Part XXIV(C): PROJECT ANTHRAX -
SAIC, STEPHEN HATFILL & BIO-ECONOMIC
STATE TERRORISM, cont'd
By Alex Constantine
The stock market symbol for BioPort should be pi - because its corruption
goes on indefinitely, or so it seems when you sift through the records...
The Bottom Line on BioPort
The company's founder and CEO is Mr. Fuad El-Hibri, a German of Lebanese
extraction and a naturalized American citizen. In 1998, El-Hibri entered
into a leveraged buyout of the Michigan State-owned Biological Products
Institute (MBPI). The Institute held the exclusive contract on the U.S.
supply of anthrax vaccine ... and it wasn't all that effective against
the
disease, right from the start. The Wall Street Journal discovered: "While
its vaccine worked well against the Vollum strain of anthrax (used by
Russia), it was more problematic against the Ames strain. So it had
conducted tests with the virulent Ames strain on guinea pigs, mice and
monkeys with mixed results. BioPort's spokeperson confirmed that it had
access to the virulent Ames strain for testing on animals."
For the sole purpose of acquiring MBPI, El-Hibri became an American citizen.
He gave retired Admiral William J. Crowe Jr. a sizable share of Intervac,
"one of the corporations involved in the maneuver. The controlling
shareholder was the same I&F Holdings used to take control of the British
biotech lab, CAMR. He then renamed the company BioPort. BioPort, which
controlled America's anthrax vaccine, was apparently of some interest to
scientists in Afghanistan since an environmental assessment report of its
planned laboratory renovations turned up in the house of a Pakistani
scientist in Kabul..."1
Crowe made no investment in either company, but owns 22.5 percent of all
Intervac shares. Another 30 percent went to El-Hibri's wife. In 1999, ABC
reported that the remainder of the Intervace shares were "in the hands
of
I&F Holdings, a company directed by Nancy El-Hibri's father-in-law,
Ibrahim
El-Hibri, a Venezuelan citizen, and her husband, Fuad El-Hibri, a German
citizen of Lebanese descent. ... Crowe's ownership of Intervac stock gives
him a 13 percent share of Bioport."2
The company's web site displays El-Hibri's bona fidés: "Mr.
El-Hibri helped
establish regional offices in Singapore and Sydney for Booz-Allen &
Hamilton..."
Let's just pause it right there, because in 1990 Mr. El-Hibri also arranged
"the purchase of anthrax vaccine for Saudi Arabia." Did he perform
this
service for Booz-Allen, or the CIA? The well-connected security firm, to be
sure, had extensive ties to the intelligence sector, and silky Faud palaces,
too.
Students of CIA know Booz-Allen as a privatized branch of the Agency with
Saudi defense contracts worth billions. The company trained the Saudi marine
corps and operates the country's Armed Forces Staff College.3 On 14 June
2000, the Pentagon's Defense Security Cooperation Agency announced that
the
Royal Saudi Naval Forces had begun a ten year development program that drew
on the services of two American contractors - SAIC and Booz-Allen Hamilton.4
The FBI's Dale Watson was a leading "investigator" of the 1993
WTC bombing,
the Oklahoma City bombing, the East Africa Embassy bombings, Khobar Towers,
USS Cole, the September 11 attacks and the anthrax attacks before he
"retired" to work for Booz-Allen Hamilton.5 Former CIA director James
Woolsey is a vice president there.
" ... As a Senior Associate and resident project manager, Mr. El-Hibri
led
consulting projects in Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Sydney, and
Wellington. Before joining Booz-Allen, he was a manager of Citicorp in New
York (Mergers and Acquisitions) and in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia."
All of this is more than grounds for investigation - these financial bridges
to the Middle East are, in a sensible world, an argument for impeachment.
On January 26 2003, Bob Fitrakis wrote in a Nation opinion column: "Let's
recall Bush's strange relationship with that bizarre little company in
Lansing, Michigan, known as Bioport. The company, despite failing various
FDA inspections and being accused of bad record-keeping, holds the only
federal contract for producing the anthrax vaccine. Bush has rewarded
Bioport with favors such as ongoing military protection, and within weeks of
9/11 granted them a contract that tripled the price per vaccine. Now, add
into the mix that the Strangelovian CIA-connected Battelle and Britain's
top
secret Porton Down labs are partners with Bioport.... Public records and
foreign press reports have linked El-Hibri to the selling of anthrax to
Saudi Arabia after the Pentagon refused to. He's also a business associate
of the bin Laden family. A real Congressional investigation of Bush's
relationships with the bin Laden family, El-Hibri and the related drug bank
BCCI would easily lead to the President's impeachment."6
The ABC report was a horror show of rampant side-effects produced by
BioPort. Human agony was the bottom line:
----------------------
20/20 REPORT: WIDESPREAD MISTRUST
AMONG THE RANKS
PFC Matthew Baker who was stationed at Fort Stewart, Ga. went AWOL after his
first sergeant threatened to have him strapped to a gurney and forcibly
injected with the anthrax vaccine.
