The planning for the anthrax attacks of 2001 goes back to at least 1997. In April of that year, the national headquarters of the Jewish organization B’nai B’rith in Washington, DC received a package that contained a petri dish labeled Anthracis Yersinia, implying the dish contained bacteria that could cause anthrax infections or plague. The dish had been broken and was leaking a red fluid. Tests later determined the petri dish to be relatively harmless, and it did not contain the bacteria Anthracis or Yersinia. However, it did contain Bacillus cereus, which is less dangerous and is sometimes used as an anthrax simulant.
A two-page typed letter accompanied the petri dish. The letter was largely incoherent and contained comments on Jews, Nazis, and the ‘Holocaust.’ The letter was signed, “The Counter Holocaust Lobbyists of Hillel.” Months prior to the B’nai B’rith hoax, a movement was forming on college campuses calling for a debate to question some assertions concerning the ‘Holocaust.’ Those responsible for the mailing chose to blame historical revisionists or so-called “Holocaust deniers.”
The B’nai B’rith hoax received a great deal of media attention. Television outlets like CNN and other networks broadcast the incident live to a national audience. The nearby area was evacuated, and for a period of time office personnel were quarantined. The case has never been solved, and the cost to the government was two million dollars.
Israel’s Mossad most likely was responsible for the mailing. The hoax benefited Israel and the Jews in several ways. First, national publicity was generated in this first major anthrax scare. Second, sympathy was elicited for the Jewish organization that was attacked. Third, the persons supposedly responsible—namely, those who have questions concerning the ‘Holocaust’—were demonized. However, on another level, something more important was achieved: This would be the first anthrax hoax used to implicate Dr. Steven Hatfill.
Dr. Hatfill was attending a terrorism seminar in Washington, DC the day the B’nai B’rith incident occurred. At the time, Hatfill was employed as a researcher at the National Institutes of Health where he likely had access to petri dishes containing bacteria. This, in all probability, was the reason a petri dish from a bioresearch lab was used this time, instead of a suspicious powder. This anthrax hoax, along with others that followed, would help to make a circumstantial case against Dr. Hatfill if a real anthrax attack ever occurred.
