My Novels

Sunday, January 20, 2002

A nice Sunday here, started out very sunny and mild. But now it's overcast. DH and I went on our long drive in the country, then came back early so he could go show some horses to an interested buyer at the farm. I did some housework and then went on my bike ride. I also moved my stray cat feed behind the garage, and scrubbed the backporch where they'd been eating and spraying -- not a pleasant sent!

We're eating out tonight, so no cooking. Yippee!

It's overcast outside now, supposed to rain tonight but will clear again by noon tomorrow.

Here's an interesting news article few may have read:


Anthrax Missing From Army Lab


Lab specimens of anthrax spores, Ebola virus and other pathogens disappeared from the Army's biological warfare research facility in the early 1990s, during a turbulent period of labor complaints and recriminations among rival scientists there, documents from an internal Army inquiry show.

The 1992 inquiry also found evidence that someone was secretly entering a lab late at night to conduct unauthorized research, apparently involving anthrax. A numerical counter on a piece of lab equipment had been rolled back to hide work done by the mystery researcher, who left the misspelled label "antrax" in the machine's electronic memory, according to the documents obtained by The Courant.

Meanwhile, one of the 27 sets of specimens has been found and is still in the lab; an Army spokesperson said it may have been in use when the inventory was taken. The fate of the rest, some containing samples no larger than a pencil point, remains unclear. In addition to anthrax and Ebola, the specimens included hanta virus, simian AIDS virus and two that were labeled "unknown" - an Army euphemism for classified research whose subject was secret.

.....

Rosenberg's analysis of the anthrax attacks, which has been widely reported, concludes that the culprit is probably a government insider, possibly someone from Fort Detrick. The Army facility manufactured anthrax before biological weapons were banned in 1969, and it has experimented with the Ames strain for defensive research since the early 1980s.

Vander-Linden said that one of the two sets of anthrax specimens listed as missing at Fort Detrick was the Vollum strain, which was used in the early days of the U.S. biological weapons program. It was not clear what the type of anthrax in the other missing specimen was.


Now that is very, very interesting, isn't it? I wonder if the FBI will EVER catch the culprit who sent the anthrax in the mail? I hope so, but I wouldn't hold my breath!

Enough for today.


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