Health care per capita in the United States costs at least double nearly every other country on earth. Yet our longevity, infant mortality, and other health indices lag behind the rest of the industrial world. What’s not to change about such a system? Think of it: we do the same tests and radiology studies as…

Atul Gawande is a marvelous writer, as well as a surgeon. In an article in today’s New Yorker, Gawande proves himself to be in the first rank of health care pundits, as well. His extraordinary article is a joy to read, but also extremely important. For example, it identifies and explores the reasons a negative…

The 2009 “Swine flu” A (H1N1) outbreak has been recognized for the past six weeks. It has been studied intensively, we are told, and a number of Americans have died from the disorder, although less than 1% of those diagnosed with this specific virus. It apparently is a bit more contagious than the usual flu,…

This article, from the journal Homeland Security Affairs, recaps the history of the anthrax vaccine program and explores how the anthrax letters attack might be related to it. Past problems with the Department of Defense anthrax vaccine currently impactnational emergency response plans approved by the Department of HomelandSecurity and Department of Health and Human Services….

According to an article by Yossi Melman, the US spent $200 million dollars for Israel to develop and produce an anthrax vaccine, and test it on Israeli soldiers during the 1990s. When the US military was testing plenty of other experimental vaccines on American soldiers during the 1990s (I know of at least half a…

from Science: Michael McNeil’s portfolio of flawed anthrax vaccine safety studies at CDC is going away. Drum roll, please. This is a good thing, since the studies were basically a boondoggle lacking a scientific foundation. Even Army vaccine scientists, as well as this blog’s owner, published criticisms of the laughable methodologies used by the CDC…

Brief article by Yudhijit Bhattacharjee: A long-awaited review of the scientific evidence relating to the investigationof the 2001 anthrax letter attacks is finally getting off the ground. The study,to be conducted by the National Academies, will check the validity of thescientific techniques used by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in solving thecase. What the study…

Jim Binns, chairman of VA’s Research Advisory Committee on GW Veterans’ Illnesses since its inception, authored a detailed memo, with supporting documents, to show how Congress’ statutory charge to the IOM was changed to exclude animal studies and raise the bar for granting presumptive disabilities to ill Gulf War veterans. Jim deserves enormous thanks for…

No Signs of Criminal Misconduct Found Yet in Disappearance of Virus, Official Says This rather inconsequential article (lacking context) says Fort Detrick is still working on its inventory…going on 3 months now? Not surprisingly, the Army hasn’t found anything to be concerned about, according to Fort Detrick’s PR person. The article implies that much of…

Comments on: Ryan, MAK, et al. Birth Defects among Infants Born to Women Who Received Anthrax Vaccine in Pregnancy. American Journal of Epidemiology; July 2008. Meryl Nass, MD April 20, 2009 Dr. Margaret AK Ryan reports that of the 95,595 military women who delivered babies between 1998 and 2004, anthrax vaccine (one dose or more)…

Uwe Reinhardt, Princeton’s healthcare economist who has previously been featured in this blog, has posted a very interesting article to his NY Times blog. In it, he dissects the various roles of the healthcare system, using the German model to explain how some roles can be performed by government and others by private health insurance…

Information has many ways of falling through the cracks in hospitals and medical practices. The wrong test may be mistakenly ordered by the doctor. The ward secretary may order the wrong test. The lab may perform the wrong test, or rarely perform it on the wrong person. The result may not be available until after…

from YNet: Kadima Knesset Member and former Israeli Defense Force spokesman Nachman Shai on Friday said either a state commission of inquiry or a parliamentary commission of inquiry should be set up to look into the anthrax vaccine experiments conducted on IDF soldiers. MK Shai said, “The fact that the experiment was hidden from the…

From the Jerusalem Post From the AP Excerpts from today’s Ha’aretz: Dr. Reuven Porat, who chaired the medical committee, told Haaretz the panel had not been presented with any official documentation that shows the decision to develop, test and produce the vaccine had been authorized by the government. Similarly, there was no authorization presented from…

Another fascinating article on the Israeli anthrax vaccine experiments by Yossi Melman in Haaretz. Excerpts follow. It seems no one in Israel would take any responsibility for the experiment, which is being laid at the feet of (assassinated) former Prime Minister Itzhak Rabin — but no documentary evidence was given to the Israeli Medical Association…

