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Pakistan: Parcel containing anthrax sent to Prime Mnister

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http://www.promedmail.org/direct.php?id=20120201.1028807

Published Date: 2012-02-01 16:06:35
Subject: PRO/AH/EDR> Anthrax parcel - Pakistan (IS)
Archive Number: 20120201.1028807

ANTHRAX PARCEL - PAKISTAN (ISLAMABAD)
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Date: 1 February 2012

Source: Pakistan Today

http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2012/02/parcel-containing-anthrax-virus-sent-to-pm-house/





Parcel containing anthrax sent to PM house (AFP)


------------------------------------------------


* Parcel sent from Jamshoro district, Pakistan's biggest city used by the United States to ship supplies to troops in Afghanistan



* Police still investigating how and why a parcel containing anthrax was sent to the prime minister's official residence in Islamabad



It appeared to be the 1st reported case of anthrax sent to a government office in Pakistan, a nuclear-armed country of 174 million that is battling a Taliban insurgency and where Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden was shot dead. "The parcel containing anthrax powder was sent last month, about 20 days ago. After the laboratory test confirmed that the parcel contained anthrax we registered a case against unknown people," said police officer Hakim Khan.



There was no immediate confirmation from the prime minister's house, which lies in the heavily secured secretariat area of the capital Islamabad.



Neither was it immediately clear who was responsible, or how they could have accessed anthrax, of any quality, in Pakistan.



Police said the parcel was posted from the Jamshoro district in southern province Sindh, the capital of which is Karachi -- Pakistan's biggest city used by the United States to ship supplies to troops fighting in Afghanistan. "We have sent a police team to investigate it and to find the culprits there," said Khan, an officer at the secretariat police station.



But in Jamshoro, 180 kilometres (113 miles) northeast of Karachi, police said they had not been informed by Islamabad of any anthrax delivery, instead finding out through local media reports. "We have not yet received any instructions from the government to investigate this matter," local police official Bashir Ahmed told AFP. "We have asked the local post office protectively to check their records to know about the sender. We can't say how long it will take to complete the investigation. We expect a quick result if the sender's identity is not fake."



In November 2001, police arrested two men suspected of sending a letter containing anthrax to Pakistan's largest newspaper, Jang.

--

Communication submitted by

ProMED-Mail Correspondent Susan Baekeland

(Promed Mail from Health map alerts)

[Although fake anthrax-letters are unfortunately not uncommon, this is the first time since 2001 that such a letter has been confirmed to contain anthrax [spores, presumably, though the specifics are not provided. - Mod.MHJ] The strains known to occur in Pakistan are unfortunately few, though genomically known for those that have been archived. But if this letter contained true anthrax spores, genotyping them will be very revealing. At this time we have to assume that circumstances are what have been described and to take the necessary precautions, as there are certain to be imitators and wannabees.



One might ask, why use a parcel when a letter has been shown to be perfectly adequate when intending mayhem? We must await clarification as to what was in fact involved. Also whether there were any letters relevant to an 'attack' included. A parcel would be more likely to contain cultures for a laboratory, for example if mistakenly addressed to the Prime Minister's Office.



Pakistani comments on this report suggest that it might be an effort to distract folk from events within the country. Either way, it is a dangerous distraction and we may assume that there will be echoes. - MHJ
 
Re: Pakistan: Parcel containing anthrax sent to Prime Mnister

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Published Date: 2012-02-02 16:50:34
Subject: PRO/AH/EDR> Anthrax parcel - Pakistan (02): (IS)
Archive Number: 20120202.1029144

ANTHRAX PARCEL - PAKISTAN (02): (ISLAMABAD)
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[1]Date: Wed 1 Feb 2012
Source: Hindustan Times, Press Trust of India report [edited]
http://www.hindustantimes.com/world...arcel-to-Pak-PM-s-office/Article1-805340.aspx


In the 1st incident of its kind, a woman university professor from southern Sindh province sent a parcel containing deadly anthrax powder to the Pakistani prime minister's secretariat, police said on Wednesday [1 Feb 2012]. The incident triggered an alarm prompting police and security agencies to launch an investigation.

