October 23, 2001

7:11 PM

Letter To BrokawVery interesting... It says 9/11/01 so obviously it was either done by people related to it or someone just playing of of what happened. "Death to America" and "Death To Israel" ... again makes me wonder, are they the same people that did the WTC attacks, or are these totally different people that just want to shift the blame. What really makes me interested is the phrase "This is next." It seems as if whoever did this had an idea that this would be of the same magnitude as the WTC attacks. Maybe there are many, many more letters with not only anthrax coming... this is just a small part. Or maybe they just underestimated the effects of this. What do you think?
posted by yevge (50 comments total)

Im too wondering what "This is next" means.
Almost seems like whatever may be next will be a worse
bio-weapon...hmm. This a bit of frightening.
posted by Kodel at 7:28 PM on October 23, 2001

I still think it's some isolated crank or cranks scoring points off the hysteria. It doesn't fit the terrorists' M.O. (making the dubious distinction, momentarily, that domestic and foreign terrorists are all that different) -- these letters are diffuse, seemingly arbitrary and just plain crude. Bin Laden and his ilk have already demonstrated a penchant for BIG STATEMENTS ... this has "lonely motherfucker" written all over it. But I could be wrong ... I don't think I am, but anything's possible. Hopefully the Feds'll make some progress in their investigation soon.
posted by donkeyschlong at 7:35 PM on October 23, 2001

Chilling, chilling, cilling. I had originally thought that perhaps this was the work of domestic terrorists, or a lone nut somewhere, but I think that is less likely now. On the 11th there wasn't really all that much information about who had done the attacks, from what I remember. The letters would have had to be prepared and gotten into the mail system sometime during the day in order to get the postmark of the 11th, which to me indicates that it was part of the overall plan. This also makes sense with Atta's interest in crop dusters.
posted by tranquileye at 7:40 PM on October 23, 2001

I'm curious about the mm/dd/yy date representation. Isn't it commonly dd/mm/yy in Europe and other parts of the world? It might be a giveaway that it's some home-grown nutjob.
posted by JohnBigBoots at 7:41 PM on October 23, 2001

I agree donky - sending out a bunch of letters that serve only to make the country more prepared doesn't make sense. If a biological or chemical attack was in the works, why would the terrorists give us warning? It defeats the purpose.

It'd be like crashing a small plane into a nondescript federal building in Montana before taking out the WTC.
posted by aladfar at 7:41 PM on October 23, 2001

I highly doubt that the people behind the anthrax letters were the same ones as the WTC/Pentagon people.

The 9/11 attack was an extremely well orchestrated one that obviously took hours of planning and skill. I'd say that it was a tactical work of art if it weren't for the fact that it killed people.

Compare the kaliber of the 9/11 attacks to the anthrax letters--they're not in the same ballpark at all. The anthrax letters are blatantly trying to be Muslim. Furthermore, I think that if the terrorists are capable of operating as highly independent cells, they'd know that penicillin is spelt with not an "a" but an "i." Also, if you want to kill people, why would you tell them that they had anthrax? Wouldn't it be better to let a couple people die, let the authorities finally find a correlation, then start panicking?

Lastly, I'm sorry, but anthrax is a pretty weak bioterrorist agent compared to some other stuff used (like sarin).
posted by hobbes at 7:44 PM on October 23, 2001

tranquileye -- do we know that the letters were actually postmarked 9/11? just writing that date in the letter itself is effectively meaningless.

aren't there hundreds of false anthrax scare-mails in the u.s. in any given year? i know i've read about stuff like this before. it just so happens that now anything that even brushes against the radius of 9/11 triggers warning bells, not matter how unwarranted. i would think all the 'noise' would only serve to disrupt the more crucial, central investigations, since law enforcement resources are being taxed like crazy now.
posted by donkeyschlong at 7:49 PM on October 23, 2001

Sarin is a "nerve agent" or "chemical weapon," not a "bioterrorist agent."

