Is the anthrax scare of 2001 real or constructed‪?‬

In fall 2001, the world was shocked that five people have died in the United States, after mail has been contaminated on purpose with the lethal bacterium anthrax. Twenty-two cases of anthrax have been reported, eleven persons became infected with pulmonary anthrax and further eleven got the more harmless form cutaneous anthrax. All of the victims that have died had pulmonary anthrax.

Shortly after the planes crashed into the towers of the World Trade Center, letters which had anthrax inside the envelope were sent to news offices in the United States on September 18 in 2001. The recipients of the mailings were ABC News, CBS News, NBC News, and the New York Post, all of them having their offices in New York City and The National Enquirer that has moved from New York to a new office at American Media Incorporated in Boca Raton, Florida. The American Media Incorporated gives out the magazine Sun (Pate). Only some weeks later, on October 9, two Democrat senators, Tom Daschle of South Dakota and Patrick Leahy of Vermont likewise got such letters. They contained a sheet of paper with following sentences: “09-11-01, YOU CAN NOT STOP US. WE HAVE THIS ANTHRAX. YOU DIE NOW. ARE YOU AFRAID? DEATH TO AMERICA. DEATH TO ISRAEL. ALLAH IS GREAT.” (Pate). Both letters did not have a return address, but were postmarked 18 September 2001 in Trenton, New Jersey. Maybe this should lead the investigators on the wrong track. Trenton is the home of a large Arab-American community. Those responsible for the World Trade Center attacks had lived there, too. Having luck, the letter has never reached senator Leahy due to a mistake. It remained closed and has only been opened by the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) in December 2001.

Test results proved that the anthrax belongs to the Ames strain. The substance sent to the senators was specially developed powder. The envelopes contained one gram of anthrax that consisted of ten percent more spores than the letters sent to the news stations. Moreover, the powder was almost pure, consisting of a trillion spores. The anthrax could be “weaponized” anthrax that was made by biological weapons experts. The Ames strain was purchased to more than fifteen bio-research laboratories located in the United States. Furthermore the strain has been delivered to laboratories outside the country (Pate).