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While Media Spotlights One Anthrax Suspect, Another Is Too Hot to Touch
The most likely culprit of the anthrax attacks was Philip Zack. This is a man that was sued by two of his co-workers for racist remarks against them -- both of the co-workers were of Arab descent. After encouraging everyone to believe Arab terrorists had done this, why didn't the mainstream media come clean when it was revealed that an anti-Arab racist was to blame?
September-October 2002, pages 18-19
Special Report
While Media Spotlights One Anthrax Suspect, Another Is Too Hot to Touch
By Delinda Curtiss Hanley
America’s mainstream press finds some stories too hot to handle. One of the most egregious examples of this is its coverage of the hunt for the perpetrator of the post-9/11 anthrax letters—a matter of concern to all Americans. After an initial flurry of reports, the media inexplicably ignored the FBI’s laborious search for the person who last fall mailed anthrax-laced letters to news organizations and the Capitol Hill offices of Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (S-SD) and Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-VT).
Did the U.S. media merely lose interest after the government failed to find an Iraqi or al-Qaeda connection, and therefore could not link the postal terrorism to Sept. 11? Or was the press warned off the sensitive subject? After months of silence, in August the subject of the anthrax attacks once again hit the newspapers and network TV stations. The scientist in the spotlight, however, may be little more than a hapless “fall guy.”
Five people died and more than a dozen more were made seriously ill from exposure to the deadly Ames variety of anthrax. Americans across the country feared opening their mail. It’s a safe bet that, had a Muslim- or Arab-American scientist been the prime suspect, press coverage would have been unrelenting.
Apparently journalists’ interests weren’t sufficiently aroused by the FBI profile of a disgruntled American bioweapons scientist who may have launched the lethal attack merely to help his career and increase government funding in his area of expertise. This homegrown terrorist murdered innocents, sowed fear across the United States, and created chaos in the U.S. and international postal services, but for 10 months he stayed out of the news.
The still-unknown culprit also sought to throw suspicions on Muslim or Arab terrorists. First there was the timing of the letters—days after the Sept. 11 attack. The first anthrax letters, as well as some hoax letters, were mailed Sept. 18 to 25. The first public report of an anthrax case in Florida was not until Oct. 4.
Then there was the text: the letters clearly intended to imply the writer was of Middle Eastern origin and included deliberate misspellings (the letters suggested taking “penacilin”), a Star of David, as well as threats to Israel, Chicago’s Sears Tower, and President George W. Bush. Someone obviously hoped to focus attention on an Arab scapegoat. The perpetrator added to the already terrible woes of Arabs and Muslims living in the United States post-Sept. 11.
The letters could very well have sparked internment camps for Arab Americans, who already faced backlash from the Sept. 11 terror attacks. The U.S. might have launched a military attack on Iraq, as rumors circulated that Saddam Hussain was to blame for the anthrax attacks. Fortunately, early on federal investigators discounted the Arab terrorist theory—although plenty of outsiders still can’t give it up.
The FBI narrowed its search for the terrorist to 200 scientists who had worked with the U.S. anthrax program in the last five years. The investigation focused on Fort Detrick’s Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases in Maryland, the military’s premier bioterrorism complex, and one of only four laboratories with the capability for weaponizing anthrax. Only 50 scientists had access to the Ames strain found in all the letter samples, and perhaps only 30 knew the particular technique used to weaponize the anthrax used in the letters, a technique developed in Ft. Detrick by William Patrick. The FBI interviewed former and current bioterrorism scientists, and conducted polygraph tests and home searches.
A Feb. 26 New York Times article cast suspicion on a Somali Muslim student at an unnamed Midwestern university. It was soon confirmed, however, that the student could not have had any knowledge of Patrick’s weaponization technique.
This August—nearly a year after the anthrax attack—the story hit the front pages again. The FBI’s second highly visible examination of Steven J. Hatfill’s apartment was conducted with reporters, cameras and a news helicopter hovering overhead.
Although Hatfill once worked at the Fort Detrick lab, his lawyer, Victor Glasberg, said the scientist “did not do anthrax work. Steve has never worked with anthrax.” After a series of anthrax hoaxes, including a package that “coincidentally” arrived at B’nai B’rith headquarters in Washington while a terrorism seminar was under way nearby, Hatfill in 1999 did commission William Patrick to write a report on how anthrax could be sent through the mail.
“Steve’s life has been devastated by a drumbeat of innuendo, implication and speculation,” according to an Aug. 11 Washington Post interview. FBI leaks to the press have cost Hatfill one job and suspension from another. Someone in the FBI even gave ABC News the manuscript of a novel Hatfill had been writing about biological terrorism that could have come only from Hatfield’s computer, seized in the FBI’s second search. Fed up with the FBI’s damaging leaks to the media, Hatfill held a news conference Aug. 11 to tell reporters that he is a loyal American and had nothing to do with the deadly anthrax mailings. Nevertheless, his is the only name that has appeared in print recently.
Internet articles claim the government is afraid to arrest the anthrax culprit because he knows too much about U.S. bioweapons. Is Hatfill the bioterrorist or is he a stooge? Is the government protecting one of its own? Are the media and the government using Dr. Hatfill to take the fall for another scientist?
Before the investigation of Dr. Hatfill captured national headlines, another insider scientist had come under FBI scrutiny without much media fanfare. It was easy to miss the few stories published in January 2002 about Lt. Col. Philip Zack, who, like Hatfill, also had access to a well-equipped laboratory with lax security. Zack, moreover, actually worked with military-grade anthrax at Fort Detrick.
Dr. Zack left Fort Detrick in December 1991 amid allegations of unprofessional conduct. The Jewish scientist and others were accused of harassing their co-worker, Dr. Ayaad Assaad, until the Egyptian-born American scientist quit, according to an article in Connecticut’s The Hartford Courant, the country’s oldest newspaper in continuous publication. Dr. Assaad sued the Army, claiming discrimination after Zack’s badgering.
Although Dr. Zack was let go, he returned frequently to visit friends, and used the Fort Detrick laboratories for “off-the-books” work after hours. After reports of missing biological specimens—including anthrax, Ebola and the simian AIDs virus—came to light, as well as reports of unauthorized research, a review of surveillance camera tapes recorded Dr. Zack entering the lab late on the night of Jan. 23, 1992, according to The Hartford Courant report. He was let in that night by Marian Rippy, a lab pathologist and close friend of Zack’s, although she now says she has no memory of the evening. She did say that Zack occasionally visited and that other friends let him in.
Inexplicably, the national press ignored these documented unauthorized visits to a top-secret government lab embroiled in the anthrax attacks. Did journalists fear being labeled anti-Semitic for casting suspicions on a Jewish scientist?
Soon after the 9/11 attack, a long, typed anonymous letter was sent to Quantico Marine Base accusing the long-suffering Assaad, Zack’s victim in 1991, of plotting terrorism. This letter was received before the anthrax letters or disease were reported. The timing of the note makes its author a serious suspect in the anthrax attacks. The sender also displayed considerable knowledge of Dr. Assaad, his work, his personal life and a remarkable premonition of the upcoming bioterrorism attack.
