The congress never got a chance to read the patriot act (600+ pages) let alone debate it.

Strangely enough the Patriot act had already been written prior to 911 so no time was wasted in writing or reading it. Once the congress passed the patriot act all anthrax mailings and media hype went dead.

The news media (particularly The New York Times) joined
the campaign, as did some politicians, and eventually
the FBI caved in to the pressure and did PUBLICLY
investigate Dr. Hatfill, finding no reason to suspect him.

But, it was no longer a simple case. As a result of that
complication and the fact that the Ames strain of anthrax
had been distributed among scientists WITHOUT DOCUMENTATION,
it became more difficult for the FBI had to make a scientific
case against the anthrax mailer. They first had to
FORMALIZE the new science of Microbial Forensics
following steps defined by the Supreme Court.

Formalizing a new science takes YEARS. The process was
evidently completed somewhere in 2005. There are reports
which indicate that the FBI has built its case against the
anthrax mailer, but the Department Of Justice isn’t ready
to prosecute. When using a new science, the judge hearing
the case can decide against hearing such evidence if there
is no precedent. And you have to arrest the culprit and ‘
bring him before the judge before the judge can rule as
to whether he’ll accept the evidence or not.

Regarding your other points:

The idea that al Qaeda sent the anthrax letters is simply
not credible. Just look at the first lines of the first
letters after the heading:

09-11-01

THIS IS NEXT
TAKE PENACILIN NOW

Clearly, it’s a warning that an anthrax attack could follow
the 9/11 attacks. And the letter writer is advising that
people take penicillin to prevent infections. Penicillin
IS an effective antiobiotic for anthrax.

Would al Qaeda give MEDICAL ADVICE? Would Saddam Hussein
have given MEDICAL ADVICE? And why would neither of them
have followed up with a real attack?

And why would either al Qaeda or Saddam Hussein have targeted
two LIBERAL senators Leahy and Daschle with the second
mailing three weeks later?

Patrick Leahy and Tom Daschle were fighting certain
aspects of the Patriot Act when they were targeted.

It seems very likely that the culprit is a scientist who
lives and works in Central New Jersey where there is a
large Muslim population. (Some of the 9/11 terrorists
stayed for awhile in Paterson.) He was probably terrified that
9/11 would be followed by a bioweapons attack from terrorists
living among the Muslims in Central New Jersey. That
prompted him to send out the first mail to the media.

When the first mailing was not only IGNORED by the media,
but those two senators were also fighting the Patriot Act to
protect CIVIL RIGHTS at a time when MILLIONS were expected
to die as a result of a bioweapons attack, the anthrax
mailer evidently targeted those two senators to get them
to change their minds. That’s called “domestic terrorism.”

Things are NOT as simple as they may seem if you haven’t
studied the situation

Ed