Home >> Terrorism >> Osama & al-Qaida  Email  Print Mailed Anthrax Was A Warning from Al Qaeda Ross E. Getman, Esq. - 10/4/2006 I recently obtained a journal article from an FBI Lab scientist that explained that: "Individuals familiar with the composition of the powders in the letters have indicated that they were were comprised simply of spores purified to different extents. However, a widely circulated misconception is that the spores were produced using additives and sophisticated engineering supposedly akin to military weapon production. ... The persistent credence given to this impression fosters erroneous preconceptions, which may misguide research and preparedness efforts and generally detract from the magnitude of hazards posed by simple spore preparations."
I passed the article on to journalists because it was important that the public understand that Ayman Zawahiri and his supporters had the means and know-how to make the anthrax mailed as a warning in the Fall of 2001.
Now Al Qaeda in Iraq has called for biological warfare against troops stationed in Iraq. The spokesman, Ayyub al-Masri, pointed to the continued imprisonment of Egyptian cleric Omar Abdel Rahman, who was found guilty in 1995 of conspiracy to attack US targets including the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York. Al-Masri, according to the US military, has a history of terrorism that the U.S. military dating back to Anwar Sadat's assassination in 1981, after which he joined a group in Egypt led by Osama bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri.
Upon the Fifth Anniversary of the first death from the mailed anthrax letters, it is important that the public now also come to understand, contrary to widely circulated misconceptions in the press, that the tactic of lethal letters such as sent in the Fall of 2001 is not only the modus operandi of the militant islamists inspired by Ayman Zawahiri, 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.
Zawahiri was head of Al Qaeda's biochemical program. Ayman named it Zabadi or "Curdled Milk." The CIA has known of Zawahiri's plans to use anthrax since 1998. At the time, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency ("DTRA") set up a program at Lawrence Livermore to combat the Bin Laden anthrax threat. 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. Mabruk, at the time, was the head of Jihad's military operations. Mabruk, the confidante and right-hand man of Dr. Ayman Zawahiri, was handed over to Egyptian authorities. He claimed that Zawahiri intended to use anthrax against US targets. Egyptian Al-Najjar, another senior Al Qaeda member (a shura or policy-making council member no less) was working for the Egyptian intelligence services. He confirmed Ayman's intent to use weaponized anthrax against US targets in connection with the detention of militant islamists in a sworn lengthy confession. Even Zawahiri's attorney, al-Zayat, in 1999 said that Bin Laden and Zawahiri were likely to resort to the biological and chemical agents they possessed given the extradition pressure senior Al Qaeda leaders faced. An islamist who had been a close associate of Zawahiri claimed that Zawahiri spent a decade and had made 15 separate attempts to recruit the necessary expertise to weaponize anthrax in Russia and the Middle East.
Zawahiri was associated with a faction of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad known as the Vanguards of Conquest. Zawahiri and the Vanguards of Conquest were seeking to recreate Mohammed's taking of mecca by a small band through violent attacks on Egyptian leaders. By the late 1990s, Zawahiri had determined that the Egyptian Islamic Jihad should focus on its struggle against the United States and hold off on further attacks against the Egyptian regime.
A 100+ pages of typed and handwritten pages of documents from 1999 found after a bombing raid at an Qaeda camp in Darunta, Afghanistan shed light on Al Qaeda's early anthrax planning. It was not clear whether or not they had yet acquired virulent anthrax or weaponized it, but it was clear that the planning was well along. When Cheney was briefed on the documents in late 2001, he immediately called a meeting of FBI and CIA: "I'll be very blunt," the Vice President started. "There is no priority of this government more important than finding out if there is a link between what's happened here and what we've found over there with Qaeda." A June 1999 memo from Ayman to military commander Atef said that "said the program should seek cover and talent in educational institutions, which it said were 'more beneficial to us and allow easy access to specialists, which will greatly benefit us in the first stage, God willing.' '' Thus, in determining whether Al Qaeda was responsible for the anthrax mailings in the Fall of 2001, the FBI and CIA knew based on the growing documentary evidence available by December, that Al Qaeda operatives were likely associated with non-governmental organizations and working under the cover of universities.
