The Inside Straight

Turning scraps of data into intelligence is like trying to fill an inside straight: You need patience -and a bit of luck !

Anthrax Plotters Were Captured or Killed ,says Researcher

Key Anthrax Plotters Have Been Captured Or Killed

Note: This is a copy of a 2004 article by upstate NY Attorney Ross Getman; reprinted with his specific permission.The article was reviewed in light of former CIA Director George Tenet's book.Opinions expressed are those of the author.

Ross Getman

    The December 15, 2004 Washington Post editorial "Anthrax Killer At Large" is basically sound and certainly well-intentioned. The editorial argues that it is worrisome that the person or persons responsible for the anthrax mailings has not been caught-- and suggests that it is a measure of our homeland security effort.

    But consider an opposing view. The CIA and FBI has killed, detained or otherwise neutralized members of a provable Al Qaeda/Egyptian Islamic Jihad anthrax conspiracy and the press just has not noticed. (For example, not only was key planner Atef killed, but those captured have included KSM, Hambali, Yazid Sufaat, bacteriologist Abdul Qadus Khan, and the Blind Sheikh's son on the WMD committee -- as well as various likely US-based supporters. Indeed, one might one instead view Amerithrax as a huge though yet unheralded success -- unheralded because there is still work left to do.

    Might the fact that there has been no anthrax attack be a silent testament to the effectiveness of the effort? Of course, if someone like Dr. Hatfill or Dr. Berry were responsible, there is little future threat from the same perpetrators because there would be no motive. Indeed, I'd say the FBI and CIA and Postal Inspectors are doing a thorough job notwithstanding the media's obliviousness to their not-so-secret successes related to an Al Qaeda conspiracy to use weaponized anthrax against the US.

    In early June 2003, a Central Intelligence Agency ("CIA") report publicly disclosed 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. 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 ("KSM"). He had been captured the previous month in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. In November 2003, a report by a UN Panel of experts concluded that Al Qaeda is determined to use chemical and biological weapons and is restrained only by technical difficulties. 

    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 chemical or biological weapon.

    The CIA reportedly 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 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 sheikh Abdel Rahman and those responsible for the earlier World Trade Center bombing in 1993.

    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. What your morning paper did not tell you, however, was that the CIA seized a similar disc from Ayman Zawahiri's right-hand, Ahmed Salama Mabruk, 5 years earlier. The computer disk was confiscated from him during his arrest by the CIA in Azerbaijan and handed over to the Egyptian authorities. Mabruk, at the time, was the head of Jihad's military operations. There is a risk that observers underestimate the time that Al Qaeda has had to make progress in such recruitment and research and development.

    Some may still think that even in the final stages of the 9/11 plot, Zacarias Moussaoui was going to fly a 5th plane into the Capitol or White House. Others argue that he was to be part of a second wave of airliners directed to targets on the West Coast. There is an e-mail by Moussaoui, however, dated July 31, 2001 indicating that he sought to take a crop dusting course that was to last up to 6 months. In March 2003, Mohammed reportedly said that Moussaoui was not going to be part of 9/11 but was to be part of a "second wave." Although Ramzi Binalshibh provided him $14,000 in July, accused September 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui told his trial judge that he had an al Qaeda mission that would have come after the terrorist attacks. 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, never the sharpest tool in the shed and thought by his superiors to be unreliable, has told the judge at his trial in a filing that he wants "anthrax for Jew sympathizer only." Al Qaeda's regional operative, Hambali, who was at a key January 2000 meeting and supervised Sufaat, has been captured. Hambali reportedly is cooperating to some degree. KSM and Hambali sent al-Hindi (al-Britani), along with Jafar the Pilot, to case NYC targets for a second wave. It was as part of that surveillance in early 2001 that Jafar the Pilot studied tourist helicopters in the NYC area.      

      Sufaat, according to both KSM and Hambali, did not have the virulent US Army Ames strain that would be used. That would require someone who had access to the strain. But if experience is any guide, nothing would stand in the way of Dr. Ayman Zawahiri's decade-long quest to weaponize and use anthrax against US targets that was described by one confidante to an Egyptian newspaper reporter. The islamist had been released from Egyptian prison and had known Zawahiri well for many years. Emails from Zawahiri to Atef in the Spring of 1999 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 OBL unit counterterrorism chief Michael Scheuer has said. The Wall Street Journal reported that a computer used by Zawahiri contains a June 1999 memo 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.''

    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 1998, 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 key question is how they acquired the anthrax strain first isolated by the Texas Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Lab in 1980. According to senior counterterrorism officials, both here and abroad, 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.   

     A few days before Christmas 2003, after a renewed audiotape threat by Zawahiri of attacks, to include in the US homeland, the threat level was raised to orange or "high." After the alert condition had long since returned to yellow, Zawahiri in late February issued another audiotape. He urged the President that brigades and brigades would be coming under the banner of jihad carrying death and seeking paradise. Zawahiri said that the US should expect another 9/11 on US soil. According to some reports, Zawahiri is thought by intelligence to be somewhere near the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan. At one time, some thought he had been spotted in Iran. Wherever he is, authorities need to focus on the traceable connection between him and those he or Atef recruited.   

     In October 2001, did the FBI profilers know of the draft message Khalid Mohammed had on the seized laptop (from 1995) that was signed "Khalid Sheikh Bojinka"? The letter threatened to use biochemical weapons if the blind sheikh was not released. (Khalid Mohammed's involvement dates back to Bojinka, as does Hambali's). Use of biochemical weapons as blackmail and threatened retaliation for such detentions was an alternative scenario in the Bojinka planning.

       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. The same week, the WTC head testified that while they had not received any briefing on the use of planes, they had taken steps to prepare for an attack using anthrax based on intelligence that had been received.   

       Al Qaeda has had anthrax, the raw seed product in its unweaponized form, since at least 1997, when it was purchased by Bin Laden through the Moro Islamic Liberation Front ("Moro Front" or "MILF"). Zawahiri, Al Qaeda's #2, is head of Al Qaeda's biochemical program. The CIA has known of Zawahiri's plans to use anthrax for a half decade. The confidante and right-hand man of Dr. Ayman Zawahiri admitted that Zawahiri succeeded in obtaining anthrax and intended to use it against US targets. Another senior Al Qaeda member (a shura or policy-making council member no less) was working for the Egyptian intelligence services and he confirmed the report in a sworn lengthy confession. Even Zawahiri's attorney 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. A recently released islamist who had been a close associate of Zawahiri said 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. The US Army recipe was not used, and obtaining the unprocessed Ames strain of anthrax used does not warrant the weight given it by some press accounts. There was lax control over the distribution of the Ames strain that was used, especially in light of the fact that transfers were not even required to be recorded prior to 1997. Significantly, the individual who isolated it nearly a quarter century ago (now retired), upon being contacted, does not even report that he necessarily sent the only copy of the strain to Ft. Detrick. Senator Patrick Leahy at a Congressional hearing in the Spring of 2002 noted that the FBI had collected the Ames strain from 20 sources. In Fall 2004, MSNBC, relying on an unnamed FBI spokesperson, reports that the FBI has narrowed the pool of labs known to have had Ames that was a match from 16 to 4 but cannot rule out that it was made overseas.

