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"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action."
The 2001 anthrax attacks in the United States, also known as Amerithrax from its Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) case name, occurred over the course of several weeks beginning on Tuesday, September 18, 2001, one week after the September 11 attacks. Letters containing anthrax spores were mailed to several news media offices and two Democratic U.S. Senators, killing five people and infecting 17 others. According to the FBI, the ensuing investigation became "one of the largest and most complex in the history of law enforcement."
A major focus in the early years of the investigation was a bio-weapons expert named Steven Hatfill, who was eventually exonerated. Another suspect, Bruce Edwards Ivins, became a focus of investigation around April 4, 2005. Ivins was a scientist who worked at the government's biodefense labs at Fort Detrick in Frederick, Maryland. On April 11, 2007, Ivins was put under periodic surveillance and an FBI document stated that "Bruce Edwards Ivins is an extremely sensitive suspect in the 2001 anthrax attacks".[2]On July 27, 2008, Ivins killed himself with an overdose of acetaminophen.
09-11-01
THIS IS NEXT
TAKE PENACILIN NOW
DEATH TO AMERICA
DEATH TO ISRAEL
ALLAH IS GREAT
On September 11, the president and White House staff began taking a regimen of Cipro, a powerful antibiotic. The public interest group Judicial Watch filed lawsuits in June 2002 against federal agencies to obtain information about how, what and when the White House knew on 9/11 about the danger of anthrax weeks before the first known victim of the anthrax attacks.The issue, therefore, is on what grounds governmental officials were alerted to prepare for the coming anthrax attacks, which were later traced to a U.S. army medical research institute.
The F.B.I. and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention both gave permission for Iowa State University to destroy the Iowa anthrax archive, and the archive was destroyed on 2001 October 10 and 11.95
The FBI and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) investigation has been hampered by the destruction of a large collection of anthrax spores collected over more than seven decades and kept in more than 100 vials at Iowa State University, Ames, IA. Many scientists claim that the quick destruction of the anthrax spores collection in Iowa have eliminated crucial evidence useful for the investigation. A precise match between the strain of anthrax used in the attacks and a strain in the collection would have offered hints as to when bacteria had been isolated and, perhaps, as to how widely it had been distributed to researchers. Such genetic clues could have given investigators the evidence necessary to identify the perpetrators.
Immediately after the anthrax attacks, White House officials repeatedly pressured FBI Director Robert Mueller to prove that they were a second-wave assault by Al Qaeda following the September 11 attacks. During the president's morning intelligence briefings, Mueller was "beaten up" for not producing proof that the killer spores were the handiwork of terrorist mastermind Osama Bin Laden, according to a former aide. "They really wanted to blame somebody in the Middle East," the retired senior FBI official stated. The FBI knew early on that the anthrax used was of a consistency requiring sophisticated equipment and was unlikely to have been produced in some "cave". At the same time, both President Bush and Vice President Cheney in public statements speculated about the possibility of a link between the anthrax attacks and Al Qaeda.[96] The Guardian reported in early October that American scientists had implicated Iraq as the source of the anthrax,[97] and the next day the Wall St. Journal editorialized that Al Qaeda perpetrated the mailings, with Iraq the source of the anthrax.[98] A few days later, John McCain suggested on the David Letterman Show that the anthrax may have come from Iraq,[99] and the next week ABC News did a series of reports stating that three or four (depending on the report) sources had identified bentonite as an ingredient in the anthrax preparations, implicating Iraq.
Scientists familiar with germ warfare said there was no evidence that he had the skills to turn anthrax into an inhalable powder. According to Alan Zelicoff who aided the F.B.I. investigation "I don't think a vaccine specialist could do it . . . This is aerosol physics, not biology"
On September 17, 2008, Senator Patrick Leahy told FBI Director Robert Mueller during testimony before his the Judiciary Committee Leahy chairs, that he did not believe Army scientist Bruce Ivins acted alone in the 2001 anthrax attacks, stating:
"I believe there are others involved, either as accessories before or accessories after the fact. I believe that there are others out there. I believe there are others who could be charged with murder.
