Amazing how often that happens.

Where is ole Laura Myrolie one of Judy’s partners in crime?

A few of Juan Cole’s thoughts about Judith Miller and Laura Myrolie’s book ” Saddam Hussein and the Crisis in the Gulf”

” Journalists are often part of the political establishment themselves. Judith Miller is a Neocon who co-authored with the highly unreliable Laura Mylroie, and so was predisposed to buy the nonsense she was fed by Chalabi and his contexts. (The NYT seems to have a fair number of Neocons on its staff, for a supposedly liberal newspaper).

5) Journalism does not practice, or sometimes sufficiently respect, peer review. As editor of the International Journal of Middle East Studies for Cambridge University Press, when I receive an article on Iraq I send it out to five or so of the major experts on Iraq in universities. If they all come back and say it is weak in evidence and argument, I don’t publish it. This way of proceeding ensures that articles in my journal are solid. There is no time to referee newspaper articles, though some national magazines, like The Nation, do excellent fact checking. We can contrast academic peer review to the practice at think tanks. The American Enterprise Institute just publishes the book, without peer review. It publishes books that push or support policies to which the think tank is dedicated. This is why silly books like those of Mylroie or Khidir Hamza can see print, and sometimes even sell well. Some journalists do not know the difference between a solid book by Peter Sluglett on Iraq, published by a major academic press, and some screed put out of a Washington think tank by someone who does not know Arabic and has never been in an archive. (I hasten to add that there are lots of real intellectuals in the ranks of journalists, and there are even many former academics, who know these distinctions all too well, but I believe they are a minority). Lee Bollinger at Columbia University is thinking seriously about how this sort of problem could be solved by tinkering with the degree program in journalism there.”

1) it’s rare. The kind of psychosis he would have experienced would be extremely rare. Twice as likely for women than men, and more likely for those in low economic conditions. (neither of these traits fits Ivins).

2) There is almost always some tell tale signs of previous mental illness or undiagnosed co morbid mental illness. For late onset schizophrenia (which is highly controversial as to it’s existence and whether or notit exists) most late onset cases found undiagnosed schizoid personality traits prior to onset. (this would have likely been debilitating for him if he had this…not the guy teaching sunday school or romping with his kids playfully). Things like marriage, sunday school teacher, long term employment are not found in people with such severe mental illness that they are experiencing psychosis.

3) It is almost always accompanied by severe disorganization, debilitating and incoherent speaking and writing patterns, and the inability to care for oneself. Why would they allow him to keep his security clearance, why would they allow him to continue working?

4) According to the articles I could find he was on celexa. Celexa does not treat delusions or psychosis. It’s used for depression, and ocd, and some other stuff, but paranoia of the disruptive level he describes in his e-mails does not seem to fit for celexa. Why were they not medicating his severe paranoia? Why wasn’t he being treated with resperidol, or lithium or an antipsychotic OR an anti seizure med if he had manic psychosis?

4) There is a quote from one of his e-mails that describes that he “knows” he is experiencing paranoia. He states that this is what really scares him. On June 27, 2000, Ivins wrote in an e-mail to a friend: “Even with the Celexa and the counseling, the depression episodes still come and go. That’s unpleasant enough. What is REALLY scary is the paranoia.” Now, I know that some folks KNOW when they are paranoid, but my experience is that those who know are much less likely to be “acting out” on those thoughts. It makes sense really. But most of my paranoid clients don’t believe they are really paranoid. They truly believe that others are out to get them, and can be dangerous because they feel they are defending themselves by acting out.

5) His behavior does fit alcoholism. There could be mood swings, grandiosity, and paranoia. There could be psychosis. However, we would see that while he was abstinent from alcohol for 30 days or more, he would have gotten some relief from this symptoms unless he had a comorbid disorder (that would have likely been present from early adulthood on).

I am not saying that it’s impossible, but the severity of his break down, so late in life, with such extreme paranoia and the fact that so many people who were close to him did NOT see this behavior throughout his life seems rare. All the reports I could find on his problems suggested that the break downs began in 2000. AT the very least he was well enough to be able to “fool” at least some people in to thinking he was “fine” (that takes some level of mental health) The articles often explained this as a “long” history of mental illness. I don’t know who is telling them this. A couple years doesn’t seem “long” to me, if put in the perspective of a lifetime of fairly normal mental health. (and given that he is probably more successful, economically stable, and socially connected that most people suffering mental illness of the caliber described).

