The contamination of the postal facilities was not the primary goal of the attackers the fact that it happened was a lucky mistake .
The anthrax in question was in freeze dried spore form & treated with a form clay that counteracts static electric attraction which would cause the spore to cling to each other in clumps as opposed to a fine powder aerosol.
The Iraqi’s didn’t have this technical capability . The Iraqi’s were still at the thin skinned bomb casing fitted with a small bursting charge & filled with a mixture of live organism and growth media level of technology in their bio-war program
Also if you wanted a major out break the target to hit would be the New York subway system via the simple use of a anthrax spore filled container such as a light bulb dropped on the tracks a few minutes ahead of a train coming thru & just before rush hour this is what the Army Chemical did in experiments back in the 50’s & 60’s.
Another method of dispersion for maximum effect was to use a garden pest control sprayer used to spreading powdered insecticide on garden plants,also done experimentally by our own government back in the 50’s & 60’s this info is available at the public library.
The “attacks” were sent to specific individual targets ,if the object of the exercise is major casualties you don’t send a sealed letter to an individual target with a threatening note telling that targeted individual that they have just been exposed to anthrax. This is in fact what was done.
Also the list of targets were more than just a Congressional office building. They included a TV network local anchor person in New York City and the building that was used to publish the National Enquirer.
That is why I must disagree with your view that it was a widespread major attack .
The level of sophistication of the weapon component(the anthrax) is far & above what the Iraqi’s were able to produce & if the same amount of anthrax had been used in the fashion I have described the outcome would have been a great deal more horrifying than 2-3 dead & a few hundred people taking heavy duty antibiotics for three weeks.
A Postal Inspector examined (and presumably "removed") the tape from each recovered envelope and was able to fit all the segments together, end to end, to demonstrate that they were all created at the same time.
That's an incidental, but it's highly critical to determining if this was an organized attack undertaken by a group with a high level of knowledge of both postal operations in all areas as well as what happens when you put anthrax into a standard postal envelope for sale in postal vending machines.
Since the anthrax can seep out through those envelopes, you'd want to tape them up so that such seepage would and could occur at a reduced rate. That way, once seepage started the envelope could begin contaminating every place through which it traveled.
The standard postal 010 operation (facing canceling) begins its work on collection mail with the dumping tray where it's thumped to break it apart, and then facing it, and canceling it.
These are vigorous mechanical actions that would definitely initiate seepage if it had not already started.
They all occur at the entry post office or the MPC for that facility.
Ken even suggested the "hammering action" that occurs during handling by automated mail sortation equipment could serve to break the anthrax up into a fine powder.
Let's assume for a moment that Saddam Hussein's scientists had a couple of automated letter sorters available to experiment with ~ they could have determined the operational parameters necessary for the envelopes to work as anthrax distribution devices.
And, of course, when Saddam Hussein looted the Kuwait Main Post Office he acquired such equipment ~ state of the art, recently purchased, and with highly trained specialists (mostly Palestinian) on duty.
Case closed ~ !
I have no idea where you came up with the 3 week thing.