Is there a threat ? 

- by John Richardson

In order to justify the current anthrax vaccine, the DOD and it's subordinate military branches of the armed forces must present and defend to U.S. soldiers that there is in fact a threat of an anthrax attack. The threat has been vastly overstated, and can be disproved by the following government reports. These reports are comprised of collected CIA documents recently released, as well as government GAO reports, also recently released to the public.

 In a recent CIA report the following findings were made about Iraq, our current theatre of operations in a combat environment:

• In practical terms, with the destruction of the Al Hakam facility, Iraq abandoned its ambition to obtain advanced BW weapons quickly. ISG found no direct evidence that Iraq, after 1996, had plans for a new BW program or was conducting BW-specific work for military purposes. Indeed, from the mid-1990s, despite evidence of continuing interest in nuclear and chemical weapons, there appears to be a complete absence of discussion or even interest in BW at the Presidential level.
• Iraq would have faced great difficulty in re-establishing an effective BW agent production capability. Nevertheless, after 1996 Iraq still had a significant dual-use capability "some declared" readily useful for BW if the Regime chose to use it to pursue a BW program. Moreover, Iraq still possessed its most important BW asset, the scientific know-how of its BW cadre.
•  ISG is aware of BW-applicable research since 1996, but ISG judges it was not conducted in connection with a BW program.
• In spite of exhaustive investigation, ISG found no evidence that Iraq possessed, or was developing BW agent production systems mounted on road vehicles or railway wagons.

To view the CIA document in it's entirety, please click here (you will need Adobe's acrobat reader to view this document).

• "The nature and magnitude of the anthrax threat has been stable since 1990 and has not changed materially in terms of the number of countries suspected of developing a BW capability, the types of biological agents they possess, or their ability to weaponize and deliver such agents." See: Anthrax Vaccine: GAO's Survey of Guard and Reserve Pilots and Aircrew, GAO-02-445 (October 23, 2002).
  (http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d02445.pdf)

• "The nature and magnitude of the military threat of biological warfare (BW) has not changed since 1990, both in terms of the number of countries suspected of developing BW capability, the types of BW agents they possess, and their ability to weaponize and deliver those BW agents." See Medical Readiness: Safety and Efficacy of the Anthrax Vaccine, T-NSIAD-99-148 (April 29, 1999). (http://www.gao.gov/archive/1999/ns99148t.pdf)

To view the GAO document entitled "DIFFUSE SECURITY THREATS -- Information on U.S. Domestic Anthrax Attacks" Please click here. (You will need Adobe's acrobat reader to view this document.)

Ray McGovern, who was in the CIA for twenty seven years asked him why he lied about the run-up to the Iraq war. Rumsfeld then proceeded to lie to McGovern to cover up his earlier statements about WMD's being in Iraq. He also tries to use the troops in his defense, a terrible strategy, but not uncommon unfortunately. Notice, at the end of the clip, Ray gets vilified for asking Rumsfeld some pointed questions. We can't have that, no-no-no.