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Today's Top News
Vital Unresolved Anthrax Questions and ABC News
The FBI's lead suspect in the September, 2001 anthrax attacks -- Bruce E. Ivins -- died Tuesday night, apparently by suicide, just as the Justice Department was about to charge him with responsibility for the attacks. For the last 18 years, Ivins was a top anthrax researcher at the U.S. Government's biological weapons research laboratories at Ft. Detrick, Maryland, where he was one of the most elite government anthrax scientists on the research team at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Disease (USAMRIID).
The 2001 anthrax attacks remain one of the great mysteries of the post-9/11 era. After 9/11 itself, the anthrax attacks were probably the most consequential event of the Bush presidency. One could make a persuasive case that they were actually more consequential. The 9/11 attacks were obviously traumatic for the country, but in the absence of the anthrax attacks, 9/11 could easily have been perceived as a single, isolated event. It was really the anthrax letters -- with the first one sent on September 18, just one week after 9/11 -- that severely ratcheted up the fear levels and created the climate that would dominate in this country for the next several years after. It was anthrax -- sent directly into the heart of the country's elite political and media institutions, to then-Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD), Sen. Pat Leahy (D-Vt), NBC News anchor Tom Brokow, and other leading media outlets -- that created the impression that social order itself was genuinely threatened by Islamic radicalism.
If the now-deceased Ivins really was the culprit behind the attacks, then that means that the anthrax came from a U.S. Government lab, sent by a top U.S. Army scientist at Ft. Detrick. Without resort to any speculation or inferences at all, it is hard to overstate the significance of that fact. From the beginning, there was a clear intent on the part of the anthrax attacker to create a link between the anthrax attacks and both Islamic radicals and the 9/11 attacks. This was the letter sent to Brokaw:
The letter sent to Leahy contained this message:
We have anthrax. You die now.
Are you afraid?
Death to America.
Death to Israel.
Allah is great.
By design, those attacks put the American population into a state of intense fear of Islamic terrorism, far more than the 9/11 attacks alone could have accomplished.
Much more important than the general attempt to link the anthrax to Islamic terrorists, there was a specific intent -- indispensably aided by ABC News -- to link the anthrax attacks to Iraq and Saddam Hussein. In my view, and I've written about this several times and in great detail to no avail, the role played by ABC News in this episode is the single greatest, unresolved media scandal of this decade. News of Ivins' suicide, which means (presumably) that the anthrax attacks originated from Ft. Detrick, adds critical new facts and heightens how scandalous ABC News' conduct continues to be in this matter.
During the last week of October, 2001, ABC News, led by Brian Ross, continuously trumpeted the claim as their top news story that government tests conducted on the anthrax -- tests conducted at Ft. Detrick -- revealed that the anthrax sent to Daschele contained the chemical additive known as bentonite. ABC News, including Peter Jennings, repeatedly claimed that the presence of bentonite in the anthrax was compelling evidence that Iraq was responsible for the attacks, since -- as ABC variously claimed -- bentonite "is a trademark of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's biological weapons program" and "only one country, Iraq, has used bentonite to produce biological weapons."
ABC News' claim -- which they said came at first from "three well-placed but separate sources," followed by "four well-placed and separate sources" -- was completely false from the beginning. There never was any bentonite detected in the anthrax (a fact ABC News acknowledged for the first time in 2007 only as a result of my badgering them about this issue). It's critical to note that it isn't the case that preliminary tests really did detect bentonite and then subsequent tests found there was none. No tests ever found or even suggested the presence bentonite. The claim was just concocted from the start. It just never happened.
That means that ABC News' "four well-placed and separate sources" fed them information that was completely false -- false information that created a very significant link in the public mind between the anthrax attacks and Saddam Hussein. And look where -- according to Brian Ross' report on October 28, 2001 -- these tests were conducted:
And despite continued White House denials, four well-placed and separate sources have told ABC News that initial tests on the anthrax by the US Army at Fort Detrick, Maryland, have detected trace amounts of the chemical additives bentonite and silica.
Two days earlier, Ross went on ABC News' World News Tonight with Peter Jennings and, as the lead story, breathlessly reported:
The discovery of bentonite came in an urgent series of tests conducted at Fort Detrick, Maryland, and elsewhere.
Clearly, Ross' allegedly four separate sources had to have some specific knowledge of the tests conducted and, if they were really "well-placed," one would presume that meant they had some connection to the laboratory where the tests were conducted -- Ft. Detrick. That means that the same Government lab where the anthrax attacks themselves came from was the same place where the false reports originated that blamed those attacks on Iraq.
It's extremely possible -- one could say highly likely -- that the same people responsible for perpetrating the attacks were the ones who fed the false reports to the public, through ABC News, that Saddam was behind them. What we know for certain -- as a result of the letters accompanying the anthrax -- is that whoever perpetrated the attacks wanted the public to believe they were sent by foreign Muslims. Feeding claims to ABC designed to link Saddam to those attacks would, for obvious reasons, promote the goal of the anthrax attacker(s).
