In early June 2003, a Central Intelligence Agency ("CIA") report
concluded that the reason for Mohammed Atta's and Zacarias Moussaoui's
inquiries into cropdusters was in fact for the contemplated use in
dispersing biological agents such as anthrax. An early September
2003 Newsweek article included a rumor by a Taliban source that at a
meeting in April 2003 Bin Laden was planning an "unbelievable"
biological attack, the plans for which had suffered a setback upon
Khalid Mohammed's arrest the previous month in Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
Many people have argued that a US-based Al Qaeda operative is
behind the earlier Fall 2001 anthrax mailings in the US, and that the
mailings served as a threat and warning.(1) Handwritten notes and
files on a laptop seized upon the capture of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed,
("KSM"), Al Qaeda's #3, included a feasible anthrax production plan
using a spray dryer and addressed the recruitment of necessary
expertise.(2) What your morning paper did not tell you, however, was
that the CIA seized a similar disc from Ayman Zawahiri's right-hand,
Mabruk, 5 years ago.(3) Thus, there is a risk that observers
underestimate the time that Al Qaeda has had to make progress in such
recruitment and research and development.
Some may still think Zacarias Moussaoui was going to fly a 5th
plane into the White House. There is an email by Moussaoui, however,
dated July 31, 2001 indicating that he sought to take a cropdusting
course that was to last up to 6 months. Moreover, in March 2003,
Mohammed, reportedly said that Moussaoui was not going to be part of
9/11 but was to be part of a "second wave."(4) Accused September 11
conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui told his trial judge that he had an al
Qaeda mission that would have come after the terrorist attacks. Khalid
Mohammed, known as KSM, explained that his inquiries about crop
dusters may have been related to the anthrax work being done by
US-trained biochemist and Al Qaeda operative, Malaysian Yazid
Sufaat.(5) Al Qaeda's regional operative, Hambali, who was at a key
January 2000 meeting and supervised Sufaat, has been captured.
Sufaat, according to KSM, did not have the virulent US Army Ames
strain that was to be used. That would require someone who had access
to the strain. But nothing would stand in the way of Dr. Ayman
Zawahiri's decade-long quest to weaponize and use anthrax against US
targets that was described by one confidante to an Egyptian newspaper
reporter. The islamist had been released from Egyptian prison and had
known Zawahiri well for many years.(6) So a key question is how they
acquired the anthrax strain first isolated by the Texas Veterinary
Medical Diagnostic Lab in 1980.
I Summary and Introduction
First, Al Qaeda has had anthrax, the raw seed product in its
unweaponized form, since at least 1997, when it was purchased by Bin
Laden through the Moro Islamic Liberation Front ("Moro Front" or
"MILF"). (7) Zawahiri, Al Qaeda's #2, is head of Al Qaeda's
biochemical program. The CIA has known of Zawahiri's plans to use
anthrax for a half decade. The confidante and right-hand man of Dr.
