Some Fort Detrick Labs Closed

Federal agents are combing a number of laboratory suites at Fort Detrick in Frederick for evidence of the 2001 anthrax attacks.

Fort Detrick spokesman Charles Dasey says the labs have been closed since Friday at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, home to the Army's biological warfare defense program.

A law enforcement source tells The Associated Press that the activity is related to the anthrax mailings that killed five people and sickened 17 in October of 2001.

FBI agents have frequently visited Fort Detrick since the
unsolved attacks amid speculation that the deadly spores or the person who sent them may have come from Fort Detrick.

Unlike 9/11 and the war in Iraq, for the anthrax letters we don't have much of an official narrative about what happened. There's the Amerithrax website, a bunch of scientific papers, and that's about it. In particular, exactly what happened in Florida is very obscure. Almost three years have passed, and we don't even have an answer to the question: Were the anthrax letters really the work of Islamic terrorists, as they claimed, or were they a fraud? So I'd like to run through some of the arguments on both sides.

Arguments that it was the work of domestic terrorist(s) not connected to the 9/11 operation:

Liberal targets. For some reason, a lot of people believe that a foreign terrorist would not have targeted Daschle and Leahy.
American anthrax. The anthrax in the letters is reportedly genetically identical to a strain studied at USAMRIID, and originating in Texas.
"Allah is Great". A real Muslim would say "God is Great", goes the argument. [This one can be immediately falsified.]
The attacks stopped, but the war continued. The last round of letters ("YOU DIE NOW") were mailed just as the war in Afghanistan began. The Taliban were routed, and even Saddam is now a prisoner, but no more anthrax showed up.
Al Qaeda doesn't give warnings, it just kills in large numbers. The media letters say "TAKE PENACILIN NOW"; and the anthrax in the Senate letters could have killed thousands if distributed in some other way.
There's no report of Al Qaeda captives mentioning the anthrax as part of the plot.
The FBI, Ari Fleischer, etc. all seem to favor the idea that it was a US biodefense insider.
The mode of delivery and method of weaponization may have been previously studied by US bioweaponeers. Anthrax expert Bill Patrick supposedly undertook a study of anthrax-by-mail in 1999, and there are also reports that aerosolization of dry anthrax was studied at the Dugway facility.

Arguments that the anthrax is somehow part of 9/11:

It's what the letters say. "THIS IS NEXT."
Atta and Moussaoui both expressed an interest in cropdusters. As if a chemical or biological attack was considered.
The presence of microbiologists on the fringes of the plot. Yazid Sufaat in Malaysia, Abdul Qadoos in Pakistan.
John Walker Lindh's report of a second or third terror wave involving weapons of mass destruction.
Hijacker Ahmed Alhaznawi's skin lesion, consistent with cutaneous anthrax.
Only a few degrees of separation between the hijackers and the first anthrax victim. Hamza Al-Ghamdi and Marwan Al-Shehhi's real-estate agent, Gloria Irish, is married to an editor at American Media. He's also reportedly an amateur pilot.
Timing of the letters. The media letters ("THIS IS NEXT, TAKE PENACILIN NOW") were sent out on September 18, just one week after 9/11, and also the day on which a link to Iraq was first publicly mooted. The Senate letters ("YOU CAN NOT STOP US... YOU DIE NOW") were sent on October 9, just after the war in Afghanistan began.

I've always maintained that the mailer took the most prominent names in the news at the time. I remember D and L being always interviewed about something.

This theory is testable. Do searches in one of the national news databases, for the appropriate time period, for Daschle, for Leahy, and for a number of other prominent individuals (limit yourself to U.S. Senators, if you like). Find how many articles were written mentioning each one. See if Daschle and Leahy are at the top of the list.

My gut feeling is that this isn't going to be an adequate explanation of why they were selected as targets. Leahy in particular was probably mentioned far less often than many other prominent officials. I'm sure Daschle, because of his assumption at the time of the Senate majority leadership, was mentioned more than Leahy, but I don't think he'll be way ahead of the pack at all.

On top of this, Daschle isn't really known for much specific, so most of the references are probably routine political comments not likely to engender much of a reaction.

Anyway, your hypothesis is testable if somebody cares to compile the information. I don't think it's going to pan out, but I could be wrong.

<< On top of this, Daschle isn't really known for much specific, so most of the references are probably routine political comments not likely to engender much of a reaction. >>

Like I said a few posts ago -

For what are Daschle and-or Leahy famous, or notorious?

Figure out that one, and ... just maybe ... the anwser to "Why the Post?" will fall out. Maybe.

If this guess is right, it must concern something from before the WWW. All connexions recent enough to be on the Web have been scoured exhaustively by amateur sleuthers.

As u say, Daschle is known for nothing. Nada.

For what is Leahy known, pre-WWW? Pre-WWW is 1980s or early 1990s.

You list 2 possibilities -

- Domestic terrorists not assoc with 09-11.

- Foreign terrorists assoc with 09-11.

Since you are analysing this logically, there are 2 more possibilities -

- Foreign terrorists not assoc with 09-11. Probably would mean some non-Islamic state with an existing bioprogram took advantage of the environment post 09-11.

- Domestic terrorists assoc with 09-11. I don't know what this would mean, but here it is, for completness.

Care to rule these 2 out?

<< World War Woo? >>

World Wide Web.

Repeating myself -

For what are Daschle and-or Leahy famous, or notorious? All connexions recent enough to be on the Web have been scoured exhaustively by amateur sleuthers. They have found nothing. The reason is not documented well on the Web.

Why not? Every public event is on the Web. In news stories. In discussions. On Free Republic. In chat rooms and blogs. Findable in search engines.

Whatever event is the reason for targetting Daschle and Leahy, must be from before everything was chronicled on the World Wide Web. Puts it in the 80's, maybe early 90's. Could go back earlier.

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