[John H K]

Am I off?

Yes. None of the Anthrax letters were mailed before 9/18. None of the 9/11 hijackers could have physically mailed them.

The anthrax attacks were actually much later after 9/11 than people remember; I think people probably hazily remember Bob Stevens getting sick a week after 9/11 when it actually was three weeks.

And the FBI spent the entire first two months of the investigation trying to tie the anthrax attacks to the 9/11 hijackers, contrary to the idiotic assertions of most on FR, they didn't instantly decide it was a domestic terrorist and immediately write off foreign involvement.

[steplock]

Unfortunately we have terrorist born here that do not like our republican form of government either and simply use opportunities as they arise to attack.

I believe the FBI had hard evidence that pointed to our "esteemed" scientist --- similarly to the idiot research professor in Texas who used this opportunity to instill terror in the community with his anthrax.

[Wolfstar]

Actually, John, the first letter, which went to American Media in Florida, was never recovered. Physical, eyewitness and other evidence builds a strong circumstantial case that the 9/11 hijackers were tied to at least that first letter. Examples:

• According to published accounts from AMA employees, the letter that went to AMA was a rant against a female celebrity. It had a brownish white power in the envelope along with an inexpensive Star of David. It arrived during the week of September 8th. The letter was discarded.
• It was mailed in South Florida, where some postal facilities later tested positive for traces of anthrax.
• The two people from AMA who got sick, began showing symptoms toward the end of September. The approximate 3-week span between when the letter arrived and the men began getting sick is well within the known anthrax incubation range.
• Approximately two months earlier, one of the men who would become a 9/11 hijacker visited a doctor in Florida for a black lesion — on one of his legs, I believe. The doctor, who treated the lesion with antibiotics, later told both police and the media that he was certain the lesion was cutaneous anthrax.
• Also in the month or so leading up to 9/11, Mohammed Atta and another man who would become a hijacker, visited a pharmacy in South Florida. The second man asked the pharmacist for something that would help a severe skin irritation of his hands, which the pharmacist said were extremely red.
• In the vicinity of AMA, Atta inquired about learning how to fly crop dusters.
• Atta rented an apartment from the real-estate-agent wife of the head of AMA.

In other words, the 9/11 hijackers had motive, opportunity, proximity to, and personal knowledge of the scene of the first anthrax attack. In the same general vicinity as where the first letter was mailed, two sought some medical treatment for severe skin problems, and the leader sought knowledge of an aerial means of chemical delivery. Circumstantial, yes. Impossible to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt, perhaps. But there are just too many "coincidences" placing the first anthrax letter and the hijackers mighty close to each other for my tastes.