After interviewing Assaad on Oct. 2, 2001, the FBI decided the letter was a hoax. While major newspapers noted that an anonymous letter had accused Dr. Assaad of bioterrorism, none followed up on it after his innocence was established. Zack’s name never surfaced again as one of the 30 suspects.
When the Washington Report asked Barbara Hatch Rosenberg, Ph.D., a biological arms control expert at the State University of New York, if the allegations regarding Dr. David Hatfill now took the heat off Lt. Col. Philip Zack, she replied, “Zack has NEVER been under suspicion as perpetrator of the anthrax attack.”
It is hard to believe that, with his connection to Fort Detrick, Dr. Zack is not one of the 20 to 50 scientists under intense investigation.
When asked if Hatfill was part of the group that ganged up on Dr. Ayaad Assaad, Dr. Rosenberg answered, “Hatfill was NOT one of the persecutors of Assaad.”
She is convinced that the FBI knows who sent the anthrax letters but isn’t arresting him because he knows too much about U.S. secret biological weapons research and production. But she isn’t naming names. Neither is Dr. Assaad, who did not return calls from the Washington Report.
Another person not naming names is New York Times reporter Nicholas D. Kristof. In a series of articles published on July 2, 12, and 19, however, he called the anthrax perpetrator “Mr. Z” (not “Mr. H”). Kristof’s description of “Mr. Z” sounds very much more like Dr. Zack than Dr. Hatfill.
The New York Times journalist reported that “Mr. Z” was caught with a girlfriend after hours in Fort Detrick. According to Kristof, “Mr. Z” talked about the importance of his field and his own status in it, and often used the B’nai B’rith attack as an example of how anthrax attacks might happen. He also “had a penchant for dropping Arab names” when he discussed the possibility of anthrax attacks.
Is the anthrax culprit, or “Mr. Z,” actually Dr. Zack or Dr. Hatfill, or another undisclosed scientist? Is Dr. Hatfill being framed while Dr. Zack stays out of the spotlight? Will the investigation simply peter out without an arrest? Are the U.S. government and the media engaging in a shameful cover-up?
It remains to be seen whether the anthrax story will share the fate of the one-day wonders hidden on the back pages of America’s mainstream newspapers—whose publishers shy away from articles they fear may bring a spate of hate mail, charges of “anti-Semitism,” or threats to end advertising or subscriptions.
Another too-hot-to-handle story published in the Oct. 31, 2001 Miami Herald described an FBI search for six “Middle-Eastern looking men with Israeli passports stopped in the Midwest the previous weekend.” The six men stopped by police were traveling in groups of three in two white sedans. The article noted that, despite law enforcement agencies being on high alert after the Sept. 11 attacks, the men were released—even though they had in their possession photographs and descriptions of a nuclear power plant in Florida and the Trans-Alaska pipeline.
As a result of the scare, the Federal Aviation Administration imposed flight restrictions around nuclear plants nationwide, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission advised the nation’s 103 nuclear plants to fortify security.
This news story vanished, but an urgent terrorism alert sounded by Attorney General John Ashcroft received much media attention. Somehow the new alert now was based largely on a message transmitted by an Osama bin Laden supporter in Canada to Afghanistan. That message referred to a major event that was going to take place “down south.” Ashcroft warned that Americans at home or abroad could be struck by another terrorist attack. Fortunately, however, as of this writing that hasn’t happened.
An Oct. 26, 2001 article in The Jerusalem Post reported that five Israeli men with box-cutters, multiple passports and $4,000 cash detained in New Jersey on Sept. 11, the day of the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, would be deported back to Israel for immigration violations. Those men were seen laughing and posing for photographs with the smoking Twin Towers in the background. The U.S. press also deemed that story not fit to print.
“Sharing” Intelligence
A proposed joint U.S.-Israeli anti-terror office might make things easier for other Jewish Americans or Israelis who run afoul of the law post-9/11. According to a report published in the June 29 Washington Times—but never followed up by other U.S. newspapers—Israeli Brig. Gen. David Tzur and Minister of Interior Security Uzi Landau met with U.S. officials to suggest a Washington, DC-based office to fight terrorism. The office would maintain an almost instantaneous communications link between the U.S. Department of Homeland Defense and the Israeli government on matters of homeland security. Visa policies, terrorist profiles and virtually all other internal security data—except classified intelligence—would be swapped via computer, fax and telephone.
Landau told the Washington Times that Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-TX), and Rep. Curt Weldon (R-PA) are especially receptive to the idea. This alarming proposal soon vanished from the media’s radar screen.
These same Israeli visitors eagerly provided President Bush with “evidence” that Palestinian chairman Arafat was involved in terrorism. Not surprisingly, that information did make national headlines, and drastically altered Bush’s long-awaited Middle East foreign policy speech on June 24.
Delinda Curtiss Hanley is the news editor of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.
Special Report
While Media Spotlights One Anthrax Suspect, Another Is Too Hot to Touch
By Delinda Curtiss Hanley
America’s mainstream press finds some stories too hot to handle. One of the most egregious examples of this is its coverage of the hunt for the perpetrator of the post-9/11 anthrax letters—a matter of concern to all Americans. After an initial flurry of reports, the media inexplicably ignored the FBI’s laborious search for the person who last fall mailed anthrax-laced letters to news organizations and the Capitol Hill offices of Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (S-SD) and Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-VT).
Did the U.S. media merely lose interest after the government failed to find an Iraqi or al-Qaeda connection, and therefore could not link the postal terrorism to Sept. 11? Or was the press warned off the sensitive subject? After months of silence, in August the subject of the anthrax attacks once again hit the newspapers and network TV stations. The scientist in the spotlight, however, may be little more than a hapless “fall guy.”
Five people died and more than a dozen more were made seriously ill from exposure to the deadly Ames variety of anthrax. Americans across the country feared opening their mail. It’s a safe bet that, had a Muslim- or Arab-American scientist been the prime suspect, press coverage would have been unrelenting.
Apparently journalists’ interests weren’t sufficiently aroused by the FBI profile of a disgruntled American bioweapons scientist who may have launched the lethal attack merely to help his career and increase government funding in his area of expertise. This homegrown terrorist murdered innocents, sowed fear across the United States, and created chaos in the U.S. and international postal services, but for 10 months he stayed out of the news.
The still-unknown culprit also sought to throw suspicions on Muslim or Arab terrorists. First there was the timing of the letters—days after the Sept. 11 attack. The first anthrax letters, as well as some hoax letters, were mailed Sept. 18 to 25. The first public report of an anthrax case in Florida was not until Oct. 4.
