U.S. anthrax experts say FBI's wrong about letters Sophisticated team, not loner, indicated

Washington Post, via SF Chronicle ^ | 10-28-02 | Guy Gugliotta, Gary Matsumoto

[Oldeconomybuyer]

A significant number of scientists and biological warfare experts are expressing skepticism about the FBI's view that a single disgruntled U.S. scientist prepared the spores and mailed the deadly anthrax letters that killed five people last year.

These sources say that making a weaponized aerosol of such sophistication and virulence would require scientific knowledge, technical competence, access to expensive equipment and safety know-how that are probably beyond the capabilities of a lone individual.

[Sacajaweau]

Duh!!

[livius]

More from the article:

"Instead, suggested Spertzel and more than a dozen experts interviewed in recent weeks, investigators might want to re-examine the possibility of state- sponsored terrorism or try to determine whether weaponized spores might have been stolen by the attacker from an existing, but secret, biodefense program, or perhaps given to the attacker by an accomplice.

The Defense Department and FBI refused repeated requests from the Washington Post to discuss recent developments in the anthrax investigation. But in some important respects, the official version of events is at odds with the available evidence, the experts say."

Better late than never, I guess.

[Sacajaweau]

Funny how this came out now. Once again, from a "loner" to a group.

Do you think they are looking at the similarities with the run around scenario of the snipers which guaranteed MEDIA headlines just like the Anthrax.

Put the sniper shootings in another area, say Nevada or Utah...Would it be on headline news??

[CatoRenasci]

Once upon a time, when I was a lad, I thought well of the FBI, I was reassured that J. Edgar Hoover was on the job, protecting us from commies and criminals. Over the past 20 years, i have become disilluioned with the Bureau and in the last half dozen or so, I have become conviced that the organization has reached its institutional level of incompetence. From what I can tell, the FBI has botched everything more complicated that a common criminal it has touched in the past few years. I think there are many dedicated and sincere agents who work for the Bureau, but the leadership is impossible: whether it is Clinton-toadying, incompetence, insularity and rigid thinking, it matters little. As an institution, the FBI is irremediable and must be replaced.

[Sacajaweau]

They said Mohammed could make anything..he was a metal worker of excellence???

What we saw when they were opening the Leahy letter looked pretty straight forward and probably more sophisticated than necessary for the Anthrax maker.

I'm almost thinking of a "baby sized" incubator not the monster we saw during the Leahy opening scenario.

[Sacajaweau]

Where's the problem?? Many of the old timers operated on gut feelings..."good instincts".

The lady cop who stopped these guys, dressed like bums, in a 1990 car...but she could see the computer screen glowing blue??? Are you telling me that was "normal" in her mind??? "No Instincts"!!!.

[CatoRenasci]

I'm not against "good instincts". The problem is that the people running the FBI today seem to me to have demonstrated over the past few years that their instincts aren't just not good, but so wrong-headed as to be almost criminal. Think about Waco, Ruby Ridge, TWA 800, the Anthrax scare, even the profiling in the latest Moslem Terrorist Sniper case in DC! These guys heads are so far up some dark tunnel that they don't have a clue. And they're armed and dangerous!

[livius]

"no instincts"

That's true! But not for everybody. My daughter is a cop and she just recently nailed a very much sought felon in her area because something about the address in a routine domestic report just didn't "smell" right to her. She's also gotten people on routine traffic stops, etc. It all depends on the agressiveness and intelligence of the officer.

That said, I don't think the fact that the police were looking for a white guy helped. Sometimes the police decide to ignore " minor" things - like a possibly stolen computer - when there's a big hunt on. But it's always the little things that make the difference in the end.

[copycat]

I wonder if the FBI profile of the Anthrax killer is as accurate as their sniper profile?

I have read that th Hamilton NJ post office, where the postal workers were killed by anthrax, is only seven miles from the Sure Shot Used Car lot, where Muhammad and Osbourne bought the blue 1990 Chevy Caprice.

I'm curious about Osbourne as being involved somehow in the Anthrax mailings

[friendly]

Nah I totally believe the Clintonized FBI version:

The anthrax was spread by a white guy in a white van.

[aristeides]

Anybody know what page in today's Washington Post this article appears on?

[Snowy]

I wonder if the FBI profile of the Anthrax killer is as accurate as their sniper profile?

Aren't most muslims non-white? If that is the case, then once again, the Anthrax killer profile is wrong. Aren't they still looking for a white, right-wing nut?

[Sacajaweau]

White, right wing, "American Only" scientist...like we have a monopoly on "brains" and "abilities".

[Sacajaweau]

I guess my point with instincts is that "some have it and some don't". You're daughter sounds very talented with "good instincts", a real asset to her workforce.

[Sacajaweau]

You can catch it at the top of this article.

[Fixit]

Though I do not have an opinion of who actually did carry out the Anthrax mailings, I have no doubt that there exists somewhere in the world an individual capapble of pulling this off on his/her own.

As an example of an individual doing what everyone said could not be done by a single person I offer you Professor Nakamura Shuji, inventor of the first blue LED. He single handedly did all of the work, from theoretical design to tooling production, repair and operation, required to create a product that had eluded giant corporate competitors for years.

It is possible for one person to have done these evil deeds. To believe otherwise expresses a doubt about the capacity of humans that I am not willing to state.

Evil exists.

Genius exists.

We should not refuse to accept the possiblity that an evil genius did this.

[Fixit]

Of course, this is coming from a poster who didn't spell capable correctly...

[The Great Satan]

Of course. That the followup to 9/11 was highly weaponized anthrax, and that it was delivered in the form of a threat rather than an attack, tell you Saddam Hussein was the author of 9/11. Anybody who fantasizes otherwise is either ignorant of the science involved, ignorant of the history involved, or incapable of even the simplest logical deduction.

[Shermy]

bump