# Conspiracy Theorists, forget JFK, the moon and 9-11. What's the story on anthrax?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conspiracy-theorists-forget-jfk-the-moon-and-9-11-whats-the-story-on-anthrax/504621
**Category:** Great Debates
**Created:** [July 29, 2009, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conspiracy-theorists-forget-jfk-the-moon-and-9-11-whats-the-story-on-anthrax/504621 "2009-07-29T00:46:18Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@R.P.McMurphy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/R.P.McMurphy)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2009, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conspiracy-theorists-forget-jfk-the-moon-and-9-11-whats-the-story-on-anthrax/504621/1 "2009-07-29T00:46:18Z")
It looks like the government is going to close the investigation into the anthrax murders.
[http://www.globalsecuritynewswire.org/gsn/nw\_20090728\_2929.php](http://www.globalsecuritynewswire.org/gsn/nw_20090728_2929.php)
After 8 years and little to show for all the effort except a lot of questions, it looks like they will pin it on Dr. Ivans and be done with it.
So we have all the theories on JFK, the moon landing and 9-11, what do the CT’s say about the anthrax murders? People died, nobody was prosecuted, it was a huge story.
Why American Media? There are thousands of better targets. The person with the biggest motive against them would be O.J. Simpson and, even though he went to So. Cal., I don’t think he was spending his nights in the chem lab learning how to handle anthrax.
Is there any structure or motive to the story? What happened? Who did it and why wasn’t the case solved years ago?
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### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2009, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conspiracy-theorists-forget-jfk-the-moon-and-9-11-whats-the-story-on-anthrax/504621/2 "2009-07-29T02:50:38Z")
Well, they never caught the Tylenol killer, either (though there seems to be [a likely suspect](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_W._Lewis)). Nutty loners are the hardest to track down, probably because the only people they tell about their crimes are the voices in their heads.
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### Author:  [@Alienhand](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alienhand)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2009, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conspiracy-theorists-forget-jfk-the-moon-and-9-11-whats-the-story-on-anthrax/504621/3 "2009-07-29T04:46:35Z")
> [@Spartydog](#):
>
> Is there any structure or motive to the story? What happened? Who did it and why wasn’t the case solved years ago?
You might find [this segment](http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/0401/02.html) from Nova scienceNOW last month about the investigation interesting. It goes through some of the techniques developed and used to point the finger in the direction of Dr. Ivans.
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2009, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conspiracy-theorists-forget-jfk-the-moon-and-9-11-whats-the-story-on-anthrax/504621/4 "2009-07-29T12:35:14Z")
> [@Spartydog](#):
>
> Is there any structure or motive to the story? What happened? Who did it and why wasn’t the case solved years ago?
If you accept that Ivins did it, and I think that’s the best explanation, he apparently had some reasons that were incomprehensible and some that were related to his feeling that more attention needed to be drawn to the possibility of a bioterrorist attack. So he made one to show how underprepared the U.S. was. The case wasn’t solved in part because Ivins was involved with the FBI’s efforts to solve the case. The FBI wrongly focused on Steven Hatfill, one of his colleagues, for a long time. When that didn’t work out they seemed not to have a clue until other people got suspicious of Ivins.
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### Author:  [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)
#### Post date: [July 29, 2009, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conspiracy-theorists-forget-jfk-the-moon-and-9-11-whats-the-story-on-anthrax/504621/5 "2009-07-29T12:57:29Z")
Just another example of the fact that the FBI, as an organizational whole, is dumber than a bag of hammers.
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### Author:  [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2009, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conspiracy-theorists-forget-jfk-the-moon-and-9-11-whats-the-story-on-anthrax/504621/6 "2009-08-01T01:39:36Z")
> [@Marley23](#):
>
> … he apparently had some reasons that were incomprehensible and some that were related to his feeling that more attention needed to be drawn to the possibility of a bioterrorist attack. So he made one to show how underprepared the U.S. was.
