Hijacker "Given Anthrax Flask By Iraqi Agent"

London Times ^ | 10/27/01 | Daniel McGrory

[The Great Satan]

Wednesday, September 04, 2002

---

FBI continues hunt for clues in Boca Raton anthrax attack

News-Journal wire services

BOCA RATON -- Federal investigators and scientists searched for clues inside the anthrax-infested former home of The National Enquirer for a fifth day Tuesday after collecting hundreds of samples through the holiday weekend.

Investigators said their work has been "successful" but declined to say whether they have found whatever brought the anthrax inside the building, a key piece of evidence in the 11-month-old criminal investigation.

The investigation will continue until at least Sept. 11, the deadline FBI agents set in their search warrant for the building, owned by tabloid publisher American Media Inc. AMI spokesman Gerald McKelvey said the warrant could be extended.

"There's a lot of space to go over," McKelvey said of the three-story, 67,000 square-foot building.

Police Cmdr. Maria Maughan said investigators tried new sampling techniques Tuesday. She declined to elaborate on the techniques or the samples being taken from the building but said hundreds of samples have been collected from all three floors.

Although federal investigators searched the AMI building in October, after photo editor Robert Stevens was fatally infected, they say they have developed new techniques to search for large amounts of anthrax and hope to follow a trail of spores to the source.

In addition to finding the source of the anthrax, the teams of FBI agents and scientists hope to compare large samples of anthrax spores found inside the AMI building to those found in letters sent to the congressional offices of Sens. Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Tom Daschle of South Dakota.

The comparisons could help revive the slow-moving investigation into the attacks, which killed Stevens and four others. Another American Media worker, mailroom employee Ernesto Blanco, became ill and was hospitalized more than three weeks.

Federal officials quarantined the building Oct. 7, and AMI officials soon moved their headquarters to rented offices less than a mile away. The company publishes six supermarket tabloids, including the Enquirer, Globe and Weekly World News.

[Travis McGee]

The FBI is totally politicized. If they were ordered to only look for Paraguayan anthrax suspects, they would do so.

[Fred Mertz]

Bttt

[okie01]

"Yesterday the German newspaper Bild suggested a more sinister motive for their meetings. The claim, according to Israeli security sources, is that Atta was handed a vacuum flask of anthrax by his Iraqi contact."

You'll recall that, on several occasions, I've remarked about a source claiming a Thermos had been passed between al-Ani and Atta. But I couldn't recall the article.

Here it is...

[Mitchell]

Thanks. The only other reference to this I've seen is in an Oct. 29, 2001, PBS interview, in which the interviewer states: "You know that the allegation in today's paper is that Mr. al-Ani allegedly gave a bottle or vacuum bottle of anthrax to Mr. Atta."

In any case, I've never understood what the evidence for this could be. Based on what we've been told, Czech intelligence saw Atta meet al-Ani and may have taken pictures of the meeting. They may even have seen a bottle being transferred. But how could they know what was in the bottle?

There are three possibilities I can think of:

1. They eavesdropped on the conversation between Atta and al-Ani. But I find it hard to believe, to the point of incredulity, that al-Ani and Atta would have said anything so incriminating.
2. There is inside information, from a double agent or the like, as to what happened.
3. The anthrax in the bottle is pure speculation. It may be known that al-Ani gave Atta a bottle, and people may say, "What else could have been in it?" But, if that's what's happening here, it's not very definitive.

By the way, has anybody seen any article purporting to state the size of this bottle? [What I'm really asking is: Was it large enough to hold envelopes?]

[okie01]

[What I'm really asking is: Was it large enough to hold envelopes?]

Suggesting that the envelopes would have been prepared in an Iraqi lab...and all Atta (or his confederates) had to do was drop them in a mailbox.

The accompanying note paper was cut out of larger sheets (w/scissors?), for no apparent reason -- suggesting that there probably was a reason.

Could it be that they needed to disguise that the notes had been written and copied on European standard sheets (R-4, instead of 8.5 x 11.5)?

[Mitchell]

The accompanying note paper was cut out of larger sheets (w/scissors?), for no apparent reason -- suggesting that there probably was a reason.

Good point.

Could it be that they needed to disguise that the notes had been written and copied on European standard sheets (R-4, instead of 8.5 x 11.5)?

Yes, quite possibly.

[Mitchell]

Very perspicacious of you, old chum. Good thinking.

Go ask Alice!

[palmer]

This is an interesting thread, the possibility certainly exists that by the time our planes are in the air, Bush will go on TV with the evidence trail in hand.

[okie01]

"...Bush will go on TV with the evidence trail in hand."

He may. Or he might not. I'd make it a 50/50 proposition.

I can think of two reasons not to. The first being that while we might be certain the anthrax came from Iraq, we can't necessarily prove it, in a legalistic fashion. The circumstantial evidence might be overwhelming, but the employment of "plausible deniability" might preclude an ironclad link. Or there might be intelligence sources that they don't want to compromise.

Perhaps an announcement might be forthcoming after the war is over and we can examine his laboratories and biowarfare personnel.

The other reason might be even more compelling. If some other tinpot despot discovered that, after discovering an Iraqi connection to 9-11, we remained quiescent for over a full year, he might conclude that "blackmail by WMD" could actually be made to work. We would definitely want to dissuade him of such a notion...

[Samurai_Jack]

Ping For The Axis of Evil Evidence