Several 9/11 hijackers, including Alhaznawi, lived in Boca Raton, Florida, near American Media Inc. workplace of the first victim of the anthrax attacks. They also attended flight school there. Some of the hijackers rented apartments from a real estate agent who was the wife of an editor of The Sun, a publication of American Media. Further, a pharmacist in Delray Beach, Florida, stated he had told the F.B.I. that two of the 9/11 hijackers, Mohamad Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi, entered the pharmacy seeking medicine to treat irritations on Mr. Atta's hands.
The anthrax attacks, as well as the September 11, 2001 attacks, have spurred significant increases in U.S. government funding for biological warfare research and preparedness. For example, biowarfare-related funding at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) increased by $1.5 billion in 2003.In 2004, Congress passed the Project Bioshield Act, which provides $5.6 billion over ten years for the purchase of new vaccines and drugs.
A theory that Iraq was behind the attacks, based upon the evidence that the powder was weaponized and some reports of alleged meetings between 9/11 conspirators and Iraqi officials, may have contributed to the momentum which ultimately led to the 2003 war.[172]
After the 9/11 attacks and the subsequent anthrax mailings, lawmakers were pressed for legislation to combat further terrorist acts. Under heavy pressure from then Attorney General John D. Ashcroft, a bipartisan compromise in the House Judiciary Committee allowed legislation for the Patriot Act to move forward for full consideration later that month.
#107-111 Andrei Tropinov, Sergei Rizhov, Gennadi Benyok, Nicolai Tronov and Valery Lyalin, in a Russian plane crash. The five scientists were employed at the Hydropress factory, a member of Russia's state nuclear corporation and had assisted in the development of Iran's nuclear plant. They worked at the Bushehr nuclear power plant and helped to complete construction of it. Officially Russian investigators say that human error and technical malfunction caused the deadly crash, which killed 45 and left 8 passengers surviving.
Dr Massoud Ali Mohammadi, 50, was assassinated Jan. 11 when a remote-control bomb inside a motorcycle near his car was detonated. This professor of nuclear physics at Tehran University was politically active and his name was on a list of Tehran University staff who supported Mir Hossein Mousavi according to Newsweek. The London Times reports that Dr. Ali-Mohammadi told his students to speak out against the unjust elections. He stated "We have to stand up to this lot. Don't be afraid of a bullet. It only hurts at the beginning." Iran seems to be systematically assassinating high level professors and doctors who speak out against the regime of President Ahmadinejad. However, Iran proclaims that Israel and America used the "killing as a means of thwarting the country's nuclear program" per Newsweek.
John (Jack) P. Wheeler III, 66. last seen Dec. 30 found dead in a Delaware landfill, fought to get the Vietnam Memorial built and served in two Bush administrations. His death has been ruled a homicide by Newark, Del. police. Wheeler graduated from West Point in 1966, and had a law degree from Yale and a business degree from Harvard. His military career included serving in the office of the Secretary of Defense and writing a manual on the effectiveness of biological and chemical weapons, which recommended that the United States not use biological weapons.
#88 Caroline Coffey, 28. Died June 3, from massive cuts to her throat. Hikers found the body of the Cornell Univ. post-doctoral bio-medicine researcher along a wooded trail in the park, just outside Ithaca, N.Y., where the Ivy League school is located. Her husband was hospitalized under guard after a police chase and their apartment set on fire.
Laurent Bonomo and Gabriel Ferez, both 23. Died July 3, after being bound, gagged, stabbed and set alight. Laurent, a student in the proteins that cause infectious disease, had been stabbed 196 times with half of them being administered to his back after he was dead. Gabriel, who hoped to become an expert in ecofriendly fuels, suffered 47 separate injuries.
