Five years after the coldly murderous Anthrax attacks of 2001, it appears no solution is in sight - and - what started out as a muddy matter has grown murkier with the passage of time.
There is now a direct conflict between what the experts at the US Armed Forces Institute of Pathology reported, and what FBI scientist Douglas J. Beecher has to report concerning the nature of the Anthrax preparation recovered from the Senate Office Building .
Dr. Beecher , in a peer-reviewed article , says there was no "additive" in the anthrax he examined - definitely no silica. The Institute says they examined the Anthrax preparation at the request of the FBI ,because the FBI scientists were unable to identify something in the preparation.
The Institute says,moreover, they definitely found silica in the preparation ; that they examined it spectroscopically,and found no Bentonite (Bentonite was,at one time, a signature component of Iraqi and Soviet-bloc bio-weapons.It is an Aluminum silicate, which occurs naturally. Spectroscopic examination showed no traces of Aluminum.)
I believe Dr. Beecher and the Institute were both reporting in good faith .
Frankly,after reading the conditions under which Dr. Beecher and the other assigned scientists were working (horrendous is the best description !) I'm not surprised there is a variation between his findings, and later,more leisurely examination at the Institute.
Unfortunately, the Anthrax murders have long been a pet topic for conspiracy buffs ( Yes, like me !) , and every variant nugget of information is mined for all it is worth.
Unfortunately again , most of what we have "discovered" is Fools' Gold.
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