The Justice Department today released copies of the three anthrax-tainted letters to serve as a warning for the public to look out for similar ones and to help generate leads in the investigation.  “All of these we hope will alert citizens and others to the kind of thing to look out for,” said U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft. 

The three letters, one each sent to NBC News, the New York Post and Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, were handwritten in large block letters that may show they had been written by the same person, said officials, although that person may have tried to disguise his handwriting.  Investigators are examining evidence taken from the letters, such as the envelope, the ink and paper, the handwriting and the anthrax itself, according to the New York Times.  It’s unlikely that the sender of the letters can be identified from DNA left on the glue envelope because the letters were sealed with tape, investigators said. 

The letters were made public after CIA Director George Tenet met with President George W. Bush and Congressional leaders.  Tenet said he suspected an organized terrorist group was behind the anthrax occurrences, but there was no concrete evidence as to whom was responsible and he did not know if authorities will find them.  Law enforcement officials said the timing of the anthrax incidents, soon after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, was highly suspicious.  It was possible, however, a domestic terror group or even a single person motivated by a grievance could be responsible for the letters, officials said (David Johnston, New York Times, Oct. 24).

All three letters were dated Sept. 11, officials said yesterday.  The letters had “09-11-01” written across the top of each in identical handwriting.  The two letters sent to New York were postmarked Sept. 18.  The Daschle letter was postmarked Oct. 9.  The identical dates and the release of the letters could be indications that investigators believe they are dealing with a domestic terrorist capitalizing on the Sept. 11 attacks, said criminal profiling experts (Karen Gullo, Associated press/RealCities.com, Oct. 24).

The phrases on the letters may be intended to wrongly cast suspicion on foreign terrorists, according to some experts.  The blocklike handwriting appears to belong to someone whose native language is English, rather than someone who learned to write from right to left, as in Arabic, said Vincent Cannistrano, a former CIA counterterrorism official. 

The anthrax occurrences do not fit the pattern of suspected terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda organization, said Daniel Benjamin, a former terrorism specialist at the National Security Council.  Bin Laden’s network, however, has “shown a remarkable ability to innovate tactics and to come up with a different means of attack virtually every time around,” Benjamin said.  “You absolutely cannot rule them out,” said Benjamin.  “At the same time, their overriding interest is mass carnage, so there is some reason for skepticism.  They have not traditionally sought to scare a lot of people.  Usually, they want to kill a lot of people.”

Some federal officials said there might be a link between al-Qaeda and the anthrax occurrences.  “There is a suspicion that this connected to international terrorism,” said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, adding that a link to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks has been “the operating suspicion of the White House for a long time.”  House of Representatives Minority Leader Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.) said: “I don’t think there’s a way to prove [a link] but I think we all suspect that.”

U.S. Postal Service spokesman Dan Mihalko said investigators are not close to figuring out who is behind that anthrax letters.  “I can’t say we have narrowed the focus,” Mihalko said.  “This has the potential to be a long investigation”(Eggen/Slevin, Washington Post, Oct. 24).    

Advanced Anthrax?

Investigators said yesterday the people responsible for the anthrax letters might have infected themselves when they loaded the spores into the envelopes.  “We cannot rule out the possibility that these people were willing to sacrifice themselves,” said one official.  “We may be looking for a bunch of ill people.  It would not be incorrect to assume they would be afraid of harming themselves.”  The FBI has investigated hospitals and clinics and has questioned doctors and pharmacists in several states to try to find people who sought treatment for flulike symptoms and skin rashes – two signs of anthrax, according to the Washington Times. 

The persons behind the anthrax letters displayed “a certain type of expertise” in the type of anthrax used, according to a federal law enforcement official.  The anthrax is believed to be professionally produced, finely milled and electrostatically charged, according to the Times.  The use of electrostatically charged anthrax meant that those who sent the anthrax tried to make sure the spores would not remain stuck to the envelope but spread out into the air when opened, according to authorities.  Investigators were unsure as to how the letters were charged, but experts said several methods exist and the necessary equipment can be found in pharmaceutical or biology labs (Seper/Drummond, Washington Times, Oct. 24).  

Investigators are also trying to determine whether a chemical mixture used in the anthrax matches samples of biological warfare agents from Iraq, the former Soviet Union or other sources, according to USA Today.  The chemicals help the anthrax spores aerosolize, which increases the reach of the inhaled form of the disease. 

“This has nothing to do with the organism itself and everything to do with how you [prepare] it,” said Alan Zelicoff, a bioweapons expert at the Sandia National Laboratory.  “For the first time in my 12 years in this arcane world I’m suddenly very worried because they’ve been able to come up with aerosolized anthrax.”  

The chemicals keep the anthrax spores from clumping together and getting weighed down by humidity, according to bioweapons experts.  This allows the spores to spread like a tasteless, odorless gas.  Whoever has prepared the anthrax to magnify its impact “has discovered the key to the kingdom,” Zelicoff said (Sternberg/Eisler, USA Today, Oct. 24).

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