Posted on 09/22/2007 6:16:47 PM PDT by ZacandPook
Our Own Worst Enemy: Asking the Right Questions About Security to Protect You, Your Family, and America
Randall Larsen: ... The press actually missed the real story, as I saw it, with “the person of interest”, insofar as that “Dr. H” had spent two years working in a bio-safe level 4 facility– working with some of the most dangerous pathogens in the world– with a bogus resume! *** [re Atta's roommate had cutaneous anthrax]
Five times a year, I brief top officers of the government and military, and only 1 or 2, if that, ever know! ...
And had one young field agent not faxed that memo about Atta’s roomate to my colleague Tom Inglesby, we wouldn’t have known either! But you add this to the Robb-Silverman Commission’s findings, that Al Qaeda was in the early stages of experimentation with these kind of bio-agents– and you can see how they could have made at least a small quantity. ... Later on, I brought this to the CIA… and while waiting to enter, I made sure the guard (holding the machine gun) saw it as I moved it from one pocket into another. ...
On September 20th, when the Secret Service searched my brief case prior to meeting with the VP, one compartment had an N-95 mask (similar to a surgical mask) and the test tube. The agent asked why I was carrying a mask. He asked the wrong question. He should have asked about the test tube. That story has become the metaphor for the entire book. Too many people are asking the wrong questions.
(Excerpt) Read more at themoderatevoice.com ...
It is uncertain whether it went directly from Texas or was shipped via Iowa.
William Broad obtained the mailing label and interpreted it as meaning it was shipped directly.
I eventually got a copy of the label from an ISU professor who had gotten it from Gregory Knudson, the scientist who had been at USAMRIID but then moved to the Navy side. I didn’t see a cancellation mark and view the labels as being consistent with having been added in Ames, and forwarded.
You then have reported that a Postal Inspector John said it was in Ames.
Given that I find you a reliable source, I credit that he said that.
But of course we don’t really know whether he was just saying that. (And don’t know if they just got it later given that they do vaccine research with USAMRIID).
His questions to you related to the BL-3 lab — i.e., the USDA facility.
So I agree with you that it was routed via USDA-Ames, but I hasten to add there are many who would not. Doubters could have called Postal Inspector John if they doubted.
There was no reason to send it to USAMRIID.
Those folks who were into that pathogen back then knew each other. Even Martin Hugh-Jones said it was traded back and forth like baseball cards.
I wonder if all land grant colleges had received the same request letter from Dr. Knudsen? Did he only send that letter to “collectors”. ISU vet school was a “collection” site.
Take pennies. How many pennies do you need in your collection?
A collection is a representative of each kind. So you only need three pennies from an average year. A plain, a D and an S. One from each of the mints. It would follow that you need three from each year.
A collection of anthrax would be a sample of each known strain.
Exactly.
I’ve read all the responses to my original comments at # 7 and some of those statesments made in refutation I know to have been recently found inaccurate. I don’t want to get into the “who’s right and who’s wrong argument”, as that is what the bad guys want - us good guys fighting among ourselves. That is ultimately what the anthrax letters were supposed to do, just as in the attack at OKC when Bill Clinton blamed “right wingers” and ordered the FBI not to investigate the John Does.
One thing I will say that was well established even in 1986: terrorism can’t proliferate unless someone, somewhere has lots of money to fund such activities, and it is usually, though not always, a nation which provides the funding. That’s why it’s called state sponsored terrorism (duh!). So, take your pick of ME countries. Logic will tell you which ones, namely the radical theocracies and rampant dictatorships, are likely to pull such a stunt.
And for whatever reason of the moment, various groups, normally at odds with one another, will cooperate long enough to do us, or Israel, great harm. COMINT I was familiar with back in the early ‘80s indicated that 60% of all terrorist groups had the same three names at the top of the chain of command.
So, what happened between 1986 and 2001? The Presidency of Bill Clinton was what happened. How many good people left government, or were forced out, I don’t know. But the CIA I knew back in the mid-80s was superior to what it is today.
And who has so much money that they can spend it on activities that don’t benefit their own people. It’s that old truism - follow the money.
Frankly, I don’t trust ANYTHING coming out of the CIA anymore.
