New lead roils anthrax probe

washington post via msnbc ^ | 3/28/02

[knak]

March 29

[Mitchell]

I hope so. It makes military sense for us to coordinate our actions with the Israelis, and it's also the right thing to do.

The U.S. and Israel may be playing a good cop/bad cop routine. Israel goes in with force, and we've made them promise not to harm Arafat. But we're actually in it together, having agreed on the course of action.

There was talk a week or two ago that the U.S. was looking to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to simplify things before going to war with Iraq. This was generally interpreted as more useless peace process talk. Maybe this sort of Israeli military action is what was really meant.

[freeperfromnj]

What about a possible Canada connection. The Ames strain is only known to have been given to 5 labs. The Ames strain used in the letters apparently was limited to only five labs - those are the US, Canada, and the UK. I'm looking for an article that mentioned the fact that Atta visited Canada often. Perhaps that's where the envelopes were stuffed.

[Mitchell]

I see now that Powell says that Israel has promised not to harm or capture Arafat. The agreement not to capture him is news to me. That doesn't leave many possibilities open: exile or house arrest (or he could conceivably be held hostage, as you say). In any case, Israel could say that it didn't capture him.

Arafat might also be killed in combat. It would be hard for Israel to guarantee that that won't happen, although my guess is that Pres. Bush would not be pleased if that happened so soon after we've given our assurances that Arafat won't be harmed.

[bvw]

Or at the airport.

[Musket]

Yes, this appears to be A4, 8.27 x 11.69.

[bvw]

Where's the letter with the brown stains on it?

Small vial, brown stains.

[okie01]

"I don't see why the date couldn't have been chosen months in advance, and probably was."

The terrorists may have set an optimum date. But they could not have committed to it until a few days before the event.

For the plan to succeed, it was absolutely necessary that the weather over the Eastern seaboard be clear. There was no point in hijacking the planes if they couldn't navigate them to their targets visually.

As it happened, September 11 was a picture perfect day, with virtually unlimited visibility all across the northeastern quarter of the country.

[okie01]

O’Toole and Inglesby declined to name the FBI official who later contacted them informally about the case. A government official said the individual was “not involved in the investigation in any way and had no standing” to raise his concerns with the Hopkins experts. Those concerns were based on “partial information,” the official said, adding that the FBI official “never voiced his concerns internally or raised those issues from proper channels.”

To me, the real news in this story is contained in this paragraph. Obviously, there is a schism within the FBI on how to pursue the anthrax case. And the new developments are traced to somebody who isn't even assigned to the case -- but evidently disagrees with how it is being conducted.

Odd. I wonder if Barbara Whasserface's source is a member of the official investigative team, so that we have a case of Duelling Leakers.

[browardchad]

Traces of anthrax were found at the post office in Boca Raton that processed mail for the company. This could have been cross-contamination from mailing trays used by AMI, but it was never conclusively proven (from what I've seen) whether the contamination originated at AMI, or from mail going to AMI.

There is another curious, but perhaps non-significant coincidence about Holy Cross Hospital, since the AMI intern, Jordan Arizmendi, who was initially under suspicion for his "strange" e-mail of farewell to the staff at AMI, developed pneumonia in October and was hospitalized at Holy Cross Hospital. The hospital is in Fort Lauderdale, Southeast Broward Country, (where Arizmendi’s parents were said to live) whereas Delray is in Eastern Palm Beach County, and there are at least a few other hospitals I can think of closer to Delray. OTOH, Holy Cross is a well-known medical center in South Florida.

Arizmendi was originally thought to be “Middle Eastern,” but was later reported to be “a third-generation US citizen of Spanish-Basque descent.” The AP also reported that his mother is Jewish. That’s about all that was ever reported about him, except that he was interviewing for a post-graduate internship with Disney, and was then (10/01) a senior at Florida Atlantic University. His father, Hank Arizmendi, said that he his internship at AMI ended in mid-August, but that he had returned to AMI in mid-September “to visit friends.” He also apparently attended the American School in Japan, since he’s listed on the website as a ’96 alumnus with an e-mail address at FAU.

I also remember a local South Florida TV segment about a female employee at a private medical clinic in Miami, who was fired for going public with the fact that Atta and company visited the center and used their computers. Never heard any more on that.

