[Main Index]

07/13/2002 Entry: "Leading Suspect in Anthrax Letters was Key Insider"



Leading Suspect in Anthrax Letters Proposed Massive Network of "Body Trains"
The Disaster Train's Comming
by Voxfux

biohazard


Prominent government insider Dr. Steven Hatfill (Former Special Forces, International Paramilitary soldier of fortune, National Institute of Health official and leading bioterrorism expert) the leading suspect in the anthrax letters was part of a group that included, defense heavyweights: Defense Week, Northrop Grumman, and the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, where a plan was hatched envisioning a massive multi billion dollar network of rolling human body processing railroad cars which, in the event of an anthrax attack, could criss cross the nation, each train capable of embalming and body-bagging up to 800 persons per hour.

In a conference in June 1998, Think Tankers, Defense Contractors, Lobbyists, military officials and Dr. Hatfill met. Hatfill spoke of contacts with Northrop Grumman to build a nationwide network of rail cars specifically dealing with the massive numbers of casualties associated with a widespread Anthrax attack. It is unclear just how deeply "in contact" Hatfill was with Northrop/Grumman.

The conference was cosponsored with George Washington University (for credibility). A few defense "News" insiders were there planting questions, writing press releases. The prominent government scientist, Hatfill, provided the expertise (Hatfill has a reference to child development issues in his title - a nice touch) The questions get asked and the plan gets put into the semiosphere. Then the minutes get written up and the lobbyists take over. It's the same story with each and every defense contract. (The organizating principle for a society is in its ability to make war) All over Washington similar power plays are going on every day. This play was staged by The Potomac Institute for Policy Studies and GWU. As you read the (Tran)script Know that it is a script. See all the players sitting in their seats and speaking their parts. Try to figure out who the players are. (Hint: pay attention to the guys from Defense Week and Defense News, the good doctor, and some military folks)

And then feel the chill in your spine when your hear the Good Doctor describe the details of his proposal.

Here it is, hope you enjoy:

Source:
http://www.potomacinstitute.org/pubs/bt2proc.pdf target="blank"



http://cryptome.org/is-z-hatfill.htm target="blank"





Emerging Threats of Biological Terrorism: Recent Developments


Co-Sponsored by The Terrorism Studies Program at The George Washington University


and

The Potomac Institute for Policy Studies


June 16, 1998





[Excerpts, pp. 38-49]


The Disaster Train



PROF. BRENNER: We'll now hear from Dr. Steven J. Hatfill. He's been connected
with the National Institutes for Health for some time, working on child health
development and the laboratory for cellular and molecular biophysics. He's
a medical doctor with certification in hematology and pathology. He has a
Ph.D. degree in molecular cell biology. He has a diploma in aviation medicine.
He has a diploma in diving and submarine medicine. He has served with the
U.S. Army Special Forces. He was on a 14-month duty as medical officer and
science team leader at the Antarctic research station. He also conducted
research while there for the NASA Johnson Space Center Solar System Exploration
Division. He's been involved in research involving serious problems such
as Lyme disease, Ebola and the Marburg virus. Dr. Hatfill.


[Slides cited were not in the original.]


DR. HATFILL: We've heard the threat today from Dr. Alibek, Dr. Patrick, and
Dr. Huggins for biological threats of biological terrorism. We've heard
conventional countermeasures. We've heard of a number of programs of advanced
countermeasures. It now becomes necessary to discuss worst-case scenarios
and that concerns ways of management, or possible ways of management, of
large areas covered by biological agent.


I've been working with Brigadier General [sic] Third Army Medical
Command in the United States Army Reserve to try to develop a system for
flexible and rapid transportation of mass casualties from a contaminated
area to a rear area while maintaining life support and critical care functions
for the casualties.


When we're dealing with a large area of coverage event, this can be exceedingly
complex. A single area of a city may be affected or multiple areas of the
city at the same time or closely thereafter, and terrorists may be involved
with both chemical weapon release as well as with the biological agent.