Ayman Zawahiri admitted that Zawahiri succeeded in obtaining anthrax
and intended to use it against US targets.(8) Another senior Al Qaeda
member (a shura or policy-making council member no less) was working
for the Egyptian intelligence services and he confirmed the report in
a sworn lengthy confession. (9) Even Zawahiri's attorney in 1999 said
that Bin Laden and Zawahiri were likely to resort to the biological
and chemical agents they possessed given the extradition pressure
senior Al Qaeda leaders faced. (10) A recently released islamist who
had been a close associate of Zawahiri said that Zawahiri spent a
decade and had made 15 separate attempts to recruit the necessary
expertise to weaponize anthrax in Russia and the Middle East.(11) The
US Army recipe was not used, and obtaining the unprocessed Ames strain
of anthrax used does not pose much of an obstacle or warrant the
weight given it by some press accounts.(12) There was lax control over
the distribution of the Ames strain that was used, especially in light
of the fact that transfers were not even required to be recorded prior
to 1997.(13)
Al Qaeda's anthrax production plans on Khalid Mohammed's computer
did not evidence knowledge of advanced techniques in the most
efficient biological weapons.(14) At least according to the public
comments by bioweaponeer experts William Patrick and Kenneth Alibek,
under the optimal method, there is no electrostatic charge; in the
case of the anthrax used in the mailings, there was an electrostatic
charge(15) Although there was a dominance of single spores and a
trillion spore concentration, there were clumps as large as 40 - 100
microns. (Spores must be no bigger than 5 microns to be inhalable.) As
Kenneth Alibek, the former head of Russia's anthrax production
program, explained on March 31, 2003 in response to a written
question, "This anthrax wasn't sophisticated, didn't have coatings,
had electric charge and many other things." (16) Many point to the
trillion spore concentration as extraordinary. It is far simpler,
however, to achieve a trillion spore concentration in the production
of a few grams than in industrial processing typical of a state
sponsored lab.(17) Until addressed by a November 2002 article by Scott
Shane of the Baltimore Sun (which then was reinforced by his April 11,
2003 story on the results of reverse engineering at Dugway Proving
Ground in Utah), the "trillion spore" issue was at the heart of a lot
of mistaken theories of the matter concluding that state sponsorship
was necessarily indicated. The reported finding at Dugway undermines
the argument of both the "bomb Iraq" crowd and the liberals focused on
Dr. Steve Hatfill who object to US biodefense research because they
view it as being useful for offensive purposes.
Khalid Mohammed says that Zacarias Moussaoui's inquiries about
crop dusting may have related to Yazid Sufaat's anthrax manufacturing
plans. (18) Although the details of the documents on Mohammed's
computer may (or may not) point to possible difficulties in aerial
dispersal, they are fully consistent with the product used in the
anthrax mailings. Al Qaeda had both the means and opportunity.
US-trained Malaysian biochemist Yazid Sufaat met with 9/11
plotters and two hijackers in January 2000. (19) Sufaat was a member
of Al Qaeda and a member of Jemaah Islamiah ("JI") (20) JI has ties
with the Moro Front. (21) Sufaat used his company called Green
Laboratory Medicine to buy items useful to Al Qaeda.(22) (Green
symbolizes "Islam" and Prophet Mohammed's holy war).(23) Zacarias
Moussaoui, who had a crop dusting manual when he was arrested, stayed
at Sufaat's condominium in 2000 when he was trying to arrange for
flight lessons in Malaysia.(24) Yazid Sufaat provided Moussaoui with a
letter indicating that he was a marketing representative for Infocus
Technologies and allegedly provided him $35,000.(25) The crop dusters
were to be part of a "second wave." (26)
After 9/11, Yazid Sufaat traveled to Afghanistan and Pakistan to
work for the Taliban Medical Brigade and to continue his work with
anthrax.(27) As described in US News, a former reporter from the Kabul
Times apparently actually met Sufaat, without realizing it, while
traveling near Kabul in October 2001, perceiving him as Filipino.(28)
The fellow was carrying papers from Zawahiri and bragging about his
ability to manipulate anthrax. (29) Sufaat was arrested in December
2001 upon his return to Malaysia.(30) Newsweek reported that a "second
wave" involving biological attacks had been thwarted upon the arrest
of Al Qaeda members who had been intended to provide logistical
support.(31)
Various doctors, both foreign and American, are associated with Al
Qaeda leaders or operatives, to include the doctors Abdul Qadoos Khan,
a bacteriologist from Rawalpindi and Aafia Siddiqui, PhD, from
Karachi.(32) Microbiologist Abdul Qadoos Khan was charged along with
his son, Ahmed, for harboring the fugitives.(33) As of March 28, 2003,
he was in a hospital for a cardiac problem and had been granted
"pre-arrest bail." (34) Yet all you read about is the arrest of the
son Ahmed Abdul Qadoos, who receives a stipend from the UN for being
officially low-IQ due to lead poisoning.(35)
It was Khalid Mohammed who told authorities about MIT-trained
biologist Aafia Siddiqui, who at one time was thought to be traveling
with a Florida "Atta level" pilot. (36) All the Pakistani press
reported that she was nabbed in Karachi after being spotted at the
international airport on March 29.(37) It was not until three weeks
later that NBC, relying on an unnamed senior official, first reported
her captured. For the longest time, no US newspaper had yet reported
that she was captured and instead stories continued to state that the
FBI is seeking her for questioning.(38) If the sources relied upon by
these journalists did not even know (or would not reveal) that Aafia
had been caught, why do these reporters think they know what's going
on in the Amerithrax matter? Amerithrax is a confidential
investigation. The Pakistan ISI and CIA rarely grant press interviews
in connection with an ongoing manhunt. As agent Van Harp, head of the
Amerithrax investigation has said, the information coming from Khalid
Mohammed is classified.(39)
According to the Pakistan reports, Aafia Siddiqui was spotted at the
international airport and detained (after she was followed to a
relative's house). Some reports say she was coming from abroad, but
the original report the others are all copying say she was coming from
"upcountry." (Karachi is in the south). The reports say she is
suspected of having been a member of Al Qaeda's "Chemical Wire Group."
