American Anthrax: A Media Roots Film Production.

Media Roots presents American Anthrax, a documentary comprised of news footage that establishes, by history’s own narration, how everything you’ve been told about the Anthrax Attacks is a lie. Conceptualized, edited and produced by Robbie Martin, co-host of Media Roots Radio.

September 11, 2001, shook the United States to the core, a country that had been nearly untouchable since its democratic inception. However, immediately following this horrific tragedy, another equally as impactful ‘terrorist attack’ occurred when weaponized anthrax was sent to multiple Congressman and journalists through the U.S. Postal Service. The attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were both one-time events that happened in two prominent cities. Unlike 9/11, the Anthrax Attacks localized terrorism and spread fear to every corner of American life, where the simple act of getting your mail could prove to be fatal. Five people died as a result of breathing in the deadly anthrax spores, including postal workers and one NY Post reporter. Countless others were infected.

The Bush administration initially tried to link this ‘second wave of terrorism’ to al-Qaeda with zero proof. Once that talking point out-lived its usefulness, the official narrative began leaning towards Saddam Hussein and his mythological biological weapons program. Establishment propagandists like John McCain and ABC news reporters intentionally spread disinformation to plant the seed in the public mind that the anthrax came from Iraq, which eventually lead to Colin Powell’s infamous 2003 WMD speech at the UN. All the while, the U.S. government was fully aware that the anthrax did not come from an external source, because the strain showed tell-tale signs of being a specific anthrax strain that was weaponized and manufactured by the U.S. military.

Regardless, the idea of the Anthrax Attacks being executed by an external terrorist organization remained conventional wisdom the public was conditioned into believing in the aftermath of 9/11. Eventually, two men were accused of being the perpetrators behind the attacks, yet no charges were ever brought to either of them. The first accused individual, Steven Hatfill, ended up being rewarded a multimillion dollar settlement from the government for being wrongly accused before any evidence was presented against him. The subsequent accused individual, Bruce Ivins, allegedly committed suicide while the FBI was trying to break him into confessing.

Ultimately, the FBI asked the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to verify its evidence pointing to Ivins as the main suspect. Instead, the NAS concluded that the DNA in the anthrax sent in the mail was in fact not a match to the anthrax Ivins worked with. Before the National Academy of Sciences finished their independent investigation, the FBI rushed its pre-established conclusions about Ivins’s guilt to the press, and the case was closed. To this day, the FBI has never commented on the many glaring contradictions in the official government narrative about the Anthrax Attacks.

Follow Robbie on twitter at @fluorescentgrey

www.mediaroots.org...

post from 911blogger, by rm
911blogger.com...

More on the mailings:

The text at the beginning says that the anthrax letters were 'delivered' on September 18. To be precise, they were postmarked the 18th, not actually delivered until days later. Time also passed between their being delivered and actually opened, and from there to the appearance of the symptoms of infection, and finally to their being diagnosed as anthrax infection. And the resultant panic.

There were also some hoax anthrax letters (enclosed with powder that turned out be harmless) around this time, postmarked in St. Petersburg, Florida--after the actual anthrax-contaminated letters had been mailed, but before they had made news headlines. Why is this significant? Since the actual attack letters--postmarked in New Jersey--weren't yet news, the hoax mailings could not be attributed to a 'copycat' crime. And while the FBI would ultimately try to pin everything on Bruce Ivins--allegedly doing everything on his own, including dropping them off at the New Jersey mailbox--how could he have carried out these near simultaneous hoax mailings from Florida? In other words, even if one were to accept the claim of Ivins' guilt (which I do not), how big a coincidence theorist does one have to be not to see a conspiracy here, rather than the work of a 'lone nut' (or a 'spore loser,' as the NY Post dubbed him)?

Of course, many other considerations lead to that same rhetorical question. And of course, when they thought the finger of guilt pointed towards Iraq or Al Qaeda, the media didn't hesitate to spin theories of conspiracy. Only when it's known to be a non-Muslim U.S. source do they fall back on the lone-nut-and-everything-else-is-a-coincidence theory.

Something puzzling: While journalist Robert Stevens--of the tabloid The Sun, in Florida--was the first fatality of the anthrax attacks; and while his workplace was found to be contaminated; there is some reason to doubt whether his infection was actually by means of a contaminated letter, though this is often assumed to be so.

Here's just a bit of the info to supplement that in the Media Roots film.

www.historycommons.org...

www.historycommons.org...

www.historycommons.org...

So it werent the Taliban whom mailed Anthrax from Afghanistan to America?

