FBI profiles anthrax letter writer

November 9, 2001 Posted: 6:18 PM EST (2318 GMT)

By Susan Candiotti CNN Washington

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The three anthrax-tainted letters at the heart of a post-September 11 outbreak of biological terrorism were all but certainly written by the same person -- probably a male loner who might work in a laboratory, FBI officials said Friday.

The officials, linguistic and behavioral experts who have been analyzing the three known anthrax letters, made their assessments more than a month after the first anthrax outbreak in Florida, where no letter was ever recovered -- and at a time of growing congressional frustration over the lack of progress in the investigation.

Seventeen people have been diagnosed with anthrax infections since early October; four of them have died.

"It is highly probable, bordering on certainty, that all three letters were authored by the same person," the officials said. Two of the letters, sent to NBC anchorman Tom Brokaw and the New York Post, were described as "identical copies."

The other letter, sent to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle in Washington, "contains a somewhat different message than the others," the officials said.

The anthrax in the Daschle letter, the officials said, "was much more refined, more potent and more easily dispersed" than the anthrax in the other two.

At a separate briefing for reporters, postal officials said much of the anthrax crisis remains a mystery. Authorities still don't know the exact location where the letters originated in the Trenton, New Jersey, area. And they've not been able to rule out the possibility that more than three letters were involved.

"Trying to get a handle on this is like trying to get a hold of a forest fire," said Deputy Postmaster General John Nolan conceded.

Other observations:

-- "The author uses dashes in the writing of the date (09-11-01). Many people use the slash to separate the day, month, year."

-- The name and address on each envelope is noticeably tilted on a downward slant from left to right. This may be a characteristic seen on other envelopes he has sent. -- "Behaviorally, the author is likely an adult male. If employed, likely to be in a position requiring little contact with the public."

-- "He may work in a laboratory. He did not select victims randomly," sending the letters to specific people and addresses.

-- The writer is a "non-confrontational person, at least in his public life" who "prefers being by himself more often than not."

-- He may have become more secretive and exhibited an unusual pattern of activity. Additionally, he may have displayed a passive disinterest in the events which otherwise captivated the nation. He also may have started taking antibiotics unexpectedly.

Federal officials have asked anybody with "credible information that might help identify this person" to contact the FBI at 1-800-CRIMETV (274-6388) or at www.ifcc.fbi.gov.

The FBI said that the public in the past has helped the agency solve high profile cases by coming forward to identify the author by what he wrote or how he wrote it. The Unibomber was arrested after his own brother told authorities he recognized phrases in Ted Kaczynski's published manifesto.

Post office on letter paths

U.S. postal officials provided more details about the path of the three letters at their briefing. They said identification codes have provided some clues.

The Brokaw and Post letters arrived at the Trenton, New Jersey, processing center, in Hamilton Township, on September 18 and had their postage canceled within three hours of each other. Still, officials could not say definitively whether the letters arrived together at the post office.

Those two letters passed through the same letter canceler, and a worker who did maintenance on that machine later contracted cutaneous anthrax.

The Daschle letter arrived in the Hamilton Township facility October 9 and was canceled at 5:45 p.m. It arrived October 11 at the Brentwood facility in Washington, where four postal workers contracted inhalation anthrax and two of them died.

One of the postal employees who died, Joseph Curseen Jr., worked at the sorter that handled the Daschle letter. The other, Thomas Morris Jr., worked in a government operations section where the letter was also processed.

Several other sorters also tested positive for anthrax contamination at the Brentwood facility. Postal officials said those machines were downwind of the sorter that handled the Daschle letter.

The two postal employees who survived their bouts of inhalation anthrax worked in those downwind areas.

-- Anonymous, November 09, 2001

Answers

http://www.boston.com/news/daily/09/anthrax_hate.htm

Some experts say American hate groups are probably not behind the anthrax attacks

By Nicholas K. Geranios, Associated Press, 11/09/01

SPOKANE, Wash. - American hate groups have talked for years about using anthrax to strike at the U.S. government.

But experts who monitor extremists doubt that neo-Nazi, Ku Klux Klan or domestic militia organizations have the scientific know-how or the financial means to carry out the anthrax-by-mail attacks.

"Obviously we don't know, but we have leaned toward a foreign explanation or a madman with a microbiology degree," said Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Ala., which tracks hate groups.

Some white supremacist, anti-Semitic organizations cheered the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, finding common cause with the Israel-hating terrorists. They are among the many suspects in the mailing of anthrax-contaminated letters.

Four people have died of anthrax over the past few weeks. On Wednesday, Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge said the investigation has not been able to determine if the attacks were the work of domestic criminals or overseas terrorists.

