You would have to classify this as a full blown terrorist attack.... and you would have to think Iraq is involved somehow. http://www.cnn.com/2001/HEALTH/conditions/10/17/anthrax/ <I>Meanwhile, The Associated Press reports that test results indicate anthrax spores have been detected in New York Gov. George Pataki's Manhattan offices. The spores were found in a room used by a state police security detail, said Molly Fullington, the governor's press spokeswoman.</i>
Is that not unreal? I mean this is <B>one</B> letter or package that came in ..... 31 people. Scary as hell... I think back to treeman's post a long time ago saying they have anthrax... they sure do. And they seem to be targeting media and politicians... which in their minds is probably the ones they feel feeds our country "lines of bull" against them. No doubt our military is keeping this in mind and is probably the reason they are increasing missions....
Somebody brought up that it could be a rash of copycats because government officials says copycats pull off stunts like this all the time. You know copycat crimes, and murders and everything. But I agree with you guys, this just seems to have Iraq's fingerprints on it. And isn't it ironic that our good friend Saddam Hussein has been vocal for the last few weeks saying that if the U.S. attacked him it would just be settling old scores and would be bush league, and how Iraq isn't afraid of the U.S. Just keep running your mouth Saddam, you're next.
Doesnt Iraq have stuff far more dangerous then Anthrax? Small pox, etc? Anyways I hope when Saddam and his buddies are caught we put em in a room and execute them by releasing some of this same **** on them!
I was just reading some of the latest from CNN on this, and the stuff in Pataki's office is a much more potent grade that couldn't just be made by any hack with a fermenter. You need very specialized machinery, and the first two countries that one could think of that could provide would be Russia... and Iraq. There is definitely a connection between the New York and Washington letters, Florida is still uncertain. If a definite link is eventually drawn to Iraq, that will give the US the political reason they need to whoop ass over there. I mean, they were going to do it anyway, but our 'coalition' would complain less if they knew it was a response to an attempt to kill masses of innocent americans and key politicians with bio weapons.
They tested positive? I just heard they were exposed, but no confirmation on if they tested positive.
The latest... http://www.cnn.com/2001/HEALTH/conditions/10/17/anthrax/ U.S. House to shut down for anthrax sweep Daschle office workers test positive for exposure (CNN) -- The U.S. House of Representatives will close for five days in the wake of 31 people testing positive for anthrax exposure in a senator's office, House Speaker Dennis Hastert said Wednesday. The House will reopen Tuesday after a complete security sweep. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-South Dakota, said the letter sent to his office contained "a very potent form" of the bacteria, but senators decided Wednesday to stay on the job until a scheduled recess Friday. Meanwhile, New York Gov. George Pataki said an initial test indicated anthrax spores were present in a room used by state police in his Manhattan office complex. No spores were found in the executive suites of the governor's office, he said. Officials said there were positive samples of anthrax in Daschle's office and his mailroom. Senate sources said no anthrax spores had been found in the Hart Senate Office Building ventilation system or its main mailroom. Earlier reports from Hastert, R-Illinois, had indicated some had been found. The offices of 12 senators in the Hart Building, where Daschle's office is located, remained closed Wednesday while investigators continued the search for signs of anthrax bacteria in the building's ventilation system. Displaced staffs are working in alternative locations. More than 400 people were in lines Wednesday to be tested for the bacteria. Latest developments • About 1,400 Senate staffers were tested for anthrax exposure Tuesday and many received a three-day supply of ciprofloxacin to prevent onset of the disease. • A top Pentagon spokeswoman tells CNN that mail facility workers are wearing gloves and masks as they sort piles of material they handle. In addition, she said, the ventilation systems in the building have been "periodically checked fairly regulary" since September 11. • A federal official told CNN that investigators may be looking at two separate sources in the anthrax attacks in Florida and New York. • U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson told a Senate committee Wednesday: "Under the leadership of this committee, this Congress and President Bush, we are taking all the steps necessary to keep America safe in an era when biological and chemical attacks are as possible as they are unthinkable." • Investigators said the letter to Daschle's office was similar to the anthrax-contaminated letter sent to NBC anchor Tom Brokaw in New York. One law enforcement source said both letters contained references to Allah, the Arabic word for God. (Click to view) • Scientists have confirmed the presence of anthrax in letters sent to NBC News, Daschle and the Florida headquarters of a tabloid newspaper whose photo editor is the only victim so far to die. • Richard Butler, the U.N.'s former chief weapons inspector in Iraq, said in an interview with CNN's Paula Zahn that the size of the particles in the Daschle sample