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View Full Version : 5 Years Later, FBI Discovers Anthrax Wasn't "Near-Military-Grade Biological Weapon"



Gold9472
09-25-2006, 08:58 AM
FBI widens probe of 2001 anthrax attack: paper

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=domesticNews&storyID=2006-09-25T045156Z_01_N24232065_RTRUKOC_0_US-SECURITY-ANTHRAX.xml&WTmodLoc=NewsHome-C3-domesticNews-3

(Gold9472: This took five years?!?)

Mon Sep 25, 2006 12:52am ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The FBI is convinced that anthrax mailed to the U.S. Senate five years ago was not weapons-grade level and authorities have widened their investigation, The Washington Post reported on Monday.

The Post said the anthrax bacteria contained nothing linking it to a specific source.

A series of anthrax attacks in 2001, which started one week after September 11, killed five people. Mail laced with the lethal powder was sent to U.S. Senate offices, a Florida newspaper, and television networks in New York.

Law enforcement officials confirmed that the anthrax bacteria, initially described as a near-military-grade biological weapon, showed no signs of processing that would make it more deadly, the Post reported.

The officials also said scientific analysis found the strain of anthrax used in the attack to be more common than was initially believed, the newspaper reported.

"There is no significant signature in the powder that points to a domestic source," one scientist who studied the material told the Post.

The FBI was now casting a wider net for possible suspects after a focus on government scientists as the likely source of the attack, the newspaper said.

An FBI spokesman was not immediately available for comment.

"Whoever made the powder produced a deadly project of exceptional purity and quality -- up to a trillion spores per gram -- but used none of the tricks known to military bioweapons scientists to increase the lethality of the product," The Washington Post said.

However, officials stressed that the person would have had to have considerable skills in microbiology and access to equipment.

"It wasn't weaponized. It was just nicely cleaned up," said one scientist who spoke on condition of anonymity. "Whoever did it was proud of their biology. They grew the spores, spun them down, cleaned up the debris. But there were no additives."

Eckolaker
09-25-2006, 10:58 AM
*Cough*Bullshit*Cough**Cough*


Excuse me, had something in my throat.

Gold9472
09-25-2006, 11:00 AM
Seriously. This took 5 years?!?

Gold9472
09-25-2006, 11:33 AM
I guess this didn't have anything to do with it.

http://www.yourbbsucks.com/forum/showthread.php?t=12707

beltman713
09-25-2006, 03:59 PM
I seem to remember it was said the anthrax was linked to a particular US military Installation that manufactured anthrax for the US army.

Eckolaker
09-25-2006, 04:19 PM
Fort Detrich(SP), Maryland

amman254
09-25-2006, 05:41 PM
Seriously. This took 5 years?!?

they should have given it to the guys at CSI miami....it would have been done two hours later.....:)

thumper
11-02-2006, 02:37 AM
haha, reminds me of the extra bomb they found in the unabombers house a decade later