MAJ Sonnie Bates, USAF, one of many pilots at Dover, AFB Del. was headed for
a court martial and up to five years in prison until he went on "60 Minutes"
and told what was going on. Soon the Air Force scrapped their hard-line
tactics and Bates was allowed to leave the service.
More than a dozen members of Bates' squadron came down sick with a variety
of illnesses. Thyroid and liver damage, memory loss, bone and joint pain,
fevers, dizziness, infected cysts and lesions. The only common thread was
these maladies immediately followed anthrax injections.
In a letter to the Air Force, Bates stated his position was a matter of
principle.
"I'm doing what I've always been trained and taught to do. If you know
it's
right, you stand up for it. And likewise, if you know it's wrong, you have
to challenge it, no matter what the consequences.
"After 13 years of exemplary service to my country, I am willing to give
up
my job, my rank, and everything I have worked for to avoid taking an unsafe
drug."
Army SPC Kevin Edwards started to feel sick a few weeks after his third
anthrax shot. He nearly died. Bleeding sores covered the soldier's entire
body. Rep. Walter Jones of North Carolina said he could barely keep his
composure after seeing pictures taken of Edwards at an Army hospital. Jones
is one of three dozen congressmen calling for a halt in the forced anthrax
immunization program.
Texas Army National Guard CPT Jody Grenga, a medical operations officer with
nearly 18 years service, was kicked out of the Army for refusing the anthrax
shots on religious grounds. The highly respected officer said she also
refused the immunizations because of her medical history of adverse
reactions to medications.
PFC Jemekia Barber, an African-American Army soldier who was forced out of
the service with a less-than-honorable discharge after she refused the
shots, has filed suit in U.S. District Court in Colorado. Her lawyers
contend the mandatory shot order violated Barber's Constitutional rights.
Herbert Fenster argued that because his client is of child-bearing age,
ordering her to take the anthrax vaccine injections could subject her to
risk of bearing a child with birth defects.
Two former Connecticut Air National Guard pilots, MAJ Russell Dingle and MAJ
Thomas "Buzz" Rempfer said they concluded the Pentagon's use of the
vaccine
was illegal because of serious questions about its safety and effectiveness.
They said they were ordered not to talk to the press, but refused, and with
seven other pilots in their unit, the 103rd Fighter Wing, resigned.
More than thirty pilots and 17 KC-10 tanker crew-members at Travis AFB in
California quit rather than take the shots. So did pilots in the Wisconsin
Air National Guard. And Air Force Capt. Clifton Volpe, assigned to a VIP
transport squadron at Andrews AFB Maryland, is getting the boot for refusing
to take the controversial injections.
Perhaps the most eloquent of the military opponents of the mandatory anthrax
inoculation program is retired Air Force Lt. Col. Redmond Handy. Named the
"most outstanding officer" in 1996 by the Reserve Officers Association,
Handy was a full colonel on "the fast track to stars" when he quit
his
Pentagon job and decided to speak out. Because he didn't have the minimum
time in grade requirement as a full colonel, Handy put principle ahead of
pay and left the Air Force as a light colonel.
"It is appalling that Admiral Crowe, who was a key player in the effort
to
let all U.S. citizens sleep better at night by leading our defenders of
freedom to defeat communism, now keeps these same defenders and their
families awake at night wondering if their health will be defeated by his
company's product."
[TO BE CONTINUED]
-------------------
NOTES
1) Edward Jay Epstein, "FBI Overlooks Foreign Sources of Anthrax,"
Wall
Street Journal, December 24, 2001.
http://edwardjayepstein.com/archived/anthrax.htm
2) ABC News, 20/20 (March 12, 1999.
3) Ken Silverstein, "Privatizing War: How affairs of state are outsourced
to
corporations beyond public control," Nation, July 28, 1997.
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/silver.htm
4) GlobalSecurity.org, "Royal Saudi Naval Forces (RSNF)":
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/gulf/rsnf.htm
5) Tom Flocco, "Terrorist's Name On Manifest Raises Questions About Saudi
Flights After 9/11," Tom Flocco site, April 4, 2004:
http://www.tomflocco.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=53
6) Bob Fitrakis, Impeach Bush, Nation, January 26, 2003.