This is not a meaningless distinction.
posted by dfowler at 7:54 PM on October 23, 2001

here is another of the 3 letters. are you afraid? no, not of this anthrax you have. i would have been more terrorized by the generic word 'disease' like they had something more up their sleeve.

saw an iraqi minister tonight on cable news, tho... something about the inflections he used really chilled me. as usual, i so f-ing lost in this situation.
posted by danOstuporStar at 7:56 PM on October 23, 2001

hobbes, sarin is a chemical agent, not a bio one.
posted by ArkIlloid at 7:58 PM on October 23, 2001

I think one thing to keep in mind is that the way Al Qaeda works is in 'cells' and I'm under the impression that the cells work independently with Bin Laden's blessing (thus he can say he didn't plan the attacks) - I'm beginning to think that this is the work of a different (and far less elaborate) cell - possibly someone who was working on the Anthrax angle, didn't quite get the results he wanted (cropduster, etc) and just decided to send it though the mail anyway.

Just some thoughts.
posted by QrysDonnell at 8:05 PM on October 23, 2001

donk, AP reported two of the letters were postmarked September 11th. If it was the hijackers, or people associated with them, it is a unique way to claim responsibilty. But, really, I have as much idea about what is going on as anyone else.
posted by tranquileye at 8:15 PM on October 23, 2001

After seeing the letters, I'm finally leaning towards the Atta et al crowd. Can't quite say why - except that if this is a lone nutjob, A) where'd he get the stuff, B) does it make sense that he was sitting around with a Ziploc full of anthrax waiting for someone else to make a big terrorist statement so he could piggyback on it?

Whoever did it, the letter gave me the same feeling I had when I saw the only verified letter from Jack the Ripper - a missive straight out of a small horrid room that was, for the moment, serving as the embassy for Hell.
posted by lileks at 8:19 PM on October 23, 2001

Images of all three letters on the FBI site.
posted by dal211 at 8:25 PM on October 23, 2001

I incline to the al Qaeda theory for one other reason - the handwriting looks awfully like the writing of people who are used to writing Hebrew or Arabic. When you've spent years writing right-to-left, your letter shapes and line direction using the Latin alphabet are affected. Notice the down-to-the-right slope. Notice that the seam in the "O" is in the upper left, not the right. Try writing block caps, starting each letter right-to-left, and freak yourself out.

Of course, your genuine English-speaking nut could come to the same conclusion...
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 8:38 PM on October 23, 2001

The penning in the last two images on the FBI site look absolutely identical. Has anyone said anything about them being photocopies?
posted by tpoh.org at 8:46 PM on October 23, 2001

tranquileye - The Post and Brokaw letters were postmarked Sept. 18. The Daschle letter was postmarked Oct. 9. All from Trenton.
posted by swell at 8:50 PM on October 23, 2001

nice work spleen. good eye. and you raised a good point. one could write it in a style that could implicate any number of nationalities.
posted by newnameintown at 8:53 PM on October 23, 2001

i noticed that too, tpoh. the second two have to be photocopies. look at the overmarked "T"s, the spiral "G" -- exactly the same.

it looks american. i mean, it takes some knowledge of american culture to figure that an enveloped scrawled in a kid-like script is more likely to make it to the intended target. the cuteness factor.
posted by grabbingsand at 9:07 PM on October 23, 2001

Also notice that the "flags" on the number ones are pointed in the wrong direction for a right to left author. Seems very suspicious. Call in Oliver Stone.
posted by Benway at 9:12 PM on October 23, 2001

Lots of nice speculation. Still do not know. I do note though that a snail re-mailer I am familiar with has announced that they will no longer re-mail letters sent to them and then passed on (all return address kept off them). ps: a sleeper living here for a number of years might be able to do or sound or act or write or whatever like a native after a time, no?
posted by Postroad at 9:14 PM on October 23, 2001

And look at the placement of the date on the page.

