Leaks, focus on single suspect undercut anthrax probe

WASHINGTON -- The federal investigation into the deadly anthrax mailings of late 2001 was undermined by leaks and a premature fixation on a single suspect, according to investigators and scientists involved in the case.

More than six years after the mailings, no one has been charged, and the top suspect, former Army scientist Steven J. Hatfill was all but exonerated Friday when the U.S. Justice Department agreed to pay him $5.82 million to settle a lawsuit.

Wow, that is a very interesting piece indeed, and I certainly have a lot of respect for Mr. Garrett for going on the record with his beliefs. It even has a picture of him in addition to his name, and that shows a lot more guts than your typical anonymous mid-level bureaucrat or former bureaucrat who usually exists pretty much in the shadows.

But I do find his failure to "comment on the guilt or innocence of Hatfill" a bit disturbing. There is a very subtle but definite implication there that they had the right man, but the higher-ups screwed up their ability to nail him. He is smart enough not to say it directly, but now that the settlement has been made, it's time to put an end to these kinds of sly hatchet jobs. You're still innocent until proven guilty in America, and if you don't even have enough evidence to get an indictment, the correct answer is "innocent".

And like almost all the other articles, he fails to make any mention at all of the people who pointed the finger at Hatfill in the first place, which makes the article less than completely honest.

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/mukasey-takes-heat-but-not-like-gonzales-did-2008-07-09.html
Mukasey takes heat, but not like Gonzales did

The Hill, DC - 11 hours ago
“Leahy also inquired about the status of the investigation into the anthrax scare, which inspired widespread fear across the country and shuttered the Senate ...”

Al-Hawsawi, KSM’s assistant who had the anthrax spraydrying documents on his laptop, has asked concerning the possibility he could be represented by an Egyptian attorney and an attorney from London.

Montasser Al-Zayat, the prominent islamist attorney from Cairo, announced in March 1999 that Ayman intended to use weaponized anthrax against US targets. He was defense counsel in the trial of the “Albanian returnees” — the 107 defendants included the EIJ leaders Mabruk and al-Najjar, both of whom publicly said at the time Ayman was going to use weaponized anthrax. Al-Zayat said Ayman was likely to use anthrax to retaliate against the rendering of EIJ leaders.

Montasser’s former law partner was Shehata, head of EIJ Special Branch/Civilian Operations.

Shehata’s brother-in-law was Canadian detainee Jaballah. The anthrax was threatened to be sent if bail was denied for EIJ / Vanguards of Conquest #2 Mahmoud Mahjoub, OBL’s farm manager in Sudan and then was sent on October 6 after bail was denied on October 5, 2001.

Montasser co-founded a political party in 1999 with a man (Mamdouh Ismail, as I recall the name offhand) who last year was arrested as Ayman’s conduit to jihadis in Egypt, Yemen and Iraq. His intermediary was the AQ spymaster who wrote about Amerithrax.

In 1999, while planning tactics that would result in the release of blind sheik Abdel-Rahman, Montasser Al-Zayat was regularly in touch with Post Office employee Sattar (the blind sheik’s liasion); Islamic Group leader Taha (Abdel-Rahman’s successor); and Islamic Group military commander Hamza. Montasser was arguing in favor of the “cease-fire.” The blind sheik’s son who would lecture alongside Al-Timimi was part of the dialogue.

Attorney Al-Zayat is allowed access to the Egyptian prison housing the Islamic Group shura members who issued the revisions. He was a chief proponent of the “cease-fire” after Luxor. His advocacy and actions have resulted in the release of hundreds, if not thousands, of imprisoned islamists.

He is lawyer to the blind sheik.

While Ayman’s friend, his disagreements over tactics with Ayman are genuine. His loyalty to the blind sheik is absolute.

He has written two books — one translated, one not. The first is called something like “The Ayman Zawahiri I Knew.”

Some would not be allowed clearance to go to Guantanamo.

I hope he does. What would the Scopes trial have been without Clarence Darrow?

But he would not be allowed access to classified information given his regular contact with senior AQ, IG and EIJ leaders.

Cairo-based founders of a different political party in 1999 were the two key writers for Al-Timimi’s charity. Ali was on the advisory board when they wrote for the publication Assirat and then they started writing for the IANA quarterly publication which focused on tactics, democracy, targetting etc.
One of them, Kamal Habib, was the founder of EIJ and leader of one of the cells that joined with Ayman’s cell in the late 1970s.

The anthrax letters were sent on the anniversaries of Sadat’s assassination and approval of the Camp David Accords.

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