Source
4 May 2004
To: jya@cryptome.org, gnu@new.toad.com
Subject: SFO airport has Livermore bioweapon sensor deployed
Date: Tue, 04 May 2004 15:20:03 -0700
From: John Gilmore <gnu@toad.com>
I was in the United terminal at SFO in late March, and noticed some technicians doing strange things to a mailbox-sized metal rack behind a display of "where's my flight?" monitors on the ticketing level, near a door to the outside. So I watched them for a while. The rack was open while they poked at it, and had a little chimney air-vent on top. Inside, it contained a "LUMINEX 100" bead-based multi-analyte detection system, and some other equipment. There were lots of plastic tubes and wires running around inside. I googled it when I got home, discovering that it's used to test air samples for biological agents.
Here are a few web pages about the Livermore project that produced these Autonomous Pathogen Detection System (APDS) sensors:
http://www.eurekalert.org/features/doe/2002-01/dlnl-rfd062402.phphttp://www.llnl.gov/str/JanFeb02/Langlois.html
http://archives.californiaaviation.org/airport/msg25614.html
http://www.sandia.gov/LabNews/LN12-12-03/labnews12-12-03.pdf
While there are occasional buried mentions of the system, nobody seems to have pointed out publicly that these sensors are now deployed at SFO. I suggest that you do so.
As in the Kubrick movie "Dr. Strangelove", if your effort is really intended to deter attack, it would be foolish to build a deterrent and then not reveal its presence publicly. Perhaps Livermore and SFO are more interested in "catching somebody" than they are in deterring bioweapons attacks on the airport?
I spoke with Dr. Langlois at LLNL, who built the system; he confirmed that they are deployed at SFO and at other places in a series of experiments, but he said "we" prefer to keep their deployment secret. I asked him why, and he said he didn't know why, which I thought was an odd answer for someone who had included himself in "we".
I myself am more interested in preventing attacks, which I thought was announced by Bush and Ashcroft as our national government's aim as well.
John Gilmore
