If you haven't read Part 1, do so now.
On October 12, 2001 ABC News reported this about the anthrax letter attacks…
"While investigators said a criminal attack would more likely have spread anthrax through the building, they also say the strain of lab-isolated bacteria found almost certainly rules out a lone crackpot."
On October 16, 2001 ABC reported this about the anthrax letter attacks….
Some of America's top biological warfare scientists are edging closer to a conclusion….. that the recent germ attacks involved an expertise only a government could provide.
The Russians have this know-how. So do the Iraqis, among others.
This is one reason why former UNSCOM chief Richard Butler has echoed Spertzel's (director of the U.N. Special Commission of biological weapons inspectors in Iraq) apprehension about reports from the Czech government that hijacker Mohamed Atta met with an Iraqi agent in Prague months before the Sept. 11 attacks.
Did the Iraqi provide Atta, the Egyptian pilot considered a linchpin in the World Trade Center attacks, with anthrax? "It's not yet concluded," says Butler, who says the United States is trying to answer this question with the help of the Egyptian government.
But if the agents used in the attack are found to contain the telltale presence of certain compounds used in a professional drying process, this could be a very revealing clue. For instance, the presence of aluminum clay, an anti-clumping agent employed in an air-drying process for anthrax, would point to professionals rather than amateurs, and narrow the field of possible suppliers.
On October 26, 2001 ABC News reported this about the anthrax letter attacks….
"Despite a last-minute denial from the White House, sources tell ABCNEWS the anthrax in the tainted letter sent to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle was laced with bentonite. The potent additive is known to have been used by only one country in producing biochemical weapons — Iraq.
ABCNEWS has been told by three well-placed and separate sources that initial tests on an anthrax-laced letter sent to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle have detected a troubling chemical additive that authorities consider their first significant clue yet.
An urgent series of tests conducted on the letter at Ft. Detrick, Md., and elsewhere discovered the anthrax spores were treated with bentonite,
As far as is known, only one country, Iraq, has used bentonite to produce biological weapons.
"It means to me that Iraq becomes the prime suspect as the source of the anthrax used in these letters," former U.N. weapons inspector Timothy Trevan told ABCNEWS. Link
"three well placed and separate sources" allegedly told ABC News that "initial tests" detected bentonite. Bentonite was never found in any of the anthrax letters, yet 'three well placed" sources, says ABC, insisted they had found bentonite in the anthrax.
Americans need to know who those "three well placed and separate sources" were. Now that Bruce Ivins, apparently the real anthrax mailer, has killed himself, Americans need to know who was telling lies to ABC News, steering them to believe that Saddam Hussein was responsible for the anthrax letters.
The reason this is important now is because of recent revelations by the Senate Intelligence Committee that, indeed, the Bush administration abused intelligence, propagandized and in some cases, outright lied, in order to lead America into the Bush-Cheney war of choice in Iraq.
Is it possible that Bush-Cheney lackeys informed ABC News about the "initial tests" on the anthrax? Is it possible that Ivins, himself, provided those "initial results" to three Bush-Cheney "well placed and separate sources" who passed the lies on to ABC?
With one of Bruce Ivins letters-to-the-editor that I posted yesterday, combined with the words printed on the anthrax letters themselves, it seems clear that Ivins wanted people to believe the anthrax letters were sent by Muslims. Did the Bush-Cheney administration want Americans to believe that too, so they could attack Iraq…..the alleged home of the phony bentonite?
October 26, 2001…Peter Jennings…
This news about bentonite as the additive being a trademark of the Iraqi biological weapons program is very significant. Partly because there's been a lot of pressure on the Bush administration inside and out to go after Saddam Hussein. And some are going to be quick to pick up on this as a smoking gun.
November, 2001…conservative rag…The Weekly Standard…
On the critical issue of who sent the anthrax, it's time to give credit to the ABC website, ABCNews.com, for reporting rings around most other news organizations. Here's a bit from a comprehensive story filed late last week by Gary Matsumoto, lending further credence to the commonsensical theory (resisted by the White House) that al Qaeda or Iraq — and not some domestic Ted Kaczynski type — is behind the germ warfare.
January, 2002….SOTU speech by George W. Bush…
The Iraqi regime has plotted to develop anthrax, and nerve gas, and nuclear weapons for over a decade.
Glenn Greenwald's comment about the Bush "Iraqi regime" line….
Bush's invocation of Iraq was the only reference in the State of the Union address to the unsolved anthrax attacks. And the Iraq-anthrax connection was explicitly made by the President at a time when, as we now know, he was already eagerly planning an attack on Iraq. Link
This story is not closed by any stretch of the imagination.
It appears that the George W. Bush rogue regime, at the very least, strategically propagandized the American public with lies and misinformation, to convince us we needed to attack and remove another rogue regime over in Iraq.
The anthrax letter attacks were used, very much as Judith Miller of the New York Times was used with the "Curveball" lies about Iraq, to advance the pre-inaugural Bush-Cheney neo-con plan……to invade and occupy a nation perched atop an ocean of oil.
