Holy Shite - the anthrax does not match

[malaise]

the anthrax in the poor vilified dead scientist's flask. coming up on KO.

He's skewering CPAC.

add

[sarcasmo]

1. Did we ever have any doubt that it wouldn't match?

[malaise]

5. No - here's a link

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/02/26/hey-fbi-who-put-the-tin-in-your-anthrax/

<snip>
Last we heard from the FBI's not-so-smoking gun in the anthrax case, USAMRIID admitted that they had no idea what kind of flasks of anthrax and other microbes its scientists had hidden around their labs, basically shredding the FBI's claim that the anthrax used in the attacks on Congress and the Press could only have come from Bruce Ivins' flask.

Now, we learn that the supposedly exact match between Ivins' anthrax and that used in the attacks was not so close. (h/t fatster)

At a biodefence meeting on 24 February, 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 Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy. Spores from two of those show a distinct chemical signature that includes silicon, oxygen, iron, and tin; the third letter had silicon, oxygen, iron and possibly also tin, says Michael. Bacteria from Ivins' RMR-1029 flask did not contain any of those four elements.

Two cultures of the same anthrax strain grown using similar processes — one from Ivins' lab, the other from a US Army facility in Utah — showed the silicon-oxygen signature but did not contain tin or iron. Michael presented the analyses at the American Society for Microbiology's Biodefense and Emerging Diseases Research Meeting in Baltimore, Maryland.

[DoctorMyEyes]

2. Surprising.... not

I just said to my husband that the whole "blame the conveniently dead guy" reminded me of that scene from Schindler's List where the Nazis are asking the kid who did something and the kid points to the newly dead guy.

[Bluebear]

3. Shocked!!! I am shocked!!!!!

Not.

[EFerrari]

4. Of course it doesn't. And there was never one flask. n/t

[JackRiddler]

6. Let Leahy get his Truth Commission and start with this.

The rest will follow - and it won't be long before there are prosecutions, as well as testimony under immunity.

[robertpaulsen]

7. K & R! I'm glad Keith is covering this!

:kick:

[marmar]

8. Perhaps they should check Cheney's old locker......

:tinfoilhat:

[chollybocker]

9. If the flask don't fit, you must acquit.

[malaise]

11. Duzy

:rofl:

The only problem is that they drove a man to his grave.

[chollybocker]

14. Indeed. The whole thing sucks to high hell.

I hope Cheney lives long enough to suffer his fate.

[Ardent15]

10. It was a right-wing nutjob who wanted to intimidate Democratic Senators...

...into supporting the President.

[malaise]

12. A right wing nut job may have sent it

but I'm pretty sure he was taking orders from above.

[Ardent15]

13. Hopefully, the truth will come out