A February 1999 a letter signed by "Army of Suicidals Group 66, Bin Laden Militant Wing," threatened anthrax attacks against Westerners if they stayed in Yemen beyond a 11-day ultimatum ending February 27, 1999. Investigators considered a possible connection to the attempted extradition to Yemen of the London-based Egyptian islamic preacher Abu Hamza al-Masri.
Emails in the Spring of 1999 from Zawahiri to Egyptian Mohammed Atef, Al Qaeda's military commander, and former Cairo police sergeant, indicate that Ayman was a close student of the USAMRIID anthrax program. He believed that the koran instructed that a jihadist should use the weapons used by the crusader. "What we know is that he's always said it was a religious obligation to have the same weapons as their enemies," former CIA Bin Laden unit counter terrorism chief Michael Scheuer said.
Among the supporters of these militant islamists were people who blended into society and were available to act when another part of the network requested it.
Two letters - one typed and an earlier handwritten one - reportedly written by a microbiologist to detail the efforts to obtain a pathogenic strain of anthrax. He attended conferences on anthrax and dangerous pathogens such as one in September 2000 at the University of Plymouth co-sponsored by DERA, the UK Defence Evaluation and Research Agency. A handwritten letter from 1999 is written on the letterhead of the oldest microbiology society in Great Britain.
The 1999 documents seized in Afghanistan by US forces describe the author's visit to the special confidential room at the BL-3 facility where 1000s of pathogenic cultures were kept; his consultation with other scientists on some of technical problems associated with weaponizing anthrax; the bioreactor and laminar flows to be used in Al Qaeda's anthrax lab; a conference on dangerous pathogens co-sponsored by UK's Porton Down and Society for Applied Microbiology he attended, and the need for vaccination and containment. The scientist had arranged to take a lengthy post-doc leave from his employer and was grousing that what the employer would be paying during that 12-month period was inadequate. Malaysian Yazid Sufaat got the job instead of Rauf.
I have uploaded a scanned copy of a typed memo reporting on a lab visit, which included tour of a BioLevel 3 facility, where there were 1000s of pathogenic samples. The memo mentioned the pending paperwork relating to export of the pathogens. The documents were provided to me by the Defense Intelligence Agency ("DIA") under the Freedom of Information Act. I also have uploaded a copy of earlier correspondence between the scientist and Dr. Zawahiri from before the lab visit described in the typed memo.
The handwritten letter was reporting on a different, earlier visit, where the anthrax had been nonpathogenic. Finally, on the same linked page, there are handwritten notes about the plan to use non-governmental-organizations (NGOs), technical institutes and medical labs as cover for aspects of the work, and training requirements for the various personnel at the lab in Afghanistan.
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.
In late January 2001, the Immigration Minister in Canada and Justice minister received an anthrax threat in the form of anthrax hoax letters. The letters were sent upon the announcement of bail hearing for a detained Egyptian Islamic Jihad leader who had managed Bin Laden's farm in Sudan and was thought to know Bin Laden's principal procurer of WMD who was based in the US.
It had been announced on January 18, 2001 that an Egyptian Islamic Jihad Shura member, Mahmoud Mahjoub would have a January 30 bail hearing. A motion directed to the constitutionality of his detention was dismissed on January 23. Then this anthrax threat letter to the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration arrived. Minister Caplan had signed the security certificate authorizing Mahjoub's detention.
In February 2001, the CIA briefed the President on "Bin Laden's Interest in Biological and Radiological Weapons" in a still-classified briefing memorandum.
In May 2001, 9/11 plotter KSM and anthrax lab supervisor Hambali sent al-Hindi (Dhiren Barot), along with Jafar the Pilot, to case New York City targets for the second wave. The pair studied tourist helicopters in the NYC area. USDA employee Johnelle Bryant first told us, in sensational detail, of Atta's inquiries, about that same time, to purchase and retrofit a cropduster. 9/11 plotter Ramzi Binalshibh provided Zacarias Moussaoui $14,000 in July. Moussaoui sent an email dated July 31, 2001 indicating that he sought to take a crop dusting course that was to last up to 6 months.
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."
In June 2001, Yazid Sufaat traveled to Afghanistan and Pakistan to work for the Taliban Medical Brigade and to continue his work with anthrax. Hambali says that after a one-month training course, Sufaat worked with him "supporting" a Qaeda "anthrax program" in the Afghan city of Kandahar. The laboratory was near the Kandahar airport.
