Posted on 02/19/2002 6:50:16 AM PST by wimpycat
Edited on 07/06/2004 6:37:18 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
PRINCETON BOROUGH -- An advocate for the control of biological weapons who has been gathering information about last autumn's anthrax attacks said yesterday the Federal Bureau of Investigation has a strong hunch about who mailed the deadly letters.
But the FBI might be "dragging its feet" in pressing charges because the suspect is a former government scientist familiar with "secret activities that the government would not like to see disclosed," said Barbara Hatch Rosenberg, director of the Federation of American Scientists' Chemical and Biological Weapons Program.
(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...
Amazing! Who would have ever suspected that the Army of God had infiltrated our nation's most secret bio-med facilities! (sarcasm, DOH!)
here's some links:
Terror plot feared in anthrax outbreak (Oct. 10 Guardian UK)
How the bacterium got into the office remains unknown but apprehension in Palm Beach County has been heightened by the knowledge that Mohamed Atta, the suspected terrorist leader and pilot of one of the aeroplanes that hit the World Trade Centre on September 11, had lived nearby Delray Beach and flown planes in Lantana, where Mr Stevens lived.
Another part of the investigation is focusing on a letter that arrived at the com pany about a week before the September 11 attacks. It was described by sources as a "weird love letter to Jennifer Lopez". Inside the oddly worded letter was what was described as a "soapy, powdery substance" with a cheap Star of David charm in the middle. The letter passed through the mailroom and employees said it was handled by both Mr Stevens and Mr Blanco.
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Now, the National Enquirer (or the "Sun" parent company) suffered BEFORE the Washington and New York hits. And the wife of the editor of the "Sun" rented apartments to two of the terrorists, which Atta may have also used.
Editor's wife rented to 2 suspects, FBI says (Oct. 15)
By Sean D. Hamill
Chicago Tribune staff reporter
In a strange twist, the FBI said Sunday that the wife of the editor of the tabloid newspaper where anthrax has been discovered rented apartments in Delray Beach, Fla., to two men suspected of crashing a hijacked jetliner into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11.
FBI officials said the connection appeared to be a coincidence, and that there was no evidence of a link between the anthrax at The Sun's offices in Boca Raton, Fla., and the terrorists. [hmmmm....]
"We are not searching the apartment at this time," said FBI spokeswoman Judy Orihuela. "We are focusing on [The Sun's] building." [Did they ever search the apartment? And why not at the beginning? Hmmm...]
Orihuela said Gloria Irish, wife of Sun editor Michael Irish, rented apartments over the summer to suspected hijackers Marwan Al-Shehhi and Hamza Alghamdi.
Both were aboard United Airlines Flight 175, the second jet to strike the World Trade Center in New York.
The Sun is owned by American Media Inc., the company that employed Robert Stevens, a photo editor who died this month from a form of anthrax. Two other employees tested positive for anthrax and five others are being retested after positive initial results.
Gloria Irish, a real estate agent, refused to comment.
The FBI also has questioned a Delray Beach pharmacist who might have sold antibiotics and skin ointments to Al-Shehhi and another suspected hijacker, Mohamed Atta. Pharmacist Gregg Chatterton said he told FBI agents that Atta wanted something to treat skin irritations on his hands, which appeared to have been washed in bleach. Bleach can be used for decontamination after exposure to disease...
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BTW, whatever happened to the Atta meeting the Iraqi spies in Prague story??? The Anthrax could have been made or bred in America. It could have been sold by a corrupt govt. employee recently, or in the past to Iraq. Iraq could have shared it for others.
I think a key issue is why the anomalous hit on the National Enquirer. For example, perhaps it was a last moment addition. The terrs had politicians and major New York media in mind, and had the ready made letters for them. Did the awareness of the Enquirer come from the association with the Editor's wife? Did one or more of the terrorists decide to add to the plan? Were they mad because they thought their landlord slighted them, some kind of revenge? Did one terrorist part of the group but that did not go on the planes, send this letter? And the Jennifer Lopez letter - with a jewish star. could be the combination of sexual weirdness about women and anti-semitism. And it was mailed before 9/11. This coincides with the fact that the Enquirer employees got sick earlier. Your thoughts?
Again, because it is anomalous, I think the national enquirer angle needs the MOST attention.
BTW, I think Osama did not deny that he knew of the Anthrax. He did mention that he would not use, except in response, nuclear or chemical weapons, during the height of the war. He omitted biological. A tacit admission that his "won't use first" threat didn't include biologicals - because he used them?
A neighbor across the street said he called the FBI after seeing the man handling what the neighbor considered a suspicious plastic bag of letters.
"I noticed the gentleman late at night — maybe 10 o'clock, 11 o'clock, — take a plastic bag, a clear plastic bag, with envelopes in it and placed it softly in the car, on the passenger side of the car, and locked it," the neighbor said.
We know of Middle Eastern connections in both locations. For instance, one of the New Jersey arrests involved a person with Florida plates.
Or if it were a U.S. biochemical scientist, the question would follow: who was in Florida and New Jersey at the appropriate times?
One thing to keep in mind is that this letter was not found, and so it cannot be confirmed that it was the delivery mechanism.
