Posted on 10/27/2001 9:18:58 AM PDT by goldylight
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The FBI and CIA believe extremists in the United States, not followers of Saudi-born Osama bin Laden, are probably behind this month's anthrax attacks, the Washington Post reported on Saturday.
Senior officials also are increasingly concerned the germ warfare agent attacks have diverted public attention from the larger threat posed by bin Laden and his al Qaeda network, the paper said. They believe the main suspect in the hijacked plane strikes on America on Sept. 11 is planning a second wave of attacks against U.S. interests at home or abroad that could come at any time, the Post added
The FBI and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service are considering a wide range of domestic possibilities, including associates of right-wing hate groups and U.S. residents sympathetic to causes of Islamic extremists, in the letter-borne germ attacks.
"Everything seems to lean toward a domestic source," a senior government official told the newspaper. "Nothing seems to fit with an overseas terrorist type operation."
In a spate of cases involving letters laced with the anthrax spores, three people have died, at least 11 others have been infected and thousands more have been tested or given medicine for the rare disease. The attacks have spooked Americans, already on edge after the plane attacks that killed some 5,000 people shattered the nation's sense of security.
The Post reported investigators have no clear suspects and are not even certain whether there are other undetected letters that contain the potentially deadly microbe.
So far, federal authorities have identified only one letter in the Washington area that contained anthrax -- sent to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, a South Dakota Democrat.
But the detection of anthrax at an increasing number of government mail facilities and congressional offices has raised the possibility that one or more additional anthrax letters may have come through the Washington area.
The Bush administration has said it does not rule out a link between the anthrax and bin Laden, although it has found no hard evidence.
On Friday, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said investigators had determined that the pure, concentrated and highly dangerous anthrax delivered in a letter to Daschle "could be produced by a PhD microbiologist and a sophisticated laboratory."
"That does not rule out that it could be state-sponsored," Fleischer said at a briefing. "That does not rule out that it could come from a foreign location. But it certainly does expand it beyond state sponsorship or foreign locations."
The Post said the anti-Israel message in anthrax letters sent to Daschle and NBC News, and in bin Laden's statements are echoed by U.S. extremists groups, such as Aryan Action, which praises the Sept. 11 plane attacks.
FBI Director Robert Mueller warned earlier this week additional terror attacks are a "distinct possibility."
But government officials do not believe the anthrax scare is a second wave of attacks by bin Laden, the paper said.
"There is not intelligence on it and it does not fit any (al Qaeda) pattern," a senior official told the paper.
Why do you all go nuts when something is reported in the Washington Post?
Almost surely it is being caused domestically, by sleeper cells of Muslims that have lived here for who knows how long. But they probably got the spores from either Iraq or the Russian Mafia, Klintoon and Gore's buddies. Or maybe Klintoon has his own stash to hand out from U.S. laboratories. His stashes of every substance are probably unlimited.
The Aryans, the socialists who seek to take this government over, on and on. Just look at the hate for the government revealed daily here on FR. Who is to say they are not involved.
These people that hate this country and this government don't deserve America because they don't reflect what America is. They themselves are taking away freedom, they themselves have put themselves in the class of terrorists. True Americans are not terrorists.
Bush has apparently named some kind of nonentity to head the FBI in order to get Senate approval. It's timed to get the Lon Horiuchis and the various people clinton promoted for their good work at Ruby Ridge, Waco, OKC, and PanAm 800 and shovel them out of there.
This is intolerable.
I am afraid this is absolutely true. What are the odds that a right wing nutcase... or any nutcase for that matter... would send high quality anthrax on the exact day arab terrorists attack. Does the government think we are really so stupid as to believe that this is possible? Are we so stupid?
What are the odds that Atta would meet multiple times with an Iraqi government official at the same time he had to be very involved in the planning of the 9/11 attacks and the meetings would not be connected?
All signs point to Iraqi involvement. And, sadly, Saudi involvement as well, which might be more frightening to the Pentagon than Iraq.
We are wimping out, ladies and gentlemen. We can still turn it around at any time, but right now we are running a prevent offense.
Um, my country right or wrong? Thought we discredited that one a long time ago. Maybe you are right, that Darn Patrick Henry and John Adams, why didn't they just sit down and shut up. The government always knows whats best for us.
1. TWA-800
2. OKC
#3 would have been WTC 9-11 if the goofballs didn;t make it so damned obvious.
And if Youssef hadn't gone back to try and get his truck deposit back we'd probably still be told that today.
"None of the 60 to 80 threat reports gathered daily by U.S. intelligence agencies has connected the envelopes containing anthrax spores to al Qaeda or other known organized terrorist groups, and the evidence gleaned from the spore samples so far provides no solid link to a foreign government or laboratory, several officials said..."
So let's see....who could be sending the anthrax?....hmmmm....right wing extremists! That is who!
I suspect the left is terrified one of their own is doing this, hence the recent spate of articles blaming the right. That is their usual MO.
This story deserves skepticism, no question.
Nothing mentioned in this article supports the author's contention that the CIA share these beliefs.
The FBI and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service are considering a wide range of domestic possibilities, including associates of right-wing hate groups and U.S. residents sympathetic to causes of Islamic extremists, in the letter-borne germ attacks.
Even the FBI are willing to suggest that the letters could have come from Islamic extremists in this country (how they are determining that it wasn't a sleeper cell is beyond me).
"Everything seems to lean toward a domestic source," a senior government official told the newspaper. "Nothing seems to fit with an overseas terrorist type operation."
Daschle is a senior government official. I'm not suggesting that he gave this quote but that "title" really doesn't mean much, especially since the original article was written by Woodward for the Washington P*st. Basically they are admitting that "they got nothin'" so they are considering all options. The FBI could be considering left-wing "hate" groups too but perhaps the author just neglected to mention this...
The rest of the world had to be shown evidence that connected bin Laden to the 9/11 attacks before they would come on board. I would like to see some proof before the press prints that it could even possibly be "right-wing" "hate" groups. Are all right-wing groups extreme? do all right-wing groups hate? Certainly that is the picture that the press (and congressmen who called the Republicans nazis on the floor of the House) are trying to paint. This is a smear tactic and the press is getting while the getting is good.
Not hate, just caution in the Founders' tradition.
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