In June 2001, hijacker Ahmed Alhaznawi told a doctor that he had gotten a gash associated with blackened lesion - such as occurs with cutaneous anthrax - in Afghanistan. He claimed he got the lesion after bumping into a suitcase he was carrying in Afghanistan. He had come from the Darunta camp where Al Qaeda's anthrax production program at Kandahar was located and where virulent anthrax was found.
That month, John O'Neill, the FBI's expert on Al Qaeda who was located in New York City, had seen the reports of surveillance of the January 2000 meeting in Malaysia attended by Al Qaeda anthrax technician Yazid Sufaat. CIA analysts "Mary" and "Dave" from CIA's Alec Station - a unit named after Michael Scheuer's young son and focused on the Bin Laden threat - had provided a briefing at a meeting with the FBI. The CIA analysts did not tell the names of the two individuals in the photo who had then come to the United States.
In the Summer of 2001, although the WTC had not received any briefing on the use of planes, its management had taken steps to prepare for an attack using anthrax based on intelligence that had been received in light of what O'Neill, who was now head of secruity for the World Trade Center, had told management. The night before 9/11, the new head of security for the WTC John O'Neill, who had been the FBI's foremost expert on Al Qaeda, sat at his usual table at Elaine's. O'Neill told his friend that the country was due for something big. He said that he expected that there would be another attack on the World Trade Center - because Al Qaeda seeks to finish what they start.
O'Neill knew of "Operation Bojinka" and that one of Khalid Mohammed's alternative scenarios was use of a biochemical weapon in connection with the detention of the blind sheikh and other WTC plotters.
There was a letter on the seized laptop (from 1995) that was signed "Khalid Sheik Bojinka" that threatened to use biochemical weapons if the blind sheik was not released. Holding his trademark cigar that night at Elaine's, he said "life doesn't get much better than this." He died the next day in the plane attack on the towers.
In response to the anthrax hoax letters in Canada back in late January, a study was done on the effectiveness of use of mailed anthrax as a delivery system. The finding, which was published in September 2001, was that the simulant made at the US Army facility at Dugway had quickly dispersed throughout the room.
As described in US News, a former reporter from the Kabul Times actually may have met Sufaat, without realizing it, while traveling near Kabul in October 2001, perceiving him as Filipino. The fellow was carrying papers from Zawahiri and bragging about his ability to manipulate anthrax. Alternatively, maybe the journalist met Hambali's lieutenant, the now captured Muklis Yunos, who was in charge of special operations for the Philippine Moro Islamic Liberation Front ("MILF").
In early October 2001, the day after bail was denied the senior member of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad/ Vanguards of Conquest, lethal letters were again sent to people in symbolic positions relating to the detention of Mohammed Mahjoub and rendering of militant islamists. Similar letters had been sent to Washington DC and New York newspapers a couple weeks earlier. 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.
In October 2001, with the help of a London EIJ cell member, Zawahiri published the book titled Knights under the Banner of the Prophet, Zawahiri argued that the secular press was telling "lies" about the militant islamists - to include the suggestion that the militant islamists were somehow the creation of the United States in connection with expelling the Russians from Afghanistan. Zawahiri argued instead that they have been active since the assassination of Anwar Sadat in Egypt because of the Camp David Accord and the resulting peace treaty between Egypt and Israel. 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.
Sometime not long after the invasion of Afghanistan in Fall 2001, an Al Qaeda spokesman al-Kuwaiti claimed in a letter intended for the American public (but not released until 2006) that US-based operatives who had gained access to US government and intelligence information had been green-lighted for a biological attack. The spokesman claimed that the operatives were "above suspicion."
On October 23, 2001, Saeed Mohammed, a Karachi microbiology student who had helped procure equipment from Karachi for the anthrax lab in Kandahar, was walked to a waiting Lear Jet late at night. According to the Pakistan press, a Pakistan government microbiologist was also picked up in October 2001 by the CIA in Karachi. He had attended Porton Down-sponsored conferences about anthrax in 1998 and 1999 in the UK for Zawahiri.
In mid-November 2001, CNN reported that after 9/11, large trucks were observed coming and going from the Abu Khabab complex and were presumed to be moving equipment to new locations. CNN reported that it had learned from a coalition intelligence agency that al Qaeda had new equipment that was dual use and could be used to make chemical and biological weapons. The equipment had been purchased by a Saudi charity based in Pakistan.
