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.
This story proves NOTHING of the sort. We have had letters mailed in the United States and one letter mailed in Pakistan - but it's easy for someone to travel to a country and send some letters. Methinks you are an anti-Pakistan propagandist from your willingness to jump to conclusions here...
This will come as no surprise to FReepers who have been following news of the suspected Pakistani terror cell in Trenton, NJ, for weeks now.
"If the Pak anthrax is of the same variety as that sent to Daschle and co., and it is likely that it is, then that might indicate an abundant supply. A poster yesterday was wondering why the big anthrax attack hadn't happened, some respondents suggested it might be because of a limited supply. This would indicate otherwise."
Noting that a few Pakistanis seem to have a lot of involvement in the anthrax episodes does not necessarily make one "anti-Pakistani."
I suspect a lot of us support Pakistan's president Musharraf.
Some of us here in New Jersey can't help noticing in our local news that there are some mighty interesting connections and coincidences occuring in a certain small segment of the Pakistani community in Trenton/Hamilton -- site of all known mailings in the U.S.
When they have the proof they need to go public then go public, all this I think its them no its them no its them over there no here is confusing the issue and if they do find the right culprits will it be believable. The waters are just getting muddier and muddier, and it makes out that the intelligence agencies doing the search dont have clue
Tony
That's not what the poster said at the end of the article - check out his comments:
Pakistan seems to be more capable than we previously thought.
Not terrorists, or groups within Pakistan ... but Pakistan. Hence my comments.
What it indicates to me is that there are internal politics within the FBI in trying to find the source of the anthrax letters. There are some who do not wish to go after Islamic terrorists because they do not wish to be branded politically incorrect and it might open what in our venacular is called a whole other can of worms. Of major significance is that two of the most senior FBI officials involved in supervising these investigations are suddenly ritiring effective November 30.
Stay well - Stay safe- Stay armed - Victory
I can't speak for pumacan, but I'll bet he meant terrorists or groups within Pakistan - not the country as a whole, or President Musharraf.
Btw, I believe at least one of the Pakistani detainees in New Jersey has made many trips recently back and forth from Pakistan. No, of course that doesn't PROVE anything...but it adds weight to a growing list of suspicious activities.
Hardly. What else is "Pakistan" supposed to mean?
Press reports allege that Osama bin Laden may have acquired the materials necessary to make weapons of mass destruction, including bomb-grade uranium and anthrax. The Times of London and Britain's Channel Four quoted "Western intelligence sources" who said that bin Laden obtained uranium from Pakistan.
Pakistani officials say these claims are absurd, but Pakistani authorities have detained two former nuclear weapons scientists for questioning.
We are hearing a lot about from where Bin Laden could have acquired nuclear materials, anthrax spores and other mass destructive devices. But for some reason every time I look at the reports I heard more about Pakistani link than any others.
There has to be some fire producing such smokes. It just cannot be mere propaganda.
Evidently both spellings are acceptable.
I was trying to say both spellings of Koran and Quran are acceptable.
Well, I hope pumacan will clarify what he meant.
Doesn't seem like such a big issue to me, though. "Pakistan," in the form of its secret service, is strongly suspected of having betrayed Abdul Haq, and having conspired in other anti-American activities, is it not? While its titular head appears to be on our side, clearly many in the country are not.
I wanted to point to all the extremists groups and terrorist operating within Pakistan. However it would be unlikely that they can operate freely without the support of some government officials. But that doesn't mean that the whole Pakistan is involved in this. There is a big difference between pointing people who supports and harbor terrorism against a whole nation who also have peace desiring people.
Then say that clearly, instead of insinuating that there is some kind of state-sponsorship to the anthrax attack - because by that logic, since most of the anthrax letters were mailed in the United States, the United States must therefore be sheltering the terrorists. Do you see how absurd that "logic" really is? Using the mail system of a country to distribute anthrax is hardly a logical indictment of that country.
Now what I meant here to say was that without the support of government how can terrorist breed on their soil. There are enough intelligence evidences to show that the government is secretly funding these extremists.
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.