Posted on 09/20/2005 6:26:48 PM PDT by genefromjersey
Justin Raimondo Solves the Anthrax Attacks………(NOT !)
I’ll give you a few clues:
1. It was an evil Zionist/ Neo-Con plot;
2. Carried out by Zionists and Neo-Cons;
3. For the benefit of the “War Party”:
Evidence ?
Who needs evidence ?
Not Justin Raimondo !
Justin Raimondo has HYPERLINKS !!!
Let’s quote “Our Justin” - briefly:
“In retrospect, outrage and fear generated by the anthrax attacks were essential elements of the propaganda campaign designed to link Iraq to terrorism in the U.S. and drag us into war. The attacks were so propitious in this regard that one might be forgiven for wondering if the perpetrators had this as their intention. Certainly they took great pains to convey the impression that the postal pestilence was authored by angry Arabs of one sort or another.”
Source is : http://www.antiwar.com/justin/ September 19,2005 article by Justin Raimondo
(Note the copious use of hyperlinks – a Raimondo hallmark. They are intended to convey the impression this is a man who knows his stuff.
Link No. 1 is “propaganda campaign” and refers to an article in Justin Raimondo’s website – Antiwar.com .
Link No. 2 – “propitious” – leads us to a dictionary definition of the word (in case we are too stupid to understand its meaning.)
Link No. 3 - “the impression”- leads us to a Wikipedia entry about the anthrax attacks of 2001, and presents many viewpoints-ranging from scientific to silly.)
Let’s continue. After several paragraphs attacking the evil Neo-Cons, Mr. Raimondo offers us some hot, fresh ( if you call 13 year-old news “fresh”) leads, cribbed from The Hartford Courant.
“During a turbulent period of labor complaints and recriminations among rival scientists there, documents from an internal Army inquiry show. The 1992 inquiry also found evidence that someone was secretly entering a lab late at night to conduct unauthorized research, apparently involving anthrax. A numerical counter on a piece of lab equipment had been rolled back to hide work done by the mystery researcher, who left the misspelled label 'antrax' in the machine's electronic memory, according to the documents obtained by The Courant."
Let’s talk about that “ misspelled label “ for a moment. ANTRAX just happens to be the way people who speak English as a second language spell “ANTHRAX”. ( I’ll spare you all the Raimondo-style links on this. Just look up the word “antrax” on your favorite search engine.)
Should we be surprised the great Justin Raimondo- Investigative Reporter Extraordinaire- missed that little detail ? Is there a reason he does not want us to think the “mystery researcher” was foreign-born ??
Thought you’d never ask ! Raimondo directs us to more citings from the Courant.
Raimondo opines:
This "mystery researcher" may have been someone at the very center of that "turbulent period," one Philip Zack. Zack and a group of personnel at Ft. Detrick had been systematically harassing an Egyptian co-worker, Dr. Ayaad Assaad.
The Courant reports:
"Documents from the inquiry show that one unauthorized person who was observed entering the lab building at night was Langford's predecessor, Lt. Col. Philip Zack, who at the time no longer worked at Fort Detrick. A surveillance camera recorded Zack being let in at 8:40 p.m. on Jan. 23, 1992, apparently by Dr. Marian Rippy, a lab pathologist and close friend of Zack's, according to a report filed by a security guard."
Raimondo continues:
The harassment of Assaad, detailed here, took on bizarrely juvenile forms: an obscene poem, a rubber camel delivered to his mailbox, a constant stream of racist anti-Arab remarks such as one might find posted these days on Little Green Footballs. Court documents reveal a harrowing experience of cruel and relentless persecution carried out by a small clique, including Zack, who called themselves the "camel club."
What Justin does not STRESS is the fact we are talking about events predating the Anthrax attacks by 9 years ; nor does he bother to mention the fact most of the “labor problems” arose from wide-scale layoffs that had hit the Army labs in 1997.
He also fails to describe the follow-up: Colonel Zack and Miriam Rippy WERE called to account for their admitted misdeeds ,and , as part of a negotiated legal settlement , issued profound apologies to Dr. Assaad, -who, for the record , is a devout Coptic Christian.
Zack had already retired from the Army, so no further charges were brought against him – such as a too-close relationship with Ms Rippy – (assuming there was such a relationship.)
In bringing up this matter, Raimondo is essentially regurgitating old claims by La Voz de Aztlan , which used them to launch a virulently anti-semitic attack on the colonel.
http://aztlan.net/zack.htm
BUT WAIT !! JUSTIN HAS MORE CLUES FOR US :
While the anthrax letters received enormous publicity, one mailed missive that might provide a key clue to the identity of the perpetrators has received very little: an anonymous letter, sent in late September before the anthrax drama unfolded, to the military police at the Marine base in Quantico, Va., accused Dr. Assaad of being behind a terrorist plot to unleash biological horrors in American cities. The author revealed a detailed knowledge of Dr. Assaad's career at USAMRIID and claimed to have formerly worked with him.