    Al Qaeda's anthrax production plans on Khalid Mohammed's computer 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. Although there was a dominance of single spores and a trillion spore concentration, there were clumps as large as 40 - 100 microns. (Spores must be no bigger than 5 microns to be inhalable.) 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. The "trillion spore" issue was at the heart of a lot of mistaken theories of the matter concluding that state sponsorship was necessarily indicated. The reported finding at Dugway undermines the argument of both the "bomb Iraq" crowd and the liberals focused on Dr. Steve Hatfill who object to US biodefense research because they view it as being useful for offensive purposes. 

    USDA employee Johnelle Bryant first told us, in sensational detail, of Atta's inquiries about purchasing and retrofitting a cropduster. Khalid Mohammed then told interrogators that Zacarias Moussaoui's inquiries about crop dusting may have related to Yazid Sufaat's anthrax manufacturing plans. 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.

    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. (Green symbolizes "Islam" and Prophet Mohammed's holy war). 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 and allegedly provided him $35,000. The crop dusters were to be part of a "second wave."

    After 9/11, Yazid Sufaat traveled to Afghanistan and Pakistan to work for the Taliban Medical Brigade and to continue his work with anthrax. 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. 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.

    Various doctors, both foreign and American, are associated with Al Qaeda leaders or operatives, to include the doctors Abdul Qadoos Khan, a bacteriologist from Rawalpindi and Aafia Siddiqui, PhD, from Karachi. 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." Yet all you read about at the time was the arrest of the son Ahmed Abdul Qadoos, who receives a stipend from the UN for being officially low-IQ due to lead poisoning.

    It was  Khalid Mohammed who told authorities about Aafia Siddiqui, who has a PhD from Brandeis in neurology. The Pakistani press reported that she was nabbed in Karachi after being spotted at the airport in late March or early April 2003. If mistaken, how did those reports first come about? Understandably, Amerithrax is a confidential investigation. The Pakistan ISI and CIA rarely grant press interviews in connection with an ongoing manhunt. The CIA did not even allow the FBI access to KSM for 10 days after his arrest. As agent Van Harp, then head of the Amerithrax investigation said, the information coming from Khalid Mohammed is classified with the authorities releasing only certain limited information. While it's not easy to separate fact from fiction, Attorney General Ashcroft and Director Mueller have publicly confirmed Aafia is still being sought. They would know.

    Her mother Ismat last saw Aafia and her grandchildren before they left in a minicab at the end of March. Aafia was on her way with her children to visit and uncle and a friend in Islamabad. According to the Pakistan reports, Aafia Siddiqui was detained after being spotted at Karachi International airport (after she was followed to a relative's house). (Karachi is in the south). The reports say she is suspected of having been a member of Al Qaeda's "Chemical Wire Group." The family's lawyer advises me that Aafia did not have enough money to pay for airfare tickets for herself and the kids and called Ismat from the train station. That was the last Ismat heard from her. Aafia never reached the uncle's house. Perhaps something got lost in the translation, but the phrase "Chemical Wire Group" has appeared in all the english Pakistan and India papers. The family's attorney advises me that Aafia had no knowledge of chemicals (and that would not appear to be her training). 

     There still is a very hot pursuit of the "Atta-level" Floridian, Adnan El Shukrijumah, who Siddiqui is thought to have known and been assisting.  His nickname is "Jafar the Pilot." A senior DOJ official reports that Adnan has experience as a commercial pilot. He is said by one FBI agent to be "very, very, very" dangerous. He allegedly was at one or more meetings in the Summer of 2001 in Pakistan at which KSM and Sufaat were present. He may have been seen in Hamilton, Canada -- along with Egyptian al-Maati, who apparently also has received pilot training. The United States truly no longer has time for faulty analysis or politically-based preconceptions. In early June 2003, a CIA report concluded that the reason for Atta's and Zacarias Moussaoui's inquiries into cropdusters was in fact for the contemplated use in dispersing biological agents such as anthrax. It has long been known Osama Bin Laden was interested in using cropdusters to disperse biological agents (since the testimony of millennium bomber Ahmed Ressam).

    The hijacker Ahmed Alhaznawi appears to have contracted cutaneous anthrax in Afghanistan. It is reasonable to credit his statement that he got the lesion after bumping into a suitcase he was carrying at a camp in Afghanistan. The lesion is further evidence of Al Qaeda's anthrax production program at Kandahar.

    One potential lead concerned a Fort Lee New Jersey $100,000 processor possibly of a type that could have been used to weaponize the anthrax. The processor was paid for in cash after a check-kiting scheme. The processor was delivered to a business front in Ft. Lee at 215 Main St. The address was 1 mile from pilot Nawaf al-Hazmi at 96 Linwood Plaza, one of the two hijackers who had attended the January 2000 meeting with anthrax technician Yazid Sufaat. Nawaf Al-Hamzi and Khalid Almidhar stayed at Yazid Sufaat's condominium outside Kuala Lumpur. It eventually was determined that these two were on a level comparable to Atta for planning purposes.

    The present evidence relating to Atta's alleged travel to Prague does not warrant a conclusion that Al Qaeda obtained the Ames strain from Iraq. Iraq, however, remains a possible source of the Ames. Former Russian bioweaponeer Ken Alibek has said that a key Russian scientist assisted Iraq and that Russia had the Ames strain. (His conclusion may have been based on the fake mobile biolab plans foisted upon the US by the Chalabi associate "Curveball", which Alibek divined to be identical to Russian mobile lab design). Zawahiri did travel to Baghdad in 1998 with an entourage to attend the birthday party of Saddam's son. The papers found at headquarters of the Mukhabarat, Iraq's secret police, show that an entourage from Al Qaeda group was sent to the Iraqi capital in March 1998 from Sudan. According to at least some reports, Bin Laden rejected the suggestion of a closer alliance -- preferring to pursue his own concept of jihad. Two top Iraqi scientists, code named Charlie and Alpha, are helping the coalition to learn more about Iraqi's anthrax program, according to Dr. David Kay, head of the Iraq survey group in charge of the hunt for WMD. He has said that the Iraqis made surprising innovations in the milling and drying processes needed to weaponize anthrax.

    The media coverage has been seriously confused on the issue of motive and the reason Senators Daschle and Leahy would have been targeted -- tending to simplistically view them 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 interferes with the sovereignty of those countries.

    According to a post she made on the internet, Aafia Siddiqui expressed the same sentiment in connection with US appropriations sought in exchange for the extradition of WTC 1993 plotter Ramzi Yousef from Pakistan. 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 (now he faces retrial). 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. Al Qaeda had a motive in mind.

    In his Fall 2001 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. 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.

    There is an emerging consensus that anthrax was contained in a letter to AMI, the publisher of the National Enquirer -- in a goofy love letter to Jennifer Lopez enclosing a Star of David and proposing marriage. A report by the Center for Disease Control of interviews with AMI employees (as well as detailed interviews by author Leonard Cole) supports the conclusion that there were not one, but two, such mailings containing anthrax. (The letters were to different AMI publications -- one to the National Enquirer and another to The Sun). (News assistant Bobby Bender recalls the letter containing the items to have been addressed to The Sun.)

     This tactic of letters is not merely the modus operandi of these militant islamists inspired by Zawahiri, it is their signature. The islamists sent letter bombs in January 1997 to newspaper offices in New York City and Washington, D.C.. They 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"), he 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 initially was an outstanding $2 million reward -- under the rewards for justice program, the reward now is up to $5 million.). 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).

