This allusion in the article in WaPo reminds me of biotech copyright litigation misdirection. Which is to say, the legal and technical people reading that broad statement interpret it significantly differently from the vernacular reading of its meaning. The International Standards Organization, and standalone labs similarly, have procedure definitions intended to control for aberrant ‘discoveries’ and processes outside the normal handling methods. Tangentially, re: the Judy branch, given her prominent work in reporting in the specialized field, and her dashing to NYT with breathless prose about ostensible discoveries after the invasion, her own poison letter event may have completely different motivation and sources. One obvious difference, being her polity as widely divergent from the other targets. Local media throughout the US were reporting powders scares in the same timeframe.

It would be worthwhile to elaborate more about what kind of mistaken entries were found in lab notes, and to trace the authorship of subsequent edits. WaPo’s story attempts to image what it considers the important variables in the narrative, yet, all emerge into the light of journalism with plausibly still hidden wrinkles, much of the data still inaccessible to media. One positive note might be the FBI nanotech forensics developed in the investigation, a concept I am not sure I buy, would be useful in support of efforts by arms control organizations. What I see in the WaPo article is little of new technical substance, but considerable promise for enhancing FBI’s utility in controlling a dangerous form of wmds.

But I daresay it’s safe to conclude that some one is – or ones are – concerned that some time following Nov 4 some of those barriers should come down, and there will be found his picture, right at the critical intersection, white gloves on and directing traffic.

Perhaps Judy was given a private look at the gloves.

And that includes the hedge funds.

We already know that Rumsfeld made a small fortune off Cipro (the antidote of choice for anthrax – remember how panicked people were all stocking up on it?). Let’s see who else did well by themselves while in government service.