The 50 Worst Terrorist Attacks (43 page)

On November 13, 2001, the CDC said it would test the blood of Jerry Weisfogel, a New Jersey cardiologist who believed he may have had cutaneous anthrax in early September 2001.

A fourth anthrax letter was found on November 16, 2001, in quarantined mail addressed to Senator Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vermont), who chaired
the Senate Judiciary Committee. It had the same Trenton, New Jersey, October 9, 2001, postmark and same handwriting as previous anthrax envelopes. The letter was sent to Fort Detrick, a U.S. Army lab, for more testing. The letter was the only one found in 280 barrels of Congressional mail examined by the FBI. Postal investigators believe that the letter was misrouted through the U.S. State Department mail-handling facility, leading to the infection of a State Department mail handler. On December 6, 2001, investigators reported that the Leahy envelope contained a letter identical to the Daschle letter.

A $1.25 million reward was posted for information leading to a conviction. Information could be sent to 1-800-CRIME-TV.

In mid-November 2001, all three floors of AMI in Florida tested positive for anthrax. Health officials suggested that more than one letter was involved.

On November 19, 2001, the U.S. Bureau of Prisons announced positive anthrax tests at two locations in a mailroom at 320 First Street, NW, Washington, D.C. Meanwhile, the CDC announced it would test a substance found in a letter the Chilean government said came from Switzerland.

On November 20, 2001, the Russell Senate Office Building offices of Senators Edward M. Kennedy and Christopher Dodd reportedly tested positive for anthrax.

On November 21, 2001, Ottilie Lundgren, 94, who was largely housebound in Oxford, Connecticut, died of inhalation anthrax. Medical investigators found no apparent source of her infection. On November 30, 2001, investigators discovered a trace amount of anthrax outside of a letter sent to a home in Seymour, Connecticut, 1.5 miles from Lundgren's home, supporting the theory that she had come into contact with a crosscontaminated letter. The Seymour letter was postmarked in Trenton, New Jersey, on October 9, 2001, and sent to John S. Farkas, 53, an estate liquidator living at 88 Great Hill Road. Trace amounts of anthrax were found at a Wallingford, Connecticut, post office that sorts mail for Oxford.

On November 23, 2001, the CDC said that the letter sent to Antonio Banfi, a pediatrician in Santiago, Chile, on November 13, 2001, had anthrax spores indistinguishable from the Daschle, Leahy, Brokaw, and
New York Post
spores. Banfi received the letter at the Calvo Mackenna Hospital pediatric lab. It was postmarked in Zurich, Switzerland, but had an Orlando, Florida, return address. The envelope contained a small amount of white powder and papers (however, on November 28, 2001, the
Washington Post
said that the envelope did not contain powder). It was the first confirmed case of anthrax mailed overseas; earlier reports of anthrax in Kenya and the Bahamas were incorrect. However, on November 28, 2001, CDC said that the anthrax in the letter did not match the Ames strain pathogens in the 18 anthrax cases in the United States. The letter was a solicitation for the purchase of a medical book or journal from an Orlando, Florida, publisher.

Anthrax was found in a bin of mail deliver ed to the Federal Reserve Board's Washington headquarters on December 6, 2001, and in a diplomatic pouch at the U.S. Embassy in Vienna, Austria, on December 13, 2001. A powder-filled envelope that was opened on December 17, 2001, in the office of Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage was a hoax; it had been sent from a Texas prison on October 29, 2001.

In mid-December 2001, the government offered anthrax vaccine to 3,000 people. The CDC and local medical services gave conflicting advice regarding whether to take the vaccine or another 40 days of antibiotics; the science was catching up to the new experiences with anthrax. Few postal workers took the vaccine; numerous congressional staffers did.

Genetic fingerprinting suggested that the Capitol Hill anthrax originated from a sample at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Maryland, which had sent Ames strain samples to four other labs in the United States and United Kingdom. Investigators attempted to determine whether an individual who had been fired from a lab and made threats was responsible. Authorities also examined whether the attacker wanted to make money from cleanup and medical responses.

Tests conducted and analyzed December 23–28, 2001, found residual anthrax spores on a mail-sorting machine at the Morgan Processing and Distribution Center in New York. It had tested positive, then negative, in October 2001.

