03.23.10
EMP Crazy and Ivins Denier
Maryland GOP Congressman Roscoe Bartlett has the great distinction of not only being one of the chieftains of the Cult of EMP Crazy but, now, also a member of the anthrax conspiracy club.
Aiding Rush Holt, Bartlett is a co-sponsor of a rider attached to the recent intelligence funding bill. The rider asks the administration to authorize an ‘independent investigation’ of the anthrax mailings. And the President has promised to veto the Congressional funding authorization if that rider — as well as others — are not removed.
The Frederick, MD, newspaper recently put it this way:
The administration is citing U.S. Rep. Roscoe Bartlett’s amendment to investigate the FBI’s handling of the 2001 anthrax case as one of many concerns with the bills. Bartlett is a Republican from Frederick who represents Western Maryland.
The House of Representatives adopted the anthrax amendment last month, which was proposed by Bartlett and Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., who represents the district from which the anthrax letters were mailed.
The amendment asks the intelligence community’s inspector general to look into whether intelligence suggesting foreign influence in the anthrax attacks was overlooked.
The Senate never adopted the amendment, and the investigation would not take place unless the Senate agrees to it during a conference committee to sort out the differences in the two bills.
Therefore, the possibility exists for it just to go away or be ignored, in the same way as everyone has dealt with Bartlett’s idiosyncratic — or nuts, if you like — obsession with electromagnetic pulse doom.
Nevertheless, the Frederick newspaper goes on to mention the conspiracy thought on the subject (although it does not label it as such):
FBI records, released through the Freedom of Information Act, show that employees at Fort Detrick’s U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases mention Iraq as possibly having access to the strain of anthrax used in the attacks. They also discuss foreign scientists visiting the labs, and Ivins said a number of times he thought the strain could have ended up in Britain and other countries.
Iraq. Really, now.
Science employed in the FBI anthrax investigation traced the anthrax used in the mailings to a master flask — a gold standard reservoir of spores — under the control of Bruce Ivins.
Bartlett is up for re-election in November. Removing him from Congress would be salutary, comparable to the passing of a minor kidney stone. However, despite being known for very little except a gratifyingly unsuccessful decade-long effort to protect the country from electromagnetic pulse attack, Bartlett has proven surprisingly durable.
Nevertheless, the Democratic Party will try to have him replaced this year after a number of candidates are sorted.
From a Cumberland, MD, newspaper:
A Democratic candidate for the 6th Congressional District said nine-term incumbent Roscoe Bartlett should retire.
Casey Clark, 40, of Hampstead, said someone in office as long as Bartlett “should have a stellar record.???
“I don’t know that there’s anything you can point to that Roscoe Bartlett’s done,??? Casey said. “Frankly, after 18 years, you should have a stellar record.???
The Heritage Foundation is keen on him, though.
Dick Destiny » Cult of EMP Crazy — The Congressional Nuisance said,
December 2, 2010 at 9:35 am
[…] has previously introduced legislation in an attempt to compel the intelligence community to divulge whether the anthrax mail attacks had […]