No one was affected by the anthrax and investigators were yet to determine the motive of the professor from Jamshoro University, officials were quoted as saying by the Pakistani media. It could not immediately be ascertained whether the professor had been arrested.

The parcel was received at the prime minister's secretariat in October last year [2011]. Earlier, police officials in Islamabad had said the parcel was sent to the premier's secretariat about 20 days ago.

Police launched an investigation and registered a case against "unknown persons" after a laboratory confirmed the parcel contained anthrax, they said. The parcel was tested at a laboratory of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research [CSIR]. A police team has been sent to Jamshoro to investigate.

Though the Taliban and other militant groups have carried out scores of bombings and suicide attacks in recent years, there have been no reported instances of them using letters or parcels with poisonous materials like anthrax.

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******
[2]
Date: Wed 1 Feb 2012
Source: IOL (Independent Online, South Africa), SAPA (South African Press Association)-DPA (Deutsche Presse-Agentur) report [edited]
http://www.iol.co.za/dailynews/news/pakistan-pm-was-sent-anthrax-1.1225389


Law enforcement agencies in Pakistan were Wednesday [1 Feb 2011] investigating after a parcel sent to the residence of prime minister Yousaf Raza Gillani was confirmed as containing anthrax.

The parcel was sent last year [2011], but the laboratory test report was received by the Islamabad police only in January [2012]. It confirmed that the suspected powder in the parcel was anthrax. "We were informed about a suspected parcel at the prime minister's house on [18 Oct 2011]. We sent it to the laboratory and got the report only a few days back after which we have launched a formal investigation to see who is behind this," said Naeem Iqbal, the investigator.

"The parcel was posted from Jamshoro in Sindh (the southern province)," he added.

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******
[3]
Date: Wed 1 Feb 2012
Source: News.com.au, Associated Press (AP) report [edited]
http://www.news.com.au/breaking-new...nt-to-pms-office/story-e6frfku0-1226260139792


A female university professor sent a packet containing anthrax to the office of Pakistan's prime minister in October 2011, his spokesman says, in an incident that will fuel security concerns in a country that is home to top al-Qaeda leaders and other extremists.

No one was made ill, and her motive was not clear, said Akram Shaheedi, a spokesman for Yousaf Raza Gillani. He said tests at laboratories run by Pakistan's Council for Scientific and Industrial Research [CSIR] in Islamabad had since confirmed the substance in the package was anthrax. Mr Shaheedi said the package was received in October 2011.

He didn't say why he was making the news public now. He also didn't say whether the woman, a professor at Jamshoro University in Sindh province, had been arrested.

Islamist militants and other rebels have carried out scores of attacks against the Pakistani state in recent years, but have not been known to send letters or packages containing toxic material.

--
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[None of the reports above are complete but it seems that the parcel was delivered to the PM's residence on 18 Oct 2011, referred to the CSIR laboratory at some point, and _Bacillus anthracis_ spores identified some time in January 2012. The source, a lady professor at Jamshoro University, has presumably been interviewed but as yet no arrests have been announced. It will be interesting to see how it all works out from such a confusing start. - Mod.MHJ

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Published Date: 2012-02-02 18:06:36
Subject: PRO/AH/EDR> Anthrax parcel - Pakistan (03): (IS)
Archive Number: 20120202.1031206

ANTHRAX PARCEL - PAKISTAN (03): (ISLAMABAD)
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[1]Date: 2 Feb 2012
Source: The New York Times [edited]
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/02/w...thrax.html?scp=1&sq=anthrax + pakistan&st=cse


Pakistan's prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, received a postal package containing anthrax spores 4 months ago, his spokesman said Wednesday [1 Feb 2012], adding a new dimension to the security threats faced by the country's political and military leadership.