One of the most dramatic open source experiments that have been described
for a large area of coverage occurred on September 21, 1950, where a naval
vessel did an open air simulation test releasing spores of the same size
and weight as anthrax, but nonpathogenic to humans, over the city of San
Francisco. This was conducted off a naval vessel two miles offshore and the
results are illustrated in this diagram. Had this occurred with actual anthrax,
there's a possibility that several hundred thousand people could have contracted
a fatal pulmonary infection.


These types of dispersal scenarios in the most part are covert. There's no
indication that a biological agent release has occurred until the incubation
period for the particular disease has expired. This is a typical case history.
An emergency department, normal operations and patients begin to appear.
The terrorist event has occurred the week before. The incubation period for
the agent is now open and these previously healthy individuals start coming
in requiring rapid intensive care including mechanical life support, mechanical
ventilation.


The situation of a large area of release in many ways would resemble a modern
battlefield, disrupted lines of communication, poor coordination. Any changes
that were apparent in peacetime would tend to be amplified during their affect
during the natural biological agent pattern.


Consequently it is illustrative to look at how massive casualties have been
handled on the battlefield before. In the 1850s, we saw the first large-scale
systematic development of ways of transporting casualties from a high
concentration on the battlefield to a low concentration in rural areas. This
was during the Crimean War. The British Army instituted an eight-mile railway
line during this conflict. This was also the time when the Florence Nightingale
nurses came into effect in the first early field ambulances.


This concept became so effective that by the early 1900s during the Boer
War in South Africa, the British army had prepositioned a number of specialized
hospital trains all along the areas of fighting. Each of these passenger
cars has been converted to handle up to 25 stretcher cases, and these were
prepositioned along different areas of the conflict. Patients were brought
to these trains and taken to various treatment centers.


The concept was further developed and by the onset of World War I, was in
a highly effective manner. Patients could be taken directly from the trenches
in the battlefields moved by an organized ambulance system, and deposited
in what had now become hospital trains.


Some of these cars contain surgery units or supporting care to stop bleeding,
regain respiration, and resuscitate the patient. There were also provisions
for walking cases and for other casualties. The system was so effective that
during the four days of the battle of the Somme, there were 13,392 cases
that were transported from the front-line battlefields to rural hospital
areas in France.


Special frames were developed to cushion the patients as they rode on the
trains. This is one of the first hospital trains in operation.


By World War II, a number of trains were in operation both on the battlefront
and for cities, because of advances in air power, cities now became a target,
specifically London. Hospital trains were used to evacuate thousands of
casualties from London hospitals to outlying areas, in addition to receiving
casualties from across the channel and redistributing it within the country.


This is an interior of one of these trains. It's a three-tiered system to
provide adequate access to the patients for their transportation.


This was even continued up until the 1950s with the British Army of the Rhine.
This was the advent of federal medical transportation medication; the hospital
trains went into disuse. At this time there's only one in use in England
which is used by a reserve army medical unit.


With a biological attack, these patients are going to require even more intensive
care than trauma management. This is a slide of inhalational anthrax. We
only have a few hours once predominantly respiratory symptoms develop. The
patient needs to be intubated; they need to be mechanically ventilated. Their
blood pressure needs to be supported with medications.


Some cutaneous cases may appear. This is cutaneous anthrax, the vegetative
bacteria multiplying in the blood stream and the tissues release a number
of toxins, with a massive edema, malignant edema.


Over 50 percent of those exposed to the agent plume end up with inhalation
anthrax. Over 50 percent of the inhalation anthrax develop cases associated
with hemorrhagic meningitis. This is the membrane covering the brain. A great
deal of these patients will be brought in as casualties probably all having
epileptic fits. Surrounding area and surface contamination is possible as
well as intestinal cases may appear. This is hemorrhagic infection of the
lymph nodes and intestines and a small destruction section of the bowel through
disruption of his blood supply.


