Five Years Later, Anthrax Questions Swirl Anew at FBI

Newhouse ^ | October 13, 2006 | Kevin Coughlin

[Southack]

"Let's put it this way ~ the anthrax appears to aerosolize readily ~ that does not necessary demonstrate the preparer's intent or capability."

I would argue the other way around. You don't get weaponized aerosolization via mere happenstance.

[muawiyah]

Whatever "weaponized" really means ~

[Battle Axe]

Anthrax in it's natural form...say right off the fleece of a sheep that died from it...and they do shear those sheep and goats too....is clumpy...dirty...definitely more than one spore. It could be refined to the point where one spore equaled one CFU.(Colony forming unit)

That is why it is not that easy to get it even in a mill that sorts or cards wool or mohair. Your nose hairs and mucus from the nasal passages will trap it, or your skin will protect you as long as you do not have a break in it.

What I am reading from this last release of info from the FBI (Beecher) is that there was little or no debris in the Daschle envelope. Little to clump or make it fall to the ground.



Me thinks we need to look at the source. The statement that there were more places that had it I think is misinformation.

[muawiyah]

I'm not real concerned with the whostruckjohns concerning the anthrax. I went right to the question of how the postal system would normally behave and how that resulted in the sort of attack that we saw.

It all points back to the terrorist crowd in Boca Raton.

[Southack]

"It all points back to the terrorist crowd in Boca Raton."

Without question.

They had a direct connection to the AMI building (the landlord who leased them their apartment). The Boca Raton postal facility was contaminated. They were seen by a doctor and treated for anthrax symptoms. The letters that were recovered were written in a style compatible with English as a 2nd language.

...And Bob Stevens October 5th death points to an attack originating prior to 9/11/2001.

Moreover, the anthrax from the recovered letters was weaponized and had only a single non-anthrax component: silica...whichs points to a professional clean-room lab operation.

So timing, motive, the weapon itself, personal connections, handwriting evidence, geography, processes involved...it all points to the 9/11 attackers as being behind the anthrax attacks.

[muawiyah]

The silica also points to the envelopes having been filled by the terrorists outdoors on a slightly windy day, most likely at a picnic table in Sugar Sand park in Boca Raton.

Remember, it wasn't a uniform mixture ~ different samples had different silica content.

Simply cleaning the bacterial mat of debris and producing spores "weaponizes" anthrax quite nicely.

[piasa]

I don't think sugar sand is entirely composed of silica... most of it is ground up calcium since it's made of coral, not minerals from the mountains like say, the sand in Virginia. You'd need to dissolve it in some acid to remove the calcium and that may still leave other minerals.

[piasa]

If it were just blowing around on a beach there would be pollen too.

[prairiebreeze]

Do you recall the Egyptian that died on the cargo ship off the Canadian coast, presumably from a briefcase full of anthrax? It wasn't too long after the anthrax attacks.

[piasa]

OCTOBER 2001 : (FORMER BIOPREPARAT EMPLOYEE KEN ALIBEK aka KANAJAN ALIBEKOV, SAYS ANTHRAX SPORES DISCOVERED IN THE US HAD BEEN PRODUCED AT A FACTORY IN STEPNOGORSK, IN KAZAKHSTAN) A former Biopreparat factory employee, Ken Alibek, alias Kanajan Alibekov, claimed that anthrax spores discovered in the United States had been produced at a factory in Kazakhstan, at Stepnogorsk.- "Central Asia/Russia: Moscow shrugs off anthrax claims," By Sergei Blagov, Asia Times Online, October 24, 2001

[prairiebreeze]

I was just wondering if you have a particular NJ scientist in mind....or just speculating in general about that part?

thanks in advance

[piasa]

