Was the Tularemia Incident a Botched Terrorist Attack?
Since the "stories" from Sans and others have been forgotten it is obvious that they were false. It is very dangerous to make up stories like this.
(Remember, having a discussion is dangerous! DON'T TALK!)
Funny how this person left this message the same day that Salon.com has a THREE PAGE ARTICLE about THIS EXACT SUBJECT.
For those of you without a Salon subscription, I really do recommend it. Until you get it, here's a few excerpts:
Unknown to the crowd, biological-weapons sensors, scattered for miles across Washington by the Department of Homeland Security, were quietly doing their work. The machines are designed to detect killer pathogens. Sometime between 10 a.m. on Sept. 24 and 10 a.m. on Sept. 25, six of those machines sucked in trace amounts of deadly bacteria called Francisella tularensis. The government fears it is one of six biological weapons most likely to be used against the United States.
It was an alarming reading. The biological-weapons detection system in Washington had never set off any alarms before. There are more than 150 sensors spread across 30 of the most populated cities in America. But this was the first time that six sensors in any one place had detected a toxin at the same time. The sensors are also located miles from one another, suggesting that the pathogen was airborne and probably not limited to a local environmental source.
William Stanhope, associate director for special projects at the St. Louis University School of Public Health's Institute for Biosecurity, has been closely following scattered government and news reports about the incident. He's convinced it was a botched terrorist attack. "I think we were lucky and the terrorists were not good," he says. "I am stunned that this has not been more of a story."
...
"One sensor, I'd say maybe," says biosecurity expert Stanhope of the dust theory. "Two sensors is a stretch. Six sensors? I'm sorry, you don't have enough money to buy enough martinis to make me believe that it is naturally occurring at six different sites. I don't think you could get me that drunk to believe that."
Sans Culottes, who first brought this to my attention, hasn't been around recently - Sans, please comment here or email me directly, just want to check in - became very, very ill after his trip to DC (see original post for details). Many more people left comments about their experiences, and I am certain that many more we haven't heard from have also gotten ill after the protest. Luckily, the natural reaction to feeling so ill is to try antibiotics, which is very effective in treating cases of tuleremia.
So am I still a crazy conspiracy theorist for posting about such a strange occurance?
by MG at 12:12 PM
27 Comments:
This post has been removed by a blog administrator.
Hi Moxie,
This hasn't been, nor will it ever be; forgotten!
I posted a few messages on the original thread about this topic, and I hope more people push forward for more MSM coverage about this.
Too may questions, with way too few answers...
I think your story did help a lot of people though, so keep it up.
Out of curiousity, have you (or do you know of anyone who), has called their local news agencies about this one? Black Box scandal from 2004?
In today's world, last weeks news feels like last decades forgotten troubles, but the more and more people talk about this, and demand the truth....the fewer and fewer lies will be gotten away with.
(& Damn me for me pathetic typing skills)
you are far from crazy Moxie! You just aren't a zombie sheep like alot of Americans lately. Bush & the goverment would just love for us to remain quiet & never question a thing. Thankfully, there are people like you left in this country. Keep questioning, & keep thinking sister!
Sploid is also covering this:
http://www.sploid.com/news/2005/10/did_washington.php
They had a story when this first came out,on Oct 2:
http://sploid.com/news/2005/10/deadly_biohazar.php
I don't believe it was an act of terrorism committed by a foreign agent. It is too much of a coincidence that Bush just happened to be in a bunker in Colorado that day, overseeing relief efforts for hurricane Rita, which he could have done from Washington just as easily, and with a lot less disruption to the people at the military base in CO. They couldn't leave him in Washington where he could have been exposed. The hurricane was a convenient excuse to get him away from Washington. I'm certain that if there had been no hurricane that week, they would have come up with some other reason to have Bush out of the city - a fundraiser or something - when the tularemia mysteriously appeared.
I agree with you, sam. I was expecting something to happen on the Mall that day. I read that the Granite Shadow demonstration took place that weekend in DC. Also, friends that were there said they saw lots of men in suits taking pictures...
Thanks for keeping this story going! I don't think you are being a tin foil hatter at all.
Some more tin foil hatty people out there have suggested that this was a "test run" for disperal system that will be used by our own government to disperse the avian flew under the auspices of the secret Granite Shadow prorgam.
That's a bit much, but ever since I saw the Twin Towers come tumbling down, reality has been moving in stranger and stranger directions, hasn't it?
Hi Mox,
Sorry I haven't been posting here in a while. I didn't even realize it had been so long as I've visited the site daily, just not staying long enough to post. My time off in the hospital put me behind and I'm still playing major catch up.
I also ran across this story earlier today. I hope this helps it gets some more attention. I'm no bioterror expert but it just seems stupid to think that all 6 sensors, miles apart from eachother, picked up this crap that 1 day and no other doesn't warrant a closer look into what happened. I'm glad there is at least 1 bioterror expert who agrees that there is something screwy that happened that needs to be checked out.
