* Excerpt on anthrax mailings from Keith Olbermann’s PITCHFORKS AND TORCHES
Posted by DXer on November 7, 2010
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LMW COMMENT …
The FBI’s case against Dr. Ivins is clearly bogus: no evidence, no witnesses, an impossible timeline, science that proves innocence instead of guilt. So what really happened? And why?
I can imagine only 3 possible “actual” scenarios …
- The FBI has more evidence against Dr. Ivins but is, for some undisclosed reason, withholding that evidence.
- The FBI has not solved the case and has no idea who prepared and mailed the anthrax letters that killed 5 Americans in 2001.
- The FBI knows who did it (not Dr. Ivins) but is covering up the actual perpetrators, again for undisclosed reasons.
The “fictional” scenario in my novel CASE CLOSED has been judged by many readers, including a highly respected official in the U.S. Intelligence Community, as perhaps more plausible than the FBI’s unproven assertions.
* buy CASE CLOSED at amazon *
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CASE CLOSED ... what really happened in the 2001 anthrax attacks? 
richardrowley said
From the book by Olbermann:
“As you know, under Mister Bush the FBI closed the case[…]”
Technically speaking, this is not correct: the case was closed in February of 2010, about one year after Obama assumed the office. And some Amerithrax-skeptics held out the hope (they had the audacity to hope) that the Obama Administration would re-examine the case….
DXer said
The personal emails by Dr. Ivins (that he sent from his work computer) are still at JAG as of yesterday but are in progress. These emails by Dr. Ivins are things like jokes or emails between friends. The good thing is the fellow at JAG was almost done with the 300 plus pages and has done the redacting. The legal office is blacking out stuff out beyond or before the FOIA redactions. (It’s never a good sign when a lawyer deviates from protocol in withholding documents). Usually USAMRIID get the unredacted versions and has to do them. After finally getting them from JAG, USAMRIID will review them for missed redactions prior to sending to MEDCOM for release approval. Hopefully, JAG will pass them on soon and they’ll be ready before Washington, D.C. is attacked by Al Qaeda.
What would Gibbs do if JAG told him they were going to withhold such emails for 2 years without justification?
It’s Raining Gibbs
Anonymous said
http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2010/11/09/bush_decision_points/
Bush reads Coulter, and more from “Decision Points”
He considered the possibility that Iraq was behind the anthrax attacks: Bush writes of the 2001 anthrax attacks:
The biggest question during the anthrax attack was where it was coming from. One of the best intelligence services in Europe told us it suspected Iraq. Saddam Hussein’s regime was one of few in the world with a record of using weapons of mass destruction, and it had acknowledged possession of anthrax in 1995. Others suspected that al Qaeda was involved. Frustratingly, we had no concrete evidence and few good leads.
[Footnote: In 2010, after an exhaustive investigation, the Justice Department and FBI concluded that Dr. Bruce Ivins, a U.S. government scientist who committed suicide in 2008, had executed the anthrax attack alone.]
In a now infamous report in October 2001, ABC had reported, citing anonymous sources, that the anthrax was linked to Iraq. The revelation from Bush about the European intel service raises more questions: Were ABC’s sources in Europe? Were they administration officials passing along what they heard from the Europeans? On what evidence was that false intelligence based?
There’s a lot more here, so if you’re reading a copy of Bush’s book and see something interesting, shoot us an e-mail.
Justin Elliott is a Salon reporter. Reach him by email at jelliott@salon.com and follow him on Twitter @ElliottJustin More Justin Elliott
Anonymous said
“One of the best intelligence services in Europe told us it suspected Iraq. Saddam Hussein’s regime was one of few in the world with a record of using weapons of mass destruction, and it had acknowledged possession of anthrax in 1995.”
I would suspect that the European Intelligence Service responsible here is likely Britain’s MI6. Second choice would be the Germans, third the French.
Coincidentally, Vladimir Pasechnik died under mysterious circumstances shortly (within weeks) of the anthrax letter attacks. Googling around shows his death by stroke was not officially reported for weeks. He had defected to Britain in 1989.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Pasechnik
Of course, Britain’s David Kelly died under even more mysterious circumstances in 2003:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_David_Kelly
DXer said
He died on November 21, 2001. It was reported in a full length article on November 23, 2001 in the New York Times. That’s not a delay in the official reporting of his death.
Anonymous said
It was not reported in the UK for another month when his obituary appeared in the The Times. That is unusual.
Not to say the whole thing is not just a coincidence.
Deaths of Kelly and Pashenik may or may not be related to the anthrax letters.
But it is highly probable that George W Bush is talking about MI6 when he states, for the first time in 9 years, that a European Intelligence Agency told the US they suspected a state actor (Iraq) was behind the anthrax attacks.
So, the question really is – what would prompt MI6 to suspect a state sponsored attack?
Anonymous said
Just to add some historical perspective. See article below that demonstrates just what a significant event the anthrax attacks were. A tipping point, a turning point, call it what you will.
That’s what makes the anthrax attacks such a fascinating subject, of course. As we wait to read a $1M report that is, just like everything else associated with the anthrax attacks, delayed.
Seven Days in October
by Michael Massing
The Nation
November 12, 2001
A month ago, when thirty-seven neoconservatives, led by William Kristol, William Bennett and Jeane Kirkpatrick, signed an open letter warning George Bush that failure to attack Iraq would “constitute an early and perhaps decisive surrender in the war on international terrorism,” they were widely dismissed as extremists. But in one short week, the extreme became the mainstream, thanks largely to the anthrax scare and to the media’s role in fanning it.
DXer said
Former President Bush recalls his comment to ABC News Ann Crompton a month after 911 at a press conference:
“A CIA brief on the threat of terrorists spraying anthrax on a city from a small plain was fresh in my mind. “Ann,” I said, “if you find a person that you’ve never seen before getting in a cropduster that doesn’t belong to [him] report it.”
DXer said
Former President Bush noted that:
“Another scenario contemplated the release of bioweapons on subway lines in four major cities during rush hour. Some economic costs could “range from $60 billion to several hundred billion or more, depending on the circumstances of the attack.”
He says “Thousands of government personnel, including Laura and me, were advised to Cipro, a powerful antibiotic.”
It’s been reported and argued that he was advised to take Cipro on 9/11. That would not be surprising given that it had been announced that Ayman Zawahiri intended to use anthrax in an attack on the United States. And so if on 9/11 they (correctly) gleaned that Bin Laden was behind the attack, the Secret Service would have been remiss not to advise President Bush to take Cipro or to at least have it at the ready.
DXer said
For a limited time only, here is a collection of some of the graphics that have appeared on Lew’s website in video form.
Anthrax and Al Qaeda: Infiltration of U.S. Biodefense
http://video.yahoo.com/watch/8534786/22897171