Deadly Pathogens May Have Gone Missing at Fort Detrick

Deadly Pathogens May Have Gone Missing at Fort Detrick

www.washingtonpost.com

The U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases in Frederick is under investigation by the Army's Criminal Investigation Command for the possible disappearance of some of its stock of deadly pathogens, but there is no evidence yet of "any criminality" in the case, an Army spokesman said.

The Frederick News-Post reported this morning that since at least February, agents have been trying to discover what happened to pathogens that may have gone missing from 1987 to 2008. The investigation coincides with the suspension of most research at the Army lab in February as authorit

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Related News Links:
www.fredericknewspost.com

Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
Rutgers microbiologist criticizes security measures at U.S. labs

It is amazing that it has taken this long to begin questioning the inventory control systems in this and other labs.

As a reminder:

The lab has been under heavy pressure to tighten security since the 2001 anthrax attacks, which killed five people and sickened 17 others. FBI investigators think the anthrax strain used in the attacks originated at the Army lab, and its prime suspect in the investigation, Bruce E. Ivins, researched anthrax there. Ivins committed suicide last year.

www.washingtonpost.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

That's just crazy. Why do they have to be making deadly pathogens for dear god?

And as far as anthrax goes, there's a reason why there were no invesgation on the anthrax scare because most of it originated back to the CIA.

Humans are stupid!

"The number of vials is utterly meaningless," Schmaljohn said. "Three vials missing is no indication of any evildoing. . . . It's almost equivalent to saying you're missing 3 cents out of the national budget. . . . From the scientists' point of view it is inconsequential, but from the regulator's point of view it is an indication of sloppiness, and they are finally going to take rugged action."

A problem accounting for Venezuelan equine encephalitis was what triggered the earlier suspension of most research at the lab. A spot check in January found 20 samples of the virus in a box of vials instead of the 16 that had been listed in the institute's database, Caree Vander Linden, the spokeswoman for the institute, said in February.

It really does seem like poor administration and sloppy paperwork than , as they put it, 'any wrongdoing'... But of course that does give a little wriggle room for those in the know to actually get their hands on potentially deadly substances in dangerous quantities.

Remember, this is the SAME Fort Detrick from whence the Anthrax attacks originated right after 9/11 happened.

Don't you remember? The FBI would "stop at nothing to find those responsible", only to stop quite suddenly when the DNA of the Anthrax traced back to Fort Detrick.

Do you think this a coincidence?

reply to post by Now_Then


there were apparently "thousands" in the know then:

A retired support staff employee who worked in the BSL-4 labs received a visit from Fort Mead's CID agents in February. Agents wanted to know if he'd taken anything out of the lab between 1987 and 2008, and how easy it was for others to remove samples.

"I said it was easy enough. It was a lock and key access to the suite of freezers," the retiree said in an interview.

In that time period, thousands could've accessed the freezers of deadly and/or infectious viral samples, he told investigators. Specifically, the man reported, CID asked about samples of VEE, Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis. According to the Centers for Disease Control, VEE is spread to humans by mosquitoes; symptoms range from mild flu-like illness to brain inflammation, coma and death. Mortality rate is one-third, "making it one of the most deadly mosquito-borne diseases in the United States."

Frederick News Post

This also smells of a cover-up. Just don't sniff to close - it may be airborne. When the lab was shut down in February to update the inventory - no mention was ever made that vials were missing. Additionally, it appears that an even larger facility is in the works.

reply to post by DancedWithWolves


lol that's funny
it thought it was Saddam who was researching on attacking via mosquitoes
but the people making the accusations were actually the fabricators?

oh wait... i forgot that happens quite often actually

Isn't it funny how whenever people think of bioweapons they think of it coming from terroists in the middle east?

I wonder who will be blamed and then kill themselves over this? That seems to be the norm. It would be nice to think that our government was an entity that was there to look out for OUR best interests instead of theirs.

[edit on 22-4-2009 by network dude]

There are only a few places where such research goes on and USAMRIID is one of them. If they aren't looking at these diseases closely then we could be ignoring a potential weapon in the making that another country might be developing. Their work is how we vaccinate our soldiers before sending them abroad so I wouldn't be so quick to assume the worst of them.

How does the gov't and others, just lose stuff like this.

Remember the CIA just losing some trillions of dollars. Now deadly pathogens, well I know I put them around here somewhere but where?

I swear restaurants have better control of where there inventory is at then people handling the big Sh--.

reply to post by Helig


I agree we need to protect our soldiers....I have family members who have received this vaccine because of military service, however, the number of labs is growing and growing dramatically.

America's bioterrorism labs

Before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, only five such labs existed. But after Sept. 11, the Bush administration -- fearing terrorists next might turn to bio-attacks -- expanded the BSL-4 program, focusing on cures and detection. Now 15 BSL-4 federal, academic and private facilities are located around the country, and another dozen or so are in various stages of planning or construction.

The security concerns also continue to grow exponentially.

If anyone has the time to sift through the remains of the questions left unanswered after the anthrax attacks in 2001, which stem from this lab...here is a link

Francis A. Boyle, an international law expert who worked under the first Bush Administration as a bioweapons advisor in the 1980s, has said that he is convinced the October 2001 anthrax attacks that killed five people were perpetrated and covered up by criminal elements of the U.S. government. The motive: to foment a police state by killing off and intimidating opposition to post-9/11 legislation such as the USA PATRIOT Act and the later Military Commissions Act.

