From TRENTON, N.J. FBI Combs Route of Mail Carrier With Anthrax; Woman Served Less 300 addresses

AP/TBO.com ^ | Oct. 19 , 2001 | Lori Hinannt Associated Press Writer

[My Favorite Headache]

FBI is such a waste of time. This letter or all of these letters could have been deposited in a drop off box or someone could have driven by someone's mailbox and put it in it.From Atlanta to Florida to New Jersey. Am I the only person on here who thinks the FBI is a waste of resources at working at nothing but diversion?

[callisto]

True, but some of these guys were almost as overt as possible before 911...they may have mailed this stuff from their own house. Idiots abound!

[Timesink]

You have to be able to dismiss the obvious possibilities before you can move on to the less-obvious ones.

[ikka]

The woman served 250 to 300 addresses in Ewing Township, mostly homes, but also some apartment buildings and a few businesses, fellow letter carrier Jim Bittenbender said.

Would be interesting to know how serving 250 to 300 addresses compares in terms of efficiency to FedEx Ground or UPS.

[gumbo]

the FBI has not returned to that apartment since a search Sept. 15 and has no immediate reason to suspect a connection between the detainees and bioterrorism

HAH! It was reporters for the Wall Street Journal, NOT the FBI, who somehow gained access to this apartment recently and found the articles on bioterrorism -- apparently OVERLOOKED by the FBI.

Not only that, but one of the residents of that apartment, Mohammed Pervez, had recently lived and worked in Trenton:
Suspects had bioterror articles [one named Pervez lived, worked in Trenton]

[rolling_stone]

I think this is just methodical investigation, however I strongly disagree with the information being made public.

It could easily cause the culprit(s) to leave the area. Door to door footwork should be conducted, and those people contacted might be able to supply clues.

Sometimes information is released to get the public's help, othertimes it should not be released until the culprits are apprehended. It is always a tough call to make IMO.

[lunatic12]

"letters could have been deposited in a drop off box"

The article clearly states that the woman NEVER picks up mail from public boxes. Perhaps it isn't the FBI that's a waste of time, but your posts instead?

I bet they catch this clown PDQ, unless he's skipped town already.

[eno_]

I really wish Ladbrokes or a Vegas casino was taking bets on the anthrax being domestic terror. Or someone should make the people spouting this line take those bets. At best, this spin is a "throttle" on the news that will break once we get Osama. THEN it will turn out we have PLENTY of evidence against Iraq.

[BlueNgold]

Try to picture this like an overhead view of a map. They have identified two workers in the postal office that postmarked the letters. Start with the postmark: that is a positive location identifier. Backtracking from within the postoffice you then want to determine a point of entry. The man who serviced the sorting machine has tested positive: that provides a small step and will perhaps ;ead to an identification of which machine was exposed, or if multiple machines were exposed. Another postal worker who runs a service route with NO PUBLIC DROPS has also tested positive meaning that she almost certainly handled one of the tainted letters. Now you look down at the map and track her route looking for #1 suspicious residents, employees, and/or guests, and #2 possible public entry points into her route, places where someone could have dropped a letter that does not either work or live on her route. That would lead to further investgation. This certainly does not solve the case but it is actually huge in terms of narrowing the search.

[SunnyUsa]

really interesting!

EwingTwp is sprawling (about 30K pop... and right outside of Trenton...

I just emailed some people I know in Ewing Twp to tell me if they've seen FBI activity in their neighborhood.

I'm sure the creeps have skipped town however, but it could give us a "clue" to who they were......

It's also the home of the COLLEGE of NEW JERSEY

[bvw]

West Trenton is also the location of State Home for the Criminally Insane (the Vroom Building), NJ State Police Headquaters, and an FBI field office. I heard someone mention Delaware Avenue as the route -- that would be close to the State Police Headquarters.

[malakhi]

Would be interesting to know how serving 250 to 300 addresses compares in terms of efficiency to FedEx Ground or UPS.

