MAG: Mailed Anthrax 'More Sophisticated Than Any Form Previously Known'

Newsweek via MSNBC ^ | 4/7/02 | Mark Hosenball, John Barry and Daniel Klaidman

[Brian Mosely]

Last fall FBI profilers announced that the person who sent deadly anthrax-laced letters to news organizations and Capitol Hill was probably a grudge-bearing, sociopathic male laboratory nerd with knowledge of the geography of Trenton, N.J. But a new scientific analysis sent to top government officials suggests the anthrax attacker may be a scientific whiz so smart that he succeeded in making a

[Alamo-Girl]

Indeed, this country has been very slow to understand the clear and present danger of WMDs. And Saddam has a history of 'poisoning the well.' Nevertheless, IMHO this administration knows that the WMD threat must end here and now - and thus I am expecting a major offensive, soon.

[The Great Satan]

I do expect a major offensive, but not "soon." I think it is further away than we would like to imagine -- and we have already been told not to expect a move before the fall, at the earliest. I'm not sure what can be done to counter the threat. It seems to me we need some technological breakthroughs in the area of anthrax treatment and cleanup, and even then, we would have to build up a massive rapid-deployment civil defense infrastructure capable of delivering medical care to millions of people in affected cities anywhere in the Western hemisphere in the space of about 24 hours. That is a pretty tall order, if you ask me. I also suspect that we will pursue some ingenious strategies to force Saddam out and take him hostage rather than killing him outright, and I think the Bush-Sharon plan for "isolating" Arafat gives us a hint as to the overall approach.

[aristeides]

Report: PA, Iraq planning terror wave against US.

[Rustynailww]

it is the vtomc.

[Mitchell]

I easily can imagine a crazy maniac, wanting to die in glory, who enlisted 18 other fools in his mission and found powerful sponsors willing to assist him.

I find this scenario (that Atta was acting independently) difficult to believe. Can you point to any other instance in history where something along those lines occurred?

[tallhappy]

It's one thing for a knowlegeable scientist to think of a way of doing this - it's another thing to actually do it. To do it takes huge resources, that only a state can provide. Testing the produst for lethality takes hundreds of tests on Rhesus monkeys. Try doing that in your bathroom.

Remember the reports of all the dead animals near the Afghan Pakistan border (if I am recaling correctly)?

The Japanese cult tested their sarin in Australia.

[Nogbad]

I am not saying Atta operated independently.
I am saying that for such a complex operation
there was a general in charge
who conceived the operation
organized it,
and carried it out,
and that general was not sitting in Jalalabad
and that general was not Saddam Hussein.

Obviously Atta had outside support,
met with the Iraqis, al-Qaeda officials,
made arrangements with others
about the delivery of supplies,
sent back reports.

But he was not taking orders from superiors.

He cooked up the idea with his friends while in Germany.
Yes they all had undergone indoctrination in various places.

'Satan' thinks Al-Qaeda acts only as a recruitment agency.
I agree, though I think maybe it would be better likened
to the some kind of Masonic society.

But I do not agree that the mastermind was Saddam.

Repeat: any project of this size and magnitude
has someone in charge organizing and coordinating everything.

That person was Atta.

If you want a historical precedent,
perhaps Gavril Princip, who assassinated Archduke Ferdinand.
There were many attempts to link him with the Serbian government
but it seems likely his group acted independently
though the Serbian Secret Service probably
were informed of his intentions.

[browardchad]

I agree with you on the source, motivation and timing of the anthrax, and on the planned response.

Unfortunately, I am not as sanguine on your opinion that the handling of Arafat was part of any original planning. I believe Tenent has been quoted recently as giving not a ten-year estimate of long-range Iraqi nukes, but as five years of less. I also believe Korea was brought into the “axis of evil” equation because she does have long-range nukes (there was not-well-publicized testimony before the Senate to that effect within the last month). Given Condi Rice’s statement that Korea has been “marketing” weapons, the implication would seem clear that Korea might possibly sell her nukes to Iraq, or use them at the request of Saddam, for a price.

Since we are now hearing from various “military experts” that the Middle East situation must be “split off” from the Iraq “invasion,” and that it must be looked at as a “separate issue,” I can’t believe that the Middle East situation doesn’t complicate things to a maddening degree, or that Israel could have been involved in advance planning for this particular situation.

