Posted on 11/09/2001 1:33:50 PM PST by Fearless Flyers
Also to read this they say that the 3 letters were hand-written. As we determined on FR, 2 of the letters are identical in their layout (even though the paper size is different).
If one of the letters is not a photo-copy of the other, then it was manually duplicated using carbon paper. There are not 3 letters to compare hand-writting samples, however. Only 2 "unique" letters and 3 "unique" envelopes.
Also, this statement is a stretch:3. The author uses the words "can not," when many people prefer to spell it as one word, "cannot." Many more people prefer the contraction "can't".
Great detail is made to document that the author selected his 3 targets deliberately. Why aren't the Florida cases tied to this? Mere coincidence? An opportunist using the Florida attack to add confusion to the east coast attacks? Why have the Florida attacks been dropped off the "radar"?
The early report on the envelopes (within days of the attacks) was that the flaps were not sealed, rather they were tucked in "loose". This is why the powder could be leaking on equipment during handling and contaminating adjacent envelopes (not always to a lethal level, but to a measurable degree).
But didn't they probably try on September 11th to get the Congress, big time, by plane? After September 11th they would have had to use another route of attack.
Additionally there is that pesky Florida Anthrax attack with a questionable link to Atta.
The spores were able to infiltrate the paper and go right through the walls of the envelopes anyway.
My scenario would have Mr. Atta's friends dropping off 3 or 4 envelopes in local curbside collection boxes down there in the Boca Raton area.
Normal postal operations would then serve to bring those letters together in the same stack of "empty" trays. Here's how:
1. All the collection boxes were in a wealthy neighborhood - theirs! The USPS frequently places collection boxes in such neighborhoods even though there is rarely any mail dropped in them.
2. Each collection box has a large "flat tray" in the bottom. This is that larger postal tray made out of corrugated polypropylene that the general public likes so much - for gardening, in the garage, trash collection, etc.
3. When mail is dropped in the top of the collection box it drops into the tray in the bottom.
4. The carrier or collection route employee replaces the tray, taking the supposedly "full" tray and putting it in the back of the collection vehicle. That way no letter is missed - and you better believe, those rich old people with nothing better to do than watch the collection box know if the carrier has done the job correctly - and if not they will instantly call postal management and complain.
5. The carrier stacks the trays taken from the collection boxes up in her vehicle. At the end of the route, those trays are transferred to the collection platform.
Since these trays are virtually empty they will be mistaken for empty mail transportation equipment (MTE). Because Florida is a mail destination area and generates little of its own, lots and lots of postal equipment would pile up down there unless they shipped it back North. Those empty trays were stacked with other trays on a pallet, then wrapped in plastic sheet and shipped North to places that needed more empty trays - e.g. Philadelphia BMC which, in turn, supplies equipment to Trenton.
As the stack of trays was "worked", the letters were found and tossed into 010. That particular stack of trays was "worked" down over a period of days which is why I believe the trays were sent to a major mailer in the Trenton area and not directly to a postal facility. Later unexplainable contamination occured when those very same contaminated trays were sent around to other jobs.
There was no text or pictures of the first "2" letters released before the third letter arrived. This means that the similarity of language was not known by the public at large (eliminates the likelihood of a copycat who read about the first "2" letters).
If you make a mistake growing pot, the plant may die. If you make a mistake growing Anthrax, you get exposure (or expose those who come over to your dwelling).
It's funny how all guns need to be registered, fertalizer and explosives need "tagging" to identify where it was sold, but our nation did not have adequate tracking of those "legally" possessed Anthrax.
The "light" is better over here so this is where they will look, regardless of where the problem originated.
Add to that the partisan investigators that are too myopic to consider all suspects in this case. Not all FBI agents are out to prove a VRWC exists, but certainly there was an agenda in the actions of this "protective" agency.
Mail delivery has been chaotic since the 9/11 attack. Mail service was interrupted and delivery slowed down when the planes were grounded (mail continued to move on train).
Mail delivery is still affected. I had a Priority Mail envelope that took 2 weeks to arrive and it was mailed on October 25th.
Regarding the confusion as to whether the envelopes were sealed, it would be a good thing to know at any rate. I did hear (initially) that the envelopes (1, 2 or all 3?) were not sealed, rather the flap was tucked in. It could have been closed with tape.
Another small detail that was botched during reporting of these 9/11 incidents was that Atta played pinball the night before the attack. Later this "pinball machine" was identified as Golden tee, a golf simulation video game. The journalist who wrote the article that identified the machine still referred to it as a pinball machine. In the grand total, it means nothing. But it goes to show that journalists haven't got a clue as to what details are important and are making sloppy errors in reporting the "facts".
There was a lead FBI investigator who referred to letters and trays as "boxes". Another lead FBI investigator actually told members of the media (who were equally ignorant) that he/she had no idea how anthrax could be spread through the mail unless there were more letters.
Stupidity like that - if not that very stupidity - killed two people in the Postal Service and allowed many others to be infected, and hundreds to be exposed.
CDC people actually thought anthrax particles as small as 1 to 5 microns couldn't migrate through paper envelopes. It turned out those envelopes have holes 100 microns in size. CDC people were also saying you had to breathe a minimum of 18,000 spores to develop inhalation anthrax. Later on they revised this number all the way down to 1 spore.
Postal managers were rightly criticized for having no contingency plan in case of an anthrax attack that infected postal equipment; on the other hand, both the CDC and the FBI had never examined that problem themselves, and when confronted with the reality, denied that it was at all a problem - except to Senator Daschle who was acting all so brave over it.
Lots and lots of bureaucrats in Washington should be sacked and replaced. Let's start with the CDC guys, then the FBI, and work our way through the Postal Service - but only after we get a few idiots suspended from the US Senate!
Doesn't this make it likely there are at least two individuals involved? Once you get two, doesn't it seem likely there are a bunch?
Quite possibly they were given discrete quantities acquired over the years. I doubt that anybody who handled the stuff bothered to check it out for granularity.
One possibility discussed to some degree here at FR is that they tried the crop duster trick and found that it just didn't work. This mail thing was an experiment, and it didn't work either!
Remember, these terrorists are particularly stupid - after all most of them boarded airplanes which crashed.
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