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Scientist's anthrax claim was bogus
Milwaulkee Journal Sentinel ^ | October 4, 2001 | GRETCHEN SCHULDT

Posted on 12/19/2001 4:38:50 PM PST by Clinton's a rapist

A week after the terrorist attacks on America, a highly educated scientist told Milwaukee police that he was building an anthrax delivery system in his basement, according to documents filed in federal court.

In these times of heightened alert, the remark earned the man a visit from FBI agents armed with a search warrant, who took the man's computer, and keypads from a telephone and a microwave oven, according to court records. But no deadly anthrax.

As it turns out, police were responding to a neighbor dispute, and the man was intoxicated when he made the anthrax comments to police.

FBI spokeswoman Cathy Fahey said no further investigation is planned and the man, whose resume says he has a doctorate in nuclear and environmental chemistry, is not likely to be charged.

The affidavit says the man apparently was intoxicated when he made the anthrax statement to police just days after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks left the nation with heightened vigilance against potential biological or chemical threats.

About 200 pounds of anthrax spores released upwind of Washington, D.C., could kill up to 3 million people, according to a government study.

Police were summoned to the man's west side home Sept. 18 by his mother, who feared he would get into a physical confrontation with a neighbor over damage her son allegedly did with a lawn mower to the neighbor's property.

The woman "indicated that her son was usually not violent, but had recently developed an alcohol problem and is unable to control his temper after drinking," according to the affidavit by FBI Special Agent Parker Shipley.

The affidavit was filed last week in support of a request for a search warrant. The search was conducted Friday.

The affidavit says the man told officers he had worked for subcontractors of the U.S. Departments of Defense and Energy as a senior research scientist.

His resume, which he provided to the officers, "indicates that his specialty is in the areas of radio chemistry, military ordnance and munitions, and decontamination," the affidavit says.

The man's employment history was verified with a former employer, the Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus, Ohio. He was fired twice - in 1996 and 1999 - from his job there as a senior research scientist, according to the affidavit and the man's resume, which also was filed in court.

Battelle "had reason" to search the man's home after he was fired the second time, the affidavit says.

The searchers found chemicals that were not illegal to possess, but an informant told the FBI that the man "has the knowledge and experience to utilize the chemicals that were found in his basement to make a lethal chemical agent," the affidavit says.


TOPICS: Anthrax Scare; News/Current Events; US: Wisconsin
KEYWORDS: 1996; 1999; 200109; 20010918; anthrax; anthraxscarelist; battelle; bmi; columbus; milwaukee; ohio; precursors; wmdchem
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To: Nogbad
I agree the FBI has probably done this, but I haven't seen the Atta diaries at all...
21 posted on 12/19/2001 8:06:50 PM PST by Alamo-Girl
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To: Nogbad; Clinton's a rapist; Alamo-Girl
I've seen photos of the statements (diaries?) he left behind. They're in Arabic, on lined paper. I'll see if I can find the link. Everything was in the Arabic alphabet.
22 posted on 12/19/2001 8:19:41 PM PST by Mitchell
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To: Clinton's a rapist
Although I prefer to stick to facts and not speculate,
my personal hunch is that Atta was the mastermind
in charge of all details of the operation,
though he might have sent back reports to uncle Osama
(and uncle Saddam?)
from time to time.
23 posted on 12/19/2001 8:22:13 PM PST by Nogbad
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To: Nogbad
Uncle Osama may not even have been in the loop on the anthrax. He always had the option to run and hide somewhere else once we came after him. Uncle Saddam, OTH, is in a much tighter spot.
24 posted on 12/19/2001 8:27:53 PM PST by Clinton's a rapist
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To: Mitchell
I'm not qualified to analyze them, but I'm verrrry curious what they look like!
25 posted on 12/19/2001 8:28:46 PM PST by Alamo-Girl
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To: Nogbad
Check out this thread: U.S. not ready to go after Hussein

Can you say "stalemate"? I knew you could.

26 posted on 12/19/2001 8:53:39 PM PST by Clinton's a rapist
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To: Clinton's a rapist
An interesting story, but there are too many holes. Any individual, who is trying to grow and mill anthrax is likely to become contaiminated if he is handling the quantities in the two congressional letters in anything less than a specialized laboratory. That would mean that source of the anthrax, has to be someone on an anti-biotic regiment that is pretty strict for an extended period of time. Also the place where the work is being done is likely contaminated.

An alternative is that the anthrax was from a military lab or country sponsored lab. In that case it could have been transported in a sealed container and carefully transferred to the very few letters (2 congressional, two news related) that were the cause of so much harm. If that was the case then the anti-clumping binding agent should be a real clue as to the source of the anthrax.

On the other hand, if the binder is not recognized by the FBI, the anthrax could be totally home grown by someone like this. Earlier information on the Dashel letter indicated it was likely a bentonite quantity (which is associated within Iraqu.)

27 posted on 12/19/2001 9:45:52 PM PST by Robert357
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To: Robert357
Of course it's baloney. What's interesting is that the government is pushing a third course of baloney. First we had the "mountain stream" angle (lasted about a month), then we switched to the "right-wing homebrew" line (lasted about a month), and now we have this "renegade scientist" nonsense (shall we give it about a month?). The real story here is, why do they keep BS-ing us about the anthrax? Not that I blame them, mind you -- I don't think they have much choice, under the circumstances -- but that's the question you have to ask yourself if you want to understand what's really going on.
28 posted on 12/19/2001 9:54:05 PM PST by Clinton's a rapist
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To: Clinton's a rapist;Anthrax_Scare_List
Thanks for the flag.