And one thing I’ve noticed in these postings has been seduction by myriad details. We have to keep our eyes on the ball. God is in the details, truly, and those have their place but we should not take our eyes off the big picture. Who would benefit from attacking us and are they fellow travelers, putting aside differences to work together.
Who has the means, the money, and the MOTIVE to attack us with anthrax.
The domestic angle about the anthrax attack is every bit as pathetic as Bill Clinton blaming right-wingers for the Murrah Building attack in Oklahoma City. Jaina Davis put a nail through the head of that snake. It was an Iraqi Republican Guard officer who drove the Ryder truck, filled with explosives and accompanied by Timothy McVie, who drove up to the front of the building and set it to explode.
MOTIVE - Saddam Hussein never, ever, stopped fighting the Desert Storm War. We had humiliated him in front of all other Arab nations and he wanted payback. He was willing to work with anyone who had the same goal, destruction of the U.S.A. What? You guys think he was too ethical to work with the Muslim Brotherhood or Al Qaeda? He never hesitated to supply the Palestinian groups with cash.
In the early 80s the Ayatollah Khomeini used a Phalangist Christian as a paymaster to arrange for two Syrian Intelligence pukes to make a bomb that was handed off to a Palestinian suicide car driver who in turn killed our Ambassador to Lebanon and two other people.
MOTIVE. Who wanted to hurt the United States and had the anthrax to do it with at that moment in time.
Don’t bother to tell me what you think they thought you thought.
Tell me what the Postal Inspector JR said.
Did he or did he not say it was sent to Ames before being routed to Ft. Detrick.
Did he or did he not say Iowa (USDA) had it.
And then after your answer, I’ll call him at the number he provided you on his card for any follow-up questions.
As for why Texas would send it, of course there was a reason. Knudson asked for it. The vet had noted its special virulence at the time with 30 cows being fine in the morning and then dead later that day.
When shipped, two vials were sent. There would be no cause to send it to one and also to the other. The two vials were in the same package.
But not getting back to the question, did Postal Inspector JR say that (1) it was routed through Iowa, and (2) that Iowa had it.
I meant “now getting back to the question”.
And I want you state precisely you recall and understand he said. Don’t add any gloss. Just tell me the words you believe he spoke.
You ask: Who would have the motive?
On July 4, 1993, United States Postal employee Ahmed Abdel Sattar spoke to the press about Abdel Rahman’s arrest and said “we haven’t decided the time or place, but our Muslim community will demonstrate its outrage at the arrest of the Sheik.” In the indictment of the Staten Island Post Office employee who worshipped in Brooklyn, the United States government alleged that following his arrest, Abdel Rahman, in a message to his followers recorded while he was in prison, urged: “Oh Muslims! Oh Muslims! ... It is a duty upon all the Muslims around the world to free the Sheikh, and to rescue him from his jail.” Referring to the United States, he implored, “Muslims everywhere, dismember their nation, tear them apart, ruin their economy, provoke their corporations, destroy their embassies, attack their interests, sink their ships, and shoot down their planes, kill them on land, at sea, and in the air. Kill them wherever you find them.” His list is a pretty concise summary of the terrorist actions taken over the next decade.
The tactic of lethal letters delivered by the US Post Office — although not mentioned in this list by Abdel-Rahman - - was not merely the modus operandi of the militant islamists inspired by Abdel-Rahman, it was their signature. The islamists sent letter bombs in late December 1996 from Alexandria, Egypt to newspaper offices in New York City and Washington, D.C. and people in symbolic positions. Musical Christmas cards apparently postmarked in Alexandria, Egypt on December 21, 1996 contained improvised explosive devices. The bombs were mailed on the Night of Decree or Night of Measures. The letters were sent in connection with the earlier bombing of the World Trade Center and the imprisonment of the blind sheik, Sheik Abdel Rahman. The former leader of the Egyptian Al-Gamaa al-Islamiya (”Islamic Group”), Abdel-Rahman was also a spiritual leader of Al Qaeda.
The letter bombs were sent in connection with the treatment of the Egyptian islamists imprisoned for the earlier attack on the WTC and a related plot. The purpose of the letter bombs — which resulted in minimal casualty — was to send a message. (There initially was an outstanding $2 million reward — under the rewards for justice program, the reward now is up to $5 million.) There was no claim of responsibility. There was no explanation. Once one had been received, the next ten, mailed on two separate dates, were easily collected. Sound familiar? Two bombs were also sent to Leavenworth, where a key WTC 1993 defendant was imprisoned, addressed to “Parole Officer.” (The position does not exist).