(40) Perhaps something got lost in the translation, but the phrase
"Chemical Wire Group" has appeared in all the english Pakistan and
India papers. (41)
Officials have not publicly confirmed anything about the
detention or interrogation. There still is a very hot pursuit of the
"Atta-level" Florida pilot that Siddiqui is thought to have known and
been assisting. He is said by one FBI agent to be "very, very, very"
dangerous.(42) The United States truly no longer have time for faulty
analysis or politically-based preconceptions.
Second, the media coverage has been seriously confused on the
issue of motive and the reason Senators Daschle and Leahy would have
been targeted-- tending to simplistically view them as "liberals."
Zawahiri likely targeted Senators Daschle and Leahy to receive anthrax
letters, in addition to various media outlets, because of the
appropriations made pursuant to the "Leahy Law" to military and
security forces.(43) That money has prevented the militant islamists
from achieving their goals. Al Qaeda members and sympathizers feel
that the FBI's involvement in muslim countries like Egypt, Saudi
Arabia, Pakistan, Indonesia, and the Philippines interferes with the
sovereignty of those countries.(44) Indeed, the "Leahy Law" had one of
its most well-known applications in Indonesia. Senator Leahy was
Chairman of both the Judiciary Committee overseeing the FBI and
Appropriations Subcommittee in charge of foreign aid to these
countries. (45) In late September 2001, it was announced that the
President was seeking a blanket waiver that would lift all
restrictions on aid to military and security units in connection with
pursuing the militant islamists.(46) This extradition and imprisonment
of Al Qaeda leaders, along with US support for Israel and the Mubarak
government in Egypt, remains foremost in the mind of Dr. Zawahiri. At
the height of the development of his biological weapons program, his
brother was extradited and executed pursuant to a death sentence in
the "Albanian returnees" case. (47) It's hard to keep up with the
stories about billion dollar appropriations, debt forgiveness, and
loan guarantees to countries like Egypt and Israel and now even
Pakistan -- and those appropriations pale in comparison to the $75
billion in a "Supplemental" appropriation relating to the invasion of
Iraq. Al Qaeda had a motive in mind.
In his Fall 2001 book titled Knights under the Banner of the
Prophet, Zawahiri argued that the secular press was telling "lies"
about the militant islamists -- to include the suggestion that the
militant islamists were somehow the creation of the United States in
connection with expelling the Russians from Afghanistan.(48) Zawahiri
argued instead that they have been active since the assassination of
Anwar Sadat in Egypt because of the treaty between the Camp David
Accord and the resulting peace treaty between Egypt and Israel. The
anthrax letters were sent on the date of the Camp David Accord and
then the date Anwar Sadat was assassinated as if to underscore the
point to anyone paying attention. Most of the "talking heads" on
television, however, knew only that Daschle and Leahy were liberal
democrats and did not know anything of Al Qaeda beyond what they read
in the newspapers.
Third, this tactic of letters is not merely the modus operandi of
these militant islamists inspired by Zawahiri, it is their signature.