Preventing bioterrorism: Thursday, March 12, 2009BY RUSH HOLTLast year, the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism — itself an outgrowth of the 9/11 Commission and its recommendations — issued its report. It used alarming language to prod our government to act. It affirmed something that was demonstrated with the…

For Immediate ReleaseMarch 6, 2009 Washington D.C.FBI National Press Office(202) 324-3691 FBI Responds to Science Issues in Anthrax Case FBI Laboratory Director D. Christian Hassell, PhD issued the following statement: During a recent American Society for Microbiology Biodefense (ASMBD) meeting in Baltimore , Maryland , questions were raised regarding two scientific analyses conducted during the…

Article in THE JERUSALEM POSTMar. 4, 2009Yaakov Lappin The Defense Ministry, Health Ministry and IDF said they took “full responsibility” for all side effects suffered by participants in a test of an anthrax vaccine, in a joint statement issued Wednesday. The statement will be submitted to the High Court next week as a reply to…

Glenn Greenwald‘s March 4, 2009 Salon article on Representative Rush Holt’s bill and the ramifications of the anthrax attack is a must-read. Great links. Here is an excerpt: The ultimate establishment organ, The Washington Post Editorial Page, issued numerous editorials expressing serious doubts about the FBI’s case against Ivins and called for an independent investigation….

For Immediate Release Contact: Zach Goldberg March 3, 2009202-225-5801 HOLT INTRODUCES ANTHRAX COMMISSION LEGISLATION Bill Would Create 9/11 Commission-Style Panel to Investigate Anthrax Attacks and Government Response (Washington, D.C.) – Rep. Rush Holt (NJ-12) today introduced the Anthrax Attacks Investigation Act of 2009 (HR 1248), legislation that would establish a Congressional commission to investigate the…

Healthcare is highly valued by our society, yet it seems that many of our pundits and politicians are willing to create a new healthcare system from whole cloth. In other words, let’s consider this or that experiment, and the winner will be the compromise melange that gets passed by Congress. (Definition of melange: a collection…

A two-paragraph article in today’s NY Times, sans byline, appears to end discussion of the so-called “chemical signature” said to identify the source of water used to grow the anthrax letter spores: On Tuesday at an American Society for Microbiology conference in Baltimore, an F.B.I. scientist, Jason D. Bannan, said the water research ultimately was…

from an article by Debora MacKenzie, who has been knowledgeably reporting on anthrax and bioterrorism at the New Scientist for more than a decade: . . . Next the team developed highly sensitive tests to screen all 1072 samples for four of the mutations. Eight samples had all four. One came from a flask labelled…

Six spot-on suggestions from Steve Nissen, MD to the Obama administration.

Nature article by Roberta Kwok discusses the American Society for Microbiology’s Biodefense and Emerging Diseases Research Meeting in Baltimore, Maryland on February 24, 2009. Excerpt: Joseph Michael, a materials scientist at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico, presented analyses of three letters sent to the New York Post and to the offices of Senators…

Merrill Goozner discusses a BMJ article by Nigel Hawke about Britain’s National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, and how it might help those of us in the less-regulated medical world to get useful information on pharmaceuticals. Excerpts: The global pharmaceutical industry considers Great Britain’s National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) about as…

Excerpts from Dr. Jon Abramson’s ABC News Op-Ed: It’s perfect. Pfizer buys Wyeth‘s pipeline, the behemoth marketing power of Pfizer gets leveraged, the work force gets consolidated and the $22 billion borrowed is read as a sign that banks are willing to lend again… The core problem with American medicine isn’t really access or cost….

Here (or here, if you are having trouble viewing the first set of images) is a side by side comparison of the Sandia pictures (from Anonymous) with pictures of 2 different batches of anthrax spores from another paper. One picture shows anthrax spores WITH an intact exosporium, the other WITHOUT an intact exosporium. Clearly the…

Wonderful article by economist Uwe Reinhardt clarifying bizarre hospital charges and third-party reimbursements, and how much of the healthcare dollar they waste. Excerpt: Americans can be forgiven their ignorance on this issue because, as I put it in a recent paper on the subject, the pricing of hospital services is best described as “Chaos Behind…

