FBI Ignored Letter in Anthrax Probe

Phil Brennan, NewsMax.com Thursday, Aug. 15, 2002 Editor's note: See part one in this series, FBI and Anthrax: Another TWA 800 in the Making?

By now, there should be no dispute as to where the anthrax that killed Bob Stevens and nearly killed Ernesto Blanco came from. If you follow the spores found by the EPA in the samplings it took at the AMI building, even the most obtuse investigator would have to conclude that they arrived by mail.

Begin at the Boca Raton, Fla., post office that serviced AMI. Anthrax spores matching those found at AMI were found there.

Once in the AMI building, the mail was sorted. Either because the letter was addressed to the Sun tabloid, or because Blanco determined that it should go to the Sun even if addressed to the National Enquirer, he put it on his cart and began his regular route.

That route is marked by a trail of anthrax spores. It begins at the mail room, wends its way up to the second floor and ends up at the Sun offices on the third floor, where it is given to a Sun employee. Anthrax spores found on Bob Stevens' computer keyboard show that he handled the letter.

This much is known and beyond dispute. The source of the anthrax that killed Stevens and infected Blanco was a piece of mail. What can’t be pinned down is where the letter came from.

On its Web site, Newsweek magazine reported that on Sept. 4 AMI received a "weird love letter to Jennifer Lopez" containing a "soapy" powder and a star of David, addressed to the singer-actress c/o The Sun tabloids.

That report is the only source of information concerning the date of receipt of the letter, or that it was addressed to Lopez specifically in care of the Sun.

Inside the Lopez letter was a "soapy, powdery substance" and a cheap Star of David charm, Sun employees confirmed. Knowledgeable sources told NewsMax.com that the letter, which Blanco had taken to the Sun, was opened by one of the editors in the absence of an editorial assistant who would have ordinarily opened it.

The editor looked at it and then tossed it into a wastepaper basket. Another Sun staffer, who NewsMax.com was told had a daughter who is a Lopez fan, retrieved it, found the contents amusing but of no interest to his daughter, and passed it around to other staff members, according to our sources.

The last person to touch the letter, they told NewsMax.com, was probably Bob Stevens.

At the time the AMI editorial director, Steve Coz told reporters that because his eyesight was faulty, Stevens held the envelope close to his face and probably inhaled the deadly spores. Stevens, or somebody else, threw the letter away. It was never recovered, leaving forever open the question of its being the source.

Coz’s account of Stevens' bad eyesight and his tendency to hold written material close to his face was confirmed by one of his best friends, who told NewsMax.com that Stevens read material that way.

Because the letter that may well have been the source of the anthrax at AMI no longer existed, a vital piece of evidence was lost. That a letter was the source is indicated by the fact that the trail of anthrax spores in the AMI building matches the exact route it took from the mailroom to the Sun tabloid office, but it cannot be proven that the anthrax carrier was the JLo letter.

The incident made little or no impression the Sun staff at the time. Wacko mail frequently comes to the tabloid and is sometimes passed around. Few paid any attention to the letter, and only a couple of Sun employees even recalled that specific piece of mail.

Moreover, the FBI, which dismissed the letter out of hand and denied it had any significance, for reasons not disclosed asked AMI not to go into detail about it with the media or anyone else. The whole thing just vanished from the investigative radar screen.

The Newsweek report that the Lopez letter arrived Sept. 4th, seven days before the events of the terrorist hijacking attacks, would have assumed enormous significance had the letter been kept. It would seem to point the finger of guilt directly at the 9-11 hijackers, most of whom lurked nearby until leaving for their deadly rendezvous with the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Sounds like a "first run" or independent action by one of Atta's boys hoping to target an actress who makes him feel sexually uncomfortable - and the Jewish weirdness fits too. "Just a coincidence" that their landlord or land agent is the wife of an official at the company?

I recall this was the letter that spurred the "powdery substance" panic.

"And what other kind of letter would these people share if it were not some "joke" letter passed around for humor's sake?"

Good point. You can bet it wasn't a junk mailer.

Personally, I'm satisfied with the assumption that the J-Lo letter was the source. Which makes the "soapy powder" an important clue. Obviously something was added to "cut" the spores and bulk them up. Something that invited touching and smelling.

And I recall the one piece of hard information we've gotten about the chemical testing of the spores -- they incorporated "a surprising ingredient". Some kind of detergent or surfactant...or a fabric softener, with its anti-static properties?

Hmmm, now what could the FBI be hiding?