In late November 2001, an AP reporter "saw anthrax and other chemical concoctions at an Al Qaeda laboratory outside Kabul." An AP photo showed something at the lab described as "anthrax spore concentrate."
Documents found by journalists in November 2001 at a villa in Kabul occupied by the Islamabad-based Ummah Tameer e Nau ("UTN") suggested brainstorming seminars on anthrax had been held to include diagrams suggestive of a plan to use a helium filled balloon to disperse anthrax across a wide area. The shabby, two-story villa occupied by the Pakistani aid group was in a quiet residential neighborhood of Kabul where a number of international charities were located. The president of the charity on whose premises the evidence was found was one of Pakistan's leading nuclear scientists, Mahmood. Mahmood had been detained by Pakistani authorities, along with another retired uclear scientist and questioned about his links with the Taliban amid concerns that he may have shared Pakistan's nuclear secrets with Bin Laden. It was news of a campfire meeting in August that fueled Vice President Dick Cheney's determined response. There were details about the U.S. military's vaccination program downloaded from a Defense Department site on the Internet and other Defense Department documents relating to anthrax. There were 10 copies each of most of the documents. On the floor, there was what appeared to be a disassembled rocket alongside a helium canister, as well as two bags of powder. A detailed diagram scrawled in black felt tip pen on a white board shows what appears to be a balloon rising at various trajectories, alongside a fighter jet that is apparently shooting at the balloon. Beside the jet are the words, "You are dead, bang."
There were also pictures of ground missiles linked by lines to the balloon. Mathematical calculations indicated the height at which the balloon would fly, the distance from which it would be shot down and the area over which its contents would be dispersed. Beside one of the balloons is the word "polystyrene" and beside another the word "cyanide." Loose sheets of paper containing scribbles of missiles and balloons were strewn around the house, indicating those attending the seminar had been taking notes and doing calculations. Other documents indicated that Ummah Tameer-e-Nau (UTN) was linked to the Pakistan militant group, Jaish e Muhammad, the Army of the Prophet Mohammad and the Pakistan-based Saudi charity WAFA Humanitarian Organization.
Yazid Sufaat was arrested in December 2001 upon his return to Malaysia. Newsweek reported that a "second wave" involving biological attacks had been thwarted upon the arrest of Al Qaeda members who had been intended to provide logistical support.
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."
"It is our contention that Global Relief Foundation and Benevolence International Foundation are both linked financially with funneling funds to al Qaeda and other associate groups," said a sokeswoman for the Treasury Department.
In March 2002, a crude biological weapons site was found. U.S. forces discovered a site near the southern Afghan city of Kandahar that appeared to be an Al Qaeda biological weapons lab under construction. Zawahiri's plan, evidenced in the documents found previous in the Fall, was to move the location of the lab every 3 months.
In August 2002, Afghan police found a store of chemicals in a house in Kabul formerly occupied by a Saudi non-governmental organization. Local media reports called it a terrorist laboratory. "Some containers and documents have been found by the police authorities," a spokesman for international peacekeepers said. One local report said that the discovery included 36 types of chemicals, explosive materials, fuses, laboratory equipment and some "terroristic guide books." It said the laboratory was found in a residence in the diplomatic area of Kabul in a building that had been used by an Arab national who headed the group prior to 9/11. The Saudi charity was a militant supporter of the Taliban. Documents found in its offices in Afghanistan revealed that the charity was intimately involved in assassination plots against U.S. citizens as well as the distribution of "how to" manuals on chemical and biological warfare. U.S. officials have described the charity as a key component of bin Laden's organization.
Abdel Rahman's son, who was on the WMD committed with Egyptian Midhat Mursi, was captured in Quetta, Pakistan in mid-February 2003.
In February 2003, a chemistry professor tasked with working on biological and chemical weapons met with Uzair Paracha. The plan was to smuggle a chemical into New York City using a large shipping container controlled by Paracha's father. In connection with that prosecution, the Assistant United States Attorney would later say that MIT-graduate Aafia Siddiqui was prepared to participate in an anthrax attack if asked. In the Spring of 2003, Aafia Siddiqui married Amar al-Baluchi, who had been a key lieutenant for KSM during the 9/11 planes operation.
