Analysis of Anthrax Letters and Envelopes [Atta Did It?]

InstaPundit.com ^ | June 19, 2002 | Glenn Reynolds

[aristeides]

Of course this is what a lot of us here have believed for a long time. Interesting to see it appear elsewhere. What's instapundit.com?

[trad_anglican]

As Henry Gibson used to say on Laugh In..."Very interesting"

That was Arte Johnson.

[aculeus]

Why should I believe this is ACTUALLY from an FBI document?

ACTUALLY it isn't. It is from a letter TO the FBI by some unidentified person.

[aculeus]

What's instapundit.com?

It's a web log (they're called blogs) maintained by a netizen. It's one of the best.

Check it out.

[aculeus]

Of course I have no idea whether this post truly describes an FBI memo ...

As noted it is not "an FBI memo". It was sent to the FBI by someone who is not identified.

[Mike-o-Matic]

Here ya go :-)

"veeeery interesting...."

Boy... did I ever get off the subject of this thread... sorry.

[mrustow]

Menawhile, the homegrown, treasonous left has decided to play the "homegrown terrorist" card -- and play it and play it and play it:

Calling Agent Frank Black: Anthrax, Millennium, and the Dr. Strangelove of the American Left

[mrustow]

See the link in #27, and then this:

Dr. Strangelove Strikes Again -- in Scotland! Hunting America's Leading Anthrax Hoaxer

[Mitchell]

As noted it is not "an FBI memo". It was sent to the FBI by someone who is not identified.

You're right. Thanks for the correction (and for posting the article in the first place).

[Intimidator]

How did Atta get his hands on the quality of stuff that was sent to Daschle?

He could have gotten it from his buddy Saddam. He has the capability of making high quality anthrax.

[Erasmus]

The DOM character's name was Tyrone Horneigh. The old maid was played by Ruth Buzzi and her character's name was Gladys Ormphby.

Gilda came along in the later era of Saturday Night Live.

God, what trivia owneth my brain!

[Semper Paratus]

The old maid was played by Ruth Buzzi and her character's name was Gladys Ormphby.

DOH, I confused Gilda and Emily Latilda with Ruth Buzzi-"Never Mind".

[John H K]

Ah...saw "memo" which implies internal communication within an organization, and thus missed it being described as TO the FBI.

If you or I wrote to the FBI with my analysis on a case, it's not a MEMO, it's a LETTER written by a random crank with delusions of grandeur.

So why letters to Daschle and Leahy? Leahy, outside the US, is not a high-profile figure, and neither of the two are the most pro-Israel Senators. And apparently not even an attempt to get a letter INSIDE the White House or Pentagon, or anywhere in the Executive Branch(kind of odd to attempt to crash a plane into it but to not bother trying to get anthrax in, if it's the same attackers.) Making it LOOK like a domestic right-winger, like OKC, supposedly? Then why a letter that doesn't attempt to make it look like a domestic right-winger?

[steve50]

I wasn't aware Saddam had the capability to do the electro static charging to prevent clumping.

[browardchad]

if people in the greater New York/Philadelphia area are asked to remember any bundles of mail to be mailed that they received by an out-of-the-ordinary source on or around September 10, it might be useful. . . .

One of these "people" might be dead: Kathy Nguyen, the Manhattan ENT Hospital clerk. The only explanation thus far for her death is a hazy cross-contamination theory that miraculously affected no one else. She was so innocuous as to be invisible -- a perfect unsuspecting and unsuspected courier (and, of course, women are very dispensable to Islamists).

[My Identity]

Anthrax = Islamic Terrorism

Any scenario other than Islamic terrorism means ALL of the following are just coincidences.

SERIOUS CONNECTIONS

- The most serious bioterror attack in America began only days after 9-11

- The letters all mention standard Islamic catch-phrases.

- Florida Dr. Tsonas treated Ahmed al-Haznawi for a severe leg lesion in late June.
  Dr. Tsonas is now convinced it was cutaneous anthrax.

- Two Johns Hopkins biodefense experts (Dr. Thomas Inglesby, Dr. Tara O'Toole) agree with Tsonas.

- FL hijackers inquire about crop-dusters and dispersal characteristics of chemical loads.

