Who do you think is behind the anthrax attacks?

[EXCESS]

I don't mean to make this a gossip topic at all, but I'm interested in your guys opinions (or predictions) on this poll.

[partyboynyc]

i have thought about this alot and i have come to the conclusion that it is that insane bastard............MUSCLE GURU!!lets' all kill him!!only a dumb fuck like him could possibly think he can take out the US.i heard he's going to start sending letters w/ dumb fuckign questions to all of us too so beware!!!

[CYCLEON]

uhhhh - that might be a bit much there, partyboy - I realize that if hes here another 3 days he will have more posts than mike (so he cant be a newbie, right?) but lets tone down the flame a tad.

BTW - I think that it could be partially foriegn and then some domestics trying to get a free ride.

[dane26]

alright, i know i'm a mod, but THAT was hilarious! i'm glad that i can use the excuse that i'm youngest mod to get away with shit like that. partyboy, funny, but maybe if we ignore him he'll go away?

[pureanger]

Gotta admit very funny

[Sicilian30]

New evidence suggests that Bin Ladden's groups could be responsible.

[ptbyjason]

Just to cause some controversy, here's a theory I heard yesterday. Bayer is doing it. They make cipro (sp?) and they knew that if they could produce enough panic, they could make a ton of money. Bayer is owned by Germans, and supposedly the big cheese is Bin Ladan's 3rd cousin. Some how they know Saddam, and all these other things that I don't know if they are true or not. Bayer is also fighting trying to get everyone to buy their drug, instead of other lesser known drugs. The guy that owned Bayer was asked i they were behind it (this part is true, I heard the audio tape) he laughed it off saying he didn't know anything about any anthrax cases.

I'm not a big believer in it, but I thought I would throw it out for everyone to discuss.

[Pete235]

Wow....just imagine. I'm not a big "conspiracy theory" guy but if it were true that would be really scary.

P

[dane26]

i just hope and pray that nobody's fucked up enough to start something like this over money. religious beleives is hard enough to imagine, but money........

[CYCLEON]

corporations are not always the brightest but they do have a good grasp of the risk/reward concept. In this case. a very modest gain if they succeed, utter annialation if they are discovered. basically, no way. a single employee perhaps. but this not the work of a single person. IMO

[ptbyjason]

Something else I remembered to keep this controversy thing going. This anthrax can't be made by just anyone. They have said that it can only be made in a lab. Whoever it is has to know what they are doing.

[pureanger]

We just got an anthrax case at the base that Im deployed at wtf

[Shredz]

I am a firefighter and part of a hazmat team. We have been run ragged because of these new anthrax scars. It is our job and I can respect that but people out there have to start using some common sense.

For example. We went to this "suspesious white powder call." When we got there it was a peice of shit car covered in a yellowie white powder in an underground parking. There where many cars around and this persons was the only one that had white powder on it.

I will tell you know some kids must have been pissed off at this guy and sprayed his car with a fire extinguisher. What this idiot has to relieze is that why the hell for

1..why would they target him and his peice of shit car.
2. That is a hell of alot of anthrax and it would cost 10's of thousands of dollars.

Like give your head a shake buddy..they would be attacking someone with importance. It is these silly bogus calls that get us away from the real emergencies like fires and car accidents and medical calls. These calls are tieing us up for over an our when your family members may be in need of us in a real emergency some where else. Or real anthrax scares or ones that could possibly be anthrax like at government buildings. Or places with some importance.

Well i have vented...but all i ask is that we as people us some common sence.

thanks.

we will still remain to do our best to keep the people safe from all emergencies real or bogus.

[dumbells101]

Sadam's the culprit, we should have killed him when we had the chance.

[ptbyjason]

FBI Investigates Possible Financial Motive in Anthrax Attacks

By Susan Schmidt and Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, December 21, 2001; Page A21


The FBI is pursuing the possibility that financial gain was the motive behind the mailing of letters containing deadly anthrax bacteria and has conducted extensive interviews of personnel at two laboratories and possibly more, according to government officials.

Although investigators have not ruled out other possible motives, they have conducted dozens of interviews in at least two labs to determine whether potential profit from the sale of anthrax medications or cleanup efforts may have motivated the bioterrorist believed responsible for the attacks, the officials said.

The current line of inquiry represents a deepening interest in one possible motive for investigators, who have examined a range of scenarios since the anthrax attacks on media and government representatives began this fall. Authorities have probed whether foreign terrorists or homegrown extremists are responsible for the attacks but have come to favor the theory that the bioterrorism is likely the work of an individual operating in this country.

Investigators are still looking at a wide range of possible motives, including revenge and an attempt to implicate Iraq. Although authorities believe the person who mailed the anthrax spores may have some scientific expertise, they are not convinced the person necessarily produced it. The material could have been stolen, officials have said.

