There's a First Amendment "right" to engage in espionage and breach national security?
This was a domestic terrorist attack, whether it was the work of a lone many or larger group.
Wow, was just going to shut down the computer and go to bed when I saw this.
Thought you would want to see it ping.
It will be interesting to find out who did the deed.
ARMITAGE!! not really, but he does have a HUGE mouth.
Sorry, Isikoff can’t testify. He’s sitting on the toilet, reading his pristine, unflushed copy of the Koran.
FWIW here is the full-text of the opinion (although all the newspaper articles summarize it nicely).
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1880588/posts
On the merits of the investigation, there were always two squads. One pursued an Al Qaeda theory while one pursued a bioevangelist and/or financial or other motive.
A hardline Salafist colleague of famed Russian bioweaponeer Ken Alibek and former USAMRIID head Charles Bailey (a prolific Ames strain researcher), has been convicted of sedition and sentenced to life in prison plus 70 years. He worked in a program co-sponsored by the American Type Culture Collection. He had access to ATCC facilities, as well as facilities of the DARPA-funded Center for Biodefense at George Mason University. The bionformatics grad student, Ali Al-Timimi, worked with Bin Laden’s sheik al-Hawalli and drafted a letter from al-Hawali that he had hand-delivered to all Congressional members on the first anniversary of the anthrax mailing to Senators Daschle and Leahy. Dr. Al-Timimi once had a high security clearance for mathematical support work for the Navy while employed by beltway contractor SRA. See generally, “Hardball Tactics in an Era of Threats,” Washington Post, September 3, 2006 (reporting FBI’s suspicion)
It’s a very complicated investigation. But here is a summary of the merits of the investigation as gleaned from public source records:
http://www.anthraxandalqaeda.com
Preface
I. ANTHRAX AND THE VANGUARDS OF CONQUEST
II. MEANS: AL QAEDA’S BIOCHEM PROGRAM CODENAMED YOGURT
a. The 1999 Announcement of Zawahiri’s Quest to Weaponize Anthrax
b. Zawahiri’s April/May 1999 Emails To Al Qaeda’s Military Commander Atef and His Interest in Anthrax and Pesticides
c. “I successfully achieved the targets”: Pakistan Scientist Rauf Ahmad’s Assistance in 1999 and 2000
d. “You are dead! Bang”: Ayman’s Plan To Use Charities And Universities As Cover
e. Al Qaeda’s 2001 Threat To Use Mailed Anthrax In Connection With Jailed EIJ Leader And Former Bin Laden Farm Manager Mahmoud Mahjoub
f. Taliban’s Interest In The Anthrax Vaccine Laboratory
g. Hambali, Anthrax Lab Tech Yazid Sufaat, and Ayman’s Anthrax Bomb Maker
h. March 2003 Seizure of Anthrax Production Documents On KSM’s Laptop and Arrest of Bacteriologist Dr. Abdul Qudus Khan
i. 2003 Capture of Hambali and Sufaat’s Assistants, and the Seizure of “Extremely Virulent” (But Unweaponized) Anthrax
j. Unconfirmed Claim: 2007 Capture of Taliban Spokesman With Anthrax Packets Intended For Mailing To Government Officials
k. Access to the Ames Strain
l. Made in the USA: The Cell Culture
III. MOTIVE: REASON SENATORS LEAHY AND DASCHLE AND THE US MEDIA WERE TARGETED
a. The Anthrax Letters: “Written In Language You Can Understand”
b. Profile of an Angry Man: Ayman
c. FBI Director Mueller: Remember 9/11. Remember Oklahoma City.
d. Significance of Mailing Dates: Camp David Accord and Sadat’s Assassination
e. “Leahy Law” and Appropriations to Military and Security Units
f. Zawahiri’s View of the “Lies” of the Secular Media
g. “Release Him”: Retaliation for Detention of the Blind Sheikh and Other Detainees
h. “The Far Enemy”: Zawahiri’s Victory in the EIJ Debate Whether to Target US
i. Despots and Democracy
j. Islambouli: The Ghost Of Sadat’s Assassin Visits the United States
IV. MODUS OPERANDI: “POURING MUSK ON BARREN LANDS”
a. Related 1996 Letter Bombs to DC and New York Papers and Symbolic Targets
b. Targeted Assassination of Individuals in Symbolic Positions
c. Requirement Under Laws of Jihad of Warning Before Using Nonconventional Weapons
d. Continuing Practice of Sending Poisonous Letters as Threats
e. Use of Code:
Jennifer Lopez Letter and Atta’s Jenny Code
“Greendale School”
“Franklin Park”
“In the Hearts of Green Birds” (Inside Green Birds)
KSM and Clouds (Al-Sahab)
Allusion to Atta and Genomic Sequencing of the Ames Strain
f. Summer 2001 Inquiries About Cropdusters and Helicopters
g. Choice of the Mailbox at 10 Nassau St. in Princeton
h. KSM’s Plan to Poison A Reservoir
i Al Qaeda’s Spymaster on Amerithrax
j. Poisoned Penpal: The Murder of Chechen Rebel Leader Ibn Khattab
V. OPPORTUNITY: TRACKING POTENTIAL AL QAEDA OR EGYPTIAN ISLAMIC JIHAD OR ISLAMIC GROUP SUPPORTERS
a. Fall 2001 Greenlight of Biological Attack By US-Based Operatives
b. Know Not Just Your Enemy, But Who He Knew
c. Hani and Nawaf on the Straight Path: Connecting the Kuala Lumpur, Falls Church and New Jersey Dots
d. Kandahar Souvenir: Hijacker Ahmed’s Blackened Leg Lesion in June 2001
e. Astonishing Aafia
f. Marri: Will it Play in Peoria?
g. The Undisclosed Possible Connection Between Ohio and Amerithrax: the Egyptian Scientist In The Library Researching Contaminants in Drinking Water
h. The Sympathizer Who Was A HVAC Technician at Lawrence Livermore Lab
i. Hoax Letters That May Fly As Real Thing
j. Biochemist Magdy Al-Nashar: Functionalized Polymers and Degrees of Separation
VI. THE SHEIKS, THE BIOWEAPONEERS, AND DARPA
a. Hardball Tactics In An Era of Threats
b. The Education of Ali Al-Timimi
c. “The Straight Path”: Connecting the Dots
d. GMU Center for Biodefense: Discovery Hall
e. Ali and The Islamic Ruling On The Peace Process
f. The 2006 Arrest Of Former Falls Church Imam And Fellow Salafist Lecturer Awlaqi
g. The Ability of Intelligence to Prevent Domestic Bioterrorism
CONCLUSION