Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Camel Club

Justin Raimondo points out another piece of the anthrax puzzle, the persecution of Ft. Derrick scientist Dr. Ayaad Assaad:

Assaad, an American citizen born in Egypt, worked for USAMRIID in the early 1990s and was involved in a conflict with a group of Ft. Detrick employees who dubbed themselves the "Camel Club." As detailed in a series of eye-popping pieces by Dave Altimari and Jack Dolan of the Hartford Courant, this cabal was engaged in systematic harassment of Assaad and other Arab-American employees at the facility, including putting obscene and racist poems on his desk and presenting him with a rubber camel adorned with a sex toy. The Camel Club's harassment of Assaad had a distinctively ideological edge, one that pre-dated the "invade their countries, bomb their cities, and convert them to Christianity" meme that later became so popular with post-9/11 neocons of a Coulterish stripe.

In September 2001 – before the news of the anthrax letters broke, but after they had been postmarked – a letter addressed to the "Town of Quantico police" was received that accused Assaad of being a terrorist who was planning to wage biological warfare against the U.S. on American soil. As the first anthrax letters were opened, Assaad got a call from the FBI. Agent Gregory Leylegian wanted to have a little talk with him.

This fits very closely with the tone of the anthrax letters themselves, an attempt was made to incriminate Muslims in general, and Dr. Assaad in particular. Could the 'Camel Club' be the perpetrators of the attacks? From the outside (lacking any evidence beyond the hogwash fed to the press), it sure looks plausible. Could one of the club also be there as a spy or counterspy who motivated the group, and also provided information to the outside? Did the Camel Club provide the information to ABC?

It looks like the FBI is going to try to incriminate Ivins as a lone nut. They already tried with Hatfill, it didn't work, but try, try again, right?

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