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Leaks, focus on single suspect undercut anthrax probe
Los Angeles Times ^ | Sunday, June 29, 2008 | David Willman

Posted on 06/29/2008 8:32:10 AM PDT by jpl

WASHINGTON -- The federal investigation into the deadly anthrax mailings of late 2001 was undermined by leaks and a premature fixation on a single suspect, according to investigators and scientists involved in the case.

More than six years after the mailings, no one has been charged, and the top suspect, former Army scientist Steven J. Hatfill was all but exonerated Friday when the U.S. Justice Department agreed to pay him $5.82 million to settle a lawsuit.

(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...


TOPICS: Anthrax Scare; Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: amerithrax; anthrax; anthraxscarelist; hatfill; islamothrax
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Remainder of article at the attached link. This is a devastating article on how our incompetent F.B.I. completely botched the anthrax investigation almost right from the beginning.
1 posted on 06/29/2008 8:32:14 AM PDT by jpl
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To: jpl

I knew within days that it was Saddam, and that it was supplied to the 9-11 bombers. A guy who lived in one of their buildings in FL was one of the first to die. I don’t think the FBI was that stupid to not know it, either. Question is, why the diversion to Hatfill?


2 posted on 06/29/2008 8:35:27 AM PDT by Defiant (Leave it to the Dems to nominate someone so bad I may be forced to vote for McCain.)
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To: jpl

Willman does seem to have some god new sources. For example, this is the first time I’ve read the Lambert was being written up by agents for incompetence.
I never did buy Lambert’s story that he took the job in TN to be closer to his wife ;)


3 posted on 06/29/2008 8:53:25 AM PDT by TrebleRebel
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To: jpl

The article seems to totally miss discussing the influence Senators Daschle and Leahy might have had on the FBI investigation. I wonder why?


4 posted on 06/29/2008 8:55:38 AM PDT by norwaypinesavage (Planting trees to offset carbon emissions is like drinking water to offset rising ocean levels)
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To: norwaypinesavage
That's a good point. It does briefly mention them in passing, and it does contain the interesting little tidbit that the FBI found Daschle's staff to be "hostile".

As another poster correctly stated in another thread, this debacle should join the Richard Jewell fiasco as a permanent case study for the FBI and every law enforcement entity as a case study in how NOT to conduct an investigation. It was accurately described by journalist/blogger Nicholas Stix as "wag the dog policing".

5 posted on 06/29/2008 8:59:40 AM PDT by jpl
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To: Defiant
The diversion to Hatfill was just that. Tying it to Iraq...in prosecutable form....was likely impossible...since I believe the "couriers" were among the 9-11 suicide bombers.....and the other dot (mailer) "is likely dead".

Besides....The DEMS might have to say that "GD"...Not only did Saddam have WMD...he used them on us...

Remember....The Gorelick wall was still there when the letters went out.

6 posted on 06/29/2008 9:00:51 AM PDT by Sacajaweau (I'm planting corn...Have to feed my car...)
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To: Defiant
"Question is, why the diversion to Hatfill?"

See Response #4. You wouldn't want to blame Muslims, would you?

7 posted on 06/29/2008 9:01:20 AM PDT by norwaypinesavage (Planting trees to offset carbon emissions is like drinking water to offset rising ocean levels)
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To: Defiant

According to his lawyer, the FBI suspects an Iraqi Salafist. While his father did work at the Iraqi embassy, the closer connection drawn is that he was mentored by Bin Laden’s sheik al-Hawali (who was the subject of OBL’s Declaration of War). The microbiologist was at the building housing the DARPA-funded Center for Biodefense at GMU University. He spoke to Bin Laden’s sheik, his lawyer says, on September 16 and 19, 2001, coordinated with the “911 imam,” and arranged to hand deliver a message to every menmber of Congress on the first anniversary of the anthrax mailings (in the name of Bin Laden’s sheik). Given the signature was consistent with what had been developed at the DARPA Center, even assuming a cooperation and exchange between Zawahiri and Iraqi intelligence, it seems to add an unnecessary leap to assume the Saddam connection. Like the 911 imam, the microbiologist was preaching the end of times.

http://www.anthraxandalqaeda.com


8 posted on 06/29/2008 9:35:35 AM PDT by ZACKandPOOK
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To: jpl

The fascinating part of this case is that the mailings stopped.

It would seem likely the terrorist behind them is now dead, or perhaps locked up, otherwise he would surely have continued. It also seems likely this was a very small organization, or someone would have replaced him.

The funniest part is an assumption that OBL ordered his followers to attack “the American media.” The first letters were received by American Media Corp.


9 posted on 06/29/2008 9:40:04 AM PDT by Sherman Logan (Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves. - A. Lincoln)
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To: Sherman Logan
The first letters were received by American Media Corp.

I've never believed that that was a pure coincidence either, and I think that first letter to American Media is the key to the entire case.

10 posted on 06/29/2008 10:09:28 AM PDT by jpl
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To: jpl

Good article, but no mention of Barbara Hatch Rosenberg’s influence on the case.


11 posted on 06/29/2008 10:18:41 AM PDT by Mr. Peabody
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To: Defiant
I knew within days that it was Saddam, and that it was supplied to the 9-11 bombers. A guy who lived in one of their buildings in FL was one of the first to die. I don’t think the FBI was that stupid to not know it, either. Question is, why the diversion to Hatfill?