#79: Leonid Strachunsky. Died: June 8, 2005 after being hit on the head with a champagne bottle. Strachunsky specialized in creating microbes resistant to biological weapons. Strachunsky was found dead in his hotel room in Moscow, where hed come from Smolensk en route to the United States. Investigators are looking for a connection between the murder of this leading bio weapons researcher and the hepatitis outbreak in Tver, Russia.
#67: Matthew Allison, age 32. Died: October 13, 2004. Fatal explosion of a car parked at an Osceola County, Fla., Wal-Mart store. It was no accident, Local 6 News has learned. Found inside a burned car. Witnesses said the man left the store at about 11 p.m. and entered his Ford Taurus car when it exploded. Investigators said they found a Duraflame log and propane canisters on the front passenger's seat. Allison had a college degree in molecular biology and biotechnology.
The 1918 flu pandemic (the Spanish flu) was an influenza pandemic, and the first of the two pandemics involving H1N1 influenza virus (the follow-up was the 2009 flu pandemic, an outbreak of Swine Flu. It was an unusually severe and deadly pandemic that spread across the world. Historical and epidemiological data are inadequate to identify the geographic origin.[1] Most victims were healthy young adults, in contrast to most influenza outbreaks, which predominantly affect juvenile, elderly, or weakened patients. The flu pandemic was implicated in the outbreak of encephalitis lethargica in the 1920s.[2]
The pandemic lasted from June 1918 to December 1920,[3] spreading even to the Arctic and remote Pacific islands. Between 50 and 100 million died, making it one of the deadliest natural disasters in human history.[4][5][6][7][8] Even using the lower estimate of 50 million people, 3% of the world's population (1.86 billion at the time[9]) died of the disease. Some 500 million, or 27% (≈1/4), were infected.[5]
Tissue samples from frozen victims were used to reproduce the virus for study. This research concluded, among other things, that the virus kills through a cytokine storm (overreaction of the body's immune system), which perhaps explains its unusually severe nature and the concentrated age profile of its victims. The strong immune system reactions of young adults ravaged the body, whereas those of the weaker immune systems of children and middle-aged adults resulted in fewer deaths.
The effort to find preserved samples of the 1918 influenza virus has been a pursuit of both historical and medical importance. The 1918 influenza pandemic was the most devastating single disease outbreak in modern history, and examining the virus that caused it may help prepare for, and possibly prevent, future pandemics. When the complete sequence of the 1918 virus was published in 2005, it represented a watershed event for influenza researchers worldwide.
In a mass grave in a remote Inuit village near the town of Brevig Mission, a large Inuit woman lay buried under more than six feet of ice and dirt for more than 75 years. The permafrost plus the woman's ample fat stores kept the virus in her lungs so well preserved that when a team of scientists exhumed her body in the late 1990s, they could recover enough viral RNA to sequence the 1918 strain in its entirety. This remarkable good fortune enabled these scientists to open a window onto a past pandemic--and perhaps gain a foothold for preventing a future one.
Reference: "Discovery and characterization of the 1918 pandemic influenza virus in historical context," by J Taubenberger, J Hultin and D Morens. "Spotlight on Respiratory Viruses" issue of Antiviral Therapy 12:581--591 (2007). Article available at www.intmedpress.com....
Ethics of reconstructing Spanish Flu: Is it wise to resurrect a deadly virus?
J van Aken1 1Study Group on Biological Arms Control, Hamburg University, Germany. Correspondence: J van Aken, e-mail: [email protected] www.biological-arms-control.org
Recently, a team of US scientists resurrected a virus that has since been labelled 'perhaps the most effective bioweapons agent now known' (von Bubnoff, 2005). In 1918, a highly virulent strain of influenza virus killed up to 50 million people worldwide. The virus – later dubbed the Spanish Flu – killed more people than any other disease of similar duration in the history of humankind. Until last year, this virus was extinct, preserved only as small DNA fragments in victims buried in Alaskan permafrost, or in tissue specimen of the United States Armed Forces Pathology Institute. Now the full sequence of the Spanish Flu virus has been published (Taubenberger et al., 2005) and the virus itself reconstructed. It proved to be as fatal as the original. When tested on mice, it killed the animals more quickly than any other flu virus ever tested (Tumpey et al., 2005).
