Anthrax Attacks and Chechnya: Additions to the Complete 9/11 Timeline as of August 23, 2007

Most new entries this week again look at the 2001 anthrax attacks. In October 2001, the FDA only recommended Cipro for use against the disease, despite a plentiful supply of alternatives, and the FBI investigation into the attacks was hampered when it destroyed an original batch of Ames strain anthrax. In November, reports began emerging linking the USAMRIID lab to the attacks, although its head later claimed a "lot of good" had come out of them. Despite its suspicions of him, the FBI let now-chief suspect Bruce Ivins, who was hospitalised in July 2008, get deeply involved in the investigation, as was top scientist William Patrick, but only after the FBI had polygraphed him as a potential suspect.

Falsely accused scientist Steven Hatfill was named by the FBI as a "person of interest" in August 2002, when the FBI told LSU to cease and desist employing him on government programs. In response, Hatfill claimed he was being set up as the "fall guy" and the Washington Post was critical of the investigation. An FBI linguistics expert also expressed frustration at problems in the inquiry. Seeking witnesses to the mailings in New Jersey, the FBI only showed Hatfill's photo; it then proceeded to trash his apartment and search it for a third time.

In Chechnya, the first war ended in August 1996, after which Islamist militants established training camps and increased their power. Russia began planning for a second invasion in March 1999, spurred on by Chechen raids on the province of Dagestan in August.

The Russians began bombing Chechnya in late August, followed by a ground invasion in September. Some Chechen warlords allegedly developed close relations with Osama bin Laden during the war, but the fighting had largely subsided by 2005-2006, when Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev was killed.

Miscellaneous entries cover a comparison between the "war on terror" and the "war on drugs" made by an official at the White House, which pressured MSNBC not to broadcast an interview with former president Bill Clinton a week after 9/11. On the day of 9/11, in the early morning preparations continued for a bioterrorism exercise in New York, and, instead of going to the National Military Command Center after learning of the first WTC crash on 9/11, a military official kept a dental appointment.

Both singer Willie Nelson and a future UN official questioned what is known as the "official account" of 9/11. Finally, an attack warning arrived too late to save the USS ''Cole'' in 2000, laser technology was used to map ground zero, and the US solider death count recently reached 500 in Afghanistan.

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