     Abdel Rahman's son was captured in Quetta, Pakistan in mid-February 2003. That arrest in turn led to the dramatic capture of Khalid Mohammed, Al Qaeda's #3. 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 OBL 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. According to the controversial "Feith memo," which summarized purported intelligence showing an Iraqi/Al Qaeda connection, Osama Bin Laden had asked Iraqi intelligence for technical assistance in sending letter bombs a half year before the Al Hayat letters were sent.

    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.

    The mailer's use of "Greendale School" as the return address for the letters to the Senators is 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.

       As to opportunity, though seldom reported, there is a wealth of "open source" information about possible Al Qaeda or Egyptian Islamic Jihad or Egyptian Islamic Group in the United States and Canada. The public information mostly relates to those suspected sleepers who have been detained or who are at large and are being sought. Zawahiri's mission in the United States in 1995 was to do spadework for terrorism, not fundraising for charitable causes. He traveled under an alias and was accompanied by a former US Army sergeant named Ali Mohammed. What mosques exactly did they visit and who did they meet?

     Whatever your political persuasion, 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 is doing. Media reports are a poor approximation of reality because of the lack of good sources. Second, hindsight is 20/20. Third, with the "new age" Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. in charge of the investigation, it is not likely we could do better in striking the appropriate balance between due process and national security.

     Finally, the "Hatfill theory" seems to have been exhausted or at least lost public favor. The "Hatfill theory" accusing Dr. Stephen Hatfill was always highly dubious. The suspicion was founded on many false premises, and there was no reliable publicly known evidence indicating his guilt. The FBI's fixation on Hatfill (at least as rumored by some reporters) may have stemmed from a warning by one Senator that careers hung in the balance. Leahy's chief of staff apparently started with the strong predisposition that some right-winger was involved because two liberal democrats had been targeted. The Hatfill theory -- to include ongoing interviews and ongoing 7/24 surveillance by 8 surveillance specialists -- is now the subject of a pending civil rights and libel claims of uncertain merit. A suit against the New York Times and columnist Nicholas Kristof was dismissed in late November 2004. The judge had agreed to delay the civil rights matter from proceeding until at least October 2004. The judge, now frustrated by the apparent lack of progress, is now encouraging that the parties reach a negotiated compromise that would permit some limited discovery to proceed (and the judge has directed that the government to file an Answer to the Complaint). The Hatfill Theory ironically might best be understood as an Al Qaeda theory, with a coincidental Malaysian connection adding to the other circumstances. Given the regrettable leaks that he was under suspicion, it is only fair that the FBI leak with equal enthusiasm the fact that Dr. Hatfill has now been dropped as a suspect if and when that proves to be the case. A seach of Dr. Ken Berry's residences likely will prove just about the last gasp of a biodefense insider theory. Senior officials have been quoted in the press as saying that the searches were for the purpose of excluding him as much as including him.

April 30, 2007 in Guest Columns | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Ross Getman Discusses The Anthrax Codes

The Code Used In The Anthrax Letters
By Ross E. Getman

(Reprinted in full with consent of Author)
 
Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell told a recent 
conference in Washington, D.C.:

"People often ask me what keeps you up at night; what do you worry about?
If someone were to have a sophisticated attack on our financial services system,
let's just say cyber networks broadly, at  the same time that they mailed through
U.S. mail, FedEx, and UPS the equivalent of  letters sprinkled with anthrax
throughout the country, it would have a devastating impact.  If you chose the
right time, right place, right season, it may have a maybe even more
overwhelming devastating impact."
 
While by his account in that speech, he starts his day at 4:00 a.m., 
let's consider whether Mr. McConnell has made the time to brief the 
President on the code used in the earlier anthrax letters.
 
(1)  Atta's "Jenny" Code and the  Jennifer Lopez Letter   
 
         The goofy letter sent to the publisher of the National 
Enquirer and Sun tabloids in Florida sought to dissuade Jennifer Lopez 
from a planned marriage.  “Wedding” is known Al Qaeda-speak for “event” 
or “attack.”  In the Summer of 2001, Mohammed Atta was communicating 
with a terrorist contact in Germany.  He used tradecraft code in these 
contacts -- he used the code "Two  sticks, a dash and a cake with a 
stick down" to convey to his contact the intended date of the 9/11 
attack.  In sending these emails to Germany,  Atta pretended to be 
writing to an imaginary girlfriend named "Jenny."  Khalid Mohammed   
used a similar code in communicating with Ramzi Binalshibh during the 
period, instructing   Binalshibh to send "the skirts" to "Sally".  (The 
9/11 Commission Staff noted that "Sally" was Zacarias Moussaoui.)   KSM 
admits that upon the death of military commander Atef,  he came to 
supervise the cell planning on attacking the United States with 
weaponized anthrax.  In 2003,  after the interrogation of  regional 
operative  Hambali, "extremely virulent" anthrax was found at a house 
in Kandahar that could be readily weaponized.  Al Qaeda had it prior to 
9/11.
 
         Stevens noted at the time it was especially odd given that the 
Sun did not deal with celebrities, which was the subject of the 
sister-paper Globe.  Stevens'  fellow photo editor Roz Suss was looking 
over his shoulder:  "With that Bob says to me, 'Hey, I think there's 
something gold in here.  It looks like a Jewish star sticking out of 
the powder.'  I walked up behind him and reached over his shoulder.  I 
pulled this little star out of what looked like a mound of  powder in 
this letter."  "It looked like something from a Cracker Jacks box," she 
says.   She picked it out of the powder and tossed it in her 
wastebasket.  Stevens' colleague Bobby Bender recalls opening a large 
envelope to Jennifer Lopez, care of the Sun.  In it was a cigar tube 
containing a cigar, a small Star of David charm, and somethiing that 
seemed like soap powder.   According to an early National Enquirer, 
Stevens held it up to his face and then put it down on the keyboard 
(where traces of anthrax were found). The publisher's wife was the real 
estate broker who rented to two of the hijackers. Small world, eh?   
KSM’s assistant in supervising the anthrax cell was Hambali, who along 
with two colleagues considered attacking an Israeli restaurant, with a 
Star of David above it, in the Khao San Rd. backpacker area in Bangkok.
 
      Jennifer Lopez' fame had withstood a number of underperforming 
movies, to include the movie "The Cell" in the year 2000.  In the 
movie,  following a trail of bodies, an FBI agent tracks down and 
captures a disturbed serial killer.   Before the killer can reveal the 
whereabouts of his next victim (a woman trapped in a cell on the verge 
of drowning), he falls into a coma.  Enter FBI psychologist Lopez, who 
uses  a radical link to the killer's brain that could destroy her own 
sanity.  "Her mission:  Find  the cell's location before time runs out, 
and avoid getting trapped inside the killer's head."  How apt.   
 
    Mrs. Stevens explained:
 
"They get strange letters sometimes, and the consensus seems to be that 
if Robert wasn't wearing his glasses and if it was something funny, he 
would hold the letters up to his face. They think perhaps that's how he 
got it. Just bad luck."
 
    The CIA knows that wedding is Al-Qaeda-speak for an event.   That, 
according to New York Times journalists, is why the CIA got so anxious 
to have the Buffalo boys arrested.   Apart from an email about a "big 
feast," they had started talking about a planned wedding.  Interpreting 
such code is not without risk.  The CIA kicked down the door in Bahrain 
and dragged him away from the altar to the horror of his bride-to-be.
 