This has made me wonder if it’s possible that they were giving him lsd without his knowledge and that he thought he was going insane. I know tin foil hat here…but it’s not like there aren’t some facts to suggest that this is “plausible”. Maybe no facts to support that it happened or didn’t happen, but to me, this fits his pattern of behavior better than the mental health descriptions.

These are some of the articles I read…it is difficult to find much on psychotic mood disorders that does not end up lapsing into discussion about schizophrenia, of which, he does not meet an “average” profile.

http://www.acnp.org/g4/GN401000138/CH135.html

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/…..-usju.html

http://www.medicinenet.com/citalopram/article.htm

http://emedicine.medscape.com/…..6-overview

An investigation was launched that exposed the shockingly lax security measures at the lab, and raised the possibility that some specimens may never have been entered in lab records. Also uncovered was a tape from a surveillance camera showing the entry of an unauthorized person into the lab, at 8:40, on January 23, 1992, let in by Dr. Marian Rippy, lab pathologist. The night visitor was Lt. Col. Philip Zack, a former employee who had left as a result of a dispute with the lab over his alleged harassment of Dr. Assaad. The Courant reports:

“Zack left Fort Detrick in December 1991, after a controversy over allegations of unprofessional behavior by Zack, Rippy, [lab technician Charles] Brown and others who worked in the pathology division. They had formed a clique that was accused of harassing the Egyptian-born Assaad, who later sued the Army, claiming discrimination.”

THE KAMEL KLUB KIDS

According to Assaad, in the week before Easter 1991, he found a poem in his mailbox, described in another Courant story:

“The poem, which became a court exhibit, has 235 lines, many of them lewd, mocking Assaad. The poem also refers to another creation of the scientists who wrote it — a rubber camel outfitted with sexually explicit appendages. The poem reads: ‘In (Assaad’s) honor we created this beast; it represents life lower than yeast.’ The camel, it notes, each week will be given ‘to who did the least.’ The poem also doubles as an ode to each of the participants who adorned the camel, who number at least six and referred to themselves as ‘the camel club.’ Two — Dr. Philip Zack and Dr. Marian Rippy — voluntarily left Fort Detrick soon after Assaad brought the poem to the attention of supervisors.”

Charming, eh? This kind of organized harassment has an ideological edge to it not completely attributable to personal antipathy, and seems politically inspired, a possibility that is intriguing given the political repercussions of the anthrax scare.

http://www.antiwar.com/justin/j022202.html

THE 9/11 ANTHRAX FRAME-UP

http://whatreallyhappened.com/…..ameup.html

http://whatreallyhappened.com/…..spect.html

http://wweek.com/html/science010301.html

Here’s the photo.

It certainly looks like he’s being dumb. I’ll tell you that whenever we have a photographer in the lab, we tend to do silly things for them so that they can get their shot, so the only other thing I’d wonder is whether or not he’s really looking at anthrax, as opposed to sterile media plates. Even so, it’s pretty stupid to handle things in an anthrax lab without wearing gloves. Still, I’m not sure how you get from “pretty stupid” to “evil genius who single-handedly masterminded the anthrax attacks”.

April 21, 2004
fictional TV show West Wing airs episode 19 of Season 5: “Talking Points” during which the White House biohazard alarm is tripped. After lock down ends, some people are told it was just a drill, the president is told it was real.

July 21, 2004
Bush signs Project Bioshield Act of 2004
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news…..721-2.html

October 2004
There is an inexplicable world-wide flu vaccine shortage. Chiron’s English supplier is told it has tainted vaccine and cannot be used. Flu shots are rationed to Americans.

Question abound. How could this happen? I want my flu shot!
Devon Herrick from the National Center for Policy Analysis states (October 28, 2004) the answer to preventing a recurrence of such a shortage is making vaccine production profitable again. (Bad, Hillary! She had the US government buy childhood vaccines at a discount. No profit margins).

Herrick’s solution: remove government regulation of vaccine manufacturers, prevent government discount purchases of vaccine (bad, Hillary!), and bring tort reform in order to protect the drug companies from liability if their vaccines cause harm.

Hmm, “deregulation.” I wonder if that would work?
I won’t try to guess Herrick’s political affiliation. Hope his 401K is sitting safe and healthy in the deregulated marketplace. http://www.ncpa.org/pub/ba/ba493/