Then there was the text: the letters clearly intended to imply the writer was of Middle Eastern origin and included deliberate misspellings (the letters suggested taking “penacilin”), a Star of David, as well as threats to Israel, Chicago’s Sears Tower, and President George W. Bush. Someone obviously hoped to focus attention on an Arab scapegoat. The perpetrator added to the already terrible woes of Arabs and Muslims living in the United States post-Sept. 11.
The letters could very well have sparked internment camps for Arab Americans, who already faced backlash from the Sept. 11 terror attacks. The U.S. might have launched a military attack on Iraq, as rumors circulated that Saddam Hussain was to blame for the anthrax attacks. Fortunately, early on federal investigators discounted the Arab terrorist theory—although plenty of outsiders still can’t give it up.
The FBI narrowed its search for the terrorist to 200 scientists who had worked with the U.S. anthrax program in the last five years. The investigation focused on Fort Detrick’s Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases in Maryland, the military’s premier bioterrorism complex, and one of only four laboratories with the capability for weaponizing anthrax. Only 50 scientists had access to the Ames strain found in all the letter samples, and perhaps only 30 knew the particular technique used to weaponize the anthrax used in the letters, a technique developed in Ft. Detrick by William Patrick. The FBI interviewed former and current bioterrorism scientists, and conducted polygraph tests and home searches.
A Feb. 26 New York Times article cast suspicion on a Somali Muslim student at an unnamed Midwestern university. It was soon confirmed, however, that the student could not have had any knowledge of Patrick’s weaponization technique.
This August—nearly a year after the anthrax attack—the story hit the front pages again. The FBI’s second highly visible examination of Steven J. Hatfill’s apartment was conducted with reporters, cameras and a news helicopter hovering overhead.
Although Hatfill once worked at the Fort Detrick lab, his lawyer, Victor Glasberg, said the scientist “did not do anthrax work. Steve has never worked with anthrax.” After a series of anthrax hoaxes, including a package that “coincidentally” arrived at B’nai B’rith headquarters in Washington while a terrorism seminar was under way nearby, Hatfill in 1999 did commission William Patrick to write a report on how anthrax could be sent through the mail.
“Steve’s life has been devastated by a drumbeat of innuendo, implication and speculation,” according to an Aug. 11 Washington Post interview. FBI leaks to the press have cost Hatfill one job and suspension from another. Someone in the FBI even gave ABC News the manuscript of a novel Hatfill had been writing about biological terrorism that could have come only from Hatfield’s computer, seized in the FBI’s second search. Fed up with the FBI’s damaging leaks to the media, Hatfill held a news conference Aug. 11 to tell reporters that he is a loyal American and had nothing to do with the deadly anthrax mailings. Nevertheless, his is the only name that has appeared in print recently.
Internet articles claim the government is afraid to arrest the anthrax culprit because he knows too much about U.S. bioweapons. Is Hatfill the bioterrorist or is he a stooge? Is the government protecting one of its own? Are the media and the government using Dr. Hatfill to take the fall for another scientist?
Before the investigation of Dr. Hatfill captured national headlines, another insider scientist had come under FBI scrutiny without much media fanfare. It was easy to miss the few stories published in January 2002 about Lt. Col. Philip Zack, who, like Hatfill, also had access to a well-equipped laboratory with lax security. Zack, moreover, actually worked with military-grade anthrax at Fort Detrick.
Dr. Zack left Fort Detrick in December 1991 amid allegations of unprofessional conduct. The Jewish scientist and others were accused of harassing their co-worker, Dr. Ayaad Assaad, until the Egyptian-born American scientist quit, according to an article in Connecticut’s The Hartford Courant, the country’s oldest newspaper in continuous publication. Dr. Assaad sued the Army, claiming discrimination after Zack’s badgering.
Although Dr. Zack was let go, he returned frequently to visit friends, and used the Fort Detrick laboratories for “off-the-books” work after hours. After reports of missing biological specimens—including anthrax, Ebola and the simian AIDs virus—came to light, as well as reports of unauthorized research, a review of surveillance camera tapes recorded Dr. Zack entering the lab late on the night of Jan. 23, 1992, according to The Hartford Courant report. He was let in that night by Marian Rippy, a lab pathologist and close friend of Zack’s, although she now says she has no memory of the evening. She did say that Zack occasionally visited and that other friends let him in.
Inexplicably, the national press ignored these documented unauthorized visits to a top-secret government lab embroiled in the anthrax attacks. Did journalists fear being labeled anti-Semitic for casting suspicions on a Jewish scientist?
Soon after the 9/11 attack, a long, typed anonymous letter was sent to Quantico Marine Base accusing the long-suffering Assaad, Zack’s victim in 1991, of plotting terrorism. This letter was received before the anthrax letters or disease were reported. The timing of the note makes its author a serious suspect in the anthrax attacks. The sender also displayed considerable knowledge of Dr. Assaad, his work, his personal life and a remarkable premonition of the upcoming bioterrorism attack.
After interviewing Assaad on Oct. 2, 2001, the FBI decided the letter was a hoax. While major newspapers noted that an anonymous letter had accused Dr. Assaad of bioterrorism, none followed up on it after his innocence was established. Zack’s name never surfaced again as one of the 30 suspects.
When the Washington Report asked Barbara Hatch Rosenberg, Ph.D., a biological arms control expert at the State University of New York, if the allegations regarding Dr. David Hatfill now took the heat off Lt. Col. Philip Zack, she replied, “Zack has NEVER been under suspicion as perpetrator of the anthrax attack.”
It is hard to believe that, with his connection to Fort Detrick, Dr. Zack is not one of the 20 to 50 scientists under intense investigation.
When asked if Hatfill was part of the group that ganged up on Dr. Ayaad Assaad, Dr. Rosenberg answered, “Hatfill was NOT one of the persecutors of Assaad.”
She is convinced that the FBI knows who sent the anthrax letters but isn’t arresting him because he knows too much about U.S. secret biological weapons research and production. But she isn’t naming names. Neither is Dr. Assaad, who did not return calls from the Washington Report.
Another person not naming names is New York Times reporter Nicholas D. Kristof. In a series of articles published on July 2, 12, and 19, however, he called the anthrax perpetrator “Mr. Z” (not “Mr. H”). Kristof’s description of “Mr. Z” sounds very much more like Dr. Zack than Dr. Hatfill.
The New York Times journalist reported that “Mr. Z” was caught with a girlfriend after hours in Fort Detrick. According to Kristof, “Mr. Z” talked about the importance of his field and his own status in it, and often used the B’nai B’rith attack as an example of how anthrax attacks might happen. He also “had a penchant for dropping Arab names” when he discussed the possibility of anthrax attacks.
Is the anthrax culprit, or “Mr. Z,” actually Dr. Zack or Dr. Hatfill, or another undisclosed scientist? Is Dr. Hatfill being framed while Dr. Zack stays out of the spotlight? Will the investigation simply peter out without an arrest? Are the U.S. government and the media engaging in a shameful cover-up?
