* GAO Should Obtain A Copy Of The FBI’s Handwriting Analysis Comparing The Letters To Atta’s
Posted by Lew Weinstein on January 22, 2012
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Muhammad Atta
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Top Posts
- * The 2012 textbook, Understanding Terrorism: Challenges, Perspects, and Issues, summarizes the "Anthrax Crisis": "the National Academy of Sciences questioned the veracity of the FBI's evidence" and "prominent scientists and investigative journalists continued to raise serious questions about the FBI's testing procedures and the accuracy of the FBI's investigation."
- * Hunting the Anthrax Killer ... National Geographic Channel ... Sunday, July 26, 9:00pm
- * Former Amerithrax lead investigator Richard Lambert set to retire and become Senior Counterintelligence Officer at Oak Ridge National Lab; Agent Lambert advised FBI Director “compartmentalization within the Amerithrax task force would inhibit our ability to connect the dots … among the three squads investigating the case.”
- * DXer to FBI ... it's never too late to be right
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Recent Posts
- * The 2012 textbook, Understanding Terrorism: Challenges, Perspects, and Issues, summarizes the “Anthrax Crisis”: “the National Academy of Sciences questioned the veracity of the FBI’s evidence” and “prominent scientists and investigative journalists continued to raise serious questions about the FBI’s testing procedures and the accuracy of the FBI’s investigation.”
- * Former Amerithrax lead investigator Richard Lambert set to retire and become Senior Counterintelligence Officer at Oak Ridge National Lab; Agent Lambert advised FBI Director “compartmentalization within the Amerithrax task force would inhibit our ability to connect the dots … among the three squads investigating the case.”
- * In his new book, Enemies: A History of the FBI (February 14, 2012). Tim Weiner states that the FBI was not able to integrate top secret information from the CIA and NSA into its databases.
- * Former Senator Russ Feingold discusses the Fall 2001 anthrax mailings in his book, While America Sleeps: A Wake-up Call for the Post-9/11 Era (February 21, 2012)
- * When Iyman Faris Visited With Majid Khan in mid-2001, Who Was He Driving For With Respect To Travelling To and Fro Maryland and Columbus, Ohio (down the street from Battelle Memorial Institute)? Dr. Ivins Shipped The Ames Spores From RMR 1029 To Battelle by Federal Express on or about June 18, 2001. What “U.S. Mail” Did Iyman Faris Deliver?
- * Majid Khan’s Friend, KSM Associate Iyman Faris, Had A Trucking Company That Delivered “U.S. Mail” and Lived 3 Miles From Battelle Memorial Institute ; Did He Ever Carry Mail To Battelle? Who Delivered Virulent Dried Ames Anthrax To And From Battelle?
- *When Columbus, Ohio truck driver Iyman Faris met with Majid Khan in Baltimore in mid-2001, did he discuss the reason for his previous research on ulta-light planes for Osama Bin Laden at a Karachi internet cafe?
- * In working with Al Qaeda anthrax planners KSM and Al-Balucchi in January 2002, did Baltimore resident Majid Khan learn anything about the pair’s anthrax planning that he can now share? What contaminant was allegedly going to be used to contaminate the Upstate New York City reservoir serving New York City?
- * Thiesen’s COURTING DISASTER (2010): It Was Al-Balucchi (Who Consulted With Aafia About Anthrax Lab) Who Sent Maryland’s Majid Khan To Thailand In 2002 With the $50,000
- * After CIA Director Was Briefed In Late August 2001 About Moussaoui, Did He Tell President Bush? Why Did They Keep This Powerpoint Classified Top Secret Until 2006 Given That The Public Had A Right To Know Of The Briefing?
- * This is the Summer 2001 Briefing That President Bush Received On Bin Laden and Planes But The February 2001 PDB On Bin Laden And Anthrax That President Bush Received From The CIA Is Still Classified
- * The DOJ IG Can Call Harry Samit “Henry” If It Likes, But “Hero” Suits Him Better ; Harry Samit Suspected The Person Who Came To Bail Al-Attas Out ; The Man’s VIsa Card Was Used In Connection With WTC 1993 Bombing
- * Harry Samit 8/30/01 Memo: Al-Attas, Detained With Moussaoui, Was Carrying A Will That Explained Death Was Near And That God Favored Those Who Participate In Jihad ; Al-Attas Later Pled Guilty To Lying To Investigators To Protect Others
- * The dropping of the ball relating to Al-Mihdhar and Al-Hazmi’s entering the country after the meeting at the KL condo of the anthrax lab tech was closely related to the detention and release of Jdey at the time of Moussaoui’s arrest.
- * In his coded message to Ramzi Binalshibh written in German, in August 2001, Atta used codename “Jenny” and discussed attack involving four schools.
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Recent Comments
- richard rowley on * The 2012 textbook, Understanding Terrorism: Challenges, Perspects, and Issues, summarizes the “Anthrax Crisis”: “the National Academy of Sciences questioned the veracity of the FBI’s evidence” and “prominent scientists and investigative journalists continued to raise serious questions about the FBI’s testing procedures and the accuracy of the FBI’s investigation.”
- DXer on * Former Amerithrax lead investigator Richard Lambert set to retire and become Senior Counterintelligence Officer at Oak Ridge National Lab; Agent Lambert advised FBI Director “compartmentalization within the Amerithrax task force would inhibit our ability to connect the dots … among the three squads investigating the case.”
- r. rowley on * Former Amerithrax lead investigator Richard Lambert set to retire and become Senior Counterintelligence Officer at Oak Ridge National Lab; Agent Lambert advised FBI Director “compartmentalization within the Amerithrax task force would inhibit our ability to connect the dots … among the three squads investigating the case.”