"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action."
Swine influenza, also called pig influenza, swine flu, hog flu and pig flu, is an infection by any one of several types of swine influenza virus. Swine influenza virus (SIV) or S-OIV (swine-origin influenza virus) is any strain of the influenza family of viruses that is endemic in pigs.[2] As of 2009, the known SIV strains include influenza C and the subtypes of influenza A known as H1N1, H1N2,H2N1,H3N1, H3N2, and H2N3.
Swine influenza virus is common throughout pig populations worldwide. Transmission of the virus from pigs to humans is not common and does not always lead to human flu, often resulting only in the production of antibodies in the blood. If transmission does cause human flu, it is called zoonotic swine flu. People with regular exposure to pigs are at increased risk of swine flu infection.
The 2009 flu pandemic was an influenza pandemic, and the second of the two pandemics involving H1N1 influenza virus (the first of them was the 1918 flu pandemic), albeit in a new version. First described in April 2009, the virus appeared to be a new strain of H1N1 which resulted when a previous triple reassortment of bird, swine and human flu viruses further combined with a Eurasian pig flu virus,[2] leading to the term "swine flu" to be used for this pandemic.
It has been determined that the strain contains genes from five different flu viruses: North American swine influenza, North American avian influenza, human influenza and two swine influenza viruses typically found in Asia and Europe. Further analysis has shown that several proteins of the virus are most similar to strains that cause mild symptoms in humans, leading virologist Wendy Barclay to suggest on 1 May 2009, that the initial indications are that the virus was unlikely to cause severe symptoms for most people.[61]
The virus is currently less lethal than previous pandemic strains and kills about 0.01–0.03% of those infected; the 1918 influenza was about one hundred times more lethal and had a case fatality rate of 2–3%.[62] By 14 November 2009, the virus had infected one in six Americans with 200,000 hospitalisations and 10,000 deaths – as many hospitalizations and fewer deaths than in an average flu season overall, but with much higher risk for those under 50. With deaths of 1,100 children and 7,500 adults 18 to 64, these figures "are much higher than in a usual flu season".[63]
edit on 16-10-2011 by carlitomoore because: To fix the allignment of the quote.edit on 16-10-2011 by carlitomoore because: edit to add red text
In January 2010, Wolfgang Wodarg, a German deputy who trained as a physician and now chairs the health committee at the Council of Europe, claimed major firms had organised a "campaign of panic" to put pressure on the World Health Organisation (WHO) to declare a "false pandemic" to sell vaccines. Wodarg said the WHO's "false pandemic" flu campaign is "one of the greatest medicine scandals of the century". He said that the "false pandemic" campaign began last May in Mexico City, when a hundred or so "normal" reported influenza cases were declared to be the beginning of a threatening new pandemic, although he said there was little scientific evidence for this. Nevertheless he argued that the WHO, "in cooperation with some big pharmaceutical companies and their scientists, re-defined pandemics", removing the statement that "an enormous amount of people have contracted the illness or died" from its existing definition and replacing it by stating simply that there has to be a virus, spreading beyond borders and to which people have no immunity.
European countries bought billions of dollars worth of vaccine from pharmaceutical companies including Baxter, GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi-Pasteur. Some of the contracts included a clause where governments could get out of buying the drugs if they were no longer needed. But some, notably ones with GlaxoSmithKline, did not.
“We continue to support governments in managing the H1N1 influenza pandemic. This includes ongoing discussions about existing orders for our pandemic vaccines,” reads the officials statement from the company.
Governments all over Europe are now saddled with billions of dollars worth of unnecessary swine flu vaccine. They are trying to sell it, but supply now far exceeds demand. So because governments wanted to be seen to be acting decisively, the European taxpayers have found themselves seriously out of pocket.