    What does the J.Lo letter tell us about the sender, or senders?   
J.Lo is what they used to call a "sex bomb" - and the biggest one at 
the time. She had international fame. The vehicle had a "weird" love 
letter, a Star of David, maybe a cigar. Who has "issues" and weird 
obsessions with women,  sex  (with a cigar being  a crude symbol) and   
Jewish symbolism?  Atta, for example, had strict instructions in his 
will about what women would be allowed to do at his funeral.  Follow 
the anomalies.
 
     Two of the hijackers had subscriptions to AMI publications, as did 
at least one other Al Qaeda operative  in contact with Atta in the 
summer of 2001.
 
 
(2)      "School"
 
      "Greendale" School is the return address of the anthrax letters to 
Senators Daschle and Leahy -- two Senators who played  key roles in 
both appropriations to Israel and Arab secular regimes and the 
rendering of senior Egyptian Islamic Jihad leaders.   In December 2002, 
the Arabic paper London Al-Sharq al-Awsat reported that correspondence 
on Zawahiri's computer (which was obtained by the Wall Street Journal) 
shows Zawahiri uses "school" as code for Egyptian Islamic Jihad.   The 
letter was found on Al Zawahiri's computer.   The letter was designed 
to look innocent.  It was dated 3 May 2001 and signed "Dr. Nour, 
Chairman of the Company."  Nour was one of Zawahiri's aliases.  In this 
context, it was Egyptian Islamic Jihad, not Al Qaeda,  of which he was 
Chairman.
 
"We have been trying to go back to our main, previous activities.  The 
most important step was the opening of the school.  We have made it 
possible for the teachers to find openings for profitable trade."
 
The letter read:
 
"To: Unknown
From: Ayman al-Zawahiri
Folder: Letters
Date: May 3, 2001
 
     The following is a summary of our situation: We are trying to 
return to our previous main activity. The most important step was 
starting the school,  the programs of which have been started. We also 
provided the teachers with means of conducting profitable trade as much 
as we could. Matters are all promising, except for the unfriendliness 
of two teachers, despite what we have provided for them. We are 
patient.  [This apparently refers to an internal dispute with two 
senior London Egyptian islamists].
 
     As you know, the situation below in the village [Egypt] has become 
bad for traders [jihadis]. Our Upper Egyptian relatives have left the 
market, and we are suffering from international monopolies. Conflicts 
take place between us for trivial reasons, due to the scarcity of 
resources. We are also dispersed over various cities. However, God had 
mercy on us when the Omar Brothers Company [the Taliban] here opened 
the market for traders and provided them with an opportunity to 
reorganize, may God reward them. Among the benefits of residence here 
is that traders from all over gather in one place under one company, 
which increases familiarity and cooperation among them, particularly 
between us and the Abdullah Contracting Company [bin Laden and his 
associates]. The latest result of this cooperation is … the offer they 
gave. Following is a summary of the offer:
 
     Encourage commercial activities [jihad] in the village to face 
foreign investors; stimulate publicity; then agree on joint work to 
unify trade in our area. Close relations allowed for an open dialogue 
to solve our problems. Colleagues here believe that this is an 
excellent opportunity to encourage sales in general, and in the village 
in particular. They are keen on the success of the project. They are 
also hopeful that this may be a way out of the bottleneck to transfer 
our activities to the stage of multinationals and joint profit. We are 
negotiating the details with both sides."
 
    The full message, decoded, is thought to say:
 
"We have been trying to go back to our military activities.  The most 
important step was the declaration of unity with al-Qaeda.  We have 
made it possible for the mujahideen to find an opening for martyrdom.   
As you know, the situation down in Egypt has become bad for the 
mujahideen:  our members in Upper Egypt have abandoned military action, 
and we are suffering from international harassment."
 
    But Allah enlightened us with His mercy when Taliban came to power. 
  It has opened doors of military action for our mujahideen and provided 
them with an opportunity to re-arrange their forces.  One benefit of 
performing jihad here is the congregation in one place of all 
mujahideen who came from everywhere and began working with the Islamic 
Jihad Organization.  Acquaintance and cooperation have grown, 
especially between us and al-Qaeda."
 
   Dr. Jean Rosenfeld, a researcher associated with the UCLA Center for 
the Study of Religion, and an expert on the symbolism of religious 
extremist movements, wrote me:  "Greendale' to me signified a conscious 
choice to use the symbolic color of Islam."  She continued:  "The 
franked eagle on the envelope of the anthrax letters was identical to 
the one I caught on a documentary that showed a one-second shot of the 
site where Sadat was assassinated -- the huge eagle above the podium 
where he was when he died.  That assassination was of great 
significance to Egyptian Jihad and produced the pamphlet by Faraj that 
justifies "fard 'ayn"/individual duty as the basis of jihadist 
doctrine."   She explained that "AQ is rooted in Egypt and Salafism, 
not Saudi Arabia and Wahhabism.  Al-Zawahiri, I believe, is intensely 
nostalgic for the Nile Valley."
 
    The CIA factbook explains that the color  green -- such as used by 
anthrax lab technician Yazid Sufaat in naming his lab "Green Laboratory 
Medicine" , and by the mailer who used the return address "Greendale 
School" -- is the traditional color of islam.  Green symbolizes islam, 
Mohammed and the holy war.   In its section on Saudi Arabia, and the 
"Flag Description:," the CIA "Factbook" explains that the flag is 
"green with large white Arabic script (that may be translated as There 
is no God but God; Muhammad is the Messenger of God) above a white 
horizontal saber (the tip points to the hoist side); green is the 
traditional color of Islam."
 
     "Green is the color of the prophet Mohammed who himself declared 
it his favourite color and who's cloak and turban were green. Even 
today only his direct successors - the Kaliphs - are allowed to wear a 
green turban. The Holy Banner - the most precious relic of Islam - is 
green with golden embroidery. Mohammed supposedly carried this very 
banner into the holy war which resulted in conquering Mecca. Green is 
also the predominating color in Paradise where it stands for flowery 
fields and eternal oases. Green is the color of the Arabic League and 
many Arabic countries have included green in their national flags as it 
symbolizes the unity of all arabic nations. Green is also the 
life-giving color of all desert peoples."
 
   Al Qaeda anthrax lab technician Yazid Sufaat and Zacarias Moussaoui 
used the name Green Laboratory Medicine as the name of the company that 
he used, for example, to buy 4 tons of ammonium nitrate, and that he 
used to cover his anthrax production program.  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 Paradise.
 
   Green dale refers to green "river valley" -- Egypt, Cairo, Egyptian 
Islamic Jihad and/or Egyptian Islamic Group.  Put it all together and 
you have their new official name (though the American press does not 
use it) -- Qaeda al Jihad.  For what it is worth, at the Darunta 
complex where jihadis trained, recruits would wear green uniforms, 
except for Friday when they would be washed.
 
    A similar type of coded talk was used around the same period 
between Atta and Binalshibh as they approached the zero hour of 11 
September.  Code phrases included:
 
Faculty of Fine Arts/arts  =  Pentagon
Faculty of Town Planning  =  World Trade Center
Faculty of Law  =  The Capitol
politics = White House
White Meat = Americans
Terminal = Indonesia
Market = Malaysia
Hotel = Philippines
Village = Egypt
 
       In the conversations that the blind sheikh's spokesman, Sattar, 
had with people like Taha, al-Sirri, and the sheikh's son, Ahmed, they 
used the same language found in emails between Zawahiri and the Yemeni 
cell.  If a brother was in the hospital, it meant he was in 
prison.   If he had an accident, it meant perhaps that Egyptian 
security services had killed him.
 
