Posted on 02/03/2004 8:40:50 AM PST by TrebleRebel
Still No Suspect in 2001 Anthrax Attacks By CURT ANDERSON Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP)--The FBI's investigation into the 2001 anthrax attacks has yet to produce a suspect but remains active after 28 months, focusing on trying to determine who could have had the expertise to engineer the deadly spores.
FBI Director Robert Mueller is briefed each week on the progress of the investigation, dubbed ``Amerithrax'' by the bureau. The FBI considers the case one of the most complex in its 95-year history.
``It is active and ongoing,'' FBI spokesman Ed Cogswell said Tuesday.
Anthrax-laced envelopes were mailed in the fall of 2001 to government and news media offices, including those of then-Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., and Sen Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. Five people died and 17 others were sickened in those attacks.
The FBI has focused in recent months on an intensive scientific effort to determine how the spores were made. That effort, nearly complete, will enable agents to narrow the possibilities in terms of who had the means to make them.
Law enforcement officials have developed several theories on who might be responsible, ranging from al-Qaida terrorists to a disgruntled scientist to an expert who sought to expose U.S. vulnerabilities to bioweapons attacks. No arrests have been made.
The one person linked to the investigation by federal authorities, Dr. Steven J. Hatfill, insists he has nothing to do with the attacks and has sued the government for publicly identifying him as a ``person of interest'' in the probe. Hatfill is a former government scientist and bioweapons expert who once worked at the Army Medical Research Institute of Infections Diseases at Fort Detrick, Md.
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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1030042/posts
In other words, that "Dugway" reengineering episode now is admitted as a worthless, timewasting endeavor...if not even worse than that.
Not true. David Kay has said a variety of things, factually different from the impressions taken. For one:
Saddam Behind Anthrax Attacks?"...Miniter said that Kay told him that, "the Iraqis had developed new techniques for drying and milling anthrax—techniques that were superior to anything the United States or the old Soviet Union had. That would make the former regime of Saddam Hussein the most sophisticated manufacturer of anthrax in the world." ..."
Translation: For two years little or no effort was made.
Turns out the suppositions about the "Dugway" experiment were true...raises the question who, ie what "expert" confused the FBI staff about the whole matter.
FYI here's Epstein's recent piece:
DO we have the makings of "The Perfect Crime" here?
Could be ... but why would the text include warnings that the contents was Anthrax plus an admonition to 'take penicillin now' UNLESS this was a 'quest' to get attention (versus an OUTRIGHT attempt to spread terror) or an attempt to 'draw attention' to something else (such as a weakness in the country to deal with biological hazards)?
But then, wouldn't terrorists, with not much of the weapon, want to have it linked to their message? Would they send it without any connection to any message? And why not be clear in the first letters? All interesting questions.
The mailings were what - a week or two after 9/11 (for the first 'Anthrax wave') followed up later for the second 'wave' ...
One would think, were this sponsored and orchestrated by the same 'forces' as the 9/11 suicide crews that the timelines would have been synchronized better than it was ...
A rough timeline for the events before and after 9/11:
July 26, 2001: At the Biological and Toxic Weapons Convention in Geneva, Switzerland, the United States rejects a draft accord intended to ensure compliance with a United Nations ban on biological weapons. The U.S. position is that the draft accord failed to provide any deterrent to states manufacturing illicit biological weapons.From Ed Lake's work on htis subject.August 17, 2001: Many American scientists are very angry with the Bush administration for quashing the BTWC accords, and they voice their opinions in the media. Other scientists undoubtedly agree with the U.S. position, but all are also undoubtedly very concerned about the dangers of bioweapons.
August, 2001: Sometime this month, there was apparently a mailing of "threatening letters" to people in the media, including Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity of the Fox News Network. Everyone who has seen these letters says that the handwriting was identical to the anthrax letters.
Sept 4, 2001: The Baltimore Sun prints an article titled "Bush treaty moves put is in danger".
