Robert Lederman here:
[It looks like the "conspiracy theorists" Bush denounced aren't so far off
base after all. The FBI now believes (exactly as Dr Len Horowitz, Dr.
Patricia Doyle and myself among numerous others on the www have written
about for months) that drug companies may have been behind the anthrax
mailings, and the government now admits it left out key parts of the bin
Laden tape transcript that were embarrassing to Bushs' Saudi friends. What's
next, an admission that we attacked ourselves on 9/11?]
Washington Post
FBI Investigates Possible
"Financial Motive in Anthrax Attacks"
1) Anthrax Exposure Estimates Increased (The Washington Post, Dec 21, 2001)
2) Anthrax Vaccine Plan Sows Confusion (The Washington Post, Dec 20, 2001)
3) Investing in National Security (The Washington Post, Dec 20, 2001)
By Susan Schmidt and Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, December 21, 2001; Page A21
The FBI is pursuing the possibility that financial gain was the motive
behind the mailing of letters containing deadly anthrax bacteria and has
conducted extensive interviews of personnel at two laboratories and possibly
more, according to government officials.
Although investigators have not ruled out other possible motives, they have
conducted dozens of interviews in at least two labs to determine whether
potential profit from the sale of anthrax medications or cleanup efforts may
have motivated the bioterrorist believed responsible for the attacks, the
officials said.
The current line of inquiry represents a deepening interest in one possible
motive for investigators, who have examined a range of scenarios since the
anthrax attacks on media and government representatives began this fall.
Authorities have probed whether foreign terrorists or homegrown extremists
are responsible for the attacks but have come to favor the theory that the
bioterrorism is likely the work of an individual operating in this country.
Investigators are still looking at a wide range of possible motives,
including revenge and an attempt to implicate Iraq. Although authorities
believe the person who mailed the anthrax spores may have some scientific
expertise, they are not convinced the person necessarily produced it. The
material could have been stolen, officials have said.
The focus on a profit motive may help explain why the FBI has yet to seek
samples of anthrax spores from two foreign laboratories known to possess
Ames-strain anthrax microbes that genetically match the material sent to
Sens. Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) and Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.). Those labs
are the Canadian armed forces' Defence Research Establishment Suffield
(DRES) and Britain's Defence Science and Technology Laboratories at Porton
Down.
Spokesmen for the two foreign laboratories said they have not been contacted
by the FBI or asked for samples of their germ stocks. Neither lab ever
processed the Ames strain of anthrax in the powdered form found in the two
letters, which readily becomes airborne and is easily inhaled.
"Porton Down has received no request from the FBI for information on its
security arrangements, but if we were contacted, we would cooperate fully,"
said Sue Ellison, spokeswoman for the British lab.
Kent Harding, chief scientist for DRES, said the institute has "only been
contacted by media at this point."
But a senior law enforcement official, speaking on the condition of
anonymity, said there are reasons the FBI has not yet asked those labs for
the samples. He said the bureau is looking at its most important leads first.
He also noted that it will be some time before there is anything meaningful
to compare with samples from other labs, because the anthrax spores in the
Leahy letter are still undergoing chemical analysis. That process may take
weeks to complete.
The letter to Leahy, found among quarantined mail, was unopened, leaving a
substantial quantity of material inside for the FBI to test. The letter is
seen as the FBI's best hope for forensic clues in the attacks that have
killed five people and sickened 13.
A possible profit motive for the attacks has been the subject of speculation
among scientists. Richard Ebright, a microbiologist with Rutgers
University's Waksman Institute, said the list of possible scenarios and
perpetrators would be quite long -- ranging from drug manufacturers to
companies specializing in decontamination and cleanup.
"There are numerous mid-Atlantic regional links to all of these
possibilities," said Ebright. "Doesn't narrow the field much, does it?"
DNA tests have confirmed that the spores used in the terrorist attacks are
genetically identical to a strain obtained by researchers at the U.S. Army
Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) at Fort
Detrick, Md., in about 1980. The Army has acknowledged distributing the
strain to five other agencies, and some of the strain was in turn shared
with other researchers.
