1.Connections in our biolabs:Security was NOT great.There may have been student interns-almost completely "un-vetted"-with far more access than desirable.There were labor problems at all of our bio and atomic labs,and "gray collar" technicians sometimes engaged in enormously risky "demonstrations".Security people sometimes engaged in thefts.(GAO publicized quite a few of them,but probably revealed only the tip of the iceberg.)
2. Why Leahy and Daschle ? IF this was a "far-left" protest,the plotters may have been fairly sure neither man would actually be EXPOSED to the anthrax letters.The September mailings had put the nation on notice,and special precautions-meager as they might have been-were being taken. Daschle and Leahy would (and I'm sure did) perceive the letters as some sort of right-wing plot.
Overly complicated? Perhaps;but,since we really know very little-beyond what has been published,we should rule almost nothing out.
It's true that security wasn't great. But for a far-left group to arrange for the theft of professionally prepared material whose very existence was being kept secret is difficult to believe. It's easier to believe that someone could have obtained Ames anthrax prior to weaponization, but then one has to believe that your hypothetical left-wing group has laboratory facilities both for inventing and for carrying out the weaponization process, in an entirely clandestine fashion. That's quite difficult to believe.
2. Why Leahy and Daschle ? IF this was a "far-left" protest,the plotters may have been fairly sure neither man would actually be EXPOSED to the anthrax letters.The September mailings had put the nation on notice,and special precautions-meager as they might have been-were being taken. Daschle and Leahy would (and I'm sure did) perceive the letters as some sort of right-wing plot.
Why attack even the staff of two of the government officials most friendly to you?
If the purpose was to convince people that it was a right-wing plot, why did they try so hard to convince people that it was an Islamic plot?
There's also my third question, which you didn't answer:
"Wouldn't a bioterror attack be expected to result in a resumption or resurgence of biological warfare research, and isn't this the precise opposite of what these people wanted to achieve?"
What did your hypothetical perps want to achieve that they thought they could achieve through the anthrax mailings?
I think Occam's razor suggests that something else is the right answer. Everything in this theory seems strained - no offense intended, I agree with you that we should consider all sorts of possibilities, I just don't think this one works on close inspection.