US gov tried to blame Anthrax on Iraq rather then their own guy

lostexpectation

via boing boing
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/08/01/anthrax/index.html
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/08/01/glenn-greenwald-on-u.html

If the now-deceased Ivins really was the culprit behind the attacks, then that means that the anthrax came from a U.S. Government lab, sent by a top U.S. Army scientist at Ft. Detrick. Without resort to any speculation or inferences at all, it is hard to overstate the significance of that fact. From the beginning, there was a clear intent on the part of the anthrax attacker to create a link between the anthrax attacks and both Islamic radicals and the 9/11 attacks.

During the last week of October, 2001, ABC News, led by Brian Ross, continuously trumpeted the claim as their top news story that government tests conducted on the anthrax -- tests conducted at Ft. Detrick -- revealed that the anthrax sent to Daschele contained the chemical additive known as bentonite. ABC News, including Peter Jennings, repeatedly claimed that the presence of bentonite in the anthrax was compelling evidence that Iraq was responsible for the attacks, since -- as ABC variously claimed -- bentonite "is a trademark of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's biological weapons program" and "only one country, Iraq, has used bentonite to produce biological weapons."

But bentonite was never found in the anthrax, and Greenwald says ABC News didn't acknowledged this until 2007, and only after Greenwald's "badgering them about this issue." That means, says Greenwald, the four "well-placed and separate sources" ABC claimed to have fed them "false information that created a very significant link in the public mind between the anthrax attacks and Saddam Hussein."

After all, three days later, McCain and Joe Lieberman went on Meet the Press (on October 21, 2001) and both strongly suggested that we would have to attack Iraq. Lieberman said that the anthrax was so complex and potent that "there's either a significant amount of money behind this, or this is state-sponsored, or this is stuff that was stolen from the former Soviet program."

As I said, it is not possible to overstate the importance of anthrax in putting the country into the state of fear that led to the attack on Iraq and so many of the other abuses of the Bush era. There are few news stories more significant, if there are any, than unveiling who the culprits were behind this deliberate propaganda. The fact that the current GOP presidential nominee claimed back then on national television to have some "indication" linking Saddam to the anthrax attacks makes it a bigger story still.

i do continued to be surprised and scared.


sorry for all the copy nad paste but he has many good points that he says better then i

The 2001 anthrax attacks remain one of the great mysteries of the post-9/11 era. After 9/11 itself, the anthrax attacks were probably the most consequential event of the Bush presidency. One could make a persuasive case that they were actually more consequential. The 9/11 attacks were obviously traumatic for the country, but in the absence of the anthrax attacks, 9/11 could easily have been perceived as a single, isolated event. It was really the anthrax letters -- with the first one sent on September 18, just one week after 9/11 -- that severely ratcheted up the fear levels and created the climate that would dominate in this country for the next several years after.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/08/01/anthrax/index.html
the anthrax guy himself tried to blame it on some muslim nutters its was gov and abcnews that tried to pin it on sadddam.

Victor

To be honest, its long been known that the anthrax was American.

Bentonite is a common enough clay, used in many industries and automatically linking it to Iraq was specious.

http://www.wma-minelife.com/bent/bentmine/data0019.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bentonite

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_anthrax_attacks

bonkey

Victor wrote: »

To be honest, its long been known that the anthrax was American.

Indeed...and before that it was known that we didn't know where it was from, and that an internal (i.e. American) source wasn't ruled out.

But I guess "various pundits in the media tried to blame Anthrax on various sources, whilst others admitted they didn't know at the time" doesn't have the same sensationalist ring.

Liam Byrne

Not even remotely surprised. Sure having failed to find Osama Bin Laden they tried to blame 9/11 on Saddam in order to justify their invasion....why not blame Iraq (with their nasty proposals to sell oil in Euro) for everything else ?

And - having gotten found out on this and the WMD lies, then they wonder why "conspiracy theorists" question lots of other things, even 9/11 itself :rolleyes:

Victor

Getting rid of Saddam did affect the relationship with Bin Laden.

With Saddam gone, the Americans are out of Saudi Arabia, thereby placating some Wahabists.

Liam Byrne

Victor wrote: »

Getting rid of Saddam did affect the relationship with Bin Laden.

With Saddam gone, the Americans are out of Saudi Arabia, thereby placating some Wahabists.

Jeez, I'm not for a moment implying that it didn't have any effect - or even that it wasn't a good thing to get rid of him!!!

I'm just pointing out that it wasn't relevant and had no basis in fact; another example of the U.S. Administration basically pointing blame in the direction of whatever suits them, rather than where it actually lies.