Why did Bruce Ivins commit "suicide" if it wasn't his anthrax..?

Merinda
So it werent the Taliban whom mailed Anthrax from Afghanistan to America?

Maybe it was Saddam Hussein - a biological WMD?

No? Must have been the lone nut.. except it wasn't the same anthrax he was working with..

oh well, case closed. We must look forward, never back..

reply to post by NewAgeMan


I have not had time to watch the documentary yet but I do feel like this is worth discussion. It is a very strange and largely forgotten episode during the 9/11 timeline build up to the wars. Why no one cares or remembers how this event helped shape the actions of the government immediately after is strange on its own.

CJ

I have become convinced, based on nothing but simple common sense and reason alone, that the following three "think tanks" created the very policy that unleashed 9/11 and the nightmare war years during the opening decade of the 21st century, and that therefore 9/11, the anthrax attacks, and these three rather prophetic documents, are all directly and inextricably historically linked, which is probably why you can't find the original documents on those institutions websites anymore.., as if history would forget all about it and the plainly obvious linkage looking back on everything in the rear view mirror of near total 20/20 historical hindsight.

I just don't see how anyone in their right mind can possibly conclude that it's all nothing but a big coincidence, with no correlelation between the following policy makers and the events themselves. You'd have to be blind and insane not to see it, imho, and by that i don't mean to provoke anyone, i'm not suggesting that you simply must see recent modern American and global history in the same way i do. Just sharing.. so don't shoot the messenger.

It does help clear the air though imho, and personal experience. It's liberating facing it down and sensing the possibility for a better world by comparison, much much better, even infinitely better as a domain of new possibility once the great historical lesson is learned. We can get through to the other side of this horror, and get the last laugh..

Space to breathe again, and finally climb down off the wall after all this time, and realize that history can't not figure this thing out and stand in judgement against and over what was nothing but a very BAD and evil and wicked policy. The data, is in. The whole thing's come back full circle, and how could we forget the anthrax attacks and their intended linkage to the 9/11 event and to biological weapons of mass destruction, and to Iraq as McCain was caught talking up on the David Letterman show i'd never seen that before.

Anyway, with much adieu, here are those three items that i'd like to move forward and place in evidence for examination in the court of public opinion, as directly linked to both the 9/11 event as well as the anthrax attacks. We even have an idea of who might have been involved and responsible which includes very familiar names like John McCain and Jeb Bush and Dick Cheney, and who could forget Richard Pearl, he was on all the time uttering his pronouncements as if bestowing precious wisdom as food from his lips while his dark eyes tell another tale altogether.

1) A Clean Break.

1) "A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm", a study group led by Richard Pearl

Following is a report prepared by The Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies’ "Study Group on a New Israeli Strategy Toward 2000." The main substantive ideas in this paper emerge from a discussion in which prominent opinion makers, including Richard Perle, James Colbert, Charles Fairbanks, Jr., Douglas Feith, Robert Loewenberg, David Wurmser, and Meyrav Wurmser participated. The report, entitled "A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm," is the framework for a series of follow-up reports on strategy.

www.informationclearinghouse.info...

Wiki, so you know it's real..
en.wikipedia.org...:_A_New_Strategy_for_Securing_the_Realm

Neocon Middle East Policy: The Clean Break Plan Damage Assessment

A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm is a definitive Middle East Policy strategy authored and implemented by operatives in the highest levels of the US government. There is just one problem. The plan was a strategy for Israel, not the United States of America. Neocon Middle East Policy reviews strategies and consequences of the "Clean Break" plan authored by Richard Perle, David Wurmser, and Douglas Feith in 1996. It analyzes the core assumptions of the policy, cost of tactics that have already been implemented and discusses the likelihood others will be executed in the future. Neocon Middle East Policy then turns to the most difficult questions of all, "Can a policy crafted for a foreign government and presented to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu serve as a blueprint for US regional policy? At what cost in credibility, blood, treasure and American integrity? At what cost to Israel?" Neocon Middle East Policy is a must-read for anyone concerned about the convergence of US and Israeli foreign policy in the Middle East.

www.amazon.com...

2) Catastrophic Terrorism: Imagining the transformative event - Elements of a National Policy.

2) Catastrophic Terrorism: Imagining the transformative event; Elements of a National Policy.
by Philip D. Zelikow, December 1998
belfercenter.hks.harvard.edu...

www.youtube.com...

Here are Zelikow's 1998 words.


