US bioweapons programs used the Ames strain
of anthrax.
By Alllie
What, you might ask, is a strain of bacteria? Think of it, at the
broadest level, as like breeds of dog or races of people. Rottweiler
or Pomeranian they are all still dogs, but they have different characteristics
that allow us to tell them apart. Different breeds of dogs even
have different susceptibilities to disease. So with it is with human
races, we are all still people but with some different characteristics.
Not all of these characteristics can be seen on the outside. In
humans different races have different disease resistance. For instance,
when exposed to Yellow Fever up to 90% of Europeans/Caucasians will
die but only 10% of Negroes. With smallpox the mortality rate for
Europeans/Caucasians is about 33%, Negroes about 50%, and Native
Americans up to 95%. So it is with different strains of anthrax.
Different strains have different characteristics. Some of them are
more infectious, more deadly, some less so. Some strains are easily
killed with common antibiotics. Some are antibiotic resistant and
are deadly regardless of any medical treatment. Different states
have attempted to weaponize different strains depending on the characteristics
they want in a weapon.
After the anthrax attacks the White House and the Bush administration
repeatedly tried to pin the anthrax attacks on Saddam and use it
as a pretext for attacking Iraq. There were a few voices pointing
out that the evidence did not support that conclusion that Iraq
was involved but there was one, UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter.
Actual facts. Ritter seemed to be the only person in possession
of them and willing to lay them out for us. He knew the strain of
anthrax Iraq had used and knew that it wasn't the strain sent in
the anthrax attacks. The repeated attempts to link Iraq turned out
to speculation at best and lies at worst. It also became clear that
only a state could produce and weaponize anthrax in this manner.
So the question became...which state?
DON'T
BLAME SADDAM FOR THIS ONE by Scott Ritter
Another mitigating factor is purely scientific:
Iraq procured the Vollum strain of anthrax from American Type
Culture Collection, a company based in Rockville, Maryland, which
provides commercially available viruses - such as anthrax [sic]
- to consumers worldwide. While Iraq had investigated other strains,
including those indigenous to the country, it was the Vollum strain
that Iraq mass-produced for weapon use. It is a unique, highly
virulent form of anthrax, and its use would represent the kind
of link needed to suggest Iraq as a likely source. That is not
to say that the presence of a Vollum strain would automatically
indict Iraq, or that a non-Vollum strain clears Iraq. However,
federal investigators currently think that the anthrax used in
New York and Florida is the same strain, most probably the Ames
strain, a variety native to the US. The strain used in Washington
is as yet unidentified, but it has been assessed as non-weapons
grade and responsive to antibiotics. Based upon this information,
it would be irresponsible to speculate about a Baghdad involvement.
There is also the political factor. Despite
the ongoing efforts of the US and Great Britain to maintain economic
sanctions, Baghdad has been very successful in developing a political
and diplomatic momentum to get them lifted since weapons inspectors
left three years ago. The events of September 11 brought this
anti-sanctions momentum to a halt. It makes absolutely no sense
for Iraq to be involved in a bio-terror attack that, in one fell
swoop, undermines what has been Iraq's number one priority over
the past decade: the lifting of economic sanctions. ..Scott Ritter
Ritter laid out some facts at a time when the Bush White House
was trying very hard to pin the anthrax attacks on Iraq when the
evidence did not support that conclusion.
U.S.
Inquiry Tried, but Failed, to Link Iraq to Anthrax Attack
Shortly after the first anthrax victim died in October, the Bush
administration began an intense effort to explore any possible
link between Iraq and the attacks and continued to do so even
after scientists determined that the lethal germ was an American
strain, scientists and government officials said.
"We looked for any shred of evidence
that would bear on this, or any foreign source," a senior
intelligence official said of an Iraq connection. "It's just
not there."
The focus on Iraq was based on its record of
developing a germ arsenal and also on what
some officials said was a desire on the part of the administration
to find a reason to attack Iraq in the war on terrorism.
One discovery early in the inquiry seemed
to undercut the foreign thesis. The anthrax used in the first
attack, in Florida, and in subsequent attacks turned out to be
the Ames strain, named after its place of origin in Iowa. While
investigators found that this domestic variety of anthrax had
been shipped to some laboratories overseas, none could be traced
to Baghdad.
Nevertheless,
government officials continued pushing the Iraq theory, scientists
and officials involved in the inquiry said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/22/national/22INQU.html
Perhaps the whole justification for the attack was to give the
Bush Junta a reason to attack Iraq. Of course in the end they attacked
without reason.
On Oct. 14, the London Observer published
one of the now familiar—and totally false—propaganda
scare stories, entitled "Iraq 'Behind U.S. Anthrax Outbreaks.'
" The story gave credence to the ravings of "American
hawks" who say there is "a growing mass of evidence
that [Iraqi President] Saddam Hussein was involved, possibly indirectly,
with the Sept. 11 suicide hijacks." If confirmed, said the
Observer, "the pressure now building ... for an attack [on
Iraq] may be irresistible." One of these "hawks,"
an unnamed U.S. "administration official," told the
Observer that British Prime Minister Tony Blair is a "faithful
ally" in the war against terrorism and that "if
it means we are embarking on the next Hundred Years' War, then
that's what we are doing" (emphasis added).
The "next Hundred Year's War"?
Who are the U.S. maniacs who use such language, and are they not
as dangerous as Osama bin Laden's jihad?
This cabal is MORE dangerous than Bin Laden and seem determined
to lead us into a 100-years war, a war that would only benefit weapons
manufacturers and Isreal.
Here we will name the names of the fanatics
in this anti-Iraq grouping who have become known as the "Wolfowitz
cabal," named after Assistant Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz.
According to the New York Times, which published a leak about
their activities on Oct. 12, this grouping wants an immediate
war with Iraq, believing that the targetting of Afghanistan, already
an impoverished wasteland, falls far short of the global war that
they are hoping for. But Iraq is just another stepping stone to
turning the anti-terrorist "war" into a full-blown "Clash
of Civilizations," where the Islamic religion would become
the "enemy image" in a "new Cold War."
The Times revealed that a key section of
the "Wolfowitz cabal," is the 18-member Defense Policy
Board, which met for more than 19 hours on Sept. 19-20 to "make
the case" against Saddam Hussein. The meeting pushed for
a renewed war against Iraq as soon as the war against Afghanistan
had concluded its initial phase. It discussed
overthrowing Saddam Hussein, partitioning Iraq into mini-states
led by U.S.-funded dissidents who would steal the proceeds from
the Basra oil revenues for their quisling government. The
meeting discussed how to manipulate information so as to pin the
Sept. 11 attacks on the United States on Saddam Hussein. (Read
more...)
Since all this has happened and Iraq is being broken up into ministates
(the better to steal their oil), it become more and more credible
that parts of the US government were behind the anthrax attacks
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