A third attempt began on December 28, 2001, to clean out the Hart building. The second effort was suspended on December 17, 2001. This time the plan was to fill the ventilation system with chlorine dioxide gas.

On January 22, 2002, the Hart Senate Office Building finally reopened after several tests found no remaining traces of anthrax spores. The building cleanup cost $20 million.

On January 31, 2002, traces of anthrax were found at the Federal Communications Commission mail-processing center at 9300 East Hampton Drive in Prince George's County, Maryland.

On February 20, 2002, Ernesto Blanco, 74, was back at work in the mailroom of AMI in Boca Raton, Florida, after surviving a case of inhalation anthrax that had killed his coworker.

A Vanderbilt University and New York University Medical School mathematical model released on May 13, 2002, indicated that anthrax contaminated at least 5,000 letters in the eastern United States.

On September 15, 2002, FBI investigators suggested that the anthrax at AMI was spread by more than two dozen photocopy machines in the three-story, 68,000 square foot building. Spores went from the first-floor mailroom, on to reams of copy paper stored there, and into the air by fans inside the machines loaded with the copy paper. Anthrax was found on the keyboard in photo editor Stevens's office; he died in October 2001 of anthrax, the first of five fatalities nationwide.

On May 10, 2003, the FBI announced that it had discovered in Maryland's Frederick Municipal Forest's ice-covered ponds what may have been the method the individual used to put the anthrax into envelopes without becoming infected. Divers found a submerged airtight chamber. The
Washington Post
reported that investigators found a clear box with holes that could accommodate gloves and vials wrapped in plastic. The FBI began draining one of the spring-fed ponds on June 9, 2003, to find further evidence. On July 31, 2003, the FBI announced that no anthrax had been found.

On September 24, 2003, Maureen Stevens, widow of Robert Stevens, the
Sun
tabloid editor who died of anthrax, sued the government for $50 million, saying that lax security at the Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Maryland, was responsible. The U.S. government settled on the case on November 28, 2011, for $2.5 million in a filing in U.S. District Court in West Palm Beach, Florida. It did not admit liability or negligence.

On August 5, 2004, federal agents searched the home of Dr. Kenneth M. Berry, 48, in Wellsville, New York, a small town on the Pennsylvania border south of Buffalo. Agents also searched a home in Lavellette on the New Jersey beaches. Berry had worked for five years as an emergency room physician in Wellsville before he resigned in October 2001. He claimed to be the former president of an organization of emergency physicians. In 1997, he founded the nonprofit PREEMPT Medical Counter Terrorism group. PREEMPT teaches medical and defense professionals how to respond to a biological terrorist attack. It may be that a patent application for a chemical and biological surveillance system made Berry a person of interest. He applied for the patent on September 28, 2001, the same day the first anthrax letters were postmarked in Trenton, New Jersey. On August 18, 2004, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center announced that his employment would end on November 8, 2004, and he would be on leave until then. On November 6, 2004, he pleaded guilty to assaulting his wife and daughter and was sentenced to a 2-year probation and a $1,000 fine.

On November 24, 2004, Chief Judge Claude M. Hilton in Alexandria, Virginia, dismissed Steven J. Hatfill's lawsuit against the
New York Times
Company and columnist Nicholas D. Kristof. Hatfill had been identified by Attorney General John D. Ashcroft as a “person of interest” in the anthrax investigation. Hatfill, 50, was a former scientist at Fort Detrick in Frederick, Maryland, who had studied biological warfare agents. In January 2007, Judge Hilton threw out Hatfill's defamation lawsuit, which had been reinstated by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in 2005. On June 27, 2008, the U.S. Department of Justice settled Hatfill's lawsuit against the government for $5.85 million. The government did not admit wrongdoing. On July 18, 2008, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit dismissed Hatfill's libel lawsuit against the
New York Times
.

On February 22, 2007, the Boca Raton offices that were closed in the anthrax attack reopened. The building had been sold in 2003 by AMI for $40,000 to developer David Rustine.

