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The anthrax incident should have put an end to doubt about the "war on terror" and everything else that the regime has been doing. It has been utterly forgotten, although during October 2001 it was trumped up as something even bigger than 9/11.
Unlike the case of 9/11, the facts about the anthrax attacks are simple, clear and close to conclusive:
-On Sept. 11th the White House immediately put some of its staff, including Cheney, on Cipro. How did they know to pick this antibiotic, out of the many available? How could they guess that anthrax (or another pathogen against which Cipro can protect) was coming?
-A wave of stories immediately after Sept. 11th announced that anthrax was the likeliest next attack. We were even threatened with a specific sequence of future attacks: anthrax, smallpox, plague. (They've been drumming up the smallpox scare ever since the anthrax attacks stopped.) Of all the hundreds of biowar germs and literally thousands of types of terror attacks, why was this idea circulated so prominently? Who was behind the stories?
-The FBI destroyed a stockpile of original Ames strain samples 10 days after the attacks began. Why?! This was a precaution?!
-Suspect Hatfill and his colleague in science William Capers Patrick, the respected dean of American biowarfare research, were both involved in a 1999 SAIC/Batelle Memorial study on modalities that terrorists might employ in sending anthrax through the mail.
-The report from that study specified an ideal weight of anthrax sample per envelope (a tablespoon) and a form of weaponized anthrax. This was the amount and type used in the attack. In other words, the anthrax attackers probably had access to this secret report (Note, however that the amount also happens to be a logical one).
-The anthrax went first to the headquarters of the country's biggest tabloid owner (National Enquirer and Florida Sun-Sentinel). The Enquirer had printed a series of anti-Bush "conspiracy" stories, including one claiming that McVeigh was still breathing after his execution. The Enquirer also published embarrassing pictures of the Bush twins drunk, which had gotten much play on Drudge and similar outlets. Was this an object lesson to the media?
-The wife of the paper's editor had rented an apartment to Mohamed Atta and Marwan Al-Shehhi. Were they going to do a story about this that would not have fit the official 9/11 line?
-The next group of attacks hit the New York media. They arrived just as the Afghanistan campaign began and caused maximum coverage of nothing but anthrax. For a vital week or two, the 9/11 investigation and Afghanistan dropped out of the media.
-About one-half of the FBI agents assigned to 9/11 were dispatched to cover anthrax!
-The third wave of attacks, the one that fit the specifications of the secret paper, was sent first to Daschle and Leahy - the leader of the opposition in the Senate and the head of the Judiciary Committee.
-This exceptional piece of constituent mail arrived at around the same time as the USA PATRIOT Act was also submitted to the Congress. The House chose to immediately run home, casting their votes for this negation of the U.S. Constitution as they went. The Senate soon followed suit, also approving the USA PATRIOT Act.
- The next reports were that Kennedy and Levin had also received anthrax letters, which however were caught unopened.
-The notes included with the anthrax letters tried to point the blame at Arab perpetrators, but these were clumsy and transparent ("Allah is Great" instead of "God Is Great" or "Allah Akhbar.")
-Only days later did reports arrive of anthrax being found in mail to the White House, Pentagon, Federal Reserve, CIA, etc., all of which had by then been very safely isolated on military bases. No details about these alleged attacks have been released. We have not seen copies of the letters, as in the case of Daschle, Leahy and Brokaw. There have been no follow up reports on the provenance of the anthrax employed.
How strange how the first attacks on government officials, which were the only ones that had a chance to get through, went to the Democratic leadership!
-Suddenly, the anthrax wave was dropped as quickly as it had begun. The biggest U.S. media story of October 2001 was effectively swept away. The media obediently switched to the taking of Kabul and spent November 2001 preparing us for a thoughtful Thanksgiving with endless soul-searching stories asking how our country could have ever produced a Johnny Taliban.
-Anthrax has since been mentioned only rarely and out of context, as when Powell had the gall to hold up a vial of white powder at the UN and ask where Saddam is hiding his anthrax. Well, Colin, where are you keeping yours?
-All the foreign anthrax letters reported at various times have been dismissed as white-powder hoaxes.
-Since the attacks, it has been established that the anthrax to Leahy and Daschle was of recent production, with high-quality, weaponized spores such as can be produced only by a specialist at an advanced facility; and that the lineage goes back to Fort Detrick, Maryland and the Ames strain used by American biowarfare programs.
-For all this, an obvious effort was made to minimize casualties and target the letters very specifically to individuals. The same amount of anthrax could have been spread in a fashion causing many more deaths.
