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.
Can you say "stalemate"? I knew you could.
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.)
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
Were they written in English?
"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.
No, that lasted about 1 or 2 days. But hey, when you need to invent strawmen to argue against, what does the truth matter?
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.
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.
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.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.