The islamists sent letter bombs in January 1997 to newspaper offices
in New York City and Washington, D.C. in connection with the earlier
bombing of the World Trade Center and the imprisonment of the blind
sheik, Sheik Abdel Rahman. (49) The former leader of the Egyptian
Al-Gamaa al-Islamiya ("Islamic Group"), he was also a spiritual leader
of Al Qaeda. The letter bombs were sent in connection with the
treatment of the Egyptian islamists imprisoned for the earlier attack
on the WTC and a related plot. (50) The purpose of the letter bombs --
which resulted in minimal casualty -- was to send a message. (There is
an outstanding $2 million reward). (51) There was no claim of
responsibility. There was no explanation. Once one had been received,
the next ten, mailed on two separate dates, were easily collected.(52)
Sound familiar? Two bombs were also sent to Leavenworth, where a key
WTC 1993 defendant was imprisoned, addressed to "Parole Officer." (53)
Abdel Rahman's son was captured in Quetta, Pakistan in
mid-February 2003.(54) That arrest in turn led to the dramatic capture
of Khalid Mohammed, Al Qaeda's #3. Mohammed was hiding in the home of
the Pakistani bacteriologist Dr. Abdul Qadoos Khan. (55) (Along with
Zawahiri, Abdel Rahman and his two sons have long had considerable
influence over Bin Laden.)(56) He reportedly treated them like sons.
Zawahiri and OBL are Rahman's friends; Mohammed is Yousef's uncle
A sender purporting to be islamist sent cyanide in both 2001 and
2002 in New Zealand and ingredients of nerve gas in Belgium in 2003.
There's even a chapter titled "Poisonous Letter" in the Al Qaeda
manual. Just because Al Qaeda likes its truck bombs and the like to be
effective does not mean they don't see the value in a deadly missive.
As Brian Jenkins once said, "terrorism is theater."
Ramzi Yousef, Zawahiri, Bin Laden, Mohammed, Al Zayat, Abdel Rahman,
Abdel Rahman's son Ahmed
The mailer's use of Greendale School is revealing. Documents
establish that Zawahiri used "school" as a code word for Al Qaeda in
his correspondence. Green symbolizes Islam and was the Prophet
Mohammed's color. (57) By Greendale School, the anthrax perp was being
cute, just as Yazid Sufaat was being cute in naming his lab Green
Laboratory Medicine. "Dale" means "river valley." Greendale refers to
green river valley -- i.e., Cairo's Egyptian Islamic Jihad or the
Islamic Group. The sender is announcing that he is of Jihad-al Qaeda,
which is actually the full name of the group after the 1998 merger of
the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and al Qaeda.
Fourth, as to opportunity, though seldom reported, there is a
wealth of "open source" information about possible Al Qaeda or
Egyptian Islamic Jihad or Islamic Group in the United States and
Canada. The public information relates to those suspected sleepers who
have been detained.
Finally, a number of additional miscellaneous leads in the
investigation are consistent with Al Qaeda's responsibility. The
issues are marked by conflicting evidence. But all of the issues are
consistent with Al Qaeda's responsibility, to include:
a. FBI's Profile The FBI's profile includes a US-based supporter
of the militant islamists. Attorney General Ashcroft has always said
that an "either-or" approach is not useful.(58) The media has tended
to overlook the fact that when the FBI uses the word "domestic" the
word includes a US-based, highly-educated supporter of the militant
islamists. The media's perception notwithstanding, the FBI, for its
part, was always vigorously testing a number of alternative
hypotheses. The FBI has said that authorities do not know whether the
perp is American or Foreign.(59) Asked if the possibility of an
overseas perpetrator (or, for example, a US-based supporter of the
militant islamists) is still open, an investigator said last year,
"Absolutely. Until we get a good suspect identified, we're looking at
all theories."(60)
b. Hijacker Ahmed's Blackened Leg Lesion The hijacker Ahmed Alhaznawi
appears to have contracted cutaneous anthrax in Afghanistan. It's
reasonable to credit his statement that he got the lesion after
bumping into a suitcase he was carrying at a camp in Afghanistan. The
lesion is further evidence of Al Qaeda's anthrax production program in
Afghanistan.
