Hatfill speaks to the press, 2003
edited 16 July 2007; update on Hatfill and Bruce Ivins, 5 Sept. 08
Franklin Freeman
copyright ? the author 2002-7
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Contents:-
The Attacks
Steve Hatfill: Suspect or Scapegoat?
"Qaeda's Anthrax Plans": The CIA in the Mirror
Certain people in the House of Representatives were forward to move the House to Fort McNair military base "in case of further attacks"; the Senate claimed to have its own plan, but did not disclose it.
The type of anthrax used was a sub-strain of the "Ames" bacillus used in the US bioweapons programme prior to its official abolition in 1969, and has been found (by the FBI) to be the same genetic type as that held the US army's Fort Detrick, Maryland (and in weaponised form at the Dugway Proving Ground in Utah). The sub-strain is known to have been held by only a dozen or so research laboratories, mainly in the United States, Canada and the UK. Moreover, the quality of "weaponization" of the powder used (number of spores per gram) is known only to have been matched by a very few research centres, such as the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), at Fort Detrick; the Dugway Proving Ground, Utah; and Porton Down, UK.
The majority of anthrax scares were subsequently dismissed ? by the White House ? as false alarms, due to "the inadequacy of the testing techniques". ('White House Warns on Anthrax Tests', Washington Post online, 19 July 2002) But many of them had played an integral role in the pattern of attacks. (And we should note that Steve Hatfill ? see below ? was himself one of the "testers".)
Barbara Rosenberg (director of the Federation of American Scientists' biochem weapons working group) noted that the attacks must have been planned before the September 11 strikes (because of the short timescale involved), and that they evidently "used" the latter as a "cover" or "launching pad". (Rosenberg, 'Analysis of the Anthrax Attacks', Federation of American Scientists website, updated 22 Sept. 2002)
Hoax anthrax letters were integral to the campaign and key ones were mailed before the deliberateness of the attacks had become public knowledge. While the anthrax-laced letters were postmarked Trenton, New Jersey, the hoax letters of late Septmber and early October were mailed from St. Petersburg, Florida. (Rosenberg, 'Analysis ...', part II, 'Letter and vicitim chronology'.) The city is close to Fort McDill, the headquarters of both the US military's Special Operations Command (SOCOM) and the Central Command (CENTCOM). It seems unsubtle, and the mailings could have been an attempt to incriminate SOCOM and/or CENTCOM. But this was a first for America and you couldn't expect everything to be arranged with 100% Machiavellian efficiency; they didn't manage to blame the attacks on al-Qaeda either.
The private contractor companies linked to the military and jokingly referred to as "beltway bandits" because they're sprinkled around the Washington beltway ring-road ... Some of these contractors are now known to have been involved in classified bio-defence projects. One of these secret projects, carried out in the Nevada desert, was part of [a] series of three[.] In the first few days of September [2001] ? immediately prior to the [airliner-into-building] attacks of the 11th, the New York Times carried a major investigation which at any other time would have been a story of huge significance... It revealed three secret bio-defence projects at a time when the American people believed none was taking place. One ? run by a contractor ? Battelle ? was to create genetically altered anthrax. [Judith Miller et al, "U.S. Germ Warfare Research Pushes Treaty Limits", New York Times, 4 Sept. 2006]The Battelle Memorial Institute, "a corporation involved in anthrax vaccine research", was a major contractor for the US Defense Department and also undertook work for the CIA. It had "an entire division dedicated to perfecting aerosolization technologies". It received batches of the Ames strain from USAMRIID as late as May and June 2001. (Steve Fainaru et al, "Ames Strain Of Anthrax Limited to Few Labs", Washington Post, 30 Nov. 2001, p.A01; Rick Weiss, "Perpetrator, Motive Remain Elusive in Anthrax Case", Washington Post, 23 Dec. 2001)("'Anthrax attacks", BBC Newsnight, 14 April 2002)
The attacks were evidently part of a "complex" of events designed for ulterior political purposes. But whereas the 9/11 atrocities were a sledgehammer, the anthrax attacks were a fine chisel. The latter capitalized on the atmosphere of fear created by the former. They were a more specific step on the US extreme right's road to the subjugation of the free American body politic.
Richard Ochs has suggested a schedule for the attacks corresponding to the various stages in the passage of the "Patriot Bill". (On www.freefromterror.net/other_articles/gov_anthrax.html)
The US cabal would probably have wanted to make al-Qaeda the agency responsible for the anthrax attacks. But they did not have the FBI under full control at the time (Robert Mueller had only taken up his post as FBI Director on 4 Sept. 2001). During the autumn and winter of 2001-2, the FBI investigation approached all-too-close to the truth, in spite of attempts from "on high" to hamstring it. Since that time, the upper ranks of the FBI have been thoroughly purged. They are now filled with appointees who at least owe their positions to Mueller (and hence his patron Ashcroft), and in many cases are probably of similar sympathies to their masters. (See 'The Purge of the FBI'.) The chances of a continuation of genuine investigation must now be very low or actually zero.