I'm of the impression that the cdc is downplaying it in order to prevent any investigation. Why else?
As for me, I'm back to my normal I guess.
I finally got my medical records Monday, a week and a half after I was first promised them. There are 72 pages in all just pertaining to this one visit. Most of them just redundant "general care flow sheets" and "progress notes" by nursing staff.
The problem I'm now having is that although the "emergency records" "doctor notes" show the entry "He have consulted Va Health dept Dr ****** and Dr ****** and CDC adn have cultured blood, throat, and nasopharyngeal secretion on appropriate F tularensis culture media. WE have also sent F tularensis serum antigen PCR test to Qwest Labs" there is no record anywhere in the records provided to me of the results of any of these tests.
That was the whole reason I paid $30 for the records in the first place. The results from every other test which came up negative are indicated in the "discharge summary" pages, but not them.
I'm currently waiting on a friend who is a physician to unofficially review the records for me. He did give a quick glance at them initially and agreed that it didn't appear the test results were in there, and he said that they definitely should be. He went so far as to count all 72 of the pages to make sure I was actually handing him all of the pages indicated on the cover sheet. They are all there. All I got from him is a Hmmmmm? and a promise he'll look into it. If they are not there he insinuated that he ought to be able to get the results for me.
I'm still waiting.
Thanks for staying on top of this Mox. There needs to be a full investigation into this incident.
Wow, sans, I didn't realize you had gone to the hospital over this. You and Moxie do need to keep on top of this, and thanks for bringing it to our attention again.
carolyn13
Let's not forget where they traced the origin of the anthrax that was sent to certain senate offices when they wanted the Patriot Act passed.
Sans - I'm so glad you checked in - you really did have me worried there for a bit since you're so vocal otherwise ;p
Glad also that you got the records, but yes, that's weird that they wouldn't include the results of those tests. Have you had the chance to ask the hospital why the results weren't included in the paperwork?
I'm happy that things appear as "back to normal" as they can be.
Thanks for the nice chat today and for keeping this on the top burner, Moxie. I posted another entry on this topic on the Psychotic Patriot (www.psychoticpatriot.blogspot.com), and I'll be smelling the air very carefully from this part of the country from now on. Amazing that a real terrorist attack against peaceful civilians gets totally ignored and the fake ones keep on rolling in.
I really doubt this.
When I went to the Reagan Funeral; a gentlemen in front of me lost his wife.
Unmarked security came up and said that he where to find his wife.
This impressed me; there was over 7,000 in line.
Every inch of DC is covered.
I just don’t buy a conspiracy, there are too many who’s - who is DC
Damn Iggy,
What does anything you said have to do with anything? You really think there can't be a conspiracy in DC??
What was watergate?
What were the anthrax mailings?
Have you ever even bothered to look up what PNAC is and how it relates to the current Bush admin?
What the hell is Fitzgerald investigating?
You really ought to try taking a critical thinking or a logic course somewhere if you are going to try and argue your point on comment threads. Otherwise you make yourself sound like Mehlwoman's dumber sibling.
Don't worry Moxie. We are ALL conspiracy theorists.
Great post! Thanks!
If this was a potential Terrorist attack against the US, the Admin would HAVE BEEN ALL OVER IT-
This was Administration sponsored. The only way this was not is if the Powers that be know that the Protesters were the actual target and not the government. If so, that would explain why the story was ignored - For fear that it might gain more sympathy for the antiwar effort.
Iggy,
I would be inclined to agree with you from time to time, but US special forces, have for years trained, on domestice soil against domestic agencies.
"things they carried" was a book I read once about a Airborne veteran, where he retold stories of his days with regards to his training.
Great book actually, not a conspiracy thing or anything like that, but they have (and do) conduct excersises unknown to even secret service.
If you don't think the USA capable of something like this, then please....share the pills you are on, because I too would like that rosy-glow of igonrance I once used to have. Not an insult to you, but things like this have happenned for decades.
It's just never been so widely broadcast to the world like it is today thanks to the internet.
If you would like validation on this stuff, drop me an email and I can forward you some links, documents, etc. It would take awhile to find them, but it owuld open your eyes a little wider I think.
Good to see you're still going strong Sans, i hope the best for you and others like you.
Sorry, still not buying it.
Trace amounts at six sensors is impossible unless each of the six sensors was equidistant from the contamination source.
My thinking? The anti-anti-war folks (or the anarchists in the crowd) planted trace amounts near each sensor as a chaos-inducing attempt to foment trouble.
So then explain missing test results, since you seem to know so much.
Carl .... did you ever think perhaps there was (a) more than 1 contamination source and/or (b) the source moved?
you know ... like some dude with muddy shoes ....
Anonymous,
Yea, possible. But how likely?
Occam's Razor suggests this is more likely a false positive than anything else, but allowing for an actual contamination, we have to examine all the facts.
As for missed readings...maybe they didn't know where ALL the sensors were?
