military-pharmaceutical industrialists

[Guest guest]

" But Horowitz, 49, who often notes his Harvard University master's degree in

public health, says he will not be deterred until he exposes the

" military-pharmaceutical industrialists. "

" Even if I hadn't committed my whole life to saving lives through public

health, it's my duty as an American, " he says.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Everyone has an anthrax theory

By Shane, Sun Staff, Originally published January 6, 2002

http://www.sunspot.net/news/custom/attack/bal-te.anthrax06jan06.story?coll=b

al%2Dhome%2Dheadlines

Barbara Hatch Rosenberg, a molecular biologist at the State University of

New York, thinks she has figured out a great deal about the person who

mailed the anthrax that killed five people last fall.

" He had to be an insider in the U.S. biological defense program, " she says.

Not only that: He is a microbiologist. He probably lives near Washington.

And for those who want details, she has laid her reasoning out on the

Internet.

To M. , a computer security expert in Massachusetts, the

nine-digit ZIP codes on the anthrax letters could be a crucial clue - as

well as the ersatz return address, a made-up elementary school. If the

attacker used the Internet to collect his information, says, he might

have left an electronic trail.

Orley R. Bourland Jr., a Fort Detrick retiree who once made anthrax for the

Army, has hunted the Web to see whether the equipment needed to make the

powder is widely available (yes) and consulted with colleagues to judge

whether a person working alone could physically have performed the necessary

tasks to do so (probably not).

In the absence of visible progress in the three-month FBI hunt for the

anthrax-mailing terrorist, an informal army of detectives has joined the

quest. Among them are distinguished scientists, eager amateurs, bounty

hunters and conspiracy theorists of every stripe. Solving the mystery has

become a game that anyone can play.

For encouragement, there's the $1.25 million reward offered jointly by the

FBI and U.S. Postal Service for solving the case. Government sources say the

prize will soon be upped to $2 million, a possible sign that investigators

are stuck.

But the people who have become enthralled by the anthrax whodunit don't seem

to have the money first in their minds.

A 'fascinating' mystery

" When this anthrax thing came up, I found it just fascinating, " says Ed

Lakeof Racine, Wis., a 64-year-old retired computer system designer who

writes screenplays. " All these facts were scattered all over the place. But

no one was putting them together. "

So Lake took on that job himself, putting together an extensive anthrax

investigation Web site, which he updates and corrects as new evidence is

reported.

" There are so many clues out there - so many odd things, " Lake says. " It's 7

o'clock in the morning and I'm getting up, and suddenly an idea will hit

me. "

Rosenberg, 63, who has headed a biological weapons working group for the

Federation of American Scientists since 1989, says she joined the chase

partly because of her deep concern about the danger of biological terror.

" If news coverage and public awareness just fade away because they never

catch the person responsible, I think that would be regrettable, " she says.

But that's just part of her motivation: " It really is interesting to try to

put the clues together. "

Getting the public involved

If there has been an onslaught of unofficial investigation, that might be

partly because the FBI encouraged it. From early on, it solicited help from

the public, adding a red button labeled " Submit a Tip " to the elaborate Web

site it has dedicated to the " Amerithrax " investigation.

Along with a flag--draped logo, photos of the anthrax letters and sound

files of FBI experts discussing the case, the Web site includes a lengthy

handwriting and behavioral analysis of the perpetrator.

The proposed suspect is an adult male loner with scientific training, it

says, who " is a non-confrontational person, at least in his public life. He

lacks the personal skills necessary to confront others. ... He may hold

grudges for a long time, vowing that he will get even with 'them' one day. "

Never before has the FBI made public such extensive material on an unsolved

case, spokeswoman Tracey Silberling said Friday. That is partly because of

the new technical possibilities offered by the Internet, but mostly because

of the nature of the anthrax probe, she said.

" In the interest of public safety and educating the public about the threat,

we've made as much information as possible available, " Silberling said.

" We're also seeking the public's assistance by making information available

that might ring a bell with someone. "

Silberling said the bureau has received " hundreds of tips " from the public,

but declined to say whether any have proved useful.

Flawed reporting

If the FBI's lack of evident progress has drawn criticism, so has the media

coverage of the case, which has often been erratic.

Even the most respected news organizations have reported details about the

mailed anthrax or the investigation that quickly proved unfounded.

On Dec. 19, for instance, ABC's World News Tonight led its broadcast with a

story saying the FBI was investigating a scientist who had been fired twice

by Battelle Memorial Institute, an Ohio-based government contractor. The

story was picked up by wire services and printed in many newspapers,

including The Sun.

But the next day the story was denied by U.S. officials, who noted that the

accurate part - that a man twice fired by Battelle had made anthrax

threats - had been published two months earlier in the Milwaukee Journal

Sentinel. The FBI determined that the man had no connection to the mailings,

officials said.