was "very small," making it easier to infect humans with the inhalation variety of the bacteria. • A few dozen workers at USA Today's headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, were evacuated after a reporter received what she thought was a suspicious envelope. A spokesman for the company said the woman thought she saw a powdery substance after she opened a corner of the envelope. The envelope was sent to the FBI for tests. Results are expected Wednesday. • Two men have been indicted on federal charges of making false anthrax threats. Both men are from Connecticut, but authorities said there was no apparent connection. U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft said Tuesday that hoaxes prompted by the anthrax scare will be dealt with strongly. (Full story) • U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D- New York, said Tuesday a generic version of ciprofloxacin, the antibiotic used to treat anthrax, should be made available immediately for government use even though German drugmaker BayerAG holds the patent for the drug. In response, Bayer promised to increase production and make 200 million tablets over the next three months, officials said. (Full story) • The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Monday that Ernesto Blanco, a mailroom employee at Boca Raton, Florida, tabloid publisher American Media Inc., was diagnosed with "anthrax disease." Florida health officials insisted more tests were needed for a final diagnosis. Blanco, 73, was a co-worker of Robert Stevens, a photo editor at The Sun, who died of anthrax. A third employee has tested positive for exposure to the bacteria. • An American Media spokeswoman said the company would sell its Boca Raton facility and would not reopen in that building because many employees are concerned about returning to work there. • Two postal employees near Trenton, New Jersey, have been tested for anthrax after investigators traced anthrax-tainted letters from New York and Washington to a post office sorting facility, sources told CNN Tuesday. Investigators also found traces of anthrax spores at the Boca Raton post office. More than 30 employees there were tested for anthrax, and their tests were all negative. • In New York, the 7-month-old child of an ABC news producer tested positive for the cutaneous (skin) version of the disease. The boy is expected to make a full recovery. The infant had visited ABC with a parent September 28. • The CDC said Monday that a letter sent from Malaysia to a Microsoft office in Reno, Nevada, tested negative for anthrax spores at a laboratory in Nevada. Earlier tests had come back positive for anthrax, but health officials had already said the six people who handled the letter were not exposed. Further tests are planned at the CDC in Atlanta, Georgia, to determine definitively whether the letter contains anthrax. Does this mean that all these attacks are coming through the mail?
I don't understand why they are using anthrax. Aren't there other more deadly chemicals they could use? Its not contagious and its pretty hard to contract.
Just to let you guys know, I saw an interview with an Emory professor (who created the anthrax vaccine) and he stated that it was very very hard to get your hands on anthrax. Not only is it hard in resources, logistics, etc, but you need people with very specific and specialized knowledge to handle it. He stated that it could most likely only be obtained through: Natural sources - very few and hard to cultivate Sitting on old sources for many years -- if some country already has some int storage. Basically, it would be near impossible to steal because security in any such place would be very high and most places don't keep anthrax around, since there has been no need. This, to me, would suggest more than just a few copycats, etc...
As nolen said the anthrax most likely came from either Iraq or Russia. On one news show some guy proposed the fact that there is anthrax at a bunch of different testing facilities around the country and that stealing some wouldn’t be all that hard because apparently the security isn’t that tight but no labs have reported anthrax (at least not to my knowledge). Back to the thought of it coming from Iraq, I believe I heard somewhere days after the 9/11 attacks that Saddam had met with OBL or some of his network and had given him a few vials of anthrax and maybe one other chemical weapon that they were developing. Not long after outside of one of the suspected terrorist camps surveillance photos showed a lot of dead animals from what officials think was the testing of the chemical/biological weapons. Space Ghost, as far as why anthrax: my thought is because it is very simple to send around as they proved and it is very durable (it can survive for long periods of time). And they are doing very well at their job of terrorizing the population. People are freaking out over this, some of my friends parents are really scared about letting them go to football games, the state fair, or any other large gatherings of people because of this.
NPR had interviews with a whole bunch of people today who have all worked to produce weapons-grade anthrax. The general theme was that most of the people thought that it was most likely state sponsored, but that it was 'not beyond the realm of posibility' that one person could do it. There were also some intresting comments about how even people who are general microbiologists would not be qualified to make anthrax, as there are many specialized bits of information that are unique to the subject.