[Nogbad]

The terrorists may have set an optimum date.
But they could not have committed to it
until a few days before the event.
For the plan to succeed,
it was absolutely necessary
that the weather
over the Eastern seaboard
be clear.

I don’t agree.

Like the invasion of Normandy,
it couldn’t be called off
two days before
because of bad weather.

The terrorists had to rely on luck
and
no doubt
the will of Allah.

And don’t forget,
the mission was a failure
(in their eyes):
the main target,
the White House,
was not hit.

[muawiyah]

Two things that the FBI doesn't know about have really harmed the investigation. One of those things is anthrax. The other is the mail.

That's the best that can be said for them.

[okie01]

Do we know exactly when the terrorists made their flight reservations?

[muawiyah]

The "right wing whack job" hypothesis was peddled by individuals within the FBI who were trying to protect their friends at Planned Parenthood who had been mailing tens of thousands of fake anthrax attack letters.

[muawiyah]

The envelopes were "filled" in South Florida. In fact, at least one of them was mailed before the others were filled. That happened because the terrorist needed to have some more envelopes. Being your typical tight fisted young Arab he didn't want to waste money by buying a box at the grocery store (like an American), or waste money by buying too much postage.

So, he filled the envelope he had and when he got to the Boca Raton post office he mailed it in the letter drop in the lobby.

He bought several more embossed (postage affixed) envelopes at the post office, went home and filled them. These he deposited in street collection boxes.

Through normal mail processes these envelopes ended up in the Hamilton Twp. facility near Trenton NJ where they were postmarked.

Why would the terrorist wish to leave the country to pour powder in an envelope? Is the gravity different?

[muawiyah]

The so-called "Ames strain" is presently in the hands of hundreds, if not thousands, of labs of different sorts all over the world.

It appears to be a "standard" for measuring the efficacy of anti-anthrax materials, or for other measurement of bacteria.

On the other hand, the particular strain of the strain of the strain is the same, and that gets limited down to a half dozen to a dozen places.

Knowing who produced the anthrax does not tell you who used it as a weapon. That's because this particular stuff could have been stolen over the last 10 years - according to the records!

[muawiyah]

The contamination in Florida was found in a letter drop in the Boca Raton post office. This is, in fact, the only mail collection recepticle of any kind found to be contaminated with anthrax.

AMI picks up its mail. It had recently changed the pickup location. Contamination was found in the facility which had previously been the correct destination for AMI mail. The mail forwarding unit was also contaminated, and then the facility where AMI presently picks up its mail was also contaminated.

All of the contamination is limited to the route the AMI mail would have taken to get from Boca Raton main post office to and through the various facilities.

This pretty well rules out cross contamination.

We also know that the anthrax powder can pass through the paper envelopes. It does not do so rapidly. The fact that there was little contamination in South Florida is consistent with the thought that the letter sent to AMI was delivered shortly after it was mailed.

My take is that ALL the letters were mailed on or about September 8 or 9, in South Florida, by the same individuals!

[Nogbad]

Why would the terrorist wish to leave the country to pour powder in an envelope?

If you read my posts, I made that clear.

The terrorists did not pour powder in the envelope.
The experts who made the anthrax did,
then passed the envelopes back to the terrorists.

[Nogbad]

The so-called "Ames strain" is presently in the hands of hundreds,
if not thousands,
of labs of different sorts all over the world.

Not true. The virulent strain is probably in fewer than 10 labs.

[browardchad]

Are you saying that all the anthrax was mailed from Florida? That the AMI employees (Stevens, who died, and the elderly man who recovered) got anthrax through cross-contamination with those envelopes at the post office? That the anthrax mailed to New Jersey was then re-mailed to Daschle and others?

[muawiyah]

The "virulent strain" is called what?

The Ames strain refers to something that is in widespread possession. You can go read definitive articles concerning this issue in the FreeRepublic anthrax site.

Something else here - this anthrax was processed into particles so fine they could pass through the paper of which the envelopes were made.

If this stuff were placed in the envelopes overseas, by the time they'd mailed the stuff it could well have all passed through!

See, the FBI is not telling us stuff that's important, e.g. the rate at which anthrax transpires through the envelope walls!