Word: labs
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...that scientists at the Institute for Genomic Research in Maryland were close to making a genetic fingerprint of the anthrax powder; the reopening of the freshly decontaminated Hart Senate Office Building--USAMRIID itself was under attack. The Army was scrambling last week to answer charges that controls inside the lab over the past decade were at best lax and at worst scandalous. The reports added support to a growing suspicion that whoever sent the anthrax letters may have had strong ties to USAMRIID or may even have worked there in the past...
...clear from the same documents that discipline and morale at the lab in the early 1990s were a mess. USAMRIID at the time was roiled by alleged racial and sexual harassment, factions warring over the lab's leadership, accusations of incompetence and even theft of research. One particularly nasty clique formed a "Camel Club," whose symbol was a toy camel outfitted with outsize sex organs and whose members wrote lewd limericks mocking co-workers and sponsored notorious hot-tub parties. In short, USAMRIID had become a breeding ground of resentment and hateful high jinks...
...while he admits that there were problems at USAMRIID in the past, Colonel Edward Eitzen, the lab commander, says the allegations of easy access to toxins and lax security are grossly exaggerated. "It would be very difficult to stop a determined insider from removing samples even if you were stopping everybody on their way out," he concedes. But, he says, "even prior to 9/11, we were as good or better than any other laboratory in terms of our security and our safety." Of the 27 missing samples, 26 have been tracked down, he maintains, and in any case, they...
Assaad's troubles, though, didn't stop with his departure from the lab. In late September, he was the subject of an anonymous letter that was forwarded to the FBI. The note had highly specific details about Assaad and claimed he was preparing a biological attack. It was sent before the first anthrax case broke...
...analysis she has prepared a profile of the killer far more detailed than anything the FBI has released. She thinks the killer is a middle-aged American who works for a CIA contractor in the Washington area but has had access in the past to the labs at Fort Detrick. She believes he or she has been vaccinated against anthrax and knows how to conceal forensic evidence. Says Rosenberg: "It's highly probable that the perpetrator is someone who was known in the lab, someone who was thought to be O.K." Based on the composition of the anthrax, she thinks...