If you want to consider non-Middle-Eastern possibilities, think about China.
English is not his primary language and neither is Arabic. Note the dates on the xeroxed letters in the *anthrax letterbomb*
I don't know Arabic. Why do the dates indicate that the writer is not Arabic?
I agree that the sender does not appear to be an American. The date is written 09-11-01. All the Americans I know would have written 9/11/01, without the leading 0, and with slashes instead of dashes.
Much has been made of the fact that the date is written in the American order of month-day-year, but most foreigners would be aware of that and, in fact, would have become accustomed to that order after a few years here -- they'd be repeatedly told by Americans that they were writing dates incorrectly if they used the day-month-year order. But nobody misunderstands a date written with dashes instead of slashes; nobody even comments on such a thing, so a foreigner could easily not realize that it looks foreign.
See also *this article*
Thanks for the link on the Zimbabwe anthrax outbreak; I had never heard of it.
If you want to consider non-Middle-Eastern possibilities, think about China.
Chinese training or background is certainly possible. The individual may well not be a native Korean, but neither would it surprise me if he/she/they is/are.
English is not his primary language and neither is Arabic. Note the dates on the xeroxed letters in the *anthrax letterbomb*
I don't know Arabic. Why do the dates indicate that the writer is not Arabic?
I agree that the sender does not appear to be an American. The date is written 09-11-01. All the Americans I know would have written 9/11/01, without the leading 0, and with slashes instead of dashes.
A telegrapher [commercial or railroad] or military communicator would have used the zero, but those trained since the 1970s routinely add a slash to the zero to differentiate it from the letter *O*. A European would follow the month/day/format of 11.09.01 and the similar US military format would routinely abbreviate the month to eliminate the confusion: 11 SEP 2001. Some computer-world oriented procedures also follow the logical day/month/year format, though since the Y2K panic, the year is most commonly written with all four digits. I have known those from the Middle East to use the 09-11-01 type format, however.
Much has been made of the fact that the date is written in the American order of month-day-year, but most foreigners would be aware of that and, in fact, would have become accustomed to that order after a few years here -- they'd be repeatedly told by Americans that they were writing dates incorrectly if they used the day-month-year order. But nobody misunderstands a date written with dashes instead of slashes; nobody even comments on such a thing, so a foreigner could easily not realize that it looks foreign.
Note though that telegraphers [and some amateur radio operators] also sometimes send the quicker *dash* character [*----* in international Morse] rather than *slash* [-**-*] [or *stroke* in Brit/Euro parlance] and thereby routinely write that char as the seperator. And at least some air traffic controllers will use dashes, rather than slash/stroke.
See also *this article*
Thanks for the link on the Zimbabwe anthrax outbreak; I had never heard of it.
You're welcome. Neither are most folks aware of the circa 1991 Anthrax infection of Arkansas State Police narcotics investigator Russell Welch while working on a case involving military and politically connected individuals in the Pine Bluff area. I suppose that'll soon be a *Homeland Defense Militery Secret.*
-archy-/-