> Jim Fischer... states that Bayer has offered to do imidacloprid
analyses for the CCD group.  

No, sorry, I said that Bayer offered to supply their standard reference
metabolite CHEMICALS of Imidacloprid to whatever group would do the
analysis.
("Metabolites" are what the plants reduce Imidacloprid down to, and
it turns out that there are only a few ways that plants can break
it down.)

Bayer has learned the hard way that any work they do, or even fund,
will be dismissed out-of-hand as less-than legitimate, so they must
sit and watch someone else do the actual work.  

There may be a segment that will think that Bayer will not provide
the right chemicals, in an attempt to fool everyone, and I don't
know, don't even want to know enough biochemistry to refute this.
Suffice to say that no one would be so stupid as to try a lame 
trick like this, nor would anyone receiving these chemicals be
so stupid as to not (somehow) verify that they are legitimate
samples.

So, in non-technical terms, Bayer has offered to come down to
the police station and be fingerprinted, as they wish to prove
that they are innocent.

> Back then imidacloprid was not used on corn (it was first registered 
> Canada as an emergency treatment for PEI potatoes!).

Funny thing about that - potatoes are also grown on Long Island, NY
and there was so much Imidacloprid being applied there that the stuff
was found in household water wells far away from the treated areas,
proving that the stuff had gotten into the water table and persisted
much longer than anyone expected.

(Thanks to Dick Marron for stumbling upon this document)
http://pmep.cce.cornell.edu/profiles/insect-mite/fenitrothion-methylpara
/imidacloprid/imidacloprid_let_1003.html

Despite the widespread contamination and surprising high levels of
persistence, no one had any problems with hives on Long Island at
the time, nor have any "CCD" cases been reported to date.

They used so much imidacloprid so often that imidacloprid-resistant 
adult Colorado potato beetles were found on Long Island as early as
2003.

And I've seen an Imidacloprid kill.  The bees that get a "low dose"
get "Parkinson's Disease".  They shake.  Its obvious.  So far, no one
has ever reported this sort of symptom in any CCD hives, so until
someone shows me a "bell curve" of pesticide poisoning, where some
hives or bees get a non-fatal, non-leave-the-hive dose, but still
show signs of classic Imidacloprid poisoning as they do in known
cases of Imidacloprid kills, I don't think we have any sort of 
probable cause for even a search warrant on Bayer's offices.

******************************************************
* Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at:          *
* http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm  *
******************************************************