"Senators Tom Daschle (D-South Dakota) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont)
were holding it up because they realized what this would lead to. The
first draft of the PATRIOT Act would have suspended the writ of habeas
corpus [which protects citizens from unlawful imprisonment and
guarantees due process of law]. Then all of a sudden, out of nowhere,
come these anthrax attacks."

"At the time I myself did not know precisely what was going on, either
with respect to September 11 or the anthrax attacks, but then the New
York Times revealed the technology behind the letter to Senator
Daschle. [The anthrax used was] a trillion spores per gram, [refined
with] special electro-static treatment. This is superweapons-grade
anthrax that even the United States government, in its openly
proclaimed programs, had never developed before. So it was obvious to
me that this was from a U.S. government lab. There is nowhere else you
could have gotten that."

After realizing that the anthrax attacks looked like a domestic job,
Boyle called a high-level official in the FBI who deals with terrorism
and counterterrorism, Marion "Spike" Bowman.

Bowman then informed Boyle that the FBI was working with Fort Detrick
on the matter. Boyle expressed his view that Fort Detrick could be the
main problem. As widely reported in 2002 publications, notably the New
Scientist, the anthrax strain used in the attacks was officially
assessed as "military grade."

"Soon after I informed Bowman of this information, the FBI authorized
the destruction of the Ames cultural anthrax database," the professor
said. The Ames strain turned out to be the same strain as the spores
used in the attacks.

The alleged destruction of the anthrax culture collection at Ames,
Iowa, from which the Fort Detrick lab got its pathogens, was blatant
destruction of evidence. It meant that there was no way of finding out
which strain was sent to whom to develop the larger breed of anthrax
used in the attacks. The trail of genetic evidence would have led
directly back to a secret government biowarfare program.

"Clearly, for the FBI to have authorized this was obstruction of
justice, a federal crime," said Boyle. "That collection should have
been preserved and protected as evidence. That's the DNA, the
fingerprints right there. It later came out, of course, that this was
Ames strain anthrax that was behind the Daschle and Leahy letters."

At that point, recounted Boyle, it became very clear to him that there
was a coverup underway. He later discovered, while reading David Ray
Griffin's book on the 9/11 attacks, The New Pearl Harbor, that Bowman
was the same FBI agent who allegedly sabotaged the FISA warrant for
access to [convicted co-conspirator] Zacharias Moussaoui's computer
prior to 9/11. Moussaoui's computer contained information that could
have helped prevent the attacks on the World Trade Center and the
Pentagon.

Anthrax Cover Up

How was Bowman punished? He was promoted AND given the Presidential Rank Award by FBI Director Robert S. Mueller.

What is more concerning is that now there is acknowledgment that samples may be missing and with the history and questions surrounding these operations....one has to ask....what's next?

[edit on 22-4-2009 by DancedWithWolves]

www.cnn.com...

I just love it when our govt. shows how secure our bases are and trustworthy of the people running it. If we are to show other nations how it is done we should really fix the leaks such as this... before we criticize other nations about lack of security in it's facilities.

So we have some deadly stuff that may or may not have gone missing??
To me it is gone or not and "misplaced" counts as gone.

Then we have this guy saying that even if there is some "missing" poison, don't worry because there is so much of it that "just some" is no big deal.
I suppose that if ony a few people die than it's OK [/sarcasm]

I feel very safe right now (deep breaths and touching stuff then putting my fingers in my mouth)

What a joke

An equine virus is missing - maybe. Equine = horse. Twenty-one polo ponies died from unknown causes in Florida a few days ago (news source, CNN). But sources now are saying that the horses died from vitamins. The maker of the vitamin states, up to this point, there has only been one adverse reaction in horses in 2 million doses. So even though there is a horse virus missing from a military facilty - maybe - and 21 horses died a few days ago, there is no connection. Vitamins.

Yep, it's as I assumed, the VEE virus was developed as a biological weapon.

When the U.S. biological warfare program ended in 1969 VEE virus was one of seven standardized biological weapons it had developed.

Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus


What a wonderful group genocidal wannabe's those people are.
Their countrymen must be so proud.


Well, given it's origin and history, if the VEE virus turns up somewhere else in the world, we know where it came from.


My question is, why haven't these bio-weapons facilities been decommissioned and destroyed?

... nevermind... I don't want to know...
Living next to the gun toting, nuke hoarding lunatics is stress enough.

Tippys Dad, I was just thinking the same thing. Strange, eh?

Vials of Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus mysteriously come up missing and 20 horses just drop dead from "vitamins".

Seems funny that so many pathogens are coming up "missing" lately. Don't forget about the whole bird flu thing back in February and all the recent "outbreaks" of bird flu across the world.

Bird Flu in Vaccines - www.abovetopsecret.com...
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Outbreak in Kentucky - www.abovetopsecret.com...

"Possible" Outbreak in Kenya - www.abovetopsecret.com...

Egypt - www.abovetopsecret.com...

Then there is the mice infected with bubonic plague in New Jersey and then the al-Quida terrorists who suddenly died of bubonic plague.

www.abovetopsecret.com...
www.abovetopsecret.com...

IMO too many coincidences.