       Given that using the same address helps the second recipient 
receiving the letter to identify it and avoid opening it, the perp 
would have no reason to use the same address unless he was 
communicating something and wanted to draw attention to it.
 
       On the return address, Greendale School purported to be in 
Franklin Park where fugitive Adnan El-Shukrijumah worshipped along with 
others who now have been indicted. The pilot El Shukrijumah is said to 
be at the level of Mohammed Atta and is thought to have been associated 
with Aafia Siddiqui, an MIT-trained biologist.  Mohammed Atta lived 11 
miles away from this mosque across from Franklin Park.   Holy Cross 
hospital  -- where Dr Tsonas treated Flight 93 hijacker  Ahmad 
al-Haznawi for a suspicious leg lesion that he and other experts think 
was due to cutaneous anthrax -- is only 7 miles from the mosque.   
Al-Haznawi had just  come from Kandahar where the "extremely virulent"   
anthrax had been found and where Sufaat's anthrax lab was located.  Is 
it all a coincidence?  Possibly.   Certainly, it is speculative and the 
relevant information is classified.  Sufaat's two principal assistants, 
a Sudanese man and an Egyptian man, were captured in 2003.
 
    The coded e-mail Faris wrote back to KSM suggesting that the idea 
of removing bolts from the span of the Brooklyn Bridge was  not a 
viable idea was but one  of many examples of the simple codes used by 
Al Qaeda operatives.  Sometimes it might be Iyman Faris' reference to 
the weather or Ramzi Binalshibh's "shirts" for Sally.  Sometimes the 
code might be as simple as Adham Hassoun's "stuff" for the local soccer 
team in places like Bosnia or his references to a young man who wanted 
to go out and get some "fresh air" [go join the jihad].     Sometimes 
it might be a reference to Greendale School or a marriage proposal to 
Jenny such as in the case of the anthrax mailings.
 
    But putting aside this question of nuptials, impending or annulled, 
  the fact remains that the sender of the anthrax letters would have had 
no reason to use the same address on the second letter  unless he was 
communicating something.  That identical return address, in fact, 
helped authorities locate and intercept the letter to a Senator.
 
(3)  "In The Hearts Of Green Birds" (Inside Green Birds)
 
           It was widely published among the militant islamists that 
martyrs go to paradise "in the hearts of green birds."  The stamp used 
in the anthrax mailings was designed by artist  Michael Doret.   Mr. 
Doret advises me that the color of the eagle is a “teal” or   
greenish-blue.
 
           In the very interview in which they admitted 9/11, and 
described the codes used for the four targets for the planes,  KSM and 
Ramzi Binalshibh 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",   
describing a hijacker as "A man of worship who enjoined good and 
forbade evil.  His body was on earth but his heart roamed with the 
green birds that perch beneath the Throne of the Most Merciful."
    
        9-11 plotter Ramzi Binalshibh a few months earlielr in his 
interview with al-Jazeera, in a lengthy and articulate essay "The 
Nineteen Lions" published by Azzam Publications on December 2002, 
explained:
 
"One of the explanations of the Quranic verse [3:169] in which Allah 
says that the shuhadaa (martyrs) are not dead, is that as well as their 
souls being inside the hearts of green birds, they are alive because 
the shaheed (martyr) gives life to those around him. Indeed evidence of 
this is apparent throughout the Ummah today."
 
    Peter Finn of the Washington Post explains the symbolism:
 
"Around 7 one evening during Ramadan in 1998, the believers filed down 
a long corridor leading to the prayer room of the Al Muhadjirin mosque 
here, placing their shoes on the dark brown shelves before stepping 
onto a carpet the color of turquoise, a mixture of green for Islam and 
blue for heaven.  Among the worshipers was a small group of men who 
clustered around a severe, slight Egyptian named Mohamed Atta. ..
 
In the [9/11/2002] interview with al-Jazeera, Binalshibh, said that 
Al-Shehhi, even before he learned of the operation, used to have 
beautiful visions that he flies in the sky with huge green birds and 
crashes into things."
 
      A FAQ on Al Qaeda's website, the  Azzam Publications website, 
explained  that "In the Hearts of Green Birds" refers to what is 
inside:  “The actual  Arabic word used in the Hadith is not Qalb 
(heart) but it is Jowf which can mean any of interior, inside, or heart 
(as in center).”  There was a video based on the hadith with the title 
"In The Hearts of Green Birds" about foreign mujahideen that had been 
martyred in Bosnia.  The audiocasette  was created in August 1996 and 
its 3rd edition was released in January 1997.  The azzam.org website 
selling the "In the Hearts of Green Birds" audiocassette was shut down 
after 9/11 because authorities thought it might contain codes and 
instructions to militants.
 
        Azzam.com  posted an exclusive interview with Ayman al-Zawahiri 
and stressed the importance of cash donations and gas masks and 
chemical-resistant suits.  Ibn Khattab, the Arab Chechnyan fighter who 
was Bin Laden's good friend, had told his public that azzam.com was 
highly recommended and that only the two charities identified by the 
website should be used to route donations -- announcing in 2000 that 
Benevolence International Foundation was one of the charities that 
should be used.  The other was the Islamic Assembly of North America 
("IANA").   Ibu al-Khattab, the late Arab-Afghan commander of foreign 
mujahideen in Chechnya (who in March 2002 was killed by a poison 
letter), expressly endorsed  Azzam Publications.
   
     Azzam.org  had "no bricks and mortar address, but operates a post 
office box in London, and bill[ed] itself as "an independent media 
organisation providing authentic news and information about jihad and 
the Foreign Mujahideen everywhere."   One posting datelined from the 
southern Afghan city of Kandahar and was a message to Muslim youth from 
top terror suspect Bin Laden.  A farewell message from Azzam 
Publications  .. exhorts "Muslims all over the World (to) render as 
much financial, physical, medical, media and moral support to the 
Taliban as they can."   Azzam also urged those with computer expertise 
to mirror the website so as to keep it up after authorities took it 
down.  One can access old websites as they existed on past dates 
through  www.archives.org and its wonderful Wayback Machine.
 
      British and US intelligence sources suspected that some of 
Azzam.com's jihad photos and graphics contain messages embedded with a 
technology known as steganography.   The code instead perhaps was there 
separately for all to see on the stamps of the lethal missives being 
sent.
   
   A man  formerly known as Paul Hall, was arrested in Phoenix on a 
federal criminal complaint in March 2007 and agreed to be  removed to 
District  of Connecticut for further prosecution where there has been 
investigation of Azzam Publications website located on a server there   
He is alleged to have provided classified information to the 
London-based  Azzam Publications about a U.S. Navy battle group as it 
traveled from California to the Persian Gulf region in 2001.   He 
allegedly "described a recent force protection briefing given aboard 
his ship, voiced enmity toward America, praised Osama bin Laden and the 
mujahedeen [and] praised the October 2000 attack on the USS Cole."
 