An act of catastrophic terrorism that killed thousands or tens of thousands of people and/or disrupted the necessities of life for hundreds of thousands, or even millions, would be a watershed event in America's history.

It could involve loss of life and property unprecedented for peacetime and undermine Americans' fundamental sense of security within their own borders in a manner akin to the 1949 Soviet atomic bomb test, or perhaps even worse.

Constitutional liberties would be challenged as the United States sought to protect itself from further attacks by pressing against allowable limits in surveillance of citizens, detention of suspects, and the use of deadly force. More violence would follow, either as other terrorists seek to imitate this great "success" or as the United States strikes out at those considered responsible.

Like Pearl Harbor, such an event would divide our past and future into a "before" and "after."

The effort and resources we devote to averting or containing this threat now, in the "before" period, will seem woeful, even pathetic, when compared to what will happen "after."

Philip D. Zelikow, December 1998

"... if the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center had succeeded, the resulting horror and chaos would have exceeded our ability to describe it. Such an act of catastrophic terrorism would be a watershed even in American history. It could involve loss of life and property unprecedented in peacetime and undermine America's fundamental sense of security..Like Pearl Harbor, the event would divide our past and future into a before and after. The United States might respond with.."

While at Harvard he worked with Ernest May and Richard Neustadt on the use, and misuse, of history in policymaking. They observed, as Zelikow noted in his own words, that "contemporary" history is "defined functionally by those critical people and events that go into forming the public's presumptions about its immediate past. The idea of 'public presumption'," he explained, "is akin to William McNeill's notion of 'public myth' but without the negative implication sometimes invoked by the word 'myth.' Such presumptions are beliefs (1) thought to be true (although not necessarily known to be true with certainty), and (2) shared in common within the relevant political community."

Zelikow's focus was on what he calls 'searing' or 'moulding' events [that] take on 'transcendental' importance and, therefore, retain their power even as the experience generation passes from the scene."

More here: The Official Story - by Philip D. Zelikow

www.abovetopsecret.com...

You may note how his language found it's way into this policy report by Dick Cheney..

3) Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategy, Forces and Resources For a New Century.

3) Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategy, Forces and Resources For a New Century.
A Report of the Project for the New American Century
September 2000
www.informationclearinghouse.info...

Signatories to Statement of Principles

Elliott Abrams[5]
Gary Bauer[5]
William J. Bennett[5]
John Ellis "Jeb" Bush[5]
Richard B. Cheney[5]
Eliot A. Cohen[5]
Midge Decter[5]
Paula Dobriansky[5]
Steve Forbes[5]
Aaron Friedberg[5]
Francis Fukuyama[5]
Frank Gaffney[5]
Fred C. Ikle[5]
Donald Kagan[5]
Zalmay Khalilzad[5]
I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby[5]
Norman Podhoretz[5]
J. Danforth Quayle[5]
Peter W. Rodman[5]
Stephen P. Rosen[5]
Henry S. Rowen[5]
Donald Rumsfeld[5]
Vin Weber[5]
George Weigel[5]
Paul Wolfowitz[5]

Signatories or contributors to other significant letters or reports[16]

Elliott Abrams[10][12]
Kenneth Adelman[54]
Richard V. Allen[20]
Richard L. Armitage[12]
Gary Bauer[20][54]
Jeffrey Bell[20][54]
William J. Bennett[10][12][20][54]
Jeffrey Bergner[10][12][20]
John Bolton[10][12]
Ellen Bork[54]
Rudy Boschwitz[20]
Linda Chavez[54]
Eliot Cohen[15][20][54]
Seth Cropsey[20]
Midge Decter[20][54]
Paula Dobriansky[10][12]
Thomas Donnelly[15][20][54]
Nicholas Eberstadt,[20][54][55]
Hillel Fradkin[20][54][56]
Aaron Friedberg[20]
Francis Fukuyama[10][12][20]
Frank Gaffney[20][54]
Jeffrey Gedmin[20][54]
Reuel Marc Gerecht[20][54]
Charles Hill[20][54]
Bruce P. Jackson[20][54]
Eli S. Jacobs[20]
Michael Joyce[20]
Donald Kagan[15][20][54]
Robert Kagan[10][12][15][20][54]
Stephen Kantany
Zalmay Khalilzad[10][12]
Jeane Kirkpatrick[20]
Charles Krauthammer[20]
William Kristol[10][12][15][20]
John Lehman[20][54]
I. Lewis Libby[15]
Tod Lindberg[54][57]
Rich Lowry[54]
Clifford May[20][54]
John McCain[58]
Joshua Muravchik[54]
Michael O'Hanlon [59][60]
Martin Peretz[20][54]
Richard Perle[10][12][20][54]
Daniel Pipes[54]
Norman Podhoretz[20][54]
Peter W. Rodman[10][12][20]
Stephen P. Rosen[15][20][54]
Donald Rumsfeld[10][12]
Randy Scheunemann[20][54]
Gary Schmitt[15][20][52][54]
William Schneider, Jr.[10][12][20][54]
Richard H. Shultz[20][61]
Henry Sokolski[20]
Stephen J. Solarz[20]
Vin Weber[10][12][20]
Leon Wieseltier[20]
Marshall Wittmann[20][54]
Paul Wolfowitz[10][12][15]
R. James Woolsey[10][12][54]
Dov Zakheim[15][62]
Robert B. Zoellick[10][12]

