Why did the anthrax attacks stopped?


By Richard M. Smith of www.ComputerBytesMan.com
April 20, 2002

Why have the anthrax attacks stopped? No one can be really sure, since the motive of the person or persons behind the attacks is not known. Any answer to this question is going to be highly speculative. This article provides some educated guesses of why there have been no follow-on anthrax attacks since early October.

The FBI believes that the first batch of anthrax letters were all sent out on September 18, 2001 from Trenton, New Jersey. A total of five letters were assumed to be mailed that day targeting major US news outlets: ABC News, CBS News, NBC News, the New York Post, and National Enquirer. Of the 5 letters mailed that day, only the NBC News and New York Post letters have been recovered by the FBI.

The second anthrax attack started on October 9, 2001 when letters were sent to U.S. Senators Daschle and Leahy. These two letters were also mailed from Trenton, New Jersey and both letters were recovered by the FBI.

No evidence has been found that any other letters were mailed by the perp. Thousands of other letters have been checked out since the first batch of anthrax letters were sent to the media on September 18th, but all of these letters turned out to be hoaxes.

Here are some of the possible reasons of why the anthrax attacks stopped after October 9, 2001:

  1. The perp is scared that he is going to be caught if he continues sending out anthrax letters given all of the publicity in the case and the large-scale FBI investigation.
  2. The perp no longer has access to a supply of anthrax or the equipment to make weaponized anthrax because of increased security at biodefense and microbiology research labs.
  3. The perp achieved his goal in the 2001 attacks and sees no need for future attacks.
  4. The perp failed in his goal of killing any of the people he targeted with the anthrax letters and is now looking for other ways to deliver anthrax.
  5. The perp is dead after accidentally infecting himself with anthrax.
  6. The perp is associated with Al Qaeda and the war in Afghanistan has affected his ability to conduct future attacks.
  7. The perp is working on a larger-scale attack.