DenMan

Nice post OP.It doesn't surprise me at all. Regarding chemical compounds found I am pretty sure we will be hearing from EMPTA again (O-ethylmethylphosphonothioic acid), as we haven't heard from it in a good while. It is an active ingredient in the creation of the deadly nerve agent VX. US Government sources (senior intelligence officials) stated about 10 years ago that Iraq (no surprise there) was the only country that they knew of that produced it. The pot will be stirred up again and no doubt the topic will come up and be mentioned in public.

Overheal

I think everyone is well aware of the fallacies commited by the present administration at this stage. Also the Anthrax attacks were placed dangerously close to the 9/11 attack on the calendar: everyone and their grandma feared it was terrorists, and nobody wanted to suspect an american would do that to its country after 9/11: there was more solidarity in the country in the weeks following 9/11 than there has been since the cold war. Could someone have known the truth? I have to assume yeah they did. I imagine they hid it from the american people though, because as I said, nobody wanted to shake that sense of solidarity.

Victor

Overheal wrote: »

there was more solidarity in the country in the weeks following 9/11 than there has been since the cold war.

The only place solidarity had during the Cold War was the Polish shipyards.

RedPlanet

Overheal wrote: »

Also the Anthrax attacks were placed dangerously close to the 9/11 attack on the calendar: everyone and their grandma feared it was terrorists, and nobody wanted to suspect an american would do that to its country after 9/11: there was more solidarity in the country in the weeks following 9/11 than there has been since the cold war. Could someone have known the truth? I have to assume yeah they did. I imagine they hid it from the american people though, because as I said, nobody wanted to shake that sense of solidarity.

So basically they'd rather let America be subject to futher possible anthrax attacks rather than tell the truth and put the problem to rest.
I'm not sure solidarity is the word you're looking for, more like toe-the-party-line, or else.

Overheal

Actually upon some research, the FBI never stopped doing its job trying to find the real perp. However it was the Administration that was adamant that they increase their efforts to try and find evidence that linked the evidence to Al Qaeda, and later Iraq.

Wikipedia: 2001 Anthrax Attacks wrote:

Immediately after the anthrax attacks, White House officials repeatedly pressured FBI Director Robert Mueller to prove that they were a second-wave assault by Al Qaeda. During the president's morning intelligence briefings, Mueller was "beaten up" for not producing proof that 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 stated. The FBI knew early on that the anthrax used was a weaponized version requiring sophisticated equipment and was unlikely to have been produced in some "cave." At the same time, both President Bush and Vice President Cheney in public statements speculated about the possibility of a link between the anthrax attacks and Al Qaida.[40]

Authorities traveled to six different continents, interviewed over 9,000 people, conducted 67 searches and issued over 6,000 subpoenas. 17 FBI agents were assigned to the case and 10 postal inspectors investigating the case.[41]

2001 wrote:

October 18: Senator John McCain states, on the David Letterman Show, that "There is some indication, and I don't have the conclusions, but some of this anthrax may -- and I emphasize may -- have come from Iraq.

October 26 - October 29: ABC News reports several times that several high-placed sources at Fort Detrick and elsewhere have told them that the anthrax samples contained bentonite, thereby implicating Saddam Hussein's biological warfare program, and explicitly contradicting official White House reports.

November 7: President Bush describes the attacks as "a second wave of terrorist attacks upon our country."

2008 wrote:

March 28, 2008 - Fox News released details of an email exchange between scientists at Fort Detrick.[39] According to Fox News, the scientists "openly discussed how the anthrax powder they were asked to analyze after the attacks was nearly identical to that made by one of their colleagues."

August 3, 2008 - DNA evidence links the anthrax strain used by Ivins in his Fort Detrick laboratory to the strain used in the attacks.

Conspiracy-Nuts, start your engines.
But to answer your question RedPlanet yes, it seems the Bush Administration placed a higher price on going after Al Qaeda and Iraq than it did the truth in the matter.

lostexpectation

and did i read that this guy still had his job and clearance up to his death, with this talk by his collegaues of him going manic back then....



Aug. 13: A federal judge says five journalists must identify the government officials who leaked them details about Hatfill.

ah more journalist fighting for truth and justice!!!

SkepticOne

Overheal wrote: »

Also the Anthrax attacks were placed dangerously close to the 9/11 attack on the calendar

"Dangerously close" you say. Unusual choice of words given the objective of such an attack is to cause as much fear and chaos as possible.

Overheal

If you have a problem with my choice of words I accept thesauruses as gifts.

and did i read that this guy still had his job and clearance up to his death, with this talk by his collegaues of him going manic back then....

Scary. You'd think the last thing you want someone psychotic doing is playing around with biological weapons.