On July 29, 2008, biodefense scientist Bruce E. Ivins, who had worked at the Army lab at Fort Detrick, committed suicide after learning that he was going to be indicted by federal prosecutors in the case. They had intended to offer a plea bargain of life in prison. He had two patents that were used by Vax Gen, Inc., to create anthrax vaccines after the 2001 attacks. Colleagues also suggested that he had mental problems. A final determination of his motivation(s) could not be made.

Overview:
A large Muslim mob firebombed a coach on the Sabarmati Express, a bullet train that makes a two-day trip from Ahmedabad to Darbhanga, India, as it passed through Godhra. Fifty-nine Hindu pilgrims were killed. Different investigations have concluded that the incident was an accident and a preplanned conspiracy. What is certain is that rioting spread through the state and nationwide deaths reached 1,000.

Incident:
On February 27, 2002, a Muslim mob threw firebombs and acid at the Sabarmati Express train as it was pulling away from a rail station in the Muslim neighborhood of Godhra in western India, killing 59 people and injuring another 43. Those killed included 25 women and 15 children. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council) activists on the train were shouting provocative slogans while the train was in the rail station. They were returning from Ayodhya, where they wanted to construct a temple where the 16th-century Babri Mosque was destroyed in 1992 by a Hindu mob. Many Hindus believe the site was the birthplace of Lord Ram, a Hindu god.

India sent troops to Gujarat after two days of rioting that killed nearly 300 people. Some 1,200 people were arrested statewide. Police killed 17 rioters after receiving a shoot-on-sight order. At least 27 Muslims were burned alive in their homes in Ahmadabad.

The attacks continued into March 2, 2002, when a mob of 500 Hindus torched a Muslim residence in Sardarpura, killing another 29 Muslims and seriously burning 20 others. The nationwide death toll passed 350.

By mid-March 2002, the nationwide death toll passed 700. The toll ultimately reached 1,000.

On March 17, 2002, Gujarat police announced the arrest of a Muslim man who was the prime suspect in the attack.

On February 19, 2003, Indian authorities charged 131 suspects in the arson attack; 65 of them were in custody, including a man accused of
organizing the attack, Maulvi Husain Haji Ibrahim Umarji, a Muslim cleric from Godhra. The suspects were charged under the Prevention of Terrorism Act; no Hindus have been charged under the act.

On February 22, 2011, a Gujarat court convicted 31 Muslims on charges of murder and criminal conspiracy, but acquitted 63 defendants, including Umarji, 70, who was believed to be a key conspirator. On March 1, 2011, the court sentenced 11 to death and 20 to life in prison.

Overview:
The U.S./Coalition ousting of Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein was met by a host of terrorist factions that arose from the remnants of the Ba'ath Party, the defeated Iraqi military, various Sunni and Shia groups, and foreign terrorists who rushed to the scene, eager to attack the West on Arab soil. Thousands of attacks were conducted against Coalition forces, civilians, and clerics of the wrong faith. Car bombings killing dozens were not uncommon. The Baghdad and Karbala attacks were somewhat more deadly, but otherwise typical of the seemingly unending violence against civilian targets during the occupation.

Incident:
On Mar ch 2, 2004, terrorists conducted six attacks against Shi'ite worshippers in Baghdad and Karbala, Iraq, a Shi'ite holy city, killing at least 143 people and injuring more than 400 others. The attacks involved planted explosives and possibly mortars. No one claimed credit, although Sunnis were blamed. At least three suicide bombers were involved in the attacks against the gold-domed Imam Kadhim Mausoleum shrine and other areas. The president of the Iraqi Governing Council the next day said the death toll was 271; the U.S.-led Coalition said it was 181 dead and 573 injured.

The commander of the U.S. Central Command, General John Abizaid, U.S. Army, blamed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian with ties to al Qaeda, who led al Qaeda in Iraq, which had used various cover names.

Fourteen Iraqis were taken into custody late in the day near Baqubah, 30 miles northeast of Baghdad. One suspect led a cell of Wahhabi Muslims. Forces south of Baghdad detained a man wearing a police uniform and carrying fake police identification. He said he was part of the terror network that launched the attacks. He had planned to blow up two police stations. The detainee said the terrorists were mercenaries who were paid $2,000–$4,000 per job, depending upon the number of deaths. The next day, military officials said 15 people, including 5 Persian speakers, had been detained in Karbala.