No Corner Ruled Out in Anthrax Hunt

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ^ | 27 Oct 01 | Brian Williams

[Democrats are liars]

"Playing down reports that the focus of the search had shifted to the possibility that domestic extremists, rather than chief global terrorism suspect Osama bin laden were behind the anthrax attacks, a U.S. intelligence official said "no definitive conclusion has been reached." They don't have a clue who is doing this!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Diogenesis]

"They don't have a clue who is doing this!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Also this is only the second question. BUT, there are three lifelines.

They can take the 50-50 and can cut it down to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Or the Freeper audience can answer.

Or they can call an expert (eg. Laurie Mylroie)

[Nogbad]

Crop-dusters.

[Bill Rice]

Yeah, the media has done a good job of telling them that Dashle's is better than the other's. Now they know for sure what to mill it to for the crop-dusters.

[mlibertarianj]

Of course one of the stories coming out, that the letters were coated with Bentatine(forgive me on the error) that makes the spores last longer and disperse freely, I assume that since the U.S. is supposedly one of three sources of the stuff(other two are Russia and Iraq)I think that the stuff is controlled, or am I wrong on this?

[Cicero]

I can understand that they don't want to give out information that they don't have, or that will compromise the investigation.

But these jamokes had better realize that they have an obligation to scotch the nasty, underhanded rumors being broadcast by the liberal media, including the Washington ComPost that the guilty parties are Christian fundamentalists, or right-to-life organizations, or anything of the kind.

These are flat-out lies, being disseminated by the media, probably with the complicity of some clintonoid or other who is leaking lies from the FBI because Bush hasn't gotten around to firing him yet.

Janet Reno is no longer our ruler by divine right. This stuff has got to stop.

[GuillermoX]

The Left and Media are certainly hoping it's "right wingers".

[Democrats are liars]

It must be the terrorists! Nothing else makes any sense.

[John H K]

Of course one of the stories coming out, that the letters were coated with Bentatine(forgive me on the error) that makes the spores last longer and disperse freely, I assume that since the U.S. is supposedly one of three sources of the stuff(other two are Russia and Iraq)I think that the stuff is controlled, or am I wrong on this?
Yeah, pretty much :-)

It's "Bentonite." It's a kind of naturally occuring clay that instantly turns to horrible mud when it rains. It's not controlled. Literally the entire center of the state of Wyoming is covered with the stuff. You can go out and pick it up off the ground. It's used for a zillion things..it's pumped down oil wells, used in Kitty Litter.

Kind of hard to control mud :-)

It also occurs widely throughout the world, in 81 countries, including Iran and Iraq.

The deal with Iraq is that they're the only country known previously to use bentonite in their anthrax program, apparently. But ANYONE can get all the bentonite they want, anywhere they want. Hence, it's not proof Iraq produced the anthrax.

[John H K]

They don't have a clue who is doing this!!!!!!!!!!!!

You seem surprised....why?

It took EIGHTEEN YEARS to track down the Unabomber.

I would be shocked if whoever sent the anthrax letters was tracked down within 3-4 months and not surprised if it took over a year. Mail crimes are exceedingly difficult to solve.

[mlibertarianj]

Thanks for the info! :-)

[Ozymandias Ghost]

U'bomber wasn't exactly tracked down ...his own brother turned him in. That is hardly the FBI triumph that some in the media attempt to attribute to former FBI profiler (and resident media "expert") Cliff Van Zandt.

'Can't decide whether the attemp to blame this on "right wing fanatics" is FBI ineptness or whether the administration has given the FBI their "marching orders."

Obviously, the administration does not want this being taced to Iraq at this point in time. This may be strategic in nature. My hope is that this is a temporary thing due to the need to complete the Afghan mission prior to engaging Iraq.

Sadly, there is also the alternative possibility that, in the post-Clinton atmosphere, we are too badly exposed to risk a major chemical or biological attack internally and are thus unwilling to attack Iraq.

