Posted on 07/16/2008 12:48:11 PM PDT by ZACKandPOOK
"We have still failed to solve the anthrax attacks that killed Americans on our soil in 2001. We know that Al Qaida was attempting to develop biological weapons in Afghanistan. And we know that the successful deployment of a biological weapon -- whether it is sprayed into our cities or spread through our food supply -- could kill tens of thousands of Americans and deal a crushing blow to our economy.
As President, I will launch an effort across our government to stay ahead of this threat. To prevent bioterrorism, we need to invest in our analysis, enhance our information-sharing, and give our intelligence agencies the capacity to identify and interdict dangerous bio-weapons around the world. To strengthen our efforts with friends and partners, I've proposed a Shared Security Partnership that invests $5 billion over 3 years to forge an international intelligence and law enforcement infrastructure to take down terrorist networks.
Just as we step up our ability to prevent an attack, we must also bolster our capacity to protect against -- and respond to -- the threats that may come. When it comes to bioterror, this can mean the difference between a contained incident and a catastrophe."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Then the $5 billion can be spent on higher priority items. Mr. Cheney, it's time to move forward with arrests. Or would you rather Mr. Obama get all the credit?
True Crime Analysis: The Anthrax Letters (60 seconds)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8PrTXtHDyI
Seems to me all Obama has to do is ask his friend Bill Ayres to give some of his old cronies a call and ask them to come clean and give up.
Gee Obama sure is good at predicting the future. According to the original publication date you posted, Obama made these statements prior to the attacks on 9/11 and the anthrax attacks in October 2001. If he knew all that 2-3 months before those events happened and did nothing to prevent them, then he's either a political opportunist or a member of Al Qaeda.
It was from Saddam, with the blackmail threat of more if we tried to remove him from power.
It could not have been told to the American people at the time due to the mass panic and hysteria it would have caused.
Imagine if my "theory" was true.
There would be a few dems who would have been told "the truth". Those "elightened" dems would KNOW that the anthrax was the REAL WMD's we were trying to find and stop Saddam from spreading to the terrorists training in Iraq under Saddam's "blessing" to thwart a FULL OUT ATTACK ATTEMPT!!
President Bush would have had NO OTHER OPTION than to take Saddam and the threat out, ASAP.
The US was held back by the UN voting, Turkey and the 4thID fiasco, and I can not forget to mention Jay (Paul Revere..."Bush is Coming!!) Rockefeller's "ride" pre-war though the ME warning EVERYONE to "get ready" (hide the WMD's).
When there were no substantial stockpiles of chemical weapons found after 8 or so months, the dems turned the whole WMD arguement into a "nuclear" one to use on President Bush as a campaign issue, knowing that he STILL can not bring up the TRUE story of the antrax because there might be some of Saddam's anthrax out there in the hands of some terrorists bent on harming us, and we are still on the hunt for them.
Thus the dems had the PERFECT STORM to push the "Bush Lied" CRAP to it's untruthful and nausiating zenith, knowing that the administration could not and STILL can not respond.
OK...end of Theory/Rant.
...back to the regular FR programming schedule...
Oops.
But here’s a thought question.
If Obama had been president, and his appointees in position, would the anthrax mailings have been avoided? I don’t know.
But I know it was really lame to allow someone preaching about the signs of the coming days of judgment and end of times and inevitable clash of civiliziations to have an office 15 feet from the leading anthrax scientist and the former deputy of USAMRIID. See Fox News. Regardless of his work for 2 months in 1996 for Andrew Card.
So if Mr. Cheney is taking it personally (as anyone would), then what’s he going to do about it?
BTW, Jane Mayer uses the “Dark Side” in the Star Wars sense. At the DOJ, it merely refers to covert or classified. So in Fall 2001, when Mr. Cheney said they would have to work the Dark Side, that is how he meant it. It’s a lot of responsibility — protection of DC and NYC from an aerosolized attack or detonation of a nuclear device or dirty bomb. But part of living up to that respnsibility is dealing with things in a forthright manner. It’s time to do that now.
