"404 Not Found" - Wired slyly tries to hide(URL) of its oft-cited, epic 2011 Detrick-anthrax artic 📂 Archived Message Posted by Jim_Carlucci on October 28, 2021, 9:51 pm "Error Not Found" - Wired slyly tries to hide(URL) of its oft-cited, epic 2011 Detrick-anthrax article "Anthrax Redux - Did the Feds Nab the Wrong Guy ?" (..not to be confused with the feeble, short article that Glenn Greenwald weakly wrote about a few months back!) The original Wired URL has been cunningly slightly altered in the last 6 months or so. As a result, all of the websites that feature a link to this brilliantly forensic, Diabolical-Detrick-exposing gem of an article are serving up yer standard "Error 404" or an "Oops - Page Missing" message. So nothing to see here folks. Literally. But after much forensic searching of my own I discovered the almost invisible URL alteration. The new, uncovered(by me) working URL is at the very end of this posting. But in the meantime here are some juicy extracts from it. The whole article reads like an intensely complex political crime thriller of the Baldacci/Ludlum kind. (First an NB re: The Sun newspaper and Fort Detrick. Noone reading this will know or recall that the first victim of the 2001 US anthrax attacks was a British photo editor...for The Sun tabloid/newspaper. Yes - as in Murdoch.) No surprise then that in April this year The Sun was the only non-American media source to report the killing/silencing at Fort Detrick of black bioresearch lab technician Fantahun Woldesenbet. (Incidentally, close-up photos show that Woldesenbet was not killed after he "got out of his vehicle brandishing a weapon" - but by a hail of Detrick sharp-shooters' bullets fired through the driver's side of the windscreen - so he was in the driver's seat) So here are some juicily eye-popping extracts from Wired's "Anthrax Redux" crime-thriller of an article(Porton Down is also mentioned...) : "In December 2003, while conducting an inventory of one of USAMRIIDs(Fort Detrick) biocontainment suites, investigators discovered 22 undocumented Amesanthrax samples. They began to fear that the repository they had spent nearly two years assembling might have gaping holes in it. So for the first time, the FBI decided to scour USAMRIID for any vials they had missed." "One picture Ivins sent Haigwood, now also a microbiologist, was particularly unsettling: It showed Ivins holding petri-dishes filled with anthracis - without wearing gloves." "After Ivins' postdoctoral work at the University of North Carolina, the couple moved to Maryland, where Ivins started working at USAMRIID(Fort Detrick) in 1981. Two years earlier, an anthrax outbreak at a secret military microbiology plant in Siberia had killed at least 66 people, proving that the Soviets had been refining anthrax into a biological weapon. Ivins was assigned to start working on a new, more effective vaccine." "Not surprisingly, then, when the FBI set up a small team after the initial attacks to help with the science of anthrax, they found Ivins eager to assist. Maybe too eager. While other USAMRIID scientists swore that no one there could have pulled off the attacks, Ivins suggested several current and former colleagues as potential perpetrators. "Rarely would a guy point the finger at his coworkers," says Thomas Dellafera, the US Postal. Inspection Service agent who helped lead the anthrax investigation. "But he did. This guy was rolling on his own mother." Ivins regularly emailed friends and acquaintances about the burgeoning investigation - including a former University of North Carolina grad student he had known named Nancy L. Haigwood. One picture Ivins sent Haigwood, now also a microbiologist, was particularly unsettling: It showed Ivins holding petri-dishes filled with anthracis - without wearing gloves. " Extract re: Detrick's Claire Fraser Liggett - the Porton Down anthrax connection : "By the time of the anthrax attacks, she and her team had already unraveled the genetic codes for dozens of microorganisms - including the bacteria that cause Lyme disease and syphilis. And they were already working on anthrax - an Ames sample from Porton Down, a British biodefense lab." "Anthrax isn't a typical bacteria. It's almost immortal. As a spore, anthracis can survive in a dormant state for decades, perhaps even centuries. It's almost as if the law of evolution doesn't apply. "That same month, Ivins did something that surprised everyone. For some reason, he decided to start testing his office and biocontainment labs for spores. This was a major breach of USAMRIID protocol. Specially trained testing teams were supposed to handle suspected contaminations. On April 18, Ivins told his bacteriology division colleagues what he had done. They promptly freaked out. In addition to being unsafe, Ivins' actions could be read as an attempt to cover up potential evidence. "Bruce," his friend and coworker Jeff Adamovicz told him, "you