      Even Zarqawi invoked the imagery in a 60-minute audio message:
 
"The martyrs rejoice in the bounty provided by God.  Their souls are 
inside the bodies of green birds that fly in heaven."
 
       In Fall 2004, the federal authorities indicted the fellow behind 
Azzam Publications selling "Green Birds," Babar Ahmad, pointing, in 
part,  to the "distribution of videotapes and compact discs depicting 
fighters in Bosnia, Chechnya and elsewhere, and the eulogizing of dead 
fighters, for the purpose of recruiting individuals and soliciting 
donations to support the mujahideen in Afghanistan and Chechnya."  Of 
Pakistani descent, Ahmad is a British computer specialist.  He is   
associated with KSM, who had anthrax production documents on his laptop 
and admits to having headed the cell (after Atef’s death) planning to 
use weaponized anthrax against the United  States.  Ahmad is also the 
cousin of Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan, who was arrested mid-2004  in 
Pakistan. Khan’s computers carried detailed surveillance of five 
financial buildings in New York, Newark and Washington and once 
prompted the Department of Homeland Security to elevate the threat 
alert level to orange.
 
       In an affidavit, an FBI special agent and computer investigative 
specialist, alleged that a New Brunswick, NJ  man, Mazen Mokhtar, 
assisted Babar in maintaining the continued operation of the Azzam 
sites, through the use of mirror sites, when the administrators of 
Azzam sites shut down the Azzam.com site down after 9/11.  The mirror 
sites,  www.qoqaz.net and  www.waaqiah.com,  allegedly routed people 
trying to access  www.azzam.com.  The affidavit alleges that Mr. Mokhtar 
is listed as the administrative contact for the mirror sites.  He also 
operated minna.com.  A friend reports:  "He said he used to run a 
hosting service four or five years ago that used to resell Web hosting 
services to people. He said he didn't know those guys (mentioned in 
court papers) and he is not involved in anything like that."  An 
Egyptian-born imam and political activist, he is a supporter of 
Palestinian cause and frequent speaker before groups in Brooklyn and 
the Bronx.  He is said to be nice and seems a man of peace.
 
         Of course, given that the symbolism used in this regard in the 
anthrax  mailings had an origin in religious writing, there is no 
direct tie with the website -- the tie could be with the hadith.   The 
webmaster has said that the FBI allowed it to remain up (while it moved 
from server to server) for another year hoping to get leads  on 
supporters.          
 
         Bin Laden was using "Green Birds" in the same way he used the 
repeated phrase "Looming Tower" to hint of what was to come with the 
planes attack on the World Trade Center.  He would say:
 
"Wherever you are, death will find you,
even in the looming tower."
 
On October 7,  2001 in a prerecorded tape aired October 7, Bin Laden 
said   "The winds of faith have come."  This would be enough to keep 
Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell up at night -- or when 
he does sleep, to keep him dreaming about green birds.
 
(4)  KSM and Clouds (Al-Sahab)
 
         In admitting that he had taken over supervising the development 
of anthrax for use against the US, Khalid Mohammed separately noted 
that "I was the Media Operations Director for Al-Sahab or 'The Clouds,' 
under Dr. Ayman Al-Zawahiri.
 
         The flagship of American Media, Inc. described  the letter sent 
AMI as follows:
 
“Bobby Bender came around the corner with this letter in the upturned 
palms of his hands,” said photo assistant Roz Suss, a 13-year Sun 
staffer. 
 
“It was a business-size sheet of stationery decorated with pink and 
blue clouds around the edges.”
 
(5) Allusion to Both Atta and Genomic Sequencing of Ames Strain
 
      The writing of the text of the letter is also interesting in that 
the "As" and "Ts" are double-lined -- to suggest  ATTA, the lead 
hijacker.
 
When the US Centers for Disease Control first identified that the Ames 
strain had been used in the mailng to  Florida in October 2001, Dr. 
Paul Keim and his colleagues  at The Institute for Genomic Research 
(TIGR) had nearly finished a project to sequence Bacillus anthracis— 
specifically, the chromosome of an anthrax isolate from a laboratory in 
Porton Down, U.K.  Ayman had a microbiologist attending Porton 
Down-sponsored conferences at which presentations were made about the 
sequencing of Ames.   The Defense Intelligence Agency provided me the 
correspondence between the scientist and Zawahiri.  And, sure, enough, 
the letter writer appears to have even double-lined A's and T's in the 
letters possibly to simultaneously allude to Atta and the genomic 
sequence.   The hazmat courier who delivered anthrax to Dr. Keim’s  lab 
emailed me this past week to say that he was interviewed twice -- once 
in March 2002 and then in January 2003.   It was in January 2003 that 
the FBI had come to be fixated on whether any middle eastern man had 
come to have access to anthrax at the lab.  The FBI thus apparently has 
been clued into the code used in the letter years ago.
 
       As explained at the Porton Down conferences attended by Ayman's 
operative Abdur Rauf, Keim's research team eventually discovered 60 new 
'markers' in the Bacillus anthracis genome—DNA sequences that may vary 
from one isolate to another. These include insertions or deletions of 
DNA, and short sequences that are repeated at different lengths in the 
genome known as VNTRs (variable-number tandem repeats).  A decade 
earlier, it had been determined that one of three proteins comprising 
anthrax toxin, and the first nucleotide sequence to be reported from B. 
anthracis (by USAMRIID authors no less), had a consensus TATAAT 
sequence located at the putative -10 promoter site.  It is all greek to 
me but apparently something with meaning to the person who drafted the 
letter.  Perhaps the sender was saying that the bacteria was pathogenic 
unlike what had been sent to the Canadian immigration minister six 
months earlier when a bail hearing was announced for the manager of Bin 
Laden’s farm in Sudan.  The man was a shura member of the Egyptian 
Islamic Jihad.
 
       This and the other coding together may have served to tell the 
world, for example, that Mohammed Atta and the others were going to fly 
to paradise on a green bird and that the anthrax was courtesy of 
Zawahiri’s Vanguards of Conquest.  Ayman simultaneously framed the US 
Army and UK biodefense establishment while telling them who did it.   
DNI McConnell, in acknowledging at the recent conference that he 
perceives this threat, seems to be abiding long-honored 
inside-the-beltway code:   CYA.

April 11, 2007 in Guest Columns | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

What the Latest Study on Gun Violence Showed

Prohibitions and stifling restrictions on private ownership of guns have been an unpleasant fact of life for me most of my life. Many of these prohibitions have been enacted as a result of Media pressures,and the loudly-voiced opinions of those who consider any ownership or use of weapons to be a crime against society.

Here is a press release from the Citizens' Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms .

Citizens Committee for the
Right to Keep and Bear Arms
12500 N.E. Tenth Place
Bellevue, WA  98005

PRESS IGNORES FBI STUDY SAYING GUN LAWS IGNORED BY COP KILLERS

For Immediate Release: February 16, 2007

BELLEVUE, WA – For more than two months, a damning report on a five-year study by the Federal Bureau of Investigation about how cop-killing criminals ignore gun laws and where they get their guns has languished in the shadows, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms revealed today.

“The public has a right to know the contents of this report, which was revealed to the International Association of Chiefs of Police last year,” said CCRKBA Executive Director Joe Waldron. “According to the Force Science News, research focused on 40 incidents involving assaults or deadly attacks on police officers, in which all but one of the guns involved had been obtained illegally, and none were obtained from gun shows.”