Obama is anthrax.
In a filing unsealed this Spring, Dr. Ali Al-Timimi’s lawyer explained that his client “was considered an anthrax weapons suspect.” Al-Timimi was a microbiologist who had worked in the building housing the “Center for Biodefense” funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (”DARPA”). He came to have an office 15 feet from the leading anthrax scientist and the former deputy commander of USAMRIID. Dr. Al-Timimi’s counsel summarizes:
“we know Dr. Al-Timimi:
* was interviewed in 1994 by the FBI and Secret Service regarding his ties to the perpetrators of the first World Trade Center bombing;
* was referenced in the August 6, 2001 Presidential Daily Briefing (”Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US”) as one of seventy individuals regarding whom the FBI is conducting full field investigations on a national basis;
* was described to his brother by the FBI within days of the 9-11 attacks as an immediate suspect in the Al Qaeda conspiracy;
* was contacted by the FBI only nine days after 9-11 and asked about the attacks and its perpetrators;
* was considered an anthrax weapons suspect;
[redacted]
* was described during his trial by FBI agent John Wyman as having “extensive ties” with the “broader al-Qaeda network”;
* was described in the indictment and superseding indictment as being associated with terrorists seeking harm to the United States;
* was a participant in dozens of international overseas calls to individuals known to have been under suspicion of Al-Qaeda ties like Al-Hawali; and
* was associated with the long investigation of the Virginia Jihad Group.
***
The conversation with [Bin Laden’s sheik] Al-Hawali on September 19, 2001 was central to the indictment and raised at trial. Al-Timimi called Dr. Hawali after the dinner with Kwon on September 16, 2001 and just two hours before he met with Kwon and Hassan for the last time on September 19, 2001.
[911 imam] Anwar Al-Aulaqi goes directly to Dr. Al-Timimi’s state of mind and his role in the alleged conspiracy. The 9-11 Report indicates that Special Agent Ammerman interviewed Al-Aulaqi just before or shortly after his October 2002 visit to Dr. Al-Timimi’s home to discuss the attacks and his efforts to reach out to the U.S. government.
[IANA head] Bassem Khafagi was questioned about Dr. Al-Timimi before 9-11 in Jordan, purportedly at the behest of American intelligence. [redacted ] He was specifically asked about Dr. Al-Timimi’s connection to Bin Laden prior to Dr. Al-Timimi’s arrest. He was later interviewed by the FBI about Dr. Al-Timimi. Clearly, such early investigations go directly to the allegations of Dr. Al-Timimi’s connections to terrorists and Bin Laden — [redacted]”
The letter by Al-Timimi’s counsel attached as an exhibit is equally meaty. An example of an additional detail is that in March 2002, Dr. Al-Timimi spoke with Dr. Al-Hawali (Bin Laden’s sheik who was the subject of OBL’s “Declaration of War”) about assisting Moussaoui in his defense.
The filing and the letter exhibit each copy defense co-counsel, the daughter of the lead prosecutor in Amerithrax. That prosecutor has pled the Fifth Amendment concerning all the leaks hyping a “POI” of the other Amerithrax squad, Dr. Steve Hatfill.
In an e-mail obtained by FOX News, scientists at Fort Detrick openly discussed how the anthrax powder they were asked to analyze after the attacks was nearly identical to that made by one of their colleagues.
“Then he said he had to look at a lot of samples that the FBI had prepared ... to duplicate the letter material.” “Then the bombshell. He said that the best duplication of the material was the stuff made by [name redacted]. He said that it was almost exactly the same — his knees got shaky and he sputtered, ‘But I told the General we didn’t make spore powder!’”
FOX News reports:
“The FBI has narrowed its focus to ‘about four’ suspects in the 6 1/2-year investigation of the deadly anthrax attacks of 2001, and at least three of those suspects are linked to the Army’s bioweapons research facility at Fort Detrick in Maryland, FOX News has learned.
Among the pool of suspects are three scientists — a former deputy commander, a leading anthrax scientist and a microbiologist — linked to the research facility, known as USAMRIID.”