- DXer on * Former Senator Russ Feingold discusses the Fall 2001 anthrax mailings in his book, While America Sleeps: A Wake-up Call for the Post-9/11 Era (February 21, 2012)
- DXer on * Former Senator Russ Feingold discusses the Fall 2001 anthrax mailings in his book, While America Sleeps: A Wake-up Call for the Post-9/11 Era (February 21, 2012)
- DXer on * Former Senator Russ Feingold discusses the Fall 2001 anthrax mailings in his book, While America Sleeps: A Wake-up Call for the Post-9/11 Era (February 21, 2012)
- DXer on * Former Senator Russ Feingold discusses the Fall 2001 anthrax mailings in his book, While America Sleeps: A Wake-up Call for the Post-9/11 Era (February 21, 2012)
- DXer on * When Iyman Faris Visited With Majid Khan in mid-2001, Who Was He Driving For With Respect To Travelling To and Fro Maryland and Columbus, Ohio (down the street from Battelle Memorial Institute)? Dr. Ivins Shipped The Ames Spores From RMR 1029 To Battelle by Federal Express on or about June 18, 2001. What “U.S. Mail” Did Iyman Faris Deliver?
- DXer on * In working with Al Qaeda anthrax planners KSM and Al-Balucchi in January 2002, did Baltimore resident Majid Khan learn anything about the pair’s anthrax planning that he can now share? What contaminant was allegedly going to be used to contaminate the Upstate New York City reservoir serving New York City?
- DXer on * When Iyman Faris Visited With Majid Khan in mid-2001, Who Was He Driving For With Respect To Travelling To and Fro Maryland and Columbus, Ohio (down the street from Battelle Memorial Institute)? Dr. Ivins Shipped The Ames Spores From RMR 1029 To Battelle by Federal Express on or about June 18, 2001. What “U.S. Mail” Did Iyman Faris Deliver?
- DXer on * When Iyman Faris Visited With Majid Khan in mid-2001, Who Was He Driving For With Respect To Travelling To and Fro Maryland and Columbus, Ohio (down the street from Battelle Memorial Institute)? Dr. Ivins Shipped The Ames Spores From RMR 1029 To Battelle by Federal Express on or about June 18, 2001. What “U.S. Mail” Did Iyman Faris Deliver?
- DXer on * In working with Al Qaeda anthrax planners KSM and Al-Balucchi in January 2002, did Baltimore resident Majid Khan learn anything about the pair’s anthrax planning that he can now share? What contaminant was allegedly going to be used to contaminate the Upstate New York City reservoir serving New York City?
- DXer on * In his coded message to Ramzi Binalshibh written in German, in August 2001, Atta used codename “Jenny” and discussed attack involving four schools.
- DXer on * In his coded message to Ramzi Binalshibh written in German, in August 2001, Atta used codename “Jenny” and discussed attack involving four schools.
- DXer on * When Iyman Faris Visited With Majid Khan in mid-2001, Who Was He Driving For With Respect To Travelling To and Fro Maryland and Columbus, Ohio (down the street from Battelle Memorial Institute)? Dr. Ivins Shipped The Ames Spores From RMR 1029 To Battelle by Federal Express on or about June 18, 2001. What “U.S. Mail” Did Iyman Faris Deliver?
Pages
Lew's interviews
DXer said
Abby of NCIS could have done an excellent job explaining things about copy paper brand source identification and compared it to the brands at, say, USAMRIID, versus used at KINKOS in Maryland. In studying perfumes, she once set her boss Gibbs back $1500. OTOH, with paper should have purchased the top 30 brands for $150.
Research Article
Copy Paper Brand Source Identification using Commodity Scanners
Shize Shang, Xiangwei Kong and Xin`gang You
In print forensics, copy paper brand source identification can be used to expose the copy paper source of the forged contracts or official documents. In this study, a novel method for identifying the copy paper brand is proposed for forensics application using only a commodity scanner and without modifying the document. The scanned document image margin is cut into image blocks. After the image preprocessing, 114-D texture features are extracted from these image blocks including Gray Level Co-occurrence Matrix (GCM) features and Fourier spectrum features. The decision for each piece of paper is given by voting the decision results of the image blocks. The experimental results are provided finally to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed method.
There is NO evidence Dr. Ivins ever did any copying at KINKOS. Atta, OTOH, is on FILM making copies on September 7, 2001.
DXer said
The New York Post
December 10, 2001, Monday
COPIERS EYED AS CLUE TO ANTHRAX
BYLINE: BRAD HUNTER
SECTION: All Editions; Pg. 024
A photocopier’s “fingerprint” may help investigators track down the suspect responsible for sending anthrax-laced letters to two politicians.
FBI agents have now determined that the poisoned letters sent to Sen. Patrick Leahy and Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle are virtually identical, leading them to look for a possible Kinko’s connection.
FBI sources told Time magazine that because the letter sent to Leahy was photocopied, they may stand a better chance of determining who sent it. Photocopiers tend to leave a “fingerprint” caused by tiny scratches and dirt on the machine’s glass and optical system.
The FBI lab plans to examine the Leahy letter for these tiny anomalies and try to determine which copier the suspect or suspects may have used.
While the agency can’t examine every copier in the country, once they get a line on suspects, they’ll be able to focus on copy businesses and libraries near their homes, Time reports.
Of particular interest would be high-volume copy companies like Kinko’s.
Comment: Dr. Fong at GAO should make sure that the FBI has given him the report relating to both the machines AND paper at the KINKOS at which ATTA was making copies on September 7, 2001. Also the MAIL BOX ETC. at Laurel which had a copy machine.
DXer said
GAO:
The FBI has film of Attta making copies at KINKOS on September 7, 2001 in Maryland. The mass spec on the toner — see study the DOJ has been withholding — INCLUDES KINKOS but EXCLUDES USAMRIID. Even as high 99% level of confidence can be achieved nowadays done to the dozens of make and model of machines. If you need a foot in the door, call Dr. Bartick and encourage him until he talk with you.
