Who tried to frame an Arab-American researcher for the Anthrax letters?

Covering the Tracks of the Anthrax Attacks
What, where, why – who?
by Justin Raimondo

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While the anthrax letters received enormous publicity, one mailed missive that might provide a key clue to the identity of the perpetrators has received very little: an anonymous letter, sent in late September before the anthrax drama unfolded, to the military police at the Marine base in Quantico, Va., accused Dr. Assaad of being behind a terrorist plot to unleash biological horrors in American cities. The author revealed a detailed knowledge of Dr. Assaad's career at USAMRIID and claimed to have formerly worked with him.

Assaad was interrogated by the FBI on Oct. 3, then let go after the letter was determined to be a hoax. When the effects of the anthrax attacks began to make themselves known, the full horror of what had happened began to dawn on Assaad – but not, apparently, on the authorities. Says Assaad: "My theory is, whoever this person is knew in advance what was going to happen (and created) a suitable, well-fitted scapegoat for this action." The odd timing of the letter – sent after the anthrax letters were mailed, but before their deadly contents were known – certainly seems to point in this direction. The Courant reports FBI spokesman Chris Murray saying "the FBI is not tracking the source of the anonymous letter, despite its curious timing, coming a matter of days before the existence of anthrax-laced mail became known." Instead of following the trail of this important clue, investigators went off on a tangent with the Hatfill angle, which proved to be a dead end.

An Egyptian scientist, albeit one who is an American citizen and had lived in this country for quite some time, had been set up as the scapegoat for the crime – before knowledge of the mailed anthrax was generally known. This same scientist had been the object of a hate campaign generated by virulently anti-Arab co-workers at Ft. Detrick, at least one of whom was videotaped surreptitiously entering the lab at night (after he had been dismissed from his position and was not authorized to enter in any event).

Whoever wrote the poison pen letter denouncing Dr. Assaad as a potential terrorist in all likelihood knows something about the origins of the anthrax attack. In this context, the crudeness of the messages accompanying the anthrax – "death to America" and "death to Israel" – seems like an obvious effort to divert attention away from the real authors of a crime that goes unsolved to this day.

Remember how the War Party used these attacks to stoke up sentiment for attacking Iraq? Andrew Sullivan declared:

"At this point, it seems to me that a refusal to extend the war to Iraq is not even an option. We have to extend it to Iraq. It is by far the most likely source of this weapon; it is clearly willing to use such weapons in the future; and no war against terrorism of this kind can be won without dealing decisively with the Iraqi threat. We no longer have any choice in the matter. Slowly, incrementally, a Rubicon has been crossed. The terrorists have launched a biological weapon against the United States. They have therefore made biological warfare thinkable and thus repeatable. We once had a doctrine that such a Rubicon would be answered with a nuclear response. We backed down on that threat in the Gulf War but Saddam didn't dare use biological weapons then. Someone has dared to use them now. Our response must be as grave as this new threat."

Nuke 'em!, said Andy – without a single iota of evidence that Iraq was involved. But who needs evidence? That's soooo September 10th. Everything's changed, we were told: we don't require evidence, not anymore. All we need are vaguely portentous phrases, such as "a Rubicon has been crossed." We can make up the rest as we go along…

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In retrospect, outrage and fear generated by the anthrax attacks were essential elements of the propaganda campaign designed to link Iraq to terrorism in the U.S. and drag us into war. The attacks were so propitious in this regard that one might be forgiven for wondering if the perpetrators had this as their intention. Certainly they took great pains to convey the impression that the postal pestilence was authored by angry Arabs of one sort or another.