# Whos sending the anthrax
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-sending-the-anthrax/90839
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [November 1, 2001, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-sending-the-anthrax/90839 "2001-11-01T01:43:53Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Jeffro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeffro)
#### Post date: [November 1, 2001, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-sending-the-anthrax/90839/1 "2001-11-01T01:43:53Z")
After the first few cases of anthrax, I read that the FBI was of the opinion that this stuff was being sent by some of our home grown loonies, not OBL and his friends.
Do they still think this?
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### Author:  [@Dignan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dignan)
#### Post date: [November 1, 2001, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-sending-the-anthrax/90839/2 "2001-11-01T01:56:06Z")
Last I heard, that was the case.
Apparently the stuff that’s been getting sent out isn’t as “high grade” as authorities originally thought. I heard in the paper (the Post?) that anyone with a PhD. in biology could make the stuff.
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### Author:  [@Dignan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dignan)
#### Post date: [November 1, 2001, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-sending-the-anthrax/90839/3 "2001-11-01T01:58:34Z")
I probably shouldn’t have posted since I don’t have the article here, so now I have to clear up what I said.
I think what the article said is that whoever was sending the anthrax wasn’t necessarily a member of Al Qaeda, but they didn’t think it was “state sponsored.”
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### Author:  [@barbitu8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barbitu8)
#### Post date: [November 1, 2001, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-sending-the-anthrax/90839/4 "2001-11-01T02:05:17Z")
The type of Anthrax is the same as we were using in Ames, Iowa before we discontinued. This, among other facts, leads to the opinion that it is home grown. They say, also, if that’s the case, the supply is limited since most of those bacteria were destroyed. However, that leads to another question. Why can’t they get the bacteria to reproduce? The spores can’t reproduce, but what’s to prevent them from infecting animals and increasing the numbers?
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### Author:  [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)
#### Post date: [November 1, 2001, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-sending-the-anthrax/90839/5 "2001-11-01T02:11:52Z")
You can make more Anthrax, but it won’t be processed into something that is especially deadly. A raw Anthrax culture is a wet clump. If you dry it, you get a hard lump of stuff. If you grind it up, you’ll get small particles but they’ll have a static charge which causes them to recombine and fall to the ground if you try to spread it.
To make Anthrax deadly, it has to stay in particles less than 5 microns in size, and it has to be easily aerosolized. Neither of those are trivial propositions.
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### Author:  [@Spoonbender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoonbender)
#### Post date: [November 1, 2001, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-sending-the-anthrax/90839/6 "2001-11-01T03:17:02Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Jeffro \*
> \*\*After the first few cases of anthrax, I read that the FBI was of the opinion that this stuff was being sent by some of our home grown loonies, not OBL and his friends.
> Do they still think this? \*\*
Now it appears they have [no freakin’ clue.](http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/ANTHRAX_Investigation.html)