Topic: Anthrax Probe Shifts To Homegrown Hate Groups

topic by
Someone
10/25/2001 (17:05)

Published on Thursday, October 25, 2001 in the New York Post

Anthrax Probe Shifts To Homegrown Hate Groups

By Murray Weiss
-----------------------

Ultra-right-wing organizations - including a particular West Coast group - have become a key focus of the
massive federal investigation into the murderous Anthrax attacks, The Post has learned.

Investigators have been zeroing in on members of several anti-government hate groups that they believe
have obtained or attempted to get the deadly bacteria from several U.S.-based laboratories before it
surfaced in Florida, Washington and New York this month.

Several sources told The Post that, while they have not entirely discounted state-sponsored terrorism,
Osama bin Laden sympathizers or sleeper cells, a number of developments in the far-flung probe have
them eyeing domestic terrorists:

* The FBI is analyzing about a dozen other letters - including several that predate the World Trade
Center attacks and the anthrax scare - that were sent to various media outlets. These letters did not
contain anthrax, but had similar messages and handwriting as the germ-tainted notes.

* Probers also see similarities between the anthrax letters and some of the so-called hoax letters that
contained talcum powder and were initially brushed aside as not being linked to the bioterror scare.

Some investigators believe the same person may have written both sets of letter.

'Our feeling is the anthrax does not point to an international terrorist group,' a well-placed source said.
'The only way it could be is if they are purposely writing letters that point away from them as a ruse and
using anthrax that we believe was manufactured here.'

'The anthrax letter writer did not fall off a turnip truck after the World Trade Center destruction,' another
source said. 'He has been thinking these thoughts long before this, and may have had anthrax for a
while.'

'There are a number of strong leads and some people we've known of for some time who are being
looked at,' another highly placed source said.

From the start, FBI profilers cautioned about channeling investigative efforts toward Mideast terror groups
because the anthrax-tainted letters to the New York Post, NBC-TV and Sen. Thomas Daschle contained
the date '09-11-01,' but were in envelopes postmarked Sept. 18.

Sources said international terrorists would unlikely feel the need to spell out an obvious link to their
earlier horrific handiwork.

'That's real overkill,' agreed Clint Van Zandt, a former top FBI profiler. 'It is someone other than a bin
Laden trying too hard to link up to Sept. 11. It is a gratuitous reference.'

The tone of the letter to Daschle, the Senate majority leader, is far more threatening - 'You Die Now' -
than the missives to the media, which advised the recipients to 'Take Penacilin [sic].'

'Daschle represents the government, and the government is what the right-wing groups hate,' a source
said. 'By contrast, the media is something they use to get publicity and spread fear.'

The sources declined to name the hate groups being eyed in the investigation or the laboratories where
the anthrax may have been obtained or milled.

Copyright 2001 NYP Holdings, Inc

reply by
Robert
10/29/2001 (8:32)

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Good to know that we here in the US, have not automatically assigned blame. That we are keeping an open mind and trying to find out who actually did this and not using this as a way to blame some international group.