@engineer,
engineer wrote:You believe that Al Qaida
a) Got the Ames strain of anthrax from a US research facility
They likely got it from somewhere other than a US facility.
engineer wrote:b) Decided to send them to major US news outlets and a couple of tabloids in the mail instead of going after political targets.
They sent anthrax (and now ricin) to political targets as well as to the media.
And they don't always hit political targets with every single blow. The World Trade Center, for example, was not a political target. It was attacked to massacre civilians in a spectacular way.
engineer wrote:c) Did not decide to go to a major city and just release it to the air where it would have done a huge amount of damage.
Successfully spreading it widely is easier said than done.
Plus, they might not have had a huge amount to disperse. And making people fear the mail would be something they'd find appealing.
engineer wrote:d) Chose not to claim credit for a successful attack even though they've consistently claimed credit for other attacks, even failures.
They claimed credit for 9/11. The anthrax attacks were part of 9/11.
engineer wrote:e) Have never repeated the attack.
They've never repeated flying hijacked airplanes into buildings either.
But in any case, they
have repeated the anthrax mailings, with these ricin attacks.