Pre-Sept. 11: Some time prior to September 11, 2001, an unknown number of "threatening letters" (possibly as many as 15) with handwriting very similar to the anthrax letters were mailed from Indianapolis, Indiana, to a number of people in the media. Details of this mailing are very sketchy, mostly what is described HERE.
Sept. 11, 2001: America is attacked by terrorists who flew aircraft into the World Trade Center.
Sept. 18, 2001: The anthrax-laced "media letters" to Tom Brokaw and the New York Post in New York are postmarked in Trenton, NJ. In addition, the anthrax-laced letters to American Media, Dan Rather and Peter Jennings were most likely postmarked on this date - although all the letters may have actually been placed in a mailbox after the last collection on the 17th.
Sept. 22, 2001: An editorial page assistant at New York Post first notices blisters on her finger. She later reportedly tests positive for skin form of anthrax.
Sept. 26, 2001: Richard Morgano, 39, a maintenance worker at the Trenton regional post office in Hamilton, NJ, visits a physician to have a lesion on his arm treated. The CDC later confirms that he had the skin form of anthrax. He recovers. Sometime around this point in time, the anthrax refiner/mailer apparently realized that his first mailing was a failure (because there was nothing in the media about it) and he began preparing for the second mailing.
Sept. 27, 2001: Teresa Heller, 32, a letter carrier at the West Trenton post office, develops a lesion on her arm which the CDC later confirms is the skin form of anthrax. She recovers.
Sept. 28, 2001: Erin O'Connor, 38, assistant to Tom Brokaw, notices a "bad rash" which the CDC later confirms is anthrax. She recovers.
On this same day, the 7-month-old son of an ABC producer develops a rash which is later confirmed to be cutaneous anthrax (the skin form). He recovers.
Sept. 30, 2001: Bob Stevens, 63, a photo editor at "The Sun" in Boca Raton, Florida, starts to feel ill. He is later confirmed to have contracted inhalation anthrax: He dies on October 5th.
Oct. 1, 2001: Ernesto Blanco, 73, an American Media mailroom employee is hospitalized with pneumonia. It turns out to be inhalation anthrax. Nevertheless, he recovers.
Oct. 3, 2001: Bob Stevens is confirmed to have anthrax. This is the first confirmation that anthrax has infected anyone. But, at this time, it is still thought to be an isolated case - and possibly from some natural form of anthrax.
Oct. 3, 2001: The FBI interviews an Egyptian-American scientist formerly employed by The U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Ft. Detrick, MD, because of an anonymous letter sent to the FBI saying the man was responsible for the anthrax breakout. (At this time the "breakout" was still thought to be isolated and probably from natural causes.) The FBI concludes that the letter was a false accusation. Early Oct., 2001: The "Anti-Terror" Bill is argued in the Senate and Senator Leahy is seen as a key opponent to Attorney General Ashcroft's proposals to stop terrorism.
Oct. 5, 2001: Bob Stevens dies. He's the first known death from inhalation anthrax in the U.S. since 1976.
Oct. 7, 2001: The AMI offices are shut down when spores are found on Steven's keyboard.
Oct. 9, 2001: The post office postmarks the second mailing of anthrax-laced letters addressed to Senators Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy. These letters have more refined and more deadly spores.
Oct. 10, 2001: Stephanie Dailey, 36, an American Media employee tests positive for exposure to anthrax: Takes antibiotics and does not come down with the disease.
Oct. 12, 2001: Post officials believe on this day, the anthrax letter addressed to Sen. Leahy was misrouted and passed through a State Department mail facility in Sterling, Va.
On this day, one of Tom Brokaw's assistants is diagnosed as having cutaneous anthrax. She remembers a letter from St. Petersburg, FL, and Judy Miller at the New York Times gets a hoax letter from St. Petersburg. St. Petersburg is the focus of attention for the moment as numerous hoaxes and incorrect positive readings for anthrax confuse the issue.
Oct. 13, 2001: The media starts reporting that the anthrax could have come from terrorists. The Tom Brokaw letter has been found and is being examined. Brokaw's assistant is the second known case of anthrax - Bob Stevens being the first.
