CROSSTIES,COPPERHEADS,and CUCUMBERS -Some Thoughts on The Anthrax Blogs

I think the gang was "having you on"- I've handled all kinds of snakes, including Copperheads, and I don't recall any particular smell- especially "cucumbers".

Of course, my nose has taken a little pounding over the years, so maybe my smeller isn't working right.

But it still sounds like a great practical joke- like sending the new hand on a construction job out to find some 1/2-inch paint, or a metric monkey wrench.

Another one that works is sending someone in search of a cordless surge protector.

Cucumber, snake or Memorex?

"The real anthrax killer

sends his condolences to Hatfill

over his crushed toe."

posted on 05/18/2003 10:52 PM PDT by The Great Satan

(Revenge, Terror and Extortion: A Guide for the Perplexed)

Ever see a nest of snakes? They all look like clones.

"To: Nayland Smith of Scotland Yard

"..........I think you've just been ZOTTED.

119 posted on 06/07/2003 8:57 PM PDT by wimpycat ('Nemo me impune lacessit')
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 116 | View Replies ]

To: wimpycat

That's four screennames. Think there is a fifth?

120 posted on 06/07/2003 8:58 PM PDT by Pan_Yans Wife (Lurking since 2000.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 119 | View Replies ]

To: FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper

I am sure it troubled you too.

So far on this thread, we have had you here as Korova Milk Bar, The Great Satan, Allan Quatermain, and FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper. And we also have Clinton 's a Rapist.
Allan Quatermain
Account # 60935
Signup 2001-06-03
Messages 3 replies

The other post was before 9/1/01 . I am sure you signed up another account and had it ready to go for totally innocent reasons.
Clinton's a rapist
Account # 19264
Signup 1999-02-26

And
The Great Satan
Account # 75639
Signup 2001-12-28

And
FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper
Account # 64128
Signup 2001-07-22

And
Korova Milk Bar
Account # 112679
Signup 2003-06-07

This does wonders for the theories you have been pushing.

121 posted on 06/07/2003 9:04 PM PDT by Admin Moderator"

103 posted on 08/02/2003 11:01 PM PDT by Princeton (the knots of folly grow tighter)"

Ever stand next to a snake and not notice it?

FBI releases profile of likely anthrax terrorist
DAVID ESPO
Associated Press

WASHINGTON ---- The terrorist who mailed anthrax-tainted letters is probably a man, something of a loner with scientific ability who "lacks the personal skills necessary to confront others" face to face, the FBI said Friday in a fresh plea for the public's help in solving the baffling case.

The culprit "did not select his victims randomly," the FBI said in a three-page, carefully hedged assessment issued more than one month after the disease first surfaced. He "may hold grudges for a long time, vowing that he will get even with 'them,' one day."

The FBI issued the profile hours after Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge expressed hope that the anthrax attack was on the wane. He conceded investigators were "still no closer to identifying specifically the origin of the anthrax or the perpetrators."

The bio-terrorism attack, launched by mail, has killed four people and sickened 13 more by the count of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. New York City health authorities have reported an additional three cases that do not meet stricter CDC criteria.

Thus far, three tainted letters have been found, addressed to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, NBC anchorman Tom Brokaw and the New York Post. The FBI said that a fourth letter may have been addressed to a Florida tabloid publishing company where two men became ill from anthrax and one died. Additionally, officials have said there may be other deadly letters that went undetected or are buried in mountains of mail quarantined since the outbreak of the disease.

Ridge, asked whether the initial threat had been shut down, expressed hope that was the case. "We're prayerful. We're hopeful. We hope this is the last we ever" have to deal with the issue, he said.

He quickly added, though, "I can't give you that 100 percent guarantee."

Postal officials suggested there may be other spiked letters yet to be found.

"There might be one more letter or more" still out there, said Ken Newman, deputy chief postal inspector for investigations.

No new cases of the disease have been reported for over a week, raising hopes that its spread has been halted by decisions to shut down tainted mail facilities and issue antibiotics to more than 32,000 people.

Two Washington-area patients suffering from inhalation anthrax were cleared for release from hospitals during the day. One worked at the central mail facility for the nation's capital, where the letter to Daschle was processed.

The second man worked at a State Department mail handling facility in suburban Virginia that receives mail from the same central Brentwood complex. A third area man, a worker at Brentwood, remained hospitalized.

The FBI said it was releasing a "linguistic and behavioral assessment" of the person behind the anthrax attack because the public had helped in solving previous cases that involved writings.