The study is called “Violent Encounters: A Study of Felonious Assaults on Our Nation’s Law Enforcement Officers.” Waldron called it a “smoking gun” in terms of revelations about the sources of crime guns. Anti-gun politicians and police chiefs do not want the public to know as they campaign against the so-called “gun show loophole,” he said.

The newsletter quotes Ed Davis, who told the IACP that none of these criminals who attacked police officers was “hindered by any law – federal, sate or local – that has ever been established to prevent gun ownership. They just laughed at gun laws.” The Force Science News is published by the Force Science Research Center, a non-profit institution based at Minnesota State University in Mankato. The newsletter also stated, “In contrast to media myth, none of the firearms in the study was obtained from gun shows.”

“This is a devastating revelation,” Waldron said, “and while Mr. Davis should be applauded for telling the IACP that criminals ignore gun laws, we’re wondering why the IACP has been quiet about this, and why the mainstream press never reported this, and probably never will.

“Force Science News calls the gun show loophole a ‘media myth’,” Waldron said, “and that’s what gun rights activists have been saying for years. It’s time for the IACP leadership to acknowledge that gun laws don’t stop criminals, that they only restrict the rights of law-abiding citizens, and that gun shows are not the ‘arms bazaars for criminals’ as they have been portrayed.”

With more than 650,000 members and supporters nationwide, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms is one of the nation's premier gun rights organizations. As a non-profit organization, the Citizens Committee is dedicated to preserving firearms freedoms through active lobbying of elected officials and facilitating grass-roots organization of gun rights activists in local communities throughout the United States. The Citizens Committee can be reached by phone at (425) 454-4911, on the internet at www.ccrkba.org or by email to [email protected].

-END-

February 17, 2007 in Guest Columns | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

A Former Defector's View of the Litvinenko Case

From: Dmitry Mikheyev
Subject: Litvinenko - Personal view

Date: Wed, 29 Nov 2006

Dear Friend, here are my thoughts on the Litvinenko case, based on my personal experience.

Back in mid 1980s I was involved with the Jamestown Foundation of Washington DC that had patronized many defectors from the Soviet-bloc countries. At the time, I had been employed by the Voice of America and had been pursuing my own research project :Soviet VS American mentalities. As a failed defector and former political prisoner myself, I was patronized by the Jamestown Foundation and knew a number of defectors. Among them: a KGB major Stanislav Levchenko, MIG-25 pilot Viktor Belenko, the number two man at the United Nations Arkady Shevchenko, Polish ambassador to Britain Rurarz, former Czech intelligence officer Lawrence Martin-Bittman, and many others. I had a chance to interview several of them. My particular interest was the problems of defectors' adaptation to a radically different culture.

Back in the KGB camp, I had met and was puzzled by a number of cases when successful defectors to the West had returned to the USSR knowing too well that they would end up in the GULAG. Obviously, there was something in their mentality that was stronger than fear and ideology, and I was determined to find out what it was.

Defectors were the men of mission. Not only (did)we hate the KGB and the communist regimes, but we were the willing and active participants in the war of ideologies. All of us had led active life with speaking engagements, radio and TV interviews. The Jamestown Foundation itself operated openly, selling our stories and views. Naturally, we were mindful of possible retribution from the "long hand of Moscow", perhaps even paranoid. Yet, there was not a single proven case of attempt on anybody's life. For a powerful institution as the KGB, we were sitting ducks, yet for some reason it didn't bother to teach us a lesson or two to discourage the future Shevchenkos. The going explanation among us had been: The KGB had abandoned the practice of abducting and killing "the traitors" in the late 50s. One had to believe them, after all some of them were former agents themselves.

Now, the Litvinenko case. Is it possible that the FSB (the KGB successor) would reactivate the long abandoned practice? Hardly. Killing him for being a critic of Putin? Ridiculous, considering how many bitter and relatively well known critics are around. To revenge for the betrayal and disclosure of Moscow apartment bombings plot? But the story is totally implausible, and why wait for six years until he gets British citizenship? To sabotage his investigation of Politkovskaya's death? But it only started, what's the rush?

No matter how you look at the Litvinenko case, to me it doesn't look as an institutional affair at all.

Dmitry Mikheyev is lecturer on leadership and management at the Academy of National Economy, Moscow.

December 07, 2006 in Guest Columns | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Venezuelan Elections: The Fix is In !"

Aleksander Boyd writes from London on the forthcoming Venezuelan elections:

    
Appeal to Supporters of Venezuela's democracy
By Aleksander Boyd

Caracas 01.12.06 | "There's going to be a coup... Chavez won't accept defeat... Chavez's militias will attack us if we try to defend the vote... You better get food stocks for there's going to be a bloodshed... The fix is in..." These are some of the rumours I have heard in the last few days. Sadly these are repeated a million times by opposition folks that, perhaps unknowingly and unable to overcome their fears, act as a resonance box of the inanity coming from the official camp. Days ago I was arguing that Manuel Rosales is the underdog in this electoral race. It follows that the millions of Venezuelans supportive of Rosales' bid stand on an equal footing. Our commitment to rescue Venezuela's democracy is despised in many foreign news rooms, policy desks and governmental departments. Newsworthy items, such as Chavez's rejection of accepting the presence of a multipartisan senatorial commission of observers from Spain -critical of his regime in past legislative elections-, went unnoticed.

Please note the circled hand. Picture from El Nacional

Homeless Venezuelans nailing their hands to a tree in protest to the caudillo's pathetic performance vis-a-vis housing solutions for the poor did not qualify either. See such human tragedies are non-events for Reuters, AP et al. Recently BBC's Greg Morsbach called to ask me whether I knew any disgruntled chavista. I told him that he could find them by the truckload camping outside the housing office in El Rosal or, closer to his office located in El Paraiso, in Cota 905 where they were allowed to invade parcels of land only to live in subhuman conditions on a hillside. Has anyone seen Morsbach report on that?

In any case this is just a brief note to those that would like to see democracy flourishing again in Venezuela. An appeal to simpathetic bloggers, media, governments and individuals. The choice is rather simple. What we are facing on Sunday is a plural democratic option on one side and a single party, indefinite presidency, absolute control of the state, centralized government, oppression, militarism, terrorism, human rights violations, violence and instability on the other. It's a no brainer really. That is why I do believe that Rosales will win. But we need help in the form of getting the message out.

Of the many scenarios the one I consider the most likely is: Rosales wins, Chavez refuses to accept defeat, orders his militias to attack, the military react -as they did on 11 April 2002-, force Chavez to accept results and after much tension and perhaps some deaths Rosales is proclaimed Venezuela's president. However there's a crucial aspect about this view, which is people power or the involvement of the millions of Venezuelans that have been marching alongside Rosales for the last three months. Every Venezuelan committed to the country's future and democracy, on both sides of the divide, must get involved in the process of ensuring that votes are properly counted and tallies' results correspond to number of receipts deposited in ballots. If this process is carried out in orderly fashion, respecting electoral norms and legislation there should not be problems. And if it turns out that the will of the majority favours Chavez, so be it. This country can not evolve in such polarized condition. This country must overcome Chavez, the hatred, class conflicts and divisions planted by him. Venezuela needs the positive input of every Venezuelan to become a great nation. We have the chance, just around the corner. To waste another opportunity, in less than a decade, would be terribly sad.

