These devices had clearly been designed with the understanding that the standard USPS envelopes sold in vending machines would not long hold the anthrax.
In short, it wasn't considered necessary for the envelopes to ever be delivered to be effective transmission devices.
As it turned out they were remarkably effective since the tape kept the anthrax from filtering except on the perimeter edges.
Obviously someone was involved in this attack who knew about filtering rates of anthrax, the quality of USPS embossed envelopes, the utility of packaging tape and whether or not its presence would draw undue early attention by postal employees.
These guys shut down the main postal facility serving the headquarters agencies of the United States government as well as Congress, with a handful of envelopes.
What they didn't count on is the vast capacity of the USPS ~ which simply started sending all the mail that'd gone to Brentwood to different buildings in the DC area. That right there tells me the enemy was probably foreign and thought of the postal system in terms of the rather modest establishment of his home country (USPS having over half the postal capacity in the world, it's easy for foreigners to "just not get it").
The addresses selected came right off the internet in a precise format that the attackers didn't change. That could be because they didn't read English and had little understanding of what the address elements meant.
If so, that pretty much excludes our boy at the Staten Island post office from being directly involved in the business of preparing and mailing the anthrax letters.
So, what was his part in this, if, in fact, he had a part? So far I haven't figured it out ~ which leads to a default answer that he probably needed the money.
And don't we all.
As far as co-workers at Staten Island, I didn't work there.
On September 10, a Canadian study issued re Dugway simulant — reporting on a study done after an anthrax threat was received in connection with Bin Laden’s farm manager in Sudan. It found that leakage occurred prior to opening and immediately dispersed. Only an estimated 16 people in the USG were aware of it at the time of the anthrax mailings. Al-Timimi shared a fax with famed Russian bioweaponeer Ken Alibek and former USAMRIID Charles Bailey. If Seikaley were better informed, he would have realized that Hatfill was a crummy candidate. Sekaily’s brother and his wife (at the time he was leaking to the press) were publicly formally arguing that after 9/11, folks shouldn’t assume that Arabs are behind terrorism. Well, one would hope that it is the evidence, not Thanksgiving dinner table talk by self-described Palestinian nationalists such as his sister-in-law, that guides decisions in these matters. But given that he reports he didn’t read anything and briefings were all done orally, it’s a wonder any serious analysis was done at all.
A copy of the Canadian report was mailed by the Canadians to Bradley, head of the CDC investigation, but he says he didn’t open the email. He says it would not have had caused them to do anything differently, but some at Brentwood may disagree given that they object that the facility was not closed earlier. In the Canadian report, I believe reference was made to leaking from the corners, in addition to the pore size of the envelope (but I don’t have it in front of me).
“end to end, front and back”...
So do you mean along the outside edges of the rectangle?
Or was there a tape on where it sealed. The place where an envelope’s adhesive sometimes fails is at the corner.
Daschle somewhat ambiguously says it was not heavily taped, leaving it open that it was taped, just not heavily taped.
The envelope was made of recycled paper (and that was apparent from writing noting that on the envelope.
In the deposition, he says he started at the US attorney’s office on September 29, 2001.
I wonder when he applied for the position.