It remains to be seen whether the anthrax story will share the fate of the one-day wonders hidden on the back pages of America’s mainstream newspapers—whose publishers shy away from articles they fear may bring a spate of hate mail, charges of “anti-Semitism,” or threats to end advertising or subscriptions.
Another too-hot-to-handle story published in the Oct. 31, 2001 Miami Herald described an FBI search for six “Middle-Eastern looking men with Israeli passports stopped in the Midwest the previous weekend.” The six men stopped by police were traveling in groups of three in two white sedans. The article noted that, despite law enforcement agencies being on high alert after the Sept. 11 attacks, the men were released—even though they had in their possession photographs and descriptions of a nuclear power plant in Florida and the Trans-Alaska pipeline.
As a result of the scare, the Federal Aviation Administration imposed flight restrictions around nuclear plants nationwide, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission advised the nation’s 103 nuclear plants to fortify security.
This news story vanished, but an urgent terrorism alert sounded by Attorney General John Ashcroft received much media attention. Somehow the new alert now was based largely on a message transmitted by an Osama bin Laden supporter in Canada to Afghanistan. That message referred to a major event that was going to take place “down south.” Ashcroft warned that Americans at home or abroad could be struck by another terrorist attack. Fortunately, however, as of this writing that hasn’t happened.
An Oct. 26, 2001 article in The Jerusalem Post reported that five Israeli men with box-cutters, multiple passports and $4,000 cash detained in New Jersey on Sept. 11, the day of the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, would be deported back to Israel for immigration violations. Those men were seen laughing and posing for photographs with the smoking Twin Towers in the background. The U.S. press also deemed that story not fit to print.
“Sharing” Intelligence
A proposed joint U.S.-Israeli anti-terror office might make things easier for other Jewish Americans or Israelis who run afoul of the law post-9/11. According to a report published in the June 29 Washington Times—but never followed up by other U.S. newspapers—Israeli Brig. Gen. David Tzur and Minister of Interior Security Uzi Landau met with U.S. officials to suggest a Washington, DC-based office to fight terrorism. The office would maintain an almost instantaneous communications link between the U.S. Department of Homeland Defense and the Israeli government on matters of homeland security. Visa policies, terrorist profiles and virtually all other internal security data—except classified intelligence—would be swapped via computer, fax and telephone.
Landau told the Washington Times that Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-TX), and Rep. Curt Weldon (R-PA) are especially receptive to the idea. This alarming proposal soon vanished from the media’s radar screen.
These same Israeli visitors eagerly provided President Bush with “evidence” that Palestinian chairman Arafat was involved in terrorism. Not surprisingly, that information did make national headlines, and drastically altered Bush’s long-awaited Middle East foreign policy speech on June 24.
Delinda Curtiss Hanley is the news editor of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.
For more information:
http://www.wrmea.com/archives/sept-oct02/0...
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Philip Zack harassed two of his Arab co-workers and was actually sued by them. The anthrax attacks were designed to look like Arabs had done them -- with the supposed letters written by Arabs and all. Zack was captured on video entering the Anthrax lab after he no longer worked there. This is the most likely suspect for those attacks but the FBI and media decided not to touch him because it was just to embarrassing that an American Zionist was caught trying to make it look like Arabs were doing this.
Alexander Cockburn:
"The purveyor of anthrax may have been a former government scientist of Jewish ethnic extraction with a record of baiting a colleague of Arab origins, acting with the intent to blame the anthrax on Muslim terrorists."
http://www.nypress.com/15/11/news&columns/wildjustice.cfm
This story is well documented in the following Seattle Times and two Hartford-Courant articles:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/134380111_detrick19.html
http://www.ctnow.com/news/specials/hc-ant-1,0,6753520.story?coll=hc%252
http://www.ctnow.com/news/specials/hc-ant-3,0,7015666.story?coll=hc%252
Alexander Cockburn:
"The purveyor of anthrax may have been a former government scientist of Jewish ethnic extraction with a record of baiting a colleague of Arab origins, acting with the intent to blame the anthrax on Muslim terrorists."
http://www.nypress.com/15/11/news&columns/wildjustice.cfm
This story is well documented in the following Seattle Times and two Hartford-Courant articles:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/134380111_detrick19.html
http://www.ctnow.com/news/specials/hc-ant-1,0,6753520.story?coll=hc%252
http://www.ctnow.com/news/specials/hc-ant-3,0,7015666.story?coll=hc%252
For more information:
http://www.apfn.org/apfn/rule.htm
Hatfill was blamed in order to get people off the trail of the real perpetrator of this. He is now currently suing for defamation because apparently there was no evidence against him. And the real perpetrator is allowed to go free because arresting him would just cause too much international embarrassment.
It says the CIA won't allow two of its people to submit writing sample to investigators.
This aired on the learning channel.
Also Bush was on Ciprpo weeks before the first attack was know to the public. There is also a short video clip about this at that link also, from cspan.
This aired on the learning channel.
Also Bush was on Ciprpo weeks before the first attack was know to the public. There is also a short video clip about this at that link also, from cspan.
For more information:
http://www.indybay.org/news/2002/09/144612...
The following is an excerpt:
Go here to see it in its entirety:
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/j022202.html
WHERE THE ANTHRAX TRAILS LEADS
Rosenberg believes that the poison-pen missive was written by the real perpetrator of the anthrax attacks, who sought to ride the wave of anti-Arab, anti-Muslim hysteria that swept the nation after 9/11. This also fits the pattern of masquerade that characterizes the anthrax letters to NBC, Daschle, Leahy, et al, with their anti-Israel, pro-Muslim slogans neatly printed in block letters. Indeed, the one thread that seems to run throughout this story is anti-Arab animus, as the astonishing – and truly frightening – story of what happened at Ft. Detrick in the early 1990s makes all too clear….
IT CAME FROM FT. DETRICK
Things were turning up missing at AMRIID, and Lt. Col. Michael Langford was baffled. He suspected that someone was tampering with records, perhaps in order to conduct unauthorized research. He told a lab technician to "make a list of everything that was missing," and "it turned out that there was quite a bit of stuff that was unaccounted for," 27 sets of specimens, including anthrax, hanta virus, simian AIDS virus "and two that were labeled 'unknown' – an Army euphemism for classified research whose subject was secret," as this chilling Hartford Courant story by Jack Dolan and Dave Altimari puts it. One set of specimens has since been found: the rest are still missing….
CAUGHT ON TAPE
An investigation was launched that exposed the shockingly lax security measures at the lab, and raised the possibility that some specimens may never have been entered in lab records. Also uncovered was a tape from a surveillance camera showing the entry of an unauthorized person into the lab, at 8:40, on January 23, 1992, let in by Dr. Marian Rippy, lab pathologist. The night visitor was Lt. Col. Philip Zack, a former employee who had left as a result of a dispute with the lab over his alleged harassment of Dr. Assaad. The Courant reports:
"Zack left Fort Detrick in December 1991, after a controversy over allegations of unprofessional behavior by Zack, Rippy, [lab technician Charles] Brown and others who worked in the pathology division. They had formed a clique that was accused of harassing the Egyptian-born Assaad, who later sued the Army, claiming discrimination."