The FBI suspected the Vanguards of Conquest, a mysterious group led by Egyptian Islamic Jihad head Ayman Zawahiri. The group can be thought of as either the military wing of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad or perhaps just EIJ by another name. It is sometimes known as the New Jihad. Yassir Al-Sirri was the Egyptian Islamic Jihad/ Vanguards of Conquest publicist and worked out of his London-based home while on the public dole. Another group under suspicion for the mailings was the Egyptian Islamic Group. The blind sheik Abdel Rahman simultaneously was the spiritual leader of Al Qaeda, Egyptian Islamic Group and Egyptian Islamic Jihad/Vanguards of Conquest. The next month, on February 12, 1997, the Islamic Group, for its part, issued a statement: “The Islamic Group declares all American interests legitimate targets to its legitimate “jihad until the release of all prisoners, on top of whom is Abdel Rahman.”
Abdel-Rahman’s friend, Ayman Zawahiri, was head of Al Qaeda’s biochemical program. The blind sheik’s son. Mohammed was on Al Qaeda’s three- member WMD committee. Ayman named his biochem program Zabadi or “Curdled Milk.” The CIA has known of Zawahiri’s plans to use anthrax since July 1998, when the CIA seized a disc from Ayman Zawahiri’s right-hand, Ahmed Mabruk during his arrest outside a restaurant by the CIA in Baku, Azerbaijan. At the time, Mabruk was the head of Jihad’s military operations. Mabruk was handed over to Egyptian authorities. A close associate and former cellmate in Dagestan in 1996, Mabruk would be at Ayman’s side while Ayman would fall to his knees during trial and weep and invoke Allah. Their captors reportedly did not know the true identity of the prisoners. The CIA refused to give the FBI Mabruk’s laptop. FBI’s Bin Laden expert John O’Neill, head of the FBI’s New York office, tried to get around this by sending an agent to Azerbaijan to get copies of the computer files from the Azerbaijan government. The FBI finally got the files after O’Neill persuaded President Clinton to personally appeal to the president of Azerbaijan for the computer files. FBI Special Agent Dan Coleman would later describe the laptop as the “Rosetta Stone of Al Qaeda.” O’Neill died on 9/11 in his role as head of World Trade Center security. He died with the knowledge that Ayman Zawahiri planned to attack US targets with anthrax — and that Zawahiri does not make a threat that he does not intend to try to keep.
Mabruk claimed that Zawahiri intended to use anthrax against US targets. At the time, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (”DTRA”) set up a program at Lawrence Livermore to combat the Bin Laden anthrax threat. The CIA also snatched Egyptian Al-Najjar, another senior Al Qaeda member (a shura or policy-making council member no less) who had been working for the Egyptian intelligence services. Al-Najjar confirmed Ayman’s intent to use weaponized anthrax against US targets in connection with the detention of militant islamists in a sworn lengthy confession. Even Zawahiri’s friend, Cairo lawyer al-Zayat, who was the blind sheik’s attorney, in March 1999 said that Bin Laden and Zawahiri were likely to resort to the biological and chemical agents they possessed given the extradition pressure senior Al Qaeda leaders faced. He was in touch by telephone with US Post Office employee Sattar and Islamic Group leaders thoughout that year about the group’s strategy to free the blind sheik. An islamist who had been a close associate of Zawahiri later would explain that Zawahiri spent a decade and had made 15 separate attempts to recruit the necessary expertise to weaponize anthrax in Russia and the Middle East.
Zawahiri and the Vanguards of Conquest were seeking to recreate Mohammed’s taking of mecca by a small band through violent attacks on Egyptian leaders. By the late 1990s, Zawahiri had determined that the Egyptian Islamic Jihad should focus on its struggle against the United States and hold off on further attacks against the Egyptian regime.
