"F.abulous B.ut I.competent" Revises Anthrax Description Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit source - Peter Bell Fashion House "Fabulous But Incompetent" Rewords Anthrax Tale Again BBC is reporting a preliminary strain match between the NYC and Florida anthrax - the full DNA analysis will take time - and explicitly correcting the earlier "high grade" description of the Capitol Hill spore formulation to "professionally produced." "High grade" was interpreted by many commentators as code for "weapons grade." A weapons-grade formulation would be antibiotic INSENSITIVE; each mailed formulation tested to date has been antibiotic sensitive according to early reports. The "professionally produced" characterization does not disprove or even address the possibility of a single lot of spores which were produced in varying sizes, and which behaved in accordance with the known physics of granulated material. An initial mix of grain sizes will segregate by size to a greater or lesser degree if their container is moved, shaken or even simply poured. Most of us have seen this effect in our breakfast cereal, and one of the Nature papers on the effect discussed it in that specific context! Meanwhile, the Herald on October 16 follows on early NYTransfer reports by discussing the history of amateur CBW in the US - and observing that all of these attempts here to date have been associated with the extreme racist right wing, a group of congenital fruit loops many of whom teach that the current inhabitants of the United Kingdom and their descendants represent a mythic and "racially pure" tribe of Israelites - and due to their alleged purity, that this tribe are the true Chosen People. However, the Herald piece is clearly written from far abroad - it argues that almost any group calling itself a militia shares a philosophy with extremist groups such as the Aryan Nations, who espouse a variant of the congenital fruit loopery outlined above. It is impossible to say how many members of militias subscribe to that level of stupidity, and some militias have claimed they told Larry Harris, the procurer of plague and anthrax with ties to the Aryan Nations, to get the hell away from them as soon as he explained that in his worldview, the use of biological weapons to achieve political aims is acceptable. This, presumably, meant that he was unable to warn them properly of the Iraqi super-rat threat. The Aryan Nations are reportedly urging their membership to gear up for war. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Paul Mullet of the Aryan Nations in Minnesota has written: "We are preparing a strike here in Minnesota and other surrounding areas. Please be advised that the time for ALL ARYANS TO ATTACK IS NOW NOT LATER. Our opportunity may never be the same. The call to arms goes out to all true Aryans around the world. We will be ready next week for our revolution." (from http://www.splcenter.org/intelligenceproject/ip-4t99.html and not independently verifiable nor sourced - the SPLC is, of course, an implacable opponent of the AN and the AN will no doubt soon issue a denial that any such statement was made.) That call to arms from the publishers of the Larry Harris book on biological weapons may well underlie the quote which closes the Herald piece, from an anonymous representative of transvestite fashion house Fabulous, But Incompetent. We certainly hope that rep looks every bit as comely as founder (and dearly departed) trannie J. Edgar Hoover did in floral print numbers. Damn, those boys look so bad in their "straight" wardrobes that the nighties pretty much have to be an improvement, no? -- Peter * http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_1605000/1605871.stm Thursday, 18 October, 2001, 05:06 GMT 06:06 UK US anthrax cases linked Americans have been told to be especially alert Preliminary tests suggest that anthrax sent to a New York television station is the same strain as the bacteria which caused an outbreak in Florida. The US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that, following preliminary genetic testing, "the strain in New York appears to match the strain in Florida". News of the link came after the US House of Representatives and three Senate office buildings in Washington were closed for tests after at least 31 congressional employees tested positive for anthrax exposure. Two people are being treated for skin anthrax after a letter containing the bacteria was sent to NBC TV in New York, while the Florida outbreak - which centred on the offices of newspaper group American Media Inc - saw one man die and another need treatment for respiratory anthrax. Officials said a matching strain did not necessarily mean the anthrax came from the same source, but the match may help investigators narrow in on the individuals or groups responsible. US law enforcement officials have said there is no evidence linking the anthrax scares with foreign terrorists. But with nerves on edge since the 11 September terror attacks on New York and Washington, the two threats are being increasingly linked. White powder packages The latest anthrax alert, which saw hundreds of Congressional workers in Washington queuing for tests, came after a letter containing anthrax spores was opened in the offices of Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle. Most of the people who tested positive for exposure to anthrax worked in the office. Five law enforcement personnel also tested positive. According to Senator John Kerry, the letter was opened by an assistant with a pair of scissors, at which point white powder leaked out. A note inside warned: "You've been exposed to anthrax. You're going to die." Senator Daschle stressed that the employees' positive nasal swabs only indicated exposure to anthrax, and that there was "absolutely no indication" that they had been infected. He said they had all been taking antibiotics since last Friday. "It is treatable," he said. Tests have determined that the anthrax found