ZGram - 8/16/2002 - "On the trail of the REAL Anthrax Hoaxer"

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Sun, 18 Aug 2002 19:41:28 -0700


ZGram - Where Truth is Destiny

August 18, 2002

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

All I can say is:  Will it never end?

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While Media Spotlights One Anthrax Suspect, Another Is Too Hot To
Touch

by DELINDA CURTISS HANLEY
http://www.wrmea.com

WASHINGTON, DC, USA, 16 August 2002 (ArabNews.com): America's
mainstream press finds some stories too hot to handle. One of the
most egregious examples of this is its coverage of the hunt for the
perpetrator of the post-September 11 anthrax letters -- a matter of
concern to all Americans. After an initial flurry of reports, the
media inexplicably ignored the FBI's laborious search for the person
who last fall mailed anthrax-laced letters to news organizations and
the Capitol Hill offices of Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle and
Senator Patrick J. Leahy.

Did the U.S. media merely lose interest after the government failed
to find an Iraqi or Al-Qaeda connection, and therefore could not link
the postal terrorism to Sept. 11? Or was the press warned off the
sensitive subject? After months of silence, in August the subject of
the anthrax attacks once again hit the newspapers and network TV
stations. The scientist in the spotlight, however, may be little more
than a hapless "fall guy".

=46ive people died and more than a dozen more were made seriously ill
from exposure to the deadly Ames variety of anthrax. Americans across
the country feared opening their mail. It's a safe bet that, had a
Muslim or Arab-American scientist been the prime suspect, press
coverage would have been unrelenting. Apparently, journalists'
interests weren't sufficiently aroused by the FBI profile of a
disgruntled American bioweapons scientist who may have launched the
lethal attack merely to help his career and increase government
funding in his area of expertise. This homegrown terrorist murdered
innocents, sowed fear across the U.S., and the rest of the world, and
created chaos in the U.S. Postal Service, but for 10 months he stayed
out of the news.

The still-unknown culprit also sought to throw suspicions on Muslim
or Arab 'terrorists'. First there was the timing of the letters --
days after the Sept. 11 attack. The first anthrax letters, as well as
some hoax letters, were mailed Sept. 18 to 25. The first public
report of an anthrax case in Florida was not until October 4. Then
there was the text: The letters clearly intended to imply the writer
was of Middle Eastern origin and included deliberate misspellings
(the letters suggested taking "penacilin"), a Star of David, as well
as threats to Israel, Chicago's Sears Tower and President George W.
Bush. Someone obviously hoped to focus attention on an Arab
scapegoat. The perpetrator added to the already terrible woes of
Arabs and Muslims living in the U.S. post-Sept. 11.

The letters could very well have sparked internment camps for Arab
Americans, who already faced backlash from the Sept. 11 terror
attacks. The U.S. might have launched a military attack on Iraq, as
rumors circulated that [Iraq's President] Saddam Hussain was to blame
for the anthrax attacks. Fortunately, early on federal investigators
discounted the Arab 'terrorist' theory -- although plenty of
outsiders still can't give it up.

The FBI narrowed its search for the terrorist to 200 scientists who
had worked with the U.S. anthrax program in the last five years. The
investigation focused on Fort Detrick's Army Medical Research
Institute of Infectious Diseases in Maryland, the military's premier
bioterrorism complex, and one of only four laboratories with the
capability for weaponizing anthrax. Only 50 scientists had access to
the Ames strain found in all the letter samples, and perhaps only 30
knew the particular technique used to weaponize the anthrax used in
the letters, a technique developed in Ft. Detrick by Bill Patrick.
The FBI interviewed former and current bioterrorism scientists, and
conducted polygraph tests and home searches. A February 26 New York
Times article cast suspicion on a Somali Muslim student at an unnamed
Midwestern university. It was soon confirmed, however, that the
student could not have had any knowledge of Patrick's weaponization
technique.

This August -- nearly a year after the anthrax attack -- the story
hit the front pages again. The FBI's second highly visible
examination of Steven J. Hatfill's apartment was conducted with
reporters, cameras and a news helicopter hovering overhead.

Although Hatfill once worked at the Fort Detrick lab, his lawyer,
Victor Glasberg, said the scientist "did not do anthrax work. Steve
has never worked with anthrax." After a series of anthrax hoaxes,
including a package that "coincidentally" arrived at B'nai B'rith
headquarters in Washington while a terrorism seminar was under way
nearby, Hatfill in 1999 did commission William Patrick to write a
report on how anthrax could be sent through the mail.

"Steve's life has been devastated by a drumbeat of innuendo,
implication and speculation," according to an August 11 Washington
Post interview. Hatfill lost one job and was suspended from another.
He told CNN reporters the same day that he is a loyal American and
had nothing to do with the deadly anthrax mailings. But his is the
only name that has appeared in print recently.