Article by Justin Palk The U.S. Army released 33 pages of Bruce Ivins’ e-mails Thursday from his account at Fort Detrick. The e-mails, obtained by The Frederick News-Post under the Federal Freedom of Information Act, span the period from September 1998 through January 2002. The documents contain 16 threads of communication, some including multiple e-mails…

Excerpts from the article: … IDF soldiers were given seven doses of an anti-anthrax vaccine developed by the Nes Tziona biological institute. But there was no extended medical supervision of the vaccinated soldiers. A year and a half ago, a group of soldiers vaccinated in the experiment asked the IDF and Defense Ministry for all…

Medco (this is the pharmacy benefits company that settled for $155 million over charges of defrauding the federal government and paying kickbacks in 2006) manager Dave Snow has jumped into the healthcare debate. His idea is to force doctors to prescribe pre-selected treatments: if you diagnose A, you treat with B. Obviously, Mr. Snow doesn’t…

Pictures of coated and uncoated spores are here, courtesy of Anonymous.

Global Security Newswire articleNational Journal Group Friday, Jan. 16, 2009By Elaine M. Grossman WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration violated its own regulations three years ago in approving the anthrax vaccine to prevent infection by a “weaponized” form of the disease, attorneys for eight Defense Department employees alleged in a brief filed last week…

Barry Kissin, an attorney in Frederick, Maryland, analyzes several assertions in Scott Shane’s January 4 article, by reviewing media and other reports published since 2001. These include the unsupported claim that the “chemical signature” of the water used to grow the letter anthrax could only come from Frederick, Maryland, and that other US government and…

The Frederick Post has made available a pdf of the Frederick Police Department report regarding its investigation of Ivins’ last days. I have several questions after reading this material. First, I would assume that Ivins made two trips to the Giant Eagle pharmacy an hour apart in order to drop off prescriptions then pick up…

Scott Shane’s newest, detailed exploration of Bruce Ivins can be summarized in Shane’s statement, “unless new evidence were to surface, the enormous public investment in the case would appear to have yielded nothing more persuasive than a strong hunch, based on a pattern of damning circumstances, that Dr. Ivins was the perpetrator.” Let me make…

Excerpted from an article in the December 29 Charleston, W.V. Daily Mail: …. The senator said it was shameful that neither the Department of Defense nor the Department of Veterans Affairs acknowledge Gulf War syndrome as a real illness. “We were stonewalled by the DOD in hearing after hearing after hearing,” Rockefeller said of several…

There are 2 errors in what I posted below about the forensic analysis discussed in Professor Jacques Ravel’s slides. The first correction is that the over 1,100 samples submitted to the FBI were screened for genotypic differences, and may not have been screened for morphologic differences. The second error is that the slides say wild-type…

Dr. Jacques Ravel of U Maryland, formerly of the Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR), spoke at the MIT faculty club on December 16, 2008 to discuss the scientific evaluation of the anthrax letters’ spores. I requested but did not receive an invitation to the event (despite my Bachelor’s degree in Biology from MIT and some…

From the Annapolis Capital, Maryland “Lennox said military safety reviews in recent months endorsed many of the security changes already made, from improved cameras and lights to satellite surveillance. But other changes were deemed not workable or too expensive, including limits on scientists’ hours or a system that would prohibit workers from being alone with…

Although this conclusion is nothing new to many of us, it is gratifying to get confirmation from the National Academy of Engineering of the National Academy of Sciences, and to hear a Sandia National Labs scientist, Paul Kotula, acknowledge that 200 tries to reverse engineer the spores did not create an identical match. Which simply…

Zimbabwe media are reporting that Zimbabwe government officials are blaming British operatives during the liberation struggle–and today–for cholera and anthrax epidemics currently affecting the country: http://www.newsnet.co.zw/index.php?nID=14583“Dr Ndlovu quoted a research by Tom Mangold, a researcher in Warfare and Jeff Goldberg, an investigative journalist based in Washington DC, who made the stunning revelations that the British…

A 3-part series of articles by Marcus Stern looks into the financial costs, usefulness and risks of the $48 billion dollars spent on bioterrorism responses since 9/11/01. Additional material with videos can be found at the thought-provoking, new web magazine FLYP (Nov. 25-Dec 12 issue, main story–and the visuals are lovely).