It is certainly to Saddam’s advantage to show the world, and particularly his Arab neighbors and Europe, a seething, boiling mass of humanity ready to pounce on both their own governments (or what passes for same), and to embroil our Israeli ally in a situation that can erupt in a regional war as a result. Don’t get me wrong: I don’t believe the Arab states want war, but if they are faced with overthrow, they would much prefer (as would most of Europe) to take out Israel than to be taken out by their own people, assisted (in the shadows) by Iran and Iraq.

The bottom line is, it’s difficult to see how this situation can be neutralized so that we can then carry out our plan on Iraq, and thus go forward with blinders on, without adjusting strategy. Even the worst scenario, abandoning Israel, could not, given the current blood-lust of the masses, calm the situation to the point that we could return to what you describe as a post-9/11 plan. I believe that plan is going to have to be adjusted, and accelerated.

[in_troth]

and why no mention of the Chinese??--they have been working on bioweapons as long or longer than the Russians)
The article mentioned that it was coated with a compound---could it be MSG????

[Nogbad]

To complete the analogy.
Al Qaeda can the likened
to the pre-WWI Serbian 'Black Hand'.
A loose group of like-minded individuals
who floated about and got together
here and there
to plot against the Austrians
and others.

[Nogbad]

The comment above should have been directed to you.

[in_troth]

Were you on the OJ jury, by any chance?
Or on the Warren Commission?

[in_troth]

A change in the titular head of the government doesn't change the nature of the government.
Unfortunately you're probably right about the government not hesitating to experiment on/endanger U.S. citizens in the name of national defense (though I'm sure they prefer to use our poor soldiers as guinea pigs whenever possible).

[The Great Satan]

Since we are now hearing from various “military experts” that the Middle East situation must be “split off” from the Iraq “invasion,” and that it must be looked at as a “separate issue,” I can’t believe that the Middle East situation doesn’t complicate things to a maddening degree, or that Israel could have been involved in advance planning for this particular situation.

Well, unlike the punditry and half the people on this site, whose response to 9-11 and the anthrax threats has been to spin their wheels uselessly, trying to somehow work those events into a pre-existing, robotically-regurgitated agenda, Team Bush sat down last September to figure what our opponents' war aims were, and how they planned to achieve them. If Saddam was behind 9-11, as they most likely concluded, then it was entirely predictable that he would attempt to stir up the Palestinian-Israel conflict using his cat's paw Arafat, in the hope of crystallizing a new pan-Arab axis against the newly-humiliated Great Satan. That's exactly what he tried to do ten years ago and, it's a cliche, but the leopard does not change his spots. The current events in the Middle East were easily predictable six months ago. What to do about Arafat had to be near the top of the agenda, and taking him out of the equation had to be the obvious choice. 9-11 changed everything, but most people are still too slow-witted to figure out what that means. Condi Rice isn't. Don Rumsfeld isn't. Paul Wolfowitz isn't. Dick Cheney isn't. George W. Bush isn't. Our adversaries have a plan. We have a plan. Now we find out whose plan is better.

[Mitchell]

I forget where, but I've seen the Black Hand actually mentioned as a model that some Islamic terrorist group was said to be based on.

[Mitchell]

From all appearances, Atta was the operational commander. As such, he presumably had much latitude of action. But to call him a general is overstating things, in my view.

In your scenario, others in the Middle East were certainly aware of Atta's plans (because they were providing support). They were allowing a major attack on the U.S. to be carried out essentially in their names, therefore they would have demanded full participation in the planning and they would not have proceeded without a long-term strategy.

I don't know if the attack was directed from Iraq, or Iran, or China, or a consortium of these [or somebody else], but it must have had external direction, approval, and planning, and it must have fit well into somebody's long-term intentions.

[SSN558]

"Any biological scientist with this kind of expertise would go to work IMMEDIATELY for almost any biotech company at a salary vastly exceeding whatever the government might have paid. "Disgruntled US Scientist" my rear end."

Don't be so sure. When you get the axe from a government weapons job, sh*t can happen. Those peaceniks that protest out in front of facilities are writing down license numbers. They spread rumors, they call the police to tell them you were seen speeding, etc. The grandmothers for peace are snakes. This is one of the reasons that people taking pictures at weapons facilities can get their camera taken away. Been there, done that.