Baxter Files Swine Flu Vaccine Patent a Year Ahead of Outbreak --US20090060950A1 to Baxter International filed 28th August 2008 By Lara 10 Jul 2009 Baxter Vaccine Patent Application US 2009/0060950 A1 --'In particular preferred embodiments the composition or vaccine comprises more than one antigen.....such as influenza A and influenza B in particular selected from of one or more of the human H1N1, H2N2, H3N2, H5N1, H7N7, H1N2, H9N2, H7N2, H7N3, H10N7 subtypes, of the pig flu H1N1, H1N2, H3N1 and H3N2 subtypes, of the dog or horse flu H7N7, H3N8 subtypes or of the avian H5N1, H7N2, H1N7, H7N3, H13N6, H5N9, H11N6, H3N8, H9N2, H5N2, H4N8, H10N7, H2N2, H8N4, H14N5, H6N5, H12N5 subtypes.'
Baxter admits sending live avian flu viruses to subcontractor --Baxter admits contaminated seasonal flu product contained live bird flu virus 27 Feb 2009 The company that released contaminated flu virus material from a plant in Austria confirmed Friday that the experimental product contained live H5N1 avian flu viruses. And an official of the World Health Organization's European operation said the body is closely monitoring the investigation into the events that took place at Baxter International's research facility in Orth-Donau, Austria.
Drugs giant GlaxoSmithKline was accused of cashing in on swine flu after it revealed its profits have risen 10 per cent since the virus was identified.
It announced profits yesterday of £2.1billion in the past three months. Sales of vaccines and antiviral drugs could push the figure up even higher.
GSK chief executive Andrew Witty admitted the swine flu crisis would be a 'significant financial event for the company'.
Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk... Yfw
As concern spread Monday about a swine flu virus outbreak, investors saw opportunity in shares of companies that make or hope to make anti-flu drugs.
Britain's GlaxoSmithKline, (GSK) which makes antiviral Relenza, saw its U.S.-traded shares rise 7.6% Monday, while U.S.-traded shares of Swiss drugmaker Roche Holdings, (ROG) which makes antiviral Tamiflu, rose 4%.
The antivirals, which make up the U.S. government's stock of anti-flu drugs, reduce the severity of flu symptoms and may prevent illness. They're seen as the first line of defense in an outbreak.
Longer term, health officials look for new vaccines to ward off outbreaks. Novavax, a Maryland-based company that in 2005 turned its attention to flu vaccines, saw its shares leap 80% Monday.
Novavax (NVAX) is testing cell-based technologies to enable it to produce a flu vaccine in as little as three months, says equity analyst Elemer Piros at Rodman & Renshaw. That's half as long as traditional flu vaccine makers, which use an egg-based process. Shortening the process is key, because flu can mutate rapidly.
GSK and Roche also say they're prepared to expand antiviral production. The swine flu outbreak will reinvigorate stockpiling, says Jason Kantor, biotech analyst for RBC Capital Markets. He covers Gilead Sciences, which developed Tamiflu and gets royalties from Roche. The outbreak "raises the awareness that these threats still do exist," he says.
James F. Young, Ph.D.
Dr. Young joined Novavax's Board of Directors in April 2010 and was appointed Chairman in April 2011. He has over 30 years of experience in the fields of molecular genetics, microbiology, immunology and pharmaceutical development. Most recently, Dr. Young was MedImmune's President of Research and Development, where he had responsibility for regulatory affairs and was instrumental in the development of FluMist® and Synagis®. In 2005, Dr. Young was awarded the Albert B. Sabin Humanitarian Award. Prior to MedImmune, Dr. Young was influential in building the department of molecular genetics at Smith Kline & French Laboratories (now part of GlaxoSmithKline) and culminated as director, department of molecular genetics. Dr. Young was on the faculty of the department of microbiology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, NY. He received his doctorate in microbiology and immunology from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas and Bachelor of Science degrees in biology and general sciences from Villanova University.