I have to go now. That new guy keeps looking over at my desk. I think he knows who The Spleen is...
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 9:27 PM on October 23, 2001

i think the letters could be muslim fundamentalists, but Al-Qaeda and Islamic Jihad are professional terrorist organizations with standard operating procedures and tactical profiles from which they rarely deviate. this doesn't fit their MO. this does not mean, however, that the perpetrator is in no way connected with bin Laden. bin Laden's organization is large enough that there are a number of "amateur terrorists" in the lower echelons that are loosely connected to but not directly controlled by bin Laden et. al. There are other possibilities but I wouldn't rule out the potential for a connection based on the fact that it doesn't look like the work of Al-Qaeda elites. The overt warning, the misspelling of Penicillin, etc., indicate "amateur" regardless. "Amateur", however, doesn't rule out Iraqi intelligence either. They certainly have experience with violence and isolated acts of terror, but not with systematic terrorism and psychological warfare.

i thought spleen's theory was interesting, but i write both Arabic and English, and when i transition between the two, the styles don't really transfer, but maybe it's just me. (My English has a heavy slant to the right and down my Arabic has a heavy slant to the left and down.) ALso - Arabic numerals are written and read from left to right, just as in English. But it's an good observation. maybe he's right.
posted by lizs at 9:39 PM on October 23, 2001

I think the phrase "This is next" might be a reference to Brokaw asking at some point (rhetorically) "What's next?" during a broadcast.
posted by Potsy at 10:10 PM on October 23, 2001

I say it's an american fucking around, really. And using the Muslim angle as a way to throw off Suspicion, JohnBigBoots is right, most people outside the U.S. use yy/mm/dd, rather then mm/dd/yy. And as others said, the actual postmark (rather then the date of the letter) was way after the 11th, making it impossible for Atta et.al. to do it, given that they were dead.
posted by delmoi at 10:25 PM on October 23, 2001

Oh

Lets' not forget that the FBI prettymuch arrested everyone that any of the Hijackers' ever even knew in the days that followed.
posted by delmoi at 10:26 PM on October 23, 2001

Lileks - well put, sir.
posted by GriffX at 10:29 PM on October 23, 2001

if one looks closely enough you can barely make out limp bizkit rocks!!! underneath the line allah is great.

"allah is great"? who wrote these letters? an 11-year-old girl?
posted by double+good at 10:50 PM on October 23, 2001

I tend to fall in with the 'looney' group... but I'd be happy as hell if I were wrong. I only hope that the internal terrorists really are such a pathetic group of morons. To me, this is about as chilling as the air that comes out of a steam grate.

"You cannot stop us. We have this anthrax. You die now. Are you afraid?" Sheesh. Beware the magic flu bug - we're doomed. This is supposed to be the same group of people who learned to fly commercial aircraft? Die, yankee imperialist running pig-dogs, indeed. If there were brains behind this particular cell, they were deep fried in the WTC, because this guy is pure comic relief.

Nobody's asking the really important question here - a month plus has gone by, we're bombing the Afghans in major fashion, the Taliban and Ossie are helpless to stop us... so... where are the car bombs in retaliation? Where are the McVeigh sized whoppers, that should punish us for our infidel ways? Is this... cheesy bacteria all there is?? Hmmmmm...

I suspect that anyone who may have posed a major threat was invited to a midnight clambake by some men and black, and their junk mail has been forwarded to the dead letter office. There may be some gnats out there, but I suspect most of the horseflies and wasps have been taken care of quietly and quickly, perhaps in ways that Amnesty International would not approve of.
posted by Perigee at 10:59 PM on October 23, 2001

Last time I fell off my bike, I accumulated unrelated diseases even while lying in hospital. The doctors said they were called "opportunistic infections": bugs piggybacking on each other.
Isn't this what's happening now? It's despicable that so many people are actually using 9.11 for their own various ends. And I don't just mean the anthrax-spreaders but the gay-haters, the freedom-haters, the racists and all the WTC careerists in general.
I was going to say they were even worse than the terrorists - but that would be an opportunistic infection of its own.
Fight the bug!
PS
Isn't the word "bug" one of the greatest American inventions? It cuts arrogant problems down to size, likens them to insects and makes it all the easier to swat the arrogant little bastards.
PSS
Old Portuguese saying: wise flies sleep on the fly-swatter.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 11:35 PM on October 23, 2001

Though the Girl Guides, as usual, say it better: Be prepared.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 12:00 AM on October 24, 2001

I'm struck by two things. First is that it seems as if the lettering is labored, like someone really was struggling to write it. In particular note how the bottom plane of each line is not straight, and how some of the letters were rescored to get them right.

