The anthrax attacks were concurrent with the debate of Bush's Patriot Act by Congress and the media.
The Senators who received anthrax letters were trying to amend the Patriot Act to protect civil liberties and the innocent.
Two Senate democratic leaders received anthrax letters mailed the same day that Senator Feingold blocked an attempt to rush the bill through without discussion or amendments.
And on that very same day, the FBI told the Iowa state lab to destroy the original batch of the Ames strain, making tracing the anthrax type more difficult.
Senator Leahy received an anthrax threat after he expressed reservations about the Bill. As Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, he managed the debate on the Bill.
Senate Majority Leader Daschle received the first Senate anthrax letter as he led the opposition to the original version of the Bill.
After receiving the anthrax letter, Daschle switched from supporting a 2 year limit on the Bill, later defending a 4-year sunset clause as the "appropriate balance."
No Republican received an anthrax letter.
The House and Senate buildings were closed and not reopened until after the Patriot Act was passed.
The Supreme Court was shut down with an anthrax scare the day after the constitutionally-challenged Patriot Act was signed by President Bush.
All the contaminated letters contained the Ames strain of anthrax, the DNA of which is traced to the original batch preserved in a university lab in Ames, Iowa. This strain was "weaponized" in Utah into a potent powder with an elaborate secret technique developed at Fort Detrick, Md.
The FBI failed to interview Ft. Detrick anthrax experts for two months into their investigation, doing it only after the experts complained to the press of gross incompetence on the part of the FBI.
The FBI overruled local homicide detectives who think that an anthrax expert was murdered, possibly because he knew too much.
