MUST READ: ANTHRAX LETTERS: THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE MAILING DATES

Anthrax Letters: The Significance of the Mailing Dates
by Ross E. Getman, Esq.

The anthrax mailing were on the date of the Camp David Accord and the related assassination of Anwar Sadat (Armed Forces Day). Expert Michael Scheuer, formerly head of the CIA's Osama Bin Laden unit, once said that Al Qaeda does not plan attacks around important dates, so far as the CIA can glean. But Mr. Scheuer should take Ayman at his word when he says he at least plans his messages around anniversaries.

For example, Zawahiri issued messages in 2004 on the third anniversary of 9/11 and then in 2005 on the third anniversary of the transfer of prisoners to Guantanamo. He said: "These days we are marking three years since the transportation of the first group of Muslim prisoners was sent to the Guantanamo prison ... " The Vanguards of Conquest did the same thing in the late 1990s. Just as his thinking on weaponizing anthrax was gaining traction in emails in the Spring of 1999 to Al Qaeda's military commander, Egyptian Atef, the Vanguards invoked an anniversary relating to the signing of the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty and issued a statement marking its 20th anniversary on April 1, 1999. The group said at the time the statement reiterating its enmity toward the US and Israel was issued to mark the 20th anniversary of the signing of the treaty in March 1979. Signed on March 26, 1979, the Egypt-Israel peace treaty was a direct result of the Camp David Peace Accords, signed in September 1978.

The first round of letters was sent to ABC, CBS, NBC, the New York Post, and the publisher of the National Enquirer and Sun. Letters were sent to Senators Daschle and Leahy in a second batch, using a much more highly refined product. The letters to the news organizations were mailed -- coincidentally or not -- on September 17 or September 18, either the day the Camp David Accord was signed in 1978 or the next day when it was approved by the Israeli knesset. Abdel-Rahman, the blind sheik, in the early 1980s, said: "We reject Camp David and we regret the normalization of relations with Israel. We also reject all the commitments that were made by the traitor Sadat, who deviated from Islam." He continued: "As long as the Camp David Agreement stands, this conflict between us and the government will continue."

At the time of the anthrax mailings, the Camp David Accord still dominated Zawahiri's thinking. In October 2001, in Knights Under the Banner of the Prophet, Al-Zawahiri argued that the Camp David Accord sought to turn Sinai into a disarmed area to serve as a buffer zone between Egypt and Israel. He cites the peace treaty between the two countries, particularly issues related to the armament of the Egyptian Army inside Sinai. He claims that Egypt has restored Sinai formally but it remains in the hands of Israel militarily. Al-Zawahiri cites many examples about the US flagrant support for Israel, including the US pressure on Egypt to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty at a time when Israel publicly declares that it will not sign the treaty because of its special circumstances.

Despite this, Zawahiri says, the United States sympathizes with Israel and overlooks its actions. This means that the United States has deliberately left the nuclear weapons in the hands of Israel to threaten its Arab neighbors. Al-Zawahiri argues in his book that the western states have considered Israel's presence in the region a basic guarantee for serving the Western interests.

...


Pertinent Links:

1) Anthrax Letters: The Significance of the Mailing Dates