Former FBI Official: After 9/11, White House Told FBI To Blame Anthrax Attacks On Al Qaeda»

[RedEarth]

Last week, Bruce Ivins, a government scientist who researched anthrax and was expected to be charged in connection with the 2001 attacks, reportedly committed suicide. As Glenn Greenwald has noted, President Bush and his administration initially attempted to link the anthrax attacks to Iraq.

The New York Daily News has a new twist in the administration’s attempt to peg the anthrax attacks to its own bellicose aims. Immediately after 9/11, the Daily News reports, “White House officials repeatedly pressed FBI Director Robert Mueller to prove it was a second-wave assault by Al Qaeda,” according to a former FBI official:

After the Oct. 5, 2001, death from anthrax exposure of Sun photo editor Robert Stevens, Mueller was “beaten up” during President Bush’s morning intelligence briefings for not producing proof 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 told The News.

As the Daily News noted, similar to its efforts with Iraq, the White House on multiple occasions suggested that the anthrax attacks were tied to al Qaeda operatives abroad:

On October 15, 2001, President Bush said, “There may be some possible link” to Bin Laden, adding, “I wouldn’t put it past him.” Vice President Cheney also said Bin Laden’s henchmen were trained “how to deploy and use these kinds of substances, so you start to piece it all together.”

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/08/04/al-qaeda-anthrax/

[freesqueeze]

1. so it was Al Qaeda that

had it in for the left of center members of MSM and Washington.

hmmmm...it never made sense.


damn that dan rather

[rocktivity]

2. How astute of you not to post this in Latest Breaking News

:eyes:
rocknation

[RedEarth]

3. Uh ?

[rocktivity]

7. A backhanded compliment

We DU-ers in knew from day one the Iraq anthrax story was a crock.

:headbang:
rocknation

[librechik]

4. sorta like how they refer to any insurgents in Iraq as Al Qaeda

no matter who they are.

[Parche]

5. Anthrax-Qaeda

:woohoo: :woohoo: :hi:

[wvbygod]

6. Unnamed officials?

Hell, the note to Brokaw said "allah is great" on it. Might be nice to put some
names to these kind of things.

[Supersedeas]

8. Funny how the SORORITY story makes National News, and this is dismissed by Newsroom Producers