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I agree with you that the anthrax attack was a follow-up to 9/11. It showed up so soon after that day that it had to have been pre-planned. What bothers me about Hatfill is in the contents of the novel he started writing before 9/11. I'd be interested to know how you would explain away the scenario he creates in his novel with the almost identical manner in which the real anthrax attacks were carried out. Here's an excerpt from the report describing the content of his book:

Glasberg revealed today that Hatfill has been working on a novel. Part of the manuscript has been obtained by ABCNEWS affiliate WJLA-TV in Washington. "This novel written by Steven Hatfill envisions a biological attack on Congress," said Rebecca Cooper, a reporter for WJLA. "It's an attack so deadly that not only do members of Congress and congressional aides become ill, but hundreds of Washington residents become ill and many die as a result."

I'd be interested to know how you would explain away the scenario he creates in his novel with the almost identical manner in which the real anthrax attacks were carried out.

Uh, maybe he wrote it after October of last year? BTW, is it really "almost identical"? Looking carefully at West's description, it sounds like she might have given it the "Greendale School" treatment.

Forget Hatfill. In a few days, everybody else will (until he comes back as a Fox commentator in the War on Terrorism Part II).

Uh, I should have said Cooper's description. Rebecca West is someone quite different.

Which brings up an interesting point, since we're talking about coincidences. Rebecca Cooper is an off-air ABC News reporter. ABC News was the source for the bogus Greendale School talking point, which was repeated ad nauseum in the flurry of articles accompanying the first photo-op search of Hatfill's apartment. ABC News was also the conduit for the bogus rumor, sourced to the FBI, that they were hot on the tail of a former "top Batelle scientist" who had made anthrax threats in the week following 9/11 (U.S. Scientist Questioned - ABC News, December 20, 2001). It soon emerged that the "top scientist" was a drunken ex-lab tech working in a bowling ally in Milwaulkee, and the FBI was forced to publicly exonerate him when his name came out shortly afterwards. Coincidence?

But wait: there's more. Rebecca Cooper is also the off-air reporter who was (temporarily) Gary Condit's alibi for the murder of Chandra Levy, and was publicly linked to Condit romantically by the tabloids. (Try http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=Rebecca+Cooper+Gary+Condit+Affair ).

Funnily enough, there is another Gary Condit connection here. The FBI investigator identified in the Hatfill stories, Bob Roth, was also the case officer for the investigation into the disappearance of Joyce Chiang. Chiang, if you recall, was the attractive young immigration attornee who interned with Gary Condit's close friend and co-sponsor of immigration legislation, Howard Berman (D-CA). In 1999, she disappeared from the Dupont Circle Starbucks near Gary's condo, where she was last seen deep in conversation with a never-identified blonde woman. Her skeletonized remains were recovered from the Anacosta River several months later. Berman went out of his way to set up a reward and bring in the FBI -- presumably Special Agent Roth. The investigation was widely seen as ill-conceived. For example, much time was spent pursuing the theory that Chiang had been kidnapped off the streets of Adams Morgan by Chinese white slavers. Apparently, the basis for pursuing this bizarre notion was the fact that Chiang was an Asian American. Needless to say, the investigation imploded into a black hole and Chiang's killer has never been identified.

Hmm, yes, indeed, how many of us would want our lives and careers picked apart with a search engine?