Indexing.

A very telling tidbit came out a few weeks back. The person who addressed the envelopes and wrote the enclosed notes did not learn to form English letters in the standard manner, i.e., the method typically employed in American grammar schools.

He (or, far less likely, she) composed the individual letters of the alphabet by attaching separate parts (e.g., the "o" section of a capital "R" was attached in a separate movement from the "I" section, rather than in a continuous movement), a technique more amenable to the calligraphical style of Arabic lettering.

It's possible that an American developed an idiosyncratic style of composing block print letters, but it seems more likely that these letters were composed by a foreign national who learned to write English on his own.

It would be interesting to see a sample of Mohamed Atta's handwriting.

"He (or, far less likely, she) composed the individual letters of the alphabet by attaching separate parts (e.g., the "o" section of a capital "R" was attached in a separate movement from the "I" section, rather than in a continuous movement), a technique more amenable to the calligraphical style of Arabic lettering."

Well, I was born in Baltimore. I write (print) like that. Why? Because that is how I was taught...in engineering school...

--Boris

Unfortunately there is a whole group of aging professionals who write in this manner.

They're called draftsman.

What an earthshaking conclusion........letters mailed at a Trenton, N.J. post office were mailed by someone actually in this country. Well, who'd a thunk it!!!!!

Yes, I've heard the draftsman/engineering explanation, which was news to me. I think it was mentioned when I first learned what writing experts were saying about the text.

In any case, the style by which the letters were formed is simply a useful factor to be taken into account, not one which anyone would consider dispositive.

That which is dispositive is that the addresses contain the word "building" which is written on a separate line.

Nobody does this.

Word wrap does that.

You can find a site on the internet - actually several sites - that contain all of the delivery addresses we know about represented in the same manner - with "building" on a separate line, put there by wordwrap.

These addresses were copied to the envelopes by the same individual exactly the way they are shown on the net.

Mohammed Atta -- lead 9/11 hijacker -- grew up in Egypt, learning calligraphy -- graduate of engineering school -- moved here from Europe - accentuated As and Ts in the script -- sought treatment for reddened, inflamed hands -- flew repeatedly to Prague this year to meet with agents of Iraq, only country known to have an offensive anthrax program -- lived near American Media and had several subordinates who lived in an apartment rented from the Sun's editor -- only anthrax mailer so far arrested, Allah Rakah, had car with Florida plates. You figure it out.

"Unfortunately there is a whole group of aging professionals who write in this manner.

They're called draftsman.

Hey, I resemble that remark. Just because someone took a drafting class BC "before computers" does not make one aged. Ain't no draftsman either they have worked for me most of my career. The ones that did learn on the board however were a lot better than these new AutoCad Jockys, "AKA designers" they send out from vocational schools. When the "old school" drafters finished a drawing the parts fit together, nowdays its gallons of red ink and 999,999 engineering change requests.

You can find a site on the internet - actually several sites - that contain all of the delivery addresses we know about represented in the same manner - with "building" on a separate line, put there by wordwrap.

This makes sense. What sites did you find?

(I'm not aware of any search engine that lets you search for queries like:

"'Building', but only on a line by itself."

Is there such a search engine? One using regular expressions would be especially nice, if you're a programmer.)

Well, well, well. The REAL news about this is that there is no mention of the VRWC, this time. Perhaps the FBI has learned that the sender is a lonely loose nut? Or an Arab??

Go to the Leahy letter. Use google.com, or hotbot.com. Type in the full address, just as one line. Set the earch engine to report exactly those words.

You will get many different responses.

One of the first ones in the list of possibles is going to give you the Daschle address, and the Brokaw address. The word "Building" will appear on a separate line.

This can vary someone depending on the browser you use and your own screen size settings.

Go to the Leahy letter. Use google.com, or hotbot.com. Type in the full address, just as one line. Set the earch engine to report exactly those words.
You will get many different responses.
One of the first ones in the list of possibles is going to give you the Daschle address, and the Brokaw address. The word "Building" will appear on a separate line.
This can vary someone depending on the browser you use and your own screen size settings.

Thanks, but I tried it and didn't find anything. Whether "Building" is on a different line could depend on window width, as you say, but I did a more general search and found no page containing both Leahy's address and Brokaw's address. Do you still have the URL? Maybe it's disappeared from Google for some reason.