Remember those antrax letters delivered in the Fall of 2001 causing the death of Bob Stevens, a photo editor in Boca Raton, and later the deaths of two postal workers in Washington, D.C., a New York City hospital stockroom employee and an elderly Connecticut woman? Anthrax poisoning hospitalized 17 others who thankfully survived. No one has been arrested so far. The "Amerithrax" investigation remains a high priority with the FBI. Who sent the letters? How were the recipients chosen? What did the information on the envelopes mean? I will offer some theories.
The FBI initially focused on scientists who worked within U.S. biodefense programs with access to government strains of Ames anthrax and sophisticated labs.It now appears the person or group behind the attacks didn't require highly specialized scientific training to manufacture the anthrax,...
"It was good material, not weapons grade - highly concentrated and small particles," he said. "I don't think it's something you can go into your basement laboratory to do." source
Many copycat and hoax letters have been sent since, including those sent by Michael Lee Braun, 51, an engineer at a nuclear power plant who has been charged with sending threatening letters containing a powdery substance to a country club where President Bush is scheduled to appear Tuesday, October 3, 2006, for a Republican campaign event.
The questions ramain, who sent the letters, how were their recipients chosen, and what did the information on the envelopes mean? One theory today is that the guilty party is militant Islamists, specifically backed and supported by Ayman al-Zawahiri, claiming that 'it is their signature'.
The islamists sent letter bombs in late December 1996 from Alexandria, Egypt to newspaper offices in New York City and Washington, D.C. and people in symbolic positions. Musical Christmas cards apparently postmarked in Alexandria, Egypt contained improvised explosive devices. The letters were sent in connection with the earlier bombing of the World Trade Center and the imprisonment of the blind sheik, Sheik Abdel Rahman. The former leader of the Egyptian Al-Gamaa al-Islamiya ("Islamic Group"), Abdel-Rahman was also a spiritual leader of Al Qaeda. The letter bombs were sent in connection with the treatment of the Egyptian islamists imprisoned for the earlier attack on the WTC and a related plot. The purpose of the letter bombs - which resulted in minimal casualty - was to send a message. There was no claim of responsibility. There was no explanation. Once one had been received, the next ten, mailed on two separate dates, were easily collected. Sound familiar? Two bombs were also sent to Leavenworth, where a key WTC 1993 defendant was imprisoned, addressed to "Parole Officer." (The position does not exist). The FBI suspected the Vanguards of Conquest, a mysterious group led by Egyptian Islamic Jihad head Ayman Zawahiri.
More:
In May 2001, in a letter that month to Egyptian Islamic Jihad members , Zawahiri used "school" as a code word for the Egyptian militant islamists in his correspondence. The letters with anthrax sent to the Senators purported to be from "Greendale School." [snip]On the issue of motive and the reason Senators Daschle and Leahy would have been targeted - they are commonly simplistically viewed as "liberals." Zawahiri likely targeted Senators Daschle and Leahy to receive anthrax letters, in addition to various media outlets, because of the appropriations made pursuant to the "Leahy Law" to military and security forces. That money has prevented the militant islamists from achieving their goals. [snip]
Senator Leahy was Chairman of both the Judiciary Committee overseeing the FBI and Appropriations Subcommittee in charge of foreign aid to these countries. [snip]
# The "Federal Eagle" stamp used in the anthrax mailings was a blue-green. It was widely published among the militant islamists that martyrs go to paradise "in the hearts of green birds." In the very interview in which they admitted 9/11, and described the codes used for the four targets for the planes, the masterminds admitted to the Jenny code, the code for representing the date 9/11, and used the symbolism of the "Green Birds." Osama Bin Laden later invoked the symbolism in his video "The 19 Martyrs."
# A FAQ on the Azzam Publications website explained that "In the Hearts of Green Birds" refers to what is inside.
# The mailer's use of "Greendale School" as the return address for the letters to the Senators is also revealing. A May 2001 letter that Zawahiri sent to Egyptian Islamic Jihad members abroad establish that Zawahiri used "school" as a code word for the Egyptian militant islamists in his correspondence. Green symbolizes Islam and was the Prophet Mohammed's color. By Greendale School, the anthrax perp was being cute, just as Yazid Sufaat was being cute in naming his lab Green Laboratory Medicine. "Dale" means "river valley." Greendale likely refers to green river valley - i.e., Cairo's Egyptian Islamic Jihad or the Islamic Group. . . .
