# So Why hasn't \[the anthrax terrorist\] been arrested?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-hasnt-the-anthrax-terrorist-been-arrested/100290
**Category:** Great Debates
**Created:** [March 27, 2002, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-hasnt-the-anthrax-terrorist-been-arrested/100290 "2002-03-27T01:52:30Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Mojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mojo)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2002, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-hasnt-the-anthrax-terrorist-been-arrested/100290/1 "2002-03-27T01:52:30Z")
According to [the Hartford Courant](http://www.ctnow.com/news/specials/hc-detrick0120.artjan20.story?coll=hc%2Dheadlines%2Dspecials), [The Chair for the biological weapons portion of the Federation of American Scientists](http://www.fas.org/bwc/news/anthraxreport.htm), and [other](http://www.redflagsweekly.com/nassanthrax3.html) [sources](http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/134393798_anthrax21.html), the FBI knows or has a very good idea who perpetrated the anthrax attacks. So why hasn’t he been arrested? I’ve heard the following theories:
1. he “knows too much” about the gov’t biological weapons program,
2. it would get out that he followed a CIA document on how to pull offf a successful anthrax mailing attack,
3)it would derail the administration’s focus on terrorism abroad, and
4)the gov’t is covering him because he’s a zionist jew who wants to make the middle east look bad and the US is in on it (this one is obviously too stupid to address but I wanted to mention it now in case someone saw it in the newsgroups and thought I had a “hidden agenda”).
I can’t really see #1 as I would think that the government would want him behind bars if that was the case. #2 seems plausible to me, but #3 I’m not sure if I’m cynical enough to believe that of my government- that they would cover up several murders as it would be bad PR?
I’m not a conspiracy theorist (despite my post in [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=105312)) and I’m basing this on the FAS, [RedFlagsWeekly.com](http://RedFlagsWeekly.com), the Seattle Times, and the Hartford Courant, the Courant being the only one I’m familiar with (although the others seem to be legitimate). Is this accurate and, if so, why hasn’t he been arrested?
[sub]mods, I thought this would be the proper forum for this- if it isn’t please move it.[/sub]
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### Author:  [@Loves2Argue247](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loves2Argue247)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2002, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-hasnt-the-anthrax-terrorist-been-arrested/100290/2 "2002-03-27T01:58:32Z")
Well, no matter what a rumor is going to get out that obviously isn’t true, and it will definently be different than the whole story. Maybe it’s because the FBI doesn’t have “enough” leads to bust this guy. But in response to those theories…
1. If he “knew too much” then I would think they’d arrest him, or hold him in contempt. That doesn’t make any sense.
2. Big deal. The guy could’ve simply found a website and found out how to do that. The same way websites explain how to make bombs. Reading CIA documents isn’t neccessary to pull something like this off.
3. Arresting someone who is trying to kill people by spreading anthrax around…would derail the administration’s focus on terrorism…seeing as though that would be considered a terrorist attack…
4. Please ☹
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### Author:  [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2002, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-hasnt-the-anthrax-terrorist-been-arrested/100290/3 "2002-03-27T02:03:56Z")
Would it have killed you to put “anthrax suspect” instead of “he” in the subject line, to give one an idea what the thread is about?
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### Author:  [@Mojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mojo)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2002, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-hasnt-the-anthrax-terrorist-been-arrested/100290/4 "2002-03-27T02:14:41Z")
No, it wouldn’t have. I had copy & pasted it from something I had written and changed and didn’t see the subject in the preview. Fudge.
L2A247, If you check the cites, you’ll see that not everyone could do this. It basically requires a molecular biology degree as well as chemical engineering and the Ames strain isn’t as widely distributed as thought. The CIA document had a scenario for putting 2.5g of weapons grade anthrax in the envelopes and mailing them to elected officials, which is approximately what happened (it was 2g instead). If it got out that a CIA subcontractor had read this document and used it as a manual, it would look really, really bad IMO.
As for your #3, I said it would change the focus from terrorism **abroad** , as opposed to domestic.
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### Author:  [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2002, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-hasnt-the-anthrax-terrorist-been-arrested/100290/5 "2002-03-27T03:33:28Z")
**Moderator’s Note:** Thread title edited for clarity.
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### Author:  [@Mojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mojo)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2002, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-hasnt-the-anthrax-terrorist-been-arrested/100290/6 "2002-03-27T03:50:01Z")
Because of me, there’s a sticky!
