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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.) 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.
Since
there was no warning, ultimatum or propaganda found
in the building, this attack may have served as a test.
The attackers presumably wanted to determine the lethality
of the anthrax mixture, its ability to disperse and
the response time of US bio-terror defenses. If so,
they presumably were close enough to the attack site
to assess the results.
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 used in
the first attack. 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. Since these letters were sent to
both a national and local news organization, and accompanied
by letters, the attack may have been designed as a media
alert.
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.
The facility, at a minimum, would have to be constructed
to avoid any leakage of spores while they were sequentially
filtered and moved from glass slides into envelopes.
Since large spore counts can defeat both antibiotics
and vaccine-induced immunity, the preparers of the attack
anthrax themselves require protection akin to a Biosafety
Level 3 facility, in which lab workers use either moon
suits or gloved boxes. 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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