en.wikipedia.org...

Bush planned Iraq 'regime change' before becoming President

Sunday Herald - 15 September 2002
Bush planned Iraq 'regime change' before becoming President
By Neil Mackay

[MUST READ!] cryptome.org...

Best Regards, (even in spite of all the bad news...),

NAM

NewAgeMan
Why did Bruce Ivins commit "suicide" if it wasn't his anthrax..?

And why would a chemical scientist commit suicide with an overdose of Tylenol?

Does that really make sense?

The guy was someone who had custody of things like anthrax for Pete's sake, you'd think if he wanted to off himself that he would use something other than Tylenol where you might run the risk of not dying and suffering sever liver damage amid the worst case of constipation known to man.

Nothing about the anthrax case makes any sense, unless...

Strange lead-in to 9/11 truth, but very effective in making it's point clear, while establishing motive and opportunity in a way that really was connected to 9/11.

And you don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to figure it out either.

reply to post by NewAgeMan


For anyone who considers yourself a Democrat or Republican ask yourself why both sides were trying to cover this up.....WHY.



Story after story proving both sides are actually one in the same and yet people still choose a side. You are nothing but a pawn. They knew this was going to happen and covered it up afterwards. This is a fact. I am not fooling myself I know this story will vanish into the winds of apathy just like all the rest but hopefully it will open a few hearts and minds before being forgotten.

Putting on my Sherlock Holmes hat, and puffing on the pipe..


Among the most horrific aspects of this case, is the question that arises in regards to what would have happened to the child that they had print out the envelopes and write the letters, because those were written by a 7-10 year old, and thus one capable of remembering what they were made to write.

Also, the other thing that arises with this is just how totally creepy George Bush Jr. is in his smirky buffoonery. His is a wicked type of impish "mirth" because he's in the know.

I'll bet you any money that he and Cheney reviewed snuff films of prisoners tortured to death as the one's who gave the orders. They fit the bill i do believe.

What this story and case betrays is something very heinous and utterly barbaric, while pointing to the 9/11 event also, with the anthrax attacks serving in Bush's words as the "second wave" of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, intended and designed to create a false linkage to Iraq and Saddam Hussein.

Thus when someone pipes up and asks why no WMD were found yet a sophisticated and complex operation like 9/11 could be pulled off with plane swaps, cell phone calls made from the ground, and exploding buildings - just point to the anthrax attacks and proclaim that indeed it did make an appearance.

Bush and Cheney were taking Cipro by September 11th and that corrupt reporter was warned by a high ranking government official a MONTH prior to the anthrax attack to get on Cipro.

That's disgraceful and outrageous.

These things won't just go away, and fade away by apathy - history knows and records these things.

But what happened to that kid who wrote the letters it really makes me wonder, as much as i don't like the implications, which might include such a hideous thing as child sacrifice.

Losers.


"There is nothing that is now hidden which will not be made known and brought to light."
~ Jesus.

"Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord. I will repay."

reply to post by NewAgeMan

The first accused individual, Steven Hatfill, ended up being rewarded a multimillion dollar settlement from the government for being wrongly accused before any evidence was presented against him. The subsequent accused individual, Bruce Ivins, allegedly committed suicide while the FBI was trying to break him into confessing.

brilliant. Just like in the movies. I never knew these Hollywood movies are all based on real events.

Anyway...I knew almost nothing about this event. Thanks for shedding light on it...

So a guy committed suicide while in custody ? And while they were trying to "break him". How strange a coincidence. Yet, it's probably nothing suspicious.

Ultimately, the FBI asked the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to verify its evidence pointing to Ivins as the main suspect. Instead, the NAS concluded that the DNA in the anthrax sent in the mail was in fact not a match to the anthrax Ivins worked with.