The FBI then has the record of Atta going to MAIL BOXES ETC in Laurel, Maryland the next day, on September 8, 2001 and sending excess money he had to Hawsawi (who was using an alias in UAE). Hawsawi is the fellow who had the anthrax spraydrying documents on his laptop (he was KSM’s assistant and handling logistics). Hawsawi was working with Al-Balucchi who would discuss Al Qaeda’s anthrax lab with Aafia. … who was in touch by email with Adnan El-Shukrijumah and Jdey. The FBI has not wanted to tell the public this because they caught a lot of grief for not getting into Moussaoui’s laptop. If the public had learned that they let Jdey, who had biology books when he was detained, top FBI officials would have been shit-canned. Please get the film of Atta making copies at KINKOS and the filed court documents explaining that Atta’s transfer from Mail Boxes Etc. on September 8, 2001 was to Hawsawi, the fellow with the anthrax spraydrying documents. If you really wanted to knock it out of the park, interview the Laurel, MD MBE franchisee.
DXer said
GAO,
One cannot meaningfully review a matter merely taking the issues as framed by the advocate (FBI) below.
Here, they make no mention of the probativeness of the paper stock used in the letters — only the envelopes. One looks in vain among the investigative material for the memo to the file (that exists) identifying the brand of the photocopy.
As to the envelopes, they say that narrows things to prestamped envelopes sold in Maryland and Virginia. As to the paper used, they make no mention in their report or in the materials about it.
Yet, if you turn to the learning in the field, it is a matter rich with forensic potential. Turn to “Forensic Examination of Ink and Paper” by Richard L. Brunnel, Chief, Scientific Services Division, of the ATF and his co-author Robert W. Reed, M.F.S.
The paper stock used is potentially very powerful discriminator. If one has access to the papers copied by a suspect, one can determine whether there is a match or not. Here, they have boxes full of documents copied by Dr. Ivins.
Have you noticed that there was no mention of a match in the case of evidence that they say points to him? That is because it was not a match. Indeed, the paper was not ever used at USAMRIID or you would have heard about it.
Instead, even anecdotally, you know that after the forensics on paper was done FBI agents continued to canvass KINKOS and MAIL BOXES (which have copy machines), which had not been excluded.
oldatlantic said
FBI: “3. The author uses the words “can not,” when many people prefer to spell it as one word, “cannot.”"
“Hier stehe ich; ich kann nicht anders.”.
Martin Luther.
One of the most famous phrases in the German language for English speakers to know.
kann nicht (can not) are two separate words not joined in a conjunction in German.
Atta spent the 1990s in Germany studying at a German university.
DXer said
On September 7, 2001 shows Mohamed “Atta, Hani Hanjour, and possibly additional [Middle Eastern] males were observed at [a] Kinkos [store in] Laurel, Maryland, xeroxing passports, cutting and pasting.” There is no further explanation about this or what it might mean. An FBI account will add that video surveillance was retrieved showing “Atta and other individuals.” [FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION, 4/19/2002]
Noah Schactman, in his important and notable article, says that the fact that the federal eagle stamp was sold in 45 offices throughout Maryland and Virginia is what the FBI found compelling evidence.
Postage Stamps Delivered Anthrax Suspect to FBI
• By Noah Shachtman
• March 28, 2011 |
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/03/postage-stamps-delivered-anthrax-suspect-to-fbi/
At the August 2008 press conference, the US Attorney and AP created the impression that the Federal Eagle stamp was uniquely sold in Ivins’ post office (near USAMRIID) when it in fact was sold in 45 known post offices throughout Maryland and Virginia. Imagine US Attorney giving the same argument he gave to the media to a federal district court judge and then to have the claims rebutted.
http://caseclosedbylewweinstein.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/postofficeissuegraphic.jpg
Was the federal eagle envelope sold at the Maryland and Virginia localities frequented by Atta? Such as Laurel, Maryland?
oldatlantic said
FBI: “2. In writing the number one, the author chooses to use a formalized, more detailed version. He writes it as “1″ instead of the simple vertical line.”
http://www.personal.kent.edu/~rbavis/lettering.htm
“A. Legibility – Each letter must be distinct and not have to be read in context to be understood. Industry can’t tolerate errors caused by poor drawing legibility.”
The wiki shows the use of the 1, just like your keyboard not the letter l from your keyboard.
In technical lettering the 1 (one) has to be distinct from the l (ell). The letter write did this.
oldatlantic said
Distinguish the number one from the letter ell in technical lettering is of massive importance.
oldatlantic said
FBI: “1. The author uses dashes (“-”) in the writing of the date “09-11-01.” Many people use the slash (“/”) to separate the day/month/year.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601#Dates
“The separator used between date values (year, month, week, and day) is the hyphen, ”
“The first edition of the ISO 8601 standard was published in 1988. It unified and replaced a number of older ISO standards on various aspects of date and time notation: ISO 2014, ISO 2015, ISO 2711, ISO 3307, and ISO 4031.[2]”
ISO 8601 Usage Wiki page
“Germany DIN ISO 8601:2006-09 (replaced DIN EN 28601:1993-02); related: DIN 5008:2011-04″
oldatlantic said
FBI: “1. The author uses dashes (“-”) in the writing of the date “09-11-01.” Many people use the slash (“/”) to separate the day/month/year.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyphen#Usage_in_date_notation
“In parts of Europe, the hyphen is used to delineate parts within a written date. Germans[citation needed] and Slavs also used Roman numerals for the month; 14‑VII‑1789, for example, is one way of writing the first Bastille Day, though this usage is rapidly falling out of favour. Plaques on the wall of the Moscow Kremlin are written this way. Use of hyphens, as opposed to the slashes used in the English language, is specified for international standards.
International standard ISO 8601, which was accepted as European Standard EN 28601 and incorporated into various typographic style guides (e.g., DIN 5008 in Germany), brought about a new standard using the hyphen. Now all official European governmental documents use this. These norms prescribe writing dates using hyphens: 1789-07-14 is the new way of writing the first Bastille Day. This is also the typical date format used in large parts of Eastern Europe and Asia, although sometimes with other separators than the hyphen.”
