Posted on 02/11/2003 7:37:08 AM PST by yonif
I'll bet Hatfill is happy to hear this. < /sarcasm>
Makes sense to me!
Why do you assume the perpetrators of the anthrax attacks INTENDED to kill few people with it? The most likely reason is a miscalculation. The perps wanted to bring down American government, military, financial institutions, and media all in one fell swoope. The fact that the first known letter went to an outfit called American Media is telling. Other letters went to Brokaw and Rather, two famous U.S. media personalities. One may have also gone to Jennings, since a child who visited ABC got sick. But the source was never determined.
As for Daschle and Leahy, to anyone unfamiliar with our system of government, in the months prior to 9/11 Daschle would have seemed like the guy in charge of the whole Congress. Leahy was also all over the tube during that time being interviewed about judicial appointments. So he could easily have seemed more important than he was (or is).
The hijackings were intended to take out easily identifiable financial, military and government targets. The flight that came down in Pennsylvania is believed to have been intended for the White House or the Capitol. It is also believed that other hijackers were in the air that day, but didn't act before air traffic was shut down nationwide.
There are no easily identifiable ABC-CBS-NBC targets that could be taken out from the air. But the anthrax could do it (or so the perps thought). Plus, it had the added benefit of serving as a backup operation if any one hijacking attempt didn't go according to plan.
Although they did succeed in slaughtering over 3000 people, shutting down our air traffic, government, and financial institutions, and rocking the country back on its heels for a short while, luck actually wasn't entirely with them. The twin towers and Pentagon attrocities killed far fewer people than what might have been the case a little later in the day, or if the towers came down faster, or, in the case of the Pentagon plane, if it had hit more squarely into the heart of the building. The Pennsylvania plane did not hit its intended target. And the anthrax attacks sowed lots of fear, but killed few.
Well, actually, it seems to take more brains than most on the Left appear to have.
Seems to me the other way round. If they know Saddam is behind the anthrax, why would they want to join America in a war against Saddam? That would be like sticking little targets to their heads: "Hit me, I need to take millions dead!"
But I still believe there is a chance that the mailings to Daschle and Leahy were studied. The instructions the terrorists received may well have been "(to get attention) attack the American media, along with the Democrats (to deflect the attention from us)".
Of course, there would be some poetic justice in Daschle's getting a packet just because the media gave him a lot of face time...and he came across as an a**hole.
Anthrax - Al Qaeda theory - commentary to date in support
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/798048/posts#25
The reason Daschle and Leahy were targeted was because of their positions and control of certain appropriations.
This is extremely misleading.
The virulent Ames was modified to make it non-pathogenic.
It is this non-virulent Ames which has been distributed fairly widely.
The virulent Ames is known to exist in perhaps fewer than 6 labs.
Certainly not everywhere in the world.
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