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One thing is obvious. This aerosolized anthrax is lethal unless handled by experts in a highly secure laboratory.

Those envelopes were not filled in someone's garage in south Florida.

Anyone disagree?????????

They were filled in a lab somewhere, and the paper size indicates, (along with a million other things) the lab was not in the USA. Looks as if poor old Haznawi, and maybe Atta, got a cutaneous infection from some of the anthrax that leaked out of the envelopes while they carried them back to the USA.

The letters were dated 09-11. One thought is that the envelopes probably wouldn't have been prepared as far in advance of Sept. 11 as this suggests, since the date of the WTC/Pentagon attack could always have been changed, for a variety of reasons. (On the other hand, we do have the Bin Ladin Group domain name expiring on 9/11/2001, having been registered on 9/11/2000, so maybe that planned date was considered absolutely definitive and not to be changed.)

If the envelopes had been filled in Florida, the argument goes, there might have been unintended infections of people there, and we don't see that. Or do we? What about the AMI infections? I'm not sure this really makes sense (I can't imagine them filling the envelopes in, say, a room at the AMI Building, after all), but maybe there's something here which would explain the AMI contamination?

The letters were dated 09-11.

I don't see why the date couldn't have been chosen months in advance, and probably was.

When I am planning a trip abroad, I make my airline reservations first before I make other detailed plans.

What about a possible Canada connection. The Ames strain is only known to have been given to 5 labs. The Ames strain used in the letters apparently was limited to only five labs - those are the US, Canada, and the UK. I'm looking for an article that mentioned the fact that Atta visited Canada often. Perhaps that's where the envelopes were stuffed.

Traces of anthrax were found at the post office in Boca Raton that processed mail for the company. This could have been cross-contamination from mailing trays used by AMI, but it was never conclusively proven (from what I've seen) whether the contamination originated at AMI, or from mail going to AMI.

There is another curious, but perhaps non-significant coincidence about Holy Cross Hospital, since the AMI intern, Jordan Arizmendi, who was initially under suspicion for his "strange" e-mail of farewell to the staff at AMI, developed pneumonia in October and was hospitalized at Holy Cross Hospital. The hospital is in Fort Lauderdale, Southeast Broward Country, (where Arizmendi’s parents were said to live) whereas Delray is in Eastern Palm Beach County, and there are at least a few other hospitals I can think of closer to Delray. OTOH, Holy Cross is a well-known medical center in South Florida.

Arizmendi was originally thought to be “Middle Eastern,” but was later reported to be “a third-generation US citizen of Spanish-Basque descent.” The AP also reported that his mother is Jewish. That’s about all that was ever reported about him, except that he was interviewing for a post-graduate internship with Disney, and was then (10/01) a senior at Florida Atlantic University. His father, Hank Arizmendi, said that he his internship at AMI ended in mid-August, but that he had returned to AMI in mid-September “to visit friends.” He also apparently attended the American School in Japan, since he’s listed on the website as a ’96 alumnus with an e-mail address at FAU.

I also remember a local South Florida TV segment about a female employee at a private medical clinic in Miami, who was fired for going public with the fact that Atta and company visited the center and used their computers. Never heard any more on that.