A walk-in to the CIA then led to the dramatic capture of Khalid Mohammed, Al Qaeda's #3, on March 23, 2003. Mohammed allegedly was hiding in the home of the Pakistani bacteriologist Dr. Abdul Qadoos Khan. Along with Zawahiri, Abdel Rahman and his two sons have had considerable influence over Bin Laden. He reportedly treated them like sons. Although while in jail in the early 1980s, Zawahiri caused considerable tension by challenging the blind sheik's ability to lead a coalition of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and the Egyptian Islamic Group, Zawahiri and Bin Laden are Rahman's friends. The imprisoned WTC 1993 plotter Yousef was KSM's nephew. Thus, the leaders in charge of Al Qaeda's anthrax production program had a close connection to those imprisoned in connection with the earlier bombing of the World Trade Center. WTC 1993 mastermind Ramzi Yousef had been the mentor of the new husband of MIT-graduate Aafia Siddiqui.
In March 2003, handwritten notes and files on a laptop seized upon the capture of KSM, Al Qaeda's #3, included a feasible anthrax production plan using a spray dryer and addressed the recruitment of necessary expertise. Although the details of the documents on Mohammed's computer may (or may not) point to possible difficulties in aerial dispersal, they are fully consistent with the product used in the anthrax mailings. Al Qaeda had both the means and opportunity. Mohammed told his interrogators that Moussaoui was not going to be part of 9/11 but was to be part of a "second wave."
KSM explained that Moussaoui's inquiries about crop dusters may have been related to the anthrax work being done by US-trained biochemist and Al Qaeda operative, Malaysian Yazid Sufaat. Zacarias Moussaoui once told the judge at his trial in a filing that he wants "anthrax for Jew sympathizer only."
Microbiologist Abdul Qadoos Khan was charged along with his son, Ahmed, for harboring the fugitives. As of March 28, 2003, he was in a hospital for a cardiac problem and had been granted "pre-arrest bail."
A man named Muklis Yunos, who reportedly received training on use of anthrax as a biological weapon in Afghanistan according to Philippine intelligence reports, was arrested on May 25, 2003, and cooperated with authorities over a bucket of spicy Kentucky Fried Chicken. Yunos had been Hambali's right-hand man and was in charge of special operations of Moro Islamic Liberation Front ("MILF").
In early June 2003, a Central Intelligence Agency ("CIA") report publicly concluded that the reason for Mohammed Atta's and Zacarias Moussaoui's inquiries into cropdusters was for the contemplated use in dispersing biological agents such as anthrax. It had long been known Osama Bin Laden was interested in using cropdusters to disperse biological agents (since the testimony of millennium bomber Ahmed Ressam). An early September 2003 Newsweek article included a rumor by a Taliban source that at a meeting in April 2003 Bin Laden was planning an "unbelievable" biological attack, the plans for which had suffered a setback upon the arrest of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. He had been captured the previous month in Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
Anthrax lab coordinator Hambali was arrested in August 2003 in the quiet city of Ayuttullah, Thailand, which is about half way between Bangkok and Chang Mai. He was sent to Jordan where he was harshly interrogated. In Autumn 2003, extremely virulent anthrax was found at a house in Kandahar - after regional operative Hambali was interrogated. Al Qaeda had the extremely virulent anthrax before 9/11.
In May 2004, Patrick Hughes, Lieutenant General (Retired), Assistant Secretary for Information Analysis, Homeland Security Department testified before the 9/11 Commission. He explained that interrogations and other evidence revealed that Al Qaeda wanted to strike the US with a nonconventional weapon, most notably anthrax.
In a statement issued June 16, 2004, the 9/11 Commission Staff concluded that "Al Qaeda had an ambitious biological weapons program and was making advances in its ability to produce anthrax prior to September 11. According to Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet, al Qaeda's ability to conduct an anthrax attack is one of the most immediate threats the United States is likely to face."
On August 9, 2004, it was announced that in the Spring of 2001, a man named El-Shukrijumah, also known as Jafar the Pilot, who was part of a "second wave," had been casing New York City helicopters. Photographs from a seized computer disc included the controls and the locks on the door between the passengers and pilot. In a bulletin, the FBI noted that the surveillance might relate to a plot to disperse a chemical or biological weapon.
