What ever happened to finding the person(s) behind the Anthrax mailings?

[Ignacio Upton]

It's ridiculous to say that there hasn't been a terrorist attack on American soil since 9/11. In fact there was: the 2001 Anthrax mailings that were sent to Senators Leahy and Daschle, American Media, NBC, and the New York Post. The strain of Anthrax found in these letters came from the Ames strain, which was traced to Fort Detrick, MD.

While some believe that Al Qaida or sympathizers staged this as part of a "follow up" to 9/11, others believe that it was a domestic terrorist, possibly a disgrunted government employee (who else could have had access to high-quality anthrax from Fort Detrick?) There is also a third theory that says the government itself is responsible for the attacks as a way to scare political and tabloid opponents. I can understand the attacks on Daschle, Leahy, NBC, ans American Media (wasn't one of the tabloids that printed info on the Bush daughters owned by American Media) but if this attack was directly by the administration, why would they go after the New York Post, one of their own rags?

Personally, I believe that it was a renegade government official who had a grudge against these institutions and people, and used the fear of the 9/11 aftermath for maximum benefit. I'm guessing that this person is on the right of the political spectrum like Timothy McVeigh, because who else would have had access to anthrax from Fort Detrick?

[Earth_First]

1. Shhh...you're asking too many appropriate questions...

The walls have ears.

[Flying Dream Blues]

2. My cynical self points to door #3. I wish it were otherwise. nt

[Ignacio Upton]

4. I'm willing to bet that it wasn't Al Qaida

Why send those mailings to Democratic Senate leaders and members of the media, but not administration officials or Republican House officials like Hastert or DeLay?
Also, For Detrick should be a place that is fairly well-guarded and hard for a terrorist to get into. The question now is whether or not this was a "lone wolf" with right-leaning politics, or was it a full-fledged order from the Bush administration. Based on what I've seen, I think it was a renegade nutjob with a McVeigh-style agenda against the left.

[Imagevision]

3. I thought the CIA was behind this...?

[guinivere]

5. But, but we attacked Iraq. Didn't that take care of it?

:evilgrin:



Oh, Agent Mike isn't going to be happy with you.

[Ignacio Upton]

6. Who's Agent Mike?

Is he a government "liason" to DU?

[porphyrian]

7. I want this answered too. - n/t

[BrotherBuzz]

8. I think it was a botched plan hatched by a Cheney or Rove underling...

without approval. They know exactly who, what, when, where, and why, but exposure and prosecution would prove embarrassing and, well, inconvenient.

[notadmblnd]

9. The one guy they tried to pin it on was exonerated

after his career and life was ruined and that's the last I heard.

[Ignacio Upton]

10. Steven Hatfill:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Hatfill

That man's life was fucked up by the FBI. And why were journalists allowed to film raids of his house?

[whistle]

11. The anthrax with the Made in America label

[Individualist]

12. The cabal won't prosecute itself

[JeffR]

13. The investigation was outsourced to OJ

Apparently his search for his wife's real killer hasn't been as time-intensive as he thought it would be. I hear he's also working on the Ramsey case.

[SmokingJacket]

14. The minute the anthrax began to be traced to Ft. Detrick...

we never heard another word about it.

That and the fact that it was sent to Daschle and Leahy leaves me to draw exactly one conclusion: someone domestically wanted to scare the pants of Democratic leadership and the media.

Who would want that??

[longship]

15. Most likely single individual acting independantly.

Least likely an inside job.

The reasons for this are simple, the number of people involved. A conspiratorial effort requires that many people keep their mouths shut. There are many devoted people at Fort Detrick who would have knowledge of the disposition of biologicals who would not stand still about this after it became apparent that some of their product was used to attack Democrat institutions and the press.

The only way this makes sense at all is if an errant individual does it and the administration attempts to sweep it under the rug because of the embarassment of it. That is far, far more controllable than if it was an organized effort from the top down.

In fact, the people at Fort Detrick would have been interviewed during the investigation. I cannot think that some investigator in the Department of Justice would not henceforth come forward if there was evidence of a conspiracy.

I know that it's really easy to say that somebody put the squeeze on all possible whistle-blowers, but in practice that's not really what normally happens. We see that in action in many of ChimpCo's fuck-ups. There's always somebody blowing the whistle.

That's why I think that this is an individual kook, and most likely a right wing kook.

[Ignacio Upton]

16. And why would BushCo attack the New York Post

Did Murdoch not shill enough for them? For that reason alone, I think it was a lone right-leaning kook.

[razors edge]

17. ive read in the hartford courant

a piece about a lt col philip zack that was transfered from fort detrick over racial issues to an arab coworker, being caught on camera illegally entering the facility after his termination.

[OnceUponTimeOnTheNet]

18. NYT letter was a HOAX Letter

On October 12, 2001, Judith Miller opened an anthrax hoax letter mailed to her New York Times office. The 2001 anthrax attacks had begun occurring in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks, with anthrax-laced letters sent to ABC News, CBS News, NBC News and the New York Post, all in New York City, as well as the National Enquirer in Boca Raton, Florida. Two additional letters (with a higher grade of anthrax) were sent on October 9, 2001 to Senators Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy in Washington. Twenty-two people were sickened; five died. The crime has never been solved.

Miller was the only major U.S. media reporter, and the New York Times the only major U.S. media organization, to be victimized by a fake anthrax letter in the fall of 2001. Miller had reported extensively on the subject of biological threats and had recently co-authored a book on bio-terrorism, Germs: Biological Weapons and America's Secret War, which had been published on October 2, 2001
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judith_Miller_(journalist)

edit-I see you are talking about the NYP, I get these papers confused!

[stranger81]

19. ummm . . . . they're still on the administration's payroll? [eom]

[Ignacio Upton]

20. Kick for the truth!

n/t.