About That Anthrax

Let's say Bruce Ivins really did kill himself, and he really did kill himself because he was involved with the post 9/11 anthrax murders. That would still leave problems.

ABC News reports linking Saddam and anthrax penetrated very deeply -- by design -- into our public discourse and into the public consciousness. Those reports were absolutely vital in creating the impression during that very volatile time that Islamic terrorists generally, and Iraq and Saddam Hussein specifically, were grave, existential threats to this country.

[…]

And then, when President Bush named Iraq as a member of the "Axis of Evil" in his January, 2002 State of the Union speech -- just two months after ABC's report, when the anthrax attacks were still very vividly on the minds of Americans -- he specifically touted this claim:

The Iraqi regime has plotted to develop anthrax, and nerve gas, and nuclear weapons for over a decade.

[…]

[Washington Post's columnist, Richard Cohen,] -- in a March 18, 2008 Slate article in which he explains why he wrongfully supported the attack on Iraq -- disclosed this:

[…]

The attacks were not entirely unexpected. I had been told soon after Sept. 11 to secure Cipro, the antidote to anthrax. The tip had come in a roundabout way from a high government official, and I immediately acted on it. I was carrying Cipro way before most people had ever heard of it.

[…]

We now know -- we knew even before news of Ivins' suicide last night, and know especially in light of it -- that the anthrax attacks didn't come from Iraq or any foreign government at all. It came from our own Government's scientist, from the top Army bioweapons research laboratory. More significantly, the false reports linking anthrax to Iraq also came from the U.S. Government -- from people with some type of significant links to the same facility responsible for the attacks themselves.

[…]

ABC News already knows the answers to these questions. They know who concocted the false bentonite story and who passed it on to them with the specific intent of having them broadcast those false claims to the world, in order to link Saddam to the anthrax attacks and -- as importantly -- to conceal the real culprit(s) (apparently within the U.S. government) who were behind the attacks. And yet, unbelievably, they are keeping the story to themselves, refusing to disclose who did all of this. They're allegedly a news organization, in possession of one of the most significant news stories of the last decade, and they are concealing it from the public, even years later.

[…]

There are few news stories more significant, if there are any, than unveiling who the culprits were behind this deliberate propaganda. The fact that the current GOP presidential nominee [John McCain] claimed back then on national television to have some "indication" linking Saddam to the anthrax attacks makes it a bigger story still.

  Glen Greenwald

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Anthrax Murders Solved?

Well, we can likely expect a "Mission Accomplished" statement from the FBI. A month after the government had to admit to erroneously tagging Steven Hatfill (and coincidentally destroying his career), another Ft. Detrick scientist, Bruce Ivins, who worked with anthrax, has committed suicided at the prospect of being arrested.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Oh What a Great Idea!

How appropriate for the new Amerika.

The Justice Department is considering letting the FBI investigate Americans without any evidence of wrongdoing, relying instead on a terrorist profile that could single out Muslims, Arabs or other racial and ethnic groups.

  ABC

What Constitution? I don’t know what you’re talking about.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

FBI Agents Barred From "Harsh Interrogations"

A Justice Department audit of terror interrogations at three military bases overseas concluded Tuesday that FBI agents refused to participate when detainees were questioned under harsh and potentially illegal methods.

The FBI clashed with the Pentagon and the CIA over how at least two top al-Qaida operatives were interviewed, Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine found during a three-year investigation.

In part, that led to an August 2002 order by FBI Director Robert Mueller for agents to withdraw from interrogations during which coercive or extreme methods were used to get information from detainees, the audit concluded.

"The FBI agents observed the CIA use classified techniques that undoubtedly would not be permitted under FBI interview policies," according to a summary of the nearly 400-page audit.

  TPM

But the CIA is special.

Here's a Surprise for You

FBI Director Robert Mueller says an upcoming Justice Department report will show the bureau improperly used national security letters to obtain personal data on Americans during terror and spy investigations.

[...]

Last year's report found that over a three-year period, the FBI had demanded personal data on people from banks, telephone and Internet providers and credit bureaus without official authorization and in non-emergency circumstances.

  Raw Story

And this year’s report is about to come out.

While You Sleep

You can stop worrying that the forces of autocracy in America are going to require all of us to carry national identification cards. That’s so old school.

[…]

”Next Generation Identification,” [a system being developed by the FBI] is intended to “fuse” our fingerprint data with our iris patterns, palm prints, earlobe shapes, facial contours and even the unique ways we walk and speak. This fused, digital image of our persons is to be shared with every police agency in the country... as well as agencies abroad.

[…]

If the very existence of this national ID system doesn’t make you worry about your privacy rights, you might want to know about a quiet little change that the FBI made in the management of such databases in 2004. Officials exempted police databases from a Privacy Act requirement that the personal data stored in them has to be accurate.

  Jim Hightower

That's pretty ambitious. I wonder how they propose to get everybody processed. There must be an old Soviet style thirty-year plan. Oh, wait. Do you suppose I'll soon have to submit to all those measurements if I want a driver's license?

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

FISA "Hang Up"

Telephone companies cut off FBI wiretaps used to eavesdrop on suspected criminals because of the bureau's repeated failures to pay phone bills on time, according to a Justice Department audit released Thursday.[...] "We also found that late payments have resulted in telecommunications carriers actually disconnecting phone lines established to deliver surveillance results to the FBI, resulting in lost evidence," according to the audit by Inspector General Glenn A. Fine.

  TPM

But then, considering the illegality of the whole eavesdropping thing, I don’t suppose the FBI can complain.

This is rich. The telephone companies don’t blink at turning over private records to the government, but they damned sure better get paid on time.

And Just in Time...