It likely was a happy coincidence for Ayman and Islamic Group leaders Rifai Taha, Mustafa Hamza and Mohammed Islambouli, that an active supporter of the Taliban — and associate of Bin Laden’s spiritual advisor, dissident Saudi Sheik al-Hawali — was a US biodefense insider. Ali Al-Timimi was a graduate student in the same building where famed Russian bioweapon Ken Alibek and former USAMRIID head Charles Bailey worked at George Mason University. The three worked at the secure facility at Discovery Hall at the Prince William 2 campus. Dr. Alibek and Dr. Bailey headed a biodefense program funded by Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (”DARPA”). Al-Timimi had a top security clearance and had previously worked for SRA International doing mathematical support work for the Navy.
Wow, even a moron like Patrick "Leaky" Leahy was able to figure that one out. Impressive!
He said it went through Iowa.
Fascinating topic and thread. Thanks to all.
Gee that is an interesting post. Thanks. And that’s some Fourth Grade you must have gone to.
The most interesting book on Amerithrax was written by one of the perps/conspirators.
Mohammad Khalil al-Hukaymah alias Abu Jihad al-Masri was the author of the description of the Amerithrax investigation in 2002. Abu Jihad al-Masri joined the Egyptian Islamic Group in 1979. He was arrested in 1981 after Sadat’s assassination. He once was arrested alongside the blind sheik Abdel-Rahman and is reportedly connected to the blind sheikh’s successor Taha, the Islamic Group head in close touch with the NY-based US postal employee Sattar, the blind sheik’s “surrogate,” in 1999 and 2000.
Al-Hukaymah dedicated the treatise “[t]o the pious and the hidden who are not known when they come and who are not missed when they disappear — To those whom their God will answer when they pray to Him. To all the eyes that are vigilant late at night to bring victory to this religion.”
The introduction of the 152-page book starts:
“The Manhattan raid led to a radical change in the perception of American Security. After the northern half of the continent had been isolated from the rest of the world and its threats by two oceans, it now came from inside. The surprise hit the symbols of American power in its economic and security dimensions.”
Published at al-Maqreze Center for Historical Studies website (www.almaqreze.com), the section on the anthrax investigation appears to have been written in 2002.
“The Anthrax Scandal:
Over many months, there was an excited search for the person responsible for the worst biological terror attack on American soil. Six letters sent by mail to Leahy, Daschle, Tom Brokaw, Dan Rather, The New York Post and the offices of the National Enquirer in Florida, led to the sickening of 18 people and five deaths. The crime was especially scary because anthrax, which is a complex powder that scatters in the atmosphere, had spilled from the envelopes and spread through parts of the mail system and contaminated a Senate building. One year later, the main post office in Washington had not yet opened.
The FBI is under great pressure to close this case, and the anthrax criminal is supposed to be alive and free. Two members of the Senate have asked to receive regular reports about this investigation from the FBI, and they have become increasingly impatient.”
After a lengthy discussion of the focus on Hatfill, the author explains,
“Until the investigators find material evidence that connects a person to the crime, they are forced to speculate about the motives and methods of the criminal. They are still casting a wide net. Law enforcement sources say they have issued hundreds of subpoenas and they are analyzing thousands of documents in search of new evidence.
The evidence may be small and unseen - sweat or an odor on an envelope - but that is all that they need in order to attract the dogs.”
Al-Hukaymah pointed to the Aldrich Ames incident and the FBI’s inability to find the perpetrator of the anthrax mailings as evidence that U.S intelligence can be defeated. Aldrich Ames, head of counterintelligence relating to the Russians, had a different rolex for different days of the week. He drove a new jaguar to work. Aldrich told the CIA that his money came from his wife’s foreign inheritance, and the CIA never required meaningful corroboration. So we should not be that surprised when someone known, to borrow Dr. Alibek’s description to me, as an “Islamic hardliner,” is given access to Center for Biodefense and ATCC facilities, to include a program funded by DARPA’s $13 million during the relevant period. Perhaps the focus should not be on more money, for biodefense but on doing a better job at maintaining security. Perhaps focus should be on avoiding proliferation of know-how.
You might enjoy Ari Fleischer’s book.
The reason he was so adamant to debunk the early ABC bentonite report was that there was no aluminum. He deemed it the most important (wrong) story in his career.
Author Larsen, who wrote the book the subject of this thread, explains (p. 50-55) that early on a CIA analyst opined to the WH that Saddam would not cooperate with a terror group by giving them anthrax because we knew where Saddam lived.