Based on the selection of anthrax as the weapon, the agency said the culprit is "likely an adult male," and if employed, "is likely to be in a position requiring little contact with the public or other employees." He may work in a laboratory, "is apparently comfortable working with an extremely hazardous material," and has access to anthrax and equipment needed to refine it.

At a briefing for reporters, an FBI official said the laboratory equipment needed to mill the anthrax to the small size that was mailed to Daschle could be bought for as little as $2,500.

The FBI also said the anthrax mailer is familiar with the area around Trenton, N.J., where all three letters were mailed.

The bureau offered no explanation for its conclusions about the personality or character traits of the culprit.

The offender is "a non-confrontational person, at least in his public life," it said.

"He lacks the personal skills necessary to confront others. He chooses to confront his problems long distance and not face to face," the FBI added.

The FBI said the man may have "chosen to anonymously harass other individuals or entities that he perceived as having wronged him," possibly using the mail to do so.

In addition, he "prefers being by himself more often than not," the bureau said.

"If he is involved in a personal relationship, it will likely be of a self-serving nature," it said.

While the FBI sketched the personality of the man believed responsible for the bio-terror attack, it described in detail the envelope, handwriting style and other characteristics found on the attack letters.

"We hope someone has received correspondence from this person and will recognize some of these characteristics," the agency said, including the distinctive use of dashes in the writing of a date, the use of uppercase block-style letters and the downward slant from left to right of the names and addresses on the envelopes. The FBI has previously released copies of the letters and envelopes.

Meanwhile, investigators at the CDC said more advanced medicine was the reason that six out of 10 inhalation anthrax victims have survived. The disease was last seen in 1976, and until last month, experts said 85 percent of victims would die. Four people have died of inhaled anthrax, including two postal workers.

Treatments, including drugs to control blood pressure, ventilators to help with breathing and removal of bloody fluid from the lungs, are now standard, in addition to a combination of antibiotics, said Dr. Bradley Perkins, a CDC anthrax expert. He added that the six people who have survived were diagnosed and began treatment earlier than the four who perished.

On Friday, officials in Prince George's County, Md., released the tape of a 911 call made by the wife of Joseph Curseen Jr., the second postal worker to die of inhalation anthrax.

In the Oct. 22 call, she described Curseen's symptoms for the dispatcher but, unlike in the case of the first postal worker's death, the possibility of anthrax was never mentioned. Curseen died hours later.

11/10/01

Of course, some snakes have warning rattles.

"Latest Additions to Victims ListSept. 11 terrorist attacks. )
Posted by NativeNewYorker to contessa machiaveli
On News/Activism 01

2002 5:33 PM PST #6 of 7;

"Do you believe in fate?

"No,

but I want the ragheads

to start believing they are fated

to either die or

live on rocks for all eternity."

One must be cautious and prudent when crying "SNAKE!",
lest a harmless Scarlet Kingsnake is mistaken for
a brightly banded Western Coral Snake - a relative of the Indian Cobra which injects a venom twice as powerful as the rattlesnake - and the Kingsnake is made to suffer as a result.

III. Statement by Barbara Hatch Rosenberg
11 August 2002

I have never mentioned any names in connection with the anthrax investigation, not to the FBI, nor to media, nor to Senate Committees or staffs, not to anyone. I have never said or written anything publicly that pointed only to one specific person. Anyone who sees parallels is expressing his own opinion.

It is the FBI that has gone out of its way to make one suspect's name public. I presume they must have had some good reason for doing that; only time will tell. But if the publicity was not an important part of their investigative strategy, I think it was reprehensible.

Barbara Hatch Rosenberg

Snake watching is a cultivated skill.

King or Coral?

Coral or King?

Red touches yellow, can kill a fellow.

That's a coral. ( Black touch yellow-leave a fellow.)

Good start. Not always that easy, though.

"To: SJackson

"The Christ-killing story has always been an excuse for anti-Semitism, not a cause of it.

Really? I have been in Christian churches all of my 34 years. I have never heard one person express any resentment toward Jewish people because the Jewish leaders orchestrated Christ's execution, let alone advocate any actual reprisal.

3 posted on 08/08/2003 9:14 AM PDT by Lost Highway"

How about this one?

Or this one?

""Think 'Bloomberg' here, with muscle" --Rush, on Arnold.
Posted by Princeton to oceanview
On News/Activism 08/07/2003 12:35 PM PDT #242 of 321

"Bloomberg has no "persona"

Perhaps someone with a cache of personas cans lend him one."

Yet another:

"Peter Jennings Hops to Protest Synagogue Plan
Posted by Princeton to NativeNewYorker
On News/Activism 08/06/2003 12:11 PM PDT #51 of 57

Hmmmm.....