OCTOBER 22, 2001 : (BIOPREPARAT DEPUTY DIRECTOR YEVSTIGNEYEV DENIES ALLEGATIONS BY FORMER BIOPREPARAT EMPLOYEE KEN ALIBEK THAT ANTHRAX SPORES FOUND IN THE US HAD BEEN PRODUCED AT A FACTORY IN KAZAHKSTAN) Denying the claims, Biopreparat factory deputy director Valentin Yevstigneyev told Kazakh state-run television on October 22 that his facility had no connection whatsoever with anthrax spores discovered in the US. "Alibekov, a former Biopreparat employee, is either uninformed or is making deliberately libellous allegations," he said. Yevstigneyev said there had been projects to develop biological weapons in Stepnogorsk but the projects were shut down after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. By embarking on the project, the Soviet Union had violated the Biological Weapons Convention that it signed in 1972.------- "Central Asia/Russia: Moscow shrugs off anthrax claims," By Sergei Blagov, Asia Times Online, October 24, 2001

[piasa]

DECEMBER 9, 2001 : (NEWSWEEK REPORTS THAT RENEGADE RUSSIAN SCIENTISTS HAD BEEN ASSISTING AL QAEDA IN DEVELOPING ANTHRAX AND A SUPPLY OF THE STUFF MAY HAVE BEEN STOCKPILED) The war in Afghanistan has produced a hodgepodge of disturbing intelligence that investigators are still trying to sift and analyze. Perhaps the most alarming evidence gathered so far concerns Al Qaeda efforts to develop biological weapons. According to intelligence sources, U.S. operatives in Afghanistan have collected information that one or more Russian scientists were working inside Afghanistan with Al Qaeda operatives. One well-placed source tells Newsweek that evidence from the scene indicates that the renegade Russians were helping Al Qaeda to develop anthrax, and that spores of the deadly disease may actually have been stockpiled by the terrorist group. While intelligence sources say they believe any such stockpiles were destroyed in U.S. bombing raids, it is not known how much, if any, of the anthrax ever made it out of Afghanistan. And the infamous Dr. Ayman Al-Zawahiri, bin Laden's closest lieutenant and considered the brains behind Al Qaeda, may have been directly involved in the biological program. Al-Zawahiri, may have been hit by U.S. bombs last week, according to unconfirmed British intelligence reports. ------- "A U.S.-Based Al Qaeda 'Sleeper Cell' Was Poised to Launch a Post-Sept. 11 Attack on a Major Washington Target; Would-Be Terrorists Went Underground or Fled U.S. ," Newsweek, December 9, 2001

[piasa]

I can rememer that - I'll see if I can find it

OCTOBER 26, 2001 : (PAKISTANI JOURNALIST CLAIMS THAT PAKISTANI AUTHORITIES HANDED YEMENI MICROBIOLOGIST JAMIL QASIM SAEED MOHAMMED OVER TO THE US- CIA PLANE ALLEGEDLY USED TO TAKE HIM AWAY) The CIA's plane secret began to unravel less than six weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
On Oct. 26, 2001, Masood Anwar, a Pakistani journalist with the News in Islamabad, broke a story asserting that Pakistani intelligence officers had handed over to U.S. authorities a Yemeni microbiologist, Jamil Qasim Saeed Mohammed, who was wanted in connection with the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole.
The report noted that an aircraft bearing tail number N379P, and parked in a remote area of a little-used terminal at the Karachi airport, had whisked Mohammed away about 2:40 a.m. Oct. 23. The tail number was also obtained by The Post's correspondent in Pakistan but not published.---- "CIA's private jet an open secret in terror war Amateur spyhunters zero in on agency's secret airline," By Dana Priest Updated: 1:43 a.m. ET Dec. 27, 2004 , msnbc/washpo


OCTOBER 25, 2001 : (COLUMBIA : IRA TERRORISTS REPORTEDLY TRIED TO BUY COCAINE; PLANNED TO MIX ANTHRAX WITH COCAINE) On October 25,2001, Univision’s Spanish T.V., "Primer Impacto' and in the late nightly international news, it was reported from Colombia that the IRA terrorists arrested this month in Colombia had their headquarters in Cuba and tried to buy 1,500 kilograms of cocaine in order to be mixed with anthrax for further distribution in the U.S. Although the Spanish TV channel interviewed the DEA agent who exposed the operation, the American media censored this important news that brings forward Castro’s involvement in bio-terrorism. - "CASTRO AND THE INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM, A CHRONOLOGY," by Eugene Pons with a foreword by Jaime Suchlicki , Institute for Cuban &Cuban-American Studies, Occasional Paper Series, September 2001

