Posted on 11/16/2001 1:19:44 PM PST by Alamo-Girl
I'm anxious to see (if we are allowed to see it) the lab analysis of each specimen from Ft. Detrick. I'm particularly curious if the only difference between envelopes is size of the spores - or if the batches were processed differently!
You have no choice. If you don't defend against the suit, you lose. If you can't afford an attorney, you probably lose.
There's no solution to that problem on the horizon. I'm sorry you were on the receiving end.
If you want to consider non-Middle-Eastern possibilities, think about China.
Chinese training or background is certainly possible. The individual may well not be a native Korean, but neither would it surprise me if he/she/they is/are.
English is not his primary language and neither is Arabic. Note the dates on the xeroxed letters in the *anthrax letterbomb*
I don't know Arabic. Why do the dates indicate that the writer is not Arabic?
I agree that the sender does not appear to be an American. The date is written 09-11-01. All the Americans I know would have written 9/11/01, without the leading 0, and with slashes instead of dashes.
A telegrapher [commercial or railroad] or military communicator would have used the zero, but those trained since the 1970s routinely add a slash to the zero to differentiate it from the letter *O*. A European would follow the month/day/format of 11.09.01 and the similar US military format would routinely abbreviate the month to eliminate the confusion: 11 SEP 2001. Some computer-world oriented procedures also follow the logical day/month/year format, though since the Y2K panic, the year is most commonly written with all four digits. I have known those from the Middle East to use the 09-11-01 type format, however.
Much has been made of the fact that the date is written in the American order of month-day-year, but most foreigners would be aware of that and, in fact, would have become accustomed to that order after a few years here -- they'd be repeatedly told by Americans that they were writing dates incorrectly if they used the day-month-year order. But nobody misunderstands a date written with dashes instead of slashes; nobody even comments on such a thing, so a foreigner could easily not realize that it looks foreign.
Note though that telegraphers [and some amateur radio operators] also sometimes send the quicker *dash* character [*----* in international Morse] rather than *slash* [-**-*] [or *stroke* in Brit/Euro parlance] and thereby routinely write that char as the seperator. And at least some air traffic controllers will use dashes, rather than slash/stroke.
See also *this article*
Thanks for the link on the Zimbabwe anthrax outbreak; I had never heard of it.
You're welcome. Neither are most folks aware of the circa 1991 Anthrax infection of Arkansas State Police narcotics investigator Russell Welch while working on a case involving military and politically connected individuals in the Pine Bluff area. I suppose that'll soon be a *Homeland Defense Militery Secret.*
-archy-/-
You're quite welcome. Is that weird or what!?!?!? I did a doubletake when I clicked on the replies link, I thought I must be doing something wrong to keep landing in the same spot, but the dates, names, and IP addresses were all different. It was like being in a "Groundhog Day" time-loop or something. Same thing over and over with a subtle difference each time.
Things yet unchecked (I was tired when I stumbled on the place late last night, and just waking up now, waiting for the coffee to kick in, gotta go sight in before the sun goes all the way down, deer season opened yesterday, and I'm "buck"ing for King of the Procrastinator's title, argh...):
I didn't try was going backwards through the thread -- going back to "mustafa's" post to see if it was the original, or if there was a more interesting history to the thread extending back prior to that post.
I also didn't think to look at other threads in that forum. It might be interesting to see what (if any) other traffic there is.
Then why did you conclude that the writer wasn't Arabic?
There's a wide gulf between the theoretical and the practical. Unfortunately a lot of people seem to fall on the latter side of that equation, so I tend to go into argh!-mode when I see someone explaining how there's no reason to worry so long as "the truth" is on their side. For better or worse, it takes "the truth" plus a lawyer, and that knocks a lot of folks outta the ring right at the start of the process, "being right" notwithstanding.
"You have no choice. If you don't defend against the suit, you lose. If you can't afford an attorney, you probably lose."
Well, there is a third option: since most of these lawsuits are basically little more than attempts to get people to shut up and go away, it's often possible to get an out of court settlement deal. The upside is that you escape with most of your life (if not your stomach-lining) intact; the downside is that you learn to self-censor, be extremely circumspect, and become a living example of the effects of that which is designed to (and succeeds at) chilling the expression of opinion on the Internet. (Does it seem like I'm choosing my words very carefully in this post? That's what happens when one finds out the hard way that his RL ID is but a subpoena away...)
"There's no solution to that problem on the horizon. I'm sorry you were on the receiving end."
Hey, me too! :)
There's a quasi-solution, i.e., SLAPP laws; but they won't help "the little guys" until the Big Guys get SLAPP'd often enough to develop an aversion to go after the Little Guys. Until then, the LG's will continue to get knocked in the head, with damn little they can do about it, regardless of whether they're right or wrong.
That's life.
I agree. I also speculate that just prior to the 9/11 attacks, the organization became aware that Atta had developed a strong grudge against someone associated with the Florida tabloid due to some precieved personal affront which was becoming an obsession for Atta. The affront may have had to do with a precieved slight on the part of a woman. I further speculate that, wishing to calm down Atta and/or to cement his resolve for the coming mission, the organization tossed Atta a sop by sending the letter to the American Media Corporation. Atta may have been present while the letter was prepared, or Atta may have posted the letter himself. Because this letter was not a priority to the organization, they did not use their best Anthrax for this letter. I don't think the FBI has released the text of the letter that went to the Florida tabloid, if it's even survived, but I'd bet the text and tone of that letter was different than the other letters.
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