To: jlallen who wrote (7279 ) 10/30/2001 8:32:05 AM From: jttmab Read Replies (1) | Respond to washingtonpost.com The chemical findings appeared to support recent hints by various U.S. officials that Iraq is not a prime suspect in the recent anthrax attacks, which have killed three and wreaked havoc with the postal system. bayarea.com Card also said authorities had so far been unable to identify the source of the anthrax, noting only that it was ''not naturally occurring'' but officials had only two very small samples to work with. washingtonpost.com Top FBI and CIA officials believe that the anthrax attacks on Washington, New York and Florida are likely the work of one or more extremists in the United States who are probably not connected to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terrorist organization, government officials said yesterday.... thetimes.co.uk However, threats against Baghdad were played down by Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary. Speaking on ABC’s This Week programme, he was adamant that “Iraq has not been targeted. You only take military action where there is the clearest possible evidence of culpability and where military action is the only option left. washingtonpost.com Federal officials said yesterday [the same day Rumsfeld was speaking] that the anthrax spores that infected workers at the New York Post and in the office of Senate Majority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) were not mixed with bentonite, .... eviscerated the Talibanwashingtonpost.com Intensified U.S. airstrikes across Afghanistan have "eviscerated" the Taliban's combat power and propelled Northern Alliance opposition forces to the outskirts of Mazar-e Sharif in northern Afghanistan, Pentagon officials said yesterday. washingtonpost.com In the clearest signal to date of Pakistan's unease over the U.S.-led air campaign, Musharraf told Army Gen. Tommy R. Franks, the U.S. commander overseeing the war, in Islamabad that the Pentagon needed to rethink its bombing campaign after 22 days of airstrikes. Musharraf, a key U.S. ally in the campaign, cited civilian casualties and a lack of tangible success , according to Pakistani officials. washingtonpost.com "The number of Talibans has actually increased since the American bombings. They have become more powerful," Sayed Nasir Ahmed, an officer with the rebel Northern Alliance forces in northwestern Afghanistan, said by telephone. washingtonpost.com washingtonpost.com FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III said that the new threats were serious enough to prompt another general warning. He said he believed the previous alert may have averted a terrorist attack, but he provided no details. But officials said again that they did not know how or where the attacks might occur.
