The Washington Post has previously reported that authorities had received information, for example, from at least one detainee at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, that there was an anthrax storage facility in the Kabul area. The Washington Post explained that “[b]ecause the deadly letters contained the Ames anthrax spores, manufactured in the United States, authorities entertained the possibility that they had been removed from a U.S. lab and transported overseas.” Amerithrax Agents checked the Kabul area in May 2004 but came up empty. Then in November 2004, on further information, agents had spent several weeks unsuccessfully searching an area in the Kandahar mountains, several hundred miles outside of Kabul. In 2005, an internal report was prepared summarizing the status of the Amerithrax investigation and Leahy and TrebleRebel and Ed are all frustrated at the delay in its resolution.
As for the source of any anthrax found in this fellow’s possession, consider the dog that didn’t bark. Consider the lack of sophistication of some of the individuals associated for example, Abu Ghaith, the founder of WAFA charity and Al Qaeda’s spokesman in 2002. Biochem documents and materials were found in a house associated with the charity. But Gitmo proceedings give us additional insight into WAFA. The manager of the Kabul WAFA office office explained that shortly before September 11, he helped Abu Ghaith to leave Afghanistan, and his family leave for Karachi, Pakistan. He had known Abu Ghaith from Kuwait. Before 9/11, he had been in Kandahar working with WAFA. He was paid $200 a month but had been willing to work for free as a volunteer. But after a month, he got a new supervisor he did not like. He would get upset when medical supplies came and it was broken or crooked. He complained about the expensive long distance calls young people would make, but his supervisor disagreed with his complaints. When the supervisor rifled through his and his wife’s things, he had reached his limit. His supervisor, in any event, said he only wanted people from Mecca working for him and kicked him out on about August 1, 2001. After bringing his family to Pakistan, he returned to Kabul where he met Abu Ghaith. He spent 16 days in what has been described as a “safe house” in Kabul while waiting to go safely back to Pakistan. “I am not a combat fighting animal. It is just a charity orgnaization. What is my mistake? Why are you mentioning Al Qaida and fighting when I worked for a charity organization?” He says he did not know Abu Ghaith was an Al Qaeda spokesman until after 9/11. The Tribunal found his statements to be self-serving and unpersuasive. Abu Ghaith, as Al Qaeda’s spokesman at the time, later made grandiose threats claiming that Al Qaeda had the right to use their military, nuclear, and biological equipment to kill hundreds of thousands of people.
Equally unremarkably, the family of one 22 year-old from Kuwait who allegedly worked in Kabul in July 2001 and then was captured in Karachi would call home often and was involved in some honey trading.
In short, the unclassified evidence relating to the unlawful combatants associated with WAFA in Afghanistan tended not to be rocket scientists, but Al Qaeda’s practice of using charities as cover was well-established.
Now let’s zero in on the Washington Post statement again that “[b]ecause the deadly letters contained the Ames anthrax spores, manufactured in the United States, authorities entertained the possibility that they had been removed from a U.S. lab and transported overseas.” It is interesting to note that an analysis of the ratio isotopes should have been able to distinguish between anthrax grown in the United States and anthrax grown in Afghanistan. So rather than merely entertaining the possibility, perhaps the United States knew that is exactly what happened. If Al Qaeda operatives in the US had finely powdered anthrax, might they not transfer it to the combat theater?
Maybe the reason Leahy is angry at Gonzales is because, like he said last week, he thinks the USG knows where the anthrax came and won’t tell him.
“Leahy: [Slowly, with a little shake of the head] I don’t think it’s somebody insane. I’d accept everything else you said. But I don’t think it’s somebody insane. And I think there are people within our government — certainly from the source of it — who know where it came from. [Taps the table to let that settle in] And these people may not have had anything to do with it, but they certainly know where it came from.”
And maybe they do.
Hardball Tactics in An Era of Threats,
Amerithrax: The Other Person of Interest August 17, 2007
http://globalpolitician.com/articledes.asp?ID=3278&cid=1&sid=107