KLAS-TV Channel 8 News Las VegasFBI Investigating Anthrax, Utah Army Base Connection

FBI Investigating Anthrax, Utah Army Base Connection

(Dec. 14) -- The FBI confirms agents are investigating a possible link between a U.S. Army lab in neighboring Utah and the anthrax spores that have killed five people. Stories about anthrax at the Dugway Proving Grounds in Utah are now making national news around the country, but the Channel 8 I-team reported about this possible connection last month.

We take no pleasure in saying "we told you so," but it now appears the FBI is zeroing in on the source of the anthrax that's been mailed out across the country, and it's entirely possible that the Army base at Dugway is involved in some way.

When we were in Utah last month, we were detained twice and were threatened with arrest while trying to get video of the Dugway facilities. Perhaps we now know why the Army was so jittery.

Military watchdogs say it's been tough over the years getting a straight story out of the Army's Dugway Proving Grounds. The sprawling facility has been home to open air testing of the worst poisons known to man and nature. In the late '60s, thousands of sheep around the base died horrible deaths after being exposed to nerve agents. For 30 years, the Army denied any involvement -- even after it paid off the ranchers.

Inside the secret labs at Dugway is a deep-freeze treasure trove of deadly agents, dubbed Pandora’s Icebox. Military watchdog Steve Erickson says: "Anthrax? Yes. Black plague? Yes, and many others. Fever. Lots of fever."

The FBI confirms that its agents are inside Dugway, interviewing Army scientists about their stash of anthrax. The army has now admitted that, contrary to earlier statements, it still makes anthrax at Dugway, including weapons-grade anthrax, milled into a fine powder, and virtually identical to that which was sent to members of Congress. A comparison of Dugway anthrax to that in the congressional letters found 50 out of 50 identical genetic markers. And the FBI now knows Dugway has frequently transported its anthrax to other facilities around the country, meaning many other persons could have gained access to it.

The Army says all of the anthrax at Dugway is accounted for, but those most familiar with the base have reason to be skeptical. In a phone interview, Steve Erickson said: “Dugway has assured us over the years they do not manufacture or produce pathogens like anthrax. This looks pretty contradictory. They have, in fact, cultured anthrax for their own use. ... In the end, it's critical there be some independent oversight of facilities like this; they can't simply be allowed to operate in complete secrecy."

The FBI says it will be at Dugway “for awhile” but the feds emphasized they are also looking at other American labs that might have had access to anthrax.

The production of weapons grade anthrax at an Army lab is a huge issue for another reason: At face value, it seems to come very close to violating international treaties that ban the production of such agents. The Army says it can account for all of the anthrax it had at Dugway. But is there any information to back that up?

There is information to the contrary: The Washington Post says it has obtained records showing discrepancies between what Dugway shipped out and what it got back.

In light of all the bad stuff put into the ecosystem at Dugway, it would be an interesting case of biochemical karma if it turned out the killer anthrax could be linked to material that our own government had produced.

Related Links:

New Method in Fumigating Anthrax
Scientists Testing Chlorine Dioxide, Hope It Can Be Used on Hart Office Building
By Guy Gugliotta and Joby Warrick, Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, Nov. 2, 2001

Germs on the loose:
Bioweapons tests tainted sites around the globe. Will the mess ever be cleaned up?
(Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: March/April 2001: Vol. 57, No. 2, pp. 57-61)
...Excerpt: "All U.S. field test sites were abandoned at the end of the war—with the exception of Dugway Proving Ground in Utah. From 1951 to 1969, hundreds, if not thousands, of open-air germ warfare tests were conducted at Dugway on human volunteers and animal test subjects.11 Many of the aerosol dispersal tests during the Cold War introduced non-indigenous diseases (or increased the geographic range of indigenous diseases) to Utah and surrounding states, including encephalomyelitis, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, psittacosis, Q fever, anthrax, brucellosis, plague, tularemia, and hydatid disease, all of which are now considered endemic among the native wildlife. In 1959 and 1960 an epidemic of Q fever was found among Utah desert wildlife, but it is not known whether the disease was a result of Dugway’s human and animal field trials, which began in the early 1950s. The Utah Health Department has also reported cases of Q fever among humans—all subsequent to the 1955 human and animal field tests and releases at Dugway."

All About Anthrax -- Everything you didn't want to know . . .
by David Tell
10/29/2001, Volume 007, Issue 07

Army Takes 30 Years To Admit to Nerve Gas Sheep Death
by Chip Ward, West Desert HEAL (CWWG: Chemical Weapons Working Group)

Information About Anthrax and Bioterrorism
CDC: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

The Terror at Home: from Salon.com
By Jeff Stein
The arrest of two men in Las Vegas on charges of carrying stocks of the anthrax virus highlights how easy it is to make weapons of mass destruction. And to some terrorism experts, that's a lot scarier than Saddam Hussein.