The package was intercepted by the prime minister's security staff in October 2011, according to the spokesman, Akram Shaheedi. The Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, a government laboratory, established that the suspicious white powder it contained was anthrax spores, he said. A criminal case was filed on Tuesday [31 Jan 2012], according to an Islamabad police officer, The Associated Press reported.

Government officials gave contradictory accounts of the identity of the sender, and they offered little sense of motive. While Islamist militants have repeatedly targeted senior government officials in suicide and bomb attacks, an assassination attempt using biological weapons would be an anomaly.

Mr. Shaheedi said that law enforcement authorities had identified the sender as an associate professor at Jamshoro University in the southern province of Sindh. But he could not say whether the professor, a Ms. Zulekha, had been arrested or detained.

A senior police officer in charge of presidential security, Hakim Khan, gave a different account. He denied any knowledge of the suspect Mr. Shaheedi named, but he confirmed that a police team had been sent to Jamshoro to investigate. The packet had been sent from a small post office on the Jamshoro University campus, he said.

Mr. Khan said the case had been registered under a provision of Pakistan's penal code that deals with the act of sending poison with the intention of causing harm.

In November 2001, suspicious letters containing anthrax spores were sent to 3 private businesses, including the country's largest Urdu-language daily, Jang, in the southern port city of Karachi. No motive was ever determined.

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******
[2]
Date: 1 Feb 2012
Source: AP/The Washington Post [edited]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world...fficials-say/2012/02/01/gIQAZk3ygQ_story.html


A university professor allegedly sent a packet containing anthrax to the Pakistani prime minister's office in October 2011, his [the prime minister's] spokesman said Wednesday [1 Feb 2012], raising new security concerns in a country battling Islamist extremists.

No one was made ill by the deadly spores in the package, which was sent by a female professor who was not otherwise identified, said Akram Shaheedi, a spokesman for Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani. He added that the motive was not clear.

Shaheedi said tests at laboratories run by Pakistan's Council for Scientific and Industrial Research in Islamabad confirmed the substance in the package was anthrax. [He] said the package was received in October 2011. He did not say why the case was publicized only now.

Islamabad police officer Hakim Khan said the prime minister's office informed the force of the incident a few days ago, and a criminal case was filed on Tuesday [31 Jan 2012], a formal step in a police investigation. He said no arrests had been made yet.

Al-Qaida and other Islamic militants have carried out scores of gun and bomb attacks against the Pakistani state and Western targets in recent years. But militants have not been known to send letters or packages containing toxic material.

U.S. officials have long expressed concerns that al-Qaida and affiliated groups would like to use chemical or biological agents in attacks.

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******
[3]
Date: 1 Feb 2012
Source: The Telegraph (London) [edited]
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...sent-to-home-of-Pakistans-prime-minister.html


Police in Pakistan on Wednesday [1 Feb 2012] revealed that a parcel containing deadly anthrax powder was sent to the official residence of the country's prime minister.

While it marks the 1st time criminals have used the biological agent in an attack on a government office, letters laced with anthrax spores were sent to a mass-market Urdu newspaper and to a computer company in Karachi soon after 9/11, at the same time as scares in the US.

"We have just received the lab reports confirming it was anthrax, but we cannot say more than that at the moment," said Hakim Khan, a police officer in the government and diplomatic area of the capital, where the prime minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani, has his official residence.

A spokesman for Mr Gilani said it had been delivered in October 2011, and police were notified this week after laboratory tests were completed. "We believe the culprit was a lady professor," said Akram Shaheedi, but he declined to speculate on a motive.

Pakistan has been gripped for months by speculation that the government could be toppled by the military or the courts, and the use of a biological agent will deepen concern about the country's fragility.

The wider use of anthrax would mark a worrying turn in Pakistan, a nuclear-armed country that is battling a home-grown insurgency and where al-Qaeda leaders have long sheltered. More than 30 000 civilians and security forces have been killed in political and religious violence since 2001, many in suicide attacks carried out by the Pakistan Taliban or its affiliates.

