Cyanide letter a feeble bid to fool, say experts

By KATHERINE HOBY, CATHERINE MASTERS and GREGG WYCHERLEY

The writer of the threatening letter to three New Zealand international diplomatic posts probably pretended to be a foreigner to disguise his or her identity or to stir up trouble against the Muslim community, say academics.

A linguist and international terror experts spoken to by the Herald said the letter appeared to be a poor attempt to make grammatical mistakes to fool readers.

At the same time it appeared to contain mistakes that would not have been made by a true Muslim believer.

Dr Laurie Bauer, a linguist at Victoria University, said: "It sounds to me as if it's really an English speaker who's writing this and hoping that by missing out the word 'the' occasionally we'll all be fooled into thinking it's someone who can't write English."

The letters were sent to the United States Embassy and the British and Australian High Commissions. The letter addressed to the British Ambassador contained cyanide.

Police have warned the public to be vigilant around public transport and when eating food prepared and packaged by others. They have also cautioned America's Cup spectators and participants to look out for anything out of the ordinary.

Yesterday police, including armed members of the Special Tactics Group, were on patrol at the Viaduct Harbour.

Auckland University School of Asian studies senior lecturer Tim Behrend said the letter seemed "very transparent and like an incredibly bad effort".

"They don't appear to have been written by a non-native speaker of English or someone who is accustomed to being around non-native English speakers.

"What I see here is someone who is mimicking a foreign voice."

Mr Behrend said the content was not convincing, either. There was no reason to target the America's Cup, with Swiss and New Zealand teams competing and no Americans.

It was unlikely the writer had a real political agenda.

"It seems more mischievous to me."

A specialist in international relations at Auckland University, Dr Paul Buchanan, believed the language in the letter sounded more Indonesian than Middle Eastern.

"The language use in this letter is more akin to Indonesian letters around the time of the Bali bombing."

Dr Buchanan said he had not heard of the group September 11 mentioned in the letter, and thought it was likely to be an individual posing as a group rather than a cell of committed terrorists.

He said New Zealand's small Muslim population was already under intense pressure and he doubted a terrorist group would be able to operate so blatantly in such a small community.

"It would be insane for them to broadcast themselves from within our midst."

The letters also mystified members of the Muslim community. A number of Muslim leaders - all of whom wanted to remain anonymous - doubted the writer was part of a group fighting for the rights of Islamic people because of some unusual errors.

Chief among them was the signature, Abd Allah September 11. Abd in Arabic means servant and Allah God, but the way this had been written was incorrect.

A Muslim would not write it like this, said an Arab immigrant.

"All in a row, Abd Allah September 11. No, nonsense. It's written wrongly. He can't say Abd Allah and later say September 11. It can't be, it makes no sense."

As a phrase the two words are meaningless and it cannot be a name because Muslims cannot take the name Allah.

Another Muslim spokesman said the writer appeared to be taking advantage of words and phrases that had crept into public perception since the al Qaeda attacks of September 11 focused attention on the Islamic world.

The police chief of counter-terrorism, Assistant Commissioner Jon White, was sceptical yesterday about the letter's contents.

"You have people who sit down at a word processor and join up a collection of words to try and give you a misleading impression that their command of English is poor or that their origins are foreign or whatever."