THE KAMEL KLUB KIDS
According to Assaad, in the week before Easter 1991, he found a poem in his mailbox, described in another Courant story:
"The poem, which became a court exhibit, has 235 lines, many of them lewd, mocking Assaad. The poem also refers to another creation of the scientists who wrote it — a rubber camel outfitted with sexually explicit appendages. The poem reads: 'In (Assaad's) honor we created this beast; it represents life lower than yeast.' The camel, it notes, each week will be given 'to who did the least.' The poem also doubles as an ode to each of the participants who adorned the camel, who number at least six and referred to themselves as 'the camel club.' Two — Dr. Philip Zack and Dr. Marian Rippy — voluntarily left Fort Detrick soon after Assaad brought the poem to the attention of supervisors."
Charming, eh? This kind of organized harassment has an ideological edge to it not completely attributable to personal antipathy, and seems politically inspired, a possibility that is intriguing given the political repercussions of the anthrax scare.
SULLIVAN SAYS: 'NUKE 'EM!'
Bill Kristol, of the Weekly Standard, was positively gloating that, after years of neoconservative hectoring – and with little to show for it except a few hundred thousand dead Iraqi babies – the anthrax attacks had finally put the "get Iraq" lobby over the top in Washington: the Iraqis, he exulted, would now get what was coming to them. But Andrew Sullivan, for his part, wasn't content with a mere bombing campaign or even an invasion: Writing in his "weblog" for October 17 [01], he demanded that we nuke 'em without waiting for the evidence:
"At this point, it seems to me that a refusal to extend the war to Iraq is not even an option. We have to extend it to Iraq. It is by far the most likely source of this weapon; it is clearly willing to use such weapons in the future; and no war against terrorism of this kind can be won without dealing decisively with the Iraqi threat. We no longer have any choice in the matter."
Go here to see it in its entirety:
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/j022202.html
WHERE THE ANTHRAX TRAILS LEADS
Rosenberg believes that the poison-pen missive was written by the real perpetrator of the anthrax attacks, who sought to ride the wave of anti-Arab, anti-Muslim hysteria that swept the nation after 9/11. This also fits the pattern of masquerade that characterizes the anthrax letters to NBC, Daschle, Leahy, et al, with their anti-Israel, pro-Muslim slogans neatly printed in block letters. Indeed, the one thread that seems to run throughout this story is anti-Arab animus, as the astonishing – and truly frightening – story of what happened at Ft. Detrick in the early 1990s makes all too clear….
IT CAME FROM FT. DETRICK
Things were turning up missing at AMRIID, and Lt. Col. Michael Langford was baffled. He suspected that someone was tampering with records, perhaps in order to conduct unauthorized research. He told a lab technician to "make a list of everything that was missing," and "it turned out that there was quite a bit of stuff that was unaccounted for," 27 sets of specimens, including anthrax, hanta virus, simian AIDS virus "and two that were labeled 'unknown' – an Army euphemism for classified research whose subject was secret," as this chilling Hartford Courant story by Jack Dolan and Dave Altimari puts it. One set of specimens has since been found: the rest are still missing….
CAUGHT ON TAPE
An investigation was launched that exposed the shockingly lax security measures at the lab, and raised the possibility that some specimens may never have been entered in lab records. Also uncovered was a tape from a surveillance camera showing the entry of an unauthorized person into the lab, at 8:40, on January 23, 1992, let in by Dr. Marian Rippy, lab pathologist. The night visitor was Lt. Col. Philip Zack, a former employee who had left as a result of a dispute with the lab over his alleged harassment of Dr. Assaad. The Courant reports:
"Zack left Fort Detrick in December 1991, after a controversy over allegations of unprofessional behavior by Zack, Rippy, [lab technician Charles] Brown and others who worked in the pathology division. They had formed a clique that was accused of harassing the Egyptian-born Assaad, who later sued the Army, claiming discrimination."
THE KAMEL KLUB KIDS
According to Assaad, in the week before Easter 1991, he found a poem in his mailbox, described in another Courant story:
"The poem, which became a court exhibit, has 235 lines, many of them lewd, mocking Assaad. The poem also refers to another creation of the scientists who wrote it — a rubber camel outfitted with sexually explicit appendages. The poem reads: 'In (Assaad's) honor we created this beast; it represents life lower than yeast.' The camel, it notes, each week will be given 'to who did the least.' The poem also doubles as an ode to each of the participants who adorned the camel, who number at least six and referred to themselves as 'the camel club.' Two — Dr. Philip Zack and Dr. Marian Rippy — voluntarily left Fort Detrick soon after Assaad brought the poem to the attention of supervisors."
Charming, eh? This kind of organized harassment has an ideological edge to it not completely attributable to personal antipathy, and seems politically inspired, a possibility that is intriguing given the political repercussions of the anthrax scare.
SULLIVAN SAYS: 'NUKE 'EM!'
Bill Kristol, of the Weekly Standard, was positively gloating that, after years of neoconservative hectoring – and with little to show for it except a few hundred thousand dead Iraqi babies – the anthrax attacks had finally put the "get Iraq" lobby over the top in Washington: the Iraqis, he exulted, would now get what was coming to them. But Andrew Sullivan, for his part, wasn't content with a mere bombing campaign or even an invasion: Writing in his "weblog" for October 17 [01], he demanded that we nuke 'em without waiting for the evidence:
"At this point, it seems to me that a refusal to extend the war to Iraq is not even an option. We have to extend it to Iraq. It is by far the most likely source of this weapon; it is clearly willing to use such weapons in the future; and no war against terrorism of this kind can be won without dealing decisively with the Iraqi threat. We no longer have any choice in the matter."
For more information:
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/j022202.html
"It’s a safe bet that, had a Muslim- or Arab-American scientist been the prime suspect, press coverage would have been unrelenting.
Then there was the text: the letters clearly intended to imply the writer was of Middle Eastern origin and included deliberate misspellings (the letters suggested taking “penacilin”), a Star of David, as well as threats to Israel, Chicago’s Sears Tower, and President George W. Bush. Someone obviously hoped to focus attention on an Arab scapegoat. The perpetrator added to the already terrible woes of Arabs and Muslims living in the United States post-Sept. 11.
The letters could very well have sparked internment camps for Arab Americans, who already faced backlash from the Sept. 11 terror attacks. The U.S. might have launched a military attack on Iraq, as rumors circulated that Saddam Hussain was to blame for the anthrax attacks.
...
Inexplicably, the national press ignored these documented unauthorized visits to a top-secret government lab embroiled in the anthrax attacks. Did journalists fear being labeled anti-Semitic for casting suspicions on a Jewish scientist?"