This is an introductory talk I gave in 1995 about health care reform. It seems equally relevant today. I will post additional thoughts on improving our health care system as the new administration considers ways to cover all Americans, improve quality and cut costs. I think it is doable! Hint regarding a future post: we…

If you drop anthrax spores in areas where livestock graze or wild animals roam, anthrax’s bitter harvest may keep returning. Under the proper weather conditions, spores can regrow and multiply locally. Animals grazing close to the ground may ingest anthrax-infected soil. The animals die suddenly. And hungry humans who butcher, consume or even use the…

Editorial from the Washington Post: …The new attorney general also should ensure that an independent commission or the inspector general review the anthrax investigation. In the summer, the FBI identified Fort Detrick scientist Bruce E. Ivins as the lone suspect in the 2001 anthrax attacks that killed five and sickened many more. Mr. Ivins took…

Op-Ed, 11/23/08 Two clear facts shine from the clouded mystery of anthrax attacks on America and our government’s tenuous claim seven years later of closing the case with the suicide of a suspect. Fact No. 1: Government warnings about anthrax being a weapon of mass destruction were false. Somebody dispersed the most lethal strain our…

And every one of the nine studies found a relationship between receiving anthrax vaccine and developing symptoms of Gulf War Syndrome. In eight of the nine studies, the relationship was statistically significant. The study with non-significant results was partly retracted by the authors (from the group associated with Simon Wessely, a UK psychiatrist and controversial…

Deborah Rudacille of the Baltimore Examiner has two more excellent articles exploring the underside of anthrax vaccine; its manufacturer Emergent Biosolutions (formerly named Bioport); and how the anthrax attacks provided life support to both the vaccination program, which was about to be cancelled, and to Emergent, which produced only one product: anthrax vaccine. Exhaustively researched,…

By Sara Michael http://www.baltimoreexaminer.com/local/112108emsANTHRAX.html Baltimore Examiner 11/21/08 U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings’ Washington, D.C., office was shuttered in 2001 after anthrax spores were found, so he’s “very sensitive” to the investigation into the crime, he said. Now, Cummings said he supports a review of the investigation. U.S. Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., proposed legislation in September to…

Reading the entire chapter on vaccines, the RAC report does a fairly good job of reviewing the evidence (with a few notable omissions) and its recommendations are sound: from page 125 of the report: Recent studies have indicated that the current anthrax vaccine is associated with high rates of acute adverse reactions, particularly in women….

A major report on Gulf War Illness written by the VA Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans’ Illnesses (RAC) was made public on November 17. This is the most important document yet produced on Gulf War illnesses. About 1800 references are cited. The report gets it right about how many have developed the syndrome…

“Bruce Ivins was a cold-blooded murderer, a deranged psycho-killer, who in the fall of 2001, cooked up a virulent batch of powdered anthrax, drove to Princeton, N.J., and mailed letters loaded with the lethal mix to five news organizations and two U.S. senators. At least, that’s what the FBI says. The letters infected 22 people,…

Justin Palk, Frederick News-Post http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/archives/fnp_display.htm?storyID=88347 From World War II through 1975, thousands of service members and veterans were potentially exposed to chemical or biological weapons as subjects or observers of tests carried out by the Department of Defense. The department unveiled a new website Monday to provide information about what happened during those tests. The…

October 2008 Dear Representative ——–, I am writing with concerns about a liability shield just issued for anthrax vaccine, a huge new waste of government funds in anthrax vaccine purchases by DHHS, and expansion of anthrax vaccinations to civilian first responders, which is poised to begin after a CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP)…

From Judith Miller, let go from the NY Times for her poorly sourced, Iraq war drumbeat articles, who is now at Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, writing in their City Journal (reprinted by FrontPageMag.com): a long and valuable piece on the biodefense enterprise that has developed since 9/11. It includes the following: Moreover, while there…

Susannah Cahalan’s NY Post story provides a needed counterpoint to last week’s Washington Post puff piece on the Bruce Ivins case. Who would have expected to find higher journalistic standards at the NY Post than at its Washington namesake? New information in this story includes the fact that the FBI was renting the house next…

Today’s front page Washington Post article by Joby Warrick on the Ivins case appears to present the FBI’s side of the story. I will post excerpts from the article and comment (in italics) on its inconsistencies. Abshire focused her lens on a moldlike clump. Anthrax bacteria were growing here, but some of the cells were…