John O. Marsh, Jr.
Mr. Marsh joined the Novavax Board of Directors in 1991 (then known as Molecular Packaging Systems, Inc.) and served as Interim Chief Executive Officer from July 1996 to March 1997 and as Chairman of the Board from July 1996 to February 1997. He is currently the Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Law at George Mason University and has been Co-Chair of the Independent Review Group for Walter Reed Hospital and the Bethesda Navy Medical Center since 2007. He also has served as Visiting Professor of Ethics at Virginia Military Institute in 1998. Mr. Marsh was Secretary of the Army from 1981 to 1989, a Counselor with Cabinet rank to the President of the United States from 1974 to 1977, Assistant for National Security Affairs to Vice President of the United States in 1974, and Assistant Secretary of Defense from 1973 to 1974. Mr. Marsh was a U.S. Representative in Congress from 1963 to 1971. He has been awarded the Department of Defense Distinguished Public Service Award on six occasions and was awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal from President Ronald Reagan.
Michael A. McManus, Jr.
Mr. McManus joined the Novavax Board in 1998. He has served as President, Chief Executive Officer and Director of Misonix, Inc., a medical, scientific and industrial provider of ultrasonic and air pollution systems, since 1998. Previously, he was President and Chief Executive Officer of NewYork Bancorp Inc. from 1991 to 1998. From 1990 through November 1991, Mr. McManus was President and Chief Executive Officer of Jamcor Pharmaceuticals Inc. Mr. McManus served as an Assistant to the President of the United States from 1982 to 1985 and held positions with Pfizer Inc. and Revlon Group. Mr. McManus received a B.A. in economics from the University of Notre Dame and a J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center. He served in the U.S. Army Infantry from 1968 through 1970. Mr. McManus currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors of A. Schulman Inc. He is also a recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor.
"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action."
A warning that the new swine flu jab is linked to a deadly nerve disease has been sent by the Government to senior neurologists in a confidential letter.
• More people died from the vaccination than from swine flu.
• 500 cases of GBS were detected.
• The vaccine may have increased the risk of contracting GBS by eight times.
• The vaccine was withdrawn after just ten weeks when the link with GBS became clear.
• The US Government was forced to pay out millions of dollars to those affected.
Concerns have already been raised that the new vaccine has not been sufficiently tested and that the effects, especially on children, are unknown.
It is being developed by pharmaceutical companies and will be given to about 13million people during the first wave of immunisation, expected to start in October.
The 1976 swine flu outbreak, also known as the swine flu fiasco,[1] or the swine flu debacle, was a strain of H1N1 influenza virus that appeared in 1976. Infections were only detected from January 19 to February 9, and were not found outside Fort Dix.[2] The outbreak is most remembered for the mass immunization that it prompted in the United States. The strain itself killed one person and hospitalized 13. However, side-effects from the vaccine caused five hundred cases of Guillain–Barré syndrome and 25 deaths.
BLACK Death rampaged across Europe in 1348, killing a third of the population. Now the complete sequence of Yersinia pestis, the most likely cause of the Black Death, has been unearthed from a medieval mass grave in London.
The mystery over the disease continues, however, as modern Yersinia infection - which causes bubonic plague - behaves very differently to the Black Death, yet its DNA is virtually unchanged.
"This is the first time a human pathogen more than a century old has ever been fully sequenced," says Johannes Krause at the University of Tübingen, Germany.
The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. Although there have been several competing theories, the dominant explanation for the Black Death is the plague theory, which attributes the outbreak to the bacteriumYersinia pestis. Thought to have started in China, it travelled along the Silk Road and had reached the Crimea by 1346. From there, probably carried by Oriental rat fleas living on the black rats that were regular passengers on merchant ships, it spread throughout the Mediterranean and Europe.
