No doubt our fearless crusader would have immediately ordered the NSA to wiretap all suspects in the
2001 anthrax terror attackFrom
Wikipedia:The 2001 anthrax attacks in the United States occurred over the course of several weeks beginning on September 18, 2001 (after the September 11, 2001 attacks). Letters containing anthrax bacteria were mailed to several news media offices and two US Senators, killing five people. The crime remains unsolved.
Twenty-two people developed anthrax infections, eleven of the life-threatening inhalation variety. Five died of inhalation anthrax. In addition to the death of Robert Stevens in Florida, two died from unknown sources, possibly cross-contamination of mail: Kathy Nguyen, a Vietnamese immigrant from New York City; and Ottilie Lundgren, a 94-year old woman from Oxford, Connecticut, who was the final victim. The two remaining deaths were employees of the Brentwood mail facility in Washington, D.C., Thomas Morris Jr. and Joseph Curseen.
Thousands of people took a two-month course of the antibiotic Cipro in an effort to preempt anthrax infections. Associated Press reported that members of Vice President Cheney's staff took Cipro a week before the first anthrax attack.As I recall, the anthrax was a weapons-grade kind developed in a military lab. Yet, the investigation "wound down" without finding anything.
From the
Christian Science MonitorThe anthrax attacks were not only our first national experience with mass bioterrorism, they represent the greatest unsolved act of terrorism our country has faced since 9/11. Yet, while the 9/11 attacks in New York and Washington continue to color national discourse, the anthrax mailings seem to have retreated from memory. The failure to apprehend or even identify a suspect represents a major failing for law enforcement and points out a serious problem in the investigation.
It is worth remembering that for all the horror of 9/11, the question of culpability has been little in doubt. Within days, our government determined who the responsible parties were. The anthrax killings, however, remain unsolved. Indeed,
despite the attacks having been leveled at the country's political and economic nerve centers, and an unprecedented response by federal and state agencies, investigators seem no closer today to identifying the guilty than they were when the first envelopes showed up at NBC, the New York Post, and other news outlets four years ago.
Coming on the heels of 9/11, each new reported case of white powder fed a growing perception that the entire nation was under siege. By the time the deadly mailings mysteriously stopped, more than 22 cases of anthrax infection had been reported from New York to Florida. Five of the individuals exposed died. Two federal mail processing centers were completely shut down, and at least 21 additional facilities were contaminated. Anthrax-laden envelopes also caused the evacuation of the Hart Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C., and set off a massive public health and safety response from multiple agencies. The attacks prompted a series of government reports analyzing our vulnerability to this new specter of biological terrorism.
What can be gleaned from the press reports of the anthrax investigation is not reassuring. There was the initial stream of conflicting theories and tantalizing clues, followed by disturbing accounts of missed investigative opportunities, and then mounting public pressure. This was compounded by an almost surreal television spectacle: the live broadcast of federal agents executing a search warrant on the home of the hapless Hatfill.
Surely, Bush authorized illegal wiretapping to solve this case. After all, it would have been to "protect Americans." So did he authorize it? If not, why not? And why didn't this kind of intel gathering result in a solved case?
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