Very Glenn Beck-ish
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### Author:  [@R.P.McMurphy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/R.P.McMurphy)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2009, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conspiracy-theorists-forget-jfk-the-moon-and-9-11-whats-the-story-on-anthrax/504621/7 "2009-08-02T13:23:20Z")
Isn’t there some way this can be traced back to someone like Dick Cheney to make it more interesting?
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### Author:  [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2009, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conspiracy-theorists-forget-jfk-the-moon-and-9-11-whats-the-story-on-anthrax/504621/8 "2009-08-02T14:32:13Z")
The really weird thing about the whole anthrax letters affair is that no significant conspiracy theories about it seem to have developed.
Obviously this can only be the result of the most complete and successful government cover-up of all time! :eek:
```auto
Seriously though, does anyone have any idea why this does *not* seem to have attracted the conspiratologists? On the face of it, it looks like exactly their sort of thing. Bacteria from government labs, attacks on opposition politicians and journalists, no apparent motives or (for ages) suspects: it is like a script for The X-Files.
Or do the 911 truthers include it as being part of the larger plot? If so, I have not heard. In any case, it seems to me that you would not have to be all that crazy to think that the 911 plane attacks were what they appear to have been, but still to think there was a plot behind the anthrax letters.
```
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### Author:  [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2009, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conspiracy-theorists-forget-jfk-the-moon-and-9-11-whats-the-story-on-anthrax/504621/9 "2009-08-02T16:06:41Z")
ACORN. I can say no more, their spies are everywhere. Wake up, America!
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### Author:  [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2009, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conspiracy-theorists-forget-jfk-the-moon-and-9-11-whats-the-story-on-anthrax/504621/10 "2009-08-02T16:27:21Z")
> [@elucidator](#):
>
> ACORN. I can say no more
Glycosides, like those found in ACORNs, are an important part of the Anthrax Weaponization Process.
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### Author:  [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2009, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conspiracy-theorists-forget-jfk-the-moon-and-9-11-whats-the-story-on-anthrax/504621/11 "2009-08-02T16:29:19Z")
Case closed.
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### Author:  [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2009, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conspiracy-theorists-forget-jfk-the-moon-and-9-11-whats-the-story-on-anthrax/504621/12 "2009-08-02T16:39:47Z")
> [@Spartydog](#):
>
> what do the CT’s say about the anthrax murders?
Why does it matter? They haven’t said anything of value on any other topic. For the record, they say the government did it, of course.
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### Author:  [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2009, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conspiracy-theorists-forget-jfk-the-moon-and-9-11-whats-the-story-on-anthrax/504621/13 "2009-08-02T16:52:59Z")
“They” concocted the anthrax scare to keep the people in a perpetual state of terror after 9/11 and allow them to muck about with the constitution.
I’ve said to much already. Dick Cheney will now eat my liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [August 2, 2009, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conspiracy-theorists-forget-jfk-the-moon-and-9-11-whats-the-story-on-anthrax/504621/14 "2009-08-02T18:05:00Z")
> [@njtt](#):
>
> The really weird thing about the whole anthrax letters affair is that no significant conspiracy theories about it seem to have developed.
The whole incident sort of vanished from the national consciousness after the Iraq War started, and the war itself became a conspiracy theory magnet. But when the FBI concluded Ivins was responsible, some people did speculate they were just concluding the investigation by blaming a dead man.
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### Author:  [@GoodOmens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GoodOmens)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2009, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conspiracy-theorists-forget-jfk-the-moon-and-9-11-whats-the-story-on-anthrax/504621/15 "2009-08-04T02:22:52Z")
Let’s just put this in perspective for a moment…sure, the anthrax attacks were scary. But, if you really wanna mess with American’s heads, you attack the most powerful cultural force in this country. TV.