Hate groups are under scrutiny because of past activities. In 1995, Larry Wayne Harris, a microbiologist and alleged white supremacist, was arrested in Ohio with three vials of bubonic plague toxin he had ordered fraudulently by mail from a supplier in Maryland. He was given 18 months on probation. He wrote "Bacteriological Warfare: A Major Threat to North America," which some regard as a how-to book.

Alexander James Curtis, arrested this year in San Diego on charges of harassing civil leaders and vandalizing two synagogues, published an Internet guide in 2000 called "Biology for Aryans" that described the use of botulism, anthrax and typhoid for terror.

In 1995, members of the Patriot's Council were arrested in Minnesota and charged with manufacturing ricin, a deadly biochemical substance, to kill law enforcement officers. In 1998, members of a Texas anti- government group were charged with plotting to infect people with cactus needles dipped in anthrax or the AIDS virus.

While some extreme right-wing groups have talked about using anthrax to disrupt society since the 1980s, most such organizations have little money and their members are often misfits with little education, Potok said.

"You wonder if they could manage a pipe bomb," Potok said. "There is no evidence of American hate groups with the money or expertise needed to produce weaponized anthrax."

Brent Smith, a University of Alabama professor who studies domestic terrorists, said he, too, doubts domestic right-wing extremists had anything to do with the anthrax attacks.

"The average Joe Blow redneck off the street is going to kill himself before he can make it," he said.

Scientists agree it would take specialized knowledge in several fields to obtain and process anthrax into a terrorist weapon.

But hate groups have brought suspicion upon themselves by cheering the Sept. 11 attacks as a first blow against what they consider the Jewish-dominated U.S. government. Some have suggested the attacks were the work of Israeli agents trying to spur the United States into destroying Islamic militants.

"The people who flew those planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon did it because they had been pushed into a corner by the U.S. government acting on behalf of the Jews," wrote William Pierce, head of the neo-Nazi National Alliance in Hillsboro, W.Va.

"We may not want them marrying our daughters, just as they would not want us marrying theirs," said Billy Roper, a leader of the National Alliance right-wing group. "But anyone who is willing to drive a plane into a building to kill Jews is all right by me." - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - On the Net: www.splcenter.org

-- Anonymous, November 09, 2001

Unless we see more cases of Anthrax related to the mail, I'm holding with the idea that the sender has succumbed to the virus.

Somewhere, there is a dead person surrounded by Anthrax.

Also, if it were a real effort to get the government, then more letters would have been sent at the same time to other government leaders, don't you think?

I'm still wearing gloves to sort mail. Even before the Anthrax scare, the mail was dirty. Looking at those gloves after a couple hours, makes me ill to think I used to sort without them. bleah!

-- Anonymous, November 10, 2001

Village Voice

Week of November 7 - 13, 2001

Mondo Washington by James Ridgeway

The Case for a Domestic Anthrax Culprit The Threat to America's Lifelines Millions of Afghans Face Starvation Reverend Jerry Can't Leave Gays Alone

The Case for a Domestic Anthrax Culprit Writing's Off the Wall

The most notable aspect of Osama bin Laden's weekend video—broadcast everywhere but here —is the absence of any mention of anthrax. As in the past, Bin Laden pictures the world torn between the forces of the Western crusaders and Islam. He approvingly mentions the September 11 attacks and describes in detail the different assaults by the West on various nations, dating the current crusade back to the end of World War I. But nowhere is there a mention of anthrax.

With no group claiming responsibility for the recent bioterrorism attacks, the anthrax sleuths remain baffled. "I haven't a clue, honestly," one official told the Los Angeles Times over the weekend. Officials in Washington are so scared themselves, according to the paper, that some are stockpiling antibiotics and have stopped using the city's subway system—a reassuring note to their fellow government workers.

Meanwhile federal officials say they're trying to create a profile from the three letters sent to political and media figures. Ayman El-Desouky, a Harvard Arabic instructor, explained to the Voice that it's unlikely an Arabic speaker wrote the notes. For starters, El-Desouky questions the misspelling of penicillin. He says an Arab would more likely render the antibiotic as "penisleen" rather than "penacilin," as found in the letters. Then there is the date, with "09" for September. "A person from the Arab world would never use zero like that," he explained.

El-Desouky suspects, as have others, that the author was posing as an Arab. The anthrax-laced letters struck him as "strings of slogans" and uncharacteristic of Arabic writing. To him, it sounded like the author was trying to meet expectations of what a Middle Eastern terrorist would write. Radical Muslims would have included much more "religious text, more of a message," he said.

Even the analysis-thwarting brevity of the letters made him suspicious. "It would be hard for a native speaker to be very brief," he said. A typical Arabic sentence might be "at least two pages long, maybe 750 words."

-- Anonymous, November 10, 2001