The five labs that received the Ames strain from USAMRIID are the Army's
Dugway Proving Ground in central Utah; Battelle Memorial Institute in
Columbus, Ohio; the University of New Mexico's Health Sciences Center in
Albuquerque; the Canadian DRES; and Porton Down.
Battelle, a private contractor that has worked with the Pentagon in
developing defenses against biological attacks, is one of several labs
visited by FBI agents investigating the anthrax attacks. Katy Delaney, a
Battelle spokeswoman, said the company has cooperated fully with the
government's investigation.
FBI agents "have interviewed people on our staff," Delaney said, but she
declined to provide information about the nature of the interviews or how
many Battelle employees had been questioned. "I can say that we have
continued to provide all of the information and material that has been
requested by the government," Delaney said.
Battelle is a contractor at Dugway, which last week acknowledged making a
powdered form of anthrax to use in testing sensors and other equipment used
to defend against biological attacks.
In the past several weeks, the FBI has also learned that a CIA defensive
biowarfare program has involved the use of Ames-strain anthrax.
Investigators have been very interested in the CIA program, government
officials said, including work done by private contractors in connection
with it.
Investigators learned belatedly that the CIA possessed Ames-strain anthrax
spores because the agency was not listed among 91 labs registered with the
federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to handle various strains
of anthrax bacteria. Before 1997, labs that possessed anthrax spores but did
not transfer them to other labs were not required to register with the CDC.
The FBI has been surprised to learn only anecdotally of some programs, such
as the CIA's, which have the material.
The CIA program was designed to develop defenses to a vaccine-resistant
strain of anthrax reportedly created by the former Soviet Union. CIA
officials have said they are certain the anthrax used in the mailings did
not come from their work, that none of it is missing and that the small
amount in their possession was not milled into powder form.
Staff writers Steve Fainaru and Rick Weiss contributed to this report.
--------------------------------
Friday December 21 2001 02:52 AM EST
Bin Laden Translation Omitted Sections
By John Miller ABCNEWS.com
A new ABCNEWS translation of the Osama bin Laden videotape released last
week reveals information that may be embarrassing to Saudi Arabia, a very
important U.S. ally. Bin Laden Hunt Strains U.S-Saudi Relations - Excerpts
of the Bin Laden Video Weigh In - Poll: Americans Believe Toughest Battles
Ahead
When the videotape of Osama bin Laden talking about the Sept. 11 terror
attacks was released by the United States government on Dec. 13,
administration officials spoke at length about the extensive effort to
achieve a full and accurate transcript.
The translation commissioned by ABCNEWS, however, reveals new elements that
raise questions about what the government left out of the official version
and why.
The new translation uncovers statements that could be embarrassing to the
government of Saudi Arabia, a very important U.S. ally. Bin Laden's visitor,
Khalid al Harbi, a Saudi dissident, claims that he was smuggled into
Afghanistan by a member of Saudi Arabia's religious police.
He also tells bin Laden that in Saudi Arabia, several prominent clerics,
some with connections to the Saudi government, made speeches supporting the
attacks on America.
"Right at the time of the strike on America, he gave a very moving speech,
Sheikh Abdulah al Baraak," bin Laden said on the tape. "And he deserves
thanks for that."
Sheikh al Baraak, to whom the visitor refers, is a professor at a government
university and a member of an influential council on religious law.
"It shows that bin Laden's support is not limited to the radical side of
Islam but also among the Saudi religious establishment," says Fawaz Gerges,
professor of Middle Eastern studies at Sarah Lawrence College. "And that is
bad news for Saudi Arabia."
The new translation reveals bin Laden's intimate knowledge of the hijackers
themselves. Bin Laden mentions not just the ring leader Mohamed Atta but
several of the hijackers by name, including the al Hazmi brothers: "So these
young men, may God accept their action, Nawaf Al Hazmi, Salim Al Hazmi".
A member of the team that translated the tape for the U.S. government said
the ABCNEWS translation is consistent with portions of the government's
transcript that have not been released to the public.
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