[Peach]

MISCELLANEOUS

9/11 Hijacker sought treatment for red hands (anthrax).
October 11, 2001. Palm Beach Post.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/546116/posts

Tabloid Editor rented apartment to two 9/11 hijackers. The tabloid lost a worker to anthrax.
October 15, 2001. Miami Herald.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/548061/posts

Hijackers linked to anthrax.
October 15, 2001. St. Petersburg Times.
http://www.sptimes.com/News/101501/Worldandnation/Hijackers_linked_to_t.shtml

9/11 Hijackers treated for anthrax.
March 23, 2002. The New York Times.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/652000/posts

Remember Anthrax?
April 20, 2002. The Weekly Standard.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/669487/posts
9/24/01. ABC.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/531023/posts

Hijacker treated for anthrax.
May 9, 2002. The Wall Street Journal.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/682921/posts

Atta tried to buy a cropduster.
June 6, 2002. ABC.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/695924/posts

Analysis of anthrax letters.
June 19, 2002. Instapundit.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/703075/posts?page=44#44

Freeper My Identity research on anthrax letters. Post #44.
6/20/02.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/703075/posts?page=44#44

The silica used in the anthrax attacks traced to Iraq.
October 28, 2002. The Washington Post.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A28334-2002Oct27&notFound=true

Freeper polemikos list of links to investigations regarding anthrax.
December 26, 2003.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1047022/posts

Evidence Iraq behind anthrax attacks.
January 1, 2004. Accuracy in Media
http://www.aim.org/publications/media_monitor/2004/01/01.html

Saddam behind anthrax attacks and 9/11 attacks.
Independent website.
http://www.spiritoftruth.org/iraqlinks.htm

[piasa]

Speaking of red hands ... Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman's "secret dove" Lynne Stewart had the same problem and blamed it on someone putting acid on her steering wheel.

And as we know, she is associated with this guy:

SEPTEMBER 11, 2001 or later : (SATTAR IS TRANSFERRED FROM A JOB THAT INCLUDED PICKING UP MAIL FROM JFK AIRPORT TO A DESK JOB AT A REMOTE BRANCH OFFICE ON STATEN ISLAND) Until 1997, Sattar had government clearance as a paralegal to visit Abdel-Rahman in federal prisons. Even as the government was tapping his phone, Sattar, a 13-year veteran of the U.S. Postal Service, was drawing a $40,000 salary for a job with the main post office on Staten Island that included picking up priority mail from secure areas of John F. Kennedy International Airport. That job ended when he was abruptly transferred to a desk job at a remote branch on Staten Island after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Sattar had the same job at the Staten Island post office that the first postal worker to come down with anthrax had at the Brentwood postal facility in D.C. The D.C. guy transferred mail between Baltimore-Washington International Airport and the Brentwood facility. 9 posted on 05/13/2002 7:37:47 AM PDT by aristeides

[Peach]

I didn't know that about Lynne Stewart.

BTW, congratulations regarding your mention in David Horowitz's book The Shadow Party. You're one of the best researchers on the web and Free Republic.

[piasa]

Thank you.

[Battle Axe]

Post # 216 very important.

[EdLake]

There are signs that AFIP might soon be forced to explain why they wrote what they wrote.

really? something else you made up? Your opinion presented as fact?

You know as well as I that the media has been looking for some explanation why AFIP said what they did when Dr. Beecher AND THE FACTS say just the opposite. That's a question that demands an answer. But AFIP isn't talking to the media -- at the moment.

You also know from our off-forum discussions that a representative of AFIP has made some unofficial comments about Beecher's report which do not disagree with Beecher's report.

Dr. Beecher's report indicates that the FBI is looking to clear up public misconceptions about the attack anthrax. Whatever information they release about the anthrax powder will dispute what AFIP said, so eventually AFIP will have to explain their newsletter, and General Parker and others who initially believed the detection of silicon and oxygen indicated that there was silica in the anthrax will have to acknowledge that they were just making assumptions.

Ed