In November 2001, Pakistani police arrested 2 men suspected of sending a letter containing anthrax to Pakistan's largest newspaper, The Daily Jang.

At the time, detectives said they did not believe anyone in Pakistan had the capacity to manufacture the deadly biological agent.

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[These 3 newspapers clearly have better sources in Islamabad than the previous confused wire-reports, but the part played by the academic poster, a Ms Zulekha, remains obscure as does any purpose for such a mailing.

The 2001 Pakistani anthrax letters were covered in 2 postings: 20011024.2622 and 20011104.2729. Although 2 individuals were arrested for the 2001 mailings, their objectives, if they were involved, were never revealed nor the nature of the spores. As the Telegraph journalist comments, the detectives did not believe that there was an in-country capacity to manufacture spores at that time. Without details of any court case and the nature of the spores, that question is still there, though it is not a complex procedure. But at this time, it seems from these 3 reports that informed opinion is that this 2012 event had a domestic agenda.
- Mod.MHJ
 
Re: Pakistan: Parcel containing anthrax sent to Prime Mnister

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Published Date: 2012-02-03 19:46:17
Subject: PRO/AH/EDR> Anthrax parcel - Pakistan (04): (IS)
Archive Number: 20120203.1032182

ANTHRAX PARCEL - PAKISTAN (04): (ISLAMABAD)
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Date: 2 Feb 2012
Source: Dawn.Com [edited]
http://www.dawn.com/2012/02/03/police-want-custody-of-anthrax-2.html


Police want custody of anthrax
------------------------------
The Secretariat police have requested their seniors to approach the Prime Minister's Secretariat for obtaining the powder received in a packet addressed to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, sources told Dawn.

The sources said though the PM Secretariat had sent the report of Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR) to the police declaring the powder as anthrax, the investigators were trying to follow the police procedure to get the powder verified.

A police officer told Dawn on condition of anonymity that the investigators did not challenge the report of the PCSIR or the claim of the secretariat but wanted to complete their due process. He added that a secretariat official had disclosed that a female assistant professor in Jamshoro, Sindh, was behind sending the packet to the prime minister. He said the investigators through their seniors had requested the secretariat to give the details, including the reason for accusing the woman of sending the packet.

Moreover, the secretariat was also requested to give all the available evidences to the investigators. He said it was under investigation how the parcel was cleared from the General Post Office (GPO) in Islamabad despite deployment of intelligence personnel there to check consignments addressed to VIPs.

The sources said a 4-member team under the supervision of an inspector had been constituted, which would leave for Jamshoro after getting permission from the senior superintendent of police Islamabad.

[No comment. For members reading this thread for the 1st time, this parcel containing a white powder was delivered to the PM's Secretariat on 18 Oct 2011. Unless there is breaking new news on this topic, this thread is now on hold. -Mod.MHJ]
 
Re: Pakistan: Parcel containing anthrax sent to Prime Mnister

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Published Date: 2012-02-10 13:47:26
Subject: PRO/AH> Anthrax parcel - Pakistan (05): (IS)
Archive Number: 20120210.1038448

ANTHRAX PARCEL - PAKISTAN (05): (ISLAMABAD)
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Date: 9 Feb 2012
From: Dawn.com [edited]
http://www.dawn.com/2012/02/09/anthrax-case-hushed-up.html


Police have been denied access to evidence to investigate the arrival of a packet containing anthrax at the Prime Minister Secretariat and has been directed to keep away from the case, Dawn has learned.

But after handing over the evidence, including the powder, to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), the Prime Minister Secretariat directed the agency to hush up the case, sources said. They said the sender of the powder was identified as an associate professor of Sindh University, Jamshoro, who was also the sister of a serving senior police officer of Sindh. She allegedly sent anthrax to Prime Minster Yousuf Raza Gilani on 18 Oct 2012 from the colony of the university. The registered (No 209) parcel also carried a stamp of the associate professor.

