Posted on 11/07/2001 5:29:54 AM PST by pumacan
TIMES NEWS NETWORK WASHINGTON: The finger of suspicion for the anthrax attack on America points to terrorists in Pakistan.
US officials disclosed on Tuesday that a letter to the American consulate in Lahore that tested positive for anthrax in preliminary checks was mailed locally in Pakistan. Hitherto, all anthrax-tainted letters have originated in the United States.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher confirmed that the Lahore letter was mailed from within Pakistan. "It came in the local mail. They had an off-site mailroom facility and it was checked, bagged, isolated there and then sent on to us for further testing," he said.
Samples from the tainted letter have since arrived in the United States for further testing by the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Maryland.
Several American consulates and facilities across the world have reported receiving anthrax-tainted letters. But all of them have come via diplomatic pouches from the United States. If further tests on the Lahore letter confirm anthrax contamination, it will be the first piece of such mail not to have originated in the U.S.
That could go a long way in determining whether the anthrax attacks are the work of the domestic disaffected or international terrorist, a question that has been vexing US authorities since the first tainted letters were detected soon after the September 11 carnage.
Officials however cautioned that it was still too early to come to any conclusions. Many preliminary confirmations of anthrax presence have turned out to be negative in later tests. For US authorities to make a linkage between the Lahore letter and the anthrax attack in the US, the strain would have to be identical.
Despite the growing indications that extremist elements in Pakistan may have penetrated facilities handling weapons of mass destruction, administration officials, particularly from the state department, appear sanguine about the security aspects, and have repeatedly certified that General Musharraf has things under control.
Aha! Thanks for the info, Saber.
This whole anthrax thing has become a sick comedy of errors.
The authorities seem to be running in circles and really accomplishing very little except making the rest of the country dizzy trying to follow all the stupid crap they have been spouting. A good example being the BS they started spouting when the first case in FL was discovered. It was a ridiculous waste of time and resources, and flies in the face of common sense to propose that the victim might have picked up the disease drinking from a stream on a deer hunting trip in North Carolina in September. (Deer season, in my state is in November and December and it’s not likely to be in early September in any state.)
Government officials seem to take the American public for fools, and the real fools in the media give them encouragement by not doing their homework and challenging the BS. Other examples are the stories of so-called “right wing , domestic terrorists being responsible. I could go on for pages with the stupid BS “theories” that has been circulated and promoted in the press.
Any health, law enforcement, or government official who is ignoring the obvious 95%+ possibility that this is the “second wave” after the WTC / Pentagon attacks is too stupid or irresponsibly PC to be allowed to hold any position of public responsibility higher than garbage collector. It is time we started to beat down these stupid, lying, incompetents with public ridicule and scorn
Okay. Now Anthrax has shown up in Pakistan. And now a bunch of “sources” will try to come up a way to disconnect this with what is happening in this country so they can preserve the “domestic terrorist” option.
The fact is that the Afghan / Pakistan border has been a primary mode of entry and exit for the Islamic terrorists and there is significant sympathy for them still in Pakistan. I suspect that there are significant numbers of Talibanistas still moving back and forth across the border still. Pakistan is a hodge-podge of loyalties and views and the policies of its government have little effect on the actions and viewpoints of the population. The government has too little moral authority to positively influence the people and too little power to dictate to the people. Finding Anthrax in Pakistan is insignificant in giving us any leads to its source.
I cannot hold all of a nation as being evil because there are evil ones there, but if they tolerate evil in their midst, if they do not vigorously stamp out or expel that evil, they can NO LONGER lay claim to “innocent bystander” status. They become “complicit bystanders” and thereby subject to collateral damage. Cowardice in the presence of evil is not a virtue to be rewarded with a long peaceful life. Their claim of powerlessness is a sham. They should either fight the evil or get the h*ll out of the way.