It thus appears that the FBI’s theory is that it was more than a happy coincidence for Ayman Zawahiri that an active supporter of the Taliban and supporter of jihad was a US biodefense insider. Microbiologist Al-Timimi worked in the same building as famed Russian bioweapons scientist Ken Alibek and former USAMRIID Deputy Commander and Acting Commander Charles Bailey. Dr. Bailey would publish a lot of research with the “Ames strain” of anthrax. Al-Timimi was a current associate and former student of Bin Laden’s spiritual advisor, dissident Saudi Sheik al-Hawali. Ali would speak along with the blind sheik’s son at charity conferences — the blind sheik’s son served on Al Qaeda’s WMD committee. Al-Timimi’s mentor Bilal Philips was known for recruiting members of the military to jihad. The first week after 9/11, FBI agents questioned Al-Timimi. He was a microbiology graduate student in a program jointly run by George Mason University and the American Type Culture Collection (”ATCC”). Ali, according to his lawyer, had been questioned by an FBI agent and Secret Service agent in 1994 after the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. He had a high security clearance for work for the Navy in the late 1990s. The defense webpage reported that in 1996, for two months had worked for the White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card (who had been Secretary of Transportation in 1992-1993). As time off from his university studies permitted, Ali was an active speaker with the charity Islamic Assembly of North America
Its todays date in the actual article.
He’ll be putting Jamie Gorelick in charge of operations.
Obama on Anthrax? I guess cocaine wasn’t good enough.
Have you considered getting psychiatric help?
Most of the major terrorist threats we face, particularly from the Middle East region, are from people and groups that are protected, sheltered, and in some cases directly sponsored by states that are either indifferent, or in some cases outright sympathetic, to the global Islamist movement.
The man is completely and totally unqualified to be President.
Fear monger!!!!
The risk is that he will be elected by people who are totally unqualified to be voters.
I don't think it does anyone any good to have America divided up into warring camps where some fraction still believes Dr. Hatfill is the culprit, some other fraction believes that Dr. Philip Zack is the culprit, some other fraction thinks al Qaeda is the culprit, some other fraction thinks Saddam Hussein was the culprit, some other fraction thinks the CIA is the culprit, and some other fraction thinks their odd next-door neighbor sent the anthrax letters.
They can't all be right. But they all can be WRONG.
Did the Dugway simulant reported in this study issued today use silica? Were one or both of the authors involved in the study of mailed anthrax in 2001 reported on about September 10, 2001 that also used the Dugway simulant?
I’ve written the corresponding author but haven’t heard back yet.
The 2001 study was done after a threat to use mailed anthrax was made upon announcement of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad/Vanguards of Conquest #2, Mahmoud Mahjoub. See February 2001 PDB. The real deal was sent on October 6, 2001 the day after his bail was denied on October 5. The logical inference is that the mailer is a friend of his and took quick action upon reporting of the news of the denial of bail.
Estimation of Viable Spores in Bacillus atrophaeus (BG) Particles of 1 to 9 ?m Size Range (p 584-592)
Scott Duncan, Jim Ho
Published Online: Jul 10 2008 5:24AM
DOI: 10.1002/clen.200700178
Research Article: The size of inhaled inorganic and biological particles and their subsequent effect on the health of those exposed to them is becoming a topic of considerable interest. The viable organism content in a bioaerosol disseminated from a letter contaminated with Bacillus atrophaeus (BG) (anthrax simulant) was examined and a model that estimates the number of individual viable spores in a distribution of aerosol particles proposed.
The body of the article, which I’ve sent you, does not mention silica.
Mahjoub was a friend of fellow Canadian detainee and Egyptian Islamic Jihad shura member Jaballah, who was the brother-in-law of the head of EIJ Special Operations (the Civilian Branch) Shehata. Shehata had kept Jaballah in touch with the EIJ military commander Mabruk. The CIA (and all the perps) have known all this for 7 (actually more) years. And so I don’t see the continued secrecy serving any purpose.
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