Not a match ?? Evidence be damned. Proceed like it never happened.

I'll do some digging on my own on this subject. Sounds crazy enough.

here is a little interesting bit:

"In my opinion, there are maybe four or five people in the whole country who might be able to make this stuff, and I'm one of them," said Richard O. Spertzel, former deputy commander of USAMRIID.[62] "And even with a good lab and staff to help run it, it might take me a year to come up with a product as good."[62] The spores in the Daschle letter were 1.5 to 3 micrometres across, many times smaller than the finest known grade of anthrax produced by either the U.S. or Soviet bioweapons programs.[62] An electron microscope, which costs hundreds of thousands of dollars, would be needed to verify that the target spore size had been consistently achieved.[62] The presence of the anti-clumping additive silicon in the anthrax samples also suggests a high degree of sophistication as specialists working at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory were unable to duplicate this property despite 56 attempts

IVINS wiki

So to make this stuff...you just can't do it in your own basement. High quality stuff apparently. Specialists tried to duplicate it...56 times...without success.

Let's make our own conclusions as to what does that mean...

Dr. Ivins was clearly railroaded.

www.counterpunch.org...

FBI director Mueller was clearly complicit as well

emptywheel.firedoglake.com...

SubTruth
reply to post by NewAgeMan

 

For anyone who considers yourself a Democrat or Republican ask yourself why both sides were trying to cover this up.....WHY.

The rest of that batch of Anthrax is still hanging over all our heads, and if that cover-up stops, it'll come down on us like snow.

The 9/11 Attacks were the "We're here!!!" announcement, and the Anthrax Attacks were the "do what we say and no one else will get hurt" announcement.

So far, this international corporate conspiracy has raided our Treasury to the tune of many trillions of dollars, and the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement is being only the latest coercion being inflicted upon our government. There will be many more to come, and we'll all be scratching our heads over why our government - regardless of the administration - is capitulating in favor of big business.

The Bush/Cheney regime was this conspiracy's inside field ops team and did all the after-event marketing work to establish the Al Qaeda/Iraq narrative, so that the press's failure to actually investigate any of this (the 9/11 Attacks and the Anthrax Attacks) wouldn't appear overtly suspicious. Now, the situation has been cemented long enough and deeply enough that no inside team is needed. Mission accomplished, as they say.

Now, it's just a balance of "think tank" directives, floated out at strategic points as opinion pieces, and back channel instructions concerning treaties and resistance to legislation by key members of the Congress, as directed by expendable representatives of this corporate cabal.

Snowden and WikiLeaks were attempts by our own government to engage in some level of resistance, but so far, nothing is being effective. This is not over. Not by a long shot.

MarioOnTheFly
here is a little interesting bit:

"In my opinion, there are maybe four or five people in the whole country who might be able to make this stuff, and I'm one of them," said Richard O. Spertzel, former deputy commander of USAMRIID.[62] "And even with a good lab and staff to help run it, it might take me a year to come up with a product as good."[62] The spores in the Daschle letter were 1.5 to 3 micrometres across, many times smaller than the finest known grade of anthrax produced by either the U.S. or Soviet bioweapons programs.[62] An electron microscope, which costs hundreds of thousands of dollars, would be needed to verify that the target spore size had been consistently achieved.[62] The presence of the anti-clumping additive silicon in the anthrax samples also suggests a high degree of sophistication as specialists working at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory were unable to duplicate this property despite 56 attempts

IVINS wiki

So to make this stuff...you just can't do it in your own basement. High quality stuff apparently. Specialists tried to duplicate it...56 times...without success.

Let's make our own conclusions as to what does that mean...

What it means is that when they made it, they made a lot of it. And they didn't mail all of what they had in those letters. And what that means is that they still have it, and it's still being threatened against us.

reply to post by NorEaster


but since they were unable to replicate the strain...doesn't that mean it can't be a "lone nut"...it takes expert helpers, a high quality lab, and many many tries obviously to produce the thing of such high quality.

Who has such resources ? Lone nuts ? terrorists ?

originally posted by: MarioOnTheFly
reply to post by NorEaster

 

but since they were unable to replicate the strain...doesn't that mean it can't be a "lone nut"...it takes expert helpers, a high quality lab, and many many tries obviously to produce the thing of such high quality.

Who has such resources ? Lone nuts ? terrorists ?

Well to be fair, a lone nut can take Anthrax that was supposed to remain in lock down.

This is old news. What does it have to do with 9/11?