The forgotten attack

One of the most compelling aspects of our current fight against global terrorism is the rise of diametrically opposed conspiracy theories perpetrated by the right and left, each claiming to explain the real 'truth' behind its origin and purpose.

The internet makes these theories easily researchable and allows ideologues, partisans and ametuer sleuths to access mountains of data and analysis in which they never had before. I'm not excluding myself, but while my ideologies square with the right I also enjoy a good mystery, and the GWoT/Iraq is like a TV reality show on that account.

The boilerplate theories are well-known--the left harps on the fact Bin Laden is still loose and that Bush and Blair sexed-up pre-war intelligence as a reason to get Saddam's oil. The right seems more focused on why Clinton covered up terrorist acts in the 90s and the obvious but ignored connections between Saddam and terrorism.

Yet speaking of ignoring, most on each side seem to have forgotten the anthrax attacks. TomDispatch hasn't, and is asking some good questions regarding the event:

September 11, 2002 rolled around amid weeks of ceremonies and rites, interviews with survivors, and memorial articles galore, while TV shows and books poured out. But where were the survivor interviews with those victimized by the anthrax killer(s)? Where were the books, the dramas, the movies, the TV shows? Four years later, the victims and heroes of 9/11 are still being written about; their "sacred" ground in New York is still being bitterly fought over, but when was the last time you saw anything about the victims or the heroes -- mainly postal workers -- of the anthrax attacks?

Ask the average person on the street about the anthrax 'attacks' and (assuming they remember) they will probably say, "you mean that crazy scientist guy who mailed some letters?".

Our President never swore to get the killer(s), "dead or alive." He kept no profile of the possible killer or killers in his desk drawer, so he could cross him/them off when caught.

He goes on to ask why Hatfill, named only as a "person of interest", was never deemed an enemy combatant and locked up in a brig like Jose Padilla. In fact, nobody was locked up.

Mr. Englehardt is clearly no fan of Bush and seems to fall into the camp of those who believe the whole thing was orchestrated for political gain. I don't fall into his camp, but do agree the anthrax attacks have been, as he says, 'disappeared'.

There are a few sites on the web offering theories as to why the anthrax attacks were in fact disappeared, some of which are linked on this blog. The theories seem to depend on which side of the political fence one sits. I keep coming back to a couple of things on this. If the Bush government was behind the attack as icing on the attack Saddam cake, why then immediately cover it up? I've yet to hear any Congressperson admit the anthrax attacks factored into their thought process on the Iraq resolution.

If we take Bush off the hook it makes more sense to believe Saddam or Bin Laden was behind the attack, since shortly after the first wave of letters arrived Bush immediately sprang his secret NSA spy program to life. Think about it--if we had an idea of who the bad guys were overseas but no idea who the sleepers were here, it would be next to impossible to get FISA warrants against specific citizens.

Therefore it makes sense to think the net would have been opened wide enough to randomly monitor whom the international terrorist agents may call or email, and it would be imperitive to keep this under wraps lest the terrorists find out and resort to carrier pigeons or somesuch. It also explains Bush's recent harsh reaction to the leak.

Consider also that persons of prominence involved with germ warfare have also met with downfalls. Former NY Times star journalist Judith Miller was sent packing and ridiculed for her past Iraqi WMD reporting, and Iraqi bio-weapons expert and former UNSCOM member Dr. David Kelly supposedly killed himself during the Downing Street inquest into British pre-war intelligence assessments. For the record, Kelly was convinced Saddam was a threat and supported his removal. There have been other strange events in the world of microbiology, one of which occurred right here in the Mid South.

My theory is that the truth may never be told, and is likely interwoven deeply into past political pecadillos or various big-wig screw-ups to be nearly impossible to unravel. The only wildcard is the power of the internet. Uh, so, anyone want to watch some football?!

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The latest edition of Newsweek has a well-balanced article on executive powers during wartime, and seems pertinent to this discussion. As does this.