In a Hadith the Messenger of Allah explains that the souls of the martyrs are in the hearts of green birds that fly wherever they please in the Paradise. The "4th grade" in the return address "4th Grade, Greendale School, is American slang for "sergeant" - the rank of the head of Al Qaeda's military commander Mohammed Atef, who along with Zawahiri had overseen Project Zabadi, Al Qaeda's biochemical program.
The letters in the Fall 2001, instead of containing a small explosive or anthrax bacteria that was harmless, contained extremely virulent anthrax. As the result of the capture and interrogation in 2003 of Khalid Mohammed and anthrax lab coordinator Hambali, authorities now know that Al Qaeda had both extremely virulent anthrax and the equipment and know-how to weaponize it by 9/11. [snip]
The anthrax letters were sent on the date of the Camp David Accord and then the date Anwar Sadat was assassinated as if to underscore the point to anyone paying attention. Most of the "talking heads" on television, however, knew only that Daschle and Leahy were liberal democrats and did not know anything of Al Qaeda beyond what they read in the US newspapers.
'The CIA seized a disc from Ayman Zawahiri's right-hand, Ahmed Salama Mabruk during his arrest outside a restaurant by the CIA in Baku, Azerbaijan in July 1998. ... He claimed that Zawahiri intended to use anthrax against US targets.' [snip]
In mid-December 2001, knowing that Zawahiri intended to use non-governmental organizations in his anthrax program, some of the NATO-troops who raided the Chicago-based Islamic charity, Global Relief Foundation in Kosovo were clad in hazmat suits. The charity was suspected of supporting international terrorism which was "allegedly involved in planning attacks against targets in the US and Europe." [snip]
A key question is how they acquired the anthrax strain - the "Ames strain" first isolated by the Texas Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Lab in 1980. The FBI's profile includes a US-based supporter of the militant Islamists.
US-trained Malaysian biochemist Yazid Sufaat met with 9/11 plotters and two hijackers in January 2000. Sufaat was a member of Al Qaeda and a member of Jemaah Islamiah ("JI"). JI has ties with the Moro Front. Sufaat used his company called Green Laboratory Medicine to buy items useful to Al Qaeda. Zacarias Moussaoui, who had a crop dusting manual when he was arrested, stayed at Sufaat's condominium in 2000 when he was trying to arrange for flight lessons in Malaysia. Yazid Sufaat provided Moussaoui with a letter indicating that he was a marketing representative for Infocus Technologies signed "Yazid Sufaat, Managing Director." Moussaoui had an email greenlab@usa.net that was accessed by authorities shortly after 9/11. The crop dusters were to be part of a "second wave." Al Qaeda's regional operative, Hambali, was at the key January 2000 meeting and supervised Sufaat. Khalid Mohammed's involvement dates back to Bojinka, as did Hambali's. The money for Bojinka, a plot to simultaneously bomb airliners and to assassinate the Pope, went from Bin Laden's brother-in-law Khalifa to the Abu Sayyaf Group, Al Qaeda's primary Philippine affiliate, and then on to the cell that included KSM. source
You can read it all here, but what does this mean? Was al-Qaeda behind the antrax letters and were they a warning to the US? If al-Qaeda is guilty, they they have supporters and members right here in the United States, in our supposedly secure facilities, who are 'above suspicion'. This is not good.
The author ends with this wisdom, "Whatever your political persuasion, and whatever disagreements about individual issues relating to due process and civil liberties, the FBI and CIA deserve our support. We are, after all, in this together." That is a good question, ARE WE IN THIS TOGETHER? Some days it does not look that way.
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Linked with
Planck's Constant, "OTA - Converting to Islam - The Big Lie"
http://www.typepad.com/t/app/weblog/post?__mode=edit_entry&id=13163452&blog_id=240104
There are approximately 20,000 idiots a year converting to Islam. One day they will find out there is another side to Islam. The true, dirty, barbaric side. And when they are given a choice between fighting for Islam or fighting for us they will take the side of other converts to Islam like Hamza Walker Lindh (as he likes to call himself) pictured here and Richard Reid the shoe bomber.
In the Bullpen, "The Joke is on Bin Laden"
And since I’m one who firmly believes one way civilized society can beat Islamic fundementalism, we must mock the institution (radical Islam, not Islam) as much as we can. So let’s have it. Your OBL death jokes . . . .
Right Wing Guy, "The Ira vs. Hezbollah/Hamas Round 4"
There are still some of you who class the IRA with those towel head savages in the Middle East, remember this in no way whatsoever is an endorsement of the IRA, who have killed many in their own right.
123Beta, "Slam Dunk"
Blue Star Chronicles, "This Is One Big Gun"
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