IP: Additive Made Spores Deadlier -- then there was 1

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A47864-2001Oct24.html
>
> Additive Made Spores Deadlier
>
> By Rick Weiss and Dan Eggen
>
> The anthrax spores that contaminated the Senate Majority Leader's office 
> had been treated with a chemical additive so sophisticated that only three 
> nations are thought to have been capable of making it, sources said.

<snip>

The United States, the former Soviet Union and Iraq are the only three 
nations known to have developed the kind of additives that enable anthrax 
spores to remain suspended in the air, making them more easily inhaled and 
therefore more deadly, experts said yesterday. Each nation used a different 
technique, suggesting that ongoing microscopic and chemical analyses may 
reveal more about the spores' provenance than did their genetic analysis, 
which is largely complete but reportedly has done little to narrow the field.

A government official with direct knowledge of the investigation said 
yesterday that the totality of the evidence in hand suggests that it is 
unlikely that the spores were originally produced in the former Soviet 
Union or Iraq.

[ that leaves the USA??!! djf]


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