mice with anthrax was presented, worked at the University of Maryland Biotechnology Center while advising the FBI’s Amerithrax Investigation ; the paper Dr. Baillie presented was co-authored with sequencer of the Ames strain
Posted by Lew Weinstein on November 16, 2014
The FBI has known since 2001 that a paper at the 2000 UK conference chaired by the lone non-US Amerithrax advisor Les Baillie, explained how Al Qaeda’s anthrax lab scientist Rauf Ahmad had killed mice with 100 injected spores.
Posted by Lew Weinstein on November 16, 2014
At the Porton Down-sponsored Dangerous Pathogens 2000 Conference, Dr. Zawahiri’s infiltrating scientist Rauf Ahmad, in addition to presenting on the isolation of Bacillus Anthracis, presented on the detection of bacterial contamination in water.
Posted by Lew Weinstein on November 15, 2014
Here is a picture and identification of the regular attendees that Dr. Ayman Zawahiri sent Rauf Ahmad to infiltrate in connection with the annual anthrax conferences being held in England.
Posted by Lew Weinstein on November 15, 2014
DXer said
Some Background:
Tom Ridge, former Homeland Secretary (from ’03-’05), this week said that “al-Qaida did experiments on anthrax in animals” — did AQ use the “Ames strain” like Dr. Garvey reports the CIA detected at the Afghan lab?
Posted on November 15, 2015
The CIA’s detection of the Ames strain of b. anthracis in Afghanistan was discarded by the FBI due to different testing results, sampling procedures, and methodology used by the FBI and IC (“Intelligence Community”)
Posted by Lew Weinstein on April 30, 2015
Congressman Mike Pence & Pulitzer prize winning science writer Laurie Garrett agree on Anthrax Mailings.. Pence: “I don’t know who sent it” — I am afraid we may have missed the off-ramp to the truth.” … Garrett: “I get outraged because the FBI completely botched the investigation on the anthrax.”
Posted by Lew Weinstein on September 11, 2011
DXer asks Vice President Pence: Who at the FBI is responsible for withholding Ivins’ Notebook 4282, containing the notes from the time of the Fall 2001 anthrax mailings?
Posted by Lew Weinstein on February 17, 2017
https://caseclosedbylewweinstein.wordpress.com/2017/02/17/dxer-asks-vice-president-pence-who-at-the-fbi-is-responsible-for-withholding-ivins-notebook-4282-containing-the-notes-from-the-time-of-the-fall-2001-anthrax-mailings/comment-page-1/#comment-46874