ZIP code clues

With the FBI mostly mum and no certainty from the news media, citizens have

felt emboldened to do their own work, invariably using the World Wide Web.

Some have shown quite a knack.

One such sleuth is , 48, who has earned a reputation in the computer

world for helping to track down people who have loosed certain damaging

computer viruses on the Internet.

In the anthrax case, in addition to analyzing the nine-digit ZIP codes, he

has dissected the return address on the bacteria-laced letters mailed to

Sens. Tom Daschle and J. Leahy: " 4th GRADE, GREENDALE SCHOOL,

FRANKLIN PARK, NJ 08852. "

found that while the school doesn't exist, the elements of the

invented address all suggest familiarity with three adjacent small towns in

New Jersey.

In addition to his own research, has created " The Anthrax Conspiracy

Theories Page, " including links to the work of fellow detectives.

Interestingly, the most active unofficial investigators, including

Rosenberg, and Lake, have independently reached similar conclusions as

to the motive behind the attacks.

'Bioevangelist' theory

They say the perpetrator is most likely someone with experience in the

bioweapons arena who believed the U.S. government and public were oblivious

to the magnitude of the potential threat from bioterrorists.

The person mailed the letters in the belief that only an actual attack would

sound the necessary alarm, they say.

Such a scenario - call it " the bioevangelist theory " - would account for two

pieces of evidence: the attacker's expertise about anthrax and the vague

notes included in the letters vowing " Death to America " and declaring " Allah

is Great. "

Some Islamic scholars say that message was most likely written not by a

Muslim militant, but by someone trying to sound like a Muslim militant.

That would fit the theory perfectly: A misguided American bioweapons expert

trying to arouse the public might want to direct the blame at al-Qaida-style

terrorists, who he believes pose the real threat.

" Somebody in the know says, 'This stuff is so dangerous, and we're not

treating it with the right amount of concern,' " says. " 'So why don't I

give a demonstration?' "

Rosenberg says such a notion was occasionally aired jokingly in the small

circle of those who worried about biological terror prior to Sept. 11.

" There have been a number of occasions when we've said in frustration, 'What

we need is a biological weapons attack to wake the country up,' " she says.

The public evidence - that the mailed anthrax was the Ames strain used in

U.S. biodefense research, and that it was prepared with great expertise -

points to a U.S. military or government contractor program, Rosenberg says.

" I think it's somebody who's got a screw loose, " Rosenberg says. " But I

think the existence of the U.S. [biodefense] program made it possible. "

A wider conspiracy

Inevitably, among those outside the FBI at work on the anthrax case are some

who believe the mailings are only a tiny part of a far, far broader

conspiracy.

One vague theory that has been bandied about on the Web links the anthrax

attacks to the recent deaths of five microbiologists, including a Harvard

scientist who had worked with Ebola and other viruses and a defector from

the Soviet biological weapons program.

But the Web postings do not even speculate as to how the deaths might be

related.

" The problem is, people connect the dots too easily, " says , the ZIP

code investigator. " There are maybe 100,000 microbiologists out there, so

some of them are dying all the time. "

A more detailed conspiracy has been outlined by Dr. Leonard G. Horowitz, a

dentist who runs a small publishing company, Tetrahedron Publishing Group,

in Sandpoint, Idaho.

Horowitz has bombarded reporters and government officials for weeks with

lengthy e-mails that propose a financial motive for the attacks, such as

sale of drugs and vaccines.

Among his favored culprits are Battelle, the defense and CIA contractor, and

Bayer AG, the maker of Cipro, the antibiotic widely used to treat or prevent

anthrax infection. (Both companies deny any connection to the attacks.)

Noting recent media reports discussing Battelle's anthrax research and

speculating about a financial motive for the letters, Horowitz believes he

is making progress.

" We've gotten a sense in our office that even though no one gives us credit,

we are making a huge difference, " he says.

Still, reports in what he calls the " slow-as-a-tortoise mainstream news

media " have a long way to go to catch up with the spidery plot diagrammed on

his Web site, which ties the anthrax as well as " AIDS genocide " and vaccines

for smallpox and West Nile virus to a score of government and corporate

conspirators.

Horowitz's anthrax theories might have been neglected by the media because

he presents them on the same Web site where he hawks software for

" computer-generated prayer " and numerous alternative cures, including " Body

Oxygen " and " Clustered Water, " which it calls " probably the greatest

breakthrough in health science produce development this century. "

Determined to be heard

But Horowitz, 49, who often notes his Harvard University master's degree in

public health, says he will not be deterred until he exposes the

" military-pharmaceutical industrialists. "

" Even if I hadn't committed my whole life to saving lives through public

health, it's my duty as an American, " he says.