FBI Exectues Search Warrants in Connection With Anthrax Mailings

I have little to add to this story, but it's so important I have to link it anyway.

These searches may turn up exactly nothing at all. But it is worth noting that apparently the Feds had sufficient evidence to obtain a search warrant in this once-dead investigation.

A lot of evidence? No; not necessarily anything more than a scrap. Even a liberal judge is going to be pretty forgiving when it comes to issuing a warrant in connection with this crime. But they have some evidence, some tip-off, something to make them want to search in these specific locations.

And speaking of which: the locations are in Wellsville, NY and Newark, NJ and not Virginia or Maryland, or anywhere near Steven Hatfield's former residence.

Is it possible these warrants were issued on the basis of "dated intelligence"? We'll just have to wait and see.

We'll also have to wait and see if the searches are taking place in Muslim neighborhoods. That would, of course, signal a change in theory from "lone white terrorist with some job-related grudge" to "foreign terrorists," and that's especially interesting, because there are only a couple of foreign countries from which Muslim terrorists could have procured anthrax of such high technical production, and Iraq is both of them.

Update! A few more details here.

The locations are "houses" in Wellsville, NY, which on the Canadian border. (Uh-oh.) It's also near Buffalo. Uh-oh.

This article doesn't mention Newark, but does mention Lavallette in NJ, which is a dinky little shore town.

It says the arrests are unrelated to the Albany sting... which doesn't mean much at all.