What happened later at NBC News is instructive. After a cutaneous anthrax case emerged there, a suspicious letter was identified in retrospect; however, later on, a different letter was discovered to have contained the anthrax spores. The letter that was originally under suspicion because it was strange was apparently not connected to the anthrax case; as far as we know, it was just a routine strange letter.
So we don't know if the "weird love letter to Jennifer Lopez" really contained anthrax or was just a strange letter. I would guess that the tabloids receive a lot of strange letters :-).
One other thing: Recall the intern from a local college who had written a strange going-away note to his co-workers at AMI, and who then came down with pneumonia. The FBI exonerated him, but it's hard to say what that means.
I've posted this as speculation for some time. Bush's recent "axis of evil" speech suggests that the U.S. government now has evidence confirming the existence of such an alliance.
True, but it is curious that one of the guys who died didn't review such letters as a practice. But he read it because others thought it was so odd. Office humor, I guess. He was very nearsighted and held it close to his face. I think. who knows?
You replied: True, but it is curious that one of the guys who died didn't review such letters as a practice. But he read it because others thought it was so odd. Office humor, I guess. He was very nearsighted and held it close to his face. I think. who knows?
Yes, I remember that too. The anthrax could easily have been delivered in that letter, or in some other letter, or through some delivery method other than the mail. We really don't know.
There's also still the case of cutaneous anthrax at ABC News (the visiting baby who was infected) where no letter was discovered. In this case, I don't think anybody even remembered a strange letter -- and the baby wasn't reading the mail.
What might it be? The speculation that the very name, American Media, invited attention is a valid possibility. Coupled with the ubiquity of its tabloids in American supermarkets, which the terrorists would have doubtless noted. To a mind unfamiliar with America, American Media might have seemed a more important target than it actually was.
As Mitchell points out, the J-Lo/Mogen David letter is suspicious, but we can't be certain it was the actual vehicle. However, given the gestation period of anthrax, the fact Stevens was exposed to this letter (and to very little other reader mail) and the contents are somewhat suggestive, I believe this letter represents a good working assumption.
However, I'm inclined to discount the connection to the real estate agent and editor's wife, Gloria Irish, as totally coincidental. If her association was totally routine, without any friction, there's no apparent reason to linger on this subject.
Finally, there was the covey of arrests in Trenton, of course. And the homes of several city officials in Pennsylvania (was it Chester or West Chester?) were searched for biological materials and the occupants trundled off to the pokey.
Have any of these people been released? I've heard nothing, that's for sure. And I wonder if the press is even bright enough to follow up...
I think you're referrring to Irshad Shaikh, his brother Masood Shaikh, and Asif Kazi, of Chester, PA. Their grand jury appearance was postponed indefinitely (this happened in December, I think). I don't think they're being detained.
On the other hand, Allah Rakah has apparently not been released; at least, I've seen no news story to that effect.
That would be them. Evidently, if they've been released, there's no connection with the anthrax.
And Allah Rakah was the guy with the baggies, in Trenton?
Thanks for the reply.
Well, I don't know. The three haven't been cleared, as far as I know. Their grand jury testimony wasn't cancelled, just continued (postponed) indefinitely. It's not clear what all of this means.
And Allah Rakah was the guy with the baggies, in Trenton?
That's the one. The complete silence on his case is very curious.
If there were any suspicions of anthrax involvement, surely the Feds would've found something to detain them on.
And, if there was any real reason for suspicion, wouldn't the trio have vanished by now -- becoming yet another news story?
So, I'm guessing there's nothing there.
"The complete silence on his [Allah Rakah's] case is very curious."
Yes. Isn't it....???
Three months ago I had already explained how the anthrax laden letters entered at Boca Raton could have ended up at the Hamilton Twp. facility in New Jersey.
To my knowledge the FBI and the IS have yet to use existing MTE records to track empty tray movements from West Palm Beach to Philadelphia BMC so that they could identify exactly which mailer's plant the letters were sent to.
This is a highly important consideration because there could still be anthrax laden letters in an unused stack of trays.
US Consulate Gets Tainted Mail, FBI Is Overwhelmed
"...Investigators continue to question three Pakistani men who were taken into custody near the anthrax-contaminated postal facility in Hamilton Township, N.J. One man, identified as Allah Rakah, was detained Friday. FBI agents wearing protective gear searched his apartment, a nearby mailbox and his car, which had Florida license plates."
1. Did the St. Petersburg embassy contamination tturn up to be a false positive or cross-contamination?
2. Is Allah Rakah's first name really "Allah"? That seems weird.
You could be right, but it may be that the Feds just aren't sure whether the Shaikh brothers and Kazi are involved or not. They may not have information that would let them bring charges; there may just be a lingering suspicion of involvement, well covered up.
It's also quite possible that the government just doesn't want to take any action now, even if they know the truth, because they are unwilling to deal with the military consequences at this time. This is more than just a criminal case. (If we were ready to go to war with Iraq, or Iran, or whoever they hypothetically might know is behind the anthrax attack, then we'd already be at war. We're biding our time, waiting for the right moment. And we're not going to be forced into taking military action prematurely by the exigencies of a criminal case or its political fallout.)
On Allah Rakah, I presume we'll find out the truth some day. I suppose someone could file a FOIA request on Rakah's status, if the government starts really pushing the Rosenberg theory or the like.
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