Tracking down the source of the anthrax letters seems to be very difficult.

To find all articles tagged or indexed using Anthrax_Scare_List

Go here: Anthrax_Scare_List

29 posted on 12/19/2001 10:45:50 PM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
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To: Nogbad
I seem to recall there were some photographs of Atta's diaries.
Does anyone have them or a link to them?

Were they written in English?

30 posted on 12/19/2001 10:50:00 PM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
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To: Nogbad;Mitchell
I see the answer to my question at post # 22 by Mitchell
31 posted on 12/19/2001 10:53:39 PM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
Tracking down the source of the anthrax letters seems to be very difficult.

"Seems" is the operative word. Actually, it looks like we've had one of the mailers -- perhaps the mailer -- in custody for about six weeks. His name is Allah Rakah, and he was arrested by the FBI on November 2.

Unfortunately, he was almost certainly just a mule. If the "real thing" is out there, the chances are we have no idea where the would-be human ICBM(s) are, and there is practically nothing we can do about it.

32 posted on 12/19/2001 10:55:10 PM PST by Clinton's a rapist
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To: Clinton's a rapist
Of course it's baloney. What's interesting is that the government is pushing a third course of baloney. First we had the "mountain stream" angle (lasted about a month)

No, that lasted about 1 or 2 days. But hey, when you need to invent strawmen to argue against, what does the truth matter?

33 posted on 12/19/2001 11:05:30 PM PST by John H K
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To: Robert357
...the very few letters (2 congressional, two news related) that were the cause of so much harm.

In addition to these, there are at least two unexplained anthrax incidents, and therefore two undiscovered letters (assuming all the anthrax was delivered by letter).

These were at American Media in FL (the first incident, in which two people got inhalation anthrax and one of them died) and ABCNews in NY (where a visiting baby contracted cutaneous anthrax).

People remembered a couple of strange letters at American Media, although it's not known if one of those was actually the anthrax letter. I haven't read that there's even a clue about the ABCNews incident, although the supposition would be that a letter to ABC was mailed at the same time as the Tom Brokaw and NY Post letters.

34 posted on 12/19/2001 11:17:43 PM PST by Mitchell
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To: Clinton's a rapist
Can you say "stalemate"? I knew you could.

I caught part of an interview with Tom Daschle earlier today. He was asked what he thought of the idea of going to war with Iraq. He said that now wasn't the time, that it would have unfortunate consequences that he wasn't sure we could endure. (This is from memory, so it's not an exact quote. But it's the gist of what he said, and, in particular, I was struck by his unusual use of the word "endure", which he definitely said.)

Interpretation: A person who receives as much anthrax in the mail as he did, with a warning letter, understands the implicit threat.

35 posted on 12/19/2001 11:29:55 PM PST by Mitchell
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To: John H K
Actually, eleven days. Then we went through the "criminal but not terrorist-connected" phase of BS, transitional between the "mountain stream" BS and the "right-wing homebrew" BS -- a stage I elided for the sake of brevity. Why don't you ever address the arrest of Allah Rakah? Why don't you address the coincidence in location of the first anthrax victims and the 9/11 hijacker nest? Why do you think the ABC News story you were crowing over earlier today touts a two-and-a-half-month old red herring like this inebriated scientist's lawn mower incident? Why do you always run away from these threads whenever anybody asks you a difficult question?
36 posted on 12/19/2001 11:43:24 PM PST by Clinton's a rapist
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To: Mitchell
Interesting. Someone here mentioned that Charles Krauthaummer also made some statements along those lines in a TV interview a few weeks ago. Saddam has motive, means, and opportunity. His deterrence plan seems close to foolproof, as far as I can see. My predictions stand: we won't be arresting a "domestic" anthrax culprit or attacking Iraq anytime soon.
37 posted on 12/19/2001 11:47:33 PM PST by Clinton's a rapist
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To: Mitchell
The claims for precise genotyping of Ames sub-strains seem to be evaporating, too, as well as the initially impressive suggestion that the FBI has a credible "rogue scientist" suspect, debunked above. See Scientists say genetic analysis not likely to crack anthrax investigation.
38 posted on 12/19/2001 11:51:18 PM PST by Clinton's a rapist
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To: Nogbad; Alamo-Girl; Clinton's a rapist; Ernest_at_the_Beach
I found it, at the FBI web site -- here's a link to the Arabic writings that three of the hijackers left behind.

However, it turns out that this is probably not a sample of Atta's handwriting. First of all, there were 3 of these documents; according to a newspaper article, these 3 were similar but not identical; I don't know which of these 3 is pictured in the FBI page above -- it doesn't seem to say (the FBI page implies that the 3 are identical).

The newspaper article also gives an analysis of one of the writings (Alhazmi's). What the article says is quite surprising -- I'll find it and post it also. Supposedly these writings were dictated to a woman by either a non-native speaker of Arabic or an uneducated Arab. They're said to be confused in nature, not exactly suicide notes or instructions for terrorists; it's not clear what they are.

39 posted on 12/20/2001 12:03:28 AM PST by Mitchell
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To: Nogbad; Alamo-Girl; Clinton's a rapist; Ernest_at_the_Beach; keri
Here's the post I promised on the Arabic documents. I don't think these are, in fact, relevant to the anthrax letters, but the analysis provided by the three Arabic scholars borders on bizarre. It's worth taking a look at.
40 posted on 12/20/2001 12:48:42 AM PST by Mitchell
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