The second is the fact that the third letter is a photocopy of the second one. Why would they do that for something so brief, when they could just write another one in a minute or so?

I'm coming to the conclusion that it's because they could not do another one in a minute, because they are not fluent writers in any language which uses a Roman alphabet.

One reason that the lettering might be as labored as it is would be because the writer is used to writing right-to-left, such as would be the case in one of the Semitic languages.

I used to think that it was more likely than not that this was a domestic attack; after seeing these letters I'm now convinced that it is foreign. But I cannot conclude that it is necessarily related to the same group that launched the attacks on 9/11. There's certainly a chance of that, but it is by no means certain.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 12:33 AM on October 24, 2001

Of course most "foriegners", at least ones who went to school, have been writing roman letters from when they were kids.

Looks like a deliberate "blame the arabs" tactic to me.
posted by dydecker at 12:52 AM on October 24, 2001

dfowler and ArkIlloid... I hang my head in shame for the slip... yeah, sarin is a deadly chemical agent, but my main point was that if they really wanted to really scare, sarin would cause much more commotion than anthrax.

A letter that basically says, "You have anthrax [go to your nearest hospital to be cured]" isn't that scary (*knocks on wood*) compared to a crowded NYC subway filled with sarin (like Tokyo).

Anthrax does, however, have a nice scary name and is biological, which does make it somewhat scary.
posted by hobbes at 1:09 AM on October 24, 2001

Allah is great?
"Allah" means "God" in Arabic. Wouldn't an Arab writing in English write, "God is great"?
I mean, if a Mexican were to express this sentiment to an American, he wouldn't write, "Dios is great," would he?
Sounds like an ignorant American nut to me.
posted by Holden at 5:30 AM on October 24, 2001

Except the Mexican is probably Catholic, so we're talking about the same Guy. Allah and God are different (they are both gods, they are not both God).
posted by luser at 5:40 AM on October 24, 2001

Could it have just been someone writing with their non-dominant hand to avoid being traced by the handwriting? The photocopy could also be to reduce amount of unique writing available for analysis.
posted by sudama at 5:42 AM on October 24, 2001

PS
Isn't the word "bug" one of the greatest American inventions?

"bug \Bug\, n. [OE. bugge, fr. W. bwg, bwgan, hobgoblin, scarecrow, bugbear. Cf. Bogey, Boggle.] 1. A bugbear; anything which terrifies. [Obs.]"

American Welsh.
posted by rodii at 6:06 AM on October 24, 2001

"Allah" means "God" in Arabic. Wouldn't an Arab writing in English write, "God is great"?

All of the people I have known that are Muslim continue to use "Allah" even when speaking in English.

This seems to be pretty common. In fact, I suspect this is the only reason most English speakers are even acquainted with this word.

Except the Mexican is probably Catholic, so we're talking about the same Guy. Allah and God are different (they are both gods, they are not both God).

Hehe, no in fact they are the same God. :)
posted by Swifty at 6:07 AM on October 24, 2001

"allah is great"? who wrote these letters? an 11-year-old girl?

"Meaning and application of the prayer: Allahu Akbar (Allah is Great): The phrase is the opening declaration of every Islamic prayer and is a slogan which was prescribed by the Holy Prophet Muhamad (upon whom be peace) to the mujahids of Islam."
posted by Carol Anne at 6:50 AM on October 24, 2001

Maybe I've seen too many movies -- but has anyone discussed the possibility that the Very Carefully Displayed words and letters have some hidden meaning? This may not be very appropriate, but every time I see those images I have a picture of Eddie Murphy in the back of the police car in Beverly Hills Cop, figuring out "the code" and rushing to the last crime scene.

There have been discussions of the terrorist groups placing messages in computer files -- how about good old fashioned spy stuff?
posted by fnirt at 7:14 AM on October 24, 2001

Sudama, the letters are too clear for it to have been someone's off-hand. Try writing with yours and see if your output would be even halfway as legible.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 7:36 AM on October 24, 2001

The convention of writing a date as 09-11-01 is very odd. Most people just writing out dates would write 9/11/01.