Delinda Curtiss Hanley -Washington Report on Middle East Affairs
http://www.wrmea.com/archives/sept-oct02/0209018.html
"The purveyor of anthrax may have been a former government scientist of Jewish ethnic extraction with a record of baiting a colleague of Arab origins, acting with the intent to blame the anthrax on Muslim terrorists."
Alexander Cockburn-New York Press
http://www.nypress.com/15/11/news&columns/wildjustice.cfm
The anthrax attacks which the US media used to whip up even more hatred of Arabs after 9-11 suddenly and inexplicably became a none issue after it started becoming clear that the main suspect was a rabidly anti-Arab American Zionist. It's ok to whip up hysteria if everyone thinks it's Arabs, but this sort of thing has to be suppressed.
This story is well documented in the following Seattle Times and two Hartford-Courant articles:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/134380111_detrick19.html
http://www.ctnow.com/news/specials/hc-ant-1,0,6753520.story?coll=hc%252
http://www.ctnow.com/news/specials/hc-ant-3,0,7015666.story?coll=hc%252
Then there was the text: the letters clearly intended to imply the writer was of Middle Eastern origin and included deliberate misspellings (the letters suggested taking “penacilin”), a Star of David, as well as threats to Israel, Chicago’s Sears Tower, and President George W. Bush. Someone obviously hoped to focus attention on an Arab scapegoat. The perpetrator added to the already terrible woes of Arabs and Muslims living in the United States post-Sept. 11.
The letters could very well have sparked internment camps for Arab Americans, who already faced backlash from the Sept. 11 terror attacks. The U.S. might have launched a military attack on Iraq, as rumors circulated that Saddam Hussain was to blame for the anthrax attacks.
...
Inexplicably, the national press ignored these documented unauthorized visits to a top-secret government lab embroiled in the anthrax attacks. Did journalists fear being labeled anti-Semitic for casting suspicions on a Jewish scientist?"
Delinda Curtiss Hanley -Washington Report on Middle East Affairs
http://www.wrmea.com/archives/sept-oct02/0209018.html
"The purveyor of anthrax may have been a former government scientist of Jewish ethnic extraction with a record of baiting a colleague of Arab origins, acting with the intent to blame the anthrax on Muslim terrorists."
Alexander Cockburn-New York Press
http://www.nypress.com/15/11/news&columns/wildjustice.cfm
The anthrax attacks which the US media used to whip up even more hatred of Arabs after 9-11 suddenly and inexplicably became a none issue after it started becoming clear that the main suspect was a rabidly anti-Arab American Zionist. It's ok to whip up hysteria if everyone thinks it's Arabs, but this sort of thing has to be suppressed.
This story is well documented in the following Seattle Times and two Hartford-Courant articles:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/134380111_detrick19.html
http://www.ctnow.com/news/specials/hc-ant-1,0,6753520.story?coll=hc%252
http://www.ctnow.com/news/specials/hc-ant-3,0,7015666.story?coll=hc%252
if there wasn't just a mass release from the SF Hospital for the Criminally Insane and Intellectually Stunted...
aand they all ran over to post zionist hysteria conspiracies on IMC
aand they all ran over to post zionist hysteria conspiracies on IMC
Nice try at discrediting this story...
The fact is that an anti-Arab Zionist (with a record of harassing colleagues of Arab descent) was videotaped going into the lab late at night over a year after he no longer worked there. This is documented in the Seattle Times and Hartford Courant articles.
If it turned out to be an Arab, don't you think the press coverage on this would have been unrelenting and hysterical.
The fact is that an anti-Arab Zionist (with a record of harassing colleagues of Arab descent) was videotaped going into the lab late at night over a year after he no longer worked there. This is documented in the Seattle Times and Hartford Courant articles.
If it turned out to be an Arab, don't you think the press coverage on this would have been unrelenting and hysterical.
In addition, the main victim of all the anti-Arab harassment had a letter sent to the FBI weeks before any of the anthrax letters were mailed out accusing him of being a bio-terrorist. The FBI refused to follow up on the person who sent in the accusations. Isn't it a little suspicious that this racist's main victim was suddenly and out of the blue accused of bio-terrorism--even before any anthrax letters were mailed out. And even more suspicious that the FBI refused to investigate and the media maintained a strict silence on this but now focuses on a fall guy to try to deflect attention from the probable culprit?
All this is documented in the above articles, but no doubt some will try to dismiss the probable conclusions that come out by claiming anti-Semitism.
All this is documented in the above articles, but no doubt some will try to dismiss the probable conclusions that come out by claiming anti-Semitism.
In addition, the main victim of all the anti-Arab harassment had a letter sent to the FBI weeks before any of the anthrax letters were mailed out accusing him of being a bio-terrorist. The FBI refused to follow up on the person who sent in the accusations. Isn't it a little suspicious that this racist's main victim was suddenly and out of the blue accused of bio-terrorism--even before any anthrax letters were mailed out. And even more suspicious that the FBI refused to investigate and the media maintained a strict silence on this but now focuses on a fall guy to try to deflect attention from the probable culprit?
All this is documented in the above articles, but no doubt some will try to dismiss the probable conclusions that come out by claiming anti-Semitism.
All this is documented in the above articles, but no doubt some will try to dismiss the probable conclusions that come out by claiming anti-Semitism.
Sequence of events:
- November 2000: disputed US election hinges on votes of Jewish Democrats in Palm Beach County, Florida.
- Mid-2001: Many of the future hijackers set up shop in Palm Beach County, Florida.
- September 2001: In the immediate aftermath of the hijackings, Osama bin Laden suggests that American Jews might have organized them to get back at Bush, and Iraqi newspaper Babil suggests that "Zionists" might soon employ bioterrorism.
- October 2001: The first anthrax death occurs in Palm Beach County, Florida. Wake up, guys. The anthrax letters were almost certainly what they claimed to be.
