Items left behind show Qaeda tactics: Refuse gives clues to plans to wreak havoc in the US

Boston Globe ^ | December 14, 2001 | Indira A.R. Lakshmanan

[sarcasm]

ANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Items found amid the wreckage of recently bombed Al Qaeda houses here are helping paint a clearer picture of how the terrorist organization pursued its mission.

Wedged in a jumble of bricks and coated with dust from collapsed walls and pulverized brick, a patchwork of torn letters, proclamations, receipts, and maps reveals a network working secretly and methodically to wreak havoc in the United States.

[sarcasm]

Also strewn about the rubble were stomach ailment medicines and packages of the antibiotic Cipro, known for its protective powers against anthrax.

[BostonGuy]

Glad you highlighted the line about Cipro. I saw that in the article and found it both telling and chilling. Here's a way-too-early-in-the-morning bump!

[goldstategop]

Hmmm.... though that anthrax wave in this country was maybe that Al Qaeda revenge following our beginning the war on Oct. 7th? Could it be its nearly gone cause we're breaking its back and wiping out the terrorist leadership? There's a lot of incriminating evidence of their true evil if one only looks for it.

[samtheman]

Also strewn about the rubble were stomach ailment medicines and packages of the antibiotic Cipro, known for its protective powers against anthrax.

I guess the Cipro was left there by visiting members of the Vast Rightwing Conspiracy from America.

[BubbaJunebug]

What's the big deal...Cipro was in my medicine cabinet well before 9/11...It's the most common antibiotic in the world for treating ear infections etc.

[bvw]

I saw some video shots on CNN last night of the notebooks, although the camera didn't linger on the pages long. It was a misture of arabic, equations, drawings, and english. The notes in English were in a block handwriting style very similar to the anthrax mailings.

[samtheman]

Ratboy, the American Taliban, was evidently told by his scumbag leaders that there would be a second bigger attack on the USA, a biological one. I am more and more of the opinion that the anthrax that was mailed was that second attack, and that they had a lot more faith in its destructiveness than was warranted. Anybody can predict that flying a jet plane into a tall building will have devasting effects. Even an Arab can figure that one out. But when it comes to anything more complicated, like assessing the possible weapon-effectiveness of a few envelopes of anthrax... well, let's just say it was beyond their limited cranial capacities. Within the shallows of their lobotomized brains, those anthrax letters took on apocalyptic proportions.

At least that's my theory.

[bvw]

I like it. It goes with the inherent prevert's grandiosity of the dream-heads. Dream-head as we saw in the Bin Laden dinner party video, where they all sit around discussing dreams as if the dreams are or will be reality. So sick are their minds that they can't tell the difference!

[Bill Rice]

"The houses - in former offices ... - bore out claims by US military officials that the suspected terrorists and their Taliban allies hid in aid agency offices to avoid US airstrikes."

I wonder how many more of the bastards got away by hiding in mosques?

[NativeNewYorker]

Cipro, block lettering...piece in recent Economist saying captured Taliban documents mentioned anthrax...all the earmarks of the VRWC.

[Alas Babylon!]

I thought the anthrax letters were from a RIGHT-WING American fanatic? How could anybody take all the new evidence seriously when we've been told that FBI profilers already got it figured out????

[aristeides]

though that anthrax wave in this country was maybe that Al Qaeda revenge following our beginning the war on Oct. 7th?

The Daschle and Leahy letters were postmarked Oct. 9th.

[R. Scott]

"The houses - in former offices of the Food and Agriculture Administration, the United Nations Drug Control Program, a UN-funded public health group called IbnSina, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and Oxfam - bore out claims by US military officials that the suspected terrorists and their Taliban allies hid in aid agency offices to avoid US airstrikes."

I wonder if the UN will hand us the bill?

[AppyPappy]

Oh no. You really didn't see that. An intelligent man would not draw that conclusion. The Anthrax was sent by right-wing extremists. No one will believe you so you shouldn't talk about what you saw because you really didn't see it.

[duckbutt]

AP - - I've asked a question several times on several boards, but maybe the info is not out there. Are US forces also destroying the poppy fields? bin Laden got a lot of his money from the drugs produced by the poppies (can't think of what it is right now---brain not engaged). Are we doing anything to choke off the potential flow of monies from drug production and sales?

[angkor]

Cipro, known for its protective powers against anthrax.

Pure sensationalism. Cipro also (and primarily) is widely known by medical practitioners, expats, travelers, journos - and apparently the Taliban - to be the most effective antibiotic available for third world intestinal ailments (e.g., amoebic dysentary, food poisoning).

In the U.S. Cipro is now (almost exclusively) associated with anthrax, but throughout the 90's it had been the antibiotic of choice for anyone traveling in the third world. Every Westerner in their right mind carries a stash of Cipro.

[Let's Roll]

"...Dream-head as we saw in the Bin Laden dinner party video, where they all sit around discussing dreams as if the dreams are or will be reality..."

Not only that, but their body language, their voices are so effeminate. There didn't appear to be a warrior in the bunch - just treacherous schemers. Anybody can beat up old ladies in the street, sneak up and sucker punch someone or attack when their numbers are many times greater than their victims. Well, they've met warriors now.

[gumbo]

The notes in English were in a block handwriting style very similar to the anthrax mailings

That, combined with the "packages of Cipro" strewn about, is VERY interesting!

Hope those investigators who (supposedly) think it's a 'domestic' source take note.

[gumbo]

It's the most common antibiotic in the world for treating ear infections etc.

Cipro commonly prescribed for ear infections? If so, then those doctors prescribing it are doing their patients a disservice. Cipro is NOT for kids (by far the most frequent sufferers from ear infections); and even in adults, an ear infection doesn't usually require such a large caliber weapon as Cipro. It'd be like shooting a fly with a cannon.

[horsewhispersc]

There was an article on another thread where a farmer stated he was happy to be able to cultivate poppies again as the Taliban wouldn't allow it. He was asked if he used it and he said no as it's bad for the mind. So you tell me