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
On October 18, 2001, McCain appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman. When asked how the war in Afghanistan was progressing, McCain volunteered that the invasion of Iraq would be the “second phase” of the War on Terror. He preyed on the public’s fear at the time by claiming that the anthrax “may have come from Iraq”:
LETTERMAN: How are things going in Afghanistan now?
MCCAIN: I think we’re doing fine …. I think we’ll do fine. The second phase — if I could just make one, very quickly — the second phase is Iraq. There is some indication, and I don’t have the conclusions, but some of this anthrax may — and I emphasize may — have come from Iraq.
LETTERMAN: Oh is that right?
MCCAIN: If that should be the case, that’s when some tough decisions are gonna have to be made.
Vidoe: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlAUj4s6sT0
You are guys are crazy.
excuse me, you guys are crazy
I wonder if that not-so-shadowy group you used to write about all the time mentioned 'anthrax' in any of it's reports back in the early '90s, Reverend.
Next time my Master takes me on a flying saucer ride I'll ask.
Perhaps Ben and larry have the answers to who gave ABC News the bentonite lies to pass on to the American public. Perhaps they just want to keep those answers for themselves.
Perhaps Ben and larry can answer why Stephen Hatfill was called a "person of interest" by Johnny Ashcroft when Hatfill had never touched anthrax ever in his life.
And perhaps Ben and larry can answer the simple question of how a bioweapons scientist, one out of a handful who was deft at anthrax study, could escape serious investigation when he had a history of homicidal threats as late as 2000.
However, one thing I can tell you for sure….jimmy and I are not crazy. The more that is uncovered from the last eight years….the more people like jimmy and I are vindicated. We've been ahead of the information curve for quite awhile.
They messed up the investigation. That happens sometimes…not everything is a major conspiracy. They were unprepared for it
BTW its actually John Ashcroft, a former Governor, Senator, and Attorney General. How is you calling him "Johnny" any different than someone saying "Hussein" when talking about Barack?
This is a curious end to the anthrax story. Inasmuch as the genetic fingerprint of the anthrax provided its source and therefore the identity of who had access, inasmuch as the mail provided information as to where the perpetrator was at specific times, inasmuch as the letters were sent to perceived liberals, and inasmuch as Ivins' threat history was known, why was the focus on Hatfield for so long?
Mr. Ben Keeler and Mr. larry d.,
Why the snarkiness? Since we were taken into an illegal war based on misinformation, isn't it a legitimate question as to whom tried to connect the anthrax attacks to Iraq?
Please don't call me Mr., frank. The fake formality is offensive to me.
I'm snarky with the Reverend because he's a kneejerk conspriracy theorist who consistently fudges the truth if he thinks it can make the president look bad.
Incompetent investigations and government agencies go hand in hand, though if we're to believe the Reverend this administration has all the bureaucrats performing like cracker jacks and keeping it on the lowdown to boot.
Interesting isn't it? When questions cannot be answered by those critical of my posts……I'm a conspiracist.
Why doesn't someone answer the questions posed?
Or is it that the answers would further implicate Bush officials in even more illegal propagandizing of Americans into an unnecessary war and occupation?
This story fits in the same folder with the Senate Intelligence Committee's findings on the Bush administration's misuse of intelligence on the way to Baghdad….and the Valerie Plame outing. Now there are THREE factual episodes of propaganda.
I'm holding back, right now, on stating that the Bush administration was in any way responsible for knowing ahead of time that anthrax was going to be sent out.
Congress needs to subpoena ABC New's Brian Ross immediately.
Some much needed levity, Reverend.
"I'm holding back, right now, on stating that the Bush administration was in any way responsible for knowing ahead of time that anthrax was going to be sent out."
No, you really arent.
da larry,
Sorry you took offense. I try to address people as Mr. or Ms. as a sign of respect. I won't do it in the future. ABC reported that they had learned from 4 sources about the bentonite, which, had it been true, would have placed the source of the anthrax as Iraq. Obviously, McCain believed Iraq was the source as well. I'm curious as to who these 4 individuals are, aren't you? Anyone who provides false information could very possibly be involved in the attacks and trying to steer the investigation away from themselves or others.
I was having a bad day and took it out on your 'sign of respect' frank. But it's your schtick and you should stick with it.
I'm sure we'll find out more about the anthrax in the following days and weeks.
Ben and Larry,
Don't you guys know that EVERYTHING is a conspiracy, and Bush is behind it all ? C'mon fellas, that's Moonbat 101.
I suppose it never occurred to the Reverend that IVINS was behind the bentonite rumors, to remove suspicion from himself. Naw, it had to be Bush (excuse me, I mean Bush AND MCCAIN. They are conjoined twins now).
Btw, Ivins was a registered Democrat. Put that in your conspiracy pipe and smoke it, Rev. Now disprove my unfounded conspiracy theory that the Dems were using Ivins to setup the Republicans by making it appear that the anthrax came from either Iraq (bentonite) or some GOP nutjob (by targeting liberals such as Daschle, Leahy, and Brokaw).