You are speaking, of course, of Robert Smith, a journalist who wasn't even an American (he was British). This was*all* supposedly "random", according to the FBI, but when the *first* victim had a "connection" to the 9-11 terrorists it's difficult to maintain that charade.

Look at the great lengths that the press went through to try and convince the public that Mr. Smith contracted his anthrax infection by "drinking from a rural stream in North Carolina", and other such nonsense.

It was only when it could no longer be denied tat his infection was a deliberate act (the stuff had beeen *mailed* to him, by name, at his workplace, for crying out loud). Then others started falling ill, some of them dying, so they had to change the paradigm, once again.

What was never in the cards, though, for the public, was the truth. Why? Because there were "plans" afoot, and keeping the knowledge of a deliberate bio-attack from a hostile foreign government secret was integral to those plans. Public knowledge of such an attack, with Saddam Hussein's involvement, would derail those plans, thus, the charade.

Perhaps it was truly necessary, at that time, perhaps not, but now is time for the truth to be told...

the infowarrior

12 posted on 06/29/2008 10:26:40 AM PDT by infowarrior
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To: infowarrior

1. Infowarrior, minor note: you mean Robert Stevens. Robert Smith is my barber.

Dr. Rebel, the public is far more clueless than the FBI. We would want the FBI to leave no stone unturned and are not in a position to judge them so harshly. If we put them in a position of being damned if they do and damned if they don’t, we will undermine their effectiveness.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-NGKm4xxC4


13 posted on 06/29/2008 10:58:41 AM PDT by ZACKandPOOK
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To: Defiant
I knew within days that it was Saddam, and that it was supplied to the 9-11 bombers. A guy who lived in one of their buildings in FL was one of the first to die.

Not to point out the obvious again, but both mailings occured after the 9-11 hijackers were long dead, the second mailing being long after they were dead.

Also, Bob Stevens never lived in any building with a hijacker.

And actually, the first mailings took place AFTER it had been widely reported in the media that the hijackers lived in Florida (So it's possible the first mailing was an attempt to link the hijackers to the mailings)

14 posted on 06/29/2008 11:01:02 AM PDT by Strategerist
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To: infowarrior
It was only when it could no longer be denied tat his infection was a deliberate act (the stuff had beeen *mailed* to him, by name, at his workplace, for crying out loud).

A copy of the that letter and envelope doesn't exist, but there's no evidence that it was mailed to him (or anyone else) by name; there was testimony that a letter with powder was opened by a clerk and thrown in the trash. Stevens was contaminated by vacuuming spreading the dust around.

15 posted on 06/29/2008 11:10:48 AM PDT by Strategerist
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To: Strategerist

Minor point:

The best discussion of his exposure is by Leonard Coleman, a professor who interviewed the folks at AMI. He says that Stevens looked at a letter re JLo’s upcoming wedding. There was a powder and jewish star. He put it down on his keyboard (where a concentration was found). The contamination through the Post Offices, according to the CDC, suggests there were actually two letters.

Jenny was Atta and Ramzi’s code. Wedding was code for event.

But you are right the hijackers were dead and thus could not have mailed the anthrax. The 911 imam providing counsel to two key hijackers (Hani and Nawaf) was coordinating with the man whose lawyer says the FBI considers an anthrax weapons suspect. He was the main speaker for the only US charity promoted by Al Qaeda’s website (which was hosted in New Brunswick, NJ). He was convicted to life plus 70 years and his sentence has been remanded. He used to work for Andrew Card when he was secretary of transportation. His office was 15 feet from Ken Alibek and the former USAMRIID deputy commander. He had a high security clearance while at SRA at the same time as the former USAMRIID deputy commander.

Bottom line is that the fact that the hijackers were dead is the beginning of analysis, not the end.

http://www.anthraxandalqaeda.com

The FBI has been doing very well and the fact that they have been able to keep the public in the dark is perhaps to their credit, perhaps not. It is difficult to tell presently. But we will see this year, I believe.


16 posted on 06/29/2008 11:19:40 AM PDT by ZACKandPOOK
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To: ZACKandPOOK

I’m sure this will fall on deaf ears but you need to look at information about the Anthrax investigation from sources other than those that tell you the perpetrators are who you want them to be.

It’s pretty clear the AMI contamination began in the mailroom and there was one letter.

I see a rather amazing amount of inaccurate information about the attacks being spread around.


17 posted on 06/29/2008 11:35:36 AM PDT by Strategerist
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To: Strategerist

I link thousands of hyperlinked articles and peer-reviewed articles and original sources provided to me by DIA at

http://www.anthraxandalqaeda.com

Is there one I missed? I would be glad to add it. The CDC peer-reviewed articles are the most authoritative as to the two routes through the POs. (There were more than one AMI publication.


18 posted on 06/29/2008 11:52:55 AM PDT by ZACKandPOOK
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To: Strategerist

I was the one who typed and uploaded the many dozens of Hatfill exhibits for example to FreeRepublic so people would have the chance to read the underlying documents. That thread is ongoing.


19 posted on 06/29/2008 11:54:58 AM PDT by ZACKandPOOK
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To: ZACKandPOOK

The Coleman book was published by the National Academy of Sciences, as I recall, and is online.


20 posted on 06/29/2008 11:57:28 AM PDT by ZACKandPOOK
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