I am merely discussing what I have read and different theories and how they have struck me.

I have appreciated your input to various of Glenn's threads over the last week but I do am not prepared for or interested in some adversarial discussion. I simply don't know enough.

Bill Simpich (the author of the TruthOut article) posts here, I suggest you take it up with him if you have not already done so.

The 9/11 anthrax attacks appear to have been an act of scientific psychological warfare, and they stopped once they achieved their objectives -- prepping Americans to endorse the invasion and occupation of Iraq (and then Iran, and then Syria, and then Saudi Arabia, etc. -- World War IV.)

It's hard to tell, but she just might be up to something. Keep an eye on your mail, and remember that her Barbie doll came from Mattel, not Battelle, so check the label carefully when she wants you to agree on the pleasant fragrance of that new face powder for the doll. Especially if she wanted it to fill in the small pock marks on Barbie's face. Didn't those come from that last shotgun blast that just missed you?

see, in my experience, while there are some very sick twisted fucks in the world, but most people do things for reasons they can rationalize ... and feel "good" about having done or participated in.

The perpetrator in this case is no exception .... not only WRT their own jeopardy in carrying out this CRIME, but also to however they rationalized or ignored all the innocent bystanders... money, greed, avarice, seems poor rationales.

revenge, attention seeking, all seem rather shallow given the stakes here.

The "greater good" wake-up America theory appeals to my experience of just how self-deluded passionate people get when they're on a mission ... Not unlike PNAC and invading Iraq ... I will admit.

One or two weapons-grade letters to congress would have done the trick ... why so many letters? I don't know.

I don't know what the FBI can claim as that letter was never recovered. With each letter, the anthrax toxin strength increased, improved. Seems odd. Also, the letters were all photocopies not originals, he/they didn't lick the envelope but sealed them with tape, bought them pre-stamped. If that initial letter were sent September 4, did that person know of the impending attacks? Or was he/they an opportunist who took advantage of the situation.

From what I've read handwriting experts decisively concluded Ivins did not write any of those letters, which cleared him. And yet, the FBI went after him, destroyed his reputation, his lifelong career and job, tried to bribe his son, intimidated his daughter, dogged him night and day, financially ruined him because of ongoing legal defense fees. Gosh, and he was upset and erratic? Who wouldn't be. Hatfill, he stood his ground and fought back relentlessly... So the FBI decided to pin it on someone they could break, while the real perpetrator remains free, IMO.

Susan -- do we know of a small group of zealots at the top of the Bush 43 administration who would be evil enough to cause death and injury to many thousands Americans, and enormous suffering to their families, on the basis of tricks, lies and deception? Yes -- the PNAC crowd that used 9/11 (the New Pearl Harbor) and the 9/11 anthrax attacks to drive the United States into the Iraq War. They are capable of anything. They have also had the power to control the investigation into the 9/11 anthrax attacks.

This group strikes me as being more relevant in speculations about the 9/11 anthrax attacks than the biowarfare industry on which CargoCult is focusing. They have also convinced themselves that they are fighting for a noble and higher cause -- the defeat of "Islamofascism" worldwide.

I think your arguments are especially valid with regard to the second set of mailings. They went out several days after it was known that Bob Stevens was dead. There was already plenty of attention on the anthrax question by that point, so it's hard to see how the second mailing fits into a desire to get more funding for vaccines. It is much more easy for me to see how that would fit into the actions of a group trying to push forward the neocon agenda, just as you say. That group already would have ceased to care about the impact on individuals.

and a loose cannon ...

Sure, I believe they exploited the anthrax attacks ...

but how STUPID and self-defeating do you think they are?

particularly with their glaring incompetence wrt 09/11 still reverberating in the air.

seanmcbride writes: "we know of a small group of zealots at the top of the Bush 43 administration who would be evil enough to cause death and injury to many thousands Americans, and enormous suffering to their families, on the basis of tricks, lies and deception?"

Dude!! A few thousand 'Muricans!!! Yikes, makes a million or so wasted towelheads sound like squid-bait. 'Course, they wuzzn't 'Muricans, huh. Let's roll!!

"Yes -- the PNAC crowd that used 9/11 (the New Pearl Harbor) and the 9/11 anthrax attacks to drive the United States into the Iraq War. They are capable of anything. They have also had the power to control the investigation into the 9/11 anthrax attacks."

Few people care, and most folks are just too phawking stupid (sorry, wrong word -- the phrase is 'willingly ignorant') to even try to understand. Who cares, dude. Bread. Circuses.