Anthrax And Al Qaeda

(US News) On the conservative website The American Thinker, military operations research analyst Ray Robison had an article on the September 2001 anthrax attack. It's based on a recently revealed pre-September 11 letter from a London jihadi named Numan Bin Uthman to al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri. Robison's conclusion:

"Uthman says he tried to talk Mohammad Atef and Usama bin Laden out of using WMD in a terrorist attack to convince the U.S. not to retaliate in Afghanistan because it would ultimately spread to Iraq."

"Because he knew that al Qaeda was planning an Anthrax attack with weaponized anthrax provided by Saddam Hussein.;

Robison has written previously about the anthrax attacks, and in September I blogged on the subject. It continues to strike me as highly implausible that the anthrax attacks, which occurred just days after September 11, were not an al Qaeda operation. The FBI investigation, focusing on scientists in the United States, has produced nothing, and we are told that the FBI now concludes that the anthrax could have come from anywhere in the world. The good news is that the anthrax attacks did not produce the high casualties and the degree of panic that the attackers intended. The bad news is that we still don't know who attacked us and perhaps never will.

In mid-January 2002, Dr. Barbara Rosenberg noted to the Wall Street Journal that “The FBI has gotten short lists of suspects from several people over two months ago.” Kenneth Alibek, president of Advanced Biosystems Inc., a defense contractor located at George Mason University, told the Journal that he wasn’t surprised to learn that his name had appeared on one such list. The Journal noted that born Kanatjan Alibekov, Dr. Alibek was formerly deputy director of the secret Russian germ weapons program known as Biopreparat. Dr. Alibek emphasized: “It would be absolutely inappropriate if my name was not on at least one list, if not all, because it is absolutely obvious that I am one of the experts.” The Journal published an OpEd in late October 2001 titled “The Elephant in the Room” suggesting Iraq was responsible. Neither the Journal nor any other paper for over a half decade — and not CBS in the piece by Michael Barone today — would note that the elephant in the room was in an office not much more than 10 feet from Dr. Alibekov.

The microbiologist Ali Al-Timimi had been taught by Bin Laden’s sheik al-Hawali who had been the express subject of the 1996 declaration of war. His mentor was Bilal Philips who in the 1990s recruited folks from the US Army to join the jihad. Dr. Alibek’s fellow microbiologist hand-delivered on the first anniversary of the anthrax mailings to Senators Leahy and Daschle a letter in the name of Bin Laden’s sheik warning against the invasion of Iraq. Al-Timimi would eventually be prosecuted for exhorting young men to go to Afghanistan to defend Afghanistan against the imminent invasion by the US in October 2001. As it turns, based on this recent letter by the senior jihadi who spoke with Atef and Ayman in the Summer of 2000 at Kandahar, deterring the invasion against Afghanistan was a key purpose of the anthrax letters.

In November 2007, a former leader of an armed Islamic group in Libya, Numan Bin Uthman, wrote an open letter to al-Qaeda second in command Ayman al-Zawahiri telling him that Jihadi groups in Arab countries that the strategy of using nonconventional WMD to deter an invasion of Afghanistan was a misguided and failed strategy. The letter needs to be understood in the context of the fact that the microbiologist that Ayman Zawahiri and Mohammed Atef used to infiltrate US biodefense, Ali Al-Timimi, had a stern warning not to invade Iraq hand-delivered to every member of Congress on October 6, 2002 — the first anniversary of the mailing to Senator Leahy and Senator Daschle. It was in the name of Bin Laden’s sheik.

Ali Al-Timimi had a high security clearance for work for the Navy and worked just feet away from famed Russian bioweaponeer Ken Alibek and the former head of USAMRIID at Ft. Detrick, Charles Bailey, who has published many articles on the Ames strain of anthrax.

In his letter to Zawahiri, the Libyan jihadist Numan Bin Uthman wrote:

“Dear Doctor Ayman, as I told you during a meeting in Kandahar [in Afghanistan] in 2000,

***

Uthman also said that he had taken part in an important al-Qaeda summit in Kandahar, Afghanistan in 2000, in which al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden had defined search for and use of weapons of mass destruction as a “Sharia obligation”.

“During this occasion, I had a strong dispute with the martyr Abu Hafs al-Kumandan [Commander Abu Hafs aka Mohammed Atef, Al Qaeda’s military commander], because he was heavily involved in acquiring weapons of mass destruction.”

Ayman Zawahiri was reporting to Atef about anthrax weaponization program codenamed Zabadi. Atef died when a missile landed on his head in November 2001.

The jihadist’s letter to Zawahiri continues:

“He wanted to use these weapons to dissuade the United State from attacking Afghanistan. And yet I knew that al-Qaeda did not have any strategic vision and would have used the weapons to kill indiscriminately and not to dissuade.”

He continued:

“After seven years since that meeting, my convictions on these issues have only grown stronger,” he said.

“At that time I said that provoking the United States would turn them against the Taliban and by striking the country in an unconventional way would bring occupation to the entire Middle East and not only Afghanistan and that’s what’s happened.”

