Some of these events are clearly connected. For example, the secret anthrax biodefense program described by Judith Miller turns out to be the reason why the BW Convention failed just the month before. The US failure to ratify the convention might in turn be the reason why the facts got out - some of the diplomats would have demanded answers from their friends in biodefense, and perhaps the truth just trickled out to the journalists shortly thereafter.
The reports from the UK are an intriguing muddle. Was the "Scottish National Liberation Army" one of the groups that the Iraqis supposedly liaised with? Was the idea for this TV drama about anthrax attacks on Kurdish refugees derived from the alleged MI5/Mossad report, after it was run through a politically correct filter like the one which produced the movie version of The Sum of All Fears? Was the Guardian's story an indirect response to the Sunday Express story? Perhaps some defense historian read this balderdash about Iraqi anthrax terrorism, rang up a journalist and said "We were the ones researching this stuff..."
Back to Judith Miller. Allan says:
It should be pointed out that Judith Miller was the recipient of a well-publicized 'hoax' anthrax letter at the time of the attacks.I think it was a third-party hoax. As I understand it, the letter Judith Miller received was one of several sent out from Florida, another of which went to St Petersburg Times journalist Howard Troxler. Here's what it said: "Howard Toxler...1st case of disease now blow away this dust so you can see how the real thing flys. Oklahoma-Ryder Truck! Skyway bridge-18 wheels." Rosenberg says the printing of Troxler's letter resembled that of the real anthrax letters. I will reserve judgement until I see a picture. But certainly the content is very different. The real anthrax letters contain straightforward threats. The letter to Troxler is somewhere between cryptic and schizophrenic. (It might bear comparison to the ricin letter that was sent to Bill Frist last year.)I would be interested to know whether the Iraqi/Iranian/Pakistani/al-Qaeda advocates on this thread really believe this was a hoax by a third party or if not why did they target Judith Miller?
Was it likely they even knew who she was or cared?
Judith Miller has multiple connections to our themes of anthrax, Iraq, and radical Islam. Actually, she's written books on all three subjects - Germs (2001), Saddam Hussein and the Crisis in the Gulf (1990, with Laurie Mylroie), and God Has Ninety-Nine Names (1996). Before and during the war, she obtained many exclusives for the New York Times on the topic of Iraqi WMD, which proved to come from Chalabi and which the paper subsequently disowned. You can see a change in the reviews of Germs at Amazon - mostly they're high, then after the Times published its correction, there's a string of one-star reviews, saying that she's been discredited as a journalist. So she's also a key player in the "information war" over the status and origin of pre-war intelligence on Iraq.
ASYLUM SEEKER BOMB ALERT.
SUNDAY EXPRESS INVESTIGATION By Gordon Thomas and Gareth Crickmer.
9 September 2001
The Express on Sunday
(c) Copyright Express Newspapers 2001
SECRET SERVICE chiefs fear Iraqi spies posing as asylum seekers are entering Britain carrying deadly chemical weapons, we can reveal today.
Customs officers, concerned at the growing number of Iraqis they have to deal with, have called for MI5 agents to monitor terror suspects closely.
The threat emerged after an international spy operation found that Saddam Hussein is producing large amounts of anthrax which he is actively trying to market to terrorists.
During an eight-month intelligence mission by MI5 and the CIA, officers tracked the dictator's agents to meetings in the Balkans with members of the Basque group ETA and equally fanatical terror groups in Kosovo and Macedonia.
Further evidence has come from Israel's Mossad secret service, renowned for gathering information on Saddam's regime. The defence experts believe that the Butcher of Baghdad's police are coercing Iraqis fleeing the despotic regime to carry the weapons into the UK under threat of death.
They are being warned that family and friends they leave behind will be targeted unless they do as they are told.
French police say about 500 Iraqis a week are turning up near the Eurotunnel terminal outside Calais trying to cross the Channel.
A high ranking officer last week highlighted the scale of the problem, admitting it was "impossible" to stop all the Iraqis reaching England.
There are also concerns that aid agencies may be encouraging the Iraqis after claims by refugees that they have been offered help.
Surgeon Diary Raoof, 29, an Iraqi Kurd who claims he worked for the Save the Children Fund, told the Sunday Express that British agencies promised him a "warm welcome" in England and put him in touch with experts who could guide him here. Last night a senior intelligence officer said: "Our fear is that some of these asylum seekers are being pressured by Saddam's secret police to act as couriers.
"Biological weapons are very easy to carry. A small bottle of water could contain sufficient anthrax to create havoc." He added: "Short of checking every bottle coming through every air or sea port, there is no real way to intercept." British anti-terror experts have secretly been stationed at Calais to check the danger The Government claims they are there only to stop asylum seekers entering the country illegally.
But the Sunday Express has learned their real mission is to deal with the far greater threat posed by Saddam. Apart from anthrax, Saddam's scientists also produce the lethal nerve agents Soman and Tabun.
Iraq is known to have quantities of these weapons stockpiled deep underground.
Saddam believes the sites are beyond the reach of America's biggest conventional bombs.
Only a nuclear weapon would be certain to destroy the bunkers.
So alarmed is President Bush that he is considering launching a pre-emptive air attack. US Air Force crews in Saudi Arabia have already been given target details of the sites.
A Pentagon source said: "If we cannot penetrate deep enough to actually destroy the biochemicals, we can bury the bunkers with our earthquake bombs." Last week the Pentagon took the unusual step of publicly confirming that eight more Iraqi factories have begun manufacturing bio-chemical weapons.
Israeli sources claim that in a chemical warfare training exercise last month about 20 Iraqi soldiers were killed and more than 200 severely injured.
Last week Saddam scored a propaganda success, shooting down a pilotless US spy plane. It is the first time that the Iraqis have downed an Allied aircraft since the Gulf war in 1991.
Experts say he is now determined to provoke a civil war inside Iraqi Kurdistan to lure in more Allied aircraft.
Attacks on planes patrolling over Iraq have become increasingly aggressive.
Our revelations come just days after the High Court ruled that four Iraqi Kurds detained at Cambridgeshire's Oakington centre were held illegally.
The decision could leave taxpayers with a (pound sign)110 million compensation bill if 11,000 other refugees make similar claims.
One fast comment for now. You write:
It [the Troxler letter] might bear comparison to the ricin letter that was sent to Bill Frist last year.
As far as I know, Sen. Frist didn't receive a letter. Some ricin was said to have been found in one of Frist's offices (maybe the mailroom?), but I don't believe any accompanying letter has ever been referred to in news reports. It's not even clear if the ricin was in an envelope, or in a case of some sort, or just in a loose pile.
There were the two earlier letters from "Fallen Angel," each of which was accompanied by ricin in a metal canister. One of these was sent to the White House. The other was discovered in South Carolina; I don't recall who it was addressed to (or if that has even been revealed).
Schizophrenic maybe
and explosive
but I don't find the reference
to the Oklahoma City bombing
particularly cryptic.
Much the opposite.
The hoax letter to Troxler was sent October 5
the day that Bob Stevens died.
Ernesto Blanco wasn't diagnosed with anthrax until October 8.
The Florida Public Health officer has said that it is an isolated case
and that a public health investigation is being done
not a criminal one.
There were no other known anthrax victims at the time.
But the author of the letter seemed to know.
Cryptic?
Great summary! Thank you so much for the information and analysis!