Posted on 11/05/2001 10:30:32 AM PST by grimalkin
Three Pakistani men faced questioning in the anthrax investigation today after being taken into custody near the contaminated postal facility in Hamilton Township, N.J.
One man, identified as Allah Rakah, was detained Friday. After FBI agents raided his residence, agents wearing protective gear searched the apartment, his car, which had Florida license plates, and a nearby mailbox. A neighbor across the street said he called the FBI after seeing the man handling what the neighbor considered a suspicious plastic bag of letters.
"I noticed the gentleman late at night — maybe 10 o'clock, 11 o'clock, — take a plastic bag, a clear plastic bag, with envelopes in it and placed it softly in the car, on the passenger side of the car, and locked it," the neighbor said.
The other two men were taken into custody earlier last week in an FBI raid at another nearby apartment building.
The manager of the building said FBI agents asked the men for handwriting samples and a neighbor said she saw the two men being taken out of an apartment where four other men of Middle Eastern descent lived. The two detained men were being held on immigration charges.
Anthrax-laced letters mailed to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle's office on Capitol Hill, NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw in New York and the New York Post were processed at the Hamilton Township facility near Trenton, N.J.
All three of the handwritten notes inside were dated "09-11-01," the date of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, and contained the message: "DEATH TO AMERICA. DEATH TO ISRAEL. ALLAH IS GREAT."
Hundreds of FBI investigators and postal inspectors continue to canvas the Trenton area in a search for clues they hope will lead them to the perpetrators of the bioterror attacks.
‘Hot Spot’ in Pentagon Post Office
The post office inside the Pentagon was decontaminated over the weekend after anthrax was discovered in two areas, officials said today.
The facility receives mail from the main Brentwood postal facility in Washington, where the Daschle letter is known to have been processed. Authorities believe the detection of the bacteria inside the Pentagon is the latest known case of cross-contamination from the Brentwood site.
It was revealed Saturday that the mailroom of the Department of Veteran's Affairs Medical Center in Washington, D.C., which also receives mail from the Brentwood facility, tested positive for trace amounts of anthrax.
Cross-contaminated letters processed at the Brentwood facility are believed to be the source of contamination of some 20 government and postal service buildings where the bacteria has been detected.
Thanks for the ping!
The Florida license plates on Allah Rakah's car is news to me. And, I'll bet, very significant.
FBI were asking other detainees and their roommates if they "had friends in Florida," according to a Trenton Times article.
I think he means scrapple, which is a Pennsylvania Dutch specialty made out of (I shudder to think) pork cheeks.
But shrapnel would be even better.
I wonder, however, how anthrax letters (assuming it's fine powder like Daschle got) in such a bag would be transferred to a mailbox without scattering anthrax over the general area and on the terrorist himself, into his car when he returns, etc.
My Pennsylvania Dutch father, if he were still around, would tell you the other ingredients found in scrapple. "Pork cheeks" is probably the best part - what ever is left over from the hog after ham, bacon, porkchops are harvested is more accurate! This to include, nose, eyes stomach parts etc.
Can't be all bad - I was fed a diet of it every weekend - dad used to think is was special so he saved it for Sat/Sun breakfasts.
Offering to force feed iscrapple to the suspected terriorists might just get them to talk rather freely!! And we could always claim that we were just trying to make sure they were recieving proper nourishment.
As far as I know, the feds aren't in possession of the letters that were in the ziploc bag.
Maybe the eyewitness called in his tip too late for them to be retrieved from the car; or maybe the FBI didn't get there in time.
OTOH, maybe the feds DID intercept the letters. And just aren't telling us!
Once again, American citizens doing their duty.
God bless this neighbor.
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