In my opinion the anthrax, so far, has not been intended to kill (although it did) ...that's why the samples were small, relatively contained and the messages and warnings were sent. The overall message being sent is this: We have the means and the methods to attack you at home. It is a warning of dire things to come pure and simple.

[Marak]

There is one group who is benefitting from the Anthrax scare that wil not be investigated. The FBI itself. Look at the targets of the attacks and you get a picture that they are aimed at anyone who might think about blocking the anti-terrorist bill that the FBI badly wants passed.

Now if they can also turn this into a witch hunt on the extreme right, so much the better for them. Sad when you become suspicious of your own government isn't it?

[martian_22]

Once again the accusation is alway sourced as FBI govt or senior officials and/or invetigators. Only the media says this for a few weeks and sources each other. I want names not repetition until it's a "real" concern.

[Clinton's a rapist]

They don't have a clue who is doing this!!!!!!!!!!!!

They've known who is responsible for weeks. Does anyone seriously believe that, four weeks into the anthrax campaign, the POTUS is still in the dark as to whether the letters are coming from al-Qaeda terror cells or all-American wackos? Get real. Ergo, we are being fed disinformation.

Now, put yourself in the position of Bush. You know that Iraq is presenting a credible threat to kill American civilians in huge numbers whenever you point the finger at Saddam. What are you going to do? Run out and tell everyone? Of course not. He has to keep the ball in the air for as long as possible. Saddam's okay with that, too. He's not going to blow the gaffe, since the anthrax only works as a deterrent so long as Bush has room to maneauver. The sh*t hits the fan when and if Bush points the finger.

[95Tarheel]

Well, this is a better balanced story than some of the other rubbish. It's possible that somebody's yanking the media's chain with the "right-wing" talk, b/c they know the media will parrot the allegations. It could be to benefit the FBI, to discredit the "right-wing", or hopefully- a false story being leaked to make the terrorists careless b/c they think the FBI is hunting the wrong game. Most likely its some mid level A-hole democrat holdover with nothing to do but blabber to media types...

[95Tarheel]

I like your elements of your theory, too.

[Vinomori]

Your theory is good. It is the only theory thus far that explains the wholly irrational suggestions that right wing hate groups are behind this. Notice that no one ever says they are, they are just "leaning toward that as a possibility." Also, Bush doesn't look too sure of himself when he discusses this. Nothing like the zone he gets into when discusses Osama and his cave. So there's something disturbing here that is being dealt with on a "need to know" basis. We don't have a need to know yet. They think. But they underestimate our will to know, and our ability to figure it out on our own.

[speekinout]

The story that makes sense to me - either posted elsewhere or with words that didn't match the search I tried - is that the anthrax doesn't match either the Russian or Iraqi forms. But the clintoon admin., a few years ago, had given grants to some academics to see if they could produce "weapons grade" anthrax with commonly available ingrdeients and equipment, and do it without detection. The grant was cancelled when some of them did, within 3 months and at a cost of less than $1M, assemble a lab and the ingredients to begin production.
That story is pretty much confirmed by the reports saying that "someone with a graduate degree could do it".

I truly think this is more of a Unibomber case than a bin Laden or Iraqi case. That makes it much harder to solve.

Of course, the perpetrator(s) could be Middle-Eastern. Most of the science students in graduate programs in our Universities are Asian, Middle-Eastern or Russian.

[been_lurking]

They've known who is responsible for weeks.

Are you saying they know who is in the terrorist cells that mailed the anthrax tainted letters from U.S. mailboxes, or just that they know who provided the anthrax?

If it's the former, then the effort to find the location of the terrorist cells would be at least a little closer to completion.

If it's the latter, then there really isn't much the government can do. Assuming the stockpiles of anthrax are already in the hands of hidden terrorist cells within the U.S., then no amount of threatening language or overt actions against Iraq can change that fact. IMO the first priority would be to neutralize the immediate threat (locate and disable the hidden terrorist cells), then go after the sponsor.