IP: Evidence and Comments on the Source of the Mailed Anthrax

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> Date: Sun, 09 Dec 2001 12:58:52 -0500
> From: tim finin <finin () cs umbc edu>
> Organization: UMBC http://umbc.edu/
>
> This is a very interesting compilation of information about the antrax
> mailings. The author is a molecular biologist formerly of Cornell
> Medical College and now Research Professor at the State University of
> New York.  She chairs the Federation of American Scientists' (FAS)
> Working Group on Biological Weapons, a core group of ten professionals
> with expertise ranging from technical to medical to legal to
> political, and, in addition, dozens of collaborating consultants on
> specialized issues.
>
>  A Compilation of Evidence and Comments on the Source of the Mailed
>  Anthrax, Barbara Hatch Rosenberg, Federation of American Scientists,
>  revised 12/6/01
>
>  http://fas.org/bwc/news/anthraxpaper.htm
>
> The final section of this article offers some interesting hypotheses:
>
>   9.MOST LIKELY HYPOTHESIS
>
>   The perpetrator is an American microbiologist who has access to
>   recently-weaponized anthrax or to the expertise and materials for
>   making it, in a US government or contractor lab. He does not live in
>   or near Trenton, but more probably in the Washington, DC area. Trenton
>   is probably accessible to him (it is a stop on the Amtrak line that
>   runs along the East coast), but if he is smart enough to handle
>   anthrax he is smart enough not to mail it from his home town.
>
>   The anthrax in the letters was made and weaponized in a US government
>   or contractor lab. It might have been made recently by the perpetrator
>   on his own, or made as part of the US biodefense program; or it may be
>   a remnant of the US biological weapons program before Nixon terminated
>   the program in 1969.  Weaponization of dry anthrax after 1972, when
>   the Biological Weapons Convention was signed, could be construed as a
>   violation of the Convention.
>
>   The motive of the perpetrator was not necessarily to kill but to
>   create public fear, thereby raising the profile of BW. He simply took
>   advantage of Sept 11 to throw suspicion elsewhere. The letters warned
>   of anthrax or the need to take antibiotics, making it possible for
>   those who handled the letters to protect themselves; and it seems
>   unlikely that the perpetrator would have anticipated that the rough
>   treatment of mail in letter sorters etc, would force anthrax spores
>   through the pores of the envelopes (which were taped to keep the
>   anthrax inside) and infect postal workers.
>
>   The choice of media as targets seemed to have been designed to ensure
>   publicity about the threat of biological weapons. One can only
>   speculate that the perpetrator may have wished to push the US
>   government toward retaliatory action against some enemy, or to attract
>   funding or recognition to some program with which he is associated.
>   The choice of Senators Daschle and Leahy as targets may be a clue that
>   has yet to be deciphered.
>
>   The US government has known for some time that the anthrax terrorism
>   was an inside job. They may be reluctant to admit this.  They also may
>   not yet have adequate hard evidence to convict the perpetrator.  In
>   opposition to most of the countries of the world, the Bush
>   administration turned down a Protocol to monitor compliance with the
>   ban on biological weapons last July. In so doing it reversed the
>   policy of the previous three administrations aimed at strengthening
>   the Biological Weapons Convention, which lacks verification
>   measures. The anthrax attacks have had no effect on administration
>   policy: the US delegation has just resisted subsequent international
>   efforts to strengthen the Convention at its five-yearly Review
>   Conference, which ended on December 7.

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