:o
☹
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### Author:  [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2002, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-hasnt-the-anthrax-terrorist-been-arrested/100290/7 "2002-03-27T03:59:09Z")
Well, yours was really just the thread that broke the camel’s back, as it were. It seems like there’s been a mild rash of vague GD thread titles lately.
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### Author:  [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2002, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-hasnt-the-anthrax-terrorist-been-arrested/100290/8 "2002-03-27T05:26:32Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by MEBuckner \*
> \*\*Well, yours was really just the thread that broke the camel’s back, as it were. It seems like there’s been a mild rash of vague GD thread titles lately. \*\*
Better get that rash checked out with a doctor. You might need Cipro as well, too! 😃
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### Author:  [@capacitor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capacitor)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2002, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-hasnt-the-anthrax-terrorist-been-arrested/100290/9 "2002-03-27T05:31:37Z")
I think the FBI knows who did–I’m putting some of my money on the Atlanta Olympic bomber. I was convinced when the the threatenting anthrax-laced letters look exactly the same as the letters from the bomber’s pervious crimes.
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### Author:  [@ElwoodCuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElwoodCuse)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2002, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-hasnt-the-anthrax-terrorist-been-arrested/100290/10 "2002-03-27T06:53:49Z")
Refresh my memory–after it became obvious that Richard Jewell didn’t do it, did the FBI ever figure out anything else regarding the Atlanta bombing?
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### Author:  [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2002, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-hasnt-the-anthrax-terrorist-been-arrested/100290/11 "2002-03-27T07:46:35Z")
The FBI’s current suspect for the Atlanta Olympics bombing is [Eric Robert Rudolph](http://www.fbi.gov/mostwant/topten/fugitives/rudolph.htm), also wanted in connection with a string of bombings in Atlanta and Birmingham of a gay bar and two abortion clinics which killed an off-duty police officer and maimed a nurse.
I don’t know about Rudolph as a suspect in the anthrax letters. The FBI’s gives his background as a “carpenter, roofer and handyman”, not as a biologist or bioweapons lab technician.
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### Author:  [@Mojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mojo)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2002, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-hasnt-the-anthrax-terrorist-been-arrested/100290/12 "2002-03-27T12:44:49Z")
Eric Rudolph isn’t a suspect in the Anthrax letters- from what I had heard, the FBI thinks he might’ve died while hiding out in a cave. As fo the anthrax mailer, the Seattle Times article]([http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/134393798\_anthrax21.html](http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/134393798_anthrax21.html)) names the suspect- he was at Fort Detrick the weekend the anthrax slides showed up, he had the requisite knowledge on how to make weapons grade anthrax, and he had contact with the guy who wrote the document about anthrax attacks via the mail. CNN is currently running a [story](http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/03/26/anthrax.investigation/index.html) (it’s currently the main story at [CNN.com](http://CNN.com)) where they bring out a lot of the same points that the sources that I linked to above did. So I really don’t understand why they haven’t arrested him yet.
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### Author:  [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2002, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-hasnt-the-anthrax-terrorist-been-arrested/100290/13 "2002-03-27T13:22:00Z")
I guess the usual reason for not arresting a suspect is lack of sufficient admissible evidence that will make a case that will stand up.
Doesn’t make for a good conspiracy theory, though.
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### Author:  [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2002, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-hasnt-the-anthrax-terrorist-been-arrested/100290/14 "2002-03-27T13:27:06Z")
I have stated {in one of the hacker-lost threads} that I believe the little b@stard is dead. Hoist by his own petard. Killed through the use of improvised equipment or his own carelessness.
And please–you do _not_ need a degree in molecular chemestry. You just need to–[list=1]
[li]Have skills & training in a related field[/li][li]Have reference texts on this field, or a related one[/li][li]Be suicidally overconfident.[/li][/list=1]
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### Author:  [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2002, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-hasnt-the-anthrax-terrorist-been-arrested/100290/15 "2002-03-27T13:34:35Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Mojo \*
> **1) he “knows too much” about the gov’t biological weapons program,
> 2) it would get out that he followed a CIA document on how to pull offf a successful anthrax mailing attack,
> 3)it would derail the administration’s focus on terrorism abroad, and
> 4)the gov’t is covering him because he’s a zionist jew who wants to make the middle east look bad and the US is in on it (this one is obviously too stupid to address but I wanted to mention it now in case someone saw it in the newsgroups and thought I had a “hidden agenda”).**
The easiest solution to all 4 of the above would be for the CIA, NSA, FBI or any other ijit acronym to take the person responsible out. Extra legal assasination. Done.