Whatever the prospects of such a theory when Freeper The Great Satan had a webpage making the argument, it is now made only of the very cheapest tin foil from the dollar store. (He had argued that the elaborate Hatfill civil litigation was an elaborate intelligence ruse involving many players in the conspiracy, such as the federal prosecutors and federal judge; he argued that FBI agents whose name appeared in the press actually did not exist, and if you would call FBI headquarters and get the agent on the phone, he would see it as confirmation of the elaborate ruse). It is not treasonous to think that the invasion of Iraq made the world less safe — it is the consensus view of intelligence analysts, who add that it was all predictable (Clarke, Scheuer etc.) Scheuer says the President should have given authority for the bombing of Ansar.
As a matter of logic, there is no reason to think Saddam would be involved and risk retaliation when a moderate-sounding, pious Iraqi Salafist working with Bin Laden’s sheik had infiltrated the US biodefense establishment and shared a fax and high security clearance with famed Russian bioweaponeer Ken and former USAMRIID head Charles Bailey. In the next post below, I will quote the author Larsen’s organization September 2000 interview with Ken Alibek on whether OBL could ever produce a high quality (Alibek-type) powderized anthrax. It was a year before — in September 2000. And a year and a half after Ayman first announced, through proxies, he intended to use anthrax. The announcement was made at the time of the March 1999 calls where strategy was being mapped out with the blind sheik (through telephone conference calls with his proxy).
Interview posted by Larsen’s group in September 2000.
HOMELAND DEFENSE: OK. Let’s say I’m an Usama bin Laden type individual. I have millions of dollars. Can I produce a high-quality “Ken Alibekcaliber” dry powdered anthrax?
KEN ALIBEK: In many cases it’s not likely. Of course, if you get hundreds of thousands of dollars and if you have a person who knows how to do this, you could make a highly effective biological weapon. But if you have a person with millions of dollars but has no idea how to do this, or someone with a bachelor’s degree in biology even, it’s not going to help. You need to have somebody with either practical knowledge or somebody with the right type of mind to do this. Unfortunately, this information is available now.
We just don’t understand that if your objective is to develop an effective biological weapon and to deploy it with an aerosol, all this information is available. It is a matter of time and effort in gathering this information. In many cases, it’s not necessarily the information that counts. It’s a matter of knowledge in microbiology and aerosol science and knowing how to build a more effective aerosol device. If you’ve got the money, and you’ve got the managerial skills to find the right people, the rest is just a matter of time.
KEN ALIBEK: No. In my time among the military we had several discussions. And they considered biological weapons to be the weapons of choice. Biological weapons would do something very important. For example, in a military conflict somewhere in the mountains, it’s very difficult to use conventional weapons. Even tactical nuclear weapons would not have a significant effect. But chemical weapons and especially biological weapons, could be used in the mountains very easily.
***
HOMELAND DEFENSE: So the information is still in your head if you wanted to do this? If you wanted to go set up an offensive production capability, you could do it?
KEN ALIBEK: I have no such intentions.
HOMELAND DEFENSE: But the point is, you probably have that information. If terrorists get the right technical data, they can reduce their timetable, for example, shrinking it from three years to three months.
KEN ALIBEK: That is correct. But I don’t like it when someone says I can do this. I know I can do this, but I know I will never do this.
HOMELAND DEFENSE: Well, we’re very glad that you’re on our side now É On a different subject, is the U.S. government doing the right things now to protect the country?
KEN ALIBEK: For me, this is a most painful topic. In my opinion, we are making such a huge number of mistakes, each step we take. I’m not saying everything is wrong. We’ve done a lot of things right. We admitted there was a problem. We admitted we were not prepared. We started talking about what we need to do. But then, to quote a Russian expression, “If you want to destroy something, make it enormous.” That’s what we’ve done, with more than 30 agencies and departments, everybody considers their department a major player.
The documents helpfully provided me by the Defense Intelligence Agency (”DIA”) under FOIA that this infiltration was what Ayman Zawahiri planned all along. It was his modus operandi.
Among the correspondence written by Rauf Ahmad seized in Afghanistan, there are handwritten notes about the plan to use NGOs, technical institutes and medical labs as cover for aspects of the work, and training requirements for the various personnel at the lab in Afghanistan.
