June 01, 2005
THE white powder mailed to the Indonesian Embassy in Australia's first bio-terror attack contained bacteria from the same family as anthrax.Prime Minister John Howard linked the potentially deadly threat to hysteria over the Schapelle Corby jailing.
"It's not an innocent white powder, it's some kind of biological agent," he said.Fifty embassy staff were locked in their building last night as police and scientists investigated.
White powder spilled to the embassy floor when a staff member opened an envelope addressed to Ambassador Imron Cotan, who was out at the time. The envelope also contained a note.
Police and emergency services, including hazardous materials units, raced to the embassy.
Embassy staff are expected to stay locked inside for at least 48 hours until the powder is identified.
The PM was anxious about the results of the tests. "I'm not a scientist but they say it belongs to the bacillus group," he said.
The bacillus group includes various forms of bacteria, one of which is the causative agent of anthrax.
Mr Howard said he was staggered by the attack, an apparent reprisal over the jailing of Corby in Bali last week for drug smuggling.
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Posted by: tom at June 01, 2005 12:59 PM (FWGcT)
Posted by: dave at June 01, 2005 01:46 PM (/r9Xb)
Posted by: Carlos at June 01, 2005 01:56 PM (8e/V4)
To whom are you referring? the person that opens the Ambassador's mail, what did they do exactly?
amazing.
so far the only one's spreading Anthrax is home grown nut jobs, so who's medicine are they tasting exactly?
Posted by: dave at June 01, 2005 02:00 PM (/r9Xb)
Posted by: Howie at June 01, 2005 02:08 PM (D3+20)
You only have to look at the suspect list the Government put together, and the nature of how the Anthrax was prepared to see that.
Posted by: dave at June 01, 2005 02:11 PM (/r9Xb)
Take that you, you $%#%@%$##$*!!!!!!
Posted by: Howie at June 01, 2005 02:43 PM (D3+20)
I was not even referring to the origin of the Anthrax strain, I was referring to the method it was prepared. Ask yourself these question
if you believe it was Atta, that did this:
Why was Robert Stevens, a photo editor of the Sun, (a supermarket tabloid rag) targetted?
He was an unknown, in fact he may be the whole key to unravelling the mess, if someone can find the reason he was targetted.
Why America Media Inc, and NBC?
None of it really feels like a Islamic agenda, and unlike other attacks no one took credit.
Posted by: dave at June 01, 2005 02:52 PM (/r9Xb)
Can't say I feel that bad for Indonesia (although I should). I bet the Aussies find this guy pretty quickly. If so then what does that do for a domestic source here?? Might make me 80/20 if it goes quickly.
Posted by: Howie at June 01, 2005 03:24 PM (D3+20)
Aussies got anthrax? Hope this doesn't get too common, or people can start justifying their terrorism with real examples of the other side doing it to their people as well.
Posted by: A fatwad Finn at June 01, 2005 03:50 PM (lGolT)
I think the methods of production, and the intended victims do not make sense for an Islamic terroristic plot, I'll give you some quotes from the excellent Richard Preston's "The Demon in the Freezer"
(comparison of U.S Anthrax Vs. sample from Al Hakm)
"Everyone could see how different the Iraqi "anthrax" looked from the Daschle powder. It was heavy and crude and contained large amounts of bentonite (a type of clay commonly used in the Oil industry) and looked like lumps of dirt. It didn't look like the Daschle powder at all."
"By lunchtime the machine had shown there were two extra elements in the spores: silicon and oxygen. Silicon Oxide.
Silicon Oxide is glass.
The Anthrax terrorist, or terrorists had put powdered glass, or silica, into the Anthrax. The silica was powdered so finely that under Geisbert's electron microscope it had looked like fried-egg gunk dripping off the spores."
The Anthrax was packaged with silica nanopowder, that not only sliced the spores into air-born particles but also made them fine enough to be electro-statically pulled to objects.
Also think about this Howie, how is it that these mails were sent to very specific victims and not distributed in an urban area to cause the maximum amount of carnage? That isn't exactly the modus operandi of a terrorist organization?
Posted by: dave at June 01, 2005 04:06 PM (/r9Xb)
Posted by: Howie at June 01, 2005 04:39 PM (D3+20)
Posted by: Howie at June 01, 2005 04:50 PM (D3+20)
The reason that Iraq was never a serious source of the weaponized anthrax is because all the accounting on Iraq's biological warfare program showed that Iraq only produced Anthrax in liquid slurry form.
The recent suspect that the F.B.I raided, was someone with a possible motive, he patented a machine capable of detecting biological threats (papers filed eighteen days after September 11th ) he is also a Dr, with a background in emergency medicine response to NBC threats. Hopefully, one day this will be solved.
Posted by: dave at June 01, 2005 04:58 PM (/r9Xb)
I got to trying to think of a hole in the domestic theory last night. I did come up with this. I'm still teetering on 50/50. I am leaning toward maybe a domestic source but I still can't seem to separate the two events (towers & anthrax).
If this was totally unrelated to the towers then the perpetrator of the anthrax either was a striking coincidence or already had this stuff ready to go and was just waiting for the right moment to get cover for his actions. This requires that he also by striking coincidence was in the same area as Atta. Woke up saw what was happening and said "Now is the time to implement my evil plan Muahahahahaha!!!!". The last line of mercy(take antibiotics now) in the note to NBC does not sound like al-qaida I doubt they would have had any mercy. Enjoyed this discussion, have a good one.
Posted by: Howie at June 02, 2005 08:51 AM (D3+20)
The Sydney Morning Herald had its usual hypocritical screed covering this, blaming it on the, well, hypocritical screeds newspapers had printed on the Schappelle Corby case. Headline: "Australia on Trial". I wanted to rip into them, but my heart wasn't in it for once.
Whoever did this: Way to go, asshole. I hope they track you down and you rot in jail.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at June 02, 2005 11:51 AM (+S1Ft)
Posted by: Pixy Misa at June 02, 2005 11:51 AM (+S1Ft)
Also, the powder wasn't anthrax, though I haven't yet seen a positive identification.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at June 03, 2005 12:22 AM (AIaDY)
I think the message is clear, bule (an offensive indonesian term for Whites) should stay clear, but send us your tribute. I say, send in the SAS, liberate Corby and for the hell of it the Bali 9. Cut off all trade, food, humanitarian assistance and let Indonesia wither and drop off the vine of the world for all I care.
Posted by: Andre at June 04, 2005 05:27 PM (mfvPa)
Posted by: dave at June 04, 2005 07:22 PM (fsJ2z)
If it was an angry Corby supporter, then it didn't help her very much - it was dumb. If it was a dumb angry Australian Corby supporter, there would have been a warning followed by a brick with a stick of gelignite strapped too it.
What we have here is someone who can go where there is video surveilance and not be detected, and deliver a letter to the Indonesian court, twice, without detection... Doesn't sound dumb to me. Sounds quite cunning and planned.
They want Schapelle Corby dead. After all, how can they claim responsibility for planting the drugs on Corby if she is still alive? How can they get their Islamic State in this new democratic Indonesia without first discrediting the court that is hunting them down? What better way to do it than to get the west to help you?
Posted by: David at July 13, 2005 09:59 AM (1I0S1)
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