DXer said
Wow. Nice find. So without clicking through to the authority cited I see that the hyphen is standard in Europe. It would be interesting to search the handwriting analysis literature to see what percentage of people use the one or the other in their handwriting. The FBI experts likely know this — Interpol certainly likely would.
oldatlantic said
Thanks. They should know it.
oldatlantic said
http://www.vvit.org/medep.htm
Search on engineering drawing and technical lettering. This is an institute in India. It shows how this is an international standard in engineering education.
oldatlantic said
FBI: “5. The names and address on each envelope are noticeably tilted on a downward slant from left to right. This may be a characteristic seen on other envelopes he has sent. ”
Kent State Technical Lettering
“D. Alignment – The imaginary axis of all letters are all parallel and either vertical or inclined to
the right at 68 degrees, no back slant.”
This may have caused the slanting on the addresses on the envelopes.
oldatlantic said
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/history/famous-cases/anthrax-amerithrax/linguistic-behavorial-analysis-of-the-anthrax-letters
“4. The author writes in all upper case block-style letters. However, the first letter of the first word of each sentence is written in slightly larger upper case lettering. Also, the first letter of all proper nouns (like names) is slightly larger. This is apparently the author’s way of indicating a word should be capitalized in upper case lettering. For whatever reason, he may not be comfortable or practiced in writing in lower case lettering.”
In German, nouns are capitalized. Atta did his graduate work in Germany and worked on his thesis for years.
oldatlantic said
http://www.personal.kent.edu/~rbavis/lettering.htm
“C. Upper & Lower Case – Engineering lettering is commonly upper case CAPITALS”
DXer said
Old Atlantic,
Why don’t you try to formulate a theory, and if you come up with a cogent one, organize your thoughts and post it. We should not be reading stream of consciousness. I believe you are looking for a code theory relating to the double-lining of “A” and “T’s”.
oldatlantic said
http://fbilibrary.fbiacademy.edu/
They don’t appear to have the Daniels Free Hand Lettering book in the FBI Library.
Lettering as a search item brings up one book from 2009.
Technical drawing had no hits.
oldatlantic said
architecture drawing one book from 2006. Not a very helpful one either.
” Ritual house, ritual city drawing on nature’s rhythms for architecture and urban design “
oldatlantic said
Did the FBI do this analysis? Did someone in the government? Mathematicians in NSA? There are math and engineering people in the US government familiar with Latex, blackboard bold, technical lettering, etc.
oldatlantic said
“The GOTHIC is the most common lettering font used in freehand lettering. The reason behind this is, the width of each line element of each letter is same throughout. Either STRAIGHT GOTHIC or INCLINED GOTHIC maybe used for lettering. The angle of inclination of the letters in INCLINED GOTHIC is 15° with respect to the vertical.Vertical lines are usually drawn in an upward direction. However, drawing a number of vertical lines or lines slanted in thesame direction, the way of drawing them will begoverned.Vertical lines should be drawn with greatest control.”
Links to following book for technical lettering from 1865
http://www.archive.org/stream/textbookoffreeha00daniiala#page/14/mode/2up
oldatlantic said
Look at pages 14, 20, 21, 24, 46, 53, 54, 58, 66 (R and S), 70, 78
(I may have switched from pages in pdf to pages in book in above list) Just page through book quickly to end using controls at the bottom.
All the characteristics of the letter writing appear in this book on technical writing.
oldatlantic said
From 1909 actually.
oldatlantic said
Isn’t the FBI supposed to have books on writing like the one on technical writing from 1909?
Has the FBI never seen technical drawings, engineering and architectural drawings?
Why wouldn’t the FBI look at Atta’s engineering and architectural background and compare the writing in the letters to technical writing books like the one linked to from 1909?
Isn’t that very book in the FBI library?
Is it because the FBI investigation became fixated on it not being al Qaeda, so Atta’s engineering and architecture background was not used as a basis of comparing the writing to technical lettering?
oldatlantic said
“1.Drawing the lower parts of the letters like B,E etc. wider than the upper parts
or
2. Drawing the horizontal line at the center of these letters just above their geometric axis.(Exception: In case of the letter A, the horizontal member is drawn below geometric center axis. Here along with stability one more factor is considered that is equality of areas below and above the center line. If a horizontal line is drawn exactly at the center, then the difference in the areas of the triangle above the line and the trapezium below the line is much larger. This creates an unusual effect to our eyes.)”
The large A next to 1211 shows this lowering of the horizontal line in the A so that the triangle area is approximately that of the area contained below the line. The same appears on the Atta card filled out for the US government.
oldatlantic said
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technical_lettering
“Technical lettering is the process of forming letters, numerals, and other characters in technical drawing. It is used to describe, or provide detailed specifications for, an object. With the goals of legibility and uniformity, styles are standardized and lettering ability has little relationship to normal writing ability.”
oldatlantic said
Algebra starts with A and so does Atta and architecture. Atta may have felt pride in Algebra in terms of heritage and his own education. Algebra is Arabic in root as a word.
oldatlantic said
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_characters_in_Unicode
oldatlantic said
ftp://ftp.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/pub/arabtex/arabtex.htm
Copyright (c) 1990 – 2006, Klaus Lagally
The Arabtex package for writing in Arabic using Latex appears to have started in 1990 in Germany.
Thus Atta could have looked into it while studying in Germany.
oldatlantic said
http://www.tu-harburg.de/index_e.html
Enter latex in search box get over 2000 hits.
This is the university that Atta studied at in Germany.
Blackboard bold is used for set notation as well as vectors.
Latex was widely used at German universities in the 1990s.
Blackboard Bold is not confined to Latex. There are unicode characters for it as well.
Atta as an architecture student and Arabic native speaker and writer would also have been interested in fonts, unicode and Latex because they can produce Arabic letters and script.
Students at technical schools in Germany typically would write in English and their theses were often written using Latex.
oldatlantic said
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_bold
Blackboard bold is a way to make vectors on the blackboard or while printing with pen or pencil on paper.
The A in the letter is Blackboard Bold. So is the M.
Blackboard Bold in general is a way to emphasize letters. The T’s might be considered a variant.
