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MAY 20, 2005 : (DOD RELEASES TWO LETTERS CAPTURED AFTER THE INVASION OF AFGHANISTAN --- See ABDUR RAUF LETTERS) WASHINGTON, May 20 -Al Qaeda operatives in Afghanistan began to assemble the equipment necessary to build a rudimentary biological weapons laboratory before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, letters released by the Defense Department show.
... The letters are among the documents recovered in late 2001 after the invasion of Afghanistan that United States intelligence officials have frequently cited as evidence that Al Qaeda was working to develop biological weapons. The letters...detail a visit by an unnamed Qaeda scientist to a laboratory at an unspecified location where he was shown "a special confidential room" with thousands of samples of biological substances. ...
The letter specifies a training program for the staff, lasting six to eight months for senior workers and two to four months for technicians. ... describes a biological weapons program that "was extensive, well organized and operated two years before the Sept. 11.[2001]" ....
"They were moving to try to get the right stuff," said D. A. Henderson, an expert on biological weapons ... ...Dr. Milton Leitenberg...said many of people who were involved in the effort had been arrested or, in one case, killed. ...
The writer of the two letters is widely believed to be Abdur Rauf, a Pakistani microbiologist who is known to have attended a conference before 2001 sponsored by the Society for Applied Microbiology, said a biological weapons researcher who insisted on anonymity because of his work investigating Al Qaeda.
One letter was written on a notepad from the Society for Applied Microbiology, a prominent British organization of microbiologists.
All the names on the letters are blacked out ... At the same camp where the letters were found, officials recovered articles from medical journals that detailed an approach to isolating, culturing and producing bacteria, including anthrax. ..."
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...NY Times: Qaeda Letters Are Said to Show Pre-9/11 Anthrax Plans! [5/21/2005] NY Times ^ | 5/21/2005 | ERIC LIPTON