-Having gotten as far as Hatfill, the FBI investigation has now stalled for nearly two years. Could it be that the lone perpetrator thesis is not sustainable, and they don't want to deal with the implications?
What does that add up to?
As a selective wave of terror, the attacks were perfectly designed and timed to cow the opposition, force through the USA PATRIOT Act, make an exampe of deviant journalists, divert the 9/11 investigation, and frighten and occupy the media during the first phase of the Afghanistan war. The attacks provided important reinforcement in keeping these various actors from deviating in any way from the official post-Sept. 11th atmosphere of terror and panic. They were the key step in initiating the post-Sept. 11 transformation of American society and law.
In other words, the anthrax attacks look exactly as though they were planned and executed by a black-ops or damage control team working on behalf of the Bush regime's goals, either as rogues or as appointed hitmen. We might compare them to Nixon's Plumbers, except that this crew would have been much more sophisticated and effective in their choice of methods.
That is the only thesis forwarded so far that credibly covers all of the above facts. In fact, this is the thesis that many people subscribe to when speaking off the record in the the world capital of paranoia itself, Washington, DC. In this case, there is no doubt which way Occam's razor cuts. (NOTE: Although Occam's razor is only a guideline, not a law.)
Are Brokaw and Rather really unaware of all this? And what have Daschle/Leahy/Kennedy done or said about these facts? They do not even defend themselves against assassination attempts on themselves and their staff.
This is the context in which we should view the Jan. 2002 call from Cheney, the premature Cipro-taker, to Daschle, the anthrax recipient, threatening dire consequences if the latter should push too hard for a 9/11 investigation in the Congress. This touched off a series delays in the joint investigation, which first opened in June.
Surprisingly, it was announced that the hearings would take up the anthrax attacks. In practice, however, they did not.
The Democratic leaders are so scared, or so compromised, or otherwise being blackmailed with some other threat, that they have not risen to this challenge. I don't envy or accuse most of them - except for their behavior when Cynthia McKinney came under fire, that was atrocious.
The question is, who is finally going to confront the Bush mob?
LINKS (dated - hope they still all work):
ANTHRAX AND PATRIOT ACT BARBARA HATCH ROSENBERG'S ANALYSIS OF THE ANTHRAX ATTACKS www.fas.org/bwc/news/anthraxreport.htm
HERMES PRESS: "DID THE GOVERNMENT OKAY THE ANTHRAX ATTACKS?" www.hermes-press.com/anthrax_atrocities2.htm
WHAT'S NEW AT FAS (ANTHRAX PAGE) www.fas.org/bwc/news.htm
THE PATRIOT ACT www.epic.org/privacy/terrorism/hr3162.html
THE ANTHRAX LETTERS www.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel01/102301.htm
ANTHRAX TIMELINE www.mapreport.com/countries/anthrax.html
DASCHLE RECEIVES ANTHRAX LETTER news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_1601000/1601093.stm
ANTHRAX CLOSES CONGRESS - 18th October news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_1605000/1605039.stm
PATRIOT ACT PASSED House of Representatives - introduced by Rep. James Sensenbrenner & passed - 24th October
news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/business/newsid_1618000/1618155.stm
By Senate - read twice - with no amendments & only the following "no" vote feingold.senate.gov/releases/01/10/102501at.html
President Bush 26th October www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/10/20011026-5.html
www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/10/images/20011026-5.html
"CONGRESS & WASHINGTON SINCE 9-11" www.house.gov/coble/statement_011102.htm
"WHAT'S SO PATRIOTIC ABOUT TRAMPLING ON THE BILL OF RIGHTS?" www.ccr-ny.org/whatsnew/usa_patriot_act.asp
MIKE RUPPERT - "THE F WORD" www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/theFword.html
HOW THE PATRIOT ACT PUT THE CIA INTO THE BUSINESS OF SPYING ON AMERICANS www.aclu.org/congress/l102301j.html
HOW THE PATRIOT ACT PUTS FINANCIAL PRIVACY AT RISK www.aclu.org/congress/l102301f.html
HOW THE PATRIOT ACT PUTS ONLINE PRIVACY AT RISK www.eff.org/Privacy/Surveillance/Terrorism_militias/20011031_eff_usa_patriot_analysis .html
OCTOBER 16-NOVEMBER 6 - LIST OF TOP NEWS STORIES www.privacy.org/digest/epic-digest11.06.01.html
IS THIS WEB SITE PENTAGON DISINFORMATION? www.anthrax-letters.com/
Scientists: FBI Questions Suggest Insider Grew Spores At Lab, Refined Them Elsewhere www.ctnow.com/hc-anthrax0613.artjun13.story
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