New angle on Anthrax story: Projects "Clear Vision" and "Jefferson."

[bushmeister0]

Tetrahedron, LLC:

8/30/2002

"Three veteran investigators have independently narrowed the field of anthrax mailings suspects to a single Russian defector affiliated with two heavily implicated defense contractors and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). . . Kanatjan Alibekov, alias 'Ken Alibek,' the President of Hadron Advanced Biosystems, should be re-interrogated by the FBI, according to three researchers who arrived at this conclusion independently. They say Stephen Hatfield-the military virologist cited by FBI officials in recent weeks as a chief subject was not likely involved in the mailings at all.

Suspiciously, Dr. Alibekov and BMI had contracted with this anthrax ace in the Spring of 1998 to predict the dispersal and damage capability of mailing such a hyper-weaponized germ much like the one sent to select members of the media and legislators on Capitol Hill.

The three independent investigators each cite economic and political motives for the targeted anthrax mailings. Given the high grade and technical difficulty in producing and handling this grade of anthrax, they reasoned, 'white collar criminals' with access to military or pharmaceutical labs most likely acted on behalf of those who benefited most from the attacks and ensuing fright. Hadron and its affiliates, including DynCorp and BMI, lead the pack of corporate and institutional suspects, the investigators say."

http://www.tetrahedron.org/news/NR020830.html

Interestingly, Ken Alibek was the program manager for something called the Battelle Memorial Institute (BMI)-a leading military contractor and the "chief CIA contractor for project 'Clearvision'-an effort to produce the deadliest Ames strain anthrax ever developed. It was hyper-concentrated, silica-laced, electro-magnetized, and extremely transmissible. The facts indicate Dr. Alibekov, one of two leading anthrax experts contracted by the CIA at the time of 'Clearvision,' may have managed the entire program."

Project Clear Vision:

Judith Miller, of all people, reportd in the NYT on September 4 2001:

"Over the past several years, the United States has embarked on a program of secret research on biological weapons that, some officials say, tests the limits of the global treaty banning such weapons.

The 1972 treaty forbids nations from developing or acquiring weapons that spread disease, but it allows work on vaccines and other protective measures. Government officials said the secret research, which mimicked the major steps a state or terrorist would take to create a biological arsenal, was aimed at better understanding the threat.

The projects, which have not been previously disclosed, were begun under President Clinton and have been embraced by the Bush administration, which intends to expand them.

Earlier this year, administration officials said, the Pentagon drew up plans to engineer genetically a potentially more potent variant of the bacterium that causes anthrax, a deadly disease ideal for germ warfare.

The experiment has been devised to assess whether the vaccine now being given to millions of American soldiers is effective against such a superbug, which was first created by Russian scientists. A Bush administration official said the National Security Council is expected to give the final go-ahead later this month.

the C.I.A. drew up plans to replicate the strain, but intelligence officials said the agency hesitated because there was no specific report that an adversary was attempting to turn the superbug into a weapon.

This year, officials said, the project was taken over by the Pentagon's intelligence arm, the Defense Intelligence Agency. Pentagon lawyers reviewed the proposal and said it complied with the treaty. Officials said the research would be part of Project Jefferson, yet another government effort to track the dangers posed by germ weapons.

A spokesman for Defense Intelligence, Lt. Cmdr. James Brooks, declined comment. Asked about the precautions at Battelle, which is to create the enhanced anthrax, Commander Brooks said security was 'entirely suitable for all work already conducted and planned for Project Jefferson.'"

http://online.sfsu.edu/~rone/GEessays/germtreatylimits.html

Mother Jones reporttd in 2004:

"Even more worrisome to many experts is the apparent growth in secretive, or 'black box,' biodefense research by the U.S. intelligence community. 'There's all kinds of secret research going on right now,' says Matthew Meselson, a Harvard biologist who has worked closely with the military. 'The more you create secret research in biology,' he warns, 'the more you create risk.' One program that has become public is Project Jefferson, a Pentagon effort to genetically engineer a vaccine-resistant version of anthrax. After the program's existence was revealed by the New York Times in 2001, the Pentagon announced that it intended to complete the project and that the results would be classified. ' natural instinct is to exploit the technology and keep everybody else away from it,' says John D. Steinbruner, director of the Center for International and Security Studies at the University of Maryland. 'In their hands, this technology is potentially extremely dangerous.'"

http://www.motherjones.com/news/outfront/2004/03/02_400.html

Ken Alibek, quoted in ths same article says of the US efforts to create new supebugs, "We are playing games with fire. It is kind of a Pandora's box. As soon as you open it, there is no way of putting it back in."

I guess he'd know.