# Do The Fes KNOW Who Sent The Anthrax Powder?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-the-fes-know-who-sent-the-anthrax-powder/259702
**Category:** Great Debates
**Created:** [August 13, 2004, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-the-fes-know-who-sent-the-anthrax-powder/259702 "2004-08-13T16:16:39Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2004, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-the-fes-know-who-sent-the-anthrax-powder/259702/1 "2004-08-13T16:16:39Z")
You don’t readmuch about this anymore…but has anything come out about the Anthrax scare? Presumably the Postal Inspectors, FBI, ATF are still working this case…has anything new surfaced?
My thoery is that the powder was sent by Al-Queda operatives, and that soon the administration will reveal this…possibly in time for the election.
Anybody know any more on this? :rolleyes:
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### Author:  [@Giraffe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giraffe)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2004, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-the-fes-know-who-sent-the-anthrax-powder/259702/2 "2004-08-13T16:26:01Z")
I heard the feds think it was delivered in a fez by Uncle Fester. If he won’t fess up before the election, there will be quite a fuss. Feisty freak.
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### Author:  [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2004, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-the-fes-know-who-sent-the-anthrax-powder/259702/3 "2004-08-13T16:40:39Z")
Last I heard was that they had id’d the Anthrax as US stock. So it’s more likely a internal problem like the unabomber that AQ.
> [@](#):
>
> As anthrax continues to turn up in US postal facilities, and postal
> workers, evidence is emerging that it is an American product. Not only
> are
> the bacteria genetically close to the strain the US used in its own
> anthrax weapons in the 1960s, but New Scientist can reveal that the
> spores
> also seem to have been prepared according to the secret US
> “weaponisation”
> recipe.
>
> This is troubling, say bioterrorism specialists. While the terrorists
> behind the anthrax-laced mail US might have got hold of the strain of
> anthrax in several laboratories around the world, the method the US
> developed for turning a wet bacterial culture into a dangerous, dry
> powder
> is a closely-guarded secret.
[http://www.geocities.com/WestHollywood/Park/6443/America/home\_grown.html](http://www.geocities.com/WestHollywood/Park/6443/America/home_grown.html)
Any updates on this?
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### Author:  [@violacrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/violacrane)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2004, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-the-fes-know-who-sent-the-anthrax-powder/259702/4 "2004-08-13T17:05:19Z")
[This](http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,,803601,00.html) is an article by journalist Jon Ronson.
> [@](#):
>
> When the dust settled (as it were), it turned out that a total of four actual anthrax letters were mailed in the US last October; there were countless false alarms - and 3,000 or so hoaxes. The anthrax hoaxers came from every state and every walk of life. They mailed flour and baby powder and Nesquik and sugar to victims ranging from their mothers-in-law to - in some sad cases - themselves. I decided to track some of them down. Who were they? Maybe they were ordinary people who had nothing in common - except they had all decided, at once and independently, to put fake anthrax into envelopes.
Ronson profiles four of the hoaxers – an anti abortionist, two practical jokers and a bit of a nutter.
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### Author:  [@Latro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Latro)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2004, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-the-fes-know-who-sent-the-anthrax-powder/259702/5 "2004-08-13T17:11:37Z")
> [@yojimbo](#):
>
> Last I heard was that they had id’d the Anthrax as US stock.
Yeah, kinda makes you wonder what the chances are of American WMD’s falling in terrorist hands.
Time for a regime change?
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### Author:  [@vibrotronica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vibrotronica)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2004, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-the-fes-know-who-sent-the-anthrax-powder/259702/6 "2004-08-13T17:33:44Z")
Well, as long as we’re talking out of our asses with no supporting evidence, I believe it was a [Northwoods](http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/jointchiefs_010501.html)-style [operation](http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/northwoods.html) designed to connect Iraq to Al Qaeda and provide a pretext for the invasion.
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### Author:  [@legion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/legion)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2004, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-the-fes-know-who-sent-the-anthrax-powder/259702/7 "2004-08-13T18:08:03Z")
[I heard it was these guys.](http://homepage.ntlworld.com/tg.pirie/news/news2.html) (4th picture down)
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### Author:  [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2004, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-the-fes-know-who-sent-the-anthrax-powder/259702/8 "2004-08-13T19:24:08Z")
[Just last week, the FBI raided](http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002000124_anthrax09.html) the homes of Dr. Kenneth M. Berry in NY and NJ. They also searched his car (a little LATE, don’t you think?), defamed his name, and drove him crazy.
> [@](#):
>
> “Hey, here’s a guy being shafted by the FBI,” said the elder Berry. “It’s just buying time because they have nothing on anthrax. You are looking at a setup.”
>
> Berry did say that his son knows Steven Hatfill…
[here](http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20040807/1036574.asp)
Hatfill’s lawsuit against the FBI is stalled[because it could reveal secret information](http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationworld/bal-te.hatfill30mar30,0,4937332.story?coll=bal-nationworld-headlines):
> [@](#):
>
> secret information provided by the FBI, a federal judge yesterday postponed for six months Dr. Steven J. Hatfill’s lawsuit against the government for targeting him in its investigation of the anthrax-laced letters that killed five people in 2001.
>
> U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton ordered the government to give him another private update on progress in the case in July, when the FBI says sophisticated tests on the anthrax powder may have revealed more about where it came from. But the judge agreed to put off until at least October requiring the government to answer most of hundreds of questions submitted by Hatfill’s lawyers.
In plain English, the FBI’s got nothing, and is floundering about trying to find someone new to blame for their failed investigation.
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### Author:  [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2004, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-the-fes-know-who-sent-the-anthrax-powder/259702/9 "2004-08-13T19:38:18Z")
Perhaps stepping back a bit and answering several questions might help to refocus:
1. What was the “grade” of anthrax that was used?
2. What government/organization has the capability to create such a grade of anthrax?
3. What country/organization has the capability to effectively hide their tracks so as to prevent a location of origin for the anthrax?
FWIW, I don’t think Al Qaeda (nor any of its supporters if they exist) has the capabilities to be identified as the answers to the last two questions posed.