However it would be foolish to think that Chavez, having so many issues for which he has to be made accountable, will go without a fight. Venezuela heard him ordering the Avila Plan in 2002; Venezuela saw him commanding a coup d'etat in 1992. That's how he reacts, that's how militaristic caudillos react, by violent means. He's no democrat for no democrat can claim that him and only him is capable of running a country. No democrat thinks wise to have a single party. No democrat models his ideals and policies on failed and repressive communist dictators. No democrat mocks and disrespects the less educated. No democrat states "L'État, c'est moi." No democrat seeks to obliterate opposition parties. No democrat demands of people to live in subhuman conditions for revolutions' sake. No democrat leads coups d'etat. No democrat uses tanks to protest.

Hence dear freedom fighters, be on your guard, give democracy a chance for we all stand to benefit from it.

December 02, 2006 in Guest Columns | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

A Thoughtful and Scholarly Rebuttal of the Senate Intelligence Committee Report on The Relationship Between Saddam Hussein, al-Qaeda,and 9/11

Scott Malensek has written a long, thoroughly researched rebuttal to the Senate Intelligence Committee's report on 9/11 and Saddam Hussein.

It's long (128 pages altogether) and it's in pdf format - and well worth the effort.

Since the author did give permission , I'm perfectly happy to let him be the "guest columnist" on this 5th installment of my report on Iraq.

September 21, 2006 in Guest Columns | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Don't Close the Blinds !

The source of this "parable" - (I guess you could call it that)-is unknown ; but it seems worth reading and considering.


The other day, my nine year old son wanted to know why we were at war. My husband looked at our son and then looked at me. My husband and I were in the Army during the Gulf War and we would be honored to serve and defend our Country again today. I knew that my husband would give him a good explanation.

My husband thought for a few minutes and then told my son to go stand in our front living room window. He said "Son, stand there and tell me what you see?"

"I see trees and cars and our neighbor's houses." he replied.

"OK, now I want you to pretend that our house and our yard is the United States of America and you are President Bush."

Our son giggled and said "OK."

"Now son, I want you to look out the window and pretend that every house and yard on this block is a different country" my husband said.

"OK Dad, I'm pretending."

"Now I want you to stand there and look out the window and pretend you see Saddam come out of his house with his wife, he has her by the hair and is hitting her. You see her bleeding and crying. He hits her in the face, he throws her on the ground, then he starts to kick her to death. Their children run out and are afraid to stop him, they are screaming and crying, they are watching this but do nothing because they are kids and they are afraid of their father. You see all of this son... what do you do?"

"Dad?"

"What do you do son?"

"I'd call the police, Dad."

"OK. Pretend that the police are the United Nations and they take your call, listen to what you know and saw but they refuse to help. What do you do then son?"

"Dad.......... but the police are supposed to help!" My son starts to whine.

"They don't want to son, because they say that it is not their place or your place to get involved and that you should stay out of it," my husband says

"But Dad...he killed her!!" my son exclaims.

"I know he did...but the police tell you to stay out of it. Now I want you to look out that window and pretend you see our neighbor who you're pretending is Saddam turn around and do the same thing to his children."

"Daddy...he kills them?"

"Yes son, he does. What do you do?"

"Well, if the police don't want to help, I will go and ask my next door neighbor to help me stop him." our son says.

"Son, our next door neighbor sees what is happening and refuses to get involved as well. He refuses to open the door and help you stop him," my husband says.

"But Dad, I NEED help!!! I can't stop him by myself!!"

"WHAT DO YOU DO SON?" Our son starts to cry.

"OK, no one wants to help you, the man across the street saw you ask for help and saw that no one would help you stop him. He stands taller and puffs out his chest. Guess what he does next son?"

"What Daddy?"

"He walks across the street to the old ladies house and breaks down her door and drags her out, steals all her stuff and sets her house on fire and then...he kills her. He turns around and sees you standing in he window and laughs at you. WHAT DO YOU DO?"

"Daddy.."

"WHAT DO YOU DO?"

Our son is crying and he looks down and he whispers, "I'd close the blinds, Daddy."

My husband looks at our son with tears in his eyes and asks him..."Why?"

"Because Daddy.....the police are supposed to help people who needs them...and they won't help.... You always say that neighbors are supposed to HELP neighbors, but they won't help either...they won't help me stop him...I'm afraid....I can't do it by myself Daddy.....I can't look out my window and just watch him do all these terrible things and...and.....do nothing...so....I'm just going to close the blinds.... so I can't see what he's doing........and I'm going to pretend that it is not happening."

My husband looks at our nine year old son standing in the window, looking pitiful and ashamed at his answers to my husbands questions and he says..."Son"

"Yes, Daddy."

"Open the blinds because that man.... he's at your front door..."WHAT DO YOU DO?"

My son looks at his father, anger and defiance in his eyes. He balls up his tiny fists and looks his father square in the eyes, without hesitation he says: "I DEFEND MY FAMILY DAD!! I'M NOT GONNA LET HIM HURT MOMMY OR MY SISTER, DAD!!! I'M GONNA FIGHT HIM, DAD, I'M GONNA FIGHT HIM!!!!!"

I see a tear roll down my husband's cheek and he grabs our son to his chest and hugs him tight, and says... "It's too late to fight him, he's too strong and he's already at YOUR front door son.....you should have stopped him BEFORE he killed his wife, and his children and the old lady across the way. You have to do what's right, even if you have to do it alone, before it's too late," my husband whispers.

THAT scenario is why we are at war with Iraq. (obviously you can exchange "Iraq" with "terrorists" in this article.) When good men stand by and let evil happen son, THAT is the greatest EVIL of all. Our President is doing what is right. We, as a free nation, must understand that this war is a war of humanity. We must remove evil men from power so that we can continue to live in a free world where we are not afraid to look out our window. So that my nine year old son won't grow up in a world where he feels that if he just "closes" the blinds the atrocities in the world won't affect him. "You must never be afraid to do what is right. Even if you have to do it alone. Be proud to be an American! Be proud of our troops!! Support them!!! Support America!! So that in the future our children will never have to close their blinds..."

July 28, 2006 in Guest Columns | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

My Photo

About

Recent Posts

  • Ms Rabbit Reviews the World Air Guitar Championship Contest
  • Ms Rabbit,Gay Marriage, and Government Grants
  • Ms Rabbit Reviews the Morning News
  • A Labor Day Morning Conversation With Ms Rabbit
  • Much High Definition Ado About Nothing
  • Traces of Marburg Discovered in Certain African Fruit Bats
  • Extra ! Extra !! Crimes by Non-Aliens Reported !!
  • "Bangalore Torpedo" Torpedoed by Police
  • Alarming Anthrax Incident in Mississippi
  • Goose Creek and Washington Refinery Fire : Any Linkage ?
Subscribe to this blog's feed
Blog powered by Typepad

Archives

  • September 2007
  • August 2007
  • July 2007
  • June 2007
  • May 2007
  • April 2007
  • March 2007
  • February 2007
  • January 2007
  • December 2006

Sites I enjoy

  • copydude
  • Boxun News Network
  • Russia Blog
  • The Epoch Times > United States edition
  • The Strata-Sphere
  • Ya Libnan | Live News from Lebanon
  • Ya Libnan | Live News from Lebanon
  • The HILL Chronicles
  • The Anti-Truther
  • Debbie Schlussel