In the good old days,
John Drake could have solved the case
in a two parter . . .
Posted on 09/16/2005 7:06:23 AM PDT by Gene Vidocq
FBI officials said yesterday that investigators are still working diligently to find whoever was responsible for the anthrax-bacteria-laced mailings, which killed five people, sickened 17 others and led to the temporary shutdown of the House, Senate and Supreme Court buildings and numerous postal facilities. They said they are getting assistance from forensics experts and scientific researchers from law enforcement agencies, the intelligence community, university laboratories and private corporations......
***
In the past year, the number of FBI agents on the case has dropped from 31 to 21, authorities said. During the same time, the number of postal inspectors has fallen from 13 to nine. The reward remains the same: $2.5 million for information leading to an arrest and conviction.
***
The investigation has been so expansive that authorities now are in the process of taking inventory. The FBI and postal inspectors have spent months piecing together a voluminous internal report that will review the scope of the investigation and explore issues including what has been the prevailing theory: The culprit is a U.S. scientist who had access to the high-grade anthrax and the knowledge of how to physically manipulate it and use it as a weapon. That theory emerged early in the investigation and remains viable today, authorities said.
***
The report will include the names of various people deemed to be "persons of interest" over the years, as well as updates on the scientific tests....."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
The culprit is a U.S. scientist who had access to the high-grade anthrax and the knowledge of how to physically manipulate it and use it as a weapon. That theory emerged early in the investigation and remains viable today, authorities said.
The report will include the names of various people deemed to be "persons of interest" over the years, as well as updates on the scientific tests....."
The question of whether or not Hussein had 1000 tons of anthrax powder is simply the wrong question. The right questions are, did the guy have the motive, the technical resources, the financial wherewithal, the facilities, and the intel apparatus to play that sort of game, and the answers to all of those questions are obvious.
The first case of anthrax after 9-11 (Bob Stevens) showed up within miles of where several hijackers stayed JUST BEFORE 9/11, a very unlikely coincidence considering that they could have stayed anywhere in the country.
The last previous case of anthrax in a human in the United States prior to 9-11 had been about 30 years prior to that.
There are other coincidences. For instance, the wife of the editor of the sun (where Stevens worked) also had contact with the hijackers in that she rented them the place they stayed.
Atta and the hijackers flew planes out of an airport in the vicinity and asked about crop dusters on more than one occasion. Indeed, Atta sought a loan to try and modify a crop duster.
Atta and several of the hijackers in this group also sought medical aid just prior to 9/11 for skin lesions that the doctors who saw them now say looked like anthrax lesions.
Basically, you either believe in the laws of probability or you don't. Anybody claiming that all these things were coincidences is either totally in denial or does not believe in modern mathematics and probability theory.
While the anthrax in question originally came from a US strain, it isn't too surprising that Iraq might have that strain since that strain was mailed to laboratories around the world years earlier.
Basically, the anthrax attack which followed 9/11 had Saddam Hussein's fingerprints all over it. It was particalized so finely it went right through envelop paper and yet was not weaponized (not hardened against antibiotics). It was basically a warning, saying as much as:
"Hey, fools, some of my friends just knocked your two towers down and if you try to do anything about it, this is what could happen. F*** you, and have a nice day!!"
There is no way an American who had had anything to do with that would not be behind bars by now. In fact the one American they originally suspected told investigators that if he'd had anything to do with that stuff, he would either have anthrax or have the antibodies from the preventive medicine in his blood and offered to take a blood test on the spot. That of course was unanswerable.
The basic American notion of a presumption of innocence is not meaningful or useful in cases like that of Saddam Hussein. Even the Japanese had the decency to have their own markings on their aircraft at Pearl Harbor; Nobody had to guess who did it. Saddam Hussein, on the other hand, is like the kid in school who was always standing around snickering when things went bad, but who could never be shown to have had a hand in anything directly. At some point, guys would start to kick that guy's ass periodically on general principles. Likewise, in the case of Saddam Hussein, the reasonable assumption is that he's guilty unless he somehow or other manages to prove himself innocent and, obviously, that did not happen.
