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FBI was told to blame Anthrax scare on Al Qaeda by White House officials
Saturday, August 2nd 2008, 6:32 PM
WASHINGTON - In the immediate aftermath of the 2001 anthrax attacks, White House officials repeatedly pressed FBI Director Robert Mueller to prove it was a second-wave assault by Al Qaeda, but investigators ruled that out, the Daily News has learned.
After the Oct. 5, 2001, death from anthrax exposure of Sun photo editor Robert Stevens, Mueller was "beaten up" during President Bush's morning intelligence briefings for not producing proof the killer spores were the handiwork of terrorist mastermind Osama Bin Laden, according to a former aide.
"They really wanted to blame somebody in the Middle East," the retired senior FBI official told The News.
On October 15, 2001, President Bush said, "There may be some possible link" to Bin Laden, adding, "I wouldn't put it past him." Vice President Cheney also said Bin Laden's henchmen were trained "how to deploy and use
these kinds of substances, so you start to piece it all together."
But by then the FBI already knew anthrax spilling out of letters addressed to media outlets and to a U.S. senator was a military strain of the bioweapon. "Very quickly [Fort Detrick,
Md., experts] told us this was not something some guy in a cave could
come up with," the ex-FBI official said. "They couldn't go from box
cutters one week to weapons-grade anthrax the next."jmeek@nydailynews.com
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Bruce
Ivins, seen in this photograph taken during an award ceremony at a
Pentagon ceremony March 14, 2003 where Ivins was awarded the Decoration
for Exceptional Civilian Service, which is equivalent to the
Distinguished Service Medal for military service
REUTERS/USAMRIID/Handout (UNITED STATES)
Dr. Bruce E. Ivins, a biodefense researcher at
Fort Detrick, Maryland, worked on anthrax vaccines
Photo: Frederick News Post
Suicide...
Posted Aug 1, 2008 04:34
PM PST
Category: ASSASSINATION
, Category: COVER-UP/DECEPTIONS
staff had been on a regimen of the powerful antibiotic Cipro since the Sept. 11
terrorist attacks. Judicial Watch wants to know why White House workers,
including President Bush, began taking the drug nearly a month before anthrax
was detected on Capitol Hill.
Posted Aug 1, 2008 02:03 PM PST
Category: COVER-UP/DECEPTIONS
scandal (the anthrax came from a U.S. military base) by claiming that one of the
key suspects - Bruce E. Ivins - was a "lone nut" who committed suicide. The
government claims that the anthrax letters were an innocent mistake which was
"part of an Army scientist's warped plan to test his cure for the deadly toxin".
Case closed.
There are just a couple of loose ends:
Posted
Aug 1, 2008 01:58 PM PST
Category: COVER-UP/DECEPTIONS
doctor, who worked with the guy who is now being accused of the anthrax attacks,
as saying he didn't think the guy did it. They took that part out! They also
took out the part where this guy received the highest Pentagon award a civilian
can get for his research into an anthrax vaccine to be given to our troops in
2003. They took that out!And they also took out the part where this guy was
cited for testing areas outside the restricted area for anthrax spores. And he
found them, in someones secretary's desk and keyboard! Remember how this stuff
was found on the mail from the drop box? It bleeds through the envelope. So,
when he found it in someones secretary's desk and then on her keyboard, that
might be a good place to start looking for the culprit. But they took that part
out!
Posted Aug 1, 2008 01:38
PM PST
Category: COVER-UP/DECEPTIONS
recent years. Below is a list of letters he wrote dating back to March 5,
1998.
Posted Aug 1, 2008 11:52
AM PST
Category: ASSASSINATION