Seven years later, it's difficult for many people to recall, but, as I've amply documented, those ABC News reports linking Saddam and anthrax penetrated very deeply -- by design -- into our public discourse and into the public consciousness. Those reports were absolutely vital in creating the impression during that very volatile time that Islamic terrorists generally, and Iraq and Saddam Hussein specifically, were grave, existential threats to this country. As but one example: after Ross' lead report on the October 26, 2001 edition of World News Tonight with Peter Jennings claiming that the Government had found bentonite, this is what Jennings said into the camera:
This news about bentonite as the additive being a trademark of the Iraqi biological weapons program is very significant. Partly because there's been a lot of pressure on the Bush administration inside and out to go after Saddam Hussein. And some are going to be quick to pick up on this as a smoking gun.
That's exactly what happened. The Weekly Standard published two lengthy articles attacking the FBI for focusing on a domestic culprit and -- relying almost exclusively on the ABC/Ross report -- insisted that Saddam was one of the most likely sources for those attacks. In November, 2001, they published an article (via Lexis) which began:
On the critical issue of who sent the anthrax, it's time to give credit to the ABC website, ABCNews.com, for reporting rings around most other news organizations. Here's a bit from a comprehensive story filed late last week by Gary Matsumoto, lending further credence to the commonsensical theory (resisted by the White House) that al Qaeda or Iraq -- and not some domestic Ted Kaczynski type -- is behind the germ warfare.
The Weekly Standard published a much lengthier and more dogmatic article in April, 2002 again pushing the ABC "bentonite" claims and arguing: "There is purely circumstantial though highly suggestive evidence that might seem to link Iraq with last fall's anthrax terrorism." The American Enterprise Institute's Laurie Mylroie (who had an AEI article linking Saddam to 9/11 ready for publication at the AEI on September 13) expressly claimed in November, 2001 that "there is also tremendous evidence that subsequent anthrax attacks are connected to Iraq" and based that accusation almost exclusively on the report from ABC and Ross ("Mylroie: Evidence Shows Saddam Is Behind Anthrax Attacks").
And then, when President Bush named Iraq as a member of the "Axis of Evil" in his January, 2002 State of the Union speech -- just two months after ABC's report, when the anthrax attacks were still very vividly on the minds of Americans -- he specifically touted this claim:
The Iraqi regime has plotted to develop anthrax, and nerve gas, and nuclear weapons for over a decade.
Bush's invocation of Iraq was the only reference in the State of the Union address to the unsolved anthrax attacks. And the Iraq-anthrax connection was explicitly made by the President at a time when, as we now know, he was already eagerly planning an attack on Iraq.
There can't be any question that this extremely flamboyant though totally false linkage between Iraq and the anthrax attacks -- accomplished primarily by the false bentonite reports from ABC News and Brian Ross -- played a very significant role in how Americans perceived of the Islamic threat generally and Iraq specifically. As but one very illustrative example, The Washington Post's columnist, Richard Cohen, supported the invasion of Iraq, came to regret that support, and then explained what led him to do so, in a 2004 Post column entitled "Our Forgotten Panic":
I'm not sure if panic is quite the right word, but it is close enough. Anthrax played a role in my decision to support the Bush administration's desire to take out Saddam Hussein. I linked him to anthrax, which I linked to Sept. 11. I was not going to stand by and simply wait for another attack -- more attacks. I was going to go to the source, Hussein, and get him before he could get us. As time went on, I became more and more questioning, but I had a hard time backing down from my initial whoop and holler for war.
Cohen -- in a March 18, 2008 Slate article in which he explains why he wrongfully supported the attack on Iraq -- disclosed this:
Anthrax. Remember anthrax? It seems no one does anymore -- at least it's never mentioned. But right after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, letters laced with anthrax were received at the New York Post and Tom Brokaw's office at NBC. . . . There was ample reason to be afraid.
The attacks were not entirely unexpected. I had been told soon after Sept. 11 to secure Cipro, the antidote to anthrax. The tip had come in a roundabout way from a high government official, and I immediately acted on it. I was carrying Cipro way before most people had ever heard of it.
For this and other reasons, the anthrax letters appeared linked to the awful events of Sept. 11. It all seemed one and the same. Already, my impulse had been to strike back, an overwhelming urge that had, in fact, taken me by surprise on Sept. 11 itself when the first of the Twin Towers had collapsed. . . .
In the following days, as the horror started to be airbrushed -- no more bodies plummeting to the sidewalk -- the anthrax letters started to come, some to people I knew. And I thought, No, I'm not going to sit here passively and wait for it to happen. I wanted to go to "them," whoever "they" were, grab them by the neck, and get them before they could get us. One of "them" was Saddam Hussein. He had messed around with anthrax . . . He was a nasty little fascist, and he needed to be dealt with.
That, more or less, is how I made my decision to support the war in Iraq.
Cohen's mental process that led him to link anthrax to Iraq and then to support an attack on Iraq, warped as it is, was extremely common. Having heard ABC News in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attack flamboyantly and repeatedly link Saddam to the anthrax attacks, followed by George Bush making the same linkage (albeit more subtly) in his January, 2002 State of the Union speech, much of the public had implanted into their minds that Saddam Hussein was not just evil, but a severe threat to the U.S., likely the primary culprit behind the anthrax attacks. All along, though, the anthrax came from a U.S. Government/Army research lab.
Critically, ABC News never retracted its story (they merely noted, as they had done from the start, that the White House denied the reports). And thus, the linkage between Saddam and the anthrax attacks -- every bit as false as the linkage between Saddam and the 9/11 attacks -- persisted.
