Posted on 09/05/2002 1:32:45 PM PDT by Shermy
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Almost a year after the nation's worst biological weapon attack, the FBI has yet to figure out who sent anthrax-laced letters that killed five people, prompting criticism that its investigation is moving too slowly.
Federal law enforcement sources acknowledged they are not close to making an arrest in the investigation, which began less than a month after the Sept. 11 hijacked plane attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
FBI officials said they believe the person who mailed the letters to two U.S. senators and to the news media last autumn took advantage of the confusion after Sept. 11, but they do not believe the attacks were related to the hijacking plot.
Critics said the FBI waited too long to reach out to the scientific community, that it failed to follow up on some obvious leads and it may have unfairly focused attention on Dr. Steven Hatfill, a germ warfare expert who says he's innocent.
Hatfill is one of about 30 U.S.-based scientists the FBI considers a "person of interest" in its investigation, meaning they have the expertise, ability and wherewithal to produce the deadly bacteria.
Hatfill, whose apartment was searched twice by the FBI and was fired by Louisiana State University, said investigators singled him out because they were under pressure to show progress in the case.
"The assassination of my character appears to be part of a government effort to show the American people that it's proceeding vigorously with the investigation," he told a news conference on Aug. 25 outside his lawyer's office in Virginia.
One FBI critic has been Barbara Hatch Rosenberg, a molecular biologist at the State University of New York at Purchase and the chairwoman of a biological weapons panel at the Federation of American Scientists. She said rapid resolution of the case was critical.
"The significance of the anthrax attacks and our response to it cannot be overstated," she said in an analysis posted on the Internet in June.
FUTURE THREAT COULD DWARF 9/11
"By breaking the taboo on the use of bioweapons, this event has engendered a future threat that could dwarf 9/11," Rosenberg said, adding that the FBI seemed to be "marking time on the off-chance that an unknown informer will turn up with a smoking gun."
Rosenberg said she has sent a new commentary about the anthrax attacks to the FBI, but would not make it available to others. She said she did not want to interfere with the proceeding investigation by making public statements.
Jonathan Tucker, a biological and chemical weapons specialist at the Washington-based Monterey Institute, questioned how the investigation has been handled.
"A lot of people are baffled by the way the investigation is going," he said. "There is growing bewilderment in Congress and among the public about where the investigation is headed."
Tucker questioned why the FBI appeared to focus attention on Hatfill, a former U.S. Army scientist, when it apparently did not have the evidence to indict him.
FBI officials said they want to avoid a repeat of the case of Richard Jewell, the former security guard who was initially identified as a suspect in the 1996 Olympics bombing in Atlanta, but who later was cleared of any involvement.
Tucker also questioned whether the FBI had been overly hasty early in the investigation in excluding the possibility of foreign involvement in the anthrax attacks.
FBI officials said they have no evidence linking the Sept. 11 hijackers with the anthrax attacks. (--are they looking for any??)
They dismissed the story of a Florida doctor who treated one of the hijacking suspects, Ahmed Alhaznawi, in June last year. The doctor said Alhaznawi had a lesion on his leg that was consistent with the skin version of anthrax.
The law enforcement sources said the investigation has been especially difficult because the pool of potential suspects is the same group of scientists upon whom the FBI has had to rely for expertise in identifying the bacteria used in the attacks.
They said scientific protocols had to be developed for testing the anthrax found in one of the letters.
The sources said there was a lack of physical evidence, such as fingerprints on the letters, or apparent eyewitnesses.
"It's not the movies or television. People expect the case to be solved in an hour or two hours. It doesn't always happen that way," one official said.
"Sometimes, it just takes months and months and months of searching and digging," one official said. "You are obviously dealing with someone who is very smart. Smart crooks are harder to catch than dumb crooks."
My inference is that the tobacco can may have contained the powder with the Star of David, because it's hard to imagine how else the Star of David could have been "buried" in powder, otherwise. The symbolism of a Star of David buried in powder, used to deliver an anthrax attack, would be obvious. A pun on "snuff" sounds a bit sophisticated for a non-native speaker, although it would also make sense, of course.
LOL! How's that for a stretch?!
In which case the cigar stands for the president
and also the White House
which they probably were hoping to 'take out'.
(Also fits in with with the Spanish Jennifer Lopez theme)
Maybe it's something like that. But this seems perhaps a bit steeped in the American culture and the English language. Mohamed Atta is the same person who was so unfamiliar with our ways that he thought he could walk into Johnelle Bryant's office and walk out with a $650,000 government loan in cash on the spot to buy a cropduster with.
It's hard to tell with these speculations though -- they're all pretty far-out. But so were the items in the Jennifer Lopez letter.
In any event, can you think of a reason that would they be making an allusion to Clinton, rather than Bush?
There are a lot of people at AMI who saw the items and probably remember them; some of then might recall brand names.
Notice that this theory makes the contents of the J-Lo letter essentially the same as the other anthrax letters: it has the 09-11 date (the rebus), and it has the "Death to Israel" threat (the Star of David in either anthrax powder or dust).
"A certain peculiar sense" is a good way to put it.
I suspect if the cigar was a Clinton metaphor, then it would be the symbol of American values as the the Islamic would see them, i.e. the Clinton/Lewinsky affair.
After eight years, Clinton is the president they knew best - Bush was still new. They obviously neither respected nor feared Clinton (USS Cole, Embassy Bombings, 93 WTC, etc.) and thus had no fear of the new kid on the block either.
I'm inclined to think that the message in the J-Lo letter was the same as that in the known anthrax letters (see #108 above).
Seems to be pretty clear what the cigar meant, as well as the snuff can, and the detergent box cover.
Mr. Atta didn't like girls in the first place! Now just what do you think he thought about Jewish girls.
I don't know Steven's eating habits but keep "ingested" anthrax in mind. (You could get both inhalation and ingested at the same time and no one would know.) I believe Steven's body was cremated and I do not believe an autopsy was done.
The mailman could have become contaminated in many different ways.
Did Stevens(now highly contaminated) make a last trip to the Postal Dept to pick up his mail before his trip?? Did he often eat lunch at his keyboard?? (I do!) Does he open his mail at his computer? Is his mailrack above his computer?
There was a path of Anthrax through the building. The Editorial department was on the Third floor.
The mail was picked up at the old address (Post Office) daily and brought to AMI. This could cause the minute traces found in the various Florida post offices.
I just think that some of the terrorists didn't get their deposit back and before the "mailer" left Florida near the end of September, they left a little "something" at AMI.
There's a lot we don't know and the FBI isn't quite ready to tell us but it's curious that they are back at AMI.
We may be after renewing inspections in Iraq to find the matching strain with its' particular odd characteristics. (They never gave us the TOTAL analysis.)
I have a pretty long scenario in my head which covers Nguyen and Lundgren also.
Sac
The FBI finished up their two-week-long search of the AMI building yesterday. No word yet on what, if anything, they found.
Heavy anthrax contamination was found throughout the entire AMI building, to the point that some investigators suspected that there might have been more than one letter.
I have a pretty long scenario in my head which covers Nguyen and Lundgren also.
If you care to elaborate on this, I'd be interested.
OK. Now continue the Rebus.
11 : Twin Towers, obviously.
01 : The White House, President, Leader, Numero Uno
So what is the 9??
Not the Pentagon, obviously.
Perhaps the plane that hit the Pentagon was meant to hit the White House but diverted.
So what is the 9??
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