c. Inquiries About Cropdusters The reported inquiries about
cropdusters demonstrate what is at stake. In early June 2003, a CIA
report concluded that the reason for Atta's and Zacarias Moussaoui's
inquiries into cropdusters was in fact for the contemplated use in
dispersing biological agents such as anthrax. It has long been known
Osama Bin Laden was interested in using cropdusters to disperse
biological agents (since the testimony of millennium bomber Ahmed
Ressam).
d. Jennifer Lopez Letter There is a substantial question whether the
letter to AMI, the publisher of the National Enquirer, was a goofy
love letter to Jennifer Lopez enclosing a Star of David.
e. Fort Lee, New Jersey $100,000 Processor One potential lead
concerned a Fort Lee New Jersey $100,000 processor possibly of a type
that could have been used to weaponize the anthrax. (63) The processor
was paid for in cash after a check-kiting scheme. The processor was
delivered to a business front in Ft. Lee at 215 Main St. The address
was 1 mile from pilot Nawaf al-Hazmi at 96 Linwood Plaza, one of the
two hijackers who had attended the January 2000 meeting with anthrax
technician Yazid Sufaat.
f. Suspected Pakistan Anthrax The "confirmed cases" of anthrax in
Karachi, Pakistan, unless a "false positive," have always pointed to
the Karachi connection also evidenced by the time spent there in the
Fall of 2001 by Khalid Mohammed and Yazid Sufaat.(64)
g. Presence of Silica in the Spore Mixture (but not as a Special
Coating) The presence of silica in the spore mixture is notable in
light of Al Qaeda's recommendation of using a silicone sealant to wipe
the inside of the envelope in sending a "Poisonous Letter." Former
Russian bioweaponeer Dr. Alibek -- along with Harvard's Dr. Meselson
-- have explained that there was no special silica coating and that
the silica served no special purpose in "weaponization." Dr. Alibek
and Dr. Meselson have explained that while silica was, in fact,
detected, anthrax spores have an unusual tendency to pick up silica
from their environment. Here, the Al Qaeda manual specifically
instructed to wipe the envelope with a silicone sealant -- containing
up to one-third treated fumed silica -- so as to not kill the
mailman.(65) Alternatively, Alibek explains that silica, commonly used
as an anti-caking agent, may have simply been used as part of the
spraydrying process.
h. Atta's Travels to Prague and the Alleged Iraq Connection. The
present evidence relating to Atta's travel to Prague does not warrant
a conclusion that Al Qaeda obtained the Ames strain from Iraq. Iraq,
however, remains a possible source of the Ames. Former Russian
bioweaponeer Ken Alibek has said that a key Russian scientist assisted
Iraq and that Russia had the Ames strain.(66) Zawahiri traveled to
Baghdad in 1998 with an entourage to attend the birthday party of
Saddam's son.(67) The papers found at headquarters of the Mukhabarat,
Iraq's feared secret police, show that an entourage from Al Qaeda
group was sent to the Iraqi capital in March 1998 from Sudan.
According to at least some reports, Bin Laden rejected the suggestion
of an alliance -- preferring to pursue his own concept of jihad. (68)
i. Ladies and Germs
Only time will tell whether the FBI profilers betting on a lone male
will have to fold their hands.
j. Know Not Just Your Enemy, But Who He Knew: Zawahiri's Travels to
the US
Zawahiri's mission in the United States in 1995 was to do spadework
for terrorism, not fundraising. He traveled under an alias and was
accompanied by a US Army sergeant.(69) What mosques exactly did they
visit and who did they meet? The "Hatfill theory" seems to have been
exhausted or at least lost public favor.
k. Greendale School at Franklin Park: The Return to Fort Lauderdale
and 9/11
As the USA Today explains, the pursuit of Al Qaeda keeps coming back
to Florida.
continued at
http://www.anthraxandalqaeda.com
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