[Wolfstar]

A reminder of other key pieces of the 2001 anthrax attack puzzle:

• Two of Atta’s gang were treated in South Florida in the couple of months prior to 9/11 for skin problems. One was treated by a doctor for a black skin lesion. The doctor who treated him is convinced it was cutaneous anthrax. In the second instance, Atta and one of his co-conspirators went to a pharmacy for skin cream. The pharmacist said the hands of Atta’s companion were extremely red and irritated, as if by a strong chemical burn.
• The first anthrax-laden letter to AMA in South Florida was never recovered. At the time the case first surfaced in the media, AMA employees said that a peculiar letter containing a brownish-white powder arrived in their mailroom the week of 9/8/01, several days before the 9/11 hijackings.
• Atta rented an apartment from the real-estate agent wife of the head of AMA.
• Some of Atta’s gang took flying lessons near the location of AMA.
• Atta showed an interest in learning to fly crop dusters.

We may not have that damnable “smoking gun” the media blathers on about, but a reasonable person exercising common sense is certainly capable of drawing reasonable conclusions from all of the above facts.

So, what are the odds of there NOT being an Iraq – Al Queda connection to the anthrax attacks that began concurrent with the 9/11 hijackings?

[Mr. Mojo]

Ping.....right up your alley.

[Wolfstar]

Ping, FYI. Press on, my friend. You may or may not have nailed all particulars, but I believe your broad hypothesis is correct. I do believe we are going into Iraq soon, though. No choice in the matter.

[Shermy]

Cropduster ping!

But in can't be. Expert Babs Rosenberg says it was Hatfill.

[Peach]

Most of us never believed it was Dr. Hartsfield (sp?) or any other American. It's AQ or Iraq or both working together.

[Wolfstar]

Anthrax ping

[Eroteme]

Great summary and commentary, Wolfstar.

[RaceBannon]

pingh

[colorado tanker]

Plus, the Al-Qaeda cell in N. Iraq that Powell identified seems to have been the conduit for the ricin discovered by the Brits in London and, I betcha, the French discovered in Paris but did not disclose.

[Fred Mertz]

You do excellent work, Wolfstar. Thanks!

[B-bone]

Good job.

The same thought struck me in listening to Colin Powell when he mentioned anthrax. The first thing he talked about was the senate office building anthrax. I agree with you, I don't think this inclusion was an accident or just an illustration.

To many coincidences in both timing and location of the outbreaks.

Given what we needed to do to get ready, we needed cover until we dealt with Afghanistan and were ready to deal with Iraq.

We'll see what President Bush has to say at 4:30.

[wayoverontheright]

So, what are the odds of there NOT being an Iraq – Al Queda connection to the anthrax attacks that began concurrent with the 9/11 hijackings?

I for one, do not need for there to be a connection to al-Qaeda in order to see the need to take out Saddam Hussein.

We are trying to eradicate terror. Let's face it the whole Middle East is enamored with terror as a weapon. In order to defeat terror, the whole ME must suffer a consequence so dire that they will not think of attacking us again.

Such a consequence can be accomplished with a minimum of dead arabs only by dealing them a severe psychological blow.

The requirements are:

1-Annihilate the Middle East's most feared military.

2-Saddam Hussein must be killed or humiliated, we should make no apologies that our mission is punitive in nature.

3-Seize controlof Iraqi oil. This is the part that will have a tremendous psychological effect on the arab world and serve as a cathartic consequence. Control of this oil eliminates the only leverage they've had with us and will realign the whole ME dynamic in our favor.

[okie01]

Thank you, Wolfstar, for going to the trouble to extract and organize the material. And thanks for the ping, Shermy.

Secretary Powell drew the outlines of a picture that many of us have suspected for over a year. Eventually, the media will outdo themselves and fill in the colors-by-the-numbers.

The clock has been running on this operation since shortly after 9/11. The alarm goes off and we're going into Iraq, soon. We should be prepared for retaliation, here at home.

[polemikos]

Anthrax = Islamic Terrorism

Any scenario other than Islamic terrorism means ALL of the following are just coincidences.

SERIOUS CONNECTIONS

- The most serious bioterror attack in America began only days after 9-11

- The letters all mention standard Islamic catch-phrases.

- Florida Dr. Tsonas treated Ahmed al-Haznawi for a severe leg lesion in late June.
  Dr. Tsonas is now convinced it was cutaneous anthrax.

- Two Johns Hopkins biodefense experts (Dr. Thomas Inglesby, Dr. Tara O'Toole) agree with Tsonas.

- FL hijackers inquire about crop-dusters and dispersal characteristics of chemical loads.

- Atta attempted to obtain a loan to buy a plane and convert it into a chemical transport.

- Moussaoui, the "20th hijacker", had tech info on airliners, crop-dusters, and wind patterns.

- Mohamed Atta went to a drugstore with red, chemical-burned hands mid-2001.
  Druggist thought Atta was suffering from exposure to a chemical with basic pH, possibly bleach (used to kill anthrax).

- Allah Rakah, detained by FBI, for placing suspicious bag of letters in his car with FL license plates

- Atta met twice with Colonel Muhammed Khalil Ibrahim al-Ani, a "very senior" Iraqi 'Special Ops' agent.
  (one report says the Czechs confirmed they had video...spycraft SOP)
  (another report claims that a vacumm bottle was passed to Atta during the meeting)

- Ziad Jarrah also met with an Iraqi agent in 2001 in the UAE.

- Marwan al-Shehhi also met with an Iraqi agent in 2001 in the UAE.

- Iraq is the ONLY hostile country known to have succeeded in weaponizing anthrax

- Iraq conducted military exercises simulating the dispersal of anthrax spores from crop-dusters

- The anthrax coating is silica, a material used by Iraq on biological agents.
- Chemical and biological weapons are effectively dispersed from crop-dusters

- The terrorists had two operational hubs: Hamilton, New Jersey and Delray, Florida. Anthrax was found in both areas.

JUST COINCIDENCES??

- The wife of the Sun tabloid's editor rented two apartments to two hijackers In Florida.

- The intials of the ringleader, A-T-T-A, are highlighted in letter 3a (Brokaw).

- Marwan al-Shehhi went to Huber Drugs (with Atta) with severe chest congestion.
  The pharmacist sold him a bottle of Robitussin initially, and later antibiotics.

[The Great Satan]

Good job. I do not believe the issue behind the secrecy and gamesmanship here is evidentiary. I believe the administration has all the evidence it needs to implicate Iraq in 9/11 and the subsequent anthrax threats. They are playing hide-and-seek with that evidence, hence Amerithrax, and hence the peek-a-boo games over the Atta-al-Ani meeting. It is entirely logical that they do so, under the circumstances. All you have to do to figure it out is postulate that 9-11 was an Iraqi operation, backed up with a WMD blackmail threat, and deduce the logical consequences. You will find that everything makes perfect sense viewed in the context of that scenario. It's utterly simple, utterly obvious once you get it -- but then, all the best theories are.