Two Pakistani nuclear scientists, Sultan Bashir-ud-Din Mahmood and Chaudiri Abdul Majeed, founded Ummah Tameer-e-Nau in June 2000. “Reconstruction of the Muslim Ummah,” or “UTN,” an Islamabad-based organization whose stated purpose was to conduct relief and development work in Afghanistan. UTN built a flour mill in Kandahar and purchased land in the Kandahar region. UTN business cards from the organization carry the motto “Build to Help, Help to Build” and list addresses at Mehmood’s home in Islamabad and in Kabul. After the fall of the Taliban, coalition forces and the media began to search UTN facilities in Kabul. It was in November that it was reported by The Economist that the “House of Anthrax” had been found.
Documents found by journalists in November 2001 at a villa in Kabul occupied by UTN suggested brainstorming seminars on anthrax had been held to include diagrams suggestive of a plan to use a helium filled balloon to disperse anthrax across a wide area. The nondescricpt two-story villa occupied by the Pakistani aid group was in a quiet residential neighborhood of Kabul where a number of international charities were located. One downloaded document had the picture of former Secretary Cohen holding up a 5 pound bag of sugar. There were details about the U.S. military’s vaccination program downloaded from a Defense Department site on the Internet and other Defense Department documents relating to anthrax. There were 10 copies each of most of the documents. On the floor, there was what appeared to be a disassembled rocket alongside a helium canister, as well as two bags of powder. A detailed diagram scrawled in black felt tip pen on a white board shows what appears to be a balloon rising at various trajectories, alongside a fighter jet that is apparently shooting at the balloon. Beside the jet are the words, “You are dead, bang.”
There were also pictures of ground missiles linked by lines to the balloon. Mathematical calculations indicated the height at which the balloon would fly, the distance from which it would be shot down and the area over which its contents would be dispersed. Beside one of the balloons is the word “polystyrene” and beside another the word “cyanide.” Loose sheets of paper containing scribbles of missiles and balloons were strewn around the house, indicating those attending the seminar had been taking notes and doing calculations.
Although people can reasonably disagree on the conclusion to be drawn of the drawing on the white board showing aerial dispersal of anthrax by balloon, the drawings should be understood in the context of Ayman’s research and reading on the subject. One email from Ayman to Atef lists Peace or Pestilence as one of the books he had read. (The author argued that said science should combat disease, not find devious ways to spread it. That book included a description of the Japanese research on anthrax leading up to WW II and the US concern that anthrax was being dispersed by balloons being sent to the US on high hot air currents. Unit 731 experimented extensively with anthrax bombs and hot-air balloons filled with the deadly disease. In late 1944, aerosol scentists at Ft. Detrick (then known as Camp Detrick) were alarmed when news of some large balloons, as large as 150 feet around, had been sighted silently floating over populated areas. Within a few months, over 250 balloons had been discovered in nine western states. The balloons are known only to have been armed with an incendiary device and killed and injured only a very few people.
A senior CNN producer who visited many UTN and Al Qaeda houses in Afghanistan, found the documents linking UTN to Jaish e Muhammad, the Army of the Prophet Mohammad, the Pakistani militant group that had been listed as a terrorist organization by the US on October 12, 2001. Other documents linked UTN to the Pakistan-based Saudi charity WAFA Humanitarian Organization and Al Rashid Trust, two other non-governmental organizations with ties to al-Qaeda that were designated on September 23, 2001 as supporters of terrorism.
The New York Times reported on the search of the home by US personnel. A group of men armed with pistols, reportedly Americans, wearing gas masks, rubber gloves and boots, then came to remove powdered chemicals. The men had instructed the guards posted by National Alliance to not go in the home because the chemicals could be dangerous. The room that had been littered with papers was empty today and had been swept or vacuumed by the Americans. Even after the second group visited the home, and cleaned it, several bags of chemicals were still strewn in the yard. Two small plastic bags each appeared to hold two to three pounds of brown powder. On the outside of one appeared the name “Mahlobjan” and the number 436. A second bag had the numbers 999 — or 666 — along with a crescent moon, the symbol of Islam. The New York Times reported that there was also a small seal stamped on the corner of the bag, with an eagle in its center. The worker at a charity next door, “Save the Children,” said that Mehmood had been a quiet neighbor and it was impossible to tell whether the men visiting the house were aid workers or not.