We now know -- we knew even before news of Ivins' suicide last night, and know especially in light of it -- that the anthrax attacks didn't come from Iraq or any foreign government at all. It came from our own Government's scientist, from the top Army bioweapons research laboratory. More significantly, the false reports linking anthrax to Iraq also came from the U.S. Government -- from people with some type of significant links to the same facility responsible for the attacks themselves.
Surely the question of who generated those false Iraq-anthrax reports is one of the most significant and explosive stories of the last decade. The motive to fabricate reports of bentonite and a link to Saddam is glaring. Those fabrications played some significant role -- I'd argue a very major role -- in propagandizing the American public to perceive of Saddam as a threat, and further, propagandized the public to believe that our country was sufficiently threatened by foreign elements that a whole series of radical policies that the neoconservatives both within and outside of the Bush administration wanted to pursue -- including an attack an Iraq and a whole array of assaults on our basic constitutional framework -- were justified and even necessary in order to survive.
ABC News already knows the answers to these questions. They know who concocted the false bentonite story and who passed it on to them with the specific intent of having them broadcast those false claims to the world, in order to link Saddam to the anthrax attacks and -- as importantly -- to conceal the real culprit(s) (apparently within the U.S. government) who were behind the attacks. And yet, unbelievably, they are keeping the story to themselves, refusing to disclose who did all of this. They're allegedly a news organization, in possession of one of the most significant news stories of the last decade, and they are concealing it from the public, even years later.
They're not protecting "sources." The people who fed them the bentonite story aren't "sources." They're fabricators and liars who purposely used ABC News to disseminate to the American public an extremely consequential and damaging falsehood. But by protecting the wrongdoers, ABC News has made itself complicit in this fraud perpetrated on the public, rather than a news organization uncovering such frauds. That is why this is one of the most extreme journalistic scandals that exists, and it deserves a lot more debate and attention than it has received thus far.
UPDATE: One other fact to note here is how bizarrely inept the effort by the Bush DOJ to find the real attacker has been. Extremely suspicious behavior from Ivins -- including his having found and completely cleaned anthrax traces on a co-worker's desk at the Ft. Detrick lab without telling anyone that he did so and then offering extremely strange explanations for why -- was publicly reported as early as 2004 by The LA Times (Ivins "detected an apparent anthrax leak in December 2001, at the height of the anthrax mailings investigation, but did not report it. Ivins considered the problem solved when he cleaned the affected office with bleach").
In October 2004, USA Today reported that Ivins was involved in another similar incident, in April of 2002, when Ivins performed unauthorized tests to detect the origins of more anthrax residue found at Ft. Detrick. Yet rather than having that repeated, strange behavior lead the FBI to discover that he was involved in the attacks, there was a very public effort -- as Atrios notes here -- to blame the attacks on Iraq and then, ultimately, to blame Stephen Hatfill. Amazingly, as Atrios notes here, very few people other than "a few crazy bloggers are even interested" in finding out what happened here and why -- at least to demand that ABC News report the vital information that it already has that will shed very significant light on much of this.
Glenn Greenwald was previously a constitutional law and civil rights litigator in New York. He is the author of the New York Times Bestselling book "How Would a Patriot Act?," a critique of the Bush administration's use of executive power, released in May 2006. His second book, "A Tragic Legacy", examines the Bush legacy.
© Salon.com
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109 Comments so far
Show AllThese 'poison pen' letters were sent to the ONLY two senators who could stop the USAPATRIOT Act.
Dr David Kelly is another that mysteriously died.
FALSE FLAG ??? - FALL GUY DEAD ??? - ABC CO-CONSPIRATOR ???
Is this the incentive that keeps Democrats in line and on board Bush's train?
Convenient, clean, wrap it up; case closed.
The money points right back to the MIC as direct beneficiaries. The attacks were part of an aggressive campaign to properly frame another biological horror. The Vulcans decided it was time to add another incentive for the massive wealth transfer that fortified their facism. Afhganistan would be on fire in less then a month, soon after that ,Iraq.
The terrorists are primarily domestic. They are in positions of power at the highest levels in government, specifically the White House, The FBI, and the NSA. So far none of the stories about Dr. Ivins show any evidence that he was responsible for the Anthrax mailings nor has anyone offered a motive. Tell me again. Amateur pilots hijack 4 jet planes, overthrow the pilots with box cutters, fly the planes half way across the country, crash them into 2 New York skyscrapers and a 3 story building in Washington, D.C. This sounds like a bad made for TV movie. As the band played on...NORAD's highly trained jet pilots whose sole mission is to monitor and defend the skies against attack, failed to respond because they thought the attacks were drills or training exercises, If that's true. Only the NSA could make it happen and it would need help from the WH and the FBI. Fear will make you sit down, shut up and go along with the story of the day. I know I shouldn't ask, but what's next?
I remember reading a National Enquirer story (not sure when, I think early on following the attacks, c. 2001-2002?) that told of National Enquirer having received letters from Iraq, prior to the anthrax attacks/ prior to 911, either threatening or inquiring about anthrax. I did not clip the story. It was in the context of a story concerning the anthrax attacks including the death of the anthrax attacks' first victim, the National Enquirer photographer.
However, I have google searched in vain to find that reference to letters about anthrax coming from Iraq to National Enquirer, and have come up with nothing. Nor have I seen any references to this particular detail (letters from Iraq to National Enquirer about anthrax) in other reports on the anthrax cases. There is solely my uncorroborated memory here.