"on the market for $1.4 million"

And how many powder rooms?

"Jennings interfering with other peoples'
property irked me."

I suppose you could send him a letter."

"Everyone's use of language is as distinctive as DNA"

Some tips on Snake Spotting:

Since a snake "speaks" with a forked tongue, a diligent
Snake Spotter must have a basic grasp of forensic linguistics:

"Killer 'diverting suspicion'

Don Foster

Forensic linguistics expert

The Hunt for the Anthrax Killer was broadcast on BBC Two on Sunday 18 August 2002 .

Sunday, 18 August, 2002 , 02:37 GMT 03:37 UK

Anthrax killer 'is US defence insider'

Prof Don Foster analyses the anthrax letters

"An FBI forensic linguistics expert believes the US anthrax attacks were carried out by a senior scientist from within America 's biological-defence community.

Professor Don Foster - who helped convict Unabomber Ted Kaczynski and unveiled Joe Klein as the author of the novel Primary Colors - says the evidence points to someone with high-ranking military and intelligence connections.

"My anxiety is that FBI agents assigned to this case are not getting full and complete co-operation"

Prof Foster

Speaking about the investigation for the first time, Prof Foster told the BBC he had identified two suspects who had both worked for the CIA, the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) and other classified military operations.

Controversially, Prof Foster says the killer is likely to be highly patriotic individual who wanted to demonstrate that the US was badly prepared for an act of biological terrorism.

The weapons-grade anthrax was posted in letters just days after the 11 September terror attacks, leaving five people dead, 18 injured and 35,000 forced to take precautionary antibiotics.

The professor says he does not believe the killer will strike again as he has achieved his goal.

He explained: "To that end his misplaced patriotism has worked. Today millions of government dollars have gone into research and anthrax antibiotics are now available to the public."

Agency rivalry?

However, he fears the investigation is now being hampered in its gathering of vital documents that could lead to the killer.

Prof Foster analysed the anthrax letters for clues

Prof Foster says investigators need examples of the suspects writing to analyse their style and use of language - which the professor believes is as unique as DNA and could unveil the perpetrator.

He said: "It's very frustrating. Ordinarily with the FBI if there's some documents needed - known writings - boom, they're on my desk the next day.

"My two suspects both appear to have CIA connections. These two agencies, the CIA and the FBI, are sometimes seen as rivals.

"My anxiety is that the FBI agents assigned to this case are not getting full and complete co-operation from the US military, CIA and witnesses who might have information about this case."

Killer 'diverting suspicion'

Prof Foster was given four letters recovered by investigators to analyse for clues to the killer's identity.

"There's something very fishy... that this particular word should be misspelled and it should be misspelled in such an unconvincing way"

Prof Foster

"As I worked through these documents it became apparent that USAMRIID was ultimately the best place for the FBI to begin looking for a suspect," he said.

All of the letters contain the following messages "Death to America " and "Death to Israel ". All were dated 11 September, a clear reference to the terror attacks.

But while investigators searched for links between the anthrax attacks and *al-Qaeda, Prof Foster immediately suspected that dating the letters 11 September was merely a ruse to throw the authorities off the scent.

He says: "When an offender gives you some piece of information that's just completely unnecessary and that, in this case, is inaccurate, it becomes immediately suspect.

"It becomes a statement of 'Here's what I want you to believe about this document'."

I should add that Foster seems quite good at his developing art (he has made mistakes) and he should stick to it, rather than speculate about such things as the CIA and "defence insider(s)", as should Barbara Rosenberg.

Ping.

Snake Spotting Ping!

"...like sending the new hand on a construction job out to find some 1/2-inch paint, or a metric monkey wrench."

...or a wood stretcher.

Clues point to home

"mailed anthrax was probably produced by renegade scientist(s )".

Tests point to domestic source behind anthrax letter attacks
Army reproductions hurt theories of foreign culprit

By Scott Shane
Sun Staff
Originally published April 11, 2003

Army scientists have reproduced the anthrax powder used in the 2001 mail attacks and concluded that it was made using simple methods, inexpensive equipment and limited expertise, according to government sources familiar with the work.

The findings reinforce the theory that has guided the FBI's 18-month-old investigation - that the mailed anthrax was probably produced by renegade scientists and not a military program such as Iraq 's.

"It tends to support the idea that the anthrax came from a domestic source and probably not a state program," said David Siegrist, a bioterrorism expert at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies. "It shows you can have a fairly sophisticated product with fairly rudimentary methods."