The link shows the entire alphabet in blackboard bold.
You can compare the A and M to the samples in the graphic.
oldatlantic said
Mohamed Atta was an engineering and architecture student in Cairo and in Germany.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohamed_Atta#Academic_studies
“In 1985, Atta entered Cairo University, where he studied engineering. As one of the highest-scoring students, Atta was admitted into the very selective architecture program during his senior year. In addition to his regular courses, Atta studied English at the American University in Cairo.[14] In 1990, Atta graduated with a degree in architecture,[15] and joined the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Engineers Syndicate organization.[8] For several months after graduating, Atta worked at the Urban Development Center in Cairo, where he worked on architectural, planning, and building design.
“
DXer said
Expert handwriting experts typically request (the originals , if possible) of five exemplars of the person’s handwriting (in this case, Atta’s printing)
What samples exist of Atta’s handwriting?
The I-94 is a two-part, two-sided perforated form. The top part of the form is used to record an alien’s arrival information, and the bottom part of the form is used to record an alien’s departure from the country. So without studying the DOJ IG’s report on the subject, I guess there is an i-94 for each time he came and went.
According to a DOJ IG report, Atta had filed an I-539 on September 19, 2000, requesting to change his status from a visitor to a student. His I-539 also should be obtained so that the handwriting can be reviewed and compared to the anthrax letters.
The GAO should obtain and publish as many exemplars of Atta’s printing as are available to the USG. For example, apartment leases.
DXer said
Atta’s Venice Flying Service “Pilot Profile” appears to be another handwriting (printing) exemplar readily available. It was introduced as an exhibit in the Moussaoui trial.
DXer said
Kandahar Souvenir: Hijacker Ahmed’s Blackened Leg Lesion
One of the hijackers, Ahmed Al-Haznawi, went to the ER on June 25, 2001 with what now appears to have been cutaneous anthrax, according to Dr. Tsonas, the doctor who treated him, and other experts. “No one is dismissing this,” said CIA Director Tenet. Alhaznawi had just arrived in the country on June 8. He had traveled with al Shehri from Dubai, United Arab Emirates via London-Gatwick, England to Miami, Florida. His exposure perhaps related to a camp he had been in Afghanistan. He said he got the blackened gash-like lesion when he bumped his leg on a suitcase two months earlier. Two months earlier he had been in camp near Kandahar (according to a videotape he later made serving as his last Will and Testament). His last will and testament is mixed in with the footage by the al-Qaeda’s Sahab Institute for Media Production that includes Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri and Sulaiman Abu Ghaith. There are some spiders that on rare occasions bite and cause such a blackened eschar (notably the Brown Recluse Spider found in some parts of the United States). His remains tested positive for Ames anthrax.
Dr. Tara O’Toole of the Biodefense Center at John Hopkins, now head of biosecurity at Homeland Security, concluded it was anthrax. The former head of that group, Dr. Henderson, and National Academy of Sciences anthrax science review panel member, explained: “The probability of someone this age having such an ulcer, if he’s not an addict and doesn’t have diabetes or something like that, is very low. It certainly makes one awfully suspicious.” The FBI says no anthrax was found where the hijackers were. (The FBI tested the crash sites where the planes came down and found no traces of anthrax). Although no doubt there are some other diseases that lead to similar sores, it is reasonable to credit that it was cutaneous anthrax considering all the circumstances, to include the finding by the 9/11 Commission that ” in 2001, Sufaat would spend several months attempting to cultivate anthrax for al Qaeda in a laboratory he set up near the Kandahar airport.” Now that Kandahar reportedly is where the extremely virulent anthrax was located, it makes it more likely that the Johns Hopkins people were correct that the lesion was cautions anthrax.
At the time, CBS reported that “U.S. troops are said to have found another biological weapons research lab near Kandahar, one that that was eyeing anthrax.” But CBS and FBI spokesman further noted that “Those searches found extensive evidence that al-Qaida wanted to develop biological weapons, but came up with no evidence the terrorist group actually had anthrax or other deadly germs, they said.” Only years later did author Suskind claim that in fact there was extremely virulent anthrax at Kandahar. Thus, a factual predicate important to assessment of the Johns Hopkins report on the leg lesion needed to be reevaluated after Hambali’s interrogation in Jordan.
Another intriguing potential lead concerned a report about Atta’s red hands. Shortly before 9/11, Atta went to a pharmacy with red hands, as if he had been working with bleach or detergent. Delray Beach, Florida pharmacist Greg Chadderton explained:
“There are two fellows, well dressed, and I asked if there was anything I could do to help them. And the one fellow turned over to me and he showed me his hands, and he said “They’re itching and they’re burning, do you have a cream for this?” His hands were red from this area down (indicating from wrist down) on both of his hands, they were red. Not the normal colour you and I would have from just being like this, but they were red. They weren’t blistering – they were simply red. They were red as if you had taken your hands and dunked them in a bucket of perhaps bleach or something. But they weren’t red on this side (backs of hands) where you would think. That’s what puzzled me, it was very perplexing that this side (palms?) was all red, it was almost as if he had touched something like this.”
He was given a cream called acid mantle. The possible explanation I had found intriguing was that it was just a latex allergy from wearing gloves. Or maybe his red hands related to use of gloves while making a gas or spray later used to subdue passengers such as the red pepper spray introduced as an exhibit in the Moussaoui trial. There was another disturbing possibility suggested by his cropduster inquiries. The late Midhat Mursi aka Abu Khabab, the chemist helping Zawahiri with his Zabadi, or Curdled Milk, project, worked with a chemical additive for his pesticide/nerve agent. It increased absorption into the skin. (Saponin, a natural detergent, is used for that purpose in a variety of commercial contexts; in late 2002, a plot was foiled when an attempt to purchase 1100 pounds of saponin was noticed by a chemical company and stopped. Or maybe he just got his hands while examining nozzles that had sprayed insecticide at the airports.