Two questions: why did this particular detail or story completely disappear? And second, is it related to ABC's "four sources" who attempted to pin the blame on Iraq through fabricated claims?
Ivins' death is of course extremely suspicious, as are ABC's "four sources". ABC must be compelled to disclose these four sources, who may have been guilty of intentionally attempting to instigate a war--about as reprehensible and as treasonous activity as can be imagined. If the "four sources" were innocent of ill intent and were themselves only transmitters, they should come forth voluntarily and offer all they know, in the interests of getting to the truth of what happened.
Only Democrats got anthrax letters.
During the height of the anthrax scare, the FBI destroyed the catalogue of samples of most all known strains of anthrax. This is like the FBI deciding to destroy fingerprint files in the middle of the most urgent murder investigation.
Cipro is NOT the drug of choice for anthrax, whether pulmonary or other. Good old penicillin and tetracycline are fine, unless the strain of anthrax has been weaponized. This one had not.
Cipro, however, is a most dangerous drug, and its side effects can ruin one's life. (Google easily.)
Its only visible advantage to the Bush regime is that the entire world supply was held by its manufacturer, the German company Bayer, which at the moment was confronting possible bankruptcy. Bushies chose to purchase their entire supply or Cipro, on the rationale that it would prophylax (prevent) anthrax.
Once anthrax has been contracted, none of the above three antibiotics can help with the toxin that has already been produced by the bacteria. You may die even if the bacteria is dead, just from the toxin already in your system..
There are at least two drugs which were then approved in Europe but not in the USA, which can not only kill anthrax bacteria but also are antidotal to the toxin. These were offered, free of charge, to the Bushies by the two companies, in unlimited quantities. All that was asked was that the chosen drug(s) thereafter be considered approved in the USA, as already in Europe.
This offer was refused. Also refused was the option to buy a cheap, plentiful Cipro generic. Also refused was the option to distribute penicillin and tetracycline.
Instead, the Bushies bought all 900 million available pills of Cipro, at a cost of 500 million dollars: two or three pills per citizen of the USA; not nearly enough to prophylax our population. (Figures substantially correct, possibly reversed. That would be even worse!)
The grandfather of the Present Resident, Prescott Bush, financed Adolph Hitler for years, as a director and smaller owner (all were Nazis or Nazi sympathisers) of Union Bank. Even ten months after Pearl Harbor, Prescott was still financing Hitler's war effort against American blood, including the corporation FARBEN--manufacturer of Zyklon B gas used in death camps.)
Prescott was eventually stopped by Congress under the "Trading with the Enemy" act. It was not voluntary.
Bayer just happens to be a direct descendant of Farben.
Bushies, while religiously guarding that German (Bayer's) patent on Cipro (by refusing to purchase cheap and plentifully available clone generics of Cipro), were forcing the American people to surrender our own legal privileges, natural rights and dignities, supposedly for the greater good of American National Security.
The bottom line: Bushies refused to buy (or receive for free) any drug which would really protect the country; but instead helped old friends by purchasing an inferior, horribly dangerous product which costs THIRTY TIMES as much as drugs already available, and (unlike Cipro) available in large enough quantities to do the job. They bought Cipro, while refusing much better options. Other nations, also fearing anthrax at the time, rarely wished for Cipro.
No mention of any other possibility was whispered in the mainstream media. Every newscast, that word "Cipro" was drummed and pounded into our homes and hearts. "Minds" were avoided.
With masterful irony and (I feel, perfect sarcasm), Tom Brokaw (the recipient of one Anthrax letter) ended his broadcast: "IN CIPRO WE TRUST."
I didn't know what to think about 911 that very week; but when the anthrax thing came, I knew that antrax was an obviousinside job. That tilted towards viewing 911 as an inside job, as well.
It is now my considered opinion, along with the majority of New York City residents (Zogby scientific poll some years
ago said 49 percent) and 36 percent of all Americans--recent Scripps poll 2007?--that 911 was either caused, or permitted, by people high in the Bush Administration; and anthrax definitely so. Slam dunk, as the Bushies say about WMD.
And the National Enquirer attack, Holmes?
Elementary. The Enquirer is the nation's epitome of craziness. The culprit or culprits wanted the world to think that he, or they, were deranged, to put everyone off of the trail. Congress was their first target.
Only Democrats opposed to the Patriot Act received anthrax letters and promptly changed their votes.
The anthrax was traced to military labs.
The first guy they fingered turned out to be innocent after they ruined his career.
Saddam bought weapons grade anthrax illegally from US companies.
Colin Powell waves faux-anthrax at the UN.
The latest "suspect" commits suicide before even going to trial.
And the case still is unsolved
This would be unbelievably laughable were it not so tragically true.
My posts are usually longer but this one will be short.
The USA seems to be suffering from the same malady that all of the other dominate powers through out history: The "talking monkey syndrome".
They have come along way from the "trees". They have from time to time built great societies. Invented some great things. They can breath underwater, fly without wings, they can even travel to another planet. They have learned to cure many diseases, treat the ones they can't cure , and are capable of learning how to continue with these advances from the "trees". But they just can't seem to get past that "talking monkey syndrome".
