Posted on 10/31/2006 2:52:25 PM PST by RDTF
In December 2001, as the investigation into the U.S. anthrax attacks was gathering steam, coalition soldiers in Afghanistan uncovered what appeared to be an important clue: a trail of documents chronicling an attempt by al-Qaeda to create its own anthrax weapon.
The documents told of a singular mission by a scientist named Abdur Rauf, an obscure, middle-aged Pakistani with alleged al-Qaeda sympathies and an advanced degree in microbiology.
Using his membership in a prestigious scientific organization to gain access, Rauf traveled through Europe on a quest, officials say, to obtain both anthrax spores and the equipment needed to turn them into highly lethal biological weapons. He reported directly to al-Qaeda's No. 2 commander, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and in one document he appeared to signal a breakthrough.
"I successfully achieved the targets," he wrote cryptically to Zawahiri in a note in 1999. Precisely what Rauf achieved may never be known with certainty. That's because U.S. officials remain stymied in their nearly five-year quest to bring charges against a man who they say admitted serving as a top consultant to al-Qaeda on anthrax -- a claim that makes him one of a handful of people linked publicly to the group's effort to wage biological warfare against Western targets.
Rauf, 47, has been under scrutiny in Pakistan since he was detained there for questioning in late 2001, according to U.S. and Pakistani officials who agreed to talk about the case for the first time. But officially he remains free, and Pakistan now says it has no grounds for arrest. Last year, in an acknowledgment of the impasse in its four-year joint investigation with Pakistan, the FBI officially put the case on inactive status.
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
ping
Anthrax ping
"Privately, FBI officials doubt that such a link exists."
Leak! Leak! Leak! "Privately" = "Leak"
"They note that the attacks came with an explicit warning --a letter advising the victims to take penicillin, resulting in a far lower death toll"
Just as well could describe it as an ambiguous hint that the later anthrax outbreak would be traced to the letter's message. The first wave didn't work, so a second wave was sent explicitly using the word "anthrax."
" -- but without an explicit claim of responsibility. "It doesn't fit with al-Qaeda's modus operandi," one intelligence official said."
Yes, that makes sense, Osama explicitled claimed responsibility for 9/11. Oh wait, he didn't...well, much later, sort of.
Ping.
Article mentions Getman.
Ping!
I don't think it was a warning. I think the senders would have seen the first wave as a failure. IIRC there was little news about anthrax before the AMI story, and when the AMI story came out it wasn't linked to a specific message - or even mail. So the person/s sent the second wave to the Senators, expressly stating "anthrax."
They were simply mailed at the same time ~ a letter or two is hardly a "wave".
The latest dates, he reports, from the handwritten notes are reportedly July and September 1999:
"(6) Unfortunately, I did not find the required culture of B. anthrax i.e., pathogenic. The culture available in [REDACTED] is non-pathogenic."Getman asks, "Did Dr. Rauf ever obtain virulent Ames? While the notes refer to dates in 1999, an A. Rauf attended the 2000 conference on 'Dangerous Pathogens.' Of course, there still would be a major question of who weaponized the anthrax and who mailed it."(8) Therefore, keeping in view to above circumstances, a visit to [REDACTED] can be arranged for 10 days in the 1st week of [REDACTED] . (FN) This requires at least the air ticket expenses."
"For this visit, I should be informed as early as possible.
Yours sincerely,
[REDACTED]
FN (9) The money with me is only for the purpose to buy strains or vaccines."
------Source : "No Attacks Since 9/11?," By Cliff Kincaid, Opinion, The Conservative Voice, Posted by Senior Editor on 2005/5/7 9:16:00 , http://www.theconservativevoice.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=5425
While he was in the US, El Hage received "packages of seeds" from a female relative in Sudan.
That detail always bothered me, as Sudan and Iraq had a little MD R&D going on during the period bin Laden was based there on his "farm."
Excuse me, I have that wrong. El Hage was the one who sent the "seed samples" from bin Laden's farm in Sudan to his relative. The relative was his mother in law.
Do you have a date for this???
Another interesting figure is an Iraqi- people don't even know one of bin Laden's best buds was an Iraqi "engineer" named Saad but he had more even less well known Iraqi associate:
Mubarak Douri aka Mubarak al Duri, etc is a very interesting figure. The 9/11 commission report mentions him as the guy who helped al Qaeda procure WMD. It doesn't specify just what sort of WMD- but it does mention that he supervised another al Qaeda related person on a big agricultural irrigation project in Sudan. Seems kind of odd to have a guy who's in charge of procuring WMD also supervising an irrigation project, doesn't it?
The other thing about the Mubarak al Douri is that he is part of the Tucson cell that el Hage belonged to. That cell has strong ties to a Toronto mosque, and one figure in particular is tied to Florida.
http://www.latimes.com/services/site/premium/access-registered.intercept
What was this guys job in Toronto???
1987 - 1991, and 2001 fall: (AL MARRI ATTENDS BRADLEY UNIVERSITY IN PEORIA, IL) Ali Salem Kahlah Al-Marri was a student at Bradley University in Peoria from 1987 until 1991, when he received a bachelor of science degree. He enrolled for the fall term last year as a graduate student in computer science, university spokeswoman Cath Conver said. ----------- "FBI Agents Say Phone Records Link Illinois Student to Sept. 11 Terrorists, " By Mike Robinson, Associated Press, Published: Mar 20, 2002
OCTOBER 2, 2001 : (AL MARRI QUESTIONED BY FBI) FBI agents first questioned Ali Saleh Kahlah Al-Marri at his West Peoria, Ill., home Oct. 2, 2001. They asked him about a steamer chest he had shipped to the United States from his homeland and about his enrollment in a master's degree program at Bradley University in Peoria. The chest had only clothes and spices in it, and there was nothing particularly troubling about his college enrollment. But over the next year, agents weaved a circumstantial web of evidence around Al-Marri.
According to court papers reviewed by the Daily News, his laptop computer contained: An Arabic prayer asking God to protect Osama Bin Laden. Audio files of lectures by Bin Laden and his associates advocating martyrdom and support for the Taliban. Other lectures urging opposition to Jewish and Christian control of Palestine, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia, while advising how to train in Bin Laden's Afghanistan camps. A note in Arabic proclaiming: "Neither the U.S. nor anyone living in it will dream of security/safety before we live it in Palestine and before the infidel armies leave the land of Mohammed."
(* My note : reminds me of the sniper suspect, Malvo's notes)
Photos of the attacks on the World Trade Center and Arab prisoners held in Kabul. Extensive evidence of credit card fraud. Links to Web sites on hazardous chemicals and how to buy them, weapons and satellite equipment. ----------- "Mystery man in 9/11 terror case-Who is Ali Al-Marri? FBI links him to hijackers," by RICHARD T. PIENCIAK, New York Daily News 1/12/03
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