Now, onto the Hector Carreon case. Hector is a columnist for the Nation of Aztlan, a group whose nominal goal is the re-creation of Greater Mexico, but half of whose screeds are about Jews and Israel. Obviously Aztlan.net has hostile relations with mainstream Jewish organizations, and may have been targeted by the Jewish Defense League, who do have a history of criminal and terrorist actions. The JDL is also entwined in the larger history of the war on terror. It was founded by Meir Kahane, whose assassination in 1990 is treated by several authors as the first action of the al Qaeda cell behind the 1993 WTC bombing. Two months after 9/11, two JDL members were charged with plotting to blow up a mosque and/or the offices of California Republican Darrell Issa. One of them, Irv Rubin, supposedly committed suicide in December 2002 while awaiting trial, and the other pleaded guilty early in 2003. (I say "supposedly" because he is said to have cut his own throat and then jumped off a balcony, which for me is up there with Abu Nidal's four-bullet "suicide".) Finally, a one-man JDL splinter, the Jewish Defense Organization (JDO), has a minor place in the Hatfill saga, having been the channel through which some of the accusations against Steve Hatfill were disseminated.
If they are willing to blow up a mosque, they are surely willing to send an anthrax hoax letter. However, several things about Hector Carreon's story make me doubtful. By his own account, Carreon got the letter in early July, actually fell sick, but didn't approach police until early October, when he simultaneously wrote a column, "Anthrax Terrorists may be Zionists", which was reproduced as far away as Syria. Why did he wait so long? Why didn't he mention it in his columns? What sort of biological agent looks like white powder and gives you flu symptoms? Carreon appears to be a propagandist who for tactical reasons has allied his cause (the secession of Aztlan from the USA) with the anti-Zionist cause of his best prospective allies (anti-American states from the Islamic world), and perhaps he's just holding up his end of the deal by propagating this story. If anyone takes it seriously, I suggest they contact Detective Rivera of the Whittier Police Department, and ask about the status of the case.
Concerning the Quantico letter (about Ayaad Assaad), the St Petersburg hoax letters (to Troxler and Miller), etc., I previously dismissed them as red herrings - part of the background noise, and not directly relevant to Amerithrax. The content of the letter to Troxler has made me rethink that. However, my interpretation would be along the lines of post #194 - they were sent by an al Qaeda operative like Iyman Faris.
“What sort of biological agent looks like white powder and gives you flu symptoms?”
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) - Five Dutch postal workers became ill after handling a piece of mail containing yellow powder Sunday evening, police said.
Police spokeswoman Claudia Metz in the city of Alkmaar said the workers weren't seriously sickened, and that the powder was not anthrax.
However, she said those who came in contact with it had difficulty breathing and one mailman was briefly hospitalized before being released.
"It was nasty stuff," Metz said of the yellow powder, which is being tested.
Alkmaar is around 40 kilometres north of Amsterdam.
The mailman who was hospitalized picked the letter or package up from a public mailbox in the centre of the city during his Sunday rounds.
He brought it to a local distribution centre where he and the others became ill.
Authorities initially sealed off areas surrounding both the mailbox and the distribution centre. Workers were later allowed to leave the centre, although the mailbox remained cordoned off while the powder was further examined, Metz said.
It was not immediately clear who, if anyone, was being targeted by the mailing. Police would not release further details about the package, including where it was addressed, while the investigation continued.
In December, two letter bombs were sent to police agencies based in the Netherlands as part of a spate of mailings to European Union bodies.
"What sort of biological agent looks like white powder and gives you flu symptoms?"
Suspicious powder not poisonous
Employees back at work after scare
August 20, 2002 Posted: 4:58 PM EDT (2058 GMT)
Firefighters arrived on the scene after people reacted to a white powder in an office.
McALLEN, Texas (CNN) -- Seventy people were evacuated from an office here Tuesday when three employees suffered allergic reactions and reported seeing white powder by an opened package, authorities said.
Concerned the powder might be anthrax as in a string of mailings last fall, the McAllen Fire Department was called to decontaminate the scene.
But tests by a local laboratory about two hours later determined the substance was not poisonous and the office, operated by Hotels.com, was reopened.
FBI spokeswoman Rosalie Savage said it was unclear whether there was any white powder to begin with. She said a local laboratory did chemical and gas tests in the office and swabbed the area around the package, but found no powder anywhere.
Capt. Charles Quijas of the fire department said they were unaware of such reports. He said reports were that there was "powder on the package."
"The FBI is investigating, as per procedure," Savage said. "The past few months, we have had numerous training regarding suspicious packages."
Some employees also reported smelling suspicious fumes, and Savage said they might have come from a sewer gas line in the area that had recently been repaired. Police and fire officials told CNN affiliate KNVO-TV the fumes came from a drainage pump.
Company President Bob Diener said the three sickened employees were being treated for allergic reactions with "standard allergy medications." All the other employees were back at their desks by the afternoon and the office was operating as usual, Diener said.
A spokeswoman for Rio Grande Regional Hospital, which was on alert for patients, said staff was told the substance was nontoxic. She said the allergic reactions involved "itchiness and rashes."
Four people arrived at McAllen Medical Center with "minor headaches and rashes in their eyes," said spokesman Bertil Marje. He said they suffered no other symptoms.
Lt. Rene Alaniz of the McAllen Fire Department said office workers were decontaminated before re-entering the building, a one-story structure on a busy highway that is a main thoroughfare for people entering the United States from Mexico.
Authorities blocked the highway as they completed the decontamination process, Alaniz said.
Diener said the McAllen office of Dallas-based Hotels.com, a provider of discount accommodations, is one of several that processes hotel reservations.
Consumers did not experience any delays during the evacuation because bookings were transferred to other offices around the country, he said.
Officials with the Texas Department of Health said they also were investigating the incident.