At the time, the US military was in such disarray from the eight years of the Clinton regime that there was nothing we could do about it. Even such basic items as machinegun barrels, which we should have warehouses full of, were simply not there. Nonetheless, nobody should think they would get away with such a thing and, apparently, Hussein and his baathists didn't.
Bob Woodward's book "Bush at War" documents some of this:
'Cheney?s chief of staff, Scooter Libby, quickly questions the wisdom of mentioning state sponsorship. Tenet, sensitive to the politics of Capitol Hill and the news media, terminates any discussion of state sponsorship with the clear statement:
"I'm not going to talk about a state sponsor."'Vice President Cheney further drives the point home:
"It's good that we don't, because we're not ready to do anything about it."
Even simple things like body armor, ammunition, and machinegun barrels which we should have warehouses full of simply weren't there, i.e. they'd been sold off at 40 cents on the dollar for DNC money. A friend of mine called up one of the nation's premier barrel makers about a barrel for a target rifle in early 02 and was told that they were working 24/7 making machinegun barrels and didn't have time for any sort of civilian firearm business.
Now, a president in W's position taking over after the 8 years of total mismanagement and abuse of this perverted Klintler administration had about two choices after 9/11: He could do what he actually did, or he could do what many Americans probably have done, which would be to nuke Mecca, Medina, Rihyad, Falluja, and every other den of slammite terrorism on the planet and ban the practice of I-slam throughout the world.
A reasonable person would probably like to at least try what W. has first.
I say that their theory sucks, isn't viable, and is one of the main reasons why the "investigation" has turned up bupkus.
One freeper, M., beleives all the envelopes were mailed in Florida, and that some got stuck in the corrugated mail bins used to carry an armload of mail and traveled north in those bins to the Post Offices at which they were mailled.
My opinion is that letters were mailed in Florida, DC Metro, central NJ and the uptown Manhattan.
Atta is believed to have picked up a vail of weapons-grade anthrax from Saddam's men during his visit to Prague.
I have a weak theory that particular vial originated in the US at Fort Dettrick, but was gained by Iraq's spies in some nefarious operation.
I tell what the real issue comes down to...every significant portion of evidence points to the "disgraced" scientists (I didn't give him the title...he simply earned it). But there never has been a solid point where they can put his fingerprint on anything or find a trace on any property he ever owned. In fact...the facts simply point at him...which leads to two conclusions...either he is very good at hiding his contribution to this....or the real party who committed this...knows him and his work...and used him as the faulty party. This is why some folks still think the Mossad was involved in this mess...and they simply used him as a cheap target. Its obvious that this is a small group who could have done this action. Alot of facts are quiet known. But unless you tie the guy to the crime scene...this will never last in court.
The interesting thing...is that after this original episode...and all the hype...nothing else ever happened after that point. If you had more chances to hit the US public...surely you would have done it again and again. Why halt? And the only pure answer is that you have been questioned by someone and become a target (perhaps even as a side-witness). Who know....another mystery that we will have to wait on.
All the letters were mailed after the 9/11 hijackers were dead.
"The interesting thing...is that after this original episode...and all the hype...nothing else ever happened after that point."
Two labs confirmed Pentagon anthrax
By Dee Ann Divis
UPI Senior Science & Technology Editor
Published March 21, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Anthrax was confirmed twice in samples collected from a Pentagon mail facility initially closed last week and then opened after being declared free of the pathogen, United Press International has learned.
The head of the company that was accused of contaminating the samples sent from that facility -- a detached building on the Pentagon grounds in Arlington, Va. - said his company had never had a false positive test before and the presence of anthrax was detected independently in the original samples by two government laboratories besides his own.
The Pentagon alarm is distinct from a second alert for anthrax that also occurred March 14 at a mail room in a Defense Department-leased building in Falls Church, Va. The entire three-building complex was closed for two days before being declared clean.