Like Carl said, this is a false positive case. Terrorist training for the big time? Please. If they hit numerous sensors, and as Carl suggests, it's not likely they knew where any of them were, they'd need a large area coverage that would have caused illnesses and/or deaths that doctors would have accurately identified as tularemia. Much more likely that someone at the lab doing the first pass screwed up or there was just a fluke. Note the Salon article says, in the second phase of tests using PCR analysis, the samples all panned out as not being tularemia.
My analysis at Armchair Generalist. Chill out, conspiracy theorists!
Carl, you actually think that the Anarchists attending the rally could have somehow been responsible for leaking trace amounts of Tularemia at 6 seperate locations?
Either the DC Anarchist community is worlds more sophisticated than those in San Francisco, or you're completely out to lunch.
First off, it'd take weeks of planning and an intense security culture for them to obtain the Tularermia and find the people willing and able to release it near the sensors.
Second, it's highly unlikely that this sort of approach is liable to appeal to anarchists. It's simply not direct enough. I could see anarchists shutting down streets, smashing Starbucks windows and even breaking in to power plants to shut off the electricity, but I can't see them leaking minute amounts of biological weapons as a means to intensify the militant anti-war movement.
If you're going to go that far, we might as well say that the Black Bloc were the masterminds behind 9/11 and that they knew that a domestic terrorist attack would result in a loss of civil liberties and rampant war which would empower more activists to rise up and help foster a revolution...
now that's a conspiracy theory.
Hi Moxie and Sans,
Thanks for posting about this again. I didn't kow how to get back to the earlier posts.
I just finished my doxycycline over the weekend (I'm not really great at remembering to take all 10 days worth when I'm feeling better). The upshot is I am feeling MUCH better than I did in the 10days after returning from the DC march. (no fevers, can breathe again, eat again, etc...)
It sounds like there has been more going on than we might like to think. But I'd be surprised if Bush left town that weekend to avoid tularemia. I think he was just a-scared of us. Otherwise, why would he have left Laura there with the Book show? (other than he doesn't read)
I had vague symptoms that could have come from exposure to Tuleremia starting about four days after returning from the march in D.C. I went to my doc eight days later. I finished a course of Zithromax and the symptoms are gone. But I didn't get a blood test so I have no idea what was bugging me. Just weighing in.
I'm Mark Benjamin, the Salon reporter who wrote about Tularemia. If Sans could please, please contact me that would be great. mbenjamin@salon.com
I was in DC for the demonstration on the 24th. I can’t say that I am sick, but I’ve had many of the symptoms in very mild form – abnormal headache, irritated skin, mild sore throat, neck aches, joint aches, chest pain, red eyes, etc. None are bad enough to cause me to seek medical care though. I keep saying to myself – it’s just hay fever, if it was a biological weapons attack I’d be really hurting by now.
Then I came across this from the Emerging Technologies Genetic Engineering and Biological Weapons, The Sunshine Project, Background Paper #12, November 2003!!!!
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Military experts are perfectly aware of the danger of genetically engineered bioweapons, as their traditional defense measures - e.g.detection methods or vaccines - are easily sidestepped by the artificial microbes. The speedy development of genetic engineering is one driving force to strengthen the Bioweapons Convention (1) and establish a verification system.
Example 1: Bacteria causing unusual symptoms
Researchers from Obolensk near Moscow inserted a gene into Francisella tularensis, the causative agent of tularemia and a well known biological weapon agent. The gene made the bacteria produce beta-endorphin, an endogenous human drug, which caused changes in the behaviour of mice when infected with the transgenic bacteria. (2) According to the published results, the endorphin gene was not introduced into a fully virulent strain, but only into a vaccine strain.
If inserted into virulent F. tularensis, the victims would not show the usual symptoms of tularemia, but instead unusual symptoms that would obscure the diagnosis and delay therapy. Development of symptom-altered BW-agents has been identified as one possible application of genetic engineering for BW purposes by the US Department of Defense. (3)
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We need to find out the results of the tests on the material collected from the 6 DC detectors. If the bacteria were a genically altered strain the fact that very few people have typical symptoms may not mean anything. It may be intentional!! Everyone may be infected but by the time the infection has its intended affect it may too late to treat, or it might be an attenuated strain released as test.
If it was intended to be harmful to the protesters symptoms would need to be delayed or hidden. Otherwise, they would seek treatment and the only harm would the fear that it induced (that may be the intention).
Just some of my thoughts, but one thing is for sure, we need to know more about the bacteria ASAP.
I'm not Mark Benjamin. So where is the proof? What about thisischer story? Either they had it or not. What a bunch of bullshit. It now obvious the government only said that the bacteria was found so as to scare people away from future demonstrations. They were relyng on people to hype the threat. Psyops 101.
Like I said this type of BS is dangerous.
To everybody who pretended to be sick - Fuck you and mother who squeezed your fucked up head when ya popped out.
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