don't understand what this makes you look like." The next day, USAMRIID held an institute-wide town-hall meeting to discuss Ivins' actions and launch a facility-wide spore hunt. "I am now forbidden from being a 'cowboy'" Ivins emailed a friend later." "Despite all this, the bureau's major interest was still fixated elsewhere. Investigators were digging into the background of Steven Hatfill and finding inconsistencies. Hatfill, for example, claimed he had a PhD: in fact, the degree was never awarded. If he was misrepresenting something like that, they thought, maybe he was keeping other secrets." "In February 2003, anthrax became part of the rationale for invading Iraq. Colin Powell went to the United Nations Security Council, in part to discuss the potential bioweapon. "Less than a teaspoonful of dry anthrax in an envelope shut down the United States Senate," he said. "Saddam Hussein could have ... enough to fill tens upon tens upon tens of thousands of teaspoons." Two weeks later, Tom Ridge told Americans to buy duct tape and plastic sheeting to protect themselves from a bioterror attack. Four weeks after that, the invasion of Iraq began." "In August 2003, Hatfill sued the Justice Department for violating his constitutional rights and privacy. After Vanity Fair and The New York Times published articles suggesting Hatfill was guilty, he also sued Condé Nast (which owns Wired as well as Vanity Fair) and the NY Times." "Later the Justice Department agreed to pay Hatfill a $5.8 million settlement and issued an official letter exonerating him. Conde Nast also agreed to an undisclosed settlement. " (Here's The Sun - Detrick connection: a Sun photo editor was the first Anthrax victim(he died within 6 days): "It took weeks for anyone to realize the attacks were even happening. When Robert Stevens, a photo editor at the Sun tabloid, came down with chills while on vacation in North Carolina(!) on September 29, 2001, neither he nor his wife figured it was a big deal. She went to spend the afternoon with their daughter, he rested on the couch. As Stevens lay there, thousands of spores were filling his lungs. Nestled in the respiratory sacs, the particles slowly came in contact with white blood cells called macrophages, which carried the bacteria into the lymph nodes in the central cavity of his chest. There, the spores began to germinate, shedding their tough outer layer and multiplying relentlessly. The bacteria unleashed two types of toxins into Stevens' bloodstream. One caused a fluid buildup in his central chest cavity, which squeezed his heart and shoved his lungs against his ribs, making it difficult to breathe. The other began killing off Stevens' macrophages, decimating his body's natural defenses. On October 4, he tested positive for anthrax. He died the next day." "Ivin led what his friends called a "hippie Mass" at St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church in nearby Frederick, playing keyboards and acoustic guitar. He was a local Red Cross volunteer. Colleagues found him both smart and generous. "He had experience and was willing to share," remembers Hank Heine, Ivins' friend and colleague in the tight-knit bacteriology division. "The first day I arrived, he said, 'If there's any help you need, come see me.'" Not surprisingly, then, when the FBI set up a small team after the initial attacks to help with the science of anthrax, they found Ivins eager to assist. Maybe too eager. While other USAMRIID scientists swore that no one there could have pulled off the attacks, Ivins suggested several current and former colleagues as potential perpetrators. "Rarely would a guy point the finger at his coworkers" says Thomas Dellafera, the US Postal Inspection Service agent who helped lead the anthrax investigation. "But he did. This guy was rolling on his own mother." Ivins regularly emailed friends and acquaintances about the burgeoning investigation - including a former University of North Carolina grad student he had known named Nancy L. Haigwood. One picture Ivins sent Haigwood, now also a microbiologist, was particularly unsettling: It showed Ivins holding petri dishes filled with anthracis - without wearing gloves." "The Justice Department asserts in its investigative summary that Ivins mailed the letters to gin up support for an anthrax vaccine". (Extracts - end) Footnote: Wired's slightly, slyly altered URL - the solution: Can you Spot the Difference(no prizes) : Was(ie. no longer works): https://www.wired.com/2011/03/ff_anthrax_fbi/ Now: https://www.wired.com/2011/03/ff-anthrax-fbi/ - Works fine - but how long before it's hidden/buried/altered again ? So the URL's original underscores were sneakily replaced by hyphens ; https://www.wired.com/2011/03/ff-anthrax-fbi/ Message Thread: "404 Not Found" - Wired slyly tries to hide(URL) of its oft-cited, epic 2011 Detrick-anthrax artic - Jim_Carlucci October 28, 2021, 9:51 pm « Index   Searching