Robert Roos News Editor Oct 23, 2008 (CIDRAP News) – The federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) has opened the door to voluntary anthrax vaccination for first responders, revising an 8-year-old recommendation against that step. The committee, meeting yesterday, said the risk of anthrax exposure for emergency responders is low but “may not be…

CDC published a report October 1 on its very expensive, 43 month-long trial of anthrax vaccine, but inexplicably discussed only the first 7 months and only 65% of the subjects. No explanation was given for why only partial data were provided in this important paper. Bloomberg may provide the reason; the selected data discussed in…

Representative Rush Holt, Chairman of the House Select Intelligence Oversight Panel of the House Committee on Appropriations, and a Representative whose constituents were directly affected by the anthrax attacks, has requested that the National Academy of Science also answer the following questions, should it elect to undertake an independent review of the FBI’s scientific methods…

The Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act, also known as Division C of P.L. 109-148 (2005) limits liability with respect to pandemic flu and other public health countermeasures. A Congressional Research Service Report for Congress by Henry Cohen, Legislative Attorney notes the following: 1. The ONLY circumstance in which a shielded person could be held…

Mayur Pahilajani – iStockAnalyst WriterNew York, NY Shares of Emergent Biosolutions Inc (NYSE: EBS) topped 52-week mark after the bell on Friday as investors gained confidence in the company after the Rockville-based biotech’s profitable anthrax treatments won emergency protection. On October 9, the firm announced that the vaccine Biothrax and its Anthrax Immune Globulin, both…

Fri, Oct. 17, 2008 By ALAN BAVLEY The Kansas City Star Sure, the economy is causing a crisis, but what about anthrax? How about smallpox? In a little noticed move, federal officials this month have declared a series of public health emergencies relating to potential weapons of biological terror. On Oct. 1, Health and Human…

Elaine GrossmanGlobal Security Newswire Oct. 17, 2008WASHINGTON – The U.S. Health and Human Services Department early this month moved to shield government, industry and business officials from lawsuits filed by those who have received the anthrax vaccine (see GSN , Sept. 5, 2007). Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt established legal immunity for public…

In a particularly Kafka-esque memorandum, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chertoff wrote to Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt on September 23, 2008 and said bluntly that he had no evidence for an anthrax emergency… however, there exists a non-negligible risk there may someday be one, so feel free to invoke the…

October 23, 2007: GAO says HHS has announced that it will issue another rPA anthrax vaccine proposal but has not formally reviewed what went wrong with the VaxGen contract. “They may repeat their mistakes in the absence of a corrective plan,” the report says.

Elaine GrossmanGlobal Security Newswire: Oct. 16, 2008 WASHINGTON – A U.S. government advisory panel next week could recommend that state and local public health officials consider administering anthrax vaccines to as many as 3 million first responders nationwide, Global Security Newswire has learned. The panel, convened by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, would…

Excerpts from Wired Blog: The emergency was declared earlier this month by the Department of Health and Human Services, and will last until 2015. Whether it will protect public health is debatable, but it will certainly protect makers of faulty anthrax vaccines. The act is supposed to be invoked when the Secretary of Homeland Security…

The Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (PREPA), passed by the United States Congress and signed into law in December, 2005, is a controversial tort liability shield intended to protect vaccine manufacturers from financial risk in the event of a declared public health emergency. The Act does not specify any criteria for determining the existence…

This week DHHS contracted to buy 14.5 million more doses of EBS’ anthrax vaccine. It has already purchased about 25 million doses for a civilian stockpile. This supply may be where the vaccine for first responders will come from. GAO reported in 2007 on the large losses DHHS will incur when the anthrax vaccine outdates;…

The October 3 article by Yudhijit Bhattacharjee (below) discusses the FBI’s request to NAS. How can the National Academy of Sciences answer whether the scientific work would meet evidentiary standards in a court of law? They are scientists, not lawyers. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has provided the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS)…

1. Omitting one dose, and injecting the vaccine deeper into muscle was widely reported to reduce adverse effects. But only brief local reactions at the skin are reduced, as one might expect with a deeper shot. The occurrence of the more consequential systemic adverse events was “not significantly influence[d]” by route of administration. 2. Women…

Thanks to Marisa Taylor at McClatchy Newspapers for this well-researched report on where the release of the records stands, and how the FBI justifies withholding these records.

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…