They do dig a fast hole, don’t they?

Battelle has one (1) person being investigated, but no anthrax has been found to be connected with him “away” from the lab. If I remember correctly, he was one of several researchers working with the Ames vaccine, and the threat he made was verbal, and toward coworkers in the lab (I’ve been there, and it’s a pretty big lab). The FBI probably has no intention of investigating him, because local authorities are handling it. Of course Hollywood would show the evil "feds" charging into the Battelle Memorial Institute and taking over, easily shoving the righteously indignant police force aside -- but this is the real world, sort of "Outside the Valley".

No, wait...

It MUST be a cover-up.

Tell you what. Let's bring in every law enforcement agency in the world to duplicate in investigation ad infinitum, and to contaminate any and all evidence with repetitious test and analyses.

Hmm-m...
I wonder what we save in taxes by following proper procedure...

Naturally there are no sources supplied by tetrahedron.org, and I find the "news release" to be very carefully worded (i.e., “The CIA program was [allegedly] designed to develop defenses” [here we see that the CIA is only ‘allegedly’ innocent X^D], “Critics claim ...”, “... apparently for offensive military uses ...”, “Many people are pondering ...”). Yes, the nasty ol’ government is pulling yet another "fast one". Truth is, with fewer and fewer anthrax letters coming in (when was the last one?), there's not a lot for the FBI to tackle in the field, so they're being pulled in. for the time being, it’s in the hands of out federal labs and researchers.

But that's just another lame excuse...

The records document the delivery of Ames bacteria to at least 10 establishments.

One (1) Ames strain anthrax Source:
* USAMRIID
Fort Detrick
Frederick, MD

Most Recent Recipients from USAMRIID include:
(March 2001)
* University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center (an Albuquerque research institute)

(May 2001)
* the Battelle Memorial Institute (a Columbus, OH, corporation -- anthrax vaccine research)

(1998)
* Defence Research Establishment Suffield (a Canadian biodefense institute)

No hard records were available prior to 1997

(1992)
* the U.S. Army Dugway Proving Ground (a test facility in the Utah desert)

(mid-1980s)
* the Chemical Defence Establishment at Porton Down (a British biodefense institute near Salisbury, England)

Others known to have the Ames strain in their possession:
* a lab at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff
* Martin E. Hugh-Jones (an anthrax researcher at Louisiana State University)
* Jones recently said he received the Ames strain in the late 1990s from microbiologist Peter Turnbull, then at Porton Down. Turnbull, confirming the transaction in an interview last week, said Porton Down shared Ames with “very few” researchers, whom he declined to name.

While USAMRIID is a main supplier of the Ames strain, it is not the sole source -- and might not even be the prime supplier.

Arrests Made Thus Far:
(11/1/01)
* a Stafford, Virginia, postal worker was charged with perpetrating a hoax involving anthrax. The worker, who allegedly placed baby powder on and inside open mail, faces federal charges, including mailing threatening communications and tampering with the U.S. Mail. If she is convicted on both counts, she faces 25 years in prison.

(11/12/01)
* in Connecticut, a man was arrested for allegedly sending numerous letters in which he threatened anthrax contamination to various state and federal offices.
* also in Connecticut, another man was arrested for allegedly making false statements in connection with an anthrax scare at the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection.

Other Instances:
* a Rhode Island man faces federal charges after allegedly mailing a letter purported to contain anthrax, which actually contained talcum powder.

* two Kentucky residents face charges for allegedly mailing two envelopes containing a white, powdery substance which forced the closure of the local post office.

* in Dallas, Texas, a man was arrested for leaving a threatening phone message with a law firm about a package containing anthrax.

Anthrax hoaxes actually predate both the September 11 terrorist attacks and the anthrax-laden letters from September and October 2001. On November 8, 2001, a jury found Mitchell Montverdi guilty of sending threatening letters through the United States Postal Service in February and April 2000. He had sent two letters making threats of injury or death to residents of the United States by using anthrax. On November 1 of this year, the conviction of Charles Redden was announced in California. Redden was indicted in April 2000 with threatening to release anthrax into the air-conditioning system of a federal building in Oakland, California.

According to law, individuals who threaten the use of biological toxins can receive up to life in prison, while those who lie to law enforcement officials about terrorist hoaxes, and those who mail communications that contain any threat to injure the addressee, or any other person, can receive up to five years in prison.

The good folks out at tetrahedron.org (whatever the hell that is) seem under the impression that they’ve read enough Dick Tracy mags to know when a serious investigation is being sidelined. Hoaxters and copycat terrorists are always easier than the real thing, because to them the crime is not a serious one, and therefore is not properly thought out. It stands to reason the small-fish would be hooked first.

Also, per their mission statement, tetrahedron.org proclaims themselves to be some kind of “premier educational publishers of ‘health science and government cover-up’ literature.” Reading over the site, I see many, many pointless ‘power words’, and many, many pointless arguments to nowhere. Regardless of their history (dates from 1978), this is actually a “new” organization with a real-time history of barely 3 years:

“... as our work became more politically sensitive and "incorrect" we were invited to transition to public health education programs supported by grassroots organizations. In 1998, our company moved to the Idaho panhandle from Boston and relinquished our 501(C)(4) status in protest to regulatory agencies.”

Comes across as another seedy, daytime talk-show hype-syte to me (Jerry Springer reveals all), but just the kind of place Dennis might call home.

Cheers,
Dan