Robert B. Harris, president and chief executive officer of Commonwealth Biotechnologies Inc. in Richmond, Va., also said the anthrax found at the Pentagon was the same genetic strain used in the 2001 attacks.
The dispute over the possibility of contamination -- suggested to the media by an anonymous source -- became more heated as an automated alarm warned of anthrax at yet a third Washington-area mailroom Friday. That third alert, at Bolling Air Force Base, was triggered by automated sensors -- as was the alert at Falls Church.
The week of anthrax alarms began when the Pentagon mail facility was closed after tests on samples taken there the week before had been found positive for the presence of anthrax. The initial samples, consisting of swabs of surfaces from the facility, had been collected March 10, but the results were not received and the facility was not shut down until March 14.
The delay was not the fault of CBI, Harris said, noting CBI had tested more than 2,000 similar samples in the past two years and reported its results within 24 hours.
"We reported our initial ...findings on (March 11)," Harris told UPI. "Our contracting officer told us to continue testing for further analysis over the weekend -- and that was done. On Monday ... the 14th we communicated additional test results to our contracting officer. From CBI's point of view, there was absolutely no delay in reporting the results."
CBI is a sub-contractor that conducts routine testing. The identity of the prime contractor who received the results is unclear. Defense Department spokesman Glenn Flood told UPI the four-day delay was being investigated.
Harris also took issue with the anonymous suggestion in news reports that his lab had contaminated the original sample from the Pentagon site.
"It is a fact that we had a presumptive positive test come up," he said. "That presumptive positive test was confirmed by us and by at least two other labs as being a true positive."
Carlee Vander Linden, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases in Frederick, Md., which tested the samples after CBI, confirmed that the follow-up tests on the first sample were positive and that two labs had done such tests.
"There is a component of the Homeland Security Department that has a laboratory that is located in our building," Vander Linden explained. "They have a presence here at Fort Detrick. The samples were basically parted out and there was analysis done by USAMRIID and by the forensics lab under DHS. I know that the negatives that we got were on the ones that came directly from the (mail) facility and did not pass through the contractor. The positives that we got were on samples that had been handled already by the people in Virginia."
Vander Linden also said: "USAMRIID is not saying that, 'Gee, there probably was a contamination event.' I think some people are surmising that. It certainly has been reported that way. I think that we'll just have to wait and see."
A DHS lab did conduct confirmatory tests, said Terry Bishop, a spokesman for DOD Health Affairs, but he did not elaborate on the results.
"It is in our mind that this was truly a positive sample," said Harris, adding that his technicians had done everything possible to minimize contamination and were reviewing their lab and procedures.
"I emphasize," Harris said, "in over 2,000 of these samples and tens of thousands ... of other samples we have never experienced a false-positive test."
In response to a question from UPI, Harris confirmed CBI also had conducted other tests on the anthrax sample, but he would not reveal the results.
"There are lots of tests -- biochemical, morphological, genetic," Harris said, "all kinds of laboratory analyses that can be done to further qualify the type of pathogen we are looking at and those tests have been done."
Harris also said the anthrax in the initial samples was the same strain as the organism used during the first anthrax attack via U.S. Mail facilities in the fall of 2001. This was not surprising, however, he said, because it is the most common strain.
Questions over the first alarm were still swirling when the third alarm sounded last Friday at Bolling, which is located along the Anacostia River in Washington. The alert occurred in a mail-handling facility used by the Defense Intelligence Agency.
"This morning, the DIA remote-delivery facility was closed due to an initial positive test of incoming mail for hazardous biological agents," Defense Department spokesman Maj. Paul Swiergosz told UPI last Friday afternoon.
Personnel on the scene were asked to stay, Swiergosz said, and local officials were called. An FBI team conducted further tests.
As of late Friday, the follow-up tests at the scene had been negative, said FBI spokeswoman Debbie Weierman. Additional tests were planned at a laboratory.
