Look-alike anthrax letters provide clues

From a distinct writing style for the number “1” to a letter “S” that resembles the number “5,” notes to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., NBC anchor Tom Brokaw and the New York Post are providing investigators with potentially important clues to whoever sent deadly anthrax through the mail.

The letters, released Tuesday by the Justice Department, were apparently written by the same person, outside forensic document investigators said.

They are characterized by neat block printing and a seeming comfort with writing in English that leave the writer’s national origin uncertain, the investigators added. In addition, the use of the word “Allah” stands out, suggesting either a very conservative Islamic writer or someone posing as a Muslim, according to an Islamic expert.

Despite the ambiguities, the letters have emerged as a focal point of the probe into biological attacks. A key goal for investigators will be to focus on the area in New Jersey from which the letters were apparently sent and to look for handwriting matches in mail and other documents, some experts said.

“It takes time, and it takes resources -- but it’s the only physical evidence we have right now,” according to Gideon Epstein, former chief forensic document examiner for the U.S. Army and the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

The letters to the media are identical, warning both Brokaw and the New York Post editor to “take penicillin now.”

By contrast, the message to Daschle was more sinister, proclaiming: “We have this anthrax. You die now.” All three letters were dated “09-11-01” and all concluded with the phrase “Allah is great.”

Justice Department officials released photocopies of the letters Tuesday, a day on which the Bush administration expressed broad suspicion that the anthrax-laden letters are linked to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks -- a connection that has not been clearly established.

“There is a suspicion that this is connected to international terrorists,” said Ari Fleischer, the White House press secretary. “Our nation is under attack as a result of these mailings.”

Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft also raised the possibility, if more guardedly. “We are not able to rule out an association with the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, but neither are we able to draw a conclusive link at this time,” he told reporters.

Experts on Tuesday said the text of the letters leaves open various possibilities about the sender, ranging from a domestic terrorist to a foreign one to an American cooperating with foreign terrorists.

The personal, threatening note to Daschle could have been sent by a “Bin Laden type” or a “home-grown militant” seeking to capitalize on the terrorist attacks, said Clint Van Zandt, a former FBI psychological profiler.

What is most clear-cut about the letters and the envelopes is that they share a set of distinguishing characteristics that point to a single writer.

Epstein, for example, saw striking similarities between “spacing habits, distance between lines, margins and height ratios between letters.”

“There was no doubt in my mind from the envelopes that they were written by the same person,” he said. “But when you see the notes, it reinforces it so much more.

“It’s a three-stroke ‘1,’ ” Epstein observed of the number that appears in dates on each of the three letters. “It’s an initial stroke into the staff, a vertical stroke and a horizontal stroke on the bottom. That number 1, whenever it appears in the writing, it’s exactly the same way.”

Other telltale signs: The “G” looks like a 6, and the “R” is similar to an “A.” Foreign writers of English, he said, typically exhibit “more variation with their letter formations.”

Investigators, Epstein suggested, would be focusing on a particular postal route in New Jersey. A natural avenue of the investigation would be to try to find other writing samples made by people in the area that have the same distinguishing characteristics as the letters.

“There is writing available” for investigators to look at, he said.

The Justice Department confirmed Tuesday that the FBI has begun directing its anthrax investigation from Washington to improve coordination of a probe that involves field offices in New York, New Jersey, Florida and Washington.

Beyond distinctive traits in the handwriting, investigators are also focused on the content of the letters themselves.

One Islamic expert said Tuesday that the “stilted” phrasing of the notes, and the use of stereotypical terrorist slogans, might point to a less-educated perpetrator or even a non-Muslim impostor.

In contrast to the phrase “Allah is great” that appears in the letters, most Muslims, including American Muslims, would probably use the extremely common Arabic phrase “Allahu Akbar,” said John Voll, associate director of the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University.

It was possible, however, that a Muslim communicating with a non-Muslim might switch to English usage and say “God is great” or “God is greatest.”

But only the most theologically conservative Muslims would say “Allah is great” -- the actual phrase that appears in the letters, he said.

Certain phrases in the letters, such as “death to America” and “death to Israel,” are slogans that might be used by either “a nonintellectual activist” or a “Hollywood scriptwriter” attempting to sound like a terrorist: “It doesn’t really point to a fraud or the real thing,” Voll said.

Others were intrigued by the difference in tone between the letters to the media and the more hostile letter to Daschle, the Senate majority leader.

“The letter writer has nothing against Brokaw, warning him to take penicillin,” said Van Zandt, suggesting that the letter writer could be using the media to make a point.