FBI to Renew Anthrax Search in Fla.

Washington Post ^ | 8/26/02 | Washington Post

[Mohammed El-Shahawi]

FBI to Renew Anthrax Search in Fla.

The Associated Press Monday, August 26, 2002; 8:19 AM

BOCA RATON, Fla. –– The FBI wants to take another look at an anthrax-infested building owned by tabloid publisher American Media Inc., where an employee was fatally infected last fall.

It would be the first search of the building since November, FBI spokeswoman Judy Orihuela said Sunday. She declined to comment further, pending an FBI news conference Monday to announce additional details.

[Mohammed El-Shahawi]

Back to Florida? Wow, that's getting a little close to saying maybe Mohammed Atta did it after all. Steady on boys!

[JohnHuang2]

Wow, that's getting a little close to saying maybe Mohammed Atta did it after all.

Bob Stevens, I suspect, was exposed to Anthrax at or very near 9/11. The odds of that being a coincidence are astronomical.

[AAABEST]

Bob Stevens, I suspect, was exposed to Anthrax at or very near 9/11. The odds of that being a coincidence are astronomical.

The other coincidence that I just can't get past is the fact that the 911 terrorists were renting a damn apartment from one of the anthrax victims.

[Mohammed El-Shahawi]

What can this press conference today possibly have to say? Will it just be "we're doing some final checks before the building is decontaminated", or will it be something more substantive like "just in case our profiler made a rare error and the perp is not a white, right-wing, male, we've decided to look in the trash cans at AMI for letters"?

[JohnHuang2]

The other coincidence that I just can't get past is the fact that the 911 terrorists were renting a damn apartment from one of the anthrax victims.

Exactly. And what the heck did the hijackers want crop-dusters for? Joy rides along the Florida coast? Certainly, they didn't think they could knock the WTC with crop-dusters.

[JohnHuang2]

My hunch is this whole thing is subterfuge/misdirection to keep the real anthrax source (Saddam) guessing.

[aristeides]

Looks like Hatfill's press conferences may have had an effect.

[AAABEST]

And what the heck did the hijackers want crop-dusters for? Joy rides along the Florida coast?

Where've you been? Down here in Florida one of our pasttimes is renting crop dusters and flying up and down the coast sprinkling deadly bio-agents over unsuspecting populations.

It's done all the time, I don't see why this should raise the eyebrows of our law enforcement bureaucracies.

[Quilla]

I am deeply distressed by the negative reputation being earned by the FBI and hope that the organization can be overhauled before necessitating a name change - "bumbling idiots" fits and is available (until, of course, someone hires Clinton to do a daily show). To have not pursued the leads in Florida before now seems the height of stupidity. The sheer number of coincidences belies coincidence.

[aristeides]

Didn't that guy Boz at American Media complain about how farcically superficial the feds' investigation in Florida was last year?

[aristeides]

Did you notice what Hatfill said yesterday about it taking months for the FBI to contact Bill Patrick, the leading expert on anthrax biowarfare in this country? What else do they have to do (or fail to do) to make it obvious that solving the case is not what they are about?

[Dialup Llama]

Hatfil threatened to take a blood test showing he is no longer immune to anthrax. Possibly that shook things up.

[blam]

"And what the heck did the hijackers want crop-dusters for? Joy rides along the Florida coast? Certainly, they didn't think they could knock the WTC with crop-dusters."

Yup. Generally you wouldn't go looking for 'delivery' methods until/unless you have something to 'deliver.'

[aristeides]

And I read someplace lately (I think it was in that series of articles on Hatfill on newsmax) that the FBI positively instructed people at American Media last year not to discuss the Jennifer Lopez letter with the Star of David that they received, and that is the suspected source of the anthrax.

[browardchad]

What can this press conference today possibly have to say?

In light of the fixation on Hatfill, they might be considering saying the AMI anthrax is unrelated to the DC and NY anthrax. Or maybe that Stevens picked it up from a contaminated stream while he was on vacation (one of a number of their original bumble-headed "natural source" theories, as I recall). OTOH, perhaps they can prove that Hatfill drove within 20 miles of the building once, so it proves he is rightfully "a person of interest."

[aristeides]

Yes, it was the newsmax series. This article on the Florida anthrax contains the following significant paragraphs:

FBI's Strange Reaction

Moreover, the FBI, which dismissed the letter out of hand and denied it had any significance, for reasons not disclosed asked AMI not to go into detail about it with the media or anyone else. The whole thing just vanished from the investigative radar screen.

The Newsweek report that the Lopez letter arrived Sept. 4th, seven days before the events of the terrorist hijacking attacks, would have assumed enormous significance had the letter been kept. It would seem to point the finger of guilt directly at the 9-11 hijackers, most of whom lurked nearby until leaving for their deadly rendezvous with the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

[Quilla]

What else do they have to do (or fail to do) to make it obvious that solving the case is not what they are about?

But I don't understand their motivation (or lack thereof). Why not follow actual leads in an effort to solve the case? Are there that many Clinton holdovers of sufficient influence that want to blame this on the right? Could be. When I think back to the threads we've seen on the FBI's covering up or ignoring of the possible Middle East link to the Oklahoma City bombing, I shudder. Bill Clinton's motives are always suspect to me and he had his way with the FBI for eight years.

[Alamo-Girl]

Excellent post at #16! Thank you for the heads up!

[mitchbert]

My thoughts exactly, John. Remember that a doctor in Florida emerged after all this happened and recalled he treated one of the hijackers not long before the attacks for a condition, that while he didn't pick up on it at the time, looked to him in retrospect like Anthrax exposure.

My guess is the gov made the Iraq link to the anthrax a long time ago, but didn't want to tip its hand until they were ready to act. Keep him guessing and off balance, IMHO.

[aristeides]

But I don't understand their motivation (or lack thereof).

The Great Satan has a theory that seems to me to make sense: Saddam used Al Qaeda to deliver anthrax as a threat, and the U.S. government refuses to admit publicly that it has been intimidated out of acting against Iraq.

In addition, leftists in the media and the FBI would have additional reason not to follow leads leading to the Islamists and Iraq: that way leads a full-blown war, in which Bush would enjoy the popularity of a wartime president, and the left would be blown away.