Until recently, the medical trains would not have been sufficient for the
mass evacuation of casualties from a high concentration attack area to rear
definitive area treatments. Recently, Northrop Grumman has come out with
a specialized stretcher. This is called LSTT stretcher. It stands for Life
Support and Trauma Transport. Essentially, this is a self-contained unit
with a giant ventilator I.V. fluid infusion pump and with full monitoring
capability. Patients put on the stretcher can be intubated, stabilized, and
transferred.


The second concept that's become important is that of intermodal transportation.
This is the use of containers of goods or contents by a variety of different
methods.


This can be by land, air, and sea in standardized containers. There's a whole
subsection of the container transport industry, and they will make containers
how you want. If you want a bathroom in it, they'll put a bathroom in it.
If you want it a certain size, they'll construct it a certain size, economically
and standardized. There are some methods for unaccompanied freight, and at
the bottom slide you can actually have these on lorries, semi-trailer trucks,
that are driven on and then off again.


By combining the systems, it becomes possible to design a disaster car, a
disaster evacuation train. The train would look something like this. Head
cars are the ones that stay with the containers. They transport the rest
of the train. This is a locomotive, a container for medical personnel. Bulk
stores, which could feature antibiotic stores or injectors with deployable
vaccination stations. And a staff and manned control communications and
intelligence sections.


The staff car could act as the nucleus of a command center to coordinate
effectively with first responders.


For a proper coordinated response, it's envisioned that the first responders,
the fire, police, and ambulances need to be connected with military resources,
with government and state resources, and with satellite.


Currently, a piece of technology called the alert system has been developed
by the Texas Department of Transportation. Essentially, this is a laptop
computer built into the trunk of a patrol car. It's digital and operating
on the mobile system. Already digital images have been transmitted from a
patrol car in Florida to a patrol car in Alexandria. This allows some
interoperatability between all first response vehicles.


By linking into the Internet, a commonality can be provided. A previous mass
casualty or possible mass casualty incident such as the World Trade Center
or Oklahoma City bombing shows that the cellular system tends to go down
right after an accident. Everybody's trying to log on and use it, and the
system collapses. The train would carry a useful piece of technology with
it. Manufactured by Celltel, this is a mobile system. Unless you have a chip
for your cell phone, you cannot talk.


This entire system provides a satellite link to other federal responders
in transit to the site as well as coordinating local first responders. This
will cover about a 60-mile radius.


Maps of each area can be used so all response forces are clearly in contact
with each other. You can play road status, you can put meteorological and
weather information on these maps and GPS coordinates are part of the alert
system.


Defense Special Weapons Agency have an enormous amount of experience modeling
downwind areas. They have computer programs that can model fairly quickly
possible downwind affected areas.


The second section of the train would be the intensive care patient cars.
The intensive care ward coaches would be specially built containers with
a shock absorbing system able to handle the LSTT stretchers. It can be mounted
on lorries or it can be driven on and off with a semi-attached tractor-trailer.
Patients would be brought from out of the WMD site on the LSTT stretchers.
They would then be loaded into these special containers. A center monitoring
station, this has already been designed, and one doctor and five or six orderlies
could effectively monitor 40 or 50 patients. These things can be driven off
or taken straight to the facility.


The last portion of the disaster train would consist of cutout cars. These
would be left on-site. It features a security element, another command control,
communications information element, ambulance trucks with the LSTT stretchers
already loaded that can drive into the site and bring the patients back to
the side of the train and a deployable field hospital.


The inside of these hospital cars can be made to different sizes. Along with
this comes a mortuary embalming station. This was originally developed by
Arms Corps in South Africa with the concept that patients are embalmed onsite.
This negates mass burials or graves. The remains are preserved. It can handle
800 bodies an hour. The bodies are embalmed, put into body bags, and stored
at room temperature for later burial when the incident is over.