For those out-of-work folks in Michigan and the Iraqi refugees of the previous post...the FBI is looking to hire a new crew of informants.

Maybe you can apply online. I don't know.

Surprise!

Alberto Gonzales lied to Congress. Can you believe it?

As he sought to renew the USA Patriot Act two years ago, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales assured lawmakers that the FBI had not abused its potent new terrorism-fighting powers. "There has not been one verified case of civil liberties abuse," Gonzales told senators on April 27, 2005.

Six days earlier, the FBI sent Gonzales a copy of a report that said its agents had obtained personal information that they were not entitled to have. It was one of at least half a dozen reports of legal or procedural violations that Gonzales received in the three months before he made his statement to the Senate intelligence committee, according to internal FBI documents released under the Freedom of Information Act.

  WaPo

The reason we hold truth in such respect is because we have so little opportunity to get familiar with it. --Mark Twain

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

It's hard to get it just right

The FBI says it has made significant progress in organizing its electronic records after misplacing documents related to the Oklahoma City bombing case and mismanaging records about the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The National Archives and Records Administration recently recognized the FBI's progress with an Archivist Achievement Award for the bureau's electronic recordkeeping certification program. That program established recordkeeping standards for all the FBI's e-records systems and created protocols for testing those systems following the mishandling of documents about Timothy McVeigh, convicted and executed for the 1995 bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City.

  FCW article

Well, bully for the FBI.

One would think record keeping would be of paramount importance for such an agency.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

FBI ordered to turn over Oklahoma City bombing docs, unredacted

And...surprise. The FBI has reopened the case.

A U.S. District Court judge in Salt Lake City, Utah, has ordered the Oklahoma City FBI office to turn over unredacted copies of all documents currently at issue in a Freedom of Information lawsuit involving additional evidence and the names of additional conspirators in the Oklahoma City bombing case.

According to the judge, the materials would be reviewed in his chambers and then returned to the FBI.
The order could also include evidence in the possession of the FBI that might shed light on the mysterious death of an inmate, Kenny Trentadue, who was being held at the Federal Transfer Center in Oklahoma City in 1995.

Contacted about whether the agency would comply with the order or appeal it, FBI Special Agent Gary Johnson made a startling announcement. After declining to comment on the civil matters involved in the Trentadue suit, Johnson said the FBI was currently investigating the April 19, 1995, bombing.

In the past, Johnson has told the media that the FBI was standing by its original investigation. "It was the most experienced and thorough in our history," he said.

The $85 million effort yielded only two federal convictions, Terry Nichols and Timothy McVeigh. Mike Fortier provided testimony against McVeigh and Nichols in return for a reduced sentence.

[...]

[S]everal weeks ago, a court order from Kimball forced the release of approximately 100 pages of documents by the Oklahoma City FBI office, and some do indeed appear to implicate others in the bombing.

However, the FBI has blacked out almost every name in those documents, along with whole sentences of other information regarding an undercover operation the FBI and others were involved in.

[...]

Asked how many FBI agents were involved in the renewed effort, Johnson simply commented: "We don't ever disclose that type of information."

Exactly when this investigation was opened and why remains unclear.

  McCurtain Daily Gazette article

I'd say it's because they know the Trentadue case is forcing their hand, and they're about to be busted for withholding information. Somebody's ass is coming uncovered. Maybe they're looking for another way to cover up. Maybe they're trying to flush out anybody still alive with information who might be willing to testify.

"Andy the German" knows people.

FBI 302 provides allegations of a former Green Beret's involvement in Oklahoma City bombing and connections to McVeigh, alleged by FBI undercover operative.

  McCurtain Daily Gazette - larger view available

Able Danger

Frankly, the amount of right-wing attention devoted to this matter is a little disturbing. It's not as though the right is doing to Shaffer what they did to Richard Clarke. My suspicions of a Rovian trick have begun to resurface.

Previously, I've made humorous reference to the fake Special Ops unit created in Wag the Dog. Now I'm not so sure how humorous that idea is.

Nobody else in the DIA has confirmed the existence of this unit, although we have been promised that documents and other confirmation will soon arrive. In early reports, DIA sources seemed mystified by the name "Able Danger." This fact may or may not be significant.

On the other hand, National Review anti-Kerry hatchet man Jim Geraghty blasted Congressman Weldon for making this story public. Other right-wing sites have also attacked the tale, claiming that Able Danger found nothng of importance. (!) This dichotomous reaction indicates that this story isn't following the usual trajectory of right-wing disinfo. G.O.P. propagandists usually have their scripts well-prepared ahead of time, and act in strict concert. Weldon's charges seem to have caught the right off-guard for a few days, until they figured out how to spin this one.

[...]

Many in the CIA have opposed the neocon plans. It's starting to look like the whole Able Danger story (whether true or false) will be used as a further excuse to clean out anyone at the Agency who insists on saying that he can see the Emperor's weener.

[...]

Spencer writes: "If other Able Danger analysts come forward to back up what Shaffer says, the Pentagon is going to have a lot of explaining to do."

They're not the only ones. The official timeline compiled by the FBI -- the Bush-era FBI -- holds that Atta entered the country in June of 2000. Any eyewitness who placed him here earlier was crudely discounted.

The Able Danger revelation -- or claim -- now rewrites that history. Yet nobody in our media seems to notice the change!

[...]

There are other possible reasons for the directive to steer clear of Atta. The AP report of his mysterious September 5, 2001 visit to Jack Abramoff's SunCruz ship is, as noted earlier, suggestive.

  Joseph Cannon post

Good God. Could it all possibly be tied together some day? Atta, Abramoff, DeLay, Rove, AIPAC, and all the ships at sea...I mean, all the criminals in the White House? I'd like to see this wrapped up soon. I've got another life to go to.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.