in the letter was professionally made but was not weapons-grade. The US deputy surgeon-general, Ken Mortisugu, said the contamination was extremely limited and had not spread into the air-conditioning system. While the Senate has decided to close all three of its office buildings, it still plans to convene on Thursday. By contrast, the House of Representatives has suspended proceedings until next week.Speaker Dennis Hastert said the house would shut down to enable health officials to carry out tests in the Capitol complex, where more than 20,000 people work. In New York, Governor George Pataki said there was "a likelihood" that there had been anthrax in his Manhattan offices. He said tests taken on Monday night had produced positive results, but that three employees who were subsequently tested were not infected. Mr Pataki said he and about 80 of his employees would be taking antibiotics as a precaution. Mounting concern about the US cases has triggered alerts and hoaxes around the world, with the Israeli parliament evacuated along with public buildings in Europe, Africa and New Zealand. http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/archive/16-10-19101-1-7-46.html Backwoods militias suspected of being behind biowar threat IAN BRUCE THE FBI's domestic terrorism unit is investigating the possible role of illegal militia groups in the spate of anthrax outbreaks in Florida and New York. Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma bomber who killed 168 people when he blew up a federal building in 1995, was a supporter of one such group, the National Alliance. Others have threatened to use biological weapons, including anthrax, botulism, and ricin, in their struggle against what they see as a global conspiracy between the US administration and the United Nations to disarm and enslave them. Every state has its own "patriot" group of disaffected right-wing Christian radicals opposed to central government and federal regulations. Most are organised along paramilitary lines. The FBI estimates their numbers at up to 40,000, with the larger militias in backwoods country areas. They claim they are mobilising to fight the "New World Order". In places like Idaho, Texas, Montana and West Virginia, they wear army surplus camouflage uniforms and train with assault rifles and explosives against the day when they might have to defend themselves against direct interference from the federal authorities. They range in outlook from Pat Robertson, a failed 1988 presidential candidate, with his vision of a "Christian America" to the sinister Posse Comitatus, Aryan Nations and Minnesota Patriots' Council, who favour armed insurrection. All have links with the National Rifle Association, the influential lobby group which represents weapons' manufacturers, hunters and gun clubs and campaigns for the right of all Americans "to own and bear arms". There is some doubt as to whether this right is enshrined legally in the American constitution but the NRA has powerful supporters in both senate and congress and no-one has yet managed successfully to challenge the all-pervasive nationwide gun culture. Most of the militias' philosophy is based on white-supremacist principles, looking down on blacks as "mud people" and Jews as instigators of the global plot against them and manipulators of the world economy for their own benefit. Despite their redneck reputation, they have developed a sophisticated communications network using computer e-mail, shortwave radio, and fax. The North American Patriots, a group with members from California to Kansas, publish a newsletter entitled Firearms and Freedom. After the disastrous FBI storming of the Branch Davidian headquarters in Waco, Texas, and the Ruby Ridge stand-off fiasco, where an FBI sniper killed an unarmed woman in a mountain cabin, the militias have turned to the threat of biological weapons to up the ante. In January 1999, police and security forces responded to 30 anthrax hoaxes in southern California alone. Since then, there have been thousands of false alarms across the country. Many aimed at government buildings, including deliveries of envelopes containing suspicious white powder, were militia inspired. Others targeting schools, hospitals or newspapers were sent by disgruntled former employees or jilted lovers. However, the FBI has never discounted the possibility someone might lay hands on lethal biological agents. In 1992, two members of the Minnesota Patriots' Council were arrested carrying vials of ricin, an extremely dangerous toxin. They intended to use the substance to kill police officers over a local feud. Larry Wayne Harris of the Aryan Nations managed to buy samples of bubonic plague over the internet. Fortunately, the plague bacteria were inert. Three members of the Republic of Texas bought what they thought was anthrax in 1998. It turned out to be anthrax serum, the liquid used to inoculate people against the infection. An FBI source said yesterday that up to 80% of the weapons of mass destruction inquiries carried out in the last few years involved the threat of anthrax. Before the death of a British-born newspaperman in Florida last week, only 28 people in the US had died from effects of the bacterium in the last 100 years. Before biowar became a potentially popular hobby, anthrax was known as "wool-shearer's disease" because it had been contracted only by farmworkers in close contact with sheep, a prime carrier of the infection. An FBI source said: "We can never rule out al Qaeda's possible role in the current deliberate spread of anthrax. It is causing more panic than anything else and has not, thankfully, been disseminated in a very efficient way if the object was to inflict casualties. "But our own militias may also have a hand in some or all of the incidents. Copycats and hoaxers could also be having a field day. The problem is, we just can't afford to drop our guard."-Oct 16th ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytenv-10.18.01-05:21:55-7468