Posted on 06/09/2003 7:07:25 PM PDT by John H K
As the FBI began draining an entire pond today in its 20-month-old anthrax probe, investigators remained focused on one man in the hunt for the perpetrator, ABCNEWS' World News Tonight reported.
And today's unusual move appears to be the FBI's last, best shot at proving what it so far has been unable to prove, that former government scientist Steven Hatfill was the anthrax killer.
Five people died and more than a dozen others were sickened in the rash of anthrax attacks targeting Congress and media outlets in the fall of 2001.
The decision to drain the pond in Maryland's Frederick Municipal Forest was based on what federal officials say is no more than a growing circumstantial case against Hatfill, federal law enforcement sources said.
The FBI's working theory, sources said, is that Hatfill, who lived eight miles away in Frederick, Md., next to U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases where he worked, used makeshift lab equipment to put finely powdered anthrax in envelopes, and then dumped the equipment in the pond. Hatfill has vehemently denied any involvement in the anthrax attacks, and his spokesman reiterated that today.
"They can drain the Pacific Ocean and they're not going to find any evidence that Steve Hatfill was the anthrax killer because he's had no involvement whatsoever," said Hatfill spokesman Pat Clawson.
The Sweater Box Mystery
But the circumstantial case is continuing to develop. The FBI was led to the pond last year by bloodhounds, including one named Tinkerbell, tracking the scent picked up from Hatfill and the anthrax letters, federal sources said.
Over the Christmas holiday, FBI divers recovered what they think was a piece of the makeshift equipment used to load the anthrax, a plastic sweater box with two hand-sized holes cut in it, sources said.
Other circumstantial evidence that has sources said has led the FBI to continue its focus on Hatfill includes his presence in Florida, around the time an anthrax-laced letter was mailed to the American Media Co. in Boca Raton, Fla.
Also, sources said, Hatfill made an admission to the FBI that he was taking the powerful antibiotic Cipro at the time of the anthrax attacks, which he reportedly said was for a nasal infection.
Cipro is the treatment prescribed for suspected anthrax poinsoning, and was given preventatively to thousands of people at the peak of the anthrax attacks.
Still, none of that circumstantial evidence has produced an arrest, leaving the FBI draining a 1-acre pond, a process that is expected to take three to four weeks and cost $250,000.
"If the FBI had any facts tying Steve Hatfill directly into the anthrax case, I don't think he'd be out walking the streets right now," said Clawson.
He didn't work with anthrax. He worked with viruses. Also, the original profile assumed the perp had valid anthrax innoculations. Hatfill pointed out he didn't. Saying he was taking Cipro (time uncertain), is a way around this fact...or is true. Which is interesting.
----------------
Clorox is the unversal disinfectant. It is used by most militaries of the world to counter biological warfare..
"...Nevertheless, I agreed to the FBI's request without hesitation. I also volunteered to have the FBI search my car and a small, unrefrigerated storage area in Florida where I keep some books, a few paintings and some other personal effects.
The FBI agents promised me that the search would be quiet, private and very low-key. It did not turn out that way.
Within minutes of my signing the release to have my residence and property searched, television cameras, satellite TV trucks, overhead helicopters were all swarming around my apartment block. The FBI agents arrived in a huge truck with hazardous-materials technicians fully garbed in protective space suits. In fact, I had previously helped train one of the FBI agents who searched my apartment..."
My apologies, believe it or not just before I posted this I was on a FISHING board, www.pierandsurf.com, and posting on a thread discussing minnow BUCKETS, I posted, and had them on my mind. :-) I have both a minnow trap, and a minnow bucket.
But, as I've pointed out ad nauseam, Minnow Traps HAVE SIDE HOLES AN INCH OR LESS WIDE. An infant would have trouble fitting their hands in one.
The problem with the whole minnow trap speculation business is that the people who invented that speculation got so incredibly proud of their own genius and cleverness they started posting a million pics of them to each other and are totally oblivious to the fact that even a genuinely retarded or brain-damaged FBI agent would note there's no physical way one could be used for a glove box.
And eventually oblivious to the fact that the minnow trap business actually has no connection to anyone who knows anything about the case or has seen what the FBI actually pulled from the pond.
----------------------------
The larges number of items that will be found in the reservoilr will be beer cans. The army personnel and their girlfriends fromm Hood College used to go there to party, and probably still do.
Experience proves this a valid assumption.
--------------------
If he was working at Detrick in the hot areas he was probably on the "shot list" where workers are given preventative vaccines.
OK, so it's a left-wing group, so the ONLY people in government attacked are two left-wing Senators, and then they fake the letters to make it look like Muslim terrorists were responsible?
Gotcha. Yeah, That makes sense.
The real question is why if it's "Atta and friends" (and it's currently non-existent or unidentified "friends" since there's no evidence any of the letters were sent prior to September 18) they're helpfully pointing out to people they've been sent anthrax and advising antibiotics at the same time they're plotting a surprise flying of airplanes into buildings full of thousands of people.
Everything about the anthrax attacks sounds like someone who was trying to give a REAL scare, but not to kill. Does this sound like AQ to you? The postal worker and cross-contamination deaths may well have been unintended or unforseen.
It is NORMAL to take Cipro and keep caught up on one's innoculations under those conditions.
As for the terrorist angle, fear is a big part of their psychological makeup. I often read AQ and other arab groups talking about the "fear" we should feel, as they do. It's part of there psych make-up, so I don't find it unusual.
The first letters (the media ones) only said "take penacilin." Would Hatfill, etc. think this was warning enough to an American, or just be dismissed as crack pot stuff. The next set of letters, to Leahy and Daschle, added "We have this Anthrax". That, after the first letters didn't have the desired effect, and after the AMI attack, got people thinking.
They don't want total anonymity, they want to let us know, somehow, generally.
For example, the past week's Belgium poison letters. They included posions and notes of vague Islamic claims. Same as the anthrax letters.
I don't discount your ideas, certainly. Daschle I can see picked out because of his fame...but why Leahy? Why not Kennedy? Poker has interesting ideas about Leahy and support of Israel, I'd add maybe the perp has a connection to Vermont.
The only reason anyone would want to keep focusing on the US Senators involved is to throw analysts off the trail.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.