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Suspect in Anthrax Hoaxes Caught

FBI Fugitive Had Ties to Army of God

Dec. 5 — A fugitive on the FBI's Most Wanted list who is suspected of sending hundreds of anthrax hoax letters to abortion clinics was caught today, authorities said. Clayton Lee Waagner, 44, had been on the run from authorities since he escaped from an Illinois jail last February, where he was awaiting sentencing on federal weapons charges. He unsuccessfully used an insanity defense during that trial, saying he received multiple messages from God instructing him to kill abortion doctors. Authorities told ABCNEWS he was arrested in Ohio, but no further details were available.

Last week, Attorney General John Ashcroft said the FBI had information indicating Waagner had claimed responsibility for sending more than 280 letters to health clinics that perform abortions on the East Coast during the second week of October. The letters purported to contain anthrax to clinics, but all such threats to date have proven to be hoaxes.

Authorities said they found Waagner's fingerprints on some of the anthrax hoax letters, such as the one sent to a doctor in Rochester, N.Y.

Ties to Army of God

Waagner has ties to the Army of God, a militant anti-abortion group. Many of the anthrax threats sent to abortion clinics were signed "Army of God."

This summer, Waagner maintained on the Army of God Web site that he wanted to kill as many abortion providers as he can.

On the day after Thanksgiving, another anti-abortion militant, Neal Horsley, posted a message on his Web site, the Christian Gallery, saying that Waagner had visited him and told him he had sent the hoax anthrax mailings.

Waagner is also a suspect in a Pennsylvania bank robbery last May, and a carjacking in September. In the September incident, authorities say a car abandoned by Waagner contained a pipe bomb and extremist anti-abortion literature. Authorities describe him as a trained survivalist and although he is not known to have injured anyone in the past, authorities say he has made specific threats against several individuals and is considered armed and dangerous.

The Army of God praises anti-abortion militants who have committed violence against abortion providers. The group has voiced support for Paul Hill, a Presbyterian minister on death row in Florida for killing two abortion clinic workers in Pensacola, Fla., in 1993, and James Kopp, who is in a French jail pending extradition to face charges in the 1998 shooting death of Buffalo, N.Y., doctor Barnett Slepian.

Eric Rudolph, the fugitive wanted in connection with the 1996 Olympic Park bombing, is also suspected of involvement in two bombings in Atlanta for which the Army of God claimed responsibility.

-- Anonymous, December 05, 2001

Answers

I am so happy to hear this particular terrorist has been caught.

-- Anonymous, December 05, 2001

I wonder where in Ohio. It seems like idiots like that tend to wash up here now and again, especially in Cleveland.

-- Anonymous, December 05, 2001

Believe it was in or near Cleveland, LOL!

-- Anonymous, December 05, 2001

And yet the one who really mailed Anthrax is still out there...

-- Anonymous, December 05, 2001

I'm pretty comfortable with the following theory: The real anthrax mailings were a disgruntled scientist from one of the U.S.'s defensive germ research labs. (We only stopped offensive research.) The mailings weren't really intended to kill people, especially not the muckymuck addressees. (Subnote that noone foresaw just how effective conditions in the large postal centers would be at distributing the powder.) The mailings were simply a message about the potential dangers, sent to folks generally in a position to make noise that TPTB would have to pay attention to. The goal was to revert U.S. policy back to taking the threat of bioterrorism seriously.

I base this partly on the massive amount of superior grade anthrax contained in letters. Either the sender knew the quality of the powder, or not. Either the sender had some idea of whether lethal doses of anthrax could be administered by mail, or not. I'm not prepared at this time to believe that whoever sent the anthrax was so entirely clueless about the value of what they possessed, and if not, why "waste" it in that fashion?

I'm also very much influenced at this time by Judith Miller's book, Germs, which goes into great (and convincing) detail to document the on-again-off-again policy the U.S. has had towards bioterrorism defense and also to document the truly massive offensive bioterrorism research programs that Iraq and Russia in particular have had.

So, I don't think the anthrax was related to the folks responsible for 9/11. However, if so, then the guy(s) sending the real anthrax had immediate access to it. Waagner clearly did not, or he would willingly have used it.

-- Anonymous, December 05, 2001

I think you and Carl have nailed it, Brooks. Now, why can't the FBI??

-- Anonymous, December 05, 2001

I suspect they knew close to the beginning where the anthrax letters originated and they've just been trying to get the solid evidence. Maybe there's a chain of evidence, a long one. Obviously, if they know they're not going to tip their hand; it's to their advantage to keep quiet about it.

-- Anonymous, December 05, 2001

Meanwhile, we still work in fear of another letter...

-- Anonymous, December 06, 2001