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Bio-terrorism

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Aug 19 @ 9:31 AM Bio-terrorism     Loreli Posts: 20,315 WASHINGTON (AP) -- Months after the deadly 2001 anthrax mailings, FBI scientists had -- but destroyed -- the unique strain of the bacteria used in the attacks that years later would lead them to Dr. Bruce Ivins, now the government's top suspect. Officials say biodefense researcher Bruce E. Ivins was responsible for mailing anthrax-laced mail. FBI officials admitted Monday that destroying the initial sample provided by Ivins was a mistake, but said it didn't really hinder the investigation because the technique used to trace the source of the mailed anthrax to Ivins had not been developed yet. full article I don't get it... how could we have been so far behind in handling a situation such as this?   Aug 19 @ 10:40 AM Bio-terrorism     jayej Posts: 60 FBI officials and scientists had to come up with a technique for looking at the DNA of anthrax to whittle down the list of labs and suspects who could have produced it, I am not sure why it took them so long to acheive this. They have been using a technique similiar to this for almost 20 years with gold. If someone brings in an odd amount of gold they can tell from a sampling which mine and which run it came from. The process of removing the gold from the ore leaves a unique chemical identifier. I know metalurgy is not biotechnology but the process of analyzing the chemicals used and the process of elimination has got to be the same. Or do we have that many labs out there playing with this stuff? J   Aug 19 @ 10:49 AM Bio-terrorism     vinnytmd Posts: 6,004 I don't get it... how could we have been so far behind in handling a situation such as this? loreli, I remember reading a book years ago about how the CIA and FBI bungled the handling of a Soviet KGB defector. The book vividly portrayed intelligent well trained men and women that behave like the Keystone Cops because of the bureaucratic structure that they exist in. Things like this do not surprise me. What does surprise me is those that always read some sort of conspiracy into events like this. It would be impossible to plot a conspiracy within the insanity of our government. I always assume that the system has simply failed. All the more reason to make government smaller.   Aug 19 @ 11:18 AM Bio-terrorism     Loreli Posts: 20,315 Well, it got smaller after that in some fields! Every mail processing plant was mandated to install biohazard-detection equipment. Billions and billions of dollars spent because of some sicko. I worked with FEMA, the FBI and local authorities in handling a biohazard detection. The equipment can have "false-positives", yet was not set up to detect smallpox at the beginning....that may have been ironed out now, or the over'sensitivity may pick it up anyway. There had to be cutbacks in the number of employees....at least it was done by attrition. We have been talking about germ warfare for so long....I'm surprised at our lag in protection!

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