They are now seemingly collapsing from within as a result of a concentration of the power in the hands of a few who are mostly from the same social stratus that has controlled the money and hence the power from the begining. History would have taught them not to allow that to happen---but they don't seem to learn from "history" like the other monkeys---the one's who do not "talk".
The only difference now is that the weapons are so powerful as to be capable of the total destruction of all life forms on the planet; and there are enough fools out there who actually believe that a messiah is on the way back to destroy all the life forms anyway.
So "unitl that happens lets ge trich off the other talking monkeys" seems to be the idea.
The tragic aspect is that Human beings have shown themselves capable of exactly the opposite of what their history has revealed. They just do not seem capable of over coming those aspects of Human nature that tends to lead them to self destruct. They just do not seem to learn from the mistakes of their own history; while other monkeys ---the ones who do not "talk" seem to learn from history.
Like "stay away from those talking monkeys, they are very dangerous".
The people, and especially the one's in the USA---- are simply talking monkeys so far---and with all of the promise they have----they don't show much improvement from their history, which they don't seem capable of learning from the mistakes---so they repeat them -----often.
Thanks for your time------
It would seem to me that law enforcement would be all over ABC to get the well-placed sources' names. But then I have a pre-9/11 mindset.
When will Ross get his karma like the anchorman did?
"By design, those attacks put the American population into a state of intense fear of Islamic terrorism, far more than the 9/11 attacks alone could have accomplished."
I hate this kind of sentence. As a member of the American population, the only thing 9/11 made me feel was a great deal of anger and curiosity about the ties between the Bushes and the Saudis...not in the form of 'terrorism', but in the form of 'treason'...the Anthrax attacks, frankly, I never took seriously, as they seemed so obviously contrived...anytime anybody wants to launch an actual (not-for-show) investigation into 9/11, I would be extremely attentive and supportive...
Native Son- read "Ape and Essence" by Aldous Huxley.
I am very impressed by this piece of genuine journalism on the part of Glenn Greenwall. I agree wholeheartedly that ABC should publicly divulge the identities of all four of its alleged "sources" regarding the nonexistent bentonite tests, and any sources further connecting bentonite as some sort of signature additive to the biological weapons program of Saddam Hussein's Iraq, and only Iraq.
If ABC doesn't engage in this simple act of public citizenship within let's say one week, a license challenge action should be lodged with the Federal Communications Commission, and the appropriate House or Senate Committee should simply subpoena Ross and the other ABC news department honchos who were wittingly or unwittingly snookered into spreading this disinformation campaign back in late 2001.
Congress can do this, if Congress wants to do this.
While reading Glenn's latest offering (and checking out the link to the bizarre 9/13/01 AEI article by Laurie Mylroie published in WaPo), I came away with a couple of other footnote food tidbits for thought.
First, as whatfools instantly reminded us (and other bloggers here have noted), the targets of the anthrax letters were primarily (shall we say) people of the Democratic persuasion. Columnist Cohen is another example of someone in that category who found his potential willingness towards skepticism about attacking Iraq influenced by the spectre of anthrax vials being smuggled everywhere in the underwear of the jihadi evil doers, with their air fare clandestinely fronted by Saddam.
The immediate targets were mainly Democratic politicians and well respected faces in the mainstream media. How better to build bipartisan support for a war of civilizations doomsday scenario?
Second, the hysteria surrounding the anthrax attacks caused the complete, total closure of mail service between all members of the House and Senate and their constituents back home for several weeks (during which time frame both the Patriot Act, the Afghanistan war AUMF, and a bunch of other anti-terrorist legislation was hastily enacted).
This was a security measure. Every office of every elected official in the Congressional branch of government in Washington DC was closed, sealed, examined for signs of anthrax contamination, and eventually certified as clean from contamination (weeks later), so the office space could be reoccupied and ordinary staff and mail service restored. I distinctly remember the frustrating chaos I had to deal with using only shared FAX service with my own Senator's office during those hectic, fearful days.
Okay. In the brave new age of NSA hi tech surveillance conducted on American soil, just how confident would you (or Senator Leahy or Daschle) be in the privacy of your internal office communications when you got the OK to move your operations back in?
Third, I really recommend linking back to the Mylroie offering of 9/13/01. I know it's old history, and the AEI and WaPo as publishing sources rank high on the propaganda charts, but much like a bug trapped in amber, Laurie Mylroie's screed inadvertantly offers us (now with the benefit of historical hindsight) a snapshot of some essential truth about the official 911 narrative itself.
Here we are, a mere 48 hours after the WTC and the Pentagon have been attacked, and the neo-con think tankers and the Wall Street Journal are braying like blood hounds for a Saddam/Osama connection, no matter how ephemeral the scent. The anecdote Mylroie improbably draws upon is a supposed connection between Al Quaeda and Sudanese intelligence agents, immediately preceding the US embassy terrorist bombings.
If Osama would conspire with Sudanese intelligence to attack our embassies, then why not wouldn't Osama conspire with Saddam's intelligence service? At least that's the general outline of the reasoning, along with speculation about 9/11 as perhaps partly a false flag operation, with bin Laden the fall guy.
But what Ms. Mylroie's article also reveals is that the proof of this Osama/Sudan intelligence agency connection was information procured by torture from a source fortuitously taken into custody by - the Pakistani ISI.
Same guys who later gave us Khalid Sheik Mohammed.