A final possibility for Atta’s red hands, however, suggested by a comparison of his handwriting on his visa application and application to Huffman Aviation, suggests an even more dire possibility. Perhaps it related to the use of chlorine bleach to decontaminate anthrax.
Exploring these hypotheses — and what makes hands reds top and bottom — should have been part of the FBI’s science investigation and now should be reviewed by GAO.
Amerithrax represents the greatest intelligence failure in the history of the United States. Evil prevails when good men and women do nothing.
DXer said
Suspect Sought Medicine for Red Hands
Palm Beach Post ^ | October 11,2001 | Eliot Kleinberg
Suspect sought medicine for red hands
By Eliot Kleinberg, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 11, 2001
DELRAY BEACH — Mohamed Atta came in with red hands.
Pharmacist Gregg Chatterton, co-owner of Huber Drugs, 331 E. Atlantic Ave., said he didn’t know his customer’s name at the time of the visit, sometime this summer. Nor would the man in casual clothes who spoke clear English with only a trace of an accent give Chatterton a straight answer about why his hands were red. He just needed something for them.
Chatterton figured his customer had been around some chemicals that were basic rather than acidic, so he sold him a 1-ounce tube of a medicine called “acid mantle” for $5.49. Chatterton said he also sold Atta’s friend, Marwan Al-Shehhi, a bottle of Robitussin for a nasty chest cold and directed him to a nearby walk-in clinic.
On Sept. 30, Chatterton looked over a woman’s shoulder and saw a newspaper spread showing the faces of the men the FBI believes hijacked four airplanes on Sept. 11. The two men who’d come to his pharmacy looking for help jumped out from the page — the FBI says Atta and Al-Shehhi piloted the planes that hit the World Trade Center towers.
“I feel angry,” Chatterton said Wednesday. “I feel like I was used.”
After Sept. 11, Chatterton said, a woman at the Hamlet Country Club, where some of the hijackers lived temporarily, apparently told authorities she had directed the men to Huber’s.
In recent days, authorities from the Food and Drug Administration and the FBI have questioned Chatterton. The FBI came by Monday, Chatterton said. He said the recent anthrax case in Boca Raton had him wondering if Atta’s hand irritation was the result of exposure to chemicals such as chlorine or ammonia or from repeated hand-washing with regular soap.
Chatterton also identified hijacking suspects Waleed Alshehri and Wail Alshehri, believed to be brothers who stayed this summer at the Homing Inn in Boynton Beach, as having come in several times to buy snacks and toiletries. He said they never came in at the same time as the men identified as Atta and Al-Shehhi.
Chatterton said he spotted Atta and Al-Shehhi — they used different names he could not find in his records — in the cream section. He said they caught his eye because most of his customers are retirees.
Chatterton quizzed Atta about his line of work, hoping to get clues about the source of the irritation, which had left his hands not peeling but extremely red.
He asked if the men were in construction; the rough concrete and its chemical makeup, heavy in lime, can be irritants. The man said no. He asked if he worked with toluene or other cleaning solvents. He asked, “Do you work with some sort of chemical?” No.
“I asked, `Do you work in a garden?’ ” He laughed, “No.”
Finally, “He said, `Computers.’ He changed the subject. He was evasive. I had to go around in circles.”
Chatterton finally gave up and recommended the acid cream.
Al-Shehhi — not as talkative, his English not as good — pointed to his chest. Chatterton gave him the Robitussin and said he might need stronger medicine, which meant a prescription. He sent the men to the closest walk-in clinic, Urgi Med, at 950 S.E. Fifth Ave.
Urgi Med officer manager Kelley Williams said she did not recognize any of the alleged hijackers but that another employee identified two to federal agents.
Chatterton said the men returned other times for the prescription and other items, but he doesn’t remember much about those visits. He says they definitely did not ask for any of the antibiotics suggested for exposure to the anthrax bacterium.
Dr. Richard Zemlin, who works at another walk-in clinic at 2280 W. Atlantic Ave., said he believes he treated another hijacking suspect, Ahmed Alghamdi, for indigestion. Alghamdi, who stayed for a time at a Delray Beach apartment, complained of symptoms — heartburn, gas — that seemed consistent with getting used to American food, or, in retrospect, with a case of nerves, according to the doctor. Zemlin said he recommended a bland diet and over-the-counter medications.
DXer said
What did the CIA conclude to be the reason for Atta’s inquiries about cropdusters? Moussaoui made similar inquiries. What was his reason? If Jdey was detained as same time as Moussaoui… but released… what was his relationship with Moussaoui? What was Jdey’s relationship with Atta?
Bismarck Tribune (North Dakota)
September 25, 2001, Tuesday, METRO EDITION
Crop-dusters grounded again as FBI probes possible terrorist link
BYLINE: By AMANDA RIDDLE, Associated Press Writer
SECTION: Pg. 1A
BELLE GLADE, Fla. — The government grounded thousands of crop-dusters across the country for a second straight day Monday amid fears the planes could be used in an airborne chemical or biological attack.
The move came after it was learned that one of the suspected hijackers in the attack on the World Trade Center, Mohamad Atta, had shown interest in crop-dusters and that another person now in federal custody had downloaded information about the planes, Attorney General John Ashcroft said.
The ‘intelligence community came to us and encouraged us to shut down the crop-dusters,’ Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Scott Brenner said. The FAA said the ban was in effect through 12:05 a.m. Tuesday local time.
North Dakota has 166 operators and 281aircraft used for crop spraying, state Aeronautics Commission Director Gary Ness said.
The planes have to be licensed and registered, and the operators have to list the people who work for them, he said. North Dakota operators may have two or three pilots, and ‘overall, they know each other,’ Ness said.
Ashcroft told lawmakers on Capitol Hill that the FBI had gathered information raising fears that the small farm planes could be used in a biological or chemical attack. But he said there was ‘no clear indication of the time or place of these attacks.’
It was the second time the planes have been grounded since the FAA cleared the way for most flights to resume Sept. 14, three days after terrorists slammed planes into the twin towers and the Pentagon.