The secretariat has already conducted an investigation into the issue during which it was revealed that the teacher had gotten the anthrax from a laboratory of the university and sent it to the prime minister without any lethal motive. "The associate professor has some psychological problems," the sources added.

Although the PM Secretariat had approached the police and investigation agencies, now efforts are in progress to hush up the matter, the sources said. They said the senior police officer was close to some leaders of the ruling political party, who convinced the secretariat not to take any legal action against the sender.

A senior FIA officer, when contacted, categorically denied that the agency was investigating the matter or had gotten the evidence. However, he added, the agency's Sindh office might be working on it.

A senior officer of the capital police said they had been asked to keep away from the investigation. The police registered the case on the complaint of the PM Secretariat, but it has been kept away from the legal process necessary to investigate the case, he added.

The secretariat had also sent the sample of the powder to the Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research in Lahore, which confirmed the powder as anthrax.

The prime minister's spokesman, Akram Shaheedi, could not be contacted for comments, as his cellphone was switched off.

[Byline: Munawer Azeem]

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[Whatever the Sindh University Associate Professor was trying to say when sending a parcel containing anthrax spores to the Primer Minister's office, she got their attention, even if with embarrassment. In that there has been no legal retribution, we can safely assume that the spores were apathogenic and probably a common vaccine strain.

For those interested in what didn't happen since our last posting, here are 2 un-posted reports with details of what was done and not done in Islamabad:
2 Feb 2012:
http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=12184&Cat=13&dt=2/2/2012
6 Feb 2012:
http://www.nti.org/gsn/article/pakistani-police-take-another-look-anthrax-package/

To find Jam Shoro, go to:
http://www.fallingrain.com/world/PK/05/Jam_Shoro.html,
Islamabad:
http://www.fallingrain.com/world/PK/08/Islamabad.html,
Sindh University, Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Sindh,
Sindh University, home page:
http://www.usindh.edu.pk/.

This thread is now cut. - Mod.MHJ]
 
Re: Pakistan: Parcel containing anthrax sent to Prime Mnister

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Published Date: 2012-03-27 17:16:31
Subject: PRO/AH> Anthrax parcel - Pakistan (06): (IS) additional comments
Archive Number: 20120327.1081186

ANTHRAX PARCEL - PAKISTAN (06): (ISLAMABAD) ADDITIONAL COMMENTS
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Date: Fri 23 Mar 2012
Source: Laurie Garrett blog [edited]
http://www.lauriegarrett.com/index.php/en/blog/3157/#&panel1-1


Anthrax mailed to Pakistan's Prime Minister: linked to US 2001?
---------------------------------------------------------------
Ten years after anthrax spores were mailed to political and media leaders in the United States, somebody reportedly sent similarly lethal missives to Pakistan's Prime Minister. Though the episode has garnered little attention in the US it was big news in Pakistan, and may have implications for Americans.

Before going further, we should in fairness note that top Pakistan-watchers in the US intelligence and think-tank communities warn that wild conspiracy allegations are common features of both Pakistani media and political affairs. It is possible, they warn, that none of this is true. It is also possible that the reason all news coverage of this incident suddenly came to a full stop in Pakistan a couple of weeks ago is because there is, indeed, a great deal of truth to this tale and powerful individuals in the country have a stake in hushing it up. Given the near-impossibility of sifting fact and fiction in Islamabad these days I would probably have shrugged this off myself, had I not written a book about anthrax and 9/11.

Here is the tale.

A letter laced with anthrax spores, apparently mimicking those sent to American targets in 2001, was delivered to the office of Prime Minster Yousaf Raza Gilani on 18 Oct 2011. The episode was announced to Pakistani media in February [2012] after scientists at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research on 2 Feb 2012 confirmed that the spores were _Bacillus anthracis_. Why 6 months elapsed before police and Gilani publicly acknowledged the event is merely one of a long list of mysteries and plot twists. An official police report was not filed in Islamabad until 31 Jan 2012. The case came to widespread Pakistani media attention on 3 Feb 2012 when a formal notice of investigation was filled in Islamabad court.