For more information:
http://iraq911.blogspot.com
March 25, 2002: Dead microbiologist: Steven Mostow, 63, dies when the airplane he was piloting crashes near Denver. He worked at the Colorado Health Sciences Centre and was known as Dr. Flu for his expertise in treating influenza, and expertise on bioterrorism. He was "one of the country's leading infectious disease experts" and was associate dean at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. Three others died in the crash. Mostow's death bring the total number of leading microbiologists killed in a six month period to at least 15. [KUSA TV, 3/26/02, Globe and Mail, 5/4/02]
"9/11 Timeline" at http://www.unansweredquestions.org
"9/11 Timeline" at http://www.unansweredquestions.org
Here are some from
"9/11 Timeline"
at www. unansweredquestions.org
The first dead microbiologist is Dr. Benito Que, 52, was "an expert in infectious diseases and cellular biology at the Miami Medical School. Police originally suspected that he had been beaten on Nov. 12 in a carjacking in the medical school's parking lot. Strangely enough, though, his body showed no signs of a beating. Doctors then began to suspect a stroke." [Globe and Mail, 5/4/02]
November 16, 2001: Dead microbiologist: Dr. Don Wiley, 57, disappears during a business trip to Memphis, Tennessee. [Fox News, 11/24/01] He had just bought tickets to take his son to Graceland the following day. Police found his rental car on a bridge outside Memphis. His body was later found in the Mississippi River. Forensic experts said he may have had a dizzy spell and have fallen off the bridge. Police will only say, "We began this investigation as a missing person investigation. From there it went to a more criminal bent." [CNN, 11/29/01] "Wiley is seen as one of the world's leading researchers of deadly viruses, including HIV and the Ebola virus." [CNN, 12/22/01] He worked at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Harvard University, and was an expert on how the immune system responds to viral attacks. He was widely regarded as the nation's foremost expert in using special X-ray cameras and mathematical formulas to make high-resolution images of viruses. [Boston Globe, 12/21/01] The FBI is monitoring the investigation because of his research knowledge. [Globe and Mail, 5/4/02]
November 21, 2001: Dead microbiologist: World-class microbiologist and high-profile Russian defector Dr. Vladimir Pasechnik, 64, dies of a stroke. Pasechnik, who defected to the United Kingdom in 1989, had played a huge role in the development of Russian biowarfare, heading a lab of 400 "with an unlimited budget" and "the best staff available." He says he succeeded in producing an aerosolized plague microbe that could survive outside the laboratory. He was connected to Britain's spy agency and recently had started his own company. "In the last few weeks of his life he had put his research on anthrax at the disposal of the [British] Government, in the light of the threat from bioterrorism." [London Times, 11/30/01, New York Times, 11/23/01, Globe and Mail, 5/4/02]
November 24, 2001: Three more dead microbiologists: A Swissair flight from Berlin to Zurich crashes during its landing approach, 22 are killed and 9 survive. Among those killed are Dr. Yaakov Matzner, 54, dean of the Hebrew University school of medicine, Amiramp Eldor, 59, head of the haematology department at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv and a world-recognized expert in blood clotting, and Avishai Berkman, 50, director of the Tel Aviv public health department and businessman. [CNN, 11/25/01, Swissair manifest, 11/24/01]
December 10, 2001: Dead microbiologist: "Dr. Robert Schwartz, 57, was stabbed and slashed with what police believe was a sword in his farmhouse in Leesberg, Va. His daughter, who identifies herself as a pagan high priestess, and three of her fellow pagans have been charged." [Globe and Mail, 5/4/02] All were part of what they called a coven, and interested in magic, fantasy and self-mutilation. The police have no motive as to why they would have wanted to kill Schwartz, who was an only parent and said to be very close to his children. Schwartz worked at Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology on DNA sequencing and pathogenic microorganisms. He was "a brilliant scientist who had a gift for explaining complex scientific subjects in simple language." [Washington Post, 12/12/01]
December 14, 2001: Dead microbiologist: Nguyen Van Set, 44, died in an airlock filled with nitrogen in his lab in Geelong, Australia. The lab had just been written up in the journal Nature for their work in genetic manipulation and DNA sequencing. Scientists there had created a virulent form of mousepox. "They realized that if similar genetic manipulation was carried out on smallpox, an unstoppable killer could be unleashed," according to Nature. [Sydney Morning Herald, 12/12/01, Globe and Mail, 5/4/02]
January, 2002: Two dead microbiologists: Ivan Glebov and Alexi Brushlinski are killed. Pravda reports that Glebov died as the result of a bandit attack and simply reports that Brushlinski was killed in Moscow. Both were "well known around the world," and members of the Russian Academy of Science. [Pravda, 2/9/02, Globe and Mail, 5/4/02]
February 9, 2002: Dead microbiologist: Victor Korshunov, 56, is bashed over the head and killed at the entrance of his Moscow home. The Russian was the head of the microbiology sub-faculty at the Russian State Medical University and an expert in intestinal bacteria. [Pravda, 2/9/02, Globe and Mail, 5/4/02]
February 10, 2002: Katherine Smith is killed a day before appearing in court on charges she helped five Muslim terrorists get illegal drivers licenses. Her car supposedly hit a tree and then caught on fire. The FBI later determined that gasoline was poured on her clothing before she died in an arson fire. A suicide note was found, but prosecutors say they are looking for murder suspects. One of the five Muslims, Sakhera Hammad, was found with a visitor's pass for the WTC, dated Sept. 5, 2001, in his wallet. Hammad claims he was a plumber and worked on the WTC's sprinkler system. Smith was being investigated by the FBI; the five later plead guilty of fraud. [AP, 2/13/02, Reuters, 2/15/02, Go Memphis, 2/12/02, Memphis Commercial Appeal, 2/21/02]
February 11, 2002: Dead microbiologist: Dr. Ian Langford, 40, is found dead, partially naked and wedged under a chair in Norwich, England. When found, his house was described as "blood-spattered and apparently ransacked." He was an expert in environmental risks and disease. He was a senior Fellow at the University of East Anglia's Centre for Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment. One of his colleagues states, "Ian was without doubt one of Europe's leading experts on environmental risk, specializing in links between human health and environmental risk... He was one of the most brilliant colleagues I have ever had." [London Times, 2/13/02, Globe and Mail, 5/4/02]
February 28, 2002: Two dead microbiologists in San Francisco: Microbiologist Tanya Holzmayer, 46, is killed by a microbiologist colleague, Guyang Huang, 38, who shot her as she took delivery of a pizza and then apparently shot himself. Tanya Holzmayer was a Russian who moved to the US in 1989. Her research focused on the part of the human molecular structure that could be affected best by medicine. Holzmayer was focusing on helping create new drugs that interfere with replication of the virus that causes AIDS. One year earlier, Holzmayer obeyed senior management orders to fire Huang. [San Jose Mercury News, 2/28/02, Globe and Mail, 5/4/02]
March 24, 2002: Dead microbiologist: David Wynn-Williams, 55, is hit by a car while jogging near his home in Cambridge, England. He was an astrobiologist with the Antarctic Astrobiology Project and the NASA Ames Research Center. He was studying the capability of microbes to adapt to environmental extremes, including the bombardment of ultraviolet rays and global warming. [London Times, 3/27/02, Globe and Mail, 5/4/02]