The Black Death is estimated to have killed 30–60 percent of Europe's population, reducing the world's population from an estimated 450 million to between 350 and 375 million in 1400. This has been seen as having created a series of religious, social and economic upheavals, which had profound effects on the course of European history. It took 150 years for Europe's population to recover. The plague returned at various times, killing more people, until it left Europe in the 19th century.
An official from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was arrested for allegedly molesting a child and bestiality, according to police in DeKalb County, Ga.
Kimberly Lindsey, 44, a deputy director at CDC, is charged with child molestation and bestiality for two incidences involving a 6-year-old child. Lindsey's live-in boyfriend, Thomas Westerman, 42, is also being charged with child molestation.
The pair is accused of involving the child in their sex acts, including allowing the boy to spank Lindsey's nude buttocks and let him use an electric sex toy on her, according to warrants issued for their arrests.
Lindsey is also accused of performing sexual acts with two pets.
Police said they found evidence in the home during a search that led to the issuance of the warrants, though they would not comment on the nature of the alleged evidence.
Dr. Kim Lindsey, Supervisory Health Scientist, serves as the Deputy Director for the Laboratory Science Policy and Practice Program Office (LSPPPO) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). She serves as second in command of the program office. Previously, Dr. Lindsey served as a Senior Health Scientist in the Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response (OPHPR). The primary role of this position is oversight of the $1.5 billion fiscal allocation process for Terrorism Preparedness and Emergency Response funding agency wide.
William Scott Ritter, Jr. (born July 15, 1961) was an important United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq from 1991 to 1998, and latera critic of United States foreign policy in the Middle East. Prior to the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March 2003, Ritter stated that Iraq possessed no significant weapons of mass destruction (WMD) capabilities. He became a popular anti-war figure and talk show commentator as a result of his stance.
Since 2001, Ritter has been arrested on sex charges. He was acquitted on a single criminal attempt charge, and convicted on other charges.
Ritter was detained in April 2001 and arrested in June 2001 in connection with police stings in which officers posed as under-aged girls to arrange meetings of a sexual nature.
"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action."
Maryland-based biotechnology firm Emergent BioSolutions on Monday said it had received a $1.25 billion contract to provide the U.S. government with 44.75 million doses of an anthrax vaccine (see GSN, June 1).
BioThrax is the only anthrax vaccine licensed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
"Emergent is proud to be able to contribute to the U.S. government's program of protecting the nation from the threat of anthrax," company Chief Executive Officer and Chairman Fuad El-Hibri said in provided comments. "This five-year award provides for uninterrupted supply of this critical biodefense countermeasure while addressing the government's mandate to reduce spending across all programs."
Delivery of the first 8.5 million doses is expected within the next year. Completion of the contract is scheduled for September 2016, presuming funding continues. The company also has the right to change the delivery schedule based on production levels and other variables (Emergent BioSolutions release, Oct. 3).
Dr. Sue Bailey Director
Dr. Sue Bailey has served as a director since June 2007. She is currently advisor to the director of the National Cancer Institute. Prior to that, Dr. Bailey served as a news analyst for NBC Universal, a media and entertainment company, from 2001 to 2006. She served as Administrator, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration from 2000 to 2001, as Assistant Secretary of Defense (Health Affairs) from 1998 to 2000, and as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (Clinical Services) from 1994 to 1995. Dr. Bailey was a faculty member at Georgetown Medical School. She is a former U.S. Navy officer, having achieved the rank of Lt. Commander, U.S. Navy Reserve prior to her appointment as Assistant Secretary of Defense. Dr. Bailey is on the board of advisors of the Institute of Human Virology, an institute of the University of Maryland School of Medicine working to develop diagnostics and therapeutics for viral and immune disorders; the board of directors of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence; and the board of Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, MD. Dr. Bailey completed her medical degree at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine and a B.S. from the University of Maryland. Dr. Bailey completed her internship and residency at George Washington University and completed a medical post-graduate fellowship at Johns Hopkins University.