Same guys who were intimately cooperating with the CIA in translating all the NSA surveillance chatter right before the 9/11 attacks took place.
It's indeed more food for thought.
Bill from Saginaw
This is absolutely frightening. This story CANNOT die out !
(Note to celeb-u-hos: keep your legs closed this week, will ya ?)
Btw, if Obama wants to make a REAL *change*, he'll demand action.
Bill, awesome post !
Wow. So much subterfuge in the USA in such a short time. And no one asks the obvious questions, or seems to even want to know the truth.
Who exactly alerted Cohen that anthrax attacks were not entirely unexpected? Who else was informed of this fact at the time, and took it seriously enough to obtain (be given?) Cipro?
Was that not highly unusual? As unusual as, say, S.F. Mayor Willie Brown being informed prior to the attacks by "his people" not to fly as was scheduled on 9/11/01? Or as someone alerting Mayor Giuliani, as he has said, that the WTC towers were about to collapse (as has never happened before or since in history for a steel framed building)? Or as the five Israelis in NYC observed photographing each other in front of the burning towers while apparently celebrating the WTC attacks (later arrested and linked to the Mossad)? Perhaps the 9/11/01 events also "were not entirely unexpected" by the very same people who spoke to Cohen?
Hmmm. Thus far Ivin's profile seems to hint at Opus Dei (a.k.a. "Opus Satani" IMO), as with Scalia, and perhaps (likely?) Roberts and Alito. Is it not a strong ally of the rightwing Israelis? Or at the least of the neoconservative agenda?
Fiat lux.
Superb article!
Wow- This is a fascinating development to say the least. A more thorough investigation has seldom ever been more warranted. Connecting the dots on this case may well be the deepest look into the soul of Chimp/Cheney that we may ever get. A look into the heart of darkness. Transparency from the "family values" dictator.
Cohen was tipped off to carry an antidote . . . by whom?
Would like to see ABC and others before Congress, take oath and have the U.S. People hear their answers on cable and the networks, just like we got to see the O.J. Simpson trial.
I read the article in the L.A. Times this morning about Mr. Ivins suicide. There was no evidence mentioned that could possibly link Mr. Ivins to the anthrax mailings. The only thing mentioned in the article was that apparently Mr. Ivins was not sure if he cleaned his bench carefully enough once. He wasn't sure if he swabbed it a second time or not. No discussion of the record keeping practices at that lab. Surely there is a double signature scheme in place to keep track of this stuff?
I want to know why the anthrax was sent to Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy, Democratic Senators who were blocking the Patriot act because they were concerned about its attack on civil liberties, and were pressing for a thorough Congressional investigation of 9/11 which was opposed by Cheney and Bush.
Claiming that a man who may have committed suicide was the lone maniac and therefore investigation closed sounds like something out of Kafka. And if you go to the L.A. Times site and read the article there is a video clip that looks like it is excerpted from a movie version of 1984.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-na-suspect1-2008aug01,0,2251419.story
Some guy commits suicide who has not even been mentioned before as a suspect and now it's front page news all across the country? That does not pass the smell test.
Trust no-one.
It wasn't just Dr. David kelly who died under odd circumstances.
More than 20 well known biologists and bio-chemists died in the last 7 years under very strange circumstances.
Check out Mike Ruppert's 'Crossing the Rubicon' for all the details.
native son- well said.
unfortunately, the human species ( most notably western civilized world) does not seem able to rise above biology and anthropology. a species fighting over resources and eliminating all of the things and people that would compete for those resources.
Where does the US perception of scarcity come from? And where does the belief in the right to exploit arise? other than the chicago school, that is.
this country will not be free, until it stops being afraid. Fear is a powerful control mechanism and " they" play on it every day. they make us afraid, tell us they will protect us- and intimidate and eliminate those who stand in their way to whatever it is they perceive they need/ want.
the book Ishmael was a very insightful read.. and unfortunately, it poses powerful questions and insights.. but no easy solutions..
Better hurry up with the autopsy; the corpse will be cremated in 20 minutes.
As I have been saying for years, the anthrax attacks ARE the SMOKING GUN! This is a much better thread to pull, that will unravel the whole sordid mess.
Hats off to Mr. Greenwald. This really is journalism at its finest.
Laurie Mylroie was called before the 9/11 Commission by Executive Director Zelikow much to the surprise and chagrin of many in his staff, and family members of 9/11 victims. The commission was used, not to investigate the attacks, but substantiate the pretense for invading Iraq. Mylroie's surprise appearance with her "evidence" for Iraqi involvement with al Qeada was for that very purpose. The commission was an "exposition" of "facts," as was told Bob McIllvaine, father of a 9/11 victim by one of the commissioners. The commission "established" al Qeada complicity with the attacks and directed attention completely away from the gaping holes in the official narrative of what happened. It was and is the instrument that keeps the cover up firmly under wraps.
There is very convincing physical, mechanical (photographic, video, audio), and eyewitness (118 eyewitnesses with 178 accounts of explosions in the towers) evidence that the towers were brought down by controlled demolition. Dr. Graeme McQueen presented this evidence in a talk at Waterloo University in March of this year. If the towers were brought down by controlled demolition, there is much, much more to the narrative that Islamic extremists were solely behind the September attacks, as there is by what is implied by Greenwald concerning the anthrax attacks.
The anthrax 'attack' was an inside job.
Why do you think the FBI has put this on the back burner?
