Not sure they were badly done, it depends on their goal. Mailing letters to specific targets, containing hate language, tells me the perpetrators' goal is to induce fear, rather than to cause mass casualties. If their intent was casualties, they would have attacked with no warning, spraying or depositing the anthrax spores secretly at key locations for maximum exposure, and waiting for the disease to develop. Which, by the way, they may also have done, or are doing. Without fast-responding bio detectors, all we can say is that they had not done this as of 1-2 weeks ago.
The mail attack does not fit the M.O. of Iraq or other organized states, it is either a home-grown hate group, or a renegade terrorist cell(s) acting in concert with the 911 attacks (with or without pre-knowledge).
The spores themselves could have come from anywhere, though by nature of the sheer magnitude of their bioweapon programs, the probability is that they originated in the old Soviet Union or Iraq. That is, assuming we have learned enough in the last few years to keep a tight rein on homegrown threats like Wayne Harris (who was given 200 hours of community service and released on bail after being found with enough anthrax to wipe out an entire city in the mid-90s). |
