Im curious what motive is about the anthrax scare. It first appeared in the journalism realm. Then to the government. I understand why that would like to attack the government. We all know that no matter where the anthrax appeared, the government would be all over it. If their true motives we to scare the population, why didn't the infect one dollar bills? This scares me much more than mail, as it doesn't take much to spot anthrax infected mail. Not something I'd expect, so it doesn't scare me. Now I would be worried that every dollar bill i picked up would contain it. This could definate affect us. Are the slowly building up their attack to this, or do they have alterior motives?
What more visible way to scare you than to infect someone you watch on TV? That's why the media. Unless you can coat thousands upon thousands of dollar bills, it's pointless; life can't really go on if you can't touch your money, and it would need to be extremely widespread in order to have any real effect. You only need to send a few pieces of mail to put everyone on edge. The mail is pretty effective, though; there are alot of people who are thinking different thoughts than usual when opening their mail nowadays... Incidentally, this anthrax was designed to be semi-airborne (the anti-static coating) and would therefore not stick to a dollar bill very well. It would, however, stay right where it's supposed to be until the envelope is opened and "poof", there's anthrax floating around...
Several different reasons why they could have chosen the mail; some of these reasons are contradictory. 1. It's an isolated nut who has a grudge against the government and media 2. They want to inspire fear but don't want a widespread civilizan outbreak. This could be because: a. They have humanitarian concerns (ha ha) b. They know that if the catastrophe reached a certain level, the US would retaliate more harshly. If thousands started dying from anthrax in America, the US might become less... ahh... choosey about not hitting civilian targets in Afghanistan. 3. Dollar bills, etc, would be less discriminatory. How do you prevent the money from being circulated among people you don't want killed? 4. How much anthrax do they have? If they have a relatively limited amount, letters might be just as effective. 5. *gulp* and this is the bad one... they might only want to use one medium at a time. Sooner or later, the US is going to shut-down their use of USPS to deliber their weapon. Detection will improve, etc, and the country will breathe a collective sigh of relief. Then anthrax resurfaces from a new source. And the 2nd time, mass panic become more likely. EDIT: Oh, and 6... I don't really know how long a single item would retain the anthrax. Some postal workers were infected, so the letter must have been "leaking," but I have to think that the weapon would become diluted over time. 7. It would be suspicious and would infect them easily. After all, if a person is paying with a mask and gloves, it's awfully suspicious.
haven: 1) Does this isolated nut also have a grudge against a marketing firm and a computer engineering firm in Pakistan? Because two US firms there have also recieved anthrax-laden mail. 2b) Wow, I agree with you on something. Also, they might be afraid we'll extend our wrath outside of Afghanistan... 3) You couldn't infect enough money with all the anthrax in the world to have a reasonable statistical chance of infecting one of your buddies. Extremely unlikely. 4) They might have quite a bit, or they might have already used their supply up. No way to tell. 5) I would not be surprised in the least if something along those lines happened.
#6 (edit): Anthrax does not lose its potency over time. The spores protect the bacterium very well. There's an island off Scotland where the British tested anthrax decades ago that is still uninhabitable... 7) Good point.
A ruse perhaps? You're right in that it certainly discredits this theory. I happen to agree that the source of this is probably not domestic, but I don't think it's out of the realm of possiblity. Side question: Did this anthrax also come from the same source as the other stuff? yeah, but the very fact that it's leaking requires that the amount in the envelope is diminishing. If the object continues to "radiate" spores, then the destructive capacity is reduced. I don't know how long it would take an item like a dollar bill to "lose" it's potency.
I don't think that the Pakistanis have released any details on the specifics of the strain, whether it's coated or not, etc. So there's no way to know for sure yet. But it's an awful big coincidence... With the coated anthrax, I'm not sure it would have any potency at all on a dollar bill, as it wouldn't stick to the dollar bill. It needs to be in some sort of container, which needs to be released in an enclosed area to be effective. Unless several tens or hundreds of pounds are used, as in an artillery shell or bomb.
The media will jump on anything. We don't need to bring it to them. They will come to trouble. But the people in the USPS are being infected. This just proves more how little it takes to infect people. Unless they are infecting the outside of the envelope too. Perhaps, but considering its next to impossible to get this quality of anthrax. Im sure that the government is checking EVERYONE who has or had access to this stuff. IMO, its the same people responsible for the WTC disaster. They are using the letters as a cover for the WTC (Sept 11). If people were upset at the government/media, they would state it in the letter, not hide behind Sept 11 attacks. The only other group that would hide behind the sept 11 attacks is our own government. A) Either or is not a possibilty. B) Government ... possibly. Terrorist ... they want to kill as many as possible, regardless of the concequences. They don't give a **** about the taliban. Once again,if its terrorist, they don't care who they infect. These people kill themselves. Perhaps the government might care ... but i doubt it. Obviously enough to scare us. Like I said, i would be more scare if dollar bills were infected than letters. Regardless of the amount. Very likely ... mail is rather easy to detect. They just might slowly progress into worse/dangerous means. Think about it for a second. Its much easier to distribute a dollar than mail. Even if they distributed it with a mask/gloves, they could just leave it where someone would find it. Just throw it out the windows (although it would diloute it). Stick it in a coke machine. I could come up with a hundred ways. Also, one dollar would just infect another.
8. They invested in the stock of the company that makes the antibiotic. 9. It is some kind of distraction or first step.
Space Ghost: I think one of your fundamental assumptions is flawed. In your reply, you basically assume that terrorists are completely insane wackos who just want to inflict as much pain as possible. I agree that this is a possibility. However, they're still couching their insanity in some sort of political agenda. Insofar as actions could damage this political agenda, they might hesitate to take these actions. They're radicals crazies and reckon in different terms than the rest of us. But I still think they probably have some sort of risk assessment. Does that mean they might balk at actions that would kill too many Arabs for too little reward? Maybe but very possibly not. Does it mean they would hestitate to take an action that would unleash the U.S. nuclear arsenal? I think this is highly possible. While I suppose they could just be completely evil and unreachable, I think that they're fighting for a cause. When faced with the possibility of the cause being completely eliminated, it's highly possible they'd back down.
I have assumed (and continue to) that the only reason the anthrax attack hasn't been even more effective is because it's hard to do. I suspect they probably have a limited stock. I also think it's probably difficult to deliver the spores effectively. Given purely logistical constraints, they'd want to hit the highest profile targets with what limited stock they've got. With letters, you write the target's name on the envelope. I wonder if they knew that none of these people open their own mail. But, the terrorist affect is the same, even if they missed their targets. Everyone knows it was a terrorist strike. If it was on dollars or in food or water or clothing or rugs or whatever else, it's possible we could have an anthrax epidemic and not realize that someone gave it to us on pupose. There's no terror in that. Imagine if the AIDS epidemic was actually started by terrorists: AIDS is a terrible thing, but is regarded very differently when you think it is an accident than when you think someone gave it to you on purpose to try to kill you.