In Fall 2004, MSNBC, relying on an unnamed FBI spokesperson, reports that the FBI has narrowed the pool of labs known to have had the US Army anthrax strain known as the " Ames strain" that was a match from 16 to 4 but could not rule out that it was obtained overseas. Thus, not only was it likely that an Al Qaeda perpetrator was associated with an NGO and university, but there had to have been access to a virulent anthrax strain that was only in a score or so of labs, most of which were affiliated in some way with the US government.
On March 31, 2005, the Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction, in its "Report to the President of the United States," concluded "al-Qai'da's biological program was further along, particularly with regard to Agent X [anthrax], than pre-War intelligence indicated. The program was extensive, well-organized , and operated for two years before September 11, but intelligence insights into the program were limited. The program involved several sites around Afghanistan. Two of these sites contained commercial equipment and were operated by individuals with special training."
In a court filing dated May 20, 2005, an attorney for the United States Department of Justice wrote: "The investigation into the anthrax attacks is one of the largest and most complex investigations in law enforcement history. To bring those responsible to justice, the investigation remains intensely active."
In June 2005, President of Pakistan Gen. Pervez Musharraf told CNN in a filmed interview: "These people were involved in the ... production of anthrax."
In a press conference in October 2005, Director Mueller said that the FBI was pursuing all domestic and international leads. He said "remember Oklahoma City. Remember 9/11." He declined to say if they had a suspect. That year, FBI agents reportedly had visited Asia, Africa and Afghanistan in the course of the Amerithrax investigation.
In the opening argument of Uzair Paracha in November 2005, the Assistant United States Attorney claimed that MIT graduate Aafia Siddiqui was willing to help with an anthrax attack. Any evidence supporting the dramatic statement was later excluded from evidence on the grounds that it would be unduly prejudicial.
That month, Interpol head Ronald Noble urged: "Al Qaeda's global network, its proven capabilities, its deadly history, its desire to do the unthinkable and the evidence collected about its bio-terrorist ambitions, ominously portend a clear and present danger of the highest order." Henry Crumpton, the U.S. State Department's counterterrorism coordinator agreed: "The threat is real. .. But what really concerns me is weapons of mass destruction," Crumpton said, pointing to this evidence U.S. officials said they found in Afghanistan that al-Qaida was working on anthrax weapons. From 1999 to 2001, Crumpton was deputy chief of operations for the CIA's Counterterrorist Center. He led the CIA's counterterrorism campaign in Afghanistan from 2001 to 2002.
The CIA has been quietly building a case that the anthrax mailings were an international plot. This is old news. It's just no longer bureaucratically impolite to openly contest the FBI's (former) theory about a lone, American scientist. Many people have argued that a US-based Al Qaeda operative is behind the earlier Fall 2001 anthrax mailings in the US, and that the mailings served as a threat and warning. Princeton islamist scholar Bernard Lewis has explained that while islamists may disagree about whether killing innocents is sanctioned by the laws of jihad, extremists like Zawahiri agree that notice must be given before biochemical weapons are used. "The Prophet's guidance," says Michael Scheuer, an al-Qaeda analyst retired from the CIA who once headed its Bin Laden unit, "was always, Before you attack someone, warn them very clearly..." The anthrax mailings followed the pattern of letters they sent in January 1997 to newspaper branches in Washington, D.C. and New York City, as well as symbolic targets. The letter bombs were sent in connection with the detention of the blind sheik Abdel Rahman and those responsible for the earlier World Trade Center bombing in 1993.
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 US Army recipe from the 1950s was not used, and obtaining the unprocessed Ames strain of anthrax used does not warrant the weight given it by some press accounts. Although coveted as the "gold standard" in vaccine research, it is known to have been at about a score of labs and over the years an estimated 1,000 people may have had access.
Al Qaeda's anthrax production plans on Khalid Mohammed's computer, according to an unnamed source relied upon by the Washington Post, did not evidence knowledge of advanced techniques in the most efficient biological weapons. At least according to the public comments by bioweaponeer experts William Patrick and Kenneth Alibek, under the optimal method, there is no electrostatic charge. In the case of the anthrax used in the mailings, there was an electrostatic charge. (According to the technical representative for Bucchi, a static charge is unavoidable with their mini-spraydryer). There was a dominance of single spores and a trillion spore concentration. The "trillion spore" issue was an aspect of the mistaken theory that state sponsorship was necessarily indicated. Many point to the trillion spore concentration as extraordinary. It is far simpler, however, to achieve a trillion spore concentration in the production of a few grams than in industrial processing typical of a state sponsored lab.
