Posts Tagged ‘anthrax’
Dugway Base for chemical/biological weapons on lockdown
Skull Valley sheep kill 1968
A Utah military facility that tests chemical and biological weapons was locked down “to resolve a serious concern,” and authorities were working to reopen the base, officials said Thursday. All base personnel were safe and working, and no evacuation was needed, said spokeswoman, Bonnie Robinson. She would not say why the base was locked down…
About 1,500 employees and contractors are stationed at the base.
Dugway commander Col. William E. King IV said earlier authorities were “working as quickly and as thoroughly as possible to resolve a serious concern within the Test Area” but he didn’t elaborate.
“As you know measures like these (lockdown of our gates) are not taken lightly. No one is in immediate danger but these steps are required.”
The proving ground covers 798,214 acres and is located in the Great Salt Lake Desert, around 85 miles southwest of Salt Lake City.
Also a historic center for the development and testing of chemical and biological weapons.
Watch the movie “Rage” sometime – starring George C. Scott. Based on events in the good old Cold Warrior days when a release of one of our All-American weapons of mass destruction killed thousands of sheep.
Dugway has been a test site for weaponized anthrax as recently as 1998.
Scotland issues anthrax alert after junkie dies
Scottish health agencies have been placed on alert after a drug user who died in hospital tested positive for anthrax.
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said the man died in Glasgow’s Victoria Infirmary on Wednesday. A woman being treated there has also tested positive.
A second man, who is being treated at treated at Glasgow Royal Infirmary, is being tested for the deadly anthrax bacterium. All three had infections in areas of the body they injected with heroin.
Doctors fear more people could die and have ordered tests on every drug user in Scotland who has been treated for infections over the past month…
Anthrax was suspected of being responsible for a spate of deaths among Scottish heroin addicts in 2000.
New Scientist magazine reported that tests at the UK biological defence lab in Porton Down found signs of infection in dead addicts.
However, health officials in Glasgow, where several of the deaths occurred, insisted at the time that the drug users were not infected with anthrax.
RTFA. Discussion of how and where. Also a review of symptoms which is pretty grotty.
$5.8 million for scientist in anthrax lawsuit
Stick it in your…database…John Ashcroft!
The Justice Department has agreed to pay $5.8 million to settle a lawsuit with former Army scientist Steven Hatfill, who was named as a person of interest in the 2001 anthrax attacks…
The deal requires the Justice Department to pay $2.825 million dollars up front and buy Hatfill a $3 million annuity that will pay him $150,000 each year for 20 years…
Five people were killed and 17 sickened by anthrax that was mailed to lawmakers on Capitol Hill and members of the news media in New York and Florida just weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
After the attacks, Attorney General John Ashcroft called Hatfill “a person of interest” in the investigation and stories by various reporters followed. Hatfill had worked at the Army’s infectious diseases laboratory from 1997 to 1999. The anthrax attacks remain unsolved.
The settlement likely also means that former USA Today reporter Toni Locy will no longer face up to $5,000-a-day in fines in the case. A federal judge ordered her to identify the officials who discussed Hatfill. When she said she couldn’t remember, the judge ordered her to identify all her sources on the anthrax case.
I have to wonder how many unproductive millions were spent in the search for the real culprit. Uh, the snoop-suits did follow other leads. Right?
