Congress demands anthrax probe answers
FBI had refused, citing concerns about possible investigation leaks
By Joel Seidman and Ken Strickland
Producers
NBC News
Updated: 3:20 p.m. ET Dec 12, 2006
WASHINGTON - In a strongly worded letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales demanding an FBI briefing for members of congress on the ongoing investigation into the anthrax attacks five years ago, thirty-three lawmakers, from both sides of the aisle, joined Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., in demanding investigators tell them what they have learned in the unsolved case.

The FBI has, so-far, refused, citing concerns about possible leaks. But the lawmakers say in their letter that the FBI's response - a blanket prohibition against any further anthrax briefings - is out of line. The letter states that FBI agents themselves may have been leaking sensitive information about the case to the news media when a former scientist who once worked at the Army's infectious disease laboratory at Fort Detrick, Md., became the focus of the investigation.

"Given recent revelations that FBI agents were the anonymous sources for New York Times stories casting suspicion on "person of interest" Stephen Hatfill, it appears that the FBI may itself be responsible for the inappropriate disclosures of sensitive case information," according to the letter sent today to the Justice Department.

The Washington+Post reports that a microbiologist with "alleged al Qaeda sympathies" was under investigation in December 2001, but that he remains abroad and out of reach. The article is filled with unsubstantiated allegations based on flimsy evidence, but clearly it is intended to suggest the Amerithrax scare of 2001 was not the product of the US military.

Consider how this paragraph establishes how the whole story is baseless speculation:

"Precisely what Rauf achieved may never be known with certainty. That's because U.S. officials remain stymied in their nearly five-year quest to bring charges against a man who they say admitted serving as a top consultant to al-Qaeda on anthrax -- a claim that makes him one of a handful of people linked publicly to the group's effort to wage biological warfare against Western targets."

Later, the link is made with the Amerithrax scare (again, look at how little is verifiable in this story):

"Exactly how far al-Qaeda progressed with Rauf's help is not publicly known. No one has turned up any links between his work and the U.S. anthrax attacks, in which spores were mailed in letters to news organizations and U.S. Senate offices. Coalition forces discovered rudimentary laboratories in Kandahar but no evidence of bioweapons production. Yet both the White House and a presidential commission have hinted at additional findings suggesting that the terrorists were much further along than was first thought."

(Reposted in light of the FBI's refusal to brief Congress on the anthrax investigation.)

The anthrax attacks of 2001 and nerve agent scare of 2006 help to clarify and explain what is happening to our country.

The anthrax attacks -- which were sent along with notes purportedly written by Islamic terrorists -- used a weaponized anthrax strain from the top U.S. bioweapons facility, the Fort Detrick military base. Indeed, top bioweapons experts have stated that the anthrax attack may have been a CIA test "gone wrong"; and see this article by a former NSA and naval intelligence officer.

Interestingly, White House staff began taking the anti-anthrax medicine before the Anthrax attacks occurred.

Moreover, the only congress people mailed anthrax-containing letters were key Democrats, and the attacks occurred one week before passage of the freedom-curtailing Patriot Act, which seems to have scared them and the rest of congress into passing that act without even reading it (this is not a partisan issue, since this author believes that party affiliation is not a reliable indicator of loyalty to the Constitution; rather, the senators targeted just happened to pose a threat in 2001 to passage of the Patriot Act).

It appears that the anthrax case is heating up. The FBI has announced that it will no longer provide congress with briefings on the case - in effect stonewalling the public on the investigation. But, with the recent ruling that the NYT must reveal its sources (which is highly unlikely), and now this schism between congress and the FBI, there is always the chance that the renewed interest in the case could yield some new information - or whistleblowers - to unravel everything.

Unravel anthrax - and 9/11 immediately follows. Demonstrate that elements of the US government was behind the anthrax attacks - and 9/11 suddenly is within reach.

The story can be found here:

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/15401908/

Congress, FBI battle over anthrax investigation
Sen. Grassley: FBI has ‘little in the way of results to show’ after five years
By Jim Popkin
Senior Producer
NBC News Investigative Unit

Updated: 2:39 p.m. ET Oct 24, 2006
WASHINGTON - Congress and the FBI are now openly battling over the pace and direction of the anthrax investigation.

Late Monday, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, sent a damning six-page letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales requesting a briefing on the FBI investigation, now five years old. The letter faults the agency for its handling of the case, saying "the FBI has little in the way of results to show for its work."

An update on the Amerithrax story.

Times+Is+Ordered+to+Reveal+Columnist’s+Sources

By NEIL A. LEWIS
Published: October 24, 2006

WASHINGTON, Oct. 23 — A federal magistrate judge has ordered The New York Times to disclose the identities of three confidential sources used by one of its columnists, Nicholas Kristof, for columns he wrote about the investigation of the deadly anthrax mailings of 2001.

The order, issued Friday by Magistrate Judge Liam O’Grady, requires the newspaper to disclose the identities of the three sources to lawyers for Dr. Steven J. Hatfill, who has brought a defamation suit against The Times. The order was disclosed Monday.

Catherine Mathis, a spokeswoman for The Times, said the newspaper would appeal the ruling.

Dr. Hatfill, a germ warfare specialist who formerly worked in the Army laboratories at Fort Detrick, Md., has asserted that a series of columns by Mr. Kristof about the slow pace of the anthrax investigation defamed him because they suggested he was responsible for the attacks.

Five people died in the attacks. Although the federal authorities identified Dr. Hatfill as a “person of interest” in the case, they have not charged him with any crimes.

Food for thought....

FBI & Post Office still offering $2 million reward for information on 2001 false-flag Anthrax Op
http://www.fbi.gov/anthrax/amerithraxlinks.htm

I offer the following as some suggested data:
(for 911Blogger funding! - Just kidding - or am I?)

* USA Today – Anthrax came from US lab
http://www.usatoday.com/news/attack/2001/12/19/anthrax-probe.htm

* Anthrax Missing From Army Lab
http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/bioter/anthraxmissingarmylab.html

* Biological Warfare Experts surprised that Dugway Proving Grounds has been making the Anthrax used in the letters sent to Daschle and Leahy
http://www.lossless-audio.com/usa/index0.php?page=402256740.htm

* Discovery News – Greenpeace reporting leak inside US delegation at UN Biological Weapons Conference in Geneva that US Anthrax attacks are ‘inside job’ by member of US Biological Weapons Program
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/disc_anth.html

* Report: U.S. Expert Believed Behind Anthrax Attacks
http://www.geocities.com/vonchloride/reportu_s_expertbelievedbehindanthr...