Speaking of incredibly inept US Government bureaucracies.....
"Saturday, Oct. 27, 2001 2:31 p.m. EST
Clintonized FBI Fingers 'Right-Wing
Hate Groups' in Anthrax Probe
In a move reminiscent of the botched FBI
investigations of the Clinton era, the bureau is
actively pursuing weak leads suggesting
"right-wing hate groups" are involved in the
recent wave of anthrax attacks on the U.S.
Meanwhile, clear circumstantial evidence pointing
to Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden appears to
have been placed on the back burner.
Before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, the U.S.
hadn't suffered a single case of inhalation
anthrax since 1976.
Still, probers continue to insist they see no
connection between the events of that day and the
anthrax-laden letters sent out the next week to
every branch of the U.S. government, the CIA, the
big three network news divisions and the
headquarters of prominent newspapers from New York
to Florida.
"Everything seems to lean toward a domestic
source," one senior FBI official told the
Washington Post Saturday. "Nothing seems to fit
with an overseas terrorist-type operation."
For some victims, such a claim seems more than a
little absurd.
Steve Coz, for instance, whose National Enquirer
headquarters in Florida was the first to be hit
with an anthrax attack, complained two weeks ago
that Al-Qaeda terror kamikaze pilot Mohamed Atta
had been spotted in a local drugstore with
reddened hands - a condition he thought could be a
symptom of cutaneous anthrax.
Another detail the FBI seems anxious to overlook:
The widely reported visits by Atta and his
co-conspirators to Florida airfields, where they
inquired about renting cropdusters and the size of
the chemical loads the planes could disperse.
The bureau seems none too interested in other
potential evidence that could tie Atta to the
anthrax assault.
"In Florida, agents haven't tested cars or
residences used by some of the hijackers,
including those of Mohamed Atta," reported the
Wall Street Journal Thursday. "FBI officials said
testing isn't a priority, because they assume that
by now, the hijackers' cars and apartments would
have been cleaned, removing any trace of anthrax."
Ken Alibek, who headed up the Soviet Union's
biological weapons program, said the FBI's
"assumption" is wrong. He told the Journal that
investigators should be conducting extensive
testing for anthrax traces in vehicles used by
suspects and in all places that a suspect resided.
Alibek's advice notwithstanding, Special Agent
Rene Salinas told the paper, "At this time, there
are no plans to go back and check [Atta's car and
apartment] for traces of anthrax."
The FBI's belief that so-called domestic terror
groups are behind the bioterror scourge is also
belied by Friday's reports that anthrax found in a
letter sent to Sen. Tom Daschle contained
bentonite, a substance weapons experts say is
Iraq's signature.
While some analysts point out that bentonite was
also used in U.S. anthrax production, the Journal
reported Friday that those stocks "were destroyed
in the 1960s."
Dr. Khidhir Hamza, a former top official in Iraq's
weapons of mass destruction program, also
disagrees with the FBI's domestic terrorism hunch.
"This is Iraq," Hamza told CNBC.
"This is Iraq's work. Nobody [else] has the
expertise outside the U.S. and outside the major
powers who work on germ warfare. Nobody has the
expertise and has any motive to attack the U.S.
except Saddam to do this. This is Iraq. This is
Saddam." (Read NewsMax.com's exclusive report on
Dr. Hamza's comments.)
Saturday's news that the Czech government now
confirms several meetings betweeen Atta and a top
Iraqi intelligence official in Prague last June -
combined with reports last week that bin Laden was
able to purchase anthrax from a factory in the
Czech Republic - add further legitimacy to
suspicions of a foreign bioterror tie. (See Osama
Bought Anthrax.)
Still, as the evidence mounts of Al-Qaeda and
Iraqi involvement, the FBI seems hell-bent on
looking the other way.
"Ultra right-wing organizations - including a
particular West Coast group - have become a key
focus of the massive federal investigation into
the murderous anthrax attacks," the New York Post
reported Thursday.
"Our feeling is the anthrax does not point to an
international terrorist group," an FBI source told
the Post for its front-page report.
The sentiment was echoed by a Washington Post
front-page report two days later:
"The FBI and U.S. Postal Inspection Service are
considering a wide range of domestic
possibilities, including associates of right-wing
hate groups and U.S. residents sympathetic to the
causes of Islamic extremists," reported Post star
Bob Woodward.
What actual evidence does the FBI have of a
homegrown anthrax plot? Not much, at least if
published reports are any indication.
Charges against suspected domestic bioterrorist
Larry Wayne Harris, who was thought to be
targeting Las Vegas with "weapons grade anthrax"
earlier this year, had to be dropped after the
"suspicious biological agent" he was carrying
turned out to be a harmless anthrax vaccine.
At least 20 abortion clinics have been evacuated
in the last three years after receiving anthrax
threats - including powdered letters. All turned
out to be hoaxes.
The only U.S. prosecution for domestic
bioterrorism to date was for a man who had mailed
out two suspicious vials along with the note, "You
have just been contaminated by anthrax."
Though the threat alone was a crime, the vials
themselves turned out to contain nothing more
toxic than tap water.
In fact, of the more than 300 homegrown anthrax
scares investigated by the FBI in the last three
years, all proved to be bogus - until bin Laden
put the U.S. in his crosshairs on Sept. 11.
Still, federal probers seem anxious to round up
the usual suspects, no matter how unconvincing the
evidence. One supposed hot lead currently being
pursued: the gun show connection.
"The FBI has been making inquiries about a
Nebraska man who for several years has been
selling manuals at gun shows that provide
information on making chemical and biological
weapons," the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
If the FBI thinks the unidentified suspect
actually possesses any anthrax, it isn't saying
so.
Then there's the ever popular militia angle, which
the bureau is reportedy following with little
apparent reason:
"In Michigan, FBI agents have met several times
since Sept. 11 with Ann Arbor police to talk about
the whereabouts and capabilities of local
militiamen," the Journal noted.
"[There's] some concern that people in that
element might see Sept. 11 as a good way to get
more notoriety and exposure," the local police
chief told the paper, citing no other evidence.
Even the Southern Poverty Law Project, which
monitors U.S. hate groups and is seldom reluctant
to point fingers, told the Post they have seen no
evidence of a domestic group capable of launching
a sophisticated anthrax attack.
If these reports reflect the true thrust of the
FBI's anthrax investigation, it's clear the bureau
has yet to overcome eight years worth of
Clintonization, where the only leads pursued were
the ones that supported predetermined outcomes.
In fact, the bureau's decision not to test Atta's
apartment for trace anthrax seems like déjà vu all
over again.
Recall the Vincent Foster death case, where FBI
agents told Congress there was no need to analyze
blond hairs found on Foster's body or carpet
fibers on his clothing.
Or Flight TWA 800, where investigators were
uninterested in talking to 300 witnesses who said
they saw a missile strike the plane.
With blunders like these, it's no wonder Mideast
terrorists thought they could get away with
anything."
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