In 2001, amid the anthrax nightmare in the US, Pakistani police arrested 2 men in November, charging them with mailing anthrax to The Daily Jang, the country's biggest newspaper. 2 separate anthrax-laden mailings were delivered to the newspaper. Officials have said nothing regarding possible links between the old newspaper case and the latest allegedly-attempted poisoning of the Prime Minster.

In January 2012, Gilani's press secretary told reporters that the culprit behind the mailing was a female professor from Jamshoro University in Islamabad. Or the mysterious professor may have been at Sindh University (Police officials say the envelope bore the stamp of Sindh University Campus Colony, Jamshoro, Pakistan). The professor may be mentally ill, government spokesmen said, and have easily stolen anthrax from a university lab, mailing the spores to Gilani without homicidal intent. The Prime Minister never touched the envelope and nobody in his office was exposed, as the mailing trigged an anthrax scanning device. It managed to bypass other screening steps before the Prime Minister's office, including a postal office run by state intelligence services.

The intent behind this mailing is cloudy. The culprit inserted spores inside a sealed plastic bag, which did not leak or spill. The assailant in 2001 in the US did not do so: those spores were placed loosely inside paper envelopes, from which they escaped to contaminate the American postal system.

By early February the official police story changed completely. There was no mysterious female Sindh University professor involved, the university stamps were not on the envelope, and the investigation had no clues. "The probe into tracing the culprits behind the parcel has apparently reached a dead end but still efforts are under way to avoid recurrence of such incidents in [the] future," a police official told reporters on 5 Feb 2012. "There is no concrete evidence to link the parcel with the professor."

Two weeks later the investigation, as well as the anthrax samples and envelope, were apparently trapped in jurisdictional disputes between the police and Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) -- a fight akin to NYPD and FBI declining to share information and evidence. After a week of media buzz regarding the jurisdictional squabbles and whereabouts of the evidence the entire story died, and no further news on the matter has issued from Islamabad.

Pakistan's leadership has for many months been locked in crises of coups and scandal amid "Memogate." A memo was allegedly written by Pakistan's Ambassador to Washington and businessman Mansoor Ijaz, and sent to Admiral Mike Mullen, requesting American military support to protect President Asif Ali Zardari. The memo, which appeared in Foreign Policy in November [2011], named top leaders of the Pakistani military that are tied to al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and harbored Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad. It requested US military help to prevent a coup, as Pakistan's military reacted to the assassination of bin Laden and subsequent allegations of their collaboration with al-Qaeda.

The culprit anthrax mailing arrived at the Prime Minister's office one week after the "Memogate" document was leaked to US and Pakistani media.

In the 3 weeks after the anthrax letter was allegedly found, Pakistan's President Zardari fled to Dubai, supposedly for medical care; Pakistan's Ambassador to the US was forced to resign; the country's High Court opened an investigation into "Memogate," which is ongoing; and Gilani reportedly ordered a cover-up on the anthrax mailing, telling police the incident was too volatile to disclose in the "Memogate" environment.

Currently, it is not clear where the anthrax/letter evidence is located. It may not even exist. Federal investigators claim to have left the materials in the hands of police, while police officials insist the FIA seized all evidence.

President Zardari's spokesperson through all of this was a stand-in for his official media advisor, Farahnaz Ispahani, who fled Pakistan in med-January [2012] claiming she was at risk of assassination. Ispahani is married to Husain Haqqani, the former Ambassador to the US who was accused of collaborating in the "Memogate" incident. Haqqani was under house arrest in Pakistan, facing charges of treason in the high court investigation of the memo. He denies all claims of involvement in the memo incident. After fleeing the country Ispahani told reporters, "What we're seeing is the systematic killing or silencing of anyone who stands up to the institutionalisation of a militarised Islamist state, who advocates positive relations with the West or stands up for tolerance. I'm scared, even the government can't even protect itself."

