Posted on 10/13/2001 5:02:03 PM PDT by 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.
So what is supposed to motivate Hussein to do attack us with antrhax, according to those who pin the deed on him?
I guess someone might speculate that Hussein would be hoping to inflame Muslims in the Middle East through instigating a massive U.S. response. But how Hussein is supposed to see his own government surviving an American retaliation, whatever else might come of the situation in the Middle East afterward, is very hard to see.
So, I'm skeptical that Hussein himself is behind any anthrax release in the U.S. That terrorists might have gotten ahold of anthrax through contacts in Iraq without the Iraqi government knowing about it seems more likely to me.
Kudos to you - with all the panic and confusion it's hard to be clear headed and look for the big picture. What's unfolding here is a series of hints that point not to a terrorist operation, but to an intelligence operation. You can't have all the precision, all the sophistication, give no warning signs and leave no traces, the next day cough up weaponized anthrax here and there, and yet be a deranged opium-smoking lunatic issuing 'religious decrees' out of a cave 10000 miles away. We need to be level-headed and work our way back to vision and motives, without automatically assuming or excluding the involvement of anyone. Who's expecting to accomplish what?
David Rose and Ed Vulliamy are probably CIA assets. Notice the reference to the CIA in the last paragragh.(Hey, I can make wild claims on spotty evidence too!)
Because the frequency and intensity of compulsive CYA maneuvers by clinton and his/her gang are increasing in direct proportion to the increasing frequency and intensity of editorial comment fingering clinton for 9-11, I suspect compulsive clinton CYA-ing will soon reach critical mass. At that historic, civilization-sparing moment, Sandy Berger (along with his smarmy revisionism) will implode by virtue of one-too-many pressure-deflating "uhs"...taking the two inept, corrupt, cowardly, self-serving Boss-Dweeb dullards down with him. As Martha Stewart might say, this is a good thing...surprisingly, for the atavistic clintons as well as for advanced civilization.
[ASIDE: Have you noticed that as of the morning of 9-11-01, hillary clinton's "best memory" informs her--and she is quick to inform us -- that she was not "co-president" after all?] |
It's Hammer Time
Yup. Maybe some variation but that sound like the general plan.
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And where did Iraq get samples of West Nile Virus? ... which has now spread from NY to MO courtesy of mosquitos and infected birds (crows). blowback. We need to just blast these terrorists of the face of the earth and be done with them.
Then f we're successful in Afghanistan then we shouldn't have to worry about terrorism for a long time.
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