Letters to the Editor
-
Pond fishing
In regards to the issue of why the administration didn't push for the on the Iraq/anthrax angle. There has always been a good cop/bad cop approach to the march to war. Even today we have Cheney contradicting the president on key aspects of the Iraq story. A couple of points:
- The attacks targeted high ranking members of the democratic party.
- The initial reporting of the sophisticated nature of the anthrax manufacturing and the high quality of the product focused much attention on the US military.
- Stephen Hatfield became an early suspect which drew attention to Fort Detrick and South Africa's possible connection with a continuing US biological weapons program.
- Numerous security issues with Fort Detrick and high level scientists were revealed.
- Because of the targeting of the democratic leadership, the information surrounding the attacks could not be manipulated and controlled as easily as yellow cake and the aluminum tubes.
- The anthrax attacks were, in the public's mind, connected to the 9/11 attacks. No matter how hard they pushed, the administration had to believe there would be some kind of investigation of 9/11 by congress or a commission.
In other words, this was one hell of a can of worms which, I believe, the administration thought was best to leave well enough alone.
The administration's behavior with this story may best be viewed though the prism of a specific timeline of what information came out when. I believe such a timeline would go very far to explain why they acted the way they did. I currently don't have the time available to construct such a timeline myself but if someone wants to take a stab at it I will add what pennies I can.