Posted on 02/25/2002 10:03:09 AM PST by Ligeia
Posted - February 25, 2002 1:26pm Washington (AP) - Months after anthrax-tainted letters killed five people and sickened more than a dozen, the FBI said Monday that its investigators do not have a prime suspect despite conducting hundreds of interviews in the case.
"There is no prime suspect in this case at this time," spokesman Bill Carter said.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said there are several suspects and the FBI has not narrowed that list down to one. "I wish it were that easy and that simple right now," he said.
President Bush wants the case resolved quickly, Fleischer said, but also wants the FBI to take its time and "build a case that would stand in court, that is thorough, that is conclusive."
The FBI - renown for its behavioral profiles of criminal suspects - does have some clues about the suspected anthrax-mailer, according to an earlier letter from the lead FBI investigator to a group of scientists.
Van Harp, assistant director of the bureau's Washington office, wrote that the FBI believes that a single person, with experience working in a laboratory, is behind the mailings. Harp described this person as having "a clear, rational thought process and appears to be very organized in the production and mailing of these letters."
Fleischer said the source of the anthrax definitely was domestic, and the block handwriting on the letters seemed "chosen by design" to throw off investigators.
Harp also said the FBI believes that, because the mailed anthrax was of the so-called "Ames strain" of Bacillus anthracis, the suspect probably has or had legitimate access to biological agents in a laboratory. Harp also described the suspect as "standoffish" and preferring to work alone rather than in groups.
"It is possible this person used off-hours in a laboratory or may have even established an improvised or concealed facility comprised of sufficient equipment to produce the anthrax," Harp said.
Harp's description was in a letter sent to the Washington-based American Association for Microbiology, which published the letter Feb. 1 on its Web site.
"It is very likely that one or more of you know this individual," Harp wrote to the group's members.
The FBI profile sounds like every other profile they write when they don't know anything...right wing wacko.
Now, I WILL buy that the perp in this case is a downsized employee from Detrick, or a Environazi, or even a leftist @$$hole with delusions of grandeur...the targets of the Dem Leadership produced more face time and agitprop than actual substance, the true victims were the postal workers who were not told, nor given access to proper drug therapy (available of course to the Senate).
Now, there could be two separate attacks here, one by an Islamic group, and several by a more professional source (consider the strain and purity of the anthrax discovered at the Sun and the Media Outlets, compared with the relatively potent stuff released in the Senate, and presumably in one or more mutilated letters in the postal system.
Frankly, I am tending, at this point, to accept the "disgruntled employee" theory. This would link very neatly with various statements made by X42 in the last year of his administration, and of course, there may be a Bioport connection, possibly of trying to get the FDA mess squared away, but possibly a darker scenario.
Greg
As far as Saddam Hussein is concerned, the Gulf War never ended. And, as a matter of fact, he is right about that: we are still enforcing no-fly zones over his country, an economic embargo is still in effect. No one should be surprised that he is pursuing the conflict by the most effective means at his disposal -- through an alliance with the global Islamic terror network, and through blackmail using the most devastating weapon in his arsenal, anthrax.
This view is shared among many that I've read here at FR. A disgruntled employee trying to gain attention for a bioweapons program, or lack thereof.
I'd prefer the bioterrorist(s) be a follower of Saddam than a nutty American, no doubt about that.
I'm not sure why you would prefer that. Life would be a lot simpler if the anthrax campaign was just an attention-grabbing prank by some digruntled scientist. It's a silly notion, of course, but a more comfortable one than believing we have been outfoxed by a supposedly-vanquished adversary. Watching those towers come down on the satellite feed must have been the most satisfying, triumphal moment of Saddam's life. Knowing that we can't point the finger at him, or strike back -- we are not going to sacrifice New York for Baghdad -- must be a great recompense for the years he's spent under the US thumb.
At this point, I would much rather have this scenario proven, the perp arrested, and evidence publicized so as to at least put one theory to rest.
If, OTOH, we are facing ChemBio from Iraq, or any terrorist group linked to 9/11, and there well could..I mentioned in my previous post that there seem to be 2 distinct "attacks", the first involving fairly "garden variety" (if one can even use that word here) spores (The Sun and the NY media attacks. and the "high tech" spores involved in the letters to the Dem leadership, and presumably, some other unidentified mutilated mail which cost the postal worker's lives. This second batch, the "high tech" was exactly what one would expect from a ChemBio warfare program. The first, the fermenters in the basement with the driers and grinders. Fact is, the whole scenario was already laid out in Robin Cook's book VECTOR. No real suprises here.
If, the threat is REALLY terrorists, then, go for the field goal. Its time to eliminate the source, without spreading contamination. Intrastellar temperatures work really well at doing just this, and green glass does not harbor terrorists, nor act as a shrine.
Greg
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