Nature discusses weaponization and silicon, but not much new yet.

A letter published in the Journal of Environmental and Occupational Medicine, April 2004 described two lab workers using standard procedures to grow and handle anthrax at USAMRIID. Despite this, medium leaked from a flask and spores were recovered from the nares of one of the workers. The potential for inhalation anthrax was considered serious, and…

Following two dissatisfying Congressional hearings on the anthrax letters, and in the 110th Congress’ final week, Congressman Rush Holt filed HR 7049 as a shot across the bow: he is serious about getting to the bottom of the anthrax letter attacks. The 111th Congress will have to pick up this ball and run with it,…

The Washington Post reports on $113.6 million in government contracts to develop new anthrax vaccines. Two rival biotechs — Emergent BioSolutions of Rockville and PharmAthene of Annapolis — announced yesterday that they received separate federal development contracts. This is further evidence that, despite a $448 million contract landed by Emergent to supply 18.75 million doses…

Here is the FBI letter to NAS with a list of questions for NAS to address. Perhaps of interest, it is dated September 15, the day before the first Congressional hearing, but fails to commit to the study financially until October. NAS was not aware of the FBI’s interest in moving forward until Director Mueller…

A judge unsealed a new batch of court documents in the anthrax case on Wednesday, at http://www.usdoj.gov/amerithrax/

USA Today: The FBI never examined anthrax samples from the 2001 contamination event at (Ivins’) biodefense lab, which he allegedly covered up after the anthrax mailings. Yet these samples should have been the first to examine once Ivins was deemed a suspect.

1. I agree with all scientific conclusions [of the Analytical Chemistry article] except for the one that the silicon in the spore coat excludes its artificial origin. Sandia people think about the exosporium as an absolute barrier for small molecules but it is a diffuse, loosely-bound, and permeable layer. We can think about the spores…

News article from the journal Analytical Chemistry

Article by Scott Shane September 23, 2008 WASHINGTON — Congressional critics of the F.B.I.’s anthrax investigation are seeking an independent review of the seven-year inquiry to assess the bureau’s performance and its conclusion that an Army scientist, Bruce E. Ivins, carried out the 2001 attacks alone. Rush D. Holt, Democrat of New Jersey, would create…

Editorial from the The New York Post, reprinted in the Troy, NY Record: The often-partisan Democratic-run Congress has found a worthy target for the legislative branch’s constitutional oversight responsibilities: The FBI anthrax investigations. The House Judiciary Committee notified FBI Director Robert Mueller that oversight hearings will focus on the bureau’s investigation of Dr. Bruce Ivins…

SUN EDITORIAL: Overcoming Anthrax Doubts: Panel that will review government investigation of attacks must be independent (September 20, 2008) The FBI, the U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., and postal inspectors did not convince everyone last month when they laid out their case against the late Army microbiologist Dr. Bruce Ivins. Ivins, they said with surety,…

Scientific American today posted an article on the Sandia anthrax investigation performed by materials scientists. I’m not sure how much it adds to the weaponization discussion, and it includes some minor errors, but does expand on the role and timeline of Sandia’s work for the anthrax investigation.

Dr. Popov worked in the former Soviet Union’s Biopreparat Program and is a professor at George Mason University. Having met with him several years ago, I can attest to his impressive knowledge of anthrax. Here he demonstrates a deep understanding of the principles of weaponization. Some of his other comments include the following: 1. The…

Anthrax Suspicions: Why an independent look at the FBI probe is essential Friday, September 19, 2008; Page A18 THERE’S NO better proof of the need for an independent review of the FBI’s anthrax investigation than the words of Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.). Mr. Leahy was one of the intended recipients of anthrax-filled letters sent…

Webcast of the hearing can be viewed here Remember Senator Grassley’s 18 questions about the case, posed to the FBI on August 7? They have still not been answered. Senator Grassley was very impressive during the hearing: logical, refusing to be sidetracked, steady like a bulldozer. He also submitted a Statement for the Record, from…

An LA Times article by David Willman discusses an email response by virologist Peter Jahrling, one of the first people to examine the Daschle anthrax, and to remark repeatedly on its properties that indicated deliberate weaponization: After being informed of the events at the (9/16/2008 House Judiciary Committee) hearing, Jahrling renounced his earlier analysis. “In…

Webcast of the hearing can be accessed here. Eight senators attended some of today’s hearing, and had a lot more to say about the anthrax letters. The Washington Post, AP, Reuters, USA Today and Salon (Glenn Greenwald) have all posted reports of the hearing, in which the FBI was lambasted over the letters case. Most…

The House Judiciary Committee hearing can be viewed here. Eleven or twelve members attended the House Judiciary Committee’s FBI oversight hearing today. Repeatedly, they expressed disappointment with the FBI’s continuing failure to answer their questions, and to respond to written questions. Director Mueller only produced a written response to the Committee’s September 5, 2008 letter…

David Harris of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law says that in light of questions about the FBI’s public identification of the late Dr. Bruce Ivins as “the only person responsible” for the 2001 anthrax attacks, Congress should demand an independent investigation to test the government’s evidence of its accusatory claim.

With respect to whether and how the spores were weaponized, I have both feet in the weaponization camp, having reviewed numerous anthrax epidemics and seen nothing like the Senate letters’ effect elsewhere, except Sverdlovsk. Yeltsin later admitted the 1979 Sverdlovsk epidemic resulted from a leak of anthrax from a biowarfare program. However, the problem remains…

From Sandia is a press release discussing their analysis of the spores From Dr. Henry L. Niman is a discussion of how some letters only caused cutaneous anthrax, while others only caused inhalation anthrax, strong indirect support for weaponization, since in nature there are vastly more cutaneous than inhalation cases, even in areas where spores…

The Scott Shane/Eric Lichtblau New York Times article, titled “Seeking Details, Lawmakers Cite Anthrax Doubts,” is found in today’s Sunday paper, although it went online yesterday. It deserves its own post, because it is so important to this developing story. It is chock full of interesting information and quotes, like this one about how the…

Today’s excellent NY Times piece by Scott Shane and Eric Lichtblau reveals that Ivins as “sole custodian” of the RMR-1029 anthrax flask was a fiction. The flask was not always stored in Ivins’ laboratory, but kept in another building at different times between 1997 and 2001, greatly increasing the number of those who had access…

The FBI has completed its disclosures, and the media, bloggers and scientists have spent a month discussing the anthrax letters case and putative guilt of Bruce Ivins. Where does the case stand, and what remains to be answered? Hoax Letters Remain a MysteryAt least one hoax letter was apparently thought by the FBI to have…

CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS Sept. 5, 2008 By Seth Stern, CQ Staff Members of the House Judiciary Committee made clear Friday they expect more answers from the FBI about its August announcement that a government scientist was responsible for the 2001 anthrax attacks on Capitol Hill and elsewhere. Committee members submitted a list of questions…

from the Daily Kos, by Califlander A few months ago, Plutonium Page wrote a diary about the anthrax attacks that made reference to Richard Preston’s 2002 book on the subject, called The Demon in the Freezer. Because I’d read some of Preston’s earlier work and found it interesting, I picked up a copy of The…

See September 6 version above