The manager of the Kabul WAFA office office explained that Abu Ghaith was the founder of WAFA before the Combat Review Status Tribunal. 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 claimed that Al Qaeda had the right to use their military, nuclear, and biological equipment to kill hundreds of thousands of people.”
Equally unremarkable, the family of one 22 year-old from Kuwait who allegedly worked in Kabul in July 2001 and then was captured in Karachi would called 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. Even Rauf, the scientist who infiltrated the UK biodefense establishment conferences and a couple of labs, was just a wannabe.
But Al Qaeda’s practice of using charities such as UTN and WAFA and BIF and GRF as cover was well-established. So when a Salafist imam mentored by Bin Laden’s sheik — and working closely with Bin Laden’s sheik — comes up sharing a urinal with the most famed anthrax weaponeer in the world, it’s time to connect the dots as if our lives depended on it. The Saudi dissident sheik who Al-Timimi was helping, Al-Timimi’s former teacher, was the express subject of the 1996 declaration of war by OBL and the 1998 claim of responsibility for the embassy bombing. Ali Al- Timimi drafted a letter in his name that was hand-delivered to every member of Congress on the first anniversary of the anthrax letter to Senator Daschle and Leahy. Now that’s ballsy. They must think we are really stupid. Fortunately, after sewing confusion with the Hatfill Theory and barking dogs, the Amerithrax Task Force had a different squad that was on silent running aggressively pursuing a theory that Al-Timimi and associated operatives were responsible. The NSA intercepted his communications with Al-Timimi.
In 1993, when Al-Timimi’s charity was formed, he was scheduled to speak that December at the first annual conference alongside the Blind Sheik’s son, who later would vow retaliation for his father’s imprisonment and later served on Al Qaeda’s WMD committee.
Sometimes if it walks like a duck and talks at conferences like a duck, it’s a duck. In July and August 2001, he spoke in Toronto and London alongside the “911 imam” from Falls Church, Awlaki. Awlaki was picked up by Yemeni security at the request of the CIA, after being monitored by the Brits and Americans for years.
A lot of this info was developed in the ongoing thread
Selling the threat of bioterrorism (LA Times investigates Alibek)
LA Times ^ | 7/1/07 | David Willman
Posted on 07/01/2007 8:58:07 AM PDT by TrebleRebel
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1859182/posts
666 replies · 7,744+ views
Note that 666 was the number on the bag of powder at the Kabul house. Coincidence? Repent (or flee) because an indictment is nigh.
Hey, Plutarch, you appear to know how to upload really cool images. I’m going to send you a URL to a map relating to the forensic analysis of where the anthrax was grown in case you can upload it.
In today’s news -
1. Secret Agent Man: Biobriefcase
http://technology.newscientist.com/article/dn12682-invention-biobriefcase.html
2. Isn’t it stupid to locate a BL-4 near a major urban center — especially where someone mentored by and working with Bin Laden’s sheik had a high security clearance?
Plague Besets Capitol: George Mason to break ground on biocontainment laboratory
http://www.wdbj7.com/Global/story.asp?S=7118140
3. Bioterror drill
What percentage of postal workers and police officers wouldn’t show up the next day for work after an aerosol event?
No disrespect intended. But consider the example of Katrina.
I tend to agree with the postal mag view on Amerithrax if I do say so myself.
sixth year anniversary
http://www.postalmag.com/anthrax-6-years-later.htm
re code used in letters
http://www.postalmag.com/2007news/anthraxcode.htm
Here is Pulitzer Surprise winner Judith Miller (slip on video) on wave of anthrax.
Conspiracy theories, sleeper cells, autonomous cells, and more.
http://www.foxnews.com/video2/player06.html?091107/091107_ff_miller1&Defending%20the%20U.S.&FOX_Friends&Journalist%20Judith%20Miller%20says%20Al%20Qaeda%20hasn‘t%20attacked%20U.S.%20since%209/11%20because%20they%20can’t&US&-1&&&&&exp
TrebleRebel, in a sentence — one that doesn’t use the word silica — tell us who you think sent the anthrax. Do you agree it was Al Qaeda operationally — apart from where the know-how was obtained (or the specifics of the weaponization)?
Does anyone know if the Popular Science book debunking 911 conspiracy theories, which is also discussed, address the anthrax attacks?
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