◆ SpookStack

- e} . . . ‘ @ « FD-302a Rev. 10-6-95) 279A-WF-222936[ ss B02, 279A-BA-C101392 A b7C Continuation of FD-302 of [ tsi(‘;i‘s‘SCsC*zq , , On 04 / 29 / 2003 . Page could not imagine that anyone inL__]group at USAMRIID was responsible for the fall 2001 anthrax mailings. could see someone perhaps sending B.a. to a superior at work, but not through the public mail system. [__]could not imagine someone doing it to raise money for biodefense or to demonstrate to Congress that money was needed for such biodefense efforts. It would have been difficult for someone to prepare the mailings at USAMRIID. There was a very small group of people working on B.a., and most of these people worked together. There were fermentors in Suite B4 that could have been used, however it would have been necessary for two people to work together to operate this equipment. does not think that someone would have taken a wet B.a. spore prep out of USAMRIID. Someone would have noticed if a large quantity of B.a. Ames was being grown. The manner in which the mailings were sent was not the optimal method if the goal was to kill a large number of people. The mailer could have made the same point using B.a. Stearne. It would have taken until the plasma preparation or polymerase chain reaction (PCR) results came back before the panic would have died down. It made more sense tof____—sidt hat’:~ssomeone outside the country sent the letters as an act of economic terrorism, rather than to kill people. The clean up and aftermath have probably cost billions of dollars. In a few years, the real impact of the mailings on the economy will be seen. For example, hoof and mouth disease has cost the United Kingdom (UK) ten billion dollars. If the UK was to vaccinate their animals, they would not be allowed to export their meat to countries without hoof and mouth disease. [described additional consequences of ‘the anthrax mailings. There are currently more Biosafety Level (BL) 4 labs being planned for construction in the United States than can be staffed by qualified scientists. B.a. is one of the easiest organisms to work with. There are certain tricks of the trade that could be used to get very high purity and that could be learned from the literature. For example, some very pure samples have been made at USAMRIID for aerosol challenges. has not read the literature about how to dry B.a., but has been told that it is not that difficult to do. There are certain tricks to drying_B.a. that could be learned from the offensive bioweapons program. does not know if this information would be sufficient to obtain the B.a. as pure and dry as the material in the letters.