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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: FaultLine who wrote (6080)	10/18/2001 8:35:25 PM
From: RocketMan	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 281500

Baghdad had produced thousands of gallons of anthrax and as liquid, completely useless. Completely useless? I'm sure that would have been an embarassing surprise to the Soviets who brewed the stuff in ten 20-ton fermentation vats at Stepnogorsk. Do you think that the liquid form might be the raw material from which to produce the dry form? The Iraqi admission was in 1995. How much of that was already weaponized, or provided to other groups to weaponize, and how much would still be around? Here's a clip from multiple sources: Biological agents can be dispersed in liquid or dry form. The wet forumulation of anthrax is easier to make, but less potent and difficult to disperse. Using a technically intricate process, it can then be dried into a formulation that is easier to spread. (snip) Some countries are rumored to have sold anthrax, or it can be procured from a contaminated pasture. [After their arrest in Egypt in 1999, parties loyal to Osama bin Laden reported that they were able to acquire anthrax through the mail. The group in question was apparently able to purchase anthrax from an East Asian country for $3,695.] The bacteria is then replicated in a fermenter, creating a wet slurry. The potency of the material is about 10 to 15%, and it would have to be made in very large quantities to be an effective bioweapon. Using slurry, a low-tech terrorist could theoretically carry out a limited assault using a hand-held sprayer. The dried form can be up to 100% potent, yielding more casualties. But to create it is very difficult: it must be either freeze-dried using complicated, costly equipment that can handle the spores in air-tight containers, or spun through a centrifruge to separate the bacteria. After the dried anthrax is created, it then must be suspended in a medium that allows it to be kept alive and yet transmissible. The most obvious way would be to convert bacterium back into spore form, but this requires a great deal of expertise, according to scientists. Its size must also be carefully controlled. Particles must be larger than 1µm to have the mass to float in the air; particles must be smaller than 5µm to penetrate the natural defenses of the respiratory system and lodge in the lungs. (End of quotes) NONE of the anthrax examined so far has been weapons grade (genetically altered) nor milled to the 1 micron size. Weapons grade does not mean genetically altered (although that would be the most lethal type). It just has to be between 1 and 5 microns, which is my understanding of what they have found. It has been ordinary, lab grade clumped anthrax considered unsuitable for use as a weapon. Reference?