The Command Post - Global War On Terror - "U.S. disputes Brazil ‘anthrax’ case"

April 29, 2003

"U.S. disputes Brazil ‘anthrax’ case"

From this:

— Federal officials in the United States dismissed a report from Brasilia on Monday that suggested a bioterrorism case had been uncovered... U.S. sources told NBC that the case appeared instead to involve drug smuggling... U.S. officials told NBC the case had nothing to do with anthrax but did not explain the death of Ibrahim... Ibrahim died in the hotel were he was staying on April 11. Several health workers who found his body were taken to a hospital after becoming ill but are now out of danger.

See the earlier post "Egyptian sailor dies in Brazil from anthrax-police" for more information.

UPDATE: Apparently he didn't die from anthrax: "Bob Fowler, regional director general of Health Canada Atlantic, said today that anthrax has been ruled out as the cause of the sailor's death... "The crewman did not, and I repeat did not, die from anthrax," he said during a news conference."

As to why the Wadi al Arab received attention in Brownsville, TX, that remains to be determined.

Posted by Lonewacko at April 29, 2003 01:19 PM | TrackBack

Comments

"Sources say..."

His cause of death sounds, AFAIK, consistent with anthrax, and if this is just drugs, why did the health workers get sick? Drug dust in the air of his hotel room? And, why was attention being paid to the Wadi al Arab two months prior in Brownsville TX?

Posted by: Lonewacko at April 29, 2003 01:24 PM

The problem is that 'Federal officials' tell us little.
We are still watching reporters wade around in
Iraqi offices picking up Top Secret documents.
The best one can hope for is that the CIA is responsible for dumping them there in the first place.

Posted by: Fred at April 29, 2003 02:16 PM

"The best one can hope for is that the CIA is responsible for dumping them there in the first place."

Why are you hoping for this, Fred? Wouldn't it be better to uncover real evidence showing the actual extent of and members of various terror networks? Or are you putting some other desire of yours above the need for hard data on Iraq's place in the terror world?

Posted by: T. Hartin at April 29, 2003 03:03 PM

It's impossible for the healthcare workers to have gotten sick from anthrax after they found him. There is an incubation period of some days.

Why would we give more credance to a Brazilian provincial official than to an official of our government?

The Canadians say the ship's clean, too.

Just another bogus story out of a third world country???

Posted by: Chuck at April 29, 2003 03:05 PM

According to http://www.gastro.org/whatsnew/cdc_asks.html the incubation periods for GI, inhalation, and cutaneous anthrax can all be as little as 1 day. Is there a report showing that they became immediately ill, or could they have become ill later?

Posted by: Lonewacko at April 29, 2003 04:03 PM

Don't they know uncut cocaine when they see it? Maybe everyone else 'tried a little'.....of what the Egyptian sailor 'tried alot'.

Posted by: Jeff B at April 29, 2003 04:34 PM

Autopsy shows no anthrax. Story is dead.

Posted by: Skeptical Steve at April 29, 2003 07:50 PM