Anthrax (Suspicious Story) Alert

I happened to see this item in the conservative Washington Times (aka the Moonie Times), which is, as they used to say in the 19th century, close to the Administration: Anthrax Terror 12/26/03. It tells us that, contrary to credible previous reports that the anthrax used in the still-unsolved 2001 attacks was probably diverted by an insider from US weapons programs: "U.S. officials with access to intelligence reports tell us the information showing a terrorist link to the anthrax-filled letters sent by mail in the weeks after the September 11 terrorist attacks is not conclusive. But it is persuasive."

Then in the New York Times for 12/28/03, the infamous Judith Miller reports: U.S. Has New Concern About Anthrax Readiness. I've posted before about "General Judy's" truly bizarre professional story. It's one of the great mysteries of present-day journalism how she's still allowed to write and publish stories for the New York Times, the so-called "paper of record."

I don't know what this means. I've become so skeptical of General Judy's work that just seeing this story reminded me of what President Truman once said when a reporter asked him about one of Senator Joe McCarthy's endless charges (quoting from memory here): "If that fellow McCarthy said it, it's a d****d lie, you can be sure of that."

Now, it's always possible that some of what's in these two stories might be true. But the fact that one comes from the Washington Times and one from General Judy just tells me that some faction in the Administration is pushing some notion about a new level of terrorist threat from anthrax. Until I see some information from more reliable news reports, I'm witholding judgment about the facts.

I did do a quick search in Yahoo! News and in the Washington Post, New York Times and Los Angeles Times for other stories on the supposed new angle on the 2001 anthrax attack that the Washington Times reported, and didn't find anything.