Ya know, It's hard to follow the dates, or dates when actually opened, etc., but here's a tidbit from Oct. 22 Newsweek issue. (The previously mentioned Oct. 4)

...If the science offers few leads, old-fashioned police work might. In Florida, investigators focused on a one-page, handwritten love letter addressed to Jennifer Lopez, NEWSWEEK first reported on its Web site. It was sent to The Sun, says a source, in Lantana, Fla. It reportedly arrived sometime after Sept. 17. Staffers laughed over it and passed it around the third-floor editorial offices. Enclosed was a small Star of David and a tablespoon or so of a bluish substance that resembled dishwashing powder. Bob Stevens was among those who handled the letter. As one staffer recalled to NEWSWEEK, “The only difference between Bob and those who watched him open it was that Bob [who had poor eyesight] held it up to his face.” Stevens’s spartan workstation—Macintosh computer, a mousepad decorated with photos of his friends, crayon drawings from a colleague’s young son—was a hot spot of anthrax. So was a receptacle in the mailroom, where Blanco and Dailey worked. But how five additional employees were exposed (blood tests came back positive over the weekend) is a mystery: some work for The National Enquirer, whose offices are “way the heck down the hall and around the corner,” says The Sun’s Carla Chadick

Brennan: On its Web site, Newsweek magazine reported that on Sept. 4 AMI received a "weird love letter to Jennifer Lopez" containing a "soapy" powder and a star of David, addressed to the singer-actress c/o The Sun tabloids.

Newsweek (per your post): It was sent to The Sun, says a source, in Lantana, Fla. It reportedly arrived sometime after Sept. 17.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Sure would like to get those dates straight...

Actually, the dates may be somewhat "accurate" - just reported wrong. We shouldn't assume it was opened after received presumably a few days after the alleged Sept. 4 postmark - it was addressed to J.Lo. The thinking processes here to open this mail, I don't know. And can't assume it was "passed around" on the same day - might have taken more time - which is what this June 12 "Ethernet" article I just found seems to say, or infer.

THE ANTHRAX ATTACKS: SO WHAT IS THE FBI DOING ABOUT IT?

Again, what kind of letter would get to these office workers other than the J.Lo. letter? Assume it was another letter...targeting mid-level employees? Wouldn't the perp address it to the publisher or the editor if anyone at this institution were to be targeted?

It seems that a later date than Sept 4 was likely, but the man in Florida did die well before the first of the other two waves of anthrax (wave one, crude stuff to media; wave two, better stuff to politicians), so I think the letter was likely mailed before the first wave unless the victim was unusually weak. That doesn't mean it was mailed before Sept 11 though. Here's a fairly good compilation of info:

MITRETEK

...If the science offers few leads, old-fashioned police work might. In Florida, investigators focused on a one-page, handwritten love letter addressed to Jennifer Lopez, NEWSWEEK first reported on its Web site. It was sent to The Sun, says a source, in Lantana, Fla. It reportedly arrived sometime after Sept. 17. Staffers laughed over it and passed it around the third-floor editorial offices. Enclosed was a small Star of David and a tablespoon or so of a bluish substance that resembled dishwashing powder. Bob Stevens was among those who handled the letter. As one staffer recalled to NEWSWEEK, “The only difference between Bob and those who watched him open it was that Bob [who had poor eyesight] held it up to his face.” Stevens’s spartan workstation—Macintosh computer, a mousepad decorated with photos of his friends, crayon drawings from a colleague’s young son—was a hot spot of anthrax. So was a receptacle in the mailroom, where Blanco and Dailey worked. But how five additional employees were exposed (blood tests came back positive over the weekend) is a mystery: some work for The National Enquirer, whose offices are “way the heck down the hall and around the corner,” says The Sun’s Carla Chadick

From post 9:

...If the science offers few leads, old-fashioned police work might. In Florida, investigators focused on a one-page, handwritten love letter addressed to Jennifer Lopez, NEWSWEEK first reported on its Web site. It was sent to The Sun, says a source, in Lantana, Fla. It reportedly arrived sometime after Sept. 17. Staffers laughed over it and passed it around the third-floor editorial offices. Enclosed was a small Star of David and a tablespoon or so of a bluish substance that resembled dishwashing powder. Bob Stevens was among those who handled the letter. As one staffer recalled to NEWSWEEK, “The only difference between Bob and those who watched him open it was that Bob [who had poor eyesight] held it up to his face.” Stevens’s spartan workstation—Macintosh computer, a mousepad decorated with photos of his friends, crayon drawings from a colleague’s young son—was a hot spot of anthrax. So was a receptacle in the mailroom, where Blanco and Dailey worked. But how five additional employees were exposed (blood tests came back positive over the weekend) is a mystery: some work for The National Enquirer, whose offices are “way the heck down the hall and around the corner,” says The Sun’s Carla Chadick..."

I don't know if receptacle would be a trash can, or not.

"..Investigators are not ruling out a connection with Al Qaeda, but the letters to Daschle and NBC appear homegrown. Daschle’s, which bore the return address of a fourth-grade class, said, “We have this anthrax. You die now ... Death to America. Death to Israel. Allah is great.” NBC’s read, “This is next. Take penicillin now,” plus the last three phrases of Daschle’s letter. A powder-containing letter sent to AMI (but not recovered) contained a little star of David, recall staffers. So, too, NEWSWEEK has learned, did the anthrax letter to Daschle.

Newsweek, October 29 2001

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