Mysteriously, Haqqani recently turned up in London, having been released from his house arrest. According to his lawyer the former Ambassador is either currently in the US or UK.

In a few days Prime Minister Gilani will meet with President Barak Obama at the nuclear summit in Seoul. Though North Korea and Iran top the list of nuclear concerns at the moment, Pakistan, according to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, is undergoing the most rapid build-up of nuclear weapons in the world, and now has more than 150 warheads. Relations between Pakistan and the US have been icy since the Osama bin Laden killing, the November [2011] NATO airstrike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, and the entire "Memogate" unfolded. On 20 Mar [2012] the Pakistani Parliament called for a complete review of relations between the country and the US in response to American use of drone attacks inside Pakistani territory, which have killed 38 people in recent months.

In the lead-up to this 27 Mar [2012] summit tensions inside Pakistan have further worsened, in what amounts to a 3-way battle between the Judiciary (which is executing legal actions against Zardari on corruption charges, and separately in the "Memogate" fiasco against key Zardari allies), the Inter-Services Intelligence (or ISI, which is Pakistan's secret police and top national security establishment) and Zardari's supporters. Zardari opponents are leading Parliamentary attacks. And, in a routine change-of-command, a new leadership has coincidentally taken over the ISI and Pakistani Air Force.

Amid this chaos it seems unlikely we will hear more about the alleged _Bacillus anthracis_ mailing. Did it occur? If so, where is the deadly envelope full of spores? Has anybody determined the strain of anthrax inside that envelope?

If any of this anthrax saga is true, I would like to know if the spores are Ames strain _Bacillus anthracis_. According to evidence provided by the FBI to the US National Academy of Sciences in late 2010 Ames strain anthrax was found in a laboratory located in Tora Bora, Afghanistan, in a set of caves in which Osama bin Laden hid after the 9/11 attacks. Raided by US Special Forces in late 2001, the laboratory was swabbed twice for spores, testing positive for the Ames strain on both occasions (though negative years later when swabbed by the FBI). As discussed in my book, I Heard the Sirens Scream, the Ames strain was deployed in "Amerithrax," and is not native to the Indian subcontinent. If Pakistan's Prime Minister Gilani was targeted with Ames strain anthrax, links between the 2001 mailings in the US and Pakistan, protection of al-Qaeda's leadership inside Pakistan, "Memogate," and the unfolding drama surrounding possession of anthrax evidence may become apparent.

[Byline: Laurie Garrett]

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[Although the thread had been cut, I felt that this commentary by Laurie Garrett was worth sharing to provide more background to these confusing events.

Laurie's suggestion that this latest event involved "Ames" is pure speculation as there is no information that the October 2011 packaged spores were genotyped, or even that any Pakistani laboratory has access to this strain. Frankly it is much more likely in this hothouse environment of political shenanigans that the perpetrators used the easily available Sterne vaccine strain of _Bacillus anthracis_.

I am still inclined to think that both the most recent incident in October 2011, and the prior 2001 incident may have been public relations exercises manufactured out of whole cloth, albeit perhaps for different reasons and objectives at different times -- the 1st in 2001 for US/international audiences; the 2nd in 2011 mainly for a domestic Pakistani purpose, possibly with specific individuals targeted for public embarrassment or even judicial action. - Mod.MHJ]
 
Re: Pakistan: Parcel containing anthrax sent to Prime Mnister

Laurie's suggestion that this latest event involved "Ames" is pure speculation as there is no information that the October 2011 packaged spores were genotyped, or even that any Pakistani laboratory has access to this strain. Frankly it is much more likely in this hothouse environment of political shenanigans that the perpetrators used the easily available Sterne vaccine strain of _Bacillus anthracis_.
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Agree that it is highly speculative, though the source is a blog post, not a news article claiming to be factual. The real emerging threat in this latest anthrax rumor may be purely psychological/political, rather than biological.
 
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