I was thinking the same thing. For once, the inefficiency of the postal service may work in our favor.

[OrioleFan]

True, but some of these guys were almost as overt as possible before 911...they may have mailed this stuff from their own house. Idiots abound!

Like the guy from the WTC bombing years ago who went to the truck rental agency to get his deposit back. What an ultra maroon (bugs bunny)!

[Recovering_Democrat]

FBI is such a waste of time. This letter or all of these letters could have been deposited in a drop off box or someone could have driven by someone's mailbox and put it in it.From Atlanta to Florida to New Jersey. Am I the only person on here who thinks the FBI is a waste of resources at working at nothing but diversion?

? I respectfully and strongly disagree. Where are they to look? A letter carrier's route in Northwestern Idaho? They would be supremely foolish if they didn't check this route out. No guarantee of finding a clue, but you're guaranteed not to find a clue if you don't investigate this obvious lead.

[stuck_in_new_orleans]

FBI is such a waste of time. This letter or all of these letters could have been deposited in a drop off box or someone could have driven by someone's mailbox and put it in it.

Well, knowing the past stupidity of the first WTC bombers of trying to get a deposit back for a missing truck! its worth a shot.

Am I the only person on here who thinks the FBI is a waste of resources at working at nothing but diversion?

Apparently you are, What would you want them to do? Throw their arms up in the air and say, "We have no idea."? Give them a break, of course they want to catch these people and they are going to cover every clue at their disposal.

[OrioleFan]

You all know, if these letters had been mailed from Berkeley, there would have been a thousand students screeming "Use my mailbox!"

[MaxwellWolf]

Is this next?

Israelis Capture Man With Radiological Backpack Bomb 10-19-1

ISRAEL - Israeli security last month arrested a man linked to suspected terrorist coordinator, Osama bin Laden, armed with a radiological backpack bomb.

The man was arrested in the last week of September as he attempted to enter Israel from the Palestinian Territories at a border crossing point at Ramallah, according to U.S. government officials.

"There was only one individual involved. He was from Pakistan," a government official said.

An official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, declined to give the exact date of arrest. Two other sources interviewed by United Press International confirmed the incident, but also declined to give further details.

"People know how to walk a dog back," one said, meaning that relating too exact an account could lead to the identification of the source of the information.

Another source said U.S. officials believed that the suspect had probably reached the territories by way of Lebanon.

Information on the arrest went immediately to President Bush and a close circle of advisers, another U.S. official said. He described the appearance and character of the top-secret report circulated among the Cabinet members and signed by each official present.

Former Pentagon terrorism expert Peter Probst described a radiological bomb as a device with a small explosive core that is encased in radioactive material. "It would not kill a great many people, but it would contaminate a considerable area with radiation," he said.

A U.S. government expert said that the weapon captured by Israel was a backpack device that CIA officials learned about through Russian intelligence agents in place in 1995. He emphasized it was not a so-called nuclear suitcase bomb.

Backpack bombs were designed for Russian Spetznaz special forces and have such an intricate and complex system of activation that the ability of a terrorist to detonate one would be incredibly limited, according to one U.S. government official.

"There is such a complicated sequence you have to perform that some terrorist isn't going to be able to get it to work. You have to be very highly trained," an intelligence official agreed, describing the chances that the device could have been activated as "practically miniscule."

Probst is nevertheless convinced that radiological bombs are still a danger for New York City. "Bin Laden is fascinated by Wall Street. My fear is that he will attempt to smuggle in some "dirty" bomb that wouldn't kill many people but would dangerously contaminate the area," he said.

[lunatic12]

"True, but some of these guys were almost as overt as possible before 911...they may have mailed this stuff from their own house. Idiots abound!"

Maybe not. They may have been wearing gas masks and rubber gloves when handling this stuff. They're not likely to walk down to the local post drop box in that getup.

[cactmh]

someone could have deposited it in someone elses mailbox, but we won't know that until the people on the route are investigated. Is the FBI supposed to just assume someone did what you said and not investigate the route?