-Caveat Lector-
From
http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/
}}}>Begin
October 28 2001
TERRORISM
Anthrax team seeks US 'mad scientist'
Tony Allen-Mills Washington and Stephen Grey
PRESIDENT George W
Enemy within: Bush's high approval rating is showing signs of
slipping, as America faces up to the suspicion that the anthrax
attacks may be an 'inside job'
Photograph: Doug Mills
Bush was facing the demoralising prospect yesterday that anthrax
attacks on Washington, New York and Florida may have been the work of
an American extremist unrelated to Osama Bin Laden's Al-Qaeda
terrorist network.
The investigation into the anthrax letters that have paralysed the US
postal system and shut down or restricted every main branch of the
federal government is increasingly focusing on domestic suspects, who
may include a
"mad scientist" from an American laboratory, intelligence sources said.
Despite persistent reports that the anthrax found in a letter to Senator Tom Daschle,
the Democratic leader in the Senate, may have originated in Iraq, yesterday's
Washington Post quoted a senior official as saying: "Ever
ything seems to lean towards a domestic source. Nothing seems to fit with an overseas
terrorist-type operation."
Cash drain: anthrax tests have sent health
costs soaring
Photograph: Kevin Lamarque
Federal investigators are scouring the records this weekend of at least 67 American
laboratories known to have used anthrax. They are seeking evidence not only of missing
supplies, but also of any personnel who might be n
ursing a grievance and who might fit the profile of "a lone psychopathic scientist",
one intelligence source said.
Dozens of previous anthrax threats are also being examined. According to one American
database, there were 81 threats of terrorism involving anthrax in 1999 alone. Many
involved written threats that were not carried out.
Investigators want to compare handwriting from their older files with the distinctive
printing that appeared on letters in the current scare; at the same time, officials
admitted they had no clear suspects and were still
unable to rule out a link with the suicide hijackers behind the September 11 attacks.
Some of the hijackers had stayed in Florida near the newspaper offices where Bob
Stevens, a British-born editor, became the first fatal
victim of the current outbreak.
The anthrax being sent through the US postal system has so far infected at least 13
people and killed three, including two postal workers. On Friday the US Supreme Court
joined the lengthening list of institutions affecte
d by the crisis when traces of anthrax were discovered at the remote mail-sorting
office which handles the post for senior justices. Mail rooms at the CIA and the US
army's Maryland research institute also tested positive
for microscopic amounts of anthrax, and yesterday
it emerged that similar traces had been found in the offices of three members of the
House of Representatives.
Until Friday, investigators had believed that all the anthrax traces discovered in the
Washington area had originated with the Daschle letter which, although sealed tightly
with tape, contained such a powerful dose that i
t contaminated other letters handled at the Brentwood sorting office near the capital.
It was at Brentwood that two postal workers inhaled anthrax spores which killed them.
A new case of inhalation anthrax - the most serious form - has since occurred in
Sterling, Virginia. A State Department mail handler has fallen ill, raising the
possibility that another anthrax letter may be loose somewh
ere in the system.
Huge amounts of government mail have been impounded and sent for decontamination; more
than 200 postal offices on the east coast are being tested.
Amid conflicting reports of scientific tests on chemical additives found in spores on
the Daschle letter - some of which were said to be unique to Iraq - investigators
appear to be increasingly convinced that whatever the
original source of the anthrax, the person who posted it was not a foreign terrorist.
Ari Fleischer, the president's spokesman, said the anthrax might have come from a "PhD
microbiologist or a well equipped lab in the United States". An intelligence source
added: "The finger does not point to Bin Laden at
the moment. It is not his style at all."
Investigators believe that the crudity of the letters' message - "Death to America.
Death to Israel. Allah is Great" - suggests an American trying to imitate what an
Islamic terrorist might say.
Mounting criticism over the government's handling of the anthrax crisis and the lack
of perceptible progress in the hunt for the perpetrators are causing concern at the
White House, where memories of the sudden political
collapse that destroyed the first President George Bush's political career are
returning to haunt his son.
In an eerie reprise of the problems that beset the elder Bush after his victory in the
Gulf war, his son is suddenly facing the threat that domestic concerns may begin to
overshadow his foreign achievements.
After seven weeks of rare political unity in Washington, cracks are appearing in the
patriotic facade of bipartisanship that had almost silenced public criticism of the
administration since September 11.
The Bush team handling America's first biochemical attacks is being compared
unfavourably with polished commanders on the military and diplomatic front.
While Bush's anti-terrorism team includes Gulf war veterans such as Dick Cheney, the
vice-president, Colin Powell, the secretary of state, and Donald Rumsfeld, the defence
secretary, the anthrax crisis was initially left
to Tommy Thompson, the health secretary. Thompson is a little-known former governor of
Wisconsin who has been widely criticised for muddling scientific details and providing
misleading information.
The pressure on Thompson was partially relieved when Bush appointed Tom Ridge, a
former Pennsylvania governor and close friend, to the new post of director of homeland
security. But critics carped that Ridge's most freque
nt comment on the bewildering questions about anthrax has been: "I don't know."
"There is virtually nobody in mainstream America who questions the
military strategy," said Frank Luntz, a Republican pollster. "There
is a growing number of people who question the response to anthrax."
To the health concern has been added mounting worry over the future
of the economy - the issue that eventually undid Bush's father.
America had been flirting with recession before the attacks on the
World Trade Center and the Pentagon. As the president pours billions
of dollars into the war against terrorism, the anthrax attacks - and
countless hoaxes and related scares - have sent health costs soaring.
Unemployment has reached its highest level since the early 1990s and
the insurance, travel and airline industries have been ravaged, too.
Bush's opinion poll ratings are hovering near 90%, a level that most
pollsters regard as unsustainable. "He is trapped by his own
success," said a Washington analyst. "He is not the accidental
president any more. He has shown us he's the guy in charge. So he's
the one who will take the heat if we don't to get to the bottom of
anthrax."
End<{{{
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