Oct. 14, 2001: The number of known cases of exposure to anthrax has grown to 12, all connected to the "media mailing". Most are cutaneous anthrax (the skin form).
The New York Times reports that the Brokaw letter was mailed from Trenton, NJ, and that it was postmarked Sept. 18. Focus shifts from St. Petersburg to Trenton. All three letters from St. Petersburg are hoaxes with non-lethal powder. The material in the Brokaw letter is described as being brown and granular, or sand-like. 5 more people at AMI are shown to have been exposed to anthrax, but all but 1 will prove to be "false positives".
Oct. 15, 2001: The letter to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle is opened. It tests positive for anthrax.
A 7-month-old son of an ABC freelance producer is diagnosed with cutaneous anthrax. Ernesto Blanco at AMI is confirmed to have inhalation anthrax.
Oct. 16, 2001: U.S. Senate offices close as hundreds line up to be tested for anthrax. 28 are confirmed to have been exposed to anthrax.
Oct. 17, 2001: The anthrax in Florida and in New York are confirmed to be of the same strain.
Oct. 21, 2001: Thomas Morris Jr., 55, a Washington postal worker has inhalation anthrax, although no one initially believes him. He dies on this day.
Oct. 22, 2001: Joseph Curseen, 47, a Washington postal worker, develops inhalation anthrax and goes to the hospital. He dies the same evening.
Two more postal workers are hospitalized; nine others are ill with symptoms. Authorities test 2,200 workers.
Oct. 25, 2001: An employee at the State Department's mail facility is hospitalized with anthrax.
Oct. 29, 2001: Kathy Nguyen, 61, a New York City hospital worker is hospitalized with inhalation anthrax. Shedies on October 31. There seems to be no link to the other anthrax cases.
Nov. 4, 2001: More traces of anthrax are found in New York and Washington, followed later by more and more findings as cross-contamination spreads the anthrax to State Department offices world-wide.
Nov. 20, 2001: A sample taken from the plastic evidence bag containing the still-unopened letter to Sen. Patrick Leahy contains at least 23,000 anthrax spores, enough for more than two lethal doses. The unopened envelope is suspected to contain enough anthrax to kill 100,000 people.
Nov. 21, 2001: Ottilie Lundgren, 94, of Oxford, Conn., is diagnosed as having inhalation anthrax. She dies. On November 30 it is determined that the probable source of the anthrax that killed her is cross-contamination from the letters sent to Senators Daschle and Leahy. Her age may have caused her to be vulnerable to the disease even though the quantity of spores she could have encountered that way was extremely small.
Dec. 12, 2001: Newspapers break the story that the U.S. military has recently developed anthrax in highly lethal powder for, although they claim to have kept track of every bit of it.
Dec. 16, 2001: DNA testing confirms that the anthrax in the letters to Senators Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy probably originated at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Disease at Fort Detrick, MD.
Dec. 19, 2001: ABC news publishes a report that a scientist who was fired twice from Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus, Ohio, is the focus of an FBI investigation. That company does bioweapons research with anthrax for the CIA and the military!
Dec. 20, 2001: The FBI states emphatically that the fired scientist is NOT the focus of any investigation.
Jan. 20, 2002: The Hartfort Courant breaks the news that anthrax may be missing from Ft. Detrick, and also shows how some scientists can be petty, vindictive and unstable.
Feb. 27, 2002: The FBI starts sending out subpoenas to every known facility using anthrax to get samples for DNA analysis and comparison to the anthrax from the Leahy letter.
Aug. 1, 2002: After reporting for months that the FBI is "clueless" in the anthrax case, the media begins reporting that an arrest of Dr. Hatfill is imminent.
Aug. 29, 2002: The FBI and other agencies returned to the AMI building for a more thorough search, seeking the missing AMI letter and more information about the anthrax spores and how they spread through the building.
"Amerithrax" is based on a Dickens novel. And the FBI is playing the role of Jarndyce & Jarndyce.
Several generations hence, the investigators will announce that, at long last, the budget is exhausted and the case must be closed...
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