Let’s go back to November 22, 1987. Someone managed to interrupt a television feed in Chicago, twice in one night, with some rather bizarre footage of a person in a Max Headroom mask. Now, a little deadly white powder is one thing, but this is television. It made national headlines. And still, almost 22 years later, no suspect has been identified. If that case wasn’t solved, the anthrax thing won’t be. Priorities.
(By the way, I’m being more than a little facetious here. But not entirely Also, you can see the footage of the event at [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pj1mUk04\_ho](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pj1mUk04_ho). It’s more than a little creepy, and somewhat NSFW at the end.)
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### Author:  [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2009, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conspiracy-theorists-forget-jfk-the-moon-and-9-11-whats-the-story-on-anthrax/504621/16 "2009-08-04T02:36:41Z")
> [@GoodOmens](#):
>
> Let’s go back to November 22, 1987. Someone managed to interrupt a television feed in Chicago, twice in one night, with some rather bizarre footage of a person in a Max Headroom mask. Now, a little deadly white powder is one thing, but this is television. It made national headlines. And still, almost 22 years later, no suspect has been identified. If that case wasn’t solved, the anthrax thing won’t be. Priorities.
I don’t think you can meaningfully compare high jacking a broadcast signal for a couple of minutes in one city, and serial acts of terrorism across several states that left five dead and seventeen seriously ill.
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### Author:  [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2009, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conspiracy-theorists-forget-jfk-the-moon-and-9-11-whats-the-story-on-anthrax/504621/17 "2009-08-04T03:46:18Z")
> [@Miller](#):
>
> I don’t think you can meaningfully compare high jacking a broadcast signal for a couple of minutes in one city, and serial acts of terrorism across several states that left five dead and seventeen seriously ill.
Miller, you’re usually way more on point than that. Not only was it blatantly obvious that he was joking, he came right out and said it.
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### Author:  [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)
#### Post date: [August 4, 2009, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conspiracy-theorists-forget-jfk-the-moon-and-9-11-whats-the-story-on-anthrax/504621/18 "2009-08-04T04:10:41Z")
> [@Cisco](#):
>
> Miller, you’re usually way more on point than that. Not only was it blatantly obvious that he was joking, he came right out and said it.
Guess I don’t get it, then. What’s the joke? Americans like TV?
Eh. It’s dumb either way, since the anthrax letters also targeted TV stations.
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### Author:  [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)
#### Post date: [February 19, 2010, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conspiracy-theorists-forget-jfk-the-moon-and-9-11-whats-the-story-on-anthrax/504621/19 "2010-02-19T20:40:44Z")
[After seven frustrating years probing the deadly 2001 anthrax mailings, the FBI formally closed the case Friday, concluding a mentally unhinged government researcher acted alone.](http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/02/19/us/politics/AP-US-Anthrax-Investigation.html)
> [@](#):
>
> Many details of the case have been known, but newly released FBI documents paint a fuller portrait of Dr. Bruce Ivins as a troubled scientist whose career was teetering toward failure at the time the letters were sent. As the U.S. responded to the mailings, his work was given new importance by the government and he was even honored for his efforts on anthrax.
>
> The documents also describe what investigators say was Ivins’ bizarre, decades-long obsession with a sorority. The letters were mailed from a mailbox near the sorority’s office in Princeton, N.J.
After so many years of bungling, perhaps the FBI finally got things right. Heckuva Job guys!
All Americans can breath easier tonight for sure, knowing that you’re always on the trail of the evildoers.
Straight from Justice:
[Justice Department and FBI Announce Formal Conclusion of Investigation into 2001 Anthrax Attacks](http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2010/February/10-nsd-166.html)
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### Author:  [@Perciful](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Perciful)
#### Post date: [February 19, 2010, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conspiracy-theorists-forget-jfk-the-moon-and-9-11-whats-the-story-on-anthrax/504621/20 "2010-02-19T20:52:45Z")
There was a near death from Anthrax in December. They still can’t pin point where she picked it up. It was at a local college and possibly from a chem lab on campus?
[Anthrax at UNH](http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091229/GJNEWS_01/712299931)