Question:
A comprehensive study of bio-terrorism between 1900
and 2000 by W. Seth Carus at the National Defense University
found that every bio-terrorist incident was the work
of a group of conspirators.
The FBI, however, is working under the theory that the
unknown party that carried out the anthrax attacks in
2001 was a loner. Does the actual evidence that emerged
from these anthrax attack, if taken at face value, indicate
that they were done by a group, as all other bio-terrorist
attacks, or by a loner?
Answer:
The evidence in the 2001 anthrax attacks, like that
of all other bio-terrorism attacks, points to a group
of conspirators. Consider the first four encounters
with anthrax.
The 1st Encounter: June 2001
The first encounter with anthrax occurred in Holy Cross
Hospital in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in June 2001. Ahmed
Alhaznawi, who identified himself as a pilot, was brought
to the emergency room by an associate, also claiming
to be a pilot. The emergency was that he had an ugly,
black lesion on his leg. Dr. Christos Tsonas examined
it, but was unable to identify the pathogen involved
since he had not previously seen a black lesion of that
type. Alhaznawi told him it had been caused by a bump.
So he prescribed an antibiotic for the infection.
In September, it was discovered that Ahmed Alhaznawi
was one of the hijackers of United Airlines Flight 93.
Dr. Tsonas prescription was found in his room in Florida.
In October, Dr. Tsonas was shown pictures of black
lesions caused by anthrax by experts at the Johns Hopkins
Center for Civilian Bio-defense Strategies. He concluded
from these photos and other information about Anthrax
that the lesion he had examined in June had been caused
by handling anthrax. He stated for the record that the
lesion "was consistent with cutaneous (skin) anthrax."
If so, Alhaznawi and his associate had lied to Dr.
Tsonas to conceal their contact with Anthrax bacteria.
This would suggest that at least two of the terrorist
hijackers were involved in the first incident.
The Second Encounter: August or September 2001
The second encounter with Anthrax occurred in around September
2001 at the headquarters of American Media, inc in Boca
Raton, Florida . The 66,000 square foot office building
was completely contaminated with anthrax spores, causing
the death of an employee, Robert Stevens on October 2nd.
Since the incubation period for anthrax can be four weeks
or more, the date of the attack cannot be narrowed down
to before or after September 11th.
No warning, letter or envelope was found in this attack.
Nor is not known how the anthrax was delivered. The attacker
could have sent it in a letter or package, or he (or they)
could have hand-delivered it to the building. Since Anthrax
spores were distributed throughout the building— not just
in the mail room— its point of origin is unknown. (That
traces found in local post offices does not solve the
mystery since they could have been the result of cross-contamination
from American Media's outgoing rather than its incoming
mail.
Since there was no warning, ultimatum or propaganda found
in the building, the attacker might have used the anthrax
to test its lethality and the response time of bio-terror
defenses. If so, he was presumably in close enough proximity
to the attack site to assess the results.
The only evidence in this second attack is the anthrax
recovered from the body Robert Stevens. The anthrax was
identified as the virulent Ames strain.
When the DNA was analyzed by the Institute for Genetic
research (TIGR) it was determined that the source of anthrax
was samples of the Ames strain at either the US Army Medical
Research Institute at Fort Detrick or the CAMR lab at
Porton Downs in Britain (It could not distinguish between
them.) Since these are closed facilities, an employee
of one of these two labs, acting either an agent for a
state or acting on his own behalf, stole a trace of the
sample. The theft could have occurred any time in the
past 12 years. Such a theft would not be difficult for
someone with access since it would require only a microscopic
amount— indeed, a quantity that could be smuggled out
in a pencil point.
Unless the thief of the anthrax strain and the deliverer
of the anthrax were the same person, at least two person
were involved in the second encounter.
The Third Encounter: September 18th, 2001
On Sept 18th 2001, two identical anthrax-laced letters,
with no return address, were sent from Trenton to NBC
and the New York Post in New York City. The photocopied
letters contained both a warning and a message in eighteen
block-written words. It warned that an anthrax attack
was "next" and advised the letter- openers to take "penacilin,"
thus alerting the medical system. The message was: "Death
to America, Death to Israel, Allah is Great."
The anthrax in both letters was from the same Ames strain.
It was prepared in dry powder form. Since the samples
at the US Army Medical Research Institute at Fort Detrick
or the CAMR lab at Porton Downs in Britain were in wet
slurry form, someone had to grow and prepare the attack
anthrax. So there were at least 3 roles involved in this
anthrax attack: The theft of the sample, which required
access to one of two government labs; the preparation,
which required biotech equipment, such as a centrifuge,
and a mailer, which required a person in Trenton, NJ on
September 18th. Unless the same person performed all three
roles, a group was involved in the third encounter. The
Fourth Encounter: October 9th, 2001
On October 9th, two anthrax-laced envelopes were sent
to two Democratic Senators, Senator Tom Daschle and
Senator Patrick Leahy in Washington DC. Both contained
identical photo-copies letters. The message stated "You
can not stop us. We have this anthrax."
By using the plural “we” and “us,” the attack party
described itself as a conspiracy.
The enclosed letters contained billions of such spores
of the same virulent Ames strain as the second and third
encounter. Many spores were as small as one micron in
diameter (one-twentieth of a human hair). The tiny size
made these virulent spores into aerosol weapons capable
of infecting the entire United States Congress.
The difference in the size of the anthrax is the third
and fourth encounter demonstrated that the attacker had
an operational lab, capable of progressively refining
and weaponizing the anthrax. This required facilities
such as those contained in a military CBW lab, including
an ability to protect workers from infection. The inability
of the FBI to find this lab, despite a massive investigations,
indicated that the lab is either extremely well stealthed
or located abroad outside the purview of US investigators.
By the fourth encounter, the attacking party, which
had identified itself as a group in the letters, demonstrated
that:
1) it had penetrated a well-guarded American or British
bio-warfare facility with an agent with access to the
Ames Strain.
2) it had the equipment and technology to create new batches
of anthrax, weaponized it and insert billions of spores
in envelopes.
3) it had the means to deliver it anonymously through
the mails.
4) It had enough security around its apparatus to remain
undetected.
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