Iraq 'behind US anthrax outbreaks'

Guardian UK ^ | 10/14/01 | David Rose and Ed Vulliamy

[Diogenesis]

Iraq 'behind US anthrax outbreaks'

David Rose and Ed Vulliamy, New York

Sunday October 14, 2001

The Observer

American investigators probing anthrax outbreaks in
Florida and New York believe they have all the
hallmarks of a terrorist attack - and have named Iraq
as prime suspect as the source of the deadly spores.

Their inquiries are adding to what US hawks say is a
growing mass of evidence that Saddam Hussein was
involved, possibly indirectly, with the 11 September
hijackers.

If investigators' fears are confirmed - and sceptics
fear American hawks could be publicising the claim to
press their case for strikes against Iraq - the pressure
now building among senior Pentagon and White
House officials in Washington for an attack may
become irresistible.

Plans have been discussed among Pentagon
strategists for US air strike support for armed
insurrections against Saddam by rebel Kurds in the
north and Shia Muslims in the south with a promise of
American ground troops to protect the oilfields of
Basra.

Contact has already been made with an Iraqi
opposition group based in London with a view to
installing its members as a future government in
Baghdad.

Leading US intelligence sources, involved with both
the CIA and the Defence Department, told The
Observer that the 'giveaway' which suggests a state
sponsor for the anthrax cases is that the victims in
Florida were afflicted with the airborne form of the
disease.

'Making anthrax, on its own, isn't so difficult,' one
senior US intelligence source said. 'But it only begins
to become effective as a biological weapon if they
can be made the right size to breathe in. If you can't
get airborne infectivity, you can't use it as a weapon.
That is extremely difficult. There is very little leeway.
Most spores are either too big to be suspended in air,
or too small to lodge on the lining of the lungs.'

As claims about an Iraqi link grew, senior health
officials in Britain revealed they warned all the
country's GPs last week to be vigilant about the
disease. 'I think we have to be prepared to think the
unthinkable,' said the Government's Chief Medical
Officer, Dr Liam Donaldson. The Department of
Health confirmed the Government is conducting an
urgent review of Britain's ability to cope with chemical
or biological attacks.

US intelligence believes Iraq has the technology and
supplies of anthrax suitable for terrorist use. 'They
aren't making this stuff in caves in Afghanistan,' the
CIA source said. 'This is prima facie evidence of the
involvement of a state intelligence agency. Maybe Iran
has the capability. But it doesn't look likely politically.
That leaves Iraq.'

Last autumn Mohamed Atta is said by US intelligence
officials to have met in Prague an agent from Iraqi
intelligence called Ahmed Samir al-Ahani, a former
consul later expelled by the Czechs for activities not
compatible with his diplomatic mission.

The Czechs are also examining the possibility that
Atta met a former director of Saddam's external
secret services, Farouk Hijazi, at a second meeting in
the spring. Hijazi is known to have met Bin Laden.

It was confirmed yesterday that Jim Woolsey, CIA
director from 1993 to 1996, recently visited London on
behalf of the hawkish Defence Department to 'firm up'
other evidence of Iraqi involvement in 11 September.

[Roebucks]

You may want to this article for revision. It concerns the attack of 9/11, rather than the anthrax incidents.

But, Saddam's own words, "the USA is in over their head" can be reasonably concluded to mean that he at least had knowledge of the attacks, if not an outright partner to them.

So, if he were involved in both rounds of WTC bombings, who gives a crap whether he's involved in the anthrax. It's time to take him out. Period.

[Sabertooth]

You're shooting ducks today, ain't you Travis?

[Illbay]

I AM a foot-fetishist, as it happens. Just goes to show you: You CAN believe everything you read on FR.

[Travis McGee]

You're not doing too badly yourself, (the physicist thread etc).

[terilyn]

I hadn't heard that the letters to Brokaw and Microsoft were addressed to J-Lo. I thought the one that went to Microsoft was a bunch of magazine porno cut outs, and the one to Brokaw was a threatening letter, (of which they said they get lots of those and filed it with the others). Maybe I'm wrong? Hopefully we'll find out what those letters contained for sure in the coming days.

[Rightwing Conspiratr1]

The real question is, how could he hope to do that and avoid being removed from power? He had to have an insurance policy. What was our insurance policy for forty years? Mutual Assured Destruction. How could Saddam threaten to destroy America, without nuclear weapons or ICBMs? Using biological warfare. How could he convince America that he has them, without forcing our hand and defeating the object of the threat? Possible answer: by incorporating a novel, low-intensity bioterrorism campaign into the terror plan. Make sense?

It makes more sense that he, like bin Laden, want to see the whole mideast at war. You see they believe we don't have the guts to fight on that many fronts. S.A. and Egypt are teetering on the brink.

[Sabertooth]

Eventually, he ducked out.

[Travis McGee]

His non-arguement got boring.

[Lady GOP]

The Czechs are also examining the possibility that Atta met a former director of Saddam's external secret services, Farouk Hijazi, at a second meeting in the spring. Hijazi is known to have met Bin Laden.

Any more information on this..?