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. Al Qaeda members and sympathizers feel that the FBI's involvement in countries like Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Indonesia, and the Philippines undermines their prospects of establishing a woridwlde Caliphate. The Fall 2001 letter from Al Qaeda spokesman, Kuwaiti Abu Ghaith, directed to the American public - but which was not released until 2006 -- claimed that the green light had been given for US -bio attack (1) from folks that were US-based, (2) above suspicion, and (3) with access to US government and intelligence information. He explained: "There is no animosity between us. You involved yourselves in this battle. The war is between us and the Jews. You interfered in our countries and influenced our governments to strike against the Moslems."
Senator Leahy was Chairman of both the Judiciary Committee overseeing the FBI and Appropriations Subcommittee in charge of foreign aid to these countries. In late September 2001, it was announced that the President was seeking a blanket waiver that would lift all restrictions on aid to military and security units in connection with pursuing the militant islamists. This extradition and imprisonment of Al Qaeda leaders, along with US support for Israel and the Mubarak government in Egypt, remains foremost in the mind of Dr. Zawahiri. At the height of the development of his biological weapons program, his brother was extradited pursuant to a death sentence in the "Albanian returnees" case. It's hard to keep up with the stories about billion dollar appropriations, debt forgiveness, and loan guarantees to countries like Egypt and Israel and now even Pakistan. Those appropriations pale in comparison to the many tens of billions in appropriations relating to the invasion of Iraq.
Just because Al Qaeda likes its truck bombs and the like to be effective does not mean they do not see the value in a deadly missive. As Brian Jenkins once said, "terrorism is theater." A sender purporting to be islamist sent cyanide in both early 2002 and early 2003 in New Zealand and ingredients of nerve gas in Belgium in 2003. There's even a chapter titled "Poisonous Letter" in the Al Qaeda manual which recommends a silicone sealant be used on the inside of the letter so as to not kill the mailman.
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. The sender probably is announcing that he is of either Egyptian Islamic Jihad, Egyptian Islamic Group or Jihad-al Qaeda, which is actually the full name of the group after the merger of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and al Qaeda. At the Darunta complex where jihadis trained, recruits would wear green uniforms, except for Friday when they were washed. 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 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act ("FISA") unit in the Department of Justice has traditionally been known as the "Dark Side." Everything coming from Khalid Mohammed's laptop, for example, as Agent Van Harp, the former (now retired) Amerithrax head, once explained, is classified. To understand the matter, journalists would have to have the cooperation of someone coming over from the Dark Side - which would be a felony. The FBI and CIA counterterrorism analysts working on the Dark Side in trying to avoid the next 9/11 are not even allowed to tell their spouses about their work. Based, however, only on the "open source" material readily available through databases such as "google news" and the CIA's "Foreign Broadcast Internet Service ("FBIS"), it appears that the solution to the Amerithrax case does not likely lie at the intersection of Bin Laden and Saddam streets among those cubicles at Langley with desktop PCs. Instead, it lies with the Zawahiri Task Force at Langley which hopefully has an intersection of Ayman Avenue and Rahman Road. If not, we might be looking at a different crossroads altogether.
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. First, the nature of such an investigation is that we lack sufficient information to second-guess (or even know) what the FBI, CIA or Postal Inspectors are doing. Media reports are a poor approximation of reality because of the lack of good sources. Second, hindsight is 20/20. Third, now that the leaks relating to US scientist Steve Hatfill seem to have long since been plugged, it is not likely we could do better in striking the appropriate balance between due process and national security. The FBI's profile includes a US-based supporter of the militant Islamists. Attorney General Ashcroft explained that an "either-or" approach is not useful. The media has tended to overlook the fact that when the FBI uses the word "domestic" the word includes a US-based, highly-educated supporter of the militant islamists.Ross E. Getman is an attorney who exposed that some soft drinks contain benzene. His websites can be found at http://www.schoolpouringrights.com and http://www.anthraxandalqaeda.com
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