In the seven years there has never been one single arrest, or even a hint of a competent investigation. Ask yourself why.
The only people who were named as 'persons of interest' were those who already had an axe to grind over prior Government mistreatment and safety protocol violations.
Again, ask yourself why.
And for this latest death, we have only the authorities word that it was suicide. Just like Dr. David Kelly.
My father was a well known and globally respected microbiologist at the lab where the Anthrax used in the attacks was created. The primary focus of his work was creating tests to identify and cure virulent strains of retroviral microbes which cross the species barrier, like AIDS. He and others who worked closely with him at his and other labs had serious questions about the misappropriation of their work and suspected that they were part of a compartmentalized government program designed to create biological weapons. I asked him once point-blank why he hadn't worked on a cure for the HIV/AIDS virus, since he had devised many similar cures for nearly identical pathogens in several non-human species. His response was that he in fact had looked at the virus with that intention, and to his surprise he discovered indications of genetic splicing which verified to him that HIV/AIDS was created inside a laboratory. He told me that only a handful of people on the planet had the capacity to carry out this kind of work, and they were all colleagues and friends. I do not know how widely this information was made known, even among this small group of scientists, but I suspect that many of his friends and colleagues were informed of the results privately in a non-official capacity. I do know that my father became quite frightened by the implications of this discovery and he immediately ceased working on the project. Very soon afterwards he was infected with an unknown biological agent in a suspicious laboratory accident. The subsequent infection turned into a rapidly spreading cancer and he died soon afterward. Since that time, around 10 years ago, many of his close colleagues and co-workers have died under mysterious and suspicious circumstances. The number is close to twenty now, and while my father never specifically said that he was the victim of an assassination, I believe that that was his position. It certainly is mine, especially considering the string of mysterious deaths of other microbiologists close to him since that time.
Do not for one moment believe that the scientist referenced in the article above took his life to cover crimes he is accused of or to escape punishment. He, like my father and far too many others, was murdered to cover the crimes of others in the military industrial complex who have orchestrated a coup of the United States government, most likely by the CIA on behalf of the Bush Empire and a small group of global elites who care nothing for humanity. These people are radical and dangerous, but they will not succeed in their quest for ultimate power. The shift which is occurring now as we approach the critical nexus of December 21st, 2012 will be their undoing as humanity awakens into a new consciousness. The suppression of this awakening is being carried out daily by a global biological and chemical warfare program which has become known as the Chemtrail phenomenon. Our food and water supplies are also packed with toxins for similar reasons.
The primary function of the mass media is disinformation and mind control. Liberate yourself from it and spend time meditating on the deeper currents of knowing within you. Connect to all life. Cherish every drop of water and give it your blessings. Live in joy and spread loving energy out around yourself into the earth and our universe, and most importantly, be grateful at every moment. If you have the time or inclination to learn about mayan time sciences you will be rewarded with abilities and understanding you might not have thought possible.
Compassion, sharing and forgiveness are the jewels atop the crown of your liberation.
Love yourself and fear nothing.
Thanks, Dad, for my beautiful, incredible life, and for your loving wisdom which has made it possible.
I love you.
This is so absurd ! "Officials" are now saying that this was all a test of a cure ????? I don't think I've ever been so incredulous in my entire life !!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080801/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/anthrax_scientist
WASHINGTON - Anthrax-laced letters that killed five people and severely rattled the post-9/11 nation may have been part of an Army scientist's warped plan to test his cure for the deadly toxin, officials said Friday. The brilliant but troubled scientist committed suicide this week, knowing prosecutors were closing in. ...
ABC and the four unnamed sources could blow it all wide open, and ABC has a long association with the CIA.
Thanks Mouse.
Abe Lincoln did say it was rare to see a government house truly fall because of outside forces. He added that what he saw a lot of were government houses falling becuase of vandalism from within. Hmmm!
Congress and Bush are going on vacation. When the rats are away... Any words from Obama/McCain yet?
For those who can't believe 911 was an inside job, forget that and look into the anthrax attacks. Obviously someone attempted to frame Muslims for mailing the letters and afterward the Cons attempted to implicate Atta and Iraq. This list of scientists and microbiologists that have died mysteriously over the last 7 years should be investigated as well. Dead men tell no tales.
http://www.wanttoknow.info/ 02050...504globeandmail
"...just as the Justice Department was about to charge him..."
Who did Bush's Attorney General sent to tell Bruce E. Ivins that he was about to be charged and did he bring the pills?
Cedar,
When Lee Harvey Oswald was in the custody of the Dallas Police Department after the assassination of JFK, he was saying that he was a patsy and that he had been set up. They sent Jack Ruby over there and Oswald didn't say that, or anything else ever again - He was dead! Dead men tell no tales.
I have a question for Common Dreams:
How come you don't include Al-Jazeera English among your links to news services?
What is significant about the anthrax attacks is that it shut down congressional offices in a time of extreme crisis. The cleaners who were allowed in the building had access to ALL of the computers and paperwork. I'm sure they checked the hard drives for anthrax or other items of interest.
I'm glad Greenwald tells the story of the ABC sources that should be revealed, questioned, etc. And I agree that it all appears to be an inside job -- not a lone scientist seeking more anthrax funding, as some contend.
