Hi,

Just some speculation here - I have no first-hand knowledge of what's known or not known about the anthrax cases and the 9/11 attacks.

Here's what I think is known so far:

1. The anthrax exposures have been small so far - the site in Florida and CBS in NYC (which IIRC they still don't know how it was spread), and the 3 letters (NBC, NY Post, Sen. Daschle). It seems to have been limited to 5 exposure events (with other exposures via the letters in the mail system, etc.).

2. Bin Laden has been accused of involvement in several incidents against the US which were usually of a much larger scale:

a. Bombing of Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia. (Truck bomb).
b. Attack on US troops in Somalia. (Ambush, small arms.)
c. Bombings of US embassies in Africa (Truck bombs).
d. Bombing at WTC. (Truck bomb).
e. USS Cole bombing in Yemen. (Boat bomb).
f. 9/11 attacks on the Pentagon and the WTC. (Aircraft).
g. Attempted attacks on several aircraft from the Philippines and the Pope (thwarted).

There may be others in Europe and elsewhere that I haven't recalled.

3. There are rumors of contacts between bin Laden operatives and Iraqi agents before the 9/11 attacks.

4. There are statements attributed to bin Laden that he wants biological, chemical and nuclear weapons to use against the US.

5. There are many sources for anthrax bacteria, though US sources have become much more tightly controlled in the last few years. Many countries in the mid-east, Russia, and others are rumored to have anthrax weapons capabilities.

6. The anthrax used apparently wasn't extremely finely ground as one would expect for "weapons-grade" material. But it was processed finely enough to become airborne and spread in the Hart senate office building.

7. The handwriting and spelling on the 3 letters released yesterday looks and sounds strange. The envelopes used an embossed stamp so that the user wouldn't have to risk personal DNA getting under a postage stamp. It seems to use deliberately masked handwriting to me (that or someone with child-like writing techniques wrote the letter). I think the "Death to ..." statements could very well be an attempt at misdirection to the "Islamic" militants. The "9/11/01" dating of the letters makes me suspect it has US origin, as foreign states often use different dating conventions (day/mo/year or year/mo/day). But that could be intentional as well.

8. The NBC and NYPost letters were post-marked 9/18, IIRC, while the Senate letter was postmarked 10/8, IIRC. All from Trenton, NJ. It seems that the person(s) responsible were able to mail the letters two separate times without detection.

9. The press and a leader of the Democratic party were targeted (excluding the case in Florida which doesn't seem to fit). Some spores were found in the White House mail processing facility, but nothing concrete has been detemined about that yet.

Questions:

How could the perpetrator of the anthrax exposures mail the letters without becoming infected themselves? Did the processing equipment cause the spores to escape, or did the perpetrator have to mail the letters in a biohazard suit? Did they become infected? Did they leave the US on or around 10/8 after mailing the second letter? If I were investigating this case, I'd certainly be interested in other anthrax cases around the world.

Based on what we know now, I don't think that it will be easy to prove a bin Laden link. The attack seems too small-scale to fit his previous actions. Unless it was a "trial run". :-( If feels in my gut more like a domestic terrorist at present. Why would Daschle be targeted and not Bush, Hastert, Powell, Rumsfeld, etc., if it was a foreign person with grievances against the US? Targeting the press certainly makes sense if one wants to spread terror, but why the NY papers and NBC? Why not the Voice of America and CNN?

I hope who ever did it is found soon. I hope they don't end up just blaiming it on [link|http://www.apbonline.com/newscenter/majorcases/rudolph/|Eric Rudolph] though. (Unless he really is behind it.)

Cheers,
Scott.