Ronald B. Richard Lead Independent Director
Mr. Richard is a former U.S. foreign service officer. He served in Osaka/Kobe, Japan and as a desk officer for North Korean, Greek and Turkish affairs at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C. Mr. Richard previously served as chairman of the board of trustees of the International Biomedical Research Alliance, an academic joint venture among the NIH, Oxford University and Cambridge University.
Zsolt Harsanyi, Ph.D. Director
Previously, Dr. Harsanyi directed the first assessment of biotechnology for the U.S. Congress’ Office of Technology Assessment, served as a consultant to the President’s Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical and Behavioral Research and was on the faculties of Microbiology and Genetics at Cornell Medical College.
The results of tests for anthrax on a dead cow at a Herefordshire farm were negative.
Health officials from the environment department Defra have confirmed that the animal was not infected with the disease when it died in a field in Bartonsham near Hereford.
Samples were taken to a laboratory after the vet who first examined it was unsure as to the cause of death.
Defra said it was routine for tests to be done whenever a cow died in a field.
As a precaution, a public footpath near the site was closed on Thursday, but a spokesman for Herefordshire Council said it was now looking to reopen it as soon as possible.
Any suspected outbreak of anthrax must be reported to Defra.
In 2006, two cows died of anthrax at a beef farm in south Wales. In the same year, Christopher "Pascal" Norris died after inhaling anthrax spores from West African drums.
Since the anthrax attacks in 2001, some $60 billion has been spent on biodefence in the United States. But the money has not bought quite what was hoped.
Most of the biodefence spending, in fact, has spin-offs into other fields; even BARDA is involved in developing medicines against threats such as pandemic flu. In all, only $11.99 billion of the $60 billion has been spent on programmes solely concerned with biodefence. That's just over $1 billion per year from 2001 to 2011.
Drug-makers often say that it takes at least $800 million and ten years to develop a single drug, so a much greater investment is required before the biodefence effort can yield many new countermeasures. Kadlec recommends that the United States spend $10 billion a year on biodefence in future.
Iran's supreme leader said on Wednesday that a wave of protests spreading from Wall Street to cities across the US reflected a serious crisis that would ultimately topple capitalism in America.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei claimed the US was now in a full blown crisis because its "corrupt foundation has been exposed to the American people".
His remarks came during a rally in the western Iranian city of Kermanshah that drew tens of thousands of people. His speech was broadcast live on state TV.
The Occupy Wall Street movement started in New York last month. The loosely affiliated movement is peacefully protesting against the power of the financial and political sectors.
"They [the US government] may crack down on this movement but cannot uproot it," Khamenei said. "Ultimately, it will grow so that it will bring down the capitalist system and the west."
Iranian officials have called Occupy Wall Street an "American spring", likening it to the uprisings that have toppled autocratic Arab rulers in the Middle East.
Khamenei claimed capitalism in the west had reached a dead end and that "the world is at a historical turn".
At a news conference Tuesday, FBI Director Robert Mueller said a convoluted plot involving monitored international calls, Mexican drug money and an attempt to blow up the ambassador in a Washington restaurant smacked of a Hollywood movie.
The Occupy Wall Street movement that has been spreading across America is going worldwide this morning.
Protests are planned in solidarity from Europe to Australia in what is being called an "International Day of Action" this weekend.
In Tokyo, protesters are fighting inequality and about 300 Australians chanted the cry that started on Wall Street, "We are the 99%!"
In the Philippines, protesters marched in Manila, where they announced their support for the movement and denounced "U.S.-led wars and aggression," the Associated Press reported.
While the worldwide protests get underway, protesters at the movement's home base in Lower Manhattan said they're not done spreading the message of the so-called "99 percent."
There are two major events planned for today -- a march to Times Square and a rally at JP Morgan Chase Bank where protesters say they'll be pulling the money from their accounts and closing them all together.
Elsewhere in the country, protesters like Larry Coleman in Flint, Mich., say they're in solidarity with similar protests against corporate greed and economic injustice.