But Greenwald assumes too much:
"We now know — we knew even before news of Ivins' suicide last night, and know especially in light of it — that the anthrax attacks didn't come from Iraq or any foreign government at all. It came from our own Government's scientist, from the top Army bioweapons research laboratory."
The conclusion may be true, but the premises don't necessarily prove it:
- Ivins may have been a very nervous scientist after 9-11 and the letters had been sent, a man who went out of his way to deal with any signs that might point to him, not because he sent the letters, but simply because it was obvious that fingers might soon be pointed at a patsy to take the fall for someone else. This may have been motivation for the clean-up.
- He may have committed suicide because he was the suspect, and they were closing in on him.
- Or he may have committed suicide because he was not the suspect, and because the "inside job" story had been established, some insiders were very intent upon fingering a patsy before the end of the Bush administration.
- Or he may have been killed. Or, or, or.
It's just very hard to say. Sure, it's now a fact that it was a lame effort to frame Muslims and SH.
- How, specifically, did it come to that?
- If it was an inside job connected to the White House (as many suspect), who in the Bush administration or elsewhere made the calls to which parties, to establish which degrees of seperation, by what means, so that the letters would be sent and appear to be from Muslim radicals?
To make a case for treason by high officials in the Bush administration, you need links and evidence. It doesn't seem we have that yet. Keep working folks.
Mr. Ivins supposedly overdosed on Tylenol with Codeine... do you have ANY idea how much of that stuff you need to take in order to kill yourself? Believe me, it's a WHOLE lot. As well, getting your body to keep that many T3's (or whatever) down long enough to kill you is tough.
When I was a young man of 17, I became horribly depressed and one night I took 200 T1's (8mg codeine each) and 52 percacets (15mg oxycodone each) and proceeded to go to bed. I woke up in the morning to find I was still here... parents called 911 and spent the day in the hospital and was high for 4 days. Still alive though. So therefore, that tells me that this particular drug is NOT good for suicide. Makes me wonder about the whole thing. Besides that, being a 'bio-weapons' expert, I'm sure he could come up with much simpler ways of suiciding himself. Seems odd to me. Just a thought though.
Mouse may be telling the truth, or Mouse may be a mole of sorts, poisoning the well of information, planting a misleading story that, nonetheless, appeals to progressives.
Don't assume that a story is true just because it appeals. If we were investigative journalists, we'd be asking Mouse to reveal his identity and go public.
Unfortunately, part of Mouse's story conforms to that of Barack Obama's former pastor who condemned the US for inventing aids as a weapon to use against blacks.
May or may not be true; just because the drink is sweet, don't assume it isn't poison. One should strive to establish facts by obtaining harder evidence.
PF-Flyer, which part of Mouse's comment are you refering to, or are you just questioning the truth of all of it?
I know that you must be aware of the many sites with information and evidence suggesting that HIV/AIDS was man-made.
Thanks, Mouse. You write that, "The primary function of the mass media is disinformation and mind control. Liberate yourself from it." You also write that your father "was infected with an unknown biological agent in a suspicious laboratory accident. The subsequent infection turned into a rapidly spreading cancer and he died soon afterward. Since that time, around 10 years ago, many of his close colleagues and co-workers have died under mysterious and suspicious circumstances."
Because these are government secrets, none of us will be able to think beyond, "Mouse is a kook in denial over her dad's death." Yet, without your liberation rap, I easily subscribe to your theory. The greed of the powerful knows no morality.
Bush murdered Saddham,
without the moral courage Saddham called for when he challenged Bush to a duel to solve the issue of going to war. Kucinich should include this murder charge in his impeachment list of crimes. Saddham's personal revolver is now in the Matt Dillon White House.
The sad thing is 90% of people will buy into the fact the case is closed and it was a rogue scientist and not part of the conspiracy.
Bush & Company must be doing some house cleaning, cleaning out the skeletons. Osama will soon be caught and killed soon, but maybe his body wont be able to be identified. How convenient. But Bush can then say, Mission Accomplished. Osama gone, anthrax killer caught, surge worked, the economies in good shape (watch oil go to 80 dollars a barrel over the next few months). It will all go to hell in 2009. Obama can blame the economy on Bush, and Lieberman says AQ will test Obama in his first year like Clinton and Bush were tested, and then we can have a new WOT, although maybe we will be told AQ is now relocated to the US with white recruits (remember that Homegrown Terrorism Act , these dudes think ahead)
this is just SO suspicious!
And let's not forget that shortly before the "attacks" the nation's single database on anthrax strain sources, maintained at the Univ of Iowa (Ames), was ordered destroyed by the Bush admin, thereby making the trace of the mailed spored difficult if not impossible.
There's definitely something rotten at 1600 Penn Ave.
Excellent article. I quit reading on another site when I read the AP's first paragraph:
"WASHINGTON (AP) - Anthrax-laced letters that killed five people and severely rattled the post-9/11 nation may have been part of an Army scientist's warped plan to test his cure for the deadly toxin, officials said Friday. The brilliant but troubled scientist committed suicide this week, knowing prosecutors were closing in."
Did the motherfucker also say "Woo ho ha ha ha" as lightning struck the top of his castle?
"And let's not forget that shortly before the "attacks" the nation's single database on anthrax strain sources, maintained at the Univ of Iowa (Ames), was ordered destroyed by the Bush admin, thereby making the trace of the mailed spored difficult if not impossible."
Source please?