Hatfill speaks to the press, 2003
Hatfill worked in biodefence research. He has been described as a prot駩 of William Capers Patrick III, who was a leading figure in the US bioweapons programme prior to its official abolition in 1969. Hatfill worked at USAMRIID during 1997-88. In January 1999 he transferred to a "consulting job" at Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), which
did work for a multitude of federal agencies. Many projects were classified, and SAIC's tight relationship with the CIA led to a standing one-liner: "What is SAIC spelled backwards?"By this time there had been a spate of hoax anthrax mailings. Hatfill and his collaborator, SAIC vice-president Joseph Soukup, commissioned Patrick to write a report on the possibilities of actual terrorist attacks through the post. The report was commissioned "under a CIA contract to SAIC" according to Rosenberg. However, SAIC said Hatfill and Soukup commissioned it internally ? there was no outside client.
Patrick's 28-page report, dated February 1999, appeared in retrospect a "blueprint" for the actual anthrax attacks. It suggested the maximum amount of powder ? 2.5 grams ? that could be put in an envelope without producing a suspicious bulge. This is close to the amount ? 2 grams ? in the envelope sent to Senator Daschle. ... The similarities led Patrick and Hatfill to become subjects of FBI investigation subsequent to the attacks.
(William J Broad, "Terror Anthrax Linked to Type Made by U.S.", New York Times, 3 Dec. 2001; Barbara Hatch Rosenberg, "Analysis of the Anthrax Attacks", VII.4; Guy Gugliotta and Dan Eggen, "Biological Warfare Experts Questioned in Anthrax Probe", Washington Post, 28 June 2007 (UCLA copy); Brian Ross, "Blueprint for Anthrax Attack", ABC News online, 27 June 2002; Marilyn W Thompson, "The Pursuit of Steven Hatfill", Washington Post, 14 Sept. 2003, p.W06.)
In summer 2001 "Hatfill allegedly applied for ... security clearance in order to bid for a top-secret contract with a government agency, perhaps the CIA". (Laura Rozen, 'Who is Steven Hatfill?', The American Prospect, 27 June 2002)
More evidence has recently emerged. Since the anthrax attacks, Hatfill has been involved with the military's Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and special forces in training in the hunt for bioweapons in Iraq and other "suspect" countries. Hatfill's security clearance having been suspended, the DIA had to appeal to the defence contractor Scientific Applications International Corporation (SAIC) to allow him to participate in the work. One of Hatfill's projects was a "replica" mobile bioweapons laboratory.
(Marilyn W Thompson, 'Hatfill Trained U.S. Team on Bioweapons', Washington Post, 3 July 2003, p.A03)
Similar, perhaps, to the two "discovered" later in Iraq. Is Hatfill "guilty" again, or doing double patsy-duty? He is, as before, close enough to the mainsprings of action to comfortably fit either bill. Either way, the new story hints once more at the closeness of the special forces to the mainsprings of American bio-intrigue. (As we have seen, some of the anthrax letters had been mailed not far from the headquarters of SOCOM.)
In early summer 2008 the US government "exonerated" Hatfill. The Justice Department paid him $5.82 in settlement of a lawsuit he had filed against them.Another "top U.S. biodefense researcher [Bruce E Ivins] apparently committed suicide just as the Justice Department was about to file charges against him" re. the anthrax attacks.
(Lara Jakes Jordan and David Dishneau, Associated Press writers, "Anthrax scientist commits suicide as FBI closes in", reproduced on Yahoo News, 1 Aug. 2008. No information about the nature of the charges against Ivins appears in this article.)
US government officials subsequently (and without now having the inconvenience of a trial) proclaimed Ivins "solely responsible" for the attacks. Other politicians have questioned both the practicality of this, and the "suicide" ...
The most startling revelation from this intelligence success story was that the anthrax program had been developed in parallel to 9/11 planning. As best as we could determine, al-Zawahiri's project had been wrapped up in the summer of 2001, when the al-Qa'ida deputy, along with Hambali, were briefed over a week by Sufaat on the progress he had made to isolate anthrax. The entire operation had been managed from the top of al-Qa'ida with strict compartmentalization.(Sufaat and Ahmad fled Afghanistan after the US invasion and were captured in December 2001, whereupon "a sharp WMD analyst at CIA found the initial lead [from which the Agency] would ultimately unravel the al-Qa'ida anthrax networks".)
(George Tenet, At the Center of the Storm: My Years at the CIA, Harper Press, 2007, pp.260, 278-9)
As so often before, the CIA is holding up a mirror to itself and reflecting as al-Qaeda. Clearly, the CIA intended to portray the anthrax attacks as a "second wave" of Qaeda attacks. Unfortunately for them, with the body of the FBI not yet under control, investigation pointed increasingly to a "domestic origin" and ultimately to CIA contractors. Thus the "parallelism" of the plots is further evidence of the CIA's responsibility for 9/11 too.
According to a report in the New York Daily News (2 August 2008), in autumn 2001 White House officials pressured the FBI to "prove" that al-Qaeda was behind the anthrax attacks. (A "second wave" of Qaeda attacks.)(James Gordon Meek, "FBI was told to blame Anthrax scare on Al Qaeda by White House officials", New York Daily News online, 2 Aug. 2008)