In May 2005, I spoke to Judy Miller and emailed her about the documents here. Besides noting I could have given exclusively to the NYT (but didn’t), she never expressed any doubt in her view that US-based operatives supporting the Salafists were responsible. But it’s now 2 1/2 years later and so someone should ask her. (Journalists are not in the business of expressing their view but instead just writing up news; so it’s not like I was probing her opinion). Her view would be especially interesting, though, because Scooter Libby allegedly was preoccupied in July or August 2003 about anthrax being smuggled into the country by AQ operatives (and she had met him twice). And, of course, she has lots of contacts, such as at DIA.
Suspect and A Setback In Al-Qaeda Anthrax Case
Scientist With Ties To Group Goes Free
By Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 31, 2006; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/30/AR2006103001250.html
Thanks I hadn’t seen that before....
The article you cite includes this:
U.S. officials are even more reticent in discussing possible links between al-Qaeda's anthrax program and the 2001 U.S. attacks, which killed five people and briefly shut down the U.S. Capitol. Privately, FBI officials doubt that such a link exists. They note that the attacks came with an explicit warning -- a letter advising the victims to take penicillin, resulting in a far lower death toll -- but without an explicit claim of responsibility. "It doesn't fit with al-Qaeda's modus operandi," one intelligence official said.