The system would work like this: If these trains are placed -- and we'll
estimate you'll need somewhere around 27 trains to cover the United States
-- but if all other traffic is cleared off of the rails, you'll be no more
than four to six hours rail travel to a major metropolitan area.


Notification. We are estimating this will be the Reserves or the National
Guard handling these trains. The train would travel to the disaster site
to a predetermined spot. It will be loaded. Ambulances and a helipad will
be set up back on the train, and an on-site army field site hospital would
be deployed. The patients would be brought out on the LSTT stretchers and
then loaded onto the train. From there, the train would leave full.


This is an artist's conception of such an incident. This deploying field
hospital is covered with a charcoal and peroxide blanket. Patients are brought
out of the area by air or by ambulances on the train on the LSTT stretchers.
These can be at a positive pressure or negative pressure. We show the assistants
here in Level A gear because a chemical attack could have occurred at the
same time, and the patient is loaded onto the containers and we distribute
it out of the incident site.


The disaster train concept could provide a number of things. The ability
to rapidly transport large quantities of antibiotics, vaccines, personnel
and protective equipment to a WMD site within a matter of hours, the ability
to rapidly transform sitting stretcher and critical care patients on life
support from congested nonfunctional hospital areas to health care facilities
outside of the target area.


And this response capability would be independent of normal road transportation.
Some scenarios suggest that with a large area of coverage, one third of the
population may attempt to flee the city. This could mean both sides of the
beltway congested. Bringing these medical facilities in by train, that avoids
this traffic jam. The country could be at war at the same time. There could
be limited air assets. It provides, above all, a starting point to coordinate
other federal response forces. Thank you very much.


Questions and Answers


PROF. BRENNER: We now commence the discussion period.


Q. My question is to the last gentleman. I'm Dave Ruppe with Defense
Week
. How much would this concept that you just described cost for the
U.S. to place, and also a more general question for the three of you: Who
exactly, what agency is in charge of developing or is currently advocating
organizing civilian research and development and equipment purchasing efforts,
all of that? I see the military has several agencies doing it for that side,
but who's actually responsible on the civilian side?


DR. HATFILL: Answer to the first part of your question, we've had some talks
with Northrop Grumman, and we estimate that each train would cost approximately
half that of an F-14 jet fighter. For two squadrons of fighters, it would
cover 27 cities. We'll have 27 trains which would cover a number of cities.
It would be state-based. Each train would be responsible for four or five
metropolitan areas.


[Q&A provided only for the disaster train and Dr. Hatfill's
comments.]


PROF. BRENNER: Other questions. I'll ask one of Dr. Hatfill. Can you give
us an explanation of what kind of chain of command we're looking at for these
27 trains? Who do the people report to and who controls them and what's the
organization structure? Is it civilian, military or hybrid?


DR. HATFILL: It would be hybrid with some qualifications on that. The DOD
seems intent in involving the National Guard in that with respect to the
rapid assessment teams. A pre-placed train on a siding would be an ideal
place for these RAID teams to operate from. You can move three people very
rapidly anywhere and in the midst of a WMD crisis in one of our metropolitan
areas, it would be useful if the top three people of the RAID team could
advise, see what the first responders are doing, is there a need for follow-on
forces, is there a need for greater federal intervention and this -- you're
not going to do too much with 22 men in a WMD incident. If it's a small-scale
event, local authorities should be able to handle it. If it's a large-area
coverage, these RAID teams would be trained in NBC reconnaissance detection
and could very rapidly call the disaster train in as a follow-on force.


PROF. BRENNER: Do we have additional questions or comments?


Q. Yes, David Mahoney with Defense News. I have a question. At certain
levels it seems with different asymmetric threats, bioterrorism, obviously,
being one of them, at what level is there a breakdown between sort of the
traditional way the military has looked at threats as over there somewhere
before it's projected to start being threats where we really have to start
worrying about a mix between civil defense as an aspect of military defense
against outside aggression? I'd like to open this up to any of the panelists
who spoke today.