The focus on a profit motive may help explain why the FBI has yet to seek samples of anthrax spores from two foreign laboratories known to possess Ames-strain anthrax microbes that genetically match the material sent to Sens. Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) and Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.). Those labs are the Canadian armed forces' Defence Research Establishment Suffield (DRES) and Britain's Defence Science and Technology Laboratories at Porton Down.

Spokesmen for the two foreign laboratories said they have not been contacted by the FBI or asked for samples of their germ stocks. Neither lab ever processed the Ames strain of anthrax in the powdered form found in the two letters, which readily becomes airborne and is easily inhaled.

"Porton Down has received no request from the FBI for information on its security arrangements, but if we were contacted, we would cooperate fully," said Sue Ellison, spokeswoman for the British lab.

Kent Harding, chief scientist for DRES, said the institute has "only been contacted by media at this point."

But a senior law enforcement official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said there are reasons the FBI has not yet asked those labs for the samples. He said the bureau is looking at its most important leads first.

He also noted that it will be some time before there is anything meaningful to compare with samples from other labs, because the anthrax spores in the Leahy letter are still undergoing chemical analysis. That process may take weeks to complete.

The letter to Leahy, found among quarantined mail, was unopened, leaving a substantial quantity of material inside for the FBI to test. The letter is seen as the FBI's best hope for forensic clues in the attacks that have killed five people and sickened 13.

A possible profit motive for the attacks has been the subject of speculation among scientists. Richard Ebright, a microbiologist with Rutgers University's Waksman Institute, said the list of possible scenarios and perpetrators would be quite long -- ranging from drug manufacturers to companies specializing in decontamination and cleanup.

"There are numerous mid-Atlantic regional links to all of these possibilities," said Ebright. "Doesn't narrow the field much, does it?"

DNA tests have confirmed that the spores used in the terrorist attacks are genetically identical to a strain obtained by researchers at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) at Fort Detrick, Md., in about 1980. The Army has acknowledged distributing the strain to five other agencies, and some of the strain was in turn shared with other researchers.

The five labs that received the Ames strain from USAMRIID are the Army's Dugway Proving Ground in central Utah; Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus, Ohio; the University of New Mexico's Health Sciences Center in Albuquerque; the Canadian DRES; and Porton Down.

Battelle, a private contractor that has worked with the Pentagon in developing defenses against biological attacks, is one of several labs visited by FBI agents investigating the anthrax attacks. Katy Delaney, a Battelle spokeswoman, said the company has cooperated fully with the government's investigation.

FBI agents "have interviewed people on our staff," Delaney said, but she declined to provide information about the nature of the interviews or how many Battelle employees had been questioned. "I can say that we have continued to provide all of the information and material that has been requested by the government," Delaney said.

Battelle is a contractor at Dugway, which last week acknowledged making a powdered form of anthrax to use in testing sensors and other equipment used to defend against biological attacks.

In the past several weeks, the FBI has also learned that a CIA defensive biowarfare program has involved the use of Ames-strain anthrax. Investigators have been very interested in the CIA program, government officials said, including work done by private contractors in connection with it.

Investigators learned belatedly that the CIA possessed Ames-strain anthrax spores because the agency was not listed among 91 labs registered with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to handle various strains of anthrax bacteria. Before 1997, labs that possessed anthrax spores but did not transfer them to other labs were not required to register with the CDC. The FBI has been surprised to learn only anecdotally of some programs, such as the CIA's, which have the material.

The CIA program was designed to develop defenses to a vaccine-resistant strain of anthrax reportedly created by the former Soviet Union. CIA officials have said they are certain the anthrax used in the mailings did not come from their work, that none of it is missing and that the small amount in their possession was not milled into powder form.

Staff writers Steve Fainaru and Rick Weiss contributed to this report.


© 2001 The Washington Post Company

[The Iron Game]

Israel intelligence is another option ya forgot to add

[Billy Boy]

The anthrax is likely to be nothing to do with bin Ladden.I think its just some other nutter/group trying it on.

The whole thing is just a mess.

I mean no disrespect to anyone or country and if this causes offence please remove it , but how hard can it be to find one person? How many troops are out there looking for him? I mean he could be sitting on a beach in Spain for all we know.

I just hope some soldier gets lucky and nail the fucker,if he is brought to court you will have the UN saying this and that and he,ll be treated with gloves on.He should be tortured and made to die slowly so he can feel a tiny amount of pain that terrorists cause to the victims relatives all over the world.

Maybe I,m being harsh but thats my opinon and like I said before I hope it does,nt offend.

[EXCESS]

Is it just me, or is there no talk of anthrax in the news lately? Maybe its because I live in Canada.

[9natural9]

I think Bob Saget is behind it all!!!!

[gotenks]

From all the availble resources out there Dr. Philip M. Zack seems to be the man responsible.

[maguilagorilla]

is that like mad cow disease?