- Atta attempted to obtain a loan to buy a plane and convert it into a chemical transport.

- Moussaoui, the "20th hijacker", had tech info on airliners, crop-dusters, and wind patterns.

- Mohamed Atta went to a drugstore with red, chemical-burned hands mid-2001.
  Druggist thought Atta was suffering from exposure to a chemical with basic pH, possibly bleach (used to kill anthrax).

- Allah Rakah, detained by FBI, for placing suspicious bag of letters in his car with FL license plates

- Atta met twice with Colonel Muhammed Khalil Ibrahim al-Ani, a "very senior" Iraqi 'Special Ops' agent.
  (one report says the Czechs confirmed they had video...spycraft SOP)
  (Another report claims that a vacumm bottle was passed to Atta during the meeting)

- Ziad Jarrah also met with an Iraqi agent in 2001 in the UAE.

- Marwan al-Shehhi also met with an Iraqi agent in 2001 in the UAE.

- Iraq is the ONLY hostile country known to have succeeded in weaponizing anthrax

- Iraq conducted military exercises simulating the dispersal of anthrax spores from crop-dusters

- Chemical and biological weapons are effectively dispersed from crop-dusters

- The terrorists had two operational hubs: Hamilton, New Jersey and Delray, Florida. Anthrax was found in both areas.

JUST COINCIDENCES??

- The wife of the Sun tabloid's editor rented two apartments to two hijackers In Florida.

- Marwan al-Shehhi went to Huber Drugs (with Atta) with severe chest congestion.
  The pharmacist sold him a bottle of Robitussin initially, and later antibiotics.

[Mitchell]

If you or I wrote to the FBI with my analysis on a case, it's not a MEMO, it's a LETTER written by a random crank with delusions of grandeur.

Speak for yourself! Maybe if you wrote such a letter... (but even I wouldn't say that -- I disagree with you, but I don't think you're a random crank). Are you really suggesting that everybody who writes a letter to the FBI is a random crank? (Not that there aren't some, of course.)

I do agree that it should have been called a letter, not a memo, of course. It's just an analysis by a blogger (there's nothing wrong with that -- that's what it is).

So why letters to Daschle and Leahy? Leahy, outside the US, is not a high-profile figure, and neither of the two are the most pro-Israel Senators. And apparently not even an attempt to get a letter INSIDE the White House or Pentagon, or anywhere in the Executive Branch(kind of odd to attempt to crash a plane into it but to not bother trying to get anthrax in, if it's the same attackers.) Making it LOOK like a domestic right-winger, like OKC, supposedly? Then why a letter that doesn't attempt to make it look like a domestic right-winger?

No, I don't think the terrorists' knowledge of domestic politics is sophisticated enough for that to have been the rationale. Sen. Daschle is the leader of the Senate, and Sen. Leahy has an important committee chairmanship. As for the White House, they thought it was going to be destroyed -- why would they plan on sending anthrax there? They wanted to attack both the executive and the legislative branches, and they did, in two different ways (although I still think the anthrax mailings may have been more of a threat than an attack).

[okie01]

"I wasn't aware Saddam had the capability to do the electro static charging to prevent clumping."

The Iraqi bioweapons lab reportedly developed a process that passed anthrax spores across a bed of bentonite, which deionized the spores.

This particular process was said to be unique to Iraq.

[thucydides]

I believe there has been sufficient publicity about Hollywood and Wall Street donors to democrats, plus Clinton involvement in Israel negotiations, to brand them in Arab eyes as representatives of Jewish interests.

[Mitchell]

One of these "people" might be dead: Kathy Nguyen, the Manhattan ENT Hospital clerk. The only explanation thus far for her death is a hazy cross-contamination theory that miraculously affected no one else.

It's not that unlikely -- Ottilie Lundgren was another completely isolated case.

But there is another theory regarding Nguyen. Ed Lake has pointed out that when the missing letters from CBS News and ABC News were thrown out, anthrax spores must have been thrown willy-nilly into the garbage. Kathy Nguyen might have been contaminated by anthrax spores blown out of a garbage truck carrying those spores, or possibly from a dumpster.

I don't agree with Ed's theories in general, but this seems like a possibility for Kathy Nguyen.