DR. HATFILL: We are living as a species at this time in population densities
that have never ever been seen before. This brings in the concept of emerging
diseases. We're seeing on the average every two to three years one new pathogen
we never really recognized before or a variant strain of a known pathogen.
And as we live in these terribly increased densities, which are projected
to increase even further in the next century, the whole concept of the emerging
infectious disease becomes a major public health problem. Anything that we
spend on biological weapons defense can have direct transference to the concept
of public health and infectious disease management.


PROF. BRENNER: Additional comments.


Q. Yes. Captain Lisa Forsythe, U.S. Army. My question is for any of the
panelists. Have you analyzed our existing plan such as the Federal Response
Plan and how the Emergency Support Functions and those Lead Federal Agencies
such as the Department of Transportation has an ESF leadership role and how
DOD fits into our current plans and how we support those plans, not necessarily
DOD taking a lead such as the railroad system but actually supporting Department
of Transportation in those leadership roles that have already been established?


DR. HATFILL: The National Security Council has formulated an interagency
working group to address these problems. When is the handoff from FBI to
FEMA? How will federal assets coordinate with state and local -- there is
a working group at present working on this.

VOXFUX ANNOTATION: He's been doing alot of research on the Ebola virus lately. Hope he wasn't stashing any of that stuff. One of hatfill's select fear bombs that he dropped at the conference was how there were new strains of viruses appearing every day. (I wonder how?) and that unless we prepared ourselves with this multibillion dollar defense contract.. er.. I mean, Disaster Train, that the inevitable was going to happen... and soon. (apparantly not sooon enough for him) Voxfux will update this story as it develops.

Viewer Commentary: 6 comments


It's very good connections you are bringing here. Their Body Train dovetails quite neatly to these forces propensity for eugenics. As we know the Bush history is replete with associations to groups fanatically linked with the eugenics movement. Bushes, Rockefella's others.

Posted by Franz Swiekert @ 07/17/2002 05:28 PM EST


A torough read of the transcript does indeed have the appearance of a setup. I mean all th epolicy questions are there, the credibilitty is lined up. THE FINANTIAL component is right there in your face.

Thanks very much for finding these documents and sharing them with the people. I doubt there are many in America who have the prerequisites necessary to process such information, but for those who do, we salute you.

Thanks voxfux

Posted by Cary Leonard @ 07/18/2002 01:49 PM EST


There is a certain personality trait that exists in nearly all people. Anthrax carries within it the power to kill, the power to strike fer into mass populations, and most of all the power to funnel the capital of the US treasury into stratospheric escalations of useless defense systems. All that's needed is a little priming of the pump so to speak.

Posted by IntelQ @ 07/19/2002 01:57 AM EST


Massive Military contractors like Grumman Northrop simply need to produce more weapons of war. We reach a saturation point and there needs to be a war so that we can test our weapons in a real theatre. Since there are no longer any credible enemies anymore, the threat turns inward. The enemy becomes within, necessitating long protracted struggles with our own population. The next 10 years will consist of our own people feeding off of and attacking their fellow people. Sept 11th was the opening salve. The anthrax letters was the second salvo, the dirty bomb will almost assuredly be the next.

We are witnessing the implosion of capitalism.

Posted by Man on the Moon @ 07/20/2002 12:38 PM EST


ABORT THE FOURTH REICH!!!

Posted by Geronimo Skull @ 07/21/2002 03:35 PM EST


Hatfill's boss says Hatfill isn't the Anthrax suspect.

We knew that all along. Hatfill was tossed out to take the heat off of the real suspect, Dr. Philip Zack, who is not an Arab but that-nationality-which-may-not-be-named.

http://www.sunspot.net/bal-te.hatfill18jul18.story

http://www.vaticanassassins.org/anthrax.htm

Posted by Lee Harvey Pitt @ 07/21/2002 07:36 PM EST

Powered By voxfux