1) Whether it began before or after
September 11th?
The first Anthrax victim (and fatality)
was Robert Stevens, a photo editor at the Sun tabloid
owned by American Media. He was admitted to a Florida
Hospital on Oct 2, 2001. But since the period between
exposure and symptoms can be up to eight weeks, he could
have been exposed anytime between August 2 and October
1st, or, even earlier if he delayed opening whatever
letter or container the anthrax was in.
2) Whether any of the September 11
Hijackers were involved with anthrax
In June 2001, Ahmed Alhaznawi, one of
the hijackers of United Airlines Flight 93, accompanied
by another Middle Eastern man, came to the emergency
room of Holy Cross Hospital in Fort Lauderdale, Fla
with a black lesion on his leg. He claimed that he was
a pilot and had bumped his leg. The lesion was examined
by Dr. Christos Tsonas who prescribed an antibiotic
for the infection. When the prescription was found by
the FBI in Alhaznawi's room after the September 11th
attack, Dr. Tsonas was questioned by experts at the
Johns Hopkins Center for Civilian Biodefense Strategies
about the wound. He told them that he believed Alhaznawi's
lesion "was consistent with cutaneous (skin) anthrax."
If Alhaznawi had anthrax, it means that at least one
of the hijackers were handling Anthrax (Atta, at about
the same time, had sought a pharmaceutical remedy for
a skin disorder). Since a number of the hijackers, including
Alhaznawi and Atta, lived and near the site of the first
Anthrax attack, the American Media headquarters in Boca
Raton, they had an opportunity to case it, and launch
the attack.
3) How first anthrax attack was carried
out?
No letter or envelope was ever found in
the offices of America Media in Florida. Anthrax spores
were found in the entire building, not just the mail
room, so it could have been launched from anywhere in
the building. The traces found at local post office
does not mean it came by mail, since out-going mail
from American Media would account for cross- contamination.
It could have come by letter, Fedex, UPS or been sprayed.
It may have been part of an effort of the attacker to
test the lethality of the anthrax, since, unlike later
attacks, it carried no warning or propaganda.
4) Where the five envelopes containing
Anthrax were prepared.
Envelopes containing anthrax colonies
were recovered from 5 anthrax attacks: they were addressed
to Tom Brokaw at NBC in NY, the editor of the NY Post
in NY, Senator Tom Daschle in Washington, Senator Patrick
Leahy in Washington and Dr. Antonio Banfi in Santiago,
Chile. Four were postmarked Trenton, New Jersey, the
fifth, though postmarked Zurich, was sent from New York
City. But there is no reason to assume that they were
sent from the same location as they were prepared. The
envelopes could have been filled with anthrax in a laboratory
anywhere in the world and sent, with the letter, in
sealed sip-lock bags to a sender or senders who re-mailed
them in Trenton and New York.
5) Who wrote the 2 photo-copied letters
found in 4 of the 5 envelopes.
One set of photo-copied letters was sent
on Sept 18th attack, with no return address, were sent
to NBC and the NY Post in New York City. It was written
in block letters warning about the anthrax, advising
letter-openers to take "penacilin" and ending, "Death
to America, Death to Israel, Allah is Great." A second
set of letters on October to Senators, Senator Tom Daschle
and Senator Patrick Leahy, with a fictive return address,
were also written in block letters. They warned: "You
can not stop us. We have this anthrax." They ended,
like first set, "Death to America, Death to Israel,
Allah is Great." That they carried the same message
does not mean they were sent by the same person. No
matching DNA, fingerprints or other unique identifiers
were found on the letters so they could have been sent
by any number of persons relaying a prepared and photo-copied
message.
6) Whether there were one or two strains
of anthrax bacteria.
The bacteria accompanied by warning letters
was all consistent with the virulent Ames strain, as
was the bacteria that killed Stevens, Nyguyen and Lundgren.
The bacteria found in the letter to Dr. Antonio Banfi
in Santiago was a different strain that has not yet
been identified by the CDC. So either the attacker had
access to two different strains or their are at least
two different attackers.
7) The lab from which the anthrax was
obtained— or when.
The are two possible sources for the
virulent Ames strain, according to the analysis of its
DNA. One in the United States, the other in Britain.
In the US, it could have come from the US Army Medical
Research Institute at Fort Detrick in Maryland. In Britain,
it could have come from the CAMR lab at Porton Downs
in Wilshire. Presumably, it was stolen from one of those
last two labs. The theft could have taken place any
time in the last ten years
8) Where the attack anthrax was converted
into weapons?
Through radiocarbon dating, the FBI determined
that the anthrax had been freshly made with the past
two years for the attacks. The party behind the attack
there had the facilities to grow fresh batches of anthrax,
dry the wet slurry into powder and then pass them through
filters to get them as small as one micron without destroying
their protective coats, so that it would turn into a
lethal aerosol. Billions of such spores were in the
Daschle and Leahy letters.
9) Whether the attack anthrax was
manufactured in the United States or Abroad.
Since government investigators have found
no trace of the equipment for miniaturizing and weaponizing
the anthrax in the United States, the possibility that
the facility is located abroad cannot be excluded, especially
since the CIA has determined a number of countries have
stealthed facilities for weaponizing biological and
chemical weapons.
10) The purpose. We do not know whether
the purpose of the anthrax was:
a) to inflict physical or psychic damage
on America.
b) to probe our bio-terrorism defenses
in preparation for a future action.
c) as a demonstration to set the stage
for a future ultimatum or ransom demand
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