Posted on 07/01/2002 9:51:19 PM PDT by Destro
JULY 1, 2002
Anthrax? The F.B.I. Yawns
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
The F.B.I.'s bumbling before 9/11 is water under the bridge. But the bureau's lackadaisical ineptitude in pursuing the anthrax killer continues to threaten America's national security by permitting him to strike again or, more likely, to flee to Iran or North Korea.
Almost everyone who has encountered the F.B.I. anthrax investigation is aghast at the bureau's lethargy. Some in the biodefense community think they know a likely culprit, whom I'll call Mr. Z. Although the bureau has polygraphed Mr. Z, searched his home twice and interviewed him four times, it has not placed him under surveillance or asked its outside handwriting expert to compare his writing to that on the anthrax letters.
This is part of a larger pattern. Astonishingly, the F.B.I. allowed the destruction of anthrax stocks at Iowa State University, losing what might have been valuable genetic clues. Then it waited until December to open the intact anthrax envelope it found. The F.B.I. didn't obtain anthrax strains from various labs for comparison until March, and the testing is still not complete. The bureau did not systematically polygraph scientists at two suspect labs, Fort Detrick, Md., and Dugway Proving Ground in Utah, until a month ago.
Perhaps it's a cheap shot for an armchair detective to whine about the caution of dedicated and exceptionally hard-working investigators. Yet months pass and the bureau continues to act like, well, a bureaucracy, plodding along in slow motion. People in the biodefense field first gave Mr. Z's name to the bureau as a suspect in October, and I wrote about him elliptically in a column on May 24.
He denies any wrongdoing, and his friends are heartsick at suspicions directed against a man they regard as a patriot. Some of his polygraphs show evasion, I hear, although that may be because of his temperament.
If Mr. Z were an Arab national, he would have been imprisoned long ago. But he is a true-blue American with close ties to the U.S. Defense Department, the C.I.A. and the American biodefense program. On the other hand, he was once caught with a girlfriend in a biohazard "hot suite" at Fort Detrick, surrounded only by blushing germs.
With many experts buzzing about Mr. Z behind his back, it's time for the F.B.I. to make a move: either it should go after him more aggressively, sifting thoroughly through his past and picking up loose threads, or it should seek to exculpate him and remove this cloud of suspicion.
Whoever sent the anthrax probably had no intention of killing people; the letters warned recipients to take antibiotics. My guess is that the goal was to help America by raising preparedness against biological attacks in the future.
So it seems fair to ask the F.B.I. a few questions:
Do you know how many identities and passports Mr. Z has and are you monitoring his international travel? I have found at least one alias for him, and he has continued to travel abroad on government assignments, even to Central Asia.
Why was his top security clearance suspended in August, less than a month before the anthrax attacks began? This move left him infuriated. Are the C.I.A. and military intelligence agencies cooperating fully with the investigation?
Have you searched the isolated residence that he had access to last fall? The F.B.I. has known about this building, and knows that Mr. Z gave Cipro to people who visited it. This property and many others are legally registered in the name of a friend of Mr. Z, but may be safe houses operated by American intelligence.
Have you examined whether Mr. Z has connections to the biggest anthrax outbreak among humans ever recorded, the one that sickened more than 10,000 black farmers in Zimbabwe in 1978-80? There is evidence that the anthrax was released by the white Rhodesian Army fighting against black guerrillas, and Mr. Z has claimed that he participated in the white army's much-feared Selous Scouts. Could rogue elements of the American military have backed the Rhodesian Army in anthrax and cholera attacks against blacks? Mr. Z's résumé also claims involvement in the former South African Defense Force; all else aside, who knew that the U.S. Defense Department would pick an American who had served in the armed forces of two white-racist regimes to work in the American biodefense program with some of the world's deadliest germs?
What now? When do you shift into high gear?
Newspaper: Bio researcher whose home was searched commissioned 1999 anthrax mail attack study
In defense of the FBI, Kristol's criticism of the late opening of the Leahy letter is unjustified, IMHO; they'd never opened an intact letter before, and had to develop a complex protocol to make sure they destroyed the least possible evidence and preserved the most anthrax possible. It's the only one they had, and they couldn't screw it up.
Still rather fascinating how spectacularly uninterested FR seems to be in Hatfill; given the same set of vague circumstantial evidence surrounding him, there's no doubt, as I've mentioned earlier, that if his great-grandfather was 1/4 Arab or this guy spent so much as 30 seconds in a Mosque once, these threads would get 10 times the posts they currently do. People REALLY don't want this guy to be the perp, knowing his association with the White Rhodesian government, etc. and the field day the media will have if he is ever arrested.
Also Whoever sent the anthrax probably had no intention of killing people; the letters warned recipients to take antibiotics. My guess is that the goal was to help America by raising preparedness against biological attacks in the future.
I read where an expert (a woman) on BBC-TV said that the attack may have been an Anthrax test gone wrong. But I do not remember the details.
What I find a bit confusing is that you constantly see referenced to one particular guy that people in the bioterrorism community pointed to or that there is a buzz about, but when they aren't name specific, I really wonder if they're talking about Zack, or talking about Hatfill.
What we really need is it to come out that Bret Michael Edmunds was behind the attacks; wouldn't that be a hoot?
You keep saying this, but there's lots of interest in him. I count 10 threads since June 25, with 389 posts. You can imagine that you'd get 10 times as many if he were Middle Eastern, but that would be nearly 4,000 posts!
By the way, note that if he is involved, that would be consistent both with the domestic theory and with the foreign theory.
I honestly believe there would be 4,000 posts since June 25th if his name was Sayeed Hatfila. People would be absolutely beside themselves with rage that he hadn't already been arrested, tortured, and executed.
I agree. I think there's a lot of intentional ambiguity, so that people can go back later and say that they were right, or on the right track. There may eventually even be monetary claims in court for the reward money based on this sort of thing.
As long as we are going with pseudonym's, what's up with tracking Ms. R. Talk bout motive!
Could be. I think you're exaggerating, but those posts are disruptive. I think you'll find that the serious posters are taking this as seriously as, say, the Alhaznawi apparent anthrax case, or the Allah Rakah detainment.
Several months ago it was apparently solved. It had to do with a scientist who was a former employee at Fort Detrick, who didn't like a fellow scientist who was still working there, and used the anthrax to try to frame this guy he hated. The culprit was still making regular visits to the lab. They even identified the strain of anthrax as being the super-milled kind created there.
Then, POOF! The story disappeared, and the media acted like it never happened. It was wierd.
Calling her "Ms." R got me to wondering: Is she is married, and, if so, what does her husband do? I don't think I've seen a biography of her that mentions her personal life at all.
;)
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