Internet articles claim the government is afraid to arrest the
anthrax culprit because he knows too much about U.S. bioweapons. Is
Hatfill the bioterrorist or is he a stooge? Is the government
protecting one of its own? Are the media and the government using Dr.
Hatfill to take the fall for another twisted scientist?

Before the investigation of Dr. Hatfill captured national headlines,
another insider scientist had come under FBI scrutiny without much
media fanfare. It was easy to miss the few stories published in
January 2002 about Lt. Colonel Philip Zack, who, like Hatfill, also
had access to a well-equipped laboratory with lax security. Zack,
moreover, actually worked with military-grade anthrax at Fort
Detrick.

Dr. Zack left Fort Detrick in December 1991 amid allegations of
unprofessional conduct. The Jewish scientist and others were accused
of harassing their co-worker, Dr. Ayaad Assaad, until the Egyptian-
born American scientist quit, according to an article in
Connecticut's The Hartford Courant, the country's oldest newspaper in
continuous publication. Dr. Assaad sued the Army, claiming
discrimination after Zack's badgering.

Although Dr. Zack was let go, he returned frequently to visit
friends, and used the Fort Detrick laboratories for "off-the-books"
work after hours. After reports of missing biological specimens --
including anthrax, Ebola and the simian AIDs virus -- came to light,
as well as reports of unauthorized research, a review of surveillance
camera tapes recorded Dr. Zack entering the lab late on the night of
January 23, 1992, according to The Hartford Courant report. He was
let in that night by Marian Rippy, a lab pathologist and close friend
of Zack's, although she now says she has no memory of the evening.
She did say that Zack occasionally visited and that other friends let
him in.

Inexplicably, the national press ignored these documented
unauthorized visits to a top-secret government lab embroiled in the
anthrax attacks. Did journalists fear being labeled anti-Semitic for
casting suspicions on a Jewish scientist?

Soon after the 9/11 attack, a long, typed anonymous letter was sent
to Quantico Marine Base accusing the long-suffering Assaad, Zack's
victim in 1991, of plotting terrorism. This letter was received
before the anthrax letters or disease were reported. The timing of
the note makes its author a serious suspect in the anthrax attacks.
The sender also displayed considerable knowledge of Dr. Assaad, his
work, his personal life and a remarkable premonition of the upcoming
bioterrorism attack. After interviewing Assaad on October 2, 2001,
the FBI decided the letter was a hoax. While major newspapers noted
that an anonymous letter had accused Dr. Assaad of bioterrorism, none
followed up on it after his innocence was established. Zack's name
never surfaced again as one of the 30 suspects. When the Washington
Report [on Middle East Affairs] asked Barbara Hatch Rosenberg, Ph.D.,
a biological arms control expert at the State University of New York,
if the allegations regarding Dr. Steven Hatfill now took the heat off
Lt. Col. Philip Zack, she replied: "Zack has NEVER been under
suspicion as perpetrator of the anthrax attack."

It is hard to believe that, with his connection to Fort Detrick, Dr.
Zack is not one of the 20 to 50 scientists under intense
investigation.

When asked if Hatfill was part of the group that ganged up on Dr.
Ayaad Assaad, Dr. Rosenberg answered: "Hatfill was NOT one of the
persecutors of Assaad." She is convinced that the FBI knows who sent
the anthrax letters but isn't arresting him because he knows too much
about U.S. secret biological weapons research and production. But she
isn't naming names. Neither is Dr. Assaad, who did not return calls
from the Washington Report. Another person not naming names is New
York Times reporter Nicholas D. Kristof. In a series of articles
published on July 2, 12 and 19, however, he called the anthrax
perpetrator "Mr. Z" (not "Mr. H"). Kristof's description of "Mr. Z"
sounds very much more like Dr. Zack than Dr. Hatfill.

The New York Times journalist reported that "Mr. Z" was caught with a
girlfriend after hours in Fort Detrick. According to Kristof, "Mr. Z"
talked about the importance of his field and his own status in it,
and often used the B'nai B'rith attack as an example of how anthrax
attacks might happen. He also "had a penchant for dropping Arab
names" when he discussed the possibility of anthrax attacks.

Is the anthrax culprit, or "Mr. Z," actually Dr. Zack or Dr. Hatfill,
or another undisclosed scientist? Is Dr. Hatfill being framed while
Dr. Zack stays out of the spotlight? Will the investigation simply
peter out without an arrest? Are the U.S. government and the media
engaging in a shameful cover-up?

It remains to be seen whether the anthrax story will share the fate
of the one-day wonders hidden on the back pages of America's
mainstream newspapers -- whose publishers shy away from articles they
fear may bring a spate of hate mail, charges of "anti-Semitism," or
threats to end advertising or subscriptions.

[Delinda C. Hanley is the News Editor of the Washington Report on
Middle East Affairs. http://www.wrmea.com ]

(Source:  http://www.arabnews.com/Article.asp?ID=3D17792 )

[Copyright =A9 2002 ArabNews.com]

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