Please read the following abstract between Pakistan's Ambassador to the United Nations, Shamshad Ahmad and MARGARET WARNER from www.PBS.ORG
Internal policy on terrorism
MARGARET WARNER: Now, you spoke earlier about Pakistan and terrorism, and, as you know, the State Department and maybe other critics have in fact charged that Pakistan does harbor terrorists, that your intelligence service in fact armed and trained the Taliban, that you armed and trained Islamic fighters in Afghanistan, some fight with bin Laden, some fight up in Kashmir against India.
And my question is: Is Pakistan prepared to change any of those policies now as part of this global fight against terrorism?
SHAMSHAD AHMAD: Well, I think you are forgetting that Pakistan is itself a victim of terrorism.
We have been suffering from terrorism for years, almost every day there have been bomb blasts, explosions in Pakistan. It is another matter that these incidents of terrorism have never been publicized in the western media. But there have been heavy losses of innocent lives in Pakistan, and these acts of terrorism have been perpetrated from outside. And not only this -- we are located in a geography, which is a region which is volatile, and which has been scene of instability for the last more than two decades. So you cannot choose your geography, you cannot choose your neighbors.
We have been there, and we share a very long border with Afghanistan and a very long and hostile border with India in our East. So all these allegations about Pakistan's involvement in alleged terrorism, they are just baseless and preposterous allegations, which have been made by our enemies for their self-serving reasons.
And I must say here that the other day, I saw on this very program India's foreign minister answering your questions. While I do respect Mr. Jaswant Singh as the foreign minister of a neighboring country with which---despite our best efforts for the last 50 years---we have not been able to have good neighborly relations, although we are doing our best to resumption of a meaningful dialogue----but I must question a couple of claims --.
MARGARET WARNER: So you aren't prepared to say whether you know where bin Laden is?
SHAMSHAD AHMAD: Oh, he's not in Pakistan.
MARGARET WARNER: All right. Thank you, Mr. Ambassador, very much.
SHAMSHAD AHMAD: Thank you.
You can read the full interview details at http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/terrorism/july-dec01/pakistan_10-3.html
Clearly Pakistan's Ambassador to the United Nations, Shamshad Ahmad had no answer to Margaret Warner question and he deviated by saying Pakistan is also facing terrorism.
This is not a coincidence that pumacan and others on this post are trying to justify that may be Pakistan is involved. Well I say they are you fools.
When Pakistan's Ambassador to the United Nations, Shamshad Ahmad cannot justify Pakistani innocence. How can you expect pumacan to justify it.
To find all articles tagged or indexed using Anthrax_Scare_List
Go here: Anthrax_Scare_List
Once again, someone jumps into the exchange and tries to justify scenario A with scenario B. I am not asking pumacan to justify Pakistani innocence. I am asking pumacan how a letter mailed in Pakistan implicates the government of Pakistan. Try to stay on the subject.
Don't forget that the FBI is still highly klintonized, and the democRATS are fighting hard to keep Bush's people out by stopping confirmations. They have spent eight years blaming everything on the "right wing", and ignoring real security threats from countries the klintons did business with.
The klintons are desperate, and I see them and their flying monkies doing everything possible to hinder the war effort. Come the 2004 election, Hitlery declares "Bush's war" to be a failure and a "quagmire". She promises instant action, and, if elected, starts an immediate round-up of the "right wing".
Stay well - stay safe - stay armed - yorktown
It doesn't matter to you if the information is propaganda or not???
You and your friend who posted this article have been on the FR less than a week and I suggest your begin dealing in facts and forget propaganda.
We are not here to prove anything neither are we suppose to. We are here to expess our views.
Isn't he special?
But it's not a fact. All that has been reported is speculation, primarily by journalists in India, that Pakistan might do that rather than allow the nukes to be seized in a pro-Taliban coup. Pakistan has repeatedly stated that their nukes are in a completely safe command and control environment and that there is no danger of them falling into the hands of radicals.
It's important to keep fact and speculation apart in our minds.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.