James Callan, executive director of the National Agricultural Aviation Association, said the ban covered about 3,500 agricultural aviators.
The association posted a message from the FBI on its Web site, urging members to ‘continue to be vigilant to any suspicious activity relative to the use, training in or acquisition of dangerous chemicals or airborne application’ of the chemicals.
The FBI is believed to be investigating a group of Middle Eastern men — including Atta — who repeatedly visited a Florida fertilizer company before the Sept. 11 attacks.
J.D. ‘Will’ Lee, general manager of South Florida Crop Care in Belle Glade, said Monday he told FBI agents that the men, in groups of two or three, visited nearly every weekend for six or eight weeks before the attacks. The visits included the weekend before the assaults.
Co-worker James Lester told the FBI that one of the men was Atta, who is believed to be one of the suicide hijackers aboard the first airliner to hit the trade center. He said Atta was persistent with questions about a crop-duster during a visit in February.
‘I recognized him because he stayed on my feet all the time. I just about had to push him away from me,’ Lester said.
Lee said the men pestered employees with ‘odd questions’ about his 502 Air Tractor crop-duster. He said they asked about the range of the airplane, how much it could haul in chemicals, how difficult it was to fly and how much fuel it could carry.
During one visit, they followed Lester around, asking questions while he was working on one of the planes. Another time, they carried video equipment and asked to photograph the inside of the cockpit.
Lee said he declined their repeated requests.
‘I wouldn’t spend any time talking to them or telling them anything because I didn’t think it was any of their business,’ Lee said.
In Belle Glade, a small community in the Florida Everglades surrounded by sugar cane fields, police closed one entrance to the airport where Lee’s business is based and allowed only employees to enter the second entrance.
The Washington Post has also reported that investigators found a crop-duster manual among the possessions of Zacarias Moussaoui, who was detained after he sought flight training in Minnesota and the school grew suspicious.
Ray Dyson, chief pilot of Southeastern Aerial Crop Service in Fort Pierce, said crop-dusting aircraft — typically carrying 200 gallons of fuel and 500 to 600 gallons of fertilizer and liquid spray — require extensive training and are extremely difficult for a novice pilot to fly.
‘When they’re heavily loaded they take a very deft hand to fly,’ Dyson said. ‘One false move and you fall out of the sky and crash.’
Florida officials have checked with all registered aerial applicators about their security measures, said Terence McElroy, spokesman for the state Agriculture Department.
When flights resume, pilots will be required to notify state officials of their flight times and aircraft tail numbers, McElroy said.
‘It’s damn sure going to ruin our industry and us, but it’s a small price to pay for the security of our nation,’ said Jerry White, an aerial applicator based in Orlando.
Cutline: Associated Press
DXer said
Summer 2001 Inquiries About Cropdusters and Helicopters
Expert Kohlmann reports that “The LeT [Lashkar-e-Taiba] has also displayed persistent efforts at aimed at obtaining remote control drone aircraft, presumably in order to gather reconnaissance on enemy positions. Kohlman quotes a November 2000 Taiba Bulletin that quotes a LeT representative boasting “Lashkar-e-Taiba also made a remote control aeroplane that was caught in Occupied Kashmir. We are developing the modern technology.” Evan Kohlman reports that “one of the best accounts of the jihad in Kashmar is the book Army of Madinah in Kashmir written by “Esa al-Hindi”. He quotes Al-Hindi: “Running … straight into the enemy ranks on a well-worn battlefield is a noble and admirable action, but it needs to be complemented by all other fields of the battle arena for a successful operation… [including] Physical warfare, Drug warfare, Germ warfare, Chemical warfare, [and] Sabotage warfare.’ ”
Authors Schwartz and University of Minnesota Professor Osterholm explained in December 2000:
“Dozens of Websites offer information on new and used crop-dusting planes and equipment that can be fitted to almost any plane or even trucks. Most of the equipment can be found on those sites produce a highly controlled mist spray, with nozzles that can set the droplet size precisely.”
“A quick call to the toll-free number for a state university’s agricultural service (listed, naturally on its Website) revealed that powder dispersal systems, while less popular than wet systems, are still available. One Website even provides a handy guide to the area one would expect to cover using various particle sizes, wet and dry — from thousand micron particles to half-micron particles capable of drifting almost four hundred miles.”
It was no small irony that by the time the paperback version came out in September 2001 just a few miles away Zacarias Moussaoui had in fact downloaded such materials onto his laptop.
Attorney General Ashcroft, on October 1, 2001 explained: “I think shortly after the September 11 events, we developed information about crop dusters and noted that there had been an interest expressed in the dispersal of chemical agents by some of the individuals who had relationships with the hijackers and were the hijackers, and we asked those who were associated with the agriculture, chemical industry, and crop dusting to begin to be more careful, to lock their airplanes, to be aware of anyone seeking to adjust the kind of way in which the nozzles would be, which would maybe require a different approach.
President Bush, at a press conference on October 11, 2001 said:
“We received knowledge that perhaps an al-Qaeda operative was prepared to use a crop-duster to spray a biological weapon or a chemical weapon on American people, and so we responded. We contacted every crop dust location, airports from which crop-dusters leave. We notified crop-duster manufacturers to a potential threat. We knew full well that in order for a crop-duster to become a weapon of mass destruction would require a retrofitting, and so we talked to machine shops around where crop-dusters are located.”
Mohammed Atta and Zacarias Moussaoui reportedly made inquiries about cropdusters and a cropdusting manual was found among Moussaoui’s belongings. Ahmad Ressam, an Al Qaeda terrorist caught in the United States, revealed that Bin Laden was personally interested in using low flying aircraft to disperse biological agents. In early June 3, 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. Moussaoui, however, has confessed only to a plot to fly a 747 into the White House if the United States government refused to free the blind sheikh. On August 13 and 15, 2001, Moussaoui was getting practice on a 747 simulator in Minneapolis and thus the evidence has always remained ambiguous.
