Threats

Amerithrax (2001-2010)

Case Summary can be found athttp://www.fbi.gov/about-us/history/famous-cases/anthrax-amerithrax

Background: Soon after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, letters laced with anthrax began appearing in the U.S. mail. Five Americans were killed and 17 were sickened in what became the worst biological attacks in U.S. history.The ensuing investigation by the FBI and its partnerscode-named "Amerithrax"has been one of the largest and most complex in the history of law enforcement.In August 2008, Department of Justice and FBI officials announced a breakthrough in the case and released documents and information showing that charges were about to be brought against Dr. Bruce Ivins, who took his own life before those charges could be filed. On February 19, 2010, the Justice Department, the FBI, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service formally concluded the investigation into the 2001 anthrax attacks and issued an Investigative Summary.The Amerithrax Task Forcewhich consisted of roughly 25 to 30 full-time investigators from the FBI, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and other law enforcement agencies, as well as federal prosecutors from the District of Columbia and the Justice Department's Counterterrorism Sectionexpended hundreds of thousands of investigator work hours on this case. Their efforts involved more than 10,000 witness interviews on six different continents, the execution of 80 searches, and the recovery of more than 6,000 items of potential evidence during the course of the investigation. The case involved the issuance of more than 5,750 grand jury subpoenas and the collection of 5,730 environmental samples from 60 site locations. In addition, new scientific methods were developed that ultimately led to the break in the casemethods that could have a far-reaching impact on future investigations.

• Amerithrax letters can be found athttp://www.justice.gov/amerithrax/

Use the case above to complete the following:

1. Full description of the overall pragmatic information of the case. Consider this to be a summary of the overall circumstances, the participants, the criminal charge(s), the linguistic evidence, etc.
2. Pick one piece of oral or written linguistic evidence.
3. Identify the criteria/standard(s) that define the case as the particular type of language crime.
4. Identify the subsystems of language connected to your analysis and/or an expert's analysis, types of speech acts, directness/indirectness/ambiguity, the presence (or lack thereof) of the Cooperative Principle, and the presence of "plausible deniability" (if applicable).
5. Provided illustration from this book Speaking of Crime: The Language of Criminal Justice (Chicago Series in Law and Society) https://1lib.us/book/990436/d1be4b