Libyan leader Bin-Uthman, a former leader in the Libyan Islamic Combat Group, on behalf of his group had declined bin Laden’s invitation in 1998 to join with Bin Laden’s “World Front.” At the several day meeting in the Summer of 2000 in Kandahar, he spoke frankly about the failure to achieve jihadist goals. He told al-Hayat last year: “We asked Bin-Ladin in 2000 to halt his operations from Afghanistan and he agreedÉ ‘except for operations under preparation and executionÉ and I [Bin-Ladin] will never give them up.’” In the December 2006 interview, Bin-Uthman explained that:

“Continuity is the most important point in the military actions, especially the guerrilla warfare, whether those launched from mountains or the urban warfare. The lack of continuity causes the side which you want on your side in the conflict, such as people or other Islamist movements, to lose trust in you. The choice of easy and civilian targets, which anyone can attack, also upset a large number of those whom you say you want to liberate and provide with security and prosperity. What they saw was the opposite. In addition, weeks after the operations, their frequency began to decline until it became clear that the state prevented you from continuing [the operations.] The armed organization was established to inflict a military defeat on the state. This did not happen in any Arab state. Not only Al-Qa’idah, but also all the jihadist groups in the Arab countries completely failed. I am speaking based on an experience with the jihadist groups, and I know what I am saying.”

Bin-Uthman late last year told that the interviewer that Bin Laden did not expect the US to invade Afghanistan.

“Practically speaking, however, I know through my dialogues with Al-Qa’idah Organization that it never expected America to invade Afghanistan. It expected extremely violent air strikes. It wagered that Pakistan would never cooperate and open its territory to the US forces. Bin-Ladin wagered much that the Pakistanis, scholars, students and preachers would stand in the way of their government if it even thought of this matter (cooperation with the Americans). The utmost Al-Qa’idah expected were harsh air strikes, which would not lead to the downfall of the Taleban government or the departure of the Arabs from Afghanistan. They also took into consideration the possibility that the Americans would conduct a special force landing operations to carry out assassinations. Al-Qa’idah, however, did not expect an invasion of Afghanistan.”

Fortunately, the FBI was knocking on Ali’s door very shortly after 9/11.

I think your theory has pretty solid evidence — that is, there is a credible personal witness account in connection with a highly compartmentalized operation in Summer 2000, the relevant timeframe for planning. With Kandahar being the relevant locale. With Atef and Ayman being the relevant players.

Of course, various additional facets relate to choice of particular targets and timing (e.g., two waves, targeting of media and particular senators, and dates of mailing). But a threat/warning intended to deter invasion of Afghanistan now makes total sense. And it should be understood in the context of the letter hand delivered to all members of Congress in the name of Bin Laden’s sheik on the first anniversary... threatening dire consequences if Iraq were invaded.

Kessler’s book has an underlying theme that the media and public don’t appreciate how intent the FBI is at viewing targets as collection platforms rather than indictable defendants. They will keep a target in play for so long as it may lead to them learning more about the threat. Preemption and disruption of the next attack is paramount — prosecution for the crime entirely secondary.

This, IMO, is why they haven’t been able to brief Leahy. They see value in continued collection of intelligence.

So long as you are not looking for dramatic revelations you haven’t heard before, and don’t mind that it is strongly advocating the FBI’s position, I recommend the book. Those presently critical on the FBI on particular issues may suddenly see things in a different light. Basically, Kessler’s position, and I agree, is that the FBI is damned if they do and damned if they don’t.

If they make an arrest too soon, the pundits slam them.

If they wait too long, the pundits slam them.

I remember in the Deulfer Report.
Saddam’s “bio vans” were just van to fill Hydrogen Weather Balloons.

It appears many people were interested in balloons.

Butler on Anthrax
http://edition.cnn.com/2001/HEALTH/conditions/10/15/anthrax.butler/index.html

Ballons to launch Anthrax Bombs

“Finally, Updates reproduces a report from the latest Economist with new revelations from Kabul that an organisation associated with one of Pakistan’s top nuclear scientists was apparently attempting to build an anthrax bomb launched from a helium balloon.”

http://www.aijac.org.au/updates/Nov-01/291101.html

news.indiatimes.com ^ | THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2001

Anthrax plan pops out of Pak scientist’s cupboard

NEW DELHI: Sketches and calculations to make a helium-powered balloon bomb filled with anthrax have been found from the Kabul office of an NGO headed by Bashiruddin Mehmood, one of the two Pakistani nuclear scientists detained in Islamabad for questioning on their alleged links with Osama Bin Laden, The Economist has said.

Such a balloon bomb was capable of showering deadly anthrax over areas as vast as New York or Washington.

The “most chilling” items found from the Kabul premises included small bags of white powder and the “mass of calculations and drawings” of weather balloons with arrows indicating the suggested height of 10 km or 33,000 feet, said The Economist in its print edition.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/579785/posts

Intriguing connection I had never seen drawn. Although I had seen the reference to reference balloons relating to the biolabs and the Kabul drawings, I had never seen the two connected, although it sure is intriguing.

To set out some of the background from 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 nondescript 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 scientists 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.

There was a dramatic revelation in the Wall Street Journal this week that in March 2003, the owner of the property where KSM (or so he confesses) killed Daniel Pearl was arrested and kept (apparently in Bagram) for several years, and then turned over to Pakistan, and then released. The man died in May 2007 of turburculosis and meningitis. His brother says he was questioned about financing anthrax weaponization — and he had given money to the Al Rashid charity.

The New York Times reported on the search of the home in Afghanistan by US personnel of this home where the balloon drawings had been found by journalists. 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 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 the owner of the house, Mehmood, had been a quiet neighbor and it was impossible to tell whether the men visiting the house were aid workers or not.

The envelopes mailed to the Senator Daschle and Leahy on the day Afghanistan was invaded had a stamp in the upper right corner 00 just like the second bag did — with a small eagle on it.

Question: where did the second bag come from?

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