The lettering definitely looks as if it was written by a man to me.
posted by xyzzy at 7:48 AM on October 24, 2001

rodii: try the Historical Dictionary of American Slang(ed. J.E.Lighter), Vol.1, Random House, New York, 1994. You'll find three whole pages(290-2) in very small type, from bug to bugfuck.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 8:27 AM on October 24, 2001

i've been writing in English for most of my life.

Notice the down-to-the-right slope.

if i'm writing without a line, my handwriting natually slopes down to the right.

Notice that the seam in the "O" is in the upper left, not the right.

i know plenty of born-and-raised-in-the-USA people who write/draw their letter O the opposite way that i do. their 'seam' would be on the left. my seam shifts depending on how i hold the pen.

I'm coming to the conclusion that it's [a photocopy] because they could not do another one in a minute, because they are not fluent writers in any language which uses a Roman alphabet.

or, as Sudama has suggested, it could be to keep the handwriting samples to a minimum.

i could repitiously write a few short phrases quickly in Russian within a few days after i began taking the class, and i can do the same in Greek, though i've never really studied the language.

and how some of the letters were rescored to get them right.

i do that often. sometimes i just don't like the way a letter looks so i go over it again until it's something i like.

the letters are too clear for it to have been someone's off-hand. Try writing with yours and see if your output would be even halfway as legible.

my handwriting with my off-hand is quite legible. it always has been legible, though it improved greatly after i broke my right wrist in junior high and had to write all day with my left hand. besides, some people are ambidextrous.

the letters could have been written by someone who has a basic knowledge of what they look for in handwriting analyses. those who take the time to conspire and plan a crime would probably be thinking about these things and looking into them long before they tried to pull off their crime. even among the loonies, 'be prepared' is wonderful thing to remember.

i don't posit any theories about the nationality or ethnicity of whomever wrote and sent the letters, but i think a lot of the 'evidence' sited to indicate a Semetic language speaker is weak.
posted by tolkhan at 8:37 AM on October 24, 2001

my handwriting natually slopes down to the right.
my seam shifts depending on how i hold the pen.
sometimes i just don't like the way a letter looks so i go over it again until it's something i like.
my handwriting with my off-hand is quite legible.

Is there something you'd like to confess?
posted by turaho at 9:07 AM on October 24, 2001

Being a Muslim in America, I find it strange that the supposed letters use sentences like "You Die Now" or "Take Penicilin Now".

Most of us who come here from foreign land have been taught the English language very thoroughly. (We still suck sometimes hehe). But the point is, since most of us are taught English as a foreign language, we do not tend to use short sentences. We have been taught to speak and write conversational English. Like "How are you doing today?" or " Will you be able to make it to the party tonight?" instead of "Will i catch you there ?".

To me this is just pointing out that it is the job of some nut. It could really be some Arab-American nut.

I know its circumstantial, but isnt every thing uptill now. The Guardian reporting on Tony Blair's "Proof" speech in the parliament, said that the bottom line would be, "Trust Me". (sorry no link, but finding).

Recently there have been reports on CNN and other news networks, that the German authorities have arrested an Arab guy who is suspected to have formed a terrorist group, of which were members the notoriously famous Muhammad Atta and the others. If it was that Arab guy who formed this terrorist group, where does Bin Laden come in. No body has raised this question. Its just confusing for me.
posted by adnanbwp at 9:33 AM on October 24, 2001

WHERE CAN I GET SOME OF THIS PENACILIN?!!? I feel sick...
posted by hellinskira at 2:32 PM on October 24, 2001

I'd like all of you right-handed people out there to try this experiment with me:
try writing "THIS IS NEXT. YOU DIE NOW" and the other crap in big blocky capital letters with your left hand, not with the right.
the result?
all the people I know who have tried this have written something VERY similar to the Anthrax letter, same slant, same look, same lettering
A right-hander who doesn't want his handwriting to be recognized just tries to write as a lefty. The result may even look like some foreigner trying to write in Western alphabet
Just a thought
posted by matteo at 3:19 PM on October 24, 2001

". If it was that Arab guy who formed this terrorist group, where does Bin Laden come in. No body has raised this question. Its just confusing for me." you are funny and stupid if you cant work that one out.
posted by newnameintown at 9:33 AM on October 25, 2001