Anthrax scientists under microscope (Hatfill or al-Haznawi – Who did it?)

Sydney Morning Herald ^ | August 10 2002 | Caroline Overington

[The Great Satan]

I still don't believe the anthrax attack was coordinated and executed by Iraq. Frankly, it wasn't very effective. Surely they were hoping to kill more than 5 people.

The letters weren't attacks, but rather exactly what they appear to be: threats designed to intimidate the United States (THIS IS NEXT WE HAVE THIS ANTHRAX YOU CAN NOT STOP US). Whoever made the anthrax has the capability to kill millions of Americans at, almost literally, the drop of a hat: the anthrax in those letters is far more dangerous than a nuclear bomb, as a recent RAND corp study noted (Study: 3 million would die in worst-case Calif. terror scenario ). Bush, Cheney et al understood that immediately: the concept of Iraq using its anthrax to blackmail the United States after a terrorist attack is not new to the US military, but has been mooted by Pentagon planners ever since the end of the Gulf War. It's kind of an obvious one-two play.

You'll note that there is one thing Iraq hasn't "crawfished" away from, and that is 9-11. Alone among nations in the world, Iraq endorsed the attacks and bin Laden; it did so again, today. And yet, Saddam occupies a fixed and exposed position. Superficially, he is total vulnerable. But he's acting as if he isn't. Where does he get that moxie? I think I can guess.

The notion that Iraq would cast itself as a bit player in the destruction of the WTC and the Capitol does not pass muster. That would be suicidal, and Saddam is not suicidal. If Saddam was involved, he was the prime mover, and his back-end security was something really special. Which is what we observe.

On the Hatfill question, the behaviour of the government is curious, to say the least. On my theory of the case, I see a spectrum of possibilities, which might be divided into three major scanarios:

1. The FBI is bungling the case, but Bush, Cheney et al are taking a hands-off attitude because (a) they don't see the anthrax letters as a law enforcement problem and (b) the net effect of the bungling coordinates well with the need to stall the public.

2. Amerithrax is an active measure conceived by the White House to stall the public while we prepare a response to the threat implicit in those letters, but the Amerithrax agents don't realize this, i.e. the top people just assigned some known deadwood like Bob Roth and Van Arp to that effort, pointed them at USAMRIID and let them spin their wheels uselessly.

3. Amerithrax is a stall, but awareness of that extends below cabinet level to Amerithrax agents and/or Hatfill himself

On the whole, I favor possibility number 2, but I don't exclude that the truth might be closer to 1 or 3.