That or the perp whacked himself in the preparation, although you would think that in addition to manufcturing antrax, the perp would know to take Cipro at the same time.
A psychopath usually keeps at it until caught, dead or put in jail for an unrelated crime. To me, these attacks certainly didn’t seem all that professional. One can envision scenarios that would more completely shut down the postal system or stealth into the victims.
Methinks the perp is dead. His own folly or whacked out.
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### Author:  [@Mojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mojo)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2002, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-hasnt-the-anthrax-terrorist-been-arrested/100290/16 "2002-03-27T13:42:19Z")
> [@](#):
>
> I guess the usual reason for not arresting a suspect is lack of sufficient admissible evidence that will make a case that will stand up.
That hasn’t stopped any of the other arrests in the “war on terrorism”. There’s plenty of people currently in custody with no charges pending against them- not that I think that they should arrest him just for the sake of arresting him, but at the very least they should charge him with related crimes, such as his unauthorized use of the Fort Detrick facilities.
> [@](#):
>
> And please–you do not need a degree in molecular chemestry.
Ok, you don’t need the actual physical degree, but you do need the knowledge that is typically required to obtain that degree. Read the FAS document- Dr. Rosenberg points out why someone with general training in that field wouldn’t be able to pull this off and the article on CNN today supports that conclusion.
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### Author:  [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2002, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-hasnt-the-anthrax-terrorist-been-arrested/100290/17 "2002-03-27T14:02:11Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by China Guy \*
> \*\*
> A psychopath usually keeps at it until caught, dead or put in jail for an unrelated crime. To me, these attacks certainly didn’t seem all that professional. One can envision scenarios that would more completely shut down the postal system or stealth into the victims.
> \*\*
Personally, I think the guy thought he was targeting certain people - innocents got caught in the cross fire (remember the baby that was treated from the Hart office building), he discovered that Daschle doesn’t open his own mail (duh!), that the anthrax was more disperible than he (and others) anticipated,and he gave up.
He was targeting the liberal media and liberal officials. You can be pretty sure Daschle’s secretary votes Democrat - therefore isn’t innocent - but the people in the office next door might be Republicans.
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### Author:  [@Mojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mojo)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2002, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-hasnt-the-anthrax-terrorist-been-arrested/100290/18 "2002-03-27T14:55:43Z")
I don’t think he was trying to kill the targets- note that he included warnings to the recipients to start taking “penecilin”.
And China Guy and BDCoT- what evidence do you have that the anthrax mailer is dead? Why could “anyone” have done this? All evidence, especially the FAS report from Dr. Rosenberg (yes, I know its really long) show that the perpetrator had extensive knowledge of using anthrax as a biological weapon, not simply a yokel who did this in his barn. Heck, [even the spokesperson for Ft. Detrick claims](http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_1716000/1716114.stm) that “…we don’t have the technology to make that fine dry powder which was in the letters.” And the CIA spokesperson said that it “absolutely did not come from CIA labs”. Notice that their statements don’t rule out a CIA subcontractor using Ft. Detrick to refine the anthrax.
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### Author:  [@Mojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mojo)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2002, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-hasnt-the-anthrax-terrorist-been-arrested/100290/19 "2002-03-27T15:50:38Z")
Another theory that’s been posited is that arresting Lt. Col. Zack would bring attention to the fact that we’ve been in violation of the Int’l Biological Weapons Treaty for several years- the treaty that we refused to sign in 2001 when a clause was added to allow other countries to inspect our weapons facilities to see if we were in compliance. Although, in the gov’t’s defense, it would have allowed countries that we’re not too friendly with (i.e. Libya) to poke around our weapons facilities. But isn’t that what we’ve been using the treaty for?
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### Author:  [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2002, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-why-hasnt-the-anthrax-terrorist-been-arrested/100290/20 "2002-03-27T18:20:15Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Mojo \*
> \*\*No, it wouldn’t have. I had copy & pasted it from something I had written and changed and didn’t see the subject in the preview. Fudge.
> \*\*
I apologize for my smart-assery, **Mojo** , bad thread titles is something of a pet peeve of mine.
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