October 28, 2002

FBI's Theory On Anthrax Is Doubted

A significant number of scientists and biological warfare experts are expressing skepticism about the FBI's view that a single disgruntled American scientist prepared the spores and mailed the deadly anthrax letters that killed five people last year.
[...]
Bush administration officials have acknowledged that the anthrax attacks were an important motivator in the U.S. decision to confront Iraq, and several senior administration officials say today that they still strongly suspect a foreign source -- perhaps Iraq -- even though no one has publicly said so.

That Iraq had the wherewithal to make the anthrax letters does not mean it is the guilty party.

[This is pretty rich! The article goes through some very technical explanations as to how difficult, prohibitively expensive and extremely rare it would be to make this anthrax, then the author pretends that there could be any number of perpetrators. Uh-huh.--Jen]

Still, the FBI's early dismissal of the possibility may have prematurely closed a legitimate line of inquiry.

"Iraq almost certainly had their anthrax spores in a powdered form," Spertzel said. "They had used silica gel to aid in dispersibility of [wheat] smut spores, and also indicated they were looking at it as a carrier for aflatoxin," a carcinogen.

The FBI is more than likely wrong about their "lone, angry white male right wing nut" profile for the anthrax attack.
(I think it's IRAQ and have thought so for a full year. I think anthrax spores are what charming Mohammed Atta got from the Iraqi agent in Prague.)
And they were wrong about the Beltway sniper suspect's profiling.
And they were wrong about the LAX Fourth of July shooter, too.
Why won't they "profile" Arab males or Islamist terrorists? Are they being "polite" or "PC" or what?!?
Because their "good manners" are costing us the lives of our innocent fellow citizens!
President Bush keeps saying that we're fighting a "new kind of war."
Well, the FBI needs to work up some "new kind of profiles."
And while Bush administration figures may not want to publicly finger Iraq for last Fall's anthrax attacks, I have no problem with it!
Advantage: IslamoFascist-wary Me!
Disadvantage: Poor Steven Hatfill. He's kind of an ass, but he's no traitorous collaborator with Islamist terrorists.