Whoa. Funky twist to the anthrax case

[WilliamPitt]

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http://www.rollcall.com/issues/50_18/news/6527-1.html

N.Y. Doctor Boasted of Ties to Hill

By Amy Keller
Roll Call Staff

August 16, 2004

A New York doctor reportedly under investigation in connection with the deadly 2001 anthrax attacks appears to have aggressively pursued relationships with key Capitol Hill lawmakers during the late 1990s as he sought Congressional support and funding to develop an academy to train firefighters, police and paramedics how to respond to a terrorist attack.

Lawmakers who came into contact with Kenneth Berry said they remember little or nothing about the emergency-room physician whose homes in Wellsville, N.Y., and Point Pleasant Beach, N.J., were searched earlier this month by federal agents working on the “Amerithrax” case.

To date, no charges have been filed against Berry in the anthrax case, and no evidence has been made public that connects him to the attacks. Point Pleasant police said during a press conference last week that the 46-year-old doctor has denied any involvement in the 2001 anthrax attacks.

But Berry’s personal Web site is raising eyebrows on Capitol Hill. When asked about the numerous references to lawmakers on the site, several Members of Congress who were cited on it suggested, through their aides, that the physician embellished his association with them.

“He has no idea who this gentleman is,” said an aide to Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.). While Weldon’s office did confirm that he spoke at several conferences on medical preparedness for chemical, biological and nuclear terrorism organized by Berry between 1997 and 1999, they disputed Berry’s depiction of his relationship with Weldon.

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[displacedtexan]

1. Curious, isn't it?

As you know, Will, campaigns have weekly calendars for various strategies and tactics throughout the election season: message of the week; staged events of the week; donation goals of the week; etc.

"Capture Anthrax killer" is probably penciled in on the Bush 'staged events calendar' for either Convention Week or Election Week.

Edited to include: I'm not holding my breath waiting for any Cable News Hairdo to investigate this guy's ties to Republican'ts.

[bullimiami]

2. you think bumbling ashcroft

stumbled onto this guy through his website and decided to have a news-day at his expense?

[displacedtexan]

3. Possible, but...

if this guy really is connected to Congressional Repubes, there could be one more egg on A$$KKKroft's face.

At this point, any old scapegoat will do.

[Ganja Ninja]

5. That's right meet Scapegoat # 2.

To be publicly and informally accused in lieu of indictment prior to November 2nd. After November 2nd the whole thing will be dropped.

[Warpy]

4. Probably, since the weaponized anthrax is so incredibly volatile

it couldn't possibly have been put into those envelopes outside a high level containment facility without significant contamination of the environment. Rememeber, the one envelope opened in Leahy's office spread those spores throughout a whole wing of the Senate office building.

This is just another stupid red herring tossed to the public to make them believe Asscrack actually cares about this case.

He doesn't. It was an inside job, launched from Fort Detrick and aimed squarely at the Bush family's enemies and no one else. That is what we know, and that should be sufficient to get that facility shut down and everyone in it closely scrutinized for ties to the Bushes, either financial or social/employment/political. Asscrack is obviously protecting whoever it was by not investigating anything in that facility.

(The FBI's investigation, swabbing doorframes and other surfaces that might have been contaminated by spores being taken out of the facility is ludicrous, since that stuff couldn't possibly have been handled outside the lab.)

Of all the incompetent, corrupt, insane, and just plain evil people in the Bush junta, Asscrack is undoubtedly the worst.

[Ganja Ninja]

6. Excellent point about the envelopes.

It was something I'd thought of right after it happened. You can't just spoon this stuff out of a jar and into an envelope while your sitting around the kitchen table. There would have been an outbreak of unintended contamination somewhere. Like a whole apartment building or neighborhood getting sick. If this had been terrorists they wouldn't have cared about unintended contamination.

However I don't think the primary purpose was to scare Bush's enemies. I've always thought the real reason was so the Bush's could point the finger at Saddam as an excuse for the war they wanted

[Warpy]

7. Of course it was, and that was the first place Bush pointed the finger,

until somebody pointed out that the Iraqi experiments with weaponizing Anthrax had used bentonite as a means of making the outer coating on the spores less adhesive. The Iraqi experiments had been a failure and had been abandoned over a decade previously.

9/11 was the only thing that bought investigators enough time to do the DNA analysis and trace those spores right back to the bioweapons lab at Fort Detrick. Only by having them distracted by the Afghan invasion were investigators allowed to get that far.

It's an inside job. Everybody seems to realize it, but Asscrack is determined to keep protecting that lab from real scrutiny.