FBI hasn't got a clue in Anthrax case. Feel safer?

[Taxloss]

It took them five years to figure out, um, that it could be anyone. Wow. I'm incredibly impressed. :sarcasm:

Five years after the anthrax attacks that killed five people, the FBI is now convinced that the lethal powder sent to the Senate was far less sophisticated than originally believed, widening the pool of possible suspects in a frustratingly slow investigation.

The finding, which resulted from countless scientific tests at numerous laboratories, appears to undermine the widely held belief that the attack was carried out by a government scientist or someone with access to a U.S. biodefense lab.

What was initially described as a near-military-grade biological weapon was ultimately found to have had a more ordinary pedigree, containing no additives and no signs of special processing to make the anthrax bacteria more deadly, law enforcement officials confirmed. In addition, the strain of anthrax used in the attacks has turned out to be more common than was initially believed, the officials said.

As a result, after a very public focus on government scientists as the likely source of the attacks, the FBI is today casting a far wider net, as investigators face the daunting prospect of an almost endless list of possible suspects in scores of countries around the globe.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/24/AR2006092401014.html

Incidentally, this is one of those terror attacks that "didn't happen" on Bush's watch. A five-year parade of failure.

[Marie26]

1. So why are they announcing this?

"We still don't know anything" is hardly a big development.

[Taxloss]

2. Maybe it's to let us know they haven't forgotten about the case.

Who knows?

The news element is that rather than looking at a short list of suspects that doesn't include the actual culprit, they're now looking at a vastly huge list of suspects that might include the culprit. The case has turned a corner, alright!

[Blackthorn]

7. The development is the regrading of the anthrax

Remember the initial investigation that discovered the anthrax was military grade and could only have come from a handful of US bases. As soon as that came out, the entire matter just sunk.

Just another beefy chunk in the meaty stew of propaganda.

[Marie26]

11. Yeah

That's not a minor point. All those top investigators messed up when they said it was military-grade anthrax from Ft. Detrick? And they only realized this 5 years later? Maybe there's some pressure about why they couldn't arrest a suspect & so they're widening the pool of potential suspects to excuse the lack of action.

[The Backlash Cometh]

3. Okay, here's my second best guess:

The anthrax killer comes from the heartland where cattle is raised. A cow may have picked up the illness and it was buried, and someone knew where to dig it up to harvest the anthrax; Or, we're still dealing with a military connection because someone knew where to dig up a carcass off Anthrax Island. I think one does exist.

[Taxloss]

4. I reckon it was the creepy janitor.

If he could convince everyone the old mine was HAUNTED, then he could buy it cheap and cash in!

[The Backlash Cometh]

5. Well, at least it didn't take you 5 years to come up with that conclusion.

[dflprincess]

10. I reckon it was the creepy presidential advisor

code named Turdblossom.

[acmejack]

6. It takes time to work these types of things!

What do you want? Overnight results? Oh...

[guinivere]

8. Get Lassie and Timmy on this right away.

We'll know in 30 minutes.

[rucky]

9. One agent says it was a military inside job:

in the conservatory with an envelope.

[TahitiNut]

12. But it took them less than 48 hours ...

... to identify all 19 hijackers, find their cars, say where they'd been living, say when they'd entered the US, whre they'd gone for flight training, what strip clubs they went to, ... etc. etc. etc.

But, gee, they didn't know anything ahead of time, huh?

Riiiight. :eyes: