Agent X

The Washington Post has a long article today about Pakistani microbiologist Abdur Rauf, an alleged al-Qaeda sympathizer trying to acquire germs on behalf of Ayman al-Zawahiri and friends. He was picked up by the Pakistanis shortly after 9/11 but just like fellow WMD expert AQ Khan, was basically set free, much to the chagrin of US authorities.

Such a senstive subject might bring to mind the unsolved letter attacks of 2001. The article does mention them, but makes no direct ties, quoting an unnamed FBI source as saying, "it doesn't fit with al-Qaeda's modus operandi". Furthermore:

Yet U.S. officials have been unable to rule out al-Qaeda or any other group as a suspect. Earlier this month, FBI officials acknowledged that the ultra-fine powder mailed five years ago was simply made and could have been produced by a well-trained microbiologist anywhere in the world.

In case you missed that, they said,

"There is no significant signature in the powder that points to a domestic source,"

That's a stunning paradigm shift considering previous reports and failed efforts to reverse engineer the substance. Obviously not all the facts have been made available to the press or public, likely for good reason.

Perhaps the most interesting part of today's WaPo story were the ommissions, namely Dr. Steven Hatfill, Operation Amerithrax, and Saddam Hussein. We're still waiting for conclusive evidence that Iraq destroyed its suspected bacterial growth medium.

And Rauf was certainly looking for some. He said the following in a letter to Zawahiri with respect to starter sets:

"Unfortunately, I did not find the required culture of B. anthrax -- i.e., pathogenic," he writes to Zawahiri. He then describes a new attempt to acquire a lethal strain from a different lab

The article doesn't say which labs Rauf visited, perhaps because it was redacted. But it does say he had contact with Southeast Asian terror group Jemaah Islamiyah in purchasing equipment for the Kandahar lab. We've heard that name before.

But he's not the only microbiologist with a strange story. His visit to Porton Down in the UK brings to mind the late doctor Dr. David Kelly, email pal to former New York Times reporter Judith Miller. Her book "Germs" came out right in the middle of an incredible spate of bad luck suffered by some in the biological research field, including Dr. Set Van Nguyen in Australia, Kathy Nguyen in New York City, and Dr. Benito Que. Check that, Ms. Nguyen, who passed away five years ago today from inhalation anthrax, only worked in the basement of a medical facility.

Then there's the case of Dr. Don Wiley right here in the Bluff City. One of the leading researchers on human immunity to viruses, he disappeared after attending a gala dinner at the Peabody Hotel on November 16, 2001. They found his rental car parked in a closed lane on the Hernando DeSoto Bridge with some paint markings on it, then subsequently found a body with his ID hundreds of miles downstream a month later. It was sent to the Memphis Morgue.

The Memphis authorities first speculated suicide, then later Medical Examiner O.C. Smith determined it was an accidental death due to his body striking steel support beams on the way down (not something jumpers usually do). Ironically Dr. Smith himself was in the center of a series of bizzare incidents shortly thereafter.

And it was never explained why the brilliant Dr. Wiley, someone whom associates described as "not suffering fools lightly" would himself foolishly stop on a two-lane bridge (the other lanes were closed due to construction) to inspect damage to his rental car when he could have easily waited until arriving at his destination or at the least, the other side of the bridge. Perhaps he was a stereotypical nutty professor who lacked common sense. Whatever the case, his widow Katrin Valgeirsdottir seems satisfied with the accident finding.

All coincidences? Tempest in a teapot? Tin foil hat fodder? Sure, that's possible. Dr. Wiley and his deceased colleagues would probably be the first to agree that a clinical, scientific approach to their disappearances would be most prudent. Still, this entire thing remains a nearly unparalled whodunnit with no conclusion in sight. Perhaps for good reason.