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FBI Ignored Letter in Anthrax Probe Phil Brennan, NewsMax.com Thursday, Aug. 15, 2002 Editor's note: See part one in this series, FBI and Anthrax: Another TWA 800 in the Making? By now, there should be no dispute as to where the anthrax that killed Bob Stevens and nearly killed Ernesto Blanco came from. If you follow the spores found by the EPA in the samplings it took at the AMI building, even the most obtuse investigator would have to conclude that they arrived by mail. Begin at the Boca Raton, Fla., post office that serviced AMI. Anthrax spores matching those found at AMI were found there. Once in the AMI building, the mail was sorted. Either because the letter was addressed to the Sun tabloid, or because Blanco determined that it should go to the Sun even if addressed to the National Enquirer, he put it on his cart and began his regular route. That route is marked by a trail of anthrax spores. It begins at the mail room, wends its way up to the second floor and ends up at the Sun offices on the third floor, where it is given to a Sun employee. Anthrax spores found on Bob Stevens' computer keyboard show that he handled the letter. This much is known and beyond dispute. The source of the anthrax that killed Stevens and infected Blanco was a piece of mail. What can’t be pinned down is where the letter came from. 'Weird Love Letter to Jennifer Lopez' On its Web site, Newsweek magazine reported that on Sept. 4 AMI received a "weird love letter to Jennifer Lopez" containing a "soapy" powder and a star of David, addressed to the singer-actress c/o The Sun tabloids. That report is the only source of information concerning the date of receipt of the letter, or that it was addressed to Lopez specifically in care of the Sun. Inside the Lopez letter was a "soapy, powdery substance" and a cheap Star of David charm, Sun employees confirmed. Knowledgeable sources told NewsMax.com that the letter, which Blanco had taken to the Sun, was opened by one of the editors in the absence of an editorial assistant who would have ordinarily opened it. The editor looked at it and then tossed it into a wastepaper basket. Another Sun staffer, who NewsMax.com was told had a daughter who is a Lopez fan, retrieved it, found the contents amusing but of no interest to his daughter, and passed it around to other staff members, according to our sources. The last person to touch the letter, they told NewsMax.com, was probably Bob Stevens. At the time the AMI editorial director, Steve Coz told reporters that because his eyesight was faulty, Stevens held the envelope close to his face and probably inhaled the deadly spores. Stevens, or somebody else, threw the letter away. It was never recovered, leaving forever open the question of its being the source. Coz’s account of Stevens' bad eyesight and his tendency to hold written material close to his face was confirmed by one of his best friends, who told NewsMax.com that Stevens read material that way. Evidence Lost Because the letter that may well have been the source of the anthrax at AMI no longer existed, a vital piece of evidence was lost. That a letter was the source is indicated by the fact that the trail of anthrax spores in the AMI building matches the exact route it took from the mailroom to the Sun tabloid office, but it cannot be proven that the anthrax carrier was the JLo letter. The incident made little or no impression on the Sun staff at the time. Wacko mail frequently comes to the tabloid and is sometimes passed around. Few paid any attention to the letter, and only a couple of Sun employees even recalled that specific piece of mail. FBI's Strange Reaction Moreover, the FBI, which dismissed the letter out of hand and denied it had any significance, for reasons not disclosed asked AMI not to go into detail about it with the media or anyone else. The whole thing just vanished from the investigative radar screen. The Newsweek report that the Lopez letter arrived Sept. 4th, seven days before the events of the terrorist hijacking attacks, would have assumed enormous significance had the letter been kept. It would seem to point the finger of guilt directly at the 9-11 hijackers, most of whom lurked nearby until leaving for their deadly rendezvous with the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Next: AMI’s sinister neighbors. Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics: Bioterrorism Bush Administration Health Issues Homeland/Civil Defense NewsMax Scoops War on Terrorism A product that might interest you: "Living Terrors: Surviving the Coming Bioterrorist Catastrophe"