Assaad was interrogated by the FBI on Oct. 3, then let go after the letter was determined to be a hoax. When the effects of the anthrax attacks began to make themselves known, the full horror of what had happened began to dawn on Assaad – but not, apparently, on the authorities. Says Assaad: "My theory is, whoever this person is knew in advance what was going to happen (and created) a suitable, well-fitted scapegoat for this action."
The odd timing of the letter – sent after the anthrax letters were mailed, but before their deadly contents were known – certainly seems to point in this direction. The Courant reports FBI spokesman Chris Murray saying "the FBI is not tracking the source of the anonymous letter, despite its curious timing, coming a matter of days before the existence of anthrax-laced mail became known." Instead of following the trail of this important clue, investigators went off on a tangent with the Hatfill angle, which proved [.pdf] to be a dead end.
There was nothing “odd” about the timing: The anonymous letter was sent right after 9/11 . A LOT of letters denouncing people of Middle Eastern origin were sent to the various authorities right after 9/11. Some “panned out” – most didn’t.
The FBI did manage to track down the source of the anonymous letter-although it did not share its information with Justin Raimondo, or The Hartford Courant. The source proved to be a filing clerk at the Army labs,who disliked the doctor a great deal. (He was NOT a popular figure when he worked there !)
The FBI regarded the whole matter as closed, and no reprimands were given to the clerk – who, although she proved to be wrong , had simply expressed reasonable concerns.( My source on that, by the way is not a newspaper, but one of the attorneys involved.)
Justin Raimondo “brings it all home” for us :
“ In retrospect, it was as much a part of the vortex of fearmongering that sucked us into war as tales of Iraqi WMD palmed off by Ahmed Chalabi's "heroes in error" and the extravagant effusions of Dick Cheney and Condoleezza Rice.”
“ No, I am not suggesting that the U.S. government or the Bush administration carried out these attacks: yet whoever did surely had in mind making it easier for the War Party to unleash mass death and destruction in the Middle East, a veritable wave of hate that would carry us to Baghdad and beyond.”
So, Justin : Let’s summarize.
The only thing you know about the Anthrax Attacks of 2001 is what you read in the papers – or on the Voice of Atzlan – or on the fevered pages of your own website.
(Guess you never heard the old proverb: “ The ignorant and foolish babble endlessly; but those who know, say nothing. “ )
I sent him a Fruitcake for Christmas, but it ran back to me.........
Not nice of Justin to spread BS around the internet.
There was absolutely no reason for the matter to make the news-anymore than the thousands of other tips did.
The colonel and Ms Rippy were "close friends" : how close would be a matter of speculation. He did continue to visit her for quite some time after his retirement.
By the way: Keep in mind this was 1992 - not 2000, not 2001.
Whether Mrs. Zack was suspicious is none of my business.
By the way, here is the Voice of Atzlan:
http://www.aztlan.net/
They believe in the reconquest of former Mexican lands,are violently anti-semitic,and extremely leftwing in outlook.
Raimondo is not overly choosey about his friends.
In bringing up this matter, Raimondo is essentially regurgitating old claims by La Voz de Aztlan , which used them to launch a virulently anti-semitic attack on the colonel.
http://aztlan.net/zack.htm
What I said, Ted.
What Raimondo also fails to mention in his article is that Detrick don't make or store dry powder anthrax. They haven't been associated with dry powder production since the 60's - and even then the quality of the powders were nowhere near that of the stuff mailed to the senate. True, they have Ames strain (not in powder form) at Detrick, but so do many other places. The places in the US that MIGHT contain weaponized powder Ames are Dugway in Utah, Battelle in Ohio and Edgewood in Maryland. Even then, do these facilities contain dry powder Ames with EXACTLY the same additives (same grade of silica nanopowder at the same weight % and the same siloxane binder) as the senate anthrax? That's the real question, and has been for the last 4 years. If one of these labs does contain EXACTLY the same formulation, then that was the source of the senate powder. If not, then the senate powder was made overseas with Russian expertise and oversight.
By the way, if was made at Dugway, Battelle or Edgewood direct Russian expertise was also involved.
And why don't YOU face up to the fact the whole Zack business was a red herring, dragged before the Hartford Courant by a source living in its distribution area,who was familiar with lab events from 9 years earlier,who had a lot of unresolved anger of her(?) own,who had access to high-grade materials removed from Iraq and stored at Plum Island,who was in England at about the same time as Hatfill,and who had "jihadist" motivations of her(?) own.
Why do YOU suppose the Courant dug up this 9 year-old story ?
It will amuse you to learn I even had somebody from FSB (successor to KGB) poke his dorsal fin above the surface on this one.
Would that suggest anything ?
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