March 25, 2002: Dead microbiologist: Steven Mostow, 63, dies when the airplane he was piloting crashes near Denver. He worked at the Colorado Health Sciences Centre and was known as Dr. Flu for his expertise in treating influenza, and expertise on bioterrorism. He was "one of the country's leading infectious disease experts" and was associate dean at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. Three others died in the crash. Mostow's death bring the total number of leading microbiologists killed in a six month period to at least 15. [KUSA TV, 3/26/02, Globe and Mail, 5/4/02]
"9/11 Timeline"
at www. unansweredquestions.org
The first dead microbiologist is Dr. Benito Que, 52, was "an expert in infectious diseases and cellular biology at the Miami Medical School. Police originally suspected that he had been beaten on Nov. 12 in a carjacking in the medical school's parking lot. Strangely enough, though, his body showed no signs of a beating. Doctors then began to suspect a stroke." [Globe and Mail, 5/4/02]
November 16, 2001: Dead microbiologist: Dr. Don Wiley, 57, disappears during a business trip to Memphis, Tennessee. [Fox News, 11/24/01] He had just bought tickets to take his son to Graceland the following day. Police found his rental car on a bridge outside Memphis. His body was later found in the Mississippi River. Forensic experts said he may have had a dizzy spell and have fallen off the bridge. Police will only say, "We began this investigation as a missing person investigation. From there it went to a more criminal bent." [CNN, 11/29/01] "Wiley is seen as one of the world's leading researchers of deadly viruses, including HIV and the Ebola virus." [CNN, 12/22/01] He worked at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Harvard University, and was an expert on how the immune system responds to viral attacks. He was widely regarded as the nation's foremost expert in using special X-ray cameras and mathematical formulas to make high-resolution images of viruses. [Boston Globe, 12/21/01] The FBI is monitoring the investigation because of his research knowledge. [Globe and Mail, 5/4/02]
November 21, 2001: Dead microbiologist: World-class microbiologist and high-profile Russian defector Dr. Vladimir Pasechnik, 64, dies of a stroke. Pasechnik, who defected to the United Kingdom in 1989, had played a huge role in the development of Russian biowarfare, heading a lab of 400 "with an unlimited budget" and "the best staff available." He says he succeeded in producing an aerosolized plague microbe that could survive outside the laboratory. He was connected to Britain's spy agency and recently had started his own company. "In the last few weeks of his life he had put his research on anthrax at the disposal of the [British] Government, in the light of the threat from bioterrorism." [London Times, 11/30/01, New York Times, 11/23/01, Globe and Mail, 5/4/02]
November 24, 2001: Three more dead microbiologists: A Swissair flight from Berlin to Zurich crashes during its landing approach, 22 are killed and 9 survive. Among those killed are Dr. Yaakov Matzner, 54, dean of the Hebrew University school of medicine, Amiramp Eldor, 59, head of the haematology department at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv and a world-recognized expert in blood clotting, and Avishai Berkman, 50, director of the Tel Aviv public health department and businessman. [CNN, 11/25/01, Swissair manifest, 11/24/01]
December 10, 2001: Dead microbiologist: "Dr. Robert Schwartz, 57, was stabbed and slashed with what police believe was a sword in his farmhouse in Leesberg, Va. His daughter, who identifies herself as a pagan high priestess, and three of her fellow pagans have been charged." [Globe and Mail, 5/4/02] All were part of what they called a coven, and interested in magic, fantasy and self-mutilation. The police have no motive as to why they would have wanted to kill Schwartz, who was an only parent and said to be very close to his children. Schwartz worked at Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology on DNA sequencing and pathogenic microorganisms. He was "a brilliant scientist who had a gift for explaining complex scientific subjects in simple language." [Washington Post, 12/12/01]
December 14, 2001: Dead microbiologist: Nguyen Van Set, 44, died in an airlock filled with nitrogen in his lab in Geelong, Australia. The lab had just been written up in the journal Nature for their work in genetic manipulation and DNA sequencing. Scientists there had created a virulent form of mousepox. "They realized that if similar genetic manipulation was carried out on smallpox, an unstoppable killer could be unleashed," according to Nature. [Sydney Morning Herald, 12/12/01, Globe and Mail, 5/4/02]
January, 2002: Two dead microbiologists: Ivan Glebov and Alexi Brushlinski are killed. Pravda reports that Glebov died as the result of a bandit attack and simply reports that Brushlinski was killed in Moscow. Both were "well known around the world," and members of the Russian Academy of Science. [Pravda, 2/9/02, Globe and Mail, 5/4/02]
February 9, 2002: Dead microbiologist: Victor Korshunov, 56, is bashed over the head and killed at the entrance of his Moscow home. The Russian was the head of the microbiology sub-faculty at the Russian State Medical University and an expert in intestinal bacteria. [Pravda, 2/9/02, Globe and Mail, 5/4/02]
February 10, 2002: Katherine Smith is killed a day before appearing in court on charges she helped five Muslim terrorists get illegal drivers licenses. Her car supposedly hit a tree and then caught on fire. The FBI later determined that gasoline was poured on her clothing before she died in an arson fire. A suicide note was found, but prosecutors say they are looking for murder suspects. One of the five Muslims, Sakhera Hammad, was found with a visitor's pass for the WTC, dated Sept. 5, 2001, in his wallet. Hammad claims he was a plumber and worked on the WTC's sprinkler system. Smith was being investigated by the FBI; the five later plead guilty of fraud. [AP, 2/13/02, Reuters, 2/15/02, Go Memphis, 2/12/02, Memphis Commercial Appeal, 2/21/02]
February 11, 2002: Dead microbiologist: Dr. Ian Langford, 40, is found dead, partially naked and wedged under a chair in Norwich, England. When found, his house was described as "blood-spattered and apparently ransacked." He was an expert in environmental risks and disease. He was a senior Fellow at the University of East Anglia's Centre for Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment. One of his colleagues states, "Ian was without doubt one of Europe's leading experts on environmental risk, specializing in links between human health and environmental risk... He was one of the most brilliant colleagues I have ever had." [London Times, 2/13/02, Globe and Mail, 5/4/02]
February 28, 2002: Two dead microbiologists in San Francisco: Microbiologist Tanya Holzmayer, 46, is killed by a microbiologist colleague, Guyang Huang, 38, who shot her as she took delivery of a pizza and then apparently shot himself. Tanya Holzmayer was a Russian who moved to the US in 1989. Her research focused on the part of the human molecular structure that could be affected best by medicine. Holzmayer was focusing on helping create new drugs that interfere with replication of the virus that causes AIDS. One year earlier, Holzmayer obeyed senior management orders to fire Huang. [San Jose Mercury News, 2/28/02, Globe and Mail, 5/4/02]
March 24, 2002: Dead microbiologist: David Wynn-Williams, 55, is hit by a car while jogging near his home in Cambridge, England. He was an astrobiologist with the Antarctic Astrobiology Project and the NASA Ames Research Center. He was studying the capability of microbes to adapt to environmental extremes, including the bombardment of ultraviolet rays and global warming. [London Times, 3/27/02, Globe and Mail, 5/4/02]
March 25, 2002: Dead microbiologist: Steven Mostow, 63, dies when the airplane he was piloting crashes near Denver. He worked at the Colorado Health Sciences Centre and was known as Dr. Flu for his expertise in treating influenza, and expertise on bioterrorism. He was "one of the country's leading infectious disease experts" and was associate dean at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. Three others died in the crash. Mostow's death bring the total number of leading microbiologists killed in a six month period to at least 15. [KUSA TV, 3/26/02, Globe and Mail, 5/4/02]
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