from Wikipedia:

The American Family Association (AFA) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that promotes conservative Christian values.[1][2][3][4] It was founded in 1977 by Rev. Donald Wildmon as the National Federation for Decency and is headquartered in Tupelo, Mississippi. Donald Wildmon serves as AFA chairman; his son, Tim Wildmon, is AFA president.[5]

The AFA defines itself as "a Christian organization promoting the biblical ethic of decency in American society with primary emphasis on TV and other media"[6][7] It pursues its views and other issues through a number of activism efforts, including boycotts, "action alert" e-mails, publications on the AFA's web sites or in the AFA Journal, broadcasts on American Family Radio, and lobbying.[8] The legal efforts previously promoted by the AFA Center for Law and Policy were eliminated in 2007. Chief among its efforts were the recognition of Christmas in seasonal print advertisements; the criminalization of homosexuality;[9][10][11] lobbying against same-sex marriage, and in opposition of equal-rights and hate-crime legislation that would benefit homosexuals[12][13][14] and advocating censorship of print and electronic media.[15]

on charges of antisemitism:

Donald Wildmon has been denounced by major Jewish organizations, such as the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Congress. Media Matters has stated the AFA Journal "has long served as a platform for anti-Semitic theories and innuendo."[80] In AFA publications and in interviews, Wildmon has stated that he blames Jews for "profane" television programming, stating that the television industry is controlled by Jews and that they push an anti-family agenda through television programs featuring "immoral" behavior.

Wildmon has stated that he believes obscene content on television and in movies is a result of the media being controlled by Jews, who intentionally place anti-Christian messages and activities into their programming to undermine Christianity.[81][82][83] Wildmon further characterizes Jews as more supportive of homosexuals than "average" Americans.[80]

Media Matters claimed an article in the March 2005 issue of AFA's Journal insinuated that raising children as Jews would lead to criminal lifestyles, and that it required a conversion to Christianity in order to make them productive members of society.[80][84] The Journal also sells The McGuffey Readers, a series of children's books aimed at promoting Christianity to children, and which also claim that Jews are "superstitious" and have been rejected by God for being unfaithful to him.[85][86]

From their website and elsewhere, they are anti-porn, anti-gay, anti-abortion, anti-gay-marriage. I do not know what campaigns they focused on back between 1993 and 1998 when all but one of the Ivins' contributions were made as I understand it. I would wonder which Ivins made these contributions and if they were in response to specific appeals.

I see nothing "millenial" on their website nor is it mentioned in Wikipedia. They exist to combat domestic declining morals and the mainstream acceptance of things like porn and gays and abortion.

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Justin Raimondo isn't buying the AFA "connection" to the Greendale school or making anything of the "link" (anti-war.com on on my signature).

Fwiw, I'm not endorsing Raimondo, I consider him a fast-and-loose conspiracy muckraker.

The most likely "motive", imho, remains as it has always appeared to be, to increase public awareness and support and funding for biowarfare research and anthrax vaccine production

That is not a particularly "political" motive ... It is suggested that this may even be an "arsonist fireman" analog ... none of which would apply uniquely to Bruce Ivins or even Detrick.

AnnieW -- Christian Zionists are renowned for their antisemitism -- haven't you been following the recent controversies about John Hagee at all? OF COURSE Donald Wildmon is an antisemite. Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell, two leading Christian Zionists, also made antisemitic remarks.

You are speculating that Bruce Ivins had nothing to do with the 11 contributions to the AFA or with the subscription to the AFA magazine, on the basis of no evidence at all. But we have the evidence of Ivins' newspaper letters about the "Christian Nation Express" and Jewish/Muslim dialogue to support the belief that he was in fact a Christian conservative and a Christian Zionist. (Supporting women in the priesthood is not incompatible with being a pro-Israel and anti-Muslim militant. Some neoconservatives are liberal on social issues while being extremely hawkish on international affairs.)

By the way, if this entire subject of Christian Zionism is novel to some people here, do a search on the topic from the Salon home page. Salon has published numerous valuable articles on the subject of Christian Zionism. We shouldn't forget that the president of the United States at the time of the 9/11 anthrax attacks was a Christian Zionist, as was the head of the Justice Department.

AnnieW:

Google [site:afa.net ~islam OR ~muslim], and you will turn up quite a few articles in the AFA Journal about Islam and Muslims, most of them critical or hostile.

See for instance:

A first for America...The Koran replaces the Bible at swearing-in oath

November 28, 2006

http://www.afa.net/aa112806_2.asp

in which Donald Wildmon reprints an infamous bigoted attack by neoconservative Dennis Prager on Keith Ellison about his Muslim beliefs.

I'll wager that Bruce Ivins was on the same page with the AFA on this subject.

DEATH TO AMERICA

DEATH TO ISRAEL

ALLAH IS GREAT

A classic false flag op, albeit crudely done to the point of imbecility.

The supposed motive - to increase public (or administration) awareness of anthrax doesn't ring true to me. If you have access to the WaPo or NYT archives, look at the news between Sept 11 and Sept 26, and (if my cursory look was correct) you'll find people - the public - was already stocking up on Cipro, the NYT pharmacies had run out, and so on. Public awareness was fully there.

In any case, the Army had instituted anthrax vaccinations for army and National Guard during the Clinton presidency if not earlier and that steady demand for vaccine was not going to go away. At most it would be a different supplier, but how would that matter to Ivins?

Sean: I haven't been paying full attention enough to properly gauge your point, so forgive me if I misunderstand something. But, are you suggesting that Ivins felt the need to mail those letters using that terminology because he wanted to increase the chances of a holy war between US/Israel and the muslim world?

I realize I may be mis-reading you.

Anyway, regarding Ivins ties to this religious organization, how many of the FBI released emails demonstrate that he was adamently and rigidly in league with their beliefs? Are we basing this just on a couple of less than incindiary letters to the editor?

If we accept that Ivins was prone to obsessiveness and paranoia AND also felt strongly about these religious beliefs, wouldn't the FBI have found emails from him demonstrating his rigorous stance?

If he's a zealot as you seem to be claiming, it's hard to imagine there wouldn't be more evidence backing this up, certainly the FBI would think it was relevant. But their motive is that he wanted to draw attention to the need for anthrax vaccines.

This raises a larger question - shouldn't there be a thorough examination of ALL emails the FBI accrued sent from Ivins? Anyone can pick and choose a few emails over the course of seven years and come up with lots of different depictions of someone, if you want to make a case for it. Understanding his full character would be necessary, I would think, in determining what his core personality was.