The three alerts - at the Pentagon, in Falls Church and at Bolling -- raise concern about cross-contamination from a source of anthrax somewhere in the Defense Department mail system. All of the alerts occurred in defense-related mail facilities and in each case the alerts were specific for anthrax, several federal and local DOD spokesmen confirmed during the week.
The bioweapons sensors were not connected, UPI was told repeatedly by the spokesmen. The sensors in Fairfax and at Bolling were automatic and did not involve any CBI testing so there was no issue of sample contamination.
UPI also was told by a Defense Department spokeswoman that, in at least one case, the alerts followed the mail flow. Specifically, the mail from the Pentagon site could have moved to the Falls Church location.
The Pentagon is working to gather more than 8,000 pieces of mail that moved through its detached facility between March 10 and March 14.
http://www.wpherald.com/storyview.php?StoryID=20050321-123223-7231r
And contrary to what a lot of people believe, Zacarias Moussaoui was not the missing 20th hijacker. It was most likely either al-Qahtani, Ramzi Binalshibh, or Adnan el-Shukrijumah, aka "Jafar the Pilot".
Ping
I'll ask the question I've asked a million times...
Why would the 9/11 hijackers carefully go out of their way to kill as FEW people as possible with the anthrax? The same people flying aircraft filled with passengers into buildings are politely telling people they've been exposed to anthrax and telling them to take antibiotics?
Ping
Surprisingly, like some other fairly recent historical events, the timeline of 9/11 and the anthrax attacks often is completely misremembered; people seem to remember the anthrax scare popping up RIGHT after 9/11, when actually it was several weeks ( and the first known letter wasn't mailed till 9/18, and from the timing of other cases without known letters it seems those letters were mailed on 9/18 or shortly AFTER.)
The interesting thing about the timeline is that it became known in the media that the hijackers had been based in Florida only a couple days after 9/11, BEFORE the anthrax letters were mailed; that is, the mailer could chosen to mail a letter to a location near where the hijackers had been based, in order to associate the attacks with them.
And additionally...
If the letters are mailed by an associate of the 9/11 hijackers, what is the point of waiting 7 days after 9/11 to mail them?
The mailer had to know that the US Government was scouring the country for associates or co-conspirators of the 9/11 hijackers; why sweat out a week where you could be arrested at any moment before you mail the anthrax?
The anthrax mailings were never intended as a mass killing. They were a demonstration, a threat, and an attempt at deterrence all at the same time (an attempt which of course failed in the end). The message of "We have this anthrax. Are you afraid?" couldn't possibly be more clear. The threat meant exactly what it said.
And the idea that some guy just amazingly happened to coincidentally mail the first letter to the landlady's husband's office building just doesn't pass any kind of laugh test. That connection was not publicly known when the letter was mailed.
Could be a delay in pick-up, some temporary mechanical hold up in a mail box. Freeper M. beleives it was that the letters got stuck in the bottom of a corrugated plastic USPS bin.
Me? I think it was a trusted associate -- maybe two, three -- who Atta left the envelopes with on the way north, that this person or persons mailed was given the envelopes in a sealed plastic pouch or pouches. The person then sliced open the bags with an exacto knife, razor blade or box cutter as he dropped the envelopes into a mail box.
That (or those) companions then left the country and returned to their homes in Pakistan, Tunisia or wherever.
Safe house. Laying low somewhere. Paying cash, full tank of gas, "borrowed" license plates. Would be impossible to find.
Bump
Just for those who have never seen it, I'd recommend this article by Gary Matsumoto.
http://cryptome.org/anthrax-powder.htm
I would then refer those intrigued to Ken Alibek's remark in "Biohazard" that he had learned (after his defection) of a Russian technique-developed in 1996-97 called "micro-encapsulization",which made the "product" work better and last longer.
"...and explore issues including what has been the prevailing theory".
I'll take a wild, wild guess. I predict the study will validate the "lone" "American" "Scientist" mailer/constructor. And it will be released about the time something damning about the theory comes out of the Hatfill case.
There is no way, no way at all a report would be released that one, helps the Hatfill case and two, subjects the FBI theorists to derision, loss of status, etc.
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