The new research, carried out at the Army's biodefense center at Dugway Proving Ground in Utah , raises the disquieting possibility that al-Qaida and other terrorist groups could create lethal bioweapons without scientific or financial help from a state. The Bush administration had cited the possibility that Iraq might supply weapons to al-Qaida as a key reason for overthrowing Saddam Hussein.

"It would be better for our country if they'd concluded that [the mailed anthrax] had to have been made in a big facility with a lot of biowarfare experts," said David R. Franz, a former Army biodefense official and consultant on bioterrorism.

But Richard O. Spertzel, a biowarfare expert and former United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq , said he has heard that the Dugway research failed to match exactly the purity and small particle size of the mailed anthrax. Though he has no involvement in the case, he believes the FBI would be wrong to rule out Iraq or other states as the source of the deadly powder.

Van Harp, assistant FBI director in charge of the Washington Field Office, who oversees the anthrax investigation, declined to comment on what he called "uninformed speculation" about the anthrax research.

But Harp said 50 investigators are still working on what the bureau calls the Amerithrax case, backed by "a huge scientific effort."

"We're making progress," he said.

The anthrax-laced letters were mailed on Sept. 18 and Oct. 9, 2001 , from a Princeton , N.J., mailbox and addressed to media organizations and two U.S. senators. The attack killed five people and sickened at least 17 others, and hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent to clean up government offices and postal facilities.

FBI and Postal Inspection Service agents initially considered a link to the Sept. 11 hijackers or Iraq . But after genetic analysis showed the anthrax was derived from the Ames strain used in the U.S. military biodefense program, investigators concentrated their effort on a domestic source.

Agents interviewed and conducted polygraph tests on scores of employees at the U.S. military biodefense research centers at Fort Detrick in Frederick and at Dugway Proving Ground.

Since last summer, they have focused much of their effort on Dr. Steven J. Hatfill, a former Fort Detrick bioweapons expert, repeatedly searching his Frederick apartment. In December and January, the FBI launched an extensive search in woods and ponds outside Frederick , an effort sources said was aimed at finding discarded biological equipment or other evidence.

Meanwhile, the FBI's Amerithrax task force ordered an exhaustive battery of scientific tests on the anthrax. Outside scientists say researchers probably have used chemical analysis to trace the water and nutrients used to grow the anthrax to a particular geographic area.

As part of the scientific sleuthing, FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III announced in November that investigators were trying to "reverse engineer" the mailed anthrax.

Several sources discussed the work with The Sun on condition of anonymity. One investigator said that with about a dozen samples completed, scientists have matched the mailed powder closely enough to conclude it was made with "a pretty small operation" that cost "no more than a few thousand dollars."

The perpetrator would have needed expertise in microbiology to separate the dormant anthrax spores from the living vegetative cells, to dry the spores without killing them and to mill the product, the source said.

But the methods used point more to a makeshift lab than a professional operation, the source said. One clue pointing away from a state program was the absence of any additive to neutralize the spores' electrical charge and make them float more freely.

Such additives or coatings, including glass-like silica, were routinely used in past U.S. , Soviet and Iraqi bioweapons programs, and some accounts have suggested that silica was present in the mailed anthrax. But more thorough testing disproved that.

"Everybody was looking for a coating, but there wasn't one," the investigator said.

The government is retaining detailed data on the various anthrax samples produced, creating a reference library to help track the source of powder used in any future anthrax attack.

Meanwhile, FBI agents still appear to be scrutinizing Hatfill, 49, a physician who became a lecturer and consultant on bioterrorism in the late 1990s. He has adamantly denied any connection to the anthrax letters and suggested the FBI has persecuted him because it can't find the real culprit.

Two weeks ago, two agents visited Insight magazine reporter Timothy W. Maier in Washington to ask him about an interview he conducted with Hatfill in 1998. They seemed particularly interested in a photograph printed in Insight that year of Hatfill posing in bioprotection gear, demonstrating "how a determined terrorist could cook up a batch of plague in his or her own kitchen using common household ingredients and protective equipment from the supermarket," as the caption put it.

Maier said he was surprised it had taken so long after the FBI first started showing an interest in Hatfill before they looked into the article and photograph.

Critics of the FBI's efforts have pointed to other delays. In August, New Jersey Congressman Rush D. Holt blasted the bureau for taking nearly a year to test New Jersey mailboxes before finding the contaminated box in Princeton .

But last week, after a new FBI briefing, Holt seemed far more impressed.

"Although I have been critical in the past of the conduct of the FBI's investigation, I am pleased to report today that the investigation seems to be making progress," Holt said. "The FBI has narrowed its search. That's about all I am permitted to say at this point."

Copyright © 2003, The Baltimore Sun