In an interview with ABC News, Johnelle Bryant, a USDA employee, provided this very dramatic account of a meeting with Atta in connection with a loan he wanted for $650,000 to start a cropdusting business. Anthrax likely can be delivered using the nozzle setup that some USDA official says Atta imagined (as explained by Secretary Cohen some years ago). Secretary Cohen’s remarks were found in the Kabul home with papers relating to the aerial delivery of anthrax.
Some investigators on the team prosecuting Zacarias Moussaoui thought he wasn’t expected to take part in the 9/11 plan as such or fly into the White House as prosecutors would allege in January 2003, but was expected instead to use a cropduster. In an e-mail dated July 31, 2001, after receiving $14,000 from Ramzi Binalshibh, Moussaoui inquired of a Minnesota school concerning a 6 month or year long cropdusting course. Although French intelligence suggests instead that there was a separate hijacking plot (of an international airline) to occur later, in light of the e-mail, use of a cropdusting plane may have been an alternative plan at least as of the end of July 2001. Khalid Mohammed reportedly has told his interrogators that Moussaoui was to be part of a second wave of attacks. He said that Moussaoui’s interest in cropdusters may have related to Yazid Sufaat’s work on anthrax.
In a coded communication in the summer of 2001, KSM told Ramzi Binalhibh to send the “skirts” to “Sally”, apparently referring to sending funds to Zacarias Moussaoui. Moussaoui may have been considered as a substitute if one of the pilots, who had developed a strained relationship with Atta, dropped out. They were referred to as the “unhappy couple” and it was said that a divorce would be expensive. Was Moussaoui really slated for a “second wave” of similar attacks on California targets that merely involved the same modus operandi? In an email dated July 31, 2001, he was inquiring about a cropdusting course. Was this just a means of fifth plane targeting the White House. Bin Laden wanted the White House to be targeted. Atta thought it would be too difficult. Or perhaps cropdusters will be used in the future. The FBI is currently looking for a diminutive Saudi Arabian, Adnan Shukrijumah, who, at least according to some reports, was trained as a pilot and was last known to have been in Miami in late 2001. The Saudi Arabian from Florida is said to be at the level of Atta. A federal undercover agent has reported that he saw El-Shukrijumah with Atta. Jdey, also hotly sought by the FBI, was one of two other pilots. For years, it was not known by the public why Jdey had been pulled from the first wave. It turns out that the FBI had failed to disclose that Jdey had been detained at the same time as Moussaoui and then released. Moussaoui was carrying crop-duster books and Jdey had biology books.
richard rowley said
I hate to admit it but there ARE some resemblances to ATTA’s printing. I’m going to study this for a day or two. Look for DISSIMILARITIES as well.
DXer said
The GAO should obtain the opinion of the expert examiner from the FBI’s Questioned Documents Unit.
Part of government accountability is to push past the zealous prosecutor and unsupported assertions and withholding of documents to get to the work done by qualified government experts on the range of subjects — to include the expert of the FBI’s handwriting expert comparing Atta’s visa application and the anthrax letters.
Atta’s phrasing upon the hijacking? “We have some planes.”
If GAO were to ask for the annotated copy of index of documents created by the former Amerithrax paralegal, they would have a roadmap of key documents that the FBI has failed to produce.
DXer said
It was only recently revealed Jdey was detained as the same time as Moussaoui but then released. While Moussaoui had cropduster books, Jdey had biology books. He then went whereabouts unknown at the time of the mailings.
How was the FBI able to exclude Abderraouf Yousef Jdey as the mailer if the FBI doesn’t know where he was and, according to former top CIA analyst Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, Jdey was released before the mailings?
Did Jdey know Aafia? Did Jdey know Al-Timimi? Did Jdey know Slahi?
http://caseclosedbylewweinstein.wordpress.com/2011/04/27/how-was-the-fbi-able-to-exclude-abderraouf-yousef-jdey-as-the-mailer-if-the-fbi-doesnt-know-where-he-was-and-according-to-former-top-cia-analyst-rolf-mowatt-larssen-jdey-was-released-before-the/
The FBI recently denied a FOIA request relating to documents relating to Jdey. I’ll post it within the week or so after I scan it.
The BOLO offered at the same time as the Florida-based Jafar the Pilot is $5 million reward for his capture.
http://caseclosedbylewweinstein.wordpress.com/2010/11/29/is-abderraouf-ben-habib-jdey-the-anthrax-mailer/
Did Atta and Jdey meet in Portland immediately before 9/11?
What were Adnan El-Shukrijumah’s whereabouts? When the FBI asked Aafia whether she knew him, she freaked out and insisted to her husband and brother that she needed to leave the country immediately. She screamed “Do you want me killed!” “Do you want my children killed!” The new book by Deborah Scroggins has a riveting description of the first FBI interview and her reaction. She discussed Al Qaeda’s program with KSM’s husband Al-Balucchi who she married after being divorced from Ahmad, the accomplished anesthesiologist. Al-Balucchi worked with Al-Hawsawi who had the anthrax spraydrying documents on his computer.
Ali M. Haider (@alimhaider) said
Has this doc been noted before?
http://www.judicialwatch.org/files/documents/2009/interrogation-report-07122005.pdf
anthrax at pp. 4-5
QRPer ..
DXer said
I don’t recall seeing it or linking it. Thanks very much for the citation and link. Although I am rushing out the door now, it looks like it warrants a close reading and will turn to it shortly.
DXer said
Ali,
That’s a very quotable, authoritative discussion. Thanks again for the link. I had previously suggested that the names of Yazid’s two assistants were Barq and Wahdan and that they were captured in 2003. The President noted the two assistants had been captured (perhaps in the State of the Union) but had not named them. One was Egyptian and one was Sudanese. But my information was sole source and some years after the fact (and depended on the person’s recollection of the names without the documents available to refresh his recollection). My impression is that they were not very talented.
It is also interesting that it points out where the information first came about Jafar the Pilot (Adnan El-Shukrijumah). I don’t recall offhand that chronology.