* al-Qaeda was seeking anthrax; in Ames, Iowa, anthrax samples were destroyed; is there a connection? text of the new YouTube video

why the FBI failed to solve the 2001 anthrax case

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al-Qaeda was seeking anthrax; in Ames, Iowa, anthrax samples were destroyed; is there a connection?

Before the anthrax attacks, Al-Qaeda was looking for anthrax. Immediately after the anthrax attacks, in Ames Iowa, samples of anthrax perhaps related to the attack anthrax were destroyed. Is there a connection between those two events? Lew Weinstein, author of CASE CLOSED, a fictional account which explains why the FBI failed to solve the anthrax case, maintains a blog which has become a vibrant form for discussion of the actual anthrax case.

Here is the text of the video posted on YouTube …

Hi. My name is Lew Weinstein. I’m the author of a novel called CASE CLOSED, which presents a fictional scenario to explain why the FBI failed to solve the 2001 anthrax case. To promote my novel, I started a blog, and the CASE CLOSED blog has become a host for vibrant discussion and argument over the anthrax attacks and the FBI’s subsequent investigation.

This video suggests a possible connection between two major topics that have been discussed on our blog in the past week or so.

• in 1999 al-Qaeda was looking for anthrax spores and the means to weaponize them.
• in 2001, in Ames Iowa, just days after the first anthrax victim died, hundreds of samples of anthrax were suddenly destroyed.
• is there a connection between those two events?

Jobi Warrick, in an article in the Washington Post, wrote of a man name Abdur Rauf, an al-Qaeda operative who reported to the #2 al-Qaeda Commander, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

• In December 2001, a set of documents was found by coalition soldiers in Afghanistan. Highly redacted portions of these documents were provided by the DIA – Defense Intelligence Agency, were recently published on the CASE CLOSED blog.
• The documents provide evidence of Abdur Rauf’s mission and his possible success. “I have successfully achieved the targets,” Rauf chillingly stated in a letter to al-Zawahiri.

These documents are tantalizing … but there’s much more to be revealed … many questions to be answered.

Now let’s switch our attention to Ames Iowa.

• In October 2001, literally days after the death of the first anthrax victim, a large number of anthrax sampleswere destroyed in Ames Iowa.
• Some of these samples belonged to Iowa State University
• others, according to a report in Coen and Nadler’s recently published Dead Silence, belonged to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which operated labs near the university and interacted frequently with university scientists and students.
• The destroyed anthrax probably included samples of what has become known as Ames strain RMR-1029 which was the very strain the FBI says was used in the anthrax attack letters.

The destruction of anthrax in Ames Iowa is unique

• there are no other known instances of post-attack destruction of anthrax samples in any other research lab in the U.S.
• The people who directed the Ames Iowa autoclave destruction were presumably scientists who presumably understood the forensic value of the DNA in those samples for tracing of the origin of the anthrax used in the attack letters.
• the FBI was aware of the intended Ames destruction and did not object
• although claims that the FBI actually ordered the destruction have not been confirmed.

Is there a connection between Abdur Rauf and Ames Iowa? Well … there could be.

• Suppose one of the locations redacted in the Abdur Rauf materials turns out to be Iowa State University or the nearby USDA labs in Ames Iowa.
• Suppose … in the midst of the nationwide panic after the anthrax attacks, scientists in Ames Iowa realized that Abdur Rauf had visited their labs. Suppose these scientists knew or suspected … or at least feared that anthrax spores were received or stolen by Rauf during the course of such a visit.
• Suppose … the inventory records in Ames Iowa were so poor it was impossible to tell if any lethal anthrax had gone missing.
• and finally … suppose the physical and personnel security at the Ames lab locations, including the strip mall location — yes, the leased strip mall storefront location — used as a laboratory by the USDA, suppose security was so inadequate that transfer or theft of anthrax spores would not have been difficult to accomplish.
• In the absence of full disclosure of where Abdul Rauf went and why the Ames anthrax was destroyed, all of the above suppositions must be considered open questions.

In fact, despite the FBI’s claim that Dr. Bruce Ivins was the sole perpetrator of the anthrax attacks, the CASE is definitely not CLOSED.

These open questions, and many more, are what prompted me to write my novel CASE CLOSED which presents one fictional scenario to explain why the FBI failed to solve the anthrax case.

And it’s why the participants of the CASE CLOSED blog are continuing their efforts to extract and publish information relevant to the 2001 anthrax attacks.

You’re welcome to join us.

• Just do a simple three word web search — case … closed … Weinstein — and click on any of the blog articles you will find.
• watch … or participate … as we seek to learn the truth about